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 Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 5:33 pm
Cassidy Bresner's fingers clutched the small, shoddily wrapped package with nervous force as he stood in front of Lydia's home. He hadn't visited or called since his domestic disruption and transfer to Hillworth Grammar, mostly due to being busy, but upon revealing his plans to hunt for a birthday gift for his old friend from Knightside, he was very distinctly told that Hillworth boys just don't bother with Crystal girls. But that was stupid, right? Lydia would definitely still be his friend. Besides, he spent the whole weekend looking for a present!
He gave one last nervous glance at the small gift with haphazard wrapping, containing a bracelet was sliding around inside before finally mustering up the courage to ring the doorbell and wait with excited anticipation at finally getting to see a familiar face again. Unless she wasn't home. Now he was impatiently shuffling his feet wondering if he should've texted her first to make sure she wasn't gone or busy.
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 10:00 pm
It was sheer luck that Lydia was home that weekend. She enjoyed her limited independence at Crystal and didn't take being back under full control of her parents well. But she was only fifteen, used to being coddled, and did get homesick a fair bit. Even though she would be coming home for the summer in just a week or two, she decided to come home that weekend, and was racing Mariposa around the house when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" she yelled, dashing into the front hall, the Papillon at her heels. Her socks skidded on the polished wooden floor, and she almost crashed into the door before stopping herself on a table. Checking her hair in a nearby mirror, she swept back a few errant strands, told Mariposa to "stay put," and opened the door.
Lydia wasn't expecting anyone in particular, but this guest caught her by complete and total surprise. Which just made it all the better. "Cass! Oh my gosh, Cass, it's been forever! How are you? Please, come in! Shush!" This last was to Mariposa, who had started yipping in excitement, but settled for running between the two anxiously after being scolded.
"Wow, I'm so glad you're here!" Lydia beamed, stepping away from the door to make room. "How are you? What are you up to these days?"
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Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 12:10 am
Cass let out a huge sigh of relief, seeing Lydia at the door. Luckily he wouldn't have to have to look around for her elsewhere or just leave his hard work behind impersonally. Well, yeah, sure, she probably had gotten way higher quality jewelry, but he put a lot of effort into finding this little trinket!
"Hi, Lydia," He said meekly, stepping in and waving down at Mariposa. "U-um... I've been okay. Busy. You know, with changing schools and stuff and then finals and..." He just kind of trailed off and then held out his offering with renewed volume to his voice. "I'm sorry I missed your birthday!"
Now a new bought of uncertainty. Would she like it? It was probably cheap compared to some of her other stuff. He was hoping she at least wouldn't be disappointed.
"How are you doing? Are you going to be home for summer?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:32 pm
Mariposa looked up at the visitor and sniffed him curiously. She remembered him! That made her even more excited, and ran down the hall and back, her claws tapping noisily against the floor. Lydia watched her for a moment, giggling. "I guess I'm not the only one who's glad to see you today!"
She led Cass down the hall, turning at the first open door into a large sitting room. There was plenty of furniture to choose from: a plush couch, a matching loveseat, an antique-looking chaise, and a few comfy armchairs, with a coffee table and a few end tables scattered about the room. Lydia stood next to the coffee table and motioned for her guest to sit, but remained standing. As the host, she had to make sure he was comfortable first.
"Can I get you anything? Something to drink, or to eat?" Listing choices would've taken forever, so she just had to hope that they had whatever he wanted. It was fairly likely, unless he asked for something really unusual. Or processed. The Sfakianos family did not do processed food.
Tired of running up and down the hall, Mariposa came in and sat next to the coffee table. Lydia bent down to pet her, but she kept her eyes on Cass. "I know what you mean. High school is a big deal! Or so everybody says. Aside from dorming, I don't see much of a difference. But that's one problem you don't have, isn't it?"
At the mention of her birthday, her eyes widened and she gasped. "Oh! I completely forgot!" Not her birthday- that she had celebrated with her family and a couple of very close family friends. But she had forgotten to celebrate it with other friends. And more importantly, if she had missed her birthday, that meant she had missed his as well. "I'm so sorry I missed your birthday, Cass!" How could it have slipped her mind?
"I'm so glad you came." At least they could start to set things right. If he hadn't visited, who knew when she would've remembered? "I'm okay. Still getting used to school and... well, stuff." Being destined to save the world from evil. That took some getting used to, but there was no way she could tell Cass that. "I'm trying to get my parents to let me go to camp," she confided instead. "Just for a couple of weeks or so. I think it would be fun to get away. But other than that, I'll be here! What about you? Any plans?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:15 am
Cass followed and sat down when she gestured for him to, setting his sad looking gift on the coffee table as he did and reaching over to pet Mariposa when she came near. "No! You don't need to get me anything," He insisted. He'd rather have her sit and talk with him then a snack right now. "...Heh, you're too polite," He pointed out. Part of him felt bad he never would've thought to extend the same courtesy if she was at his house... if he ever couldn't stop her from coming over to his house. It wasn't the most pleasant place on earth.
He cringed a little when she mentioned dorming. His recent transfer to Hillworth had been something of a shameful secret, but an expected one if anyone knew the family. Cass followed his brother everywhere and did whatever Alex goaded him into, even when his brother took up vandalism and other less than legal activities. The result was their father threatening to ship both boys off to a reformatory school for ages and Hillworth was just a 'he finally did it' thing.
"U-uh, actually," He tugged on the collar of his t-shirt and broke eye contact. "IstayintheHillworthdormsnow," And whether she understood that rapid jumble or not, or the hidden confession that he'd finally screwed up enough to be kicked out of Meadowview, he went on trying to make it better already, "But I'm coming home for the summer too! And it's really not that big of a deal."
He shrugged at the birthday subject. He hadn't done any kind of celebrating other than a teacher awkwardly bringing it up and a sarcastic sneer from his brother/roommate. "I didn't have a party or anything, it was a hectic time, it's okay! I don't think I even told anyone, I'm surprised you remembered."
He probably would've rambled on and on trying to cement that, that it wasn't a big deal, but then she mentioned camp. "Wait... Camp Larkspur? I'm going there this summer! I hope your parents go for it..." Just at the thought he was getting visibly more bouncy and excited. Being able to go to camp with Lydia would definitely be a turn of events he'd appreciate.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2011 9:46 am
"I'm supposed to be polite," Lydia reminded him. "You came to visit, so that makes me the hostess. But it's okay if you don't want anything- just let me know if you change your mind, alright?" Taking care of her guests was important to her, but she was all too happy to stay and talk for the moment instead of running off to the kitchen. She took a seat in the chair nearest the door, as she'd been taught to do when guests came over.
The sudden change in Cass' expression was impossible to miss, and Lydia wondered what she had said to cause it. School? School wasn't always fun, but she didn't think it merited that much unhappiness. Maybe he wasn't fitting in? Now that they went to different schools, she couldn't remind people how they were supposed to behave, so it was possible that he wasn't standing up for himself.
She started to ask, but Cass wasn't finished. The first thing he said was so fast as to be almost unintelligible. Stayed on the hills? Did his family move? But if he was coming home for the summer, and it might have been a big deal... what on earth was going on? "Cass, what happened? What's not a big deal? And where are you that you have to come home from?" Lydia knew he probably wouldn't want to go into it, but he'd brought it up. Now she had to know. "You can tell me anything, you know. I won't tell anybody if you don't want me to."
The hypocrisy of her statement didn't escape her. There were now things in her life that she couldn't share with anybody. Not Cass, not Yvette, not her parents. But that was different. Cass wasn't a costumed cohort running around in the night, so whatever his problem was, surely he could tell her.
"No party?" Lydia echoed, mouth dropping open. This was serious! "Oh no no no, you have to do something. Turning fifteen is important! It's the last year before the milestones start coming." Holding up one hand, she started to count them off on her fingers. "Next year we can learn to drive. When we're eighteen, we're adults. We can vote and all that stuff." Smoke too, she supposed, but she didn't want to mention such a vulgar habit. "When we're twenty-one, we can do practically anything!" Like drink, but that was another vulgar habit. "But now is the last year we're still kind of kids. Isn't that worth celebrating?" The part about her remembering went forgotten. Of course she'd remembered, when his birthday was just before hers.
Camp Larkspur, that was the name. "How did you know?" she asked, frowning for a brief second. Then he explained, and she smiled widely. "Really? Oh, that's fantastic! They have to let me go now! It's going to be even more fun if you're there too!" That settled it. Lydia would use every technique known to man- or at least every technique known to her- to get her parents to send her to camp. She had to go!
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 1:22 pm
Cass gave a small little laugh and nodded. "Don't worry, I will," He promised when she finally sat down.
When she started asking what was up with his school, he shifted back into his nervous ticks. Stuttering, finger twiddling, general, anxious twitchiness... It was all starting to come back up. Which was a big deal, because he knew he could tell Lydia anything. She was his 'safe' friend, one of the few people who could truly make him feel comfortable.
Still, there was a vague sense of shame of having to admit his transgressions to her. To most people he'd just try to play the Hillworth thing off as a badge of honor. A sign he was a rebel even though Cass hadn't been able to rebel against anything in his whole, short life.
"Well, I, uh.. I-I changed schools," He managed to get out, his voice cracking a squeak in all the nervousness. "O-or... I mean... D-dad boarded us at Hillworth," He hated that phrase. He was just parroting the way Alex had said it when he was bragging to their cousin, but it made them sound like dogs locked in cages until the owner could deal with them again. IT wasn't a bad analogy, but it wasn't one he liked, either.
When she started harping on the fact he didn't have a party he just rolled her eyes, but slowly started to listen more intently as she listed off all the reasons it was important. "Yeah... I guess you're right," He conceded with a little nod. "But it's too late now. Maybe next year!" Surely 16 was a big deal too, right?
He was absorbing and multiplying the excitement about camp, though. Cass always seemed to be jittery or bouncing about something, but there were very clearly anxious jitters, angry shakes, and excited bounces among his various inabilities to keep still, and this was all overjoyed, without a doubt. "Y-you have to come! We can do camp games and s-swim an-and and!" He was too excited to even get a word out without stuttering all over himself.
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:51 pm
It took a while for Cass to spill the truth. Lydia waited while he seemed to work up the nerve, not saying anything. Part of it was that she was trying her best to look open, patient, welcoming anything. Part was that she was trying to emotionally prepare herself for whatever news was coming. Judging from how extremely nervous her friend was, she had to assume that it was bad.
The truth surprised her. "You... changed schools?" Was that supposed to be a bad thing? She might have been disappointed if they were still going to the same school, but going to Crystal meant that no matter what, they wouldn't be going to the same school. And Hillworth? Why did that ring a bell?
Then catty remarks from classmates about unruly Hillworth boys came rushing to the forefront of her mind, and Lydia gasped. What was Cass doing at a place like that? The boys there would eat him alive! "Oh, Cass," she sighed, biting her lip. "Are you doing okay? What happened? I mean... you don't have to say if you don't want to. But is it okay? Are they treating you properly?"
His dismissal of his birthday bothered her. "It's never to late to celebrate something good! I mean, you came here for my birthday, and that's already passed. So there's no reason not to do something fun, right?" After a moment of thought, Lydia grinned. "So how about this- let's bake a birthday cake!"
There were no cake mixes in the Sfakianos house. Lydia did not know a whole lot about baking. She wasn't even sure if they had all of the necessary ingredients. Did any of these strike her as setbacks? Not particularly. Clearly Cass needed something to cheer him up, and what better way than with homemade cake?
In her excitement over the cake, she almost forgot her excitement. Almost. "I'll make a really convincing argument to my parents. They have to let me know when my friends are going! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!" Lydia jumped up from her chair and twirled around. "Come on, let's go make a cake!"
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:34 pm
Cass did not get the reaction he was hoping for. Whenever his brother told people he always got the reaction that he was some badass rebel who must've really done something terrible/awesome to end up Hillworth'd. Cass, on the other had, seemed to just make everyone wonder how long he'd survive. Even Lydia now! Part of him was at least hoping she'd put her hands on her hips and reprimand him for being so bad. He was fifteen, for cripes sakes. When was he going to hit that manly growth spurt and not give off the impression of an anxious chipmunk about to be killed by all the bigger animals? Not that it was an inaccurate impression, he just didn't realize how inaccurate himself.
"I-I'm going... It's okay," He said with a grimace, looking to the far left. He definitely wasn't going in to detail about what happened. That would only add on to the embarrassment because, unless he fabricated some new story, he was going to look like he was even incompetent at assisting his brother in petty crime. "And like I said, I'm coming home for the summer. And then camp!" All emasculations aside, there were too many good things on the way to harp on his embarrassing school transfer.
When she suggested making a cake, he vigorously nodded his head in agreement. "Okay!" He exclaimed and jumped to his feet, too wound up to think of practical things like cake mix himself as he let her lead the way to the kitchen, puttering around and looking at all the cupboards, but just the outside, as if they had some mysterious forcefield. He was too afraid of overstepping his bounds as a guest to even open them. "What kind of cake should we make?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:56 pm
It seemed that she'd said something she shouldn't have. Or was it that she didn't say something she should have? Whatever it was, Lydia could see Cass close back up and let out a sigh. Maybe someday she would get him to tell her what really happened, but she could see that she'd somehow lost her chance for the day. Rather than dwell, she tried to sound bright again. "We'll have to do something awesome this summer then! Camp is just the start! I don't know what yet... but it'll have to be really, really cool."
Lydia's idea of cool quite likely didn't mesh with anything Cass would think of, but that didn't matter to her right then. As long as she made it sound cool, she was sure that something would work itself out.
"But now we should really make some cake." They arrived at the kitchen, where even Lydia seemed afraid to touch anything for a moment. Then she shrugged and opened the nearest cabinet. "I know Mana keeps some cookbooks in here somewhere. Maybe we can pick a kind from one of them? But I think all cake needs, um... flour, and sugar, milk, butter, eggs... How about I check the cabinets for the cookbooks, and you look in the fridge for the cold stuff?" She shut the first cabinet door and opened the second. "Hey, I found flour already!" she exclaimed, proudly holding up a powdery white container.
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Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 5:16 pm
"Yeah!" Cas agreed, getting jittery with excitement again about how epic their summer must be. It would be epic, he assured himself.
He was skittering around the kitchen aimlessly until Lydia directed him to grab cold stuff. He swung the fridge open and began rifling through it, holding up a carton of eggs triumphantly. "Eggs! Um... is there milk in cake?" He asked, grabbing for that too, just because he'd heard Lydia say it.
He'd never made a cake before, but he had made cookies once. From a Betty Crocker mix. His knowledge of baking wasn't exactly massive.
"Uuuum... what else is in cake?" He asked, setting the milk and eggs on the counter and sticking his head back in the fridge. Seeing the butter, he grabbed that too, and held it over his head, announcing, "Butter!"
It was not exactly an expertly made cake.
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