[nov mp] lovesick girls • { wendy }

NOVEMBER

“What are you again? Gemini?” Tomie flipped through the pages of Witch Weekly – clearly not her copy – looking for the horoscope part. Traditionally, Shelby was the one into all the star stuff, and Tomie was the one playing it cool, half believing what she was hearing and half not. Right now, though, it was just the two of them alone in a corner of the library, hiding out from the colder weather together, and Wendy… Well she wasn’t exactly well.

Tomie winced as her blonde friend sneezed, wondering how she could be all snotty and sick but still look kind of cute at the same time? Like, what kind of deals had Wendy had to make with evil forces or whatever to be red-nosed and bleary eyed and still be one of the prettiest girls in their year?? “You sure you don’t wanna go to the hospital wing…?” she asked, sounding like she had an opinion on what Wendy should do.

She glanced down at the magazine again when Wendy shook her head, her eyebrows raised. “This is a time for transition and change,” she read out loud, making sure to be keep her voice down. The library was empty, though, so she didn’t feel too much pressure to keep her voice down. “Be aware of the things that are important to you; don’t rush into any decisions.” She glanced up at her friend. “Sound relevant?” she asked, scratching her head, clearly unused to being the one leading this kind of conversation.

“Uh…yeah? I think that’s what Shelby said,” Wendy replied, her voice much lower than the usual high pitched positivity with which she spoke. The young Ravenclaw’s head was killing her and to make matters worse, it felt as if her ears had been stuffed with balls of cotton (about a hundred of them) making it difficult for her to concentrate on a conversation. Wendy wanted to put her head down on the library table but decided against it, sniffling once before she turned the page on the fantasy novel she was reading. Unfortunately, the girl couldn’t quite process what was happening. She’d have to read it again tomorrow.

Feeling an oncoming sneeze, she turned, her long blond ponytail whipping behind her as she sneezed towards the ground and into her elbow. “Excuse me,” she said softly, reaching into her bag to produce the small like bag of tissues she had been carrying around for the next couple of days. She sniffled again. “No, I’ll be okay,” she started, turning to Tomie for a moment to smile. “If I don’t get better tomorrow, I’ll go,” she promised, though it had been the same promise she had been making for a couple of days now. Wendy wasn’t averse hospitals per say but she also didn’t like the idea of making her friends worry or missing out on her schoolwork because she was sick. It was much better to tough it out.

“Sounds like I shouldn’t be in a rush to go to the hospital wing,” she said after several moments, “but change is good, you know, means things are moving forward,” she offered her little words of borrowed wisdom, managing another smile. It wasn’t just the whole annoyance of going to the hospital wing that kept her from going and though she hated to say it, she did have an ulterior motive this time. Wendy loved a good romance story. “What about yours, Tomie?” she offered. 

“Suuuuree,” Tomie replied, clearly unconvinced. She had to smile though; Wendy being stubborn was… Well, it was the same as Wendy just being Wendy in general. Cute. Appealing. Tomie looked away, thinking that she really needed to distract herself, because she didn’t want these weird thoughts to bleed into any kind of weird actions. She already made sure to tone down her enthusiasm a notch or two when they hung out, because she didn’t want to overdo it. Didn’t want Wendy to think… Well, anything bad, really.

Tomie opened the magazine again as she pushed back on the two back legs of her chair, her eyes skimming the page quickly. “Let’s seeeeee...” she said. “It says: Your friend is stubbornly ignoring her health, so keep nudging her towards the hospital wing.” Tomie raised her eyebrows, then glanced at Wendy, surprised. “Huh. Weirdly specific.” Catching Wendy’s look, the brunette grinned. “I’m surprised you even came out,” she added. It was the weekend, and Wendy obviously didn’t feel very good. They’d made plans to hang out, but it was a rainy, miserable day today, and Tomie had been half convinced that Wendy would bail.

It was obvious in the way that Tomie responded that she wasn’t entirely convinced but Wendy was grateful for her approach, finding this much more appealing to the combination between of scolding and nagging she often got from her mum when she didn’t do things as expected. Even in the last few minutes, her condition felt worse but not bad enough to warrant a visit to the hospital. Not yet, anyway. Either way, she smiles as Tomie readjusted the words in the magazine to reflect their current situation, managing as far as a giggle before she started coughing again. “Thanks, Tomie,” she quipped, “but really, I’m okay, I promise,” she reiterated.

“I wouldn’t miss it!” she replied, enthusiastically because it reflected how she felt about spending time with her friend. Sometimes Wendy wished she had been chosen for Gryffindor house so they’d have more time together so when the two scheduled things together, she did her utmost to make it. “Plus I have so much fun when we hang out together,” she insisted. “But Tomie~,” she said in a singsong voice, wanting to return to the previous question, “what’s yours say?”

“Same.” She couldn’t help but smile when Wendy said nice stuff like that. And she said it a lot. Tomie wondered if that was just the kind of person Wendy was, or if some of that enthusiasm was just for her. She felt a little guilty for wondering. Wendy’s sing-song voice didn’t quite have the melody it usually did, what with her blocked nose and everything. Tomie snorted, amused. It was the voice Wendy did whenever she wanted something, and Tomie usually let it work.

“You’re in for a prosperous week,” She said ominously, putting on her best spooky-reader voice to read it out, her legs swinging idly under the table. “...If you keep your chin up. Be on the lookout for opportunities to flex your creativity.” She dropped the magazine onto the table, feeling skeptical. When Shelby read her stars or whatever, Tomie always felt far more compelled by what she said. She wasn’t sure about this magazine thing. “What do you think, should I take up painting? Or is that too literal?”

Wendy blinked slowly when Tomie read the horoscope out of the magazine. So how was she supposed to transform creativity into a talk about Benny? Hm. “Well you should totally try something new,” she suggested, sniffling again in between her words, “I heard going out of your comfort zone is good for your health,” she continued, “Ms Miranda said so anyway,” she added. The arts teacher at Stowe had given Wendy many valuable lessons about life, and that had been one of them.

“But I like the idea of you painting!” she said enthusiastically, “you know during summer camp, I tried writing a fantasy story, with Benny,” she stated though she wasn’t really sure if that would mean anything to Tomie. If only she could telepathically wiggle her eyebrows at Tomie so she’d understand where she was coming from. “So that was fun! Maybe the two of you can try something like that..?” she said slowly, “since you both see each other more than I see either of you I mean, same house an all,” she smiled, her face feeling a little red and a little feverish. But she’d be fine. Wendy had confidence in the power of matchmaking.

“Maybe you should try it,” Tomie quipped immediately. Wendy clearly needed something that was good for her health. She smirked a lazy smirk as she dropped the magazine, then leaned back on the back two legs of her chair, hands at the edge of the table to keep herself steady. Sitting still wasn’t exactly Tomie’s forte.

“Uh-huh?” She was a bit distracted by trying to keep her balance, but she listened to Wendy’s boring story about hanging out with Benny anyway. Fantasy story? Yeah, checked out. Seemed like something he would get into. Tomie and Benny used to play lots of imaginary games when they were younger. Spies, or duelists or Mikky Blue or whatever... “We talked about tryna make a comic once,” Tomie offered. She glanced up quickly, “But don’t tell anyone – it might be a secret.” Oops. She stopped leaning, letting her chair fall onto its front legs with a dull thud.

“If you wanted to keep doing that though, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind that you’re not in our house,” she said with a casual shrug, misunderstanding completely. “We’re hanging out, aren’t we?” she added with a half-smile.

“I’m fine,” she repeated, adding the brightest smile that she could give Tomie in this kind of situation as if to reassure her that she was, indeed, going to get better eventually. Plus she figured that at this time, the Hospital Wing was probably replete with other sick students, and that would just increase Tomie’s danger of getting it, that she did not want. “I’ll go later, promise,” she added. The whole thing was entirely up in the air, Wendy had bigger problems at hand and Tomie wasn’t really giving up the information she wanted  so willingly.

“I won’t say anything!” she reassured her friend, wondering if the fact that they were doing a comic together meant that Benny had already started to try to butter her up or if it was just a coincidence. “What kind of comic?” she wondered, waiting to see if that held some sort of key to the answer she was looking for.

Had Tomie caught on? Her brow wrinkled for only a second before she smiled again, this was much harder than she had originally anticipated. “Of course! So…” she trailed off, looking down at her book to keep things as casual as possible. “You and Benny’ve know each other for a long time, right? You’d say you two are pretty close and things like that?” 

Wendy did look a little like she might faint, Tomie thought. Just a bit faded around the edges, was all. “Mhmm,” Tomie replied, raising her eyebrows to keep teasing, but not saying any more because she didn’t want the teasing to be anything other than fun.

“Yeah, I dunno, maybe something action-adventure,” Tomie said. She lowered her voice suddenly, leaning in just a little. “Ooh, or we talked about doing one about like, things that happen in the school? You know, like car… Carry? What’s that word? Oh, caricatures? Or something?” She smiled conspiratorially, one eyebrow raised as if to dare Wendy not to appreciate the concept. “Just imagine, we can learn duplicating spells and make a bunch and put them around everywhere but like, anonymously.”

Tomiw wasn’t really an artist or a writer, but the concept was so appealing she had to look a little smug as she sat back in her chair. “Yeah,” Tomie said, as if it were obvious, “we’re basically neighbours. He's like family."