[GLGTH] until the real thing comes along (Mildred)

She was a professor now. Professor Wilder. Deborah couldn't hide a rather self-satisfied smile. This was quite a change, a career step. No one should call her a grandmother again. She was still young and living her own life, thank you very much.

Today she had been to Ilvermorny to sign her contract and now she was visiting Shackamaxon again for the first time in many years. The woman had no further plans for the day but to see how the wizarding town had changed over the years. It was part of her preparation for her new teaching position. She'd have to know her way around the school area and maybe this visit would inspire her to work on her lesson plans. To be honest, Deborah had no concrete plan for her lessons yet. In fact, she had never taught before and was a little clueless as to how to deal with a group of teenage witches and wizards.

As Deborah had never been one to walk around a lot, the woman decided to stop at Gondwana Laurasia Global Tea House for a nice hot drink while thinking about her next steps. The woman had spent hours and hours at the tea house while she had still been a student. A soft reminiscent smile spread across her face when she remembered her first kiss which she had received in these walls. She wondered if the tea house still had this kind of status for students nowadays. She'd have to ask her daughter and her grandchildren how they felt about the place.

The newly appointed professor took a seat by the window and waited patiently for a waitress to arrive. Her feet which were squeezed into pink pumps already hurt from the few yards she had walked over the cobblestone roads. Walking just really wasn't her thing. Usually Deborah apparated even if her destination was only a few yards away. However, she wanted to see Shackamaxon and not just reach a destination today. She took her shoes off one by one and then sighed. The Californian had picked the pink pumps not because they were comfortable to wear but because they fit perfectly well to her pink designer robes. That had apparently been a mistake.

Before a waitress paid her any attention the door swung open and Debbie's attention was immediately with the new guest. The woman who entered looked familiar. Deborah looked at her intensely, trying to work out who she was until finally a grin spread across her face. This was Mildred Killingsworth or Mildred Franklin. Deborah tilted her head slightly and observed the other woman. She looked... old. Debbie briefly wondered if she, too, looked this aged now but she decided that this couldn't be the case. She definitely looked younger than that. Mildred, while being well styled, looked her age or so Deborah thought.

She knew, of course, that Mildred and Ernest had married and that they were both teaching at Ilvermorny. Therefore, she should not be surprised to see the other woman in Shackamaxon but Deborah was momentarily confused to run into her today. However, it was not like her to hide and avoid an encounter. The witch ran her hand through her blonde curls and got to her feet. The stone floor felt cold below her bare feet but she ignored that as she made a few steps towards her school mate.

"Mildred!" she exclaimed loud enough for everybody present to hear it. "Dear, how have you been? How long has it been that we last met? You haven't changed one bit." Debbie was lying bluntly but it was a nice thing to say. Besides she could very well remember the last time that they had met. The other woman had stolen her date at a wedding but that was just water under the bridge. It was nothing she wanted to think about anymore because that moment from her past had felt like a defeat and Deborah definitely preferred to remember her successes rather than her defeats.

@Mildred Franklin

Summer in Shackamaxon was much too quiet for Mildred Franklin's tastes. She enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the school year, the noise that filled the rooms, the constant need to be helping with one thing or the other. She had spent the earliest part of the morning tending to her roses but she didn't waste too much time before making a quick trip to Georgia to spend the better part of the day with quite an array of family members.

So when she stopped by the tea house, she wasn't expecting there to be a big crowd, as it was busiest when class was in session; she certainly wasn't expecting the woman who greeted her. She hid her surprise well, quickly recovering into a smile as she realized just who she was looking at. Millie had heard about the appointment, of course. Being married to the Deputy Headmaster had its privileges. But she hadn't expected to run into her unexpectedly in Shackamaxon with absolutely no warning. Deborah had always been a bit... much, for lack of a better word. Always a little too loud, too flashy, too tacky for Millie's tastes. Of course, she couldn't exactly tell her that now, fifty years too late.

"Miss Deborah Wilder!" She matched her attitude but used her inside voice, considering they were... inside. She leaned in for a light hug, like one would be expected to give when running into a long lost friend, but she kept enough distance between them so that she kept it more polite and less friendly. "Or is it Chamberlain now?" She could recall with perfect clarity the shock she had when she discovered that one of the younger students, Addy Chamberlain, was her daughter, no 'grand' included before that like a couple of other students at the school. 

She took a step back to take a proper look at her old classmate. "Oh, it must be upwards of forty years, darlin', but of course you don't look a lick older." She smiled sweetly, sure that they were both over-complimenting each other to make themselves feel better. She looked older; they all did. Millie handled it well, aging gracefully and fully embracing that she couldn't very well call herself 'young' anymore. Not even 'middle-aged'. But it looked like Deborah might be clinging a little too hardly to that fantasy, especially considering the bright pink hue of her robes.

Millie was well aware of exactly how long it had been since they had last met. That was the day she met her husband and wasn't one she would be forgetting any time soon. She had never been left by Ernest, of course, but she could imagine that it was also a memorable day for Deborah for much different reasons. Surely she wouldn't want to reminisce about that now, would she?

She cleared her throat the tiniest bit before motioning to a table, both to continue being polite and to usher them away from the entrance of the shop. "Would you like to sit a spell?" She hadn't been planning to stay long, only wanting to restock on her morning tea, but it wouldn't do to end this encounter so soon. They were colleagues now, after all, and Millie was going to have to get used to sharing spaces with this woman again, whether she wanted to or not. "We have so much to catch up on," she added with another smile.

Deborah took it as a good sign that Mildred recognised her as well. It meant that she hadn't changed too much, after all. It didn't go unnoticed that the other woman only offered a light hug, one that seemed polite but not really sincere. Deborah responded to it by just leaning into a light hug herself, not attempting to go for anything more affectionate than that. If Mildred wanted to play the grand dame, she could do so as well.

She smiled sweetly when her former classmate enquired after her current surname. "It's actually Wilder again," she chirped cheerily. The woman did not feel ashamed of having had three spouses. On the contrary - she liked to think that it was a sign of bravery and spontaneity to get a divorce and marry again. Why should she welcome stagnancy in her life when she could as well go for a change?

"And you are still a happy Franklin?" Deborah asked airily. She found it hard to believe that after all these years that Mildred and Ernest had been married they'd still be happy together. They lived together, they both taught at Ilvermorny... Their life had to be full of routines. It had to be like getting on the same train every single day.

"Such a long time indeed..." She offered a soft smile in response to the compliment. It was probably not sincere but that wasn't the point. They had got older no matter how hard they worked on looking their best. It would be quite disconcerting would they still look unchanged. Nonetheless Deborah wanted to look at least a few years younger than she was. After all, the witch did not want to be called old.

Ever since the day that Ernest had stood her up Deborah saw Mildred as a sort of rival. She didn't feel sorry anymore that Ernest had abandoned her though. That part of their story didn't bother her at all. However, that her former classmate had not hesitated to take away her date made her want to beat her in all other regards - especially when it came to looks and popularity.

"Oh yes," Debbie agreed, "I'd love to. And we indeed have a lot to catch up on."

The smile on her face was a mask now and her true sentiments and thoughts were well hidden behind it. She tiptoed towards the table on her bare feet and plopped down on a chair.

"So tell me all about your life," Deborah demanded determinedly. "And, please, do tell me all about Ilvermorny. How is life as a professor?"

[OOC: underlined passages highlight alliterations, metaphors and onomatopoeia]

Millie held her tongue upon learning that Deborah was a 'Wilder' again. She need not say anything rash, especially not now that they were soon to be colleagues. Thankfully, Ms. Wilder had some modicum of manners and asked her about her own husband. "Oh, yes." The happiest Franklin, she was fairly sure. "Forty-three years." She smiled, memories of her wedding day still fresh in her mind. It was easy to remember when you had only one wedding to sort through the memories of.

Her hubris was overwhelming. She might not have been advertising herself quite like she did when they were younger; either Debbie had wised up or had simply become more clever at disguising it. But as they sat, Millie caught sight of the other woman's bare feet. But just like her counterpart, she smiled, brushing those minor details under the rug to analyze later on.

"Well, I just finished my twentieth year teaching. It really is one of the greatest things." She was still smiling, though it was more sincere now. She wasn't exaggerating how much she loved teaching at Ilvermorny. She had been very familiar with how Ernest loved it, then how his brother loved it, that she had to see it for herself. "The school, the children, this town," she paused, catching herself before she got too terribly honest with this woman. "They're as much a home as Savannah ever was." She had now lived in Shackamaxon longer than her years in Savannah and New York combined.

She took a breath as the waitress approached them, though Mildred was enough of a regular that all she had to do was reply with a, "Yes, please," when asked if she'd like her usual. She left after also taking Debbie's order, and Millie continued, "I also have a little event planning business, but that's more for fun." She often downplayed how much she loved it, wanting to make it seem like teaching was her main priority, but the time she spent planning and executing menus with her eldest sister and sister-in-law was some of her favorite.

"And how about yourself? You must have been up to some very exciting things to find yourself teaching Latin after all these years." She must be qualified, else she would never have been hired, but Debbie had really never pegged her as the serious, studious, and scholarly sort.

"Oh marvelous!" Debbie exclaimed, a wide smile spreading across her face. "Forty-three years... has it really been so long?!" After this, as she thought appropriate appreciation of her former school mate's marriage, Deborah's smile faded slightly. She did not really think it admirable to have a marriage of forty-three years with no end in sight. It was like lifetime imprisonment to her. Changes needed to happen every now and then, even when it came to who to spend one's life with.

Although she wasn't certain, Deborah thought she had caught sight of Mildred looking at her feet. She didn't want to comment but felt that the other woman was judging her as she had always felt she did as soon as they met. It was as though everything she was, everything she did was wrong in Millie's eyes. She wondered how the other woman saw her attempt at teaching now. Did she also disapprove of that too? She felt almost certain she did.

"That's also a long time," Debbie cooed. "You're quite the creature of habit, aren't you? It's nice to hear that you enjoy teaching that much after all these years. I hope I'll feel the same about it." While Deborah did not like standstill herself and did not approve of people who never took the risk of a change, she was rather pleased to find out that Millie enjoyed teaching. Then again, if Mildred Franklin enjoyed teaching that did not necessarily mean that Deborah Wilder would enjoy it that much as well.

"Yes, children are great," the Californian said dreamily, preparing herself for a little dig at her future colleague. "I suppose for you the students are a kind of compensation because you do not have children of your own." Her sweet smile even reached her eyes as she looked at Mildred.

"A cup of black tea for me, please," she told the waitress and then make a gesture that she should lean down to her, "feel free to add a little shot of rum." She was mostly provoking her old school mate but she could not deny that the drink always made her feel warm and cosy inside.

"Oh how nice!" This was finally a genuine reaction to what Mildred said. "An event planning business! That sounds really awesome. I run events at my gallery but I find the work to be overwhelming sometimes. Do you also work in California? I might hire you then. That would certainly be a lot of fun - us planning an event together." Debbie felt rather certain that the other woman did not feel the same about her proposition but that made it even more appealing.

"Oh..." she said dismissively, raising her hand to make a sort of wave and looking to the side, "it's not such an interesting story, really." She paused for the dramatic effect and wondered how she should sell her story properly. However, she felt there was no version that would actually impress Mildred.

"In fact my application was a spur of the moment thing," she began, assuming the other witch could not relate to that, "Reggie and I were meandering through Rome and amused ourselves by talking in Latin. It was then that he asked if I didn't want to teach the language. I've always enjoyed it and even spent some time studying it at a muggle university at some point. I applied and... well, here I am!"

"Ilvermorny does strive to retain its top talent, so it can't come as that much of a shock to you, dear." Millie smiled and blinked a few times, setting aside her distaste for Debbie's thinly veiled jabs at her advanced age. She was plainly aware they were the same age and she certainly didn't feel bad for finding something she was good at and sticking with it. Honoring one's commitments clearly wasn't an ideal they both shared, it seemed.

The woman pursed her lips as she brought up children and her blatant lack of them, though it certainly wasn't for lack of trying. It had been something she had dealt with for decades and had come to terms with many, many years ago, but hearing the fact aloud, especially from the lips of this other woman -- now colleague -- brought all of those feelings to the surface once more: regret, shame, sadness. On top of all of this, however, was the pride she felt for the rest of her family, the immense number of relatives she shared blood and names with. And unfortunately, Deborah wasn't wrong, either, that Millie viewed the students as more than students. She certainly wouldn't call it compensation; nothing would have compared to a child of her own, and she was well aware.

But she remained stoic, her smile never faltering. "Oh Debbie, you're just so intuitive." There was no point ruining what tentative polite relationship they had now, not before she knew exactly what she would be getting into if she did.

She had never been more grateful for a waitress, and she thanked her profusely as she stepped away to fill their order, casually ignoring Debbie's obvious attempt to get a rise out of her by ordering a side of tea with her rum. "Oh my, yes, wouldn't that be a hoot?" Millie smiled again, the corners of her mouth starting to ache by how much near-sincere smiling she was having to muster throughout this conversation. "I'm rather capable of traveling, so California isn't out of the question." She had no desire to visit the state, but she would if she needed to. And she would never refuse business for something so petty as a forty-three-year-old half-grudge. Her sister an business partner, however, could probably be persuaded to fuse service on her behalf.

"Oh my," Millie said again, holding her hand lightly over her heart. "How wonderful." She smiled, again, thankful again for the interruption from the waitress as she returned with their tea. Millie took hers with honey and used her wand to lazily stir it through the liquid then cool it to a drinkable temperature. "I'm so happy that you have no issues teaching a dead language. I don't know if I'd be able to take on something so impractical."

"Oh yes, I'm sure," Debbie chirped. "I'm glad to see though that Ilvermorny also wants to advance and find new additions to the staff. I'm pretty sure experience and fresh ideas will mix very well." The smile on her face might be fake but the Californian rather enjoyed the conversation.

She noticed how Mildred pursed her lips at the comment she had made about her lack of own children. Deborah did not usually make comments like that out of simple malice. She liked to provoke, see other people's reactions and push them to opening up some more. In this particular case, however, the newly appointed teacher could not deny that she still held a little grudge. While she did not believe that anything would have come out of her dating Ernie she still got worked up when she thought about that wedding where Ernie had stood her up to dance with Millie instead. It was just a sign of disrespect and bad manners to do this to another person and Mildred always gave the appearance of someone who was well mannered. How could she forget her own standards like that?

The response that Mildred gave served to refresh Deborah's smile. "I'm a woman as well," she said softly, reaching out to pat Mildred's lower arm for just the briefest of moments. "I know that no matter what we say we enjoy to play the mother hen, don't we?"

The topic of the event planning business was interesting and although Debbie found herself more than capable of planning events alone she liked to talk about the option of letting Millie work for her. "That's such good news!" she acknowledged brightly as Mildred said that travelling to California wasn't out of question. She imagined how Mildred would organise things not quite the way she had wanted and her telling her that. It could be a nice way to entertain herself...

The waitress arrived with the tea and Debbie pulled her cup closer. Since it was still too hot to drink, she focused on Millie again who was stirring her tea after having put honey into it. Apparently the other witch was just as skilled at giving little digs at her counterpart. For some reason this pleased Debbie rather than that it annoyed her.

"I really wasn't aware that you were oblivious to the usefulness of Latin!" she exclaimed, a shocked expression on her face. "If you are still happy to learn new things, you should maybe attend my class at some point. It might open up a whole new world to you."