raging fists of -f u r y-

[ambrosia]

Ambrosia had just heard during Quidditch practice. Apparently, she hadn't arrived to dinner with enough time the other night to have seen what everyone was now talking about- Luke was going to the ball with Emmeline Vance. Emmeline Vance. How dare he! Everyone knew that Emme and Ambrosia did not get along well, and Luke was one of her best guy friends! Well- her only guy friend, if we’re being honest. And why would she even want to go with Luke? Didn’t she have a boyfriend? A certain… Gideon Prewett, or something along those lines? Oh wait, no… Ambrosia remembered hearing something about the couple breaking up. Maybe she had heard it from Gabby? More likely Nessa… Either way, it didn’t matter! She was going with Luke- her precious Luke… And Ambrosia was going to find out the she-devil’s ulterior motive.

She stormed into the girl’s locker room after practice to change into her normal school robes, all the while muttering to herself about how dare he this and why would she even want to that. In all honesty, the girls on her team probably figured she was nuts by now. Not only was she extremely violent all during practice- to let out her steam, of course- but she was now throwing her clothes into a pile and leaving them there… which was something she never did. Making her way to the Hufflepuff Common Room in a huff, she could practically feel the steam coming from her ears! All she could see was the color red… Come to think of it, this was a new emotion for Ambrosia. She had been angry before, sure, but this raw jealousy, this rage was different. She didn’t like it.

Turning on her heel, she came to the portrait, gave the password, and slammed it shut behind her. Thankfully, there were only a few people in the room that stopped what they were doing to stare at her, but as she stared them down, they quickly went back to whatever it was they were doing… Actually, after a moment, most of them seemed to leave. Every single one except for a blonde head sitting over by the fire. Ambrosia knew the back of this head. She had had to stare at it all during cheerleading practice for the short while she had been on the team… This was the back of the blonde-haired, green-eyed witch (no pun intended) that had stolen her Luke. It was Emmeline Vance. In the flesh.

Furious, Ambrosia walked herself around the couch and stopped smack-dab in front of the beautiful temptress. ”The jig is up, Emme. I know you’re up to something, and I’m determined to find out what…” Yes, she was aware that her breathing had become rather rapid and uneven, but whatever! ”And don’t try to tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about,” Here, she rolled her eyes. ”Let me give you a hint: Luke Neeson. What are you doing with him?”

[/b]
[/blockquote][/blockquote]

Tagged: Emme!
Outfit: Regular school robes.
Notes: This is gonna be awesome!

[/color]

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline was honestly...happy. She was happy. There was little more to it except for the fact that she hadn’t felt this at peace with the world in so long it was almost foreign to her; that feeling of calmness, and serenity, and knowing that everything was going to be okay. She hadn’t felt like that in forever. It wasn’t even as if there had been some radical change in her that she went from sad to happy again, but a series of events? She couldn’t have pinpointed exactly when she realized that she could actually go up to somebody and say, ‘Hey, I’m doing okay’, and mean it. But right now was one of those moments. It was late evening, and Gabby had gone off to talk to Gideon about something or the other, leaving her in the common room by herself, and she’d taken the opportunity to write in her diary again, curled up into a plush armchair in front of the fireplace—thankfully, the spot hadn’t been taken when they’d come back early from dinner, since the warmest seats were usually the most coveted, and there she was, quill scribbling in neat handwriting across the pages of her notebook, the ghost of a smile on her face. She was peaceful. It helped that she had nothing to worry about right now. Not what Gideon thought of her, since they’d already made up, not whether Gabby hated her, which she’d cleared up as well, and she didn’t, not what to wear to the ball—she had the dress ages ago—nor whom she was going with. Not since Luke had asked her over dinner the other day. Four nights ago, she reminded herself. Unexpected had been an underestimation, and Emme was still in sort of a happy shock about the whole ordeal. She’d assumed—expected—that Luke wouldn’t have wanted to go with her to the ball, that he would have had a date already, that he was well over her. And well, technically he hadn’t said or done anything out of the ordinary that indicated that he wasn’t over her, but it was still nice to feel wanted, even if it’s just as a date to the ball. Because she was going with Luke, who had quietly stood by her while her life crumbled to pieces and then, still quietly, still without a fuss, helped her back to what she used to be like; carefree, fun.

It was all very fairytale-like, and she was so excited for the ball—it was so soon!—that all she could do sometimes was picture herself in her dress, dancing with Luke looking dashing in some form of formal robes. She couldn’t wait to see what he’d wear. It wasn’t even about showing off that she had the best date. It was about him, and having fun with him. Because she did; maybe she didn’t like him like that or anything, and maybe he wasn’t the most romantic of guys most of the time, but she honestly had fun around him. She laughed, and did crazy things around him. It was such a refreshing change from everything; it was wonderful. With a soft sigh, Emme looked up to where most of the people were already heading to their dormitories, until a flash of movement caught her eye, and she looked up properly when the towering figure of a girl stepped in her line of sight in front of her. Startled, Emme took her in properly, and frowned a little bit, confused. Ambrosia Barret; she’d been in the cheerios at some point but had ditched for Quidditch, much like Gideon but she didn’t want to compare them at all. Quite honestly, Emme didn’t like her very much, and as far as she knew, neither did the other girl, so why she was standing here was beyond her. Opening her mouth to ask her if she could help her with something, Emme was cut short when the brunette started speaking, and she shut her mouth, listening. What!? Staring up at her disbelievingly for a moment, Emme wondered if somebody was pulling a prank on her, then decided that no, that was probably not the case, and softly shut her notebook, straightening up in the armchair, feeling slightly defenseless sitting down when Ambrosia was standing, but whatever, and narrowed her eyes out of confusion. “What?” she blurted out, shaking her head, not understanding. Luke? “What am I doing with Luke? What are you talking about, are you insane?”

She wasn’t doing anything with Luke other than going to the Yule Ball with him, which, as far as she was concerned, had become sort of a public common knowledge after the spectacle that had been him asking her to the ball in the Great Hall, which had been amazing, of course, but yes. So Ambrosia must have known about that, otherwise she couldn’t possibly fathom why she’d be talking to her about Luke right now—not that she’d talk to her about anything else, either, but that’s not the point. Crossing a leg over the other, Emme kept staring up at Ambrosia, careful to keep her face neutral, aside from the stupor she was in from how unexpected this confrontation was. “I think you’re being quite irrational, Ambrosia. I’m not ‘up to’ anything, whatever it is you think I’m doing, and why you should come to talk to me about Luke, I don’t know. But I’m not doing anything and you need to calm down and stop accusing me of things I haven’t done.

[/color]” Really, she was quite proud of herself for how mature and calm that had sounded. She raised her eyebrows at Ambrosia and waited for some sort of explanation because—really, what!?
[/blockquote][/color]

[ambrosia]

Ambrosia smirked uncharacteristically as Emme stared at her for a moment, dumbfounded. Slowly, Emme’s eyes narrowed and Ambrosia felt a little less confident than she had a moment before. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea… she thought, frowning slightly and mentally kicking herself in the bum. However, she held her ground. ”You know I’m not insane, Emmeline- I’m actually rather intelligent. And I’m definitely intelligent enough to realize that you’re only leading Luke on in this little ‘endeavor’; but why you would do something so incredibly cruel to such a sweet boy, I will never understand…” She let her breathing calm for a moment before she continued. Emmeline was right- Ambrosia was accusing her of things she may not have done, but she was so jealous she couldn’t think straight!

”Why would Luke ask you and not me?” she muttered, mostly to herself, as she began pacing in front of Emme. She had no idea what was going on at this point- all she could do was try to figure things out for herself; it was almost as if Emmeline didn’t exist anymore. ”I can’t stand the thought of him going with you,” she said, facing Emmeline again, ”You don’t even like him- I’m the one who’s in love with Luke!” She took a deep breath. Man, that felt good… she thought, finally admitting it out loud. Suddenly, Ambrosia froze. Thankfully, there was only a handful of other students in the common room to have heard that, but one of those students was Emmeline Vance. The very same Emmeline Vance that was very close to Luke and was known to be pretty bitchy to girls she didn’t like… And Ambrosia knew that, if Emme had liked her before all this- well, she definitely didn’t now.

Eyes widening, Ambrosia gaped at the younger girl, trying to think of something to say. All the things she had wanted to accuse her of doing to Luke before were completely drained from her brain and in their place, what she had just confessed was the only thing running full circle in her mind… She could barely breath, it felt as if her lungs had deflated and her heart was pounding so hard, she thought it might even be possible for it to just pound right on out of her chest. Her ears were ringing slightly and her mouth was dry- had she just…? She had. She had confessed her love for Luke to Emmeline. That had really just happened. She took a step backward from Emme, careful not to fall into the fireplace, and whispered, ”You did not just hear that… Oh no, no, no!”

[/b] As Ambrosia continued to softly try to convince Emme that she hadn’t heard what she just said, one thought ran through the older girl’s mind:

Shit!
[/blockquote][/blockquote]

Tagged: Emme!
Outfit: Regular school robes.
Notes: None.

[/color]

[Emmeline Vance]

Really, this whole situation was short of nothing but confusing right now. Ambrosia was just going on about nothing in particular, and Emme was feeling increasingly nervous because she hated when people didn’t like her and this girl was making it very clear that she didn’t—not that Emme didn’t dislike her back, but still—and involving Luke in all of this, and just...she had a bad feeling about where this was going, she wasn’t sure why. She just knew that usually, if a boy was involved for some reason, there was going to be drama, if not trouble. So she kept her lips pressed together, looking up at Ambrosia blankly as the other girl work herself over how Emme was supposedly leading Luke on and being cruel? Cruel!? Her face morphed into something more like indignation now, and she narrowed her eyes further at the other girl, lips parting a little, upset, and opened her mouth to tell her exactly what she thought about how ‘cruel’ she was being, when the other girl spoke again—Why would Luke ask you and not me?—and Emme stopped moving, blinking up at her. Had she just? She froze, still. It was slowly starting to make sense in her head, and she didn’t like one bit where this was going, now. Ambrosia began pacing, walking back and forth in front of her armchair, and Emme’s fingers only tightened around the edges of her diary, clenching her teeth together and waiting for the inevitable, if it was even going to come in the form of some sort of explanation...until it was there. ‘I’m the one who’s in love with Luke!’ Emme couldn’t help it; her eyes widened and her jaw dropped open. She was in love with Luke!? Ambrosia Barret was in love with Luke? Luke Neeson? The sixth year, blonde, who’d asked her to the Yule Ball? Who, as far as she knew, had been crushing on her since like, a couple of years or so, she wasn’t even sure, she’d only just realized it last year or something, at some point when she’d been single and more open to other boys that she wasn’t dating, and had really taken in the way he looked at her sometimes. So wait, that Luke!? She stared at Ambrosia, unmoving.

Why was she even telling her this!? It made no sense! They weren’t friends, they were barely even acquaintances from the short period of time that Ambrosia had been on the cheerleading team, before she’d ditched them to join the Quidditch one, and she was suddenly spilling her love life to her? Did that mean that Luke liked her back? No, it couldn’t be, because then he would have asked her to the Yule Ball himself, instead of her. So Luke couldn’t like her. But then why was Ambrosia so surprised that he hadn’t asked her? A thousand thoughts ran through Emme’s mind at a time, as they tended to do in girls when situations like these arose, and slowly closed her mouth again, watching the other girl, wondering what in the world she was supposed to say to this. “Wh—?” she managed to whisper, eyebrows coming together at the middle of her forehead in disbelief, as the other girl widened her eyes and took a step back. Emme kept on staring. Even as Ambrosia tried to deny it, before she’d even said anything further. Still staring. It was a couple of long, quiet, very weird moments later that she managed to shake herself out of the initial shock and neutralized her face again, tilting her chin up a little in order to answer appropriately. “Well, then,

[/color]” she said primly, looking down at her lap and adjusting the notebook on her legs, frowning a little, feeling weird more than anything, then looked up at Ambrosia again. “I don’t really know why you’re telling me this, because it’s not my problem, and I really, really don’t mean any offense but I don’t actually care...[/color]” Was she being a bitch? She was trying not to, okay? She really was. But this girl had just come out of nowhere to yell at her for doing something to Luke, she still hadn’t understood what exactly it was she’d supposedly done, and then just blurted out that she was in love with her date? It wasn’t—how was she even supposed to react to this!? Emme took a deep breath to calm herself and think rationally, and looked at Ambrosia in the eye again, wanting to do this maturely. “And look, I’m really sorry that you feel like that, but I haven’t purposefully done anything bad to Luke at all, and you shouldn’t go around accusing people of doing something they haven’t done if you’re not sure. Rumours get around. So, I’m sorry that Luke chose to ask me over you, but you can’t just assume I don’t like him.[/color]”

Because, really, it was just making her angry that Ambrosia had strutted her way over to inform her of her actions and feelings and what the hell, come on. Wasn’t Emme allowed to have any say in what she thought about him? “Luke has been one of my best friends for like, five years. I have every right to want to spend a night as his date, alright? As much right as you do.[/color]” She had to literally bite down on her tongue for a couple of seconds to avoid blurting something out like ‘besides, he likes me’ because she was pretty sure, now, that he did, and it was an advantage that she had over Ambrosia but why was she even considering this in the first place? Why was she trying to turn her off from the idea of Luke? In her defense, it was because Luke was one of her best friends and she really, really didn’t like this Ambrosia girl and no, she didn’t want him to like her and she didn’t want them to be together. Did that make her selfish again? It did. It really, really did and she was hating herself a little for feeling this way but—but it was reasonable, right!? She could just not want Luke to date another girl—or Ambrosia or whoever—no, it was just Ambrosia. Luke could date...he could date... Emme clenched her teeth at the thought of Luke dating some nameless girl and sighed. She really needed to get over her possessiveness. It wasn’t going to do her any good and she was just going to upset a lot of people, him included, if she kept this up. She knew she liked his attention, but it was different than what it’d been before—before, back when she was happily Gideon’s girlfriend, and on top of the world, or so it seemed, and he was just a guy friend who had a crush on her and she loved the doting. Now, it was different because now, Luke and her had fun, and she smiled and laughed around him when she didn’t with Gideon anymore, when she didn’t with Ted, or Kieran, or Chace, or barely even TJ anymore! She didn’t know when things had changed like this but they had and she liked them like this and wasn’t about to just let them go because Ambrosia Barret claimed to be in love with him.

So she was going to lie.

“And if we like each other, then you really should back off...[/color]”

Oh, no. What was she doing?

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[ambrosia]

Ambrosia’s head was spinning out of control and her palms were beginning to sweat. Had she really just told Emmeline Vance- one of the people she disliked the most- that she was in love with the other girl’s Yule date?! Ambrosia lifted her hand to her forehead and covered her eyes for a moment, squeezing them together to try and make the dizzy feeling go away. Even as she muttered, ”You did not hear that,” another time to Emme, Ambrosia wasn’t even convincing herself. She knew Emme had heard what she had blurted out and now she also knew that she was going to pay hell for it. The dizzy feeling slowly started to fade but came back full force as she thought about what Emme might do to her now that she knew her little secret.

Would she tell Luke?

That thought was enough to make Ambrosia feel sick. No, no, she thought. Emme might not be a nice person, but she’s not evil. Even she wouldn’t do that to someone… right? Except that the younger girl was known to be very possessive of the people she liked or dated- ad Ambrosia supposed Luke was one of those people, considering they were going to Yule together. She must like him a little bit then, right? She slowly came to terms with the fact that Emme had stopped giving her a shocked face and was now beginning to speak to her. As she listened, her stomach muscles began to tighten- nd not in a refreshing way. She felt like she might hurl all over the younger girl, but prayed to Merlin that she wouldn’t. That would just make Emme want to kill her instead of spill her secrets…

Emme’s words dripped with poison as she told her that she could care less about what Ambrosia felt about Luke and that she had no idea why Ambrosia would be telling her any of this anyway. Good point. I don’t know why either. She wanted to say; but she kept her mouth shut in fear that she might tell Emme something else extremely personal, like the fact that she still sometimes sleeps with her childhood teddy bear when it’s storming outside… And there it was; the jab at Ambrosia’s heart that made it hard to breathe. Emme had just confirmed what Ambrosia feared: she had said her and Luke definitely liked each other, which meant that there was absolutely no way Ambrosia could even try anymore. And, although she knew there wasn’t anything she could do, Ambrosia was not just going to lie down and let Luke be with an awful girl like the one sitting on the couch in front of her. He was too good for that.

So, she did what any sane girl would do: she looked Emme square in the eyes and stated, ”I’m not going to back off. Now you know, so I’ll say it again; I love him. I have for a long time. I can’t just sit by and be quiet any longer and if that means I have to tell him myself, then so be it.”

[/b] As she turned to retreat to the dormitory, she said one last thing over her shoulder. ”Just remember that a woman in love will do almost anything for her man, Emme. Remember that.”[/b]

As soon as she was safely back in her dormitory, she slid down the wall and hid her face in her arms, which were resting on top of her knees. Fat tears were starting to roll down her cheeks and she was thankful that no one was up there yet. What have I done…?
[/blockquote][/blockquote]

Tagged: Emme!
Outfit: Regular school robes.
Notes: none

[/color]

[Emmeline Vance]

It felt like ages until she replied; the moment long and drawn-out and Emme was all but holding her breath in, back straight, parallel to the back of the armchair in which she sat, face stony as she watched the brunette in front of her go through what seemed to be an emotional turmoil of sorts. Emme’s insides were clenching nervously, a little worried, like one always gets right after lying; the few split seconds where you’re afraid you’re going to lose, that your lie was seen straight through, so when Ambrosia finally spoke, Emme could only stare right back through it, eyes widening a fraction of an inch at her words. What a nerve the girl had! Did she have to turn everything into such a drama, for Christ’s sake? Emme held her breath, still, trying to process what she was saying through the self-important air through which it was being spoken. She was going to tell Luke that she loved him? For a split-second, Emme panicked, before realizing that she really just...didn’t care. Ambrosia turned around to leave or something, Emme still staring, a light frown on her face, before stopping and speaking again, something about—Jesus. “Drama queen,” Emme muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes at the retreating figure in front of her, doing another automatic assessment of her body, under the fit of rage inside her for some apparent reason. Really, Ambrosia wasn’t that pretty. Her face was plain, her eyes weren’t that great, even! Blue wasn’t such a big deal, anyway! And—and—Huh... you've got brown and green specks in your eyes. Emme let out the breath she’d been holding in a long whoosh, and tipped her head back against the back of the couch, pressing her lips together, and fluttered her eyes closed, the picture of Luke looking up at her, that close, talking about her eyes, fresh behind her eyelids. She shook herself. Ambrosia had nothing on her. Yeah, okay, she was older, but—but that didn’t have to mean anything. Guys didn’t necessarily want older girls. Luke—Luke liked her and that was it. Ambrosia telling him she “loved” him or whatever it was she was going to say wouldn’t change a thing. It wouldn’t, because Luke and her had been best friends for years, and he couldn’t just change his mind like that; he couldn’t. Just because there was a girl that was going to go up to him and tell him she wanted him didn’t mean he’d stop. He’d just...he didn’t love her back; he didn’t. He didn’t. She bit her lip and whimpered a little, distressed, and kicked at the carpet in front of her gently.

Well, look what a huge mess she’d gotten into, now.

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finished!