Too Cool For You (Lance)

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It was the middle of the day and Kinsey just got out of one of her tougher courses, Ancient Runes, and needed a bit of a breather. She loved the class, of course. Kinsey loved everything that was challenging about schoolwork, which was probably one of the things that put her in Ravenclaw to begin with, but every once in a while going outside to get some air was a good thing. Besides the fact that it was still chilly enough that not too many students went outside during the breaks. That gave Kinsey fresh air and a chance to free her head from the intentions of those around her. Really she was used to the sensation by now, she should be after nine years of it, but being around hundreds of students was still overwhelming. In classes it was alright most of the time, but Kinsey still loved the chances when she could snag some time on her own.

Making sure no one was in the courtyard with her, Kinsey went over to a bench and closed her eyes, just taking in the freshness of being outside and alone. She couldn't keep herself from smiling. It was like heaven, not having to sense those around her. After a few moments, she started laughing, the relief taking over. This was so nice. It didn't last though. Before long she could sense someone joining her.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

Lance wasn’t exactly sure why he was wandering around the grounds. He just was. A lot of times doing so cleared his head, or at most, it ate up time before the next class or meal. Today he had nothing though; no classes, no meetings, no homework, and lunch had just finished. If anything, he was a little full and somewhat sleepy. Knowing full well that it was better to walk off the food rather than nap on it, apparently that had been enough to motivate him to walk straight out of the Great Hall and towards the courtyard.

It was rather brisk outside – a stretch from the weather back home. Of course, home was the orphanage and Hogwarts now, despite the return of Barbara saying otherwise. She wasn’t going to mess up their lives again, that much he was sure of. But he still had South Carolina blood in him, and that much told him it was still too cold out to do anything remotely interesting, aside from walking around and humming to himself. Apparently adjusting to the climate was nigh impossible for him, because after six years, he still had issues adjusting to the cold. He longed for the warmth to come back and make the outdoors worth it again. Then maybe he wouldn’t be stuck inside all day, dwelling on depressing thoughts and things that were far beyond his control. He had come to the realization over the last few months that some people didn’t want to change and refused to accept anything opposing their beliefs. Barbara was kind of like this, at least in his mind, and the fact was that they were never going to agree on anything anymore. This same thought and scenario had run through his head hundreds, if not thousands, of times already, and walking around was apparently the only way to get rid of it. So that was what he was doing.

Entering the courtyard, Lance yawned a few times sleepily. There was a somewhat decent bench that he had taken a liking to, especially in the spring when the sun was poking through the clouds and newly budding leaves. As he approached it though, he saw a girl already there and she was laughing. That was a little strange. “You okay?” he piped up. There was a chance she had been hit with a giggling jinx or something and was about to fall into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Lance had been subjected to that once, and he hadn’t been a fan of the spell since.

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Kinsey couldn't help but hope that whoever was approaching didn't hear her laughing like a crazy person. That would definitely be awkward and somewhat hard to explain. Her mind started racing as she tried to think of believable reasons for her to be laughing while she was just sitting on a bench. Nothing good was coming to mind, which was a big shame. She cringed a little when she heard a boy asking if she was alright. She turned to look at him, surprised when she didn't recognize him at all. She smiled. "I'm fine. I just ... felt like laughing." Strictly speaking, it was the truth, but the way Kinsey said it wasn't all too convincing and she hoped the boy wouldn't question her about it. She tried to think of something to change the subject, still feeling very awkward about the whole situation. At least he seemed genuinely concerned for her as he approached. "What's your name? I don't think I've ever met you before." Kinsey felt like an idiot, but she honestly couldn't think of anything else to ask him. She gestured to the bench beside her. "You can join me if you want." Ugh, because she was definitely doing good at conversation at the moment ... not. Oh well.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

Just felt like laughing…that was a good enough reason for him. There had been times over the last few months where Lance had wished he had just felt like laughing, and instead was wrought with confused emotions about how to deal with his parents. Or parent. That one was still an open wound even four months later. He could care less what was going on with Barbara at this point. Georgie was in contact with her apparently. He had seen the letters, though they left much to be desired and his sister seemed to be handling their mother a lot better than he was ever going to be able to. Lance shook his head slightly, as if that would be enough to get rid of the negative thoughts. This girl was still talking to him, and apparently didn’t seem all that perturbed that he was interrupting whatever it was that she was laughing at. The smile said enough for him to know that he wasn’t on her bad side at least, and she was asking for his name.

“Lance Linley,” he stated as he sat down next to her. She didn’t know him? They were the same year after all. Now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure her name was Kinsey. “You’re a Bainbridge right?” Lance asked. “I’m in Hufflepuff, and my sister is in the same year that yours are, so I see them around from time to time.” Lance wasn’t exactly sure what relationship Georgie had with the Bainbridge triplets, if there was even one to begin with. She was sort of an enigma sometimes, in more ways than one.

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Well, the boy didn't laugh at her or make fun of her for laughing at nothing. That was nice. Maybe he just didn't care why she was really laughing to begin with. Kinsey wasn't really sure what to think of him, but she felt a positive aura from him so at least she didn't feel the need to run away or tell him to leave ... yeah if it came to that she'd just least. He sat down, introducing himself as Lance. Alright, she could remember that. She smiled, nodding at his question. "Yeah, I'm Kinsey," she told him. "The Ravenclaw one without a twin or triplet." Really, that felt like her defining characteristic most of the time, when it came to people she didn't know. He said he was in Hufflepuff and knew her sisters so Kinsey smiled. "Oh that makes sense." She paused for a second, still feeling a bit awkward. "Umm so what brought you outside today?" she asked curiously. Kinsey wasn't really good at sitting in silence. 

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

Kinsey. That was right. Lance knew that he had heard her name before. His interactions with Ravenclaws were limited to class time at most, seeing as they were all the way upstairs and Hufflepuff was in the basement. There were interactions here and there, obviously he went to the Yule Ball with one, but for the most part he had always thought of Ravenclaws as the house that was meant to drive everyone else educationally. Some of their students had some nasty tempers when it came to studying and doing homework. He typically avoided the blue ties whenever he was in the library looking for books or somewhere to sit. If they approached him first, then it was fine, but he liked to keep clear of them. Plus there were plenty of his own housemates always in the library, and they were more fun to interact with than a stuffy book snob was. Not that Kinsey was a stuffy book snob. He only knew her name after all. “There are more of you?” he said rather surprised. He knew of the oldest one, but not of the twins in Ravenclaw. “Y’all got a large family…” The southern twang slipped out again. It happened occasionally, though he tried to refrain from it most of the time. He wasn’t necessarily embarrassed by it, more that it was easier to talk with a standard American accent to the other students at Hogwarts than to get all Southern on them.

Lance opened his mouth to respond to why he was outside but found that he didn’t have a good enough answer. Or even an answer in general. “Wandering?” he replied, though being a question he wasn’t even sure with, he had no idea how she would interpret it. “It’s a good way to kill time,” Lance added, as if that were to help explain what he was doing. “What about you? Just sitting here laughing to yourself?” he cracked a smile to show that he was ribbing her and not being a jerk.

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Kinsey smiled and laughed a little at Lance's obvious surprise at the size of her family. "There are seven of us. Dustin, who graduated last year from Gryffindor, then the twins who are in Ravenclaw, then me, and then the triplets in Hufflepuff." That was a good enough explanation, wasn't it? If she started giving everyone's names and stuff she'd probably overwhelm him. "Yeah, it is pretty big. Do you have other siblings, or just the one in Hufflepuff that you mentioned?" Kinsey didn't know who his sister was, but she was curious. Family was always a curious thing to her. Some family members seemed to always get along so perfectly and she just didn't understand it.

He opened his mouth to answer, but didn't say anything for a few seconds and Kinsey watched him curiously. She nodded when he said he was nodding and trying to kill time. "That works," she responded diplomatically. Then he started teasing her and Kinsey smiled. "Yeah, basically," she joked back. Then she answered, "No, I just needed a breath of fresh air and when I got it ... I guess I felt kind of giddy, so I let it out." She shrugged. Around most people she would be embarrassed about that, but strangely she didn't feel embarrassed right now.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

Seven? There were seven of them in the family? That was more than being a large family. A large family meant five kids. Seven was pushing a ginormous family. Then again, any family was bigger than his, though he supposed one of the members was kind of back now. Not that it mattered to him anymore. Barb had made her decision to leave again. No surprise there. The one thing he had always wondered about though, was if there would be more siblings if his parents hadn’t disappeared the way they did. It would have been a huge age gap between Georgie and the next one, but not super ridiculous. Some of these larger families, Bainbridges excluded because Kinsey said they were all close in age, had the possibility of having one child be almost ten years older than the last one. He supposed it all depended on how old the parents were when the first came along. “Yeah, I remember Dustin. But definitely didn’t know about the twins.” They were seventh years, so that made sense. He knew more about the fifth year students than seventh year. “Just Georgiana. Or Georgie. She probably won’t answer to her full name if she doesn’t know you.” That and Georgie rolled off the tongue way better, at least in his opinion.

Wandering seemed to be the answer he was looking for then, since Kinsey agreed with him. Aimlessly walking always took up useless time. Saying it was his favorite thing to do when he was bored would probably sound a little depressing. “Can’t say I’ve ever done that…though getting air helps everything.” He knew that as a fact. “Trying to escape to escape classes or your family?” Lance found himself asking. That was way more direct than he intended it to be. “My apologies. That was a little personal for just meeting,” he rebounded. Though in his case, it would be from family, and from Barb.

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Kinsey nodded when Lance said that he remembered Dustin. Most people did, since he was so brilliant at Quidditch. She was proud of him for that, and pleased that Lance remembered her brother. She shrugged, "They really like to study," she explained, thinking mostly about Cara. It wasn't a surprise people didn't know Cara, she spent practically all her time studying one thing or another, in addition to yelling at those that she didn't think were studying enough. He mentioned that he only had one sister, giving her name and Kinsey nodded. Georgie. She thought she'd heard about the girl before, but wasn't entirely sure. She smiled, "Good to know. It sounds like you know her pretty well," she added and then froze. Why would she say that? She really had no indication of how close Lance was with his sister just from him telling Kinsey about her name preference. She blushed slightly, embarrassed.

At his response, Kinsey lifted an eyebrow at him, "I recommend him. Laughing in the brisk air is quite refreshing ... you just might want to do better than me at checking to make sure there aren't people around," she chuckled softly at herself. Normally she would be mortified that someone found her laughing for no reason, but Lance wasn't really making fun of her, so she felt oddly okay with it. At his question, Kinsey answered immediately, without thinking. "Both." Classes because Dom was in quite a few of them and family because ... well, she couldn't seem to do anything right with them. Then he apologized and Kinsey looked up and shrugged, "It's fine. I answered," without thinking, which she knew was a dangerous thing to do, but she answered all the same. "You?" she asked hesitantly. Maybe he wouldn't mind answering, since he was the one to bring it all up. Besides, Kinsey wasn't sure if she felt comfortable expanding on her answer, though she could come up with a few small lies to make it sound better than it was if needs be.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

He probably could have guessed that Ravenclaws liked to study. That was as much of a given as the majority of Slytherins being snobs. Lance didn’t typically like to believe in prejudices like that, but the students in those houses did it to themselves. It was none of his business how other people went about their lives, so he kept the judgement to a minimum. He expected the same to be done with him, should others think of him as the stereotypical Hufflepuff. In a way, he kind of was. “So let me guess. If I went up to the library right now, there would be a good chance I’d see at least one of them?” Lance laughed. He had never really understood the concept of studying in the library. There was too much foot traffic from students going in and out. Going in to check-out a book was one thing, but there was never truly a quiet moment in the library when attempting to study. Lots of distractions. Lance preferred a little noise, just not the kind that came with the library. A constant hum or drone in the background created the perfect study environment for him.

Lance laughed as Kinsey said it sounded like he knew Georgie. There were some things that he knew really well about her, and others not so much. The clairvoyance was one of them. Lance wasn’t even sure how often it happened anymore, because it had become less of a talking point as they got older. “We’ve been through a lot, and she’s attached to me at the hip a lot of the time.” As they should be. Anyone put through what they had to endure would be the same way. “Though I’d say she probably knows me even better.”

He joined in with her chuckle. Laughing would have done him a lot of good a few months ago, though he was somewhat scared to imagine what would have come after. A full mental breakdown probably. That wasn’t how he normally was, but Art returning from the dead and then dying again wasn’t exactly the average for anyone. Total system shock seemed pretty reasonable now that he looked at it in hindsight. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he finally responded. Kinsey went on to explain that she was outside to escape both the school and her sisters. He couldn’t hold that one against her. “Everyone needs a break eventually," Lance stated as he stared off at the school. Sometimes more often than not. “I guess I was trying to walk off lunch and wake up a bit. Seems to be working so far.”

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Kinsey smirked as Lance started talking about her sisters. "Yes, it's almost certain you would," she paused momentarily before taking her statement a little bit further, "and it would probably be my sister Cara, to be honest. She thinks that taking a break from studying is a sin, no matter the reason." Kinsey rolled her eyes. "I like studying, but she takes it to a new level." she took a deep breath, trying to calm down.

Kinsey felt curious when Lance laughed, but he explained himself soon enough. She smiled, "It sounds nice having someone to talk to about things." She didn't actually know that, since Kinsey didn't really have anyone to talk to about her issues. She just told Scuttle. She nodded when he said that his sister probably knew him better. She didn't know what else to say.

She shrugged when he said he'd keep that in mind. Then he said everyone needed a break and Kinsey started to feel bad telling him about her problems. "I'm sorry I was whining about my family. I do love them, I've just been frustrated lately and taking it out on them, I suppose." Sort of. She didn't need to unload all her problems on a stranger though. Then she smiled, ready to tease him a little at his next comment. "How is it working if you're not walking off lunch anymore? You've been talking with me for a bit ..." Hopefully the boy realized she wasn't completely serious.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

Kinsey’s description of her sister, her name apparently being Cara, was horrifying, to say the least. Lance had had his fair share of run ins with the uppity studious types, but nothing to this degree. Thankfully she was a seventh year, or fate would definitely organize a meeting between them. That was how things worked right? At least he knew who to avoid in the library during the last few months of the term. “I’d always heard Ravenclaws were intense about their studies,” he reasoned, “but not to that degree. No offense, but she sounds kind of crazy. School isn’t that important.” There were more important things that Hogwarts had to offer over their first-rate education. Like Quidditch, or learning how to deal with people from all walks of life. Those were his takeaways from six years of schooling.

Lance felt himself straightening up as Kinsey said that she didn’t have anyone to talk to about things. That was sad, and she was smiling about it. He had thought the same way at first following Art’s death, but it wasn’t to this degree. “You don’t talk to your siblings about important stuff?” He inquired. None of this sat well with him for some reason. To have six other siblings and not one to decompress with wasn’t right. Even if there were certain things he didn’t want to talk to Georgie about, getting it out whether she cared or not always helped him in the end, and he liked to believe it was the same with her.

He didn’t really buy Kinsey’s apology about her family. Not after her last statement. It didn’t exactly take someone perceptive to see that there was a lot wrong with her family situation. The first comment sounded like it was something that had been going on for a while, the second being more recent. “No it’s fine. I’m the one that brought it up in the first place.” That didn’t excuse the fact that none of this was really his business to begin with. He wasn’t even sure if she was aware of what she had just shared with him.

Kinsey turned the subject over to his post-meal regiment, teasing him at the fact that he was sitting down when he was supposed to be walking off his lunch. Lance laughed, knowing that she wasn’t wrong about that. “It wasn’t a big lunch. Probably only needed to walk from the castle to here in the first place.”

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Lance seemed worried at Kinsey's description of her older sister and she felt a little guilty, even though every word she said was truth. It was better to lay him know rather than let him stumble headfirst into Vara, want it. At least, it was kinder. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Good intentions. She could warm fun in a friendly way. Kinsey smiled at his comment about Ravenclaws. "Not all of us are that way, you know. I like studying, but I don't do it all the time. I play with my owl and go on walks too," she teased, trying to make it sound like that was all she liked to do. He probably couldn't tell she was just teasing since he didn't know her.

He asked if she talked to get siblings about important things and Kinsey shrugged. "If I talk to any of my siblings about things, I go to my older brother ... but he's a professional Quidditch player and very busy so I mostly done want to bother him with silly things." Or serious things. Kinsey tried to keep her letters to Dustin pretty low-key so she wouldn't worry him about things. She used to talk to Diana about things but ... not anymore. Diana didn't want to talk to her, or even look at her and Kinsey could not figure out why. "I don't really talk much with my sisters. We've ... grown apart. Well that was definitely one way to describe it. She shrugged again and smiled. "It's fine though. I'm fine and I don't want to be a bother." Even though she already felt like she was. She made a face when he said that it was fine and that he brought it all up. "Well yeah, but I doubt you are expecting me to unload on you like that. I guess I just needed to let my frustration out. Sorry I let it out on you."

He laughed at her teasing and Kinsey was glad. At least she was lightening the mood somewhat. "Ahhh. So instead of causing problems with your routine, I saved you from expending extra energy?" she teased a little more. He was smiling so it was fine.

lancelot ray linley

[Deleted]

@kinsey

He smiled as she said that not all Ravenclaws were like her sister. Obviously. What a dull and boring house that would be, if everyone was the same. Hufflepuff always got locked into the idea that ‘anyone fits here’ or that they were all social butterflies. Georgie certainly wasn’t one to go out of her way to find social interaction unless she wanted it, and there were a number of others he could name that either had trouble dealing with people or didn’t need constant validation through their interactions. Rumors were just rumors after all. If he believed that every Slytherin was a pureblooded elitist and every Gryffindor a cocky know-it-all, then Hogwarts would have been increasingly dull. “Just studying, walking, and playing with your owl? Nothing else?” Now that he brought it up, Lance realized he was worse off than that. All he had was walking and studying. It was hard to get a music player of any sort to work inside the school, and baseball was a foreign concept over here. “But Ravenclaws do study a lot. You can’t tell me that’s not true.” He wanted to be right about that fact.

Grown apart. Didn’t want to be a bother. She was fine. If he knew who some of her friends were, he would have brought it up in an instant with them that there was something wrong here. Lance knew that there were times where he said things to Georgie that could be construed as her being bothersome to him, but they had always reconciled in the end. That came with the whole being a sibling gig. Kinsey’s situation sounded like it was on a completely different level. She knew she could talk to her brother about it, but held back. “People don’t like when I say this a lot of times, but family is still family. Y’all might have your differences or not like each other all that much, and that’s fine. But if you ever lose that chance to overcome those odds because they’re no longer there, it can mess you up,” Lance found himself nodding his head slowly as he finished. He took a deep breath and let it out before smiling once again. “It doesn’t bother me a bit. Getting it all out is better than holding it in. It’s a lot easier with someone you barely know too. Less judgement.” That was definitely true. Following Art’s death, he had found it harder to talk to Georgie and his friends about it, whereas acquaintances that were aware of it were more honest and understanding. At least that was what he felt from it. “Hopefully y’all figure it out. Can never hurt to try.”

Lance knew that he had pretty much done the same exact thing that Kinsey had apologized for, but in a more covert way. Coming to terms with family issues was a lot harder than he expected, and apparently it was more common than he would have thought too. The conversation had switched to his post-meal walk though, and she joked about having saved him from burning energy. “Looks like it,” he responded. “Having a civil conversation is more interesting than wandering around the grounds. I feel like I’ve done that a lot since coming here.”

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Kinsey shrugged when Lance questioned whether or not she had other hobbies. Running and hiding from Dominic was definitely a hobby, but not one she'd be willing to share with anyone. "I guess I like flying, but I'm not on the Quidditch team or anything, so I don't think it really counts as a hobby. What about you? What things do you like to do?" The next thing she knew, he was asking whether or not Ravenclaws studied a lot. Kinsey laughed softly. "Some of them do. Some of them care about learning, but not the subjects we're learning about in school so they don't do as well in their classes. Some prefer physical experiments rather than reading books and writing essays. We're all different, but we do like to learn. For some of us that's with studying. For others, it's not." That probably wasn't the response he expected, but it was true. 

Kinsey watched him closely and listened as Lance explained his point of view when it came to family. A part of her agreed with him, but not all of her. Yes, family was still family, but if they made it obvious that they didn't care about you unless you did exactly what they wanted, did that mean you were supposed to just roll over and follow their demands? Or if they were so caught up in their own lives that they avoided you, then what should you do. Kinsey was tired of trying to reach out to some of her sisters, like Diana and some of the triplets. She avoided Cara, but that was for a totally different reason. Still, she nodded. While she confessed more than she meant to with Lance, that didn't mean she needed to tell him everything. "Well I guess I'll start looking for chances to try and "overcome those odds", as you put it," she told him with a small, semi-forced smile. It wouldn't work. Kinsey already knew that. Then he started saying that she wasn't a bother to him and Kinsey's smile became more sincere. "Still, thanks for listening. I guess I needed to get all that out." Hopefully that would help her be alright for a while now, though there were no guarantees on that. 

She appreciated that he let her change the subject. Talking about her family was exhausting and she was glad that he was joking around with her about his walk. She smirked at him, "You feel like you've done what a lot? Had interesting, civil conversations or wandered the grounds?" She was pretty sure he was talking about wandering the grounds, since conversations weren't always so easy to start, but she was really trying to lift the mood. "Does that mean you're done with your walk?" Kinsey asked curiously. If not ... she might as to join him. Maybe walking and moving around would help her relax faster.

lancelot ray linley