Indigo Home [Riley]

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

A change of pace. That was what Cara needed right now. The last week had been spent studying for a test and then completing a paper that was due the day after. Hellish was a good way to describe it. This was one of those topics that she struggled on; the kind that didn’t come naturally and meant that triple the effort had to be put into it in order to churn out a reasonable grade. The paper came out fine, but that was to be expected. Writing was her specialty after all. As for the test? Cara had to go for a really, really long walk into a secluded area of the grounds in order to burn off the fuming rage she had. She absolutely loathed lower than normal marks, and this was another one of them. It was one thing if she didn’t put the time or effort into it, but this time wasn’t like that. Hours out of each day had been set aside specifically for studying, and she received a trash grade. She figured that with this, she might as well not care anymore about school. Her grades technically didn’t matter, since she was going to write fiction. What was the point, right?

But that wouldn’t do, and she knew that. She had to live up to what was expected of her. To make a good example for her sisters to follow, even if some of them (Kinsey), didn’t want to do that. Her claims and position in the family would be questioned if she gave up now. Not only was giving up the absolute worst thing she could do, but it would also mean that she would allow herself to back down for a stupid reason. She hated that she was like this. Giving up meant certain failure. Trying harder didn’t always get her the correct results. None of it made sense.

The walk on the grounds ended with her at the edge of the forest. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do now that she was out here, but anything was better than looking at a textbook. Ahead of her on the trail was a grouping of larger rocks, and that seemed like a fitting place to sit and hide from the world for a few hours. Tossing her bag up onto the highest point of the rock, Cara climbed up it nimbly and sprawled herself out. The April sun was a lot warmer than it had been a few weeks earlier. Letting out a deep breath, she reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook, which she primarily used for story ideas, and a pen. Now was better than never to come up with new ideas. Her mind was working at light-speed because she was still pissed off about the test.

[Deleted]

Riley was never the star student, but he knew if he actually decided to focus more on his studies rather than his extracurricular studies. However, Hogwarts didn't offer a class on nonverbal communication or how to tune your senses to pick up on things that other people had trained their brain for their whole life to ignore. Little things like breathing and facial movement, nervous ticks like talking with your hands and fixing your hair or tapping your foot, all of those things meant something to different people and Riley was interested in studying people and figuring out what their ticks meant about them. But there were also personality quirks that came out in person and those were a whole different story.

Riley walked out of the castle, eager to enjoy some of the early April air. He glanced around before he decided where to go. There was a group of Slytherin girls by the lake, they could be fun to listen to, but then he spotted a Ravenclaw girl out in the distance near the forest edge. He watched her make the decision to follow the trail towards a large assortment of rocks down the way. Riley knew the girl vaguely since they were in the same house. It was obvious that she was alone and likely wished it to stay that way, but Riley thought she would be much more interesting than the you Slytherin girls. It took him a while to make his way across the lawns to where Cara Bainbridge was last seen. He followed the trail and found his subject sitting on one of the tall rocks. There were so many things he could get into about why she would have chosen the highest point to perch on, but perhaps that was a research report for his journal.

Riley climbed onto one of the rocks himself, lower than her, but to her side so he would have to look up if he wanted to look at her and she would have to look down to him. He felt she would be most comfortable with this arrangement. "Cara Bainbridge. You don't mind if I sit, do you?" he asked, a smirk on his lips. 

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

She heard him approaching before actually looking up to physically see where he was. It honestly shouldn’t have surprised her that someone would take interest and butt in on her personal time. There was literally nowhere to go anymore without being followed by another person. The additional students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang only overpopulated the already full castle, and then everyone tried to spill out onto the grounds at the same time. This had never been a problem in previous years. Now it was like living on top of all the people that she didn’t want to deal with. Which was almost everyone, the exceptions being Diana and Dominic. The latter not as much as the former. She could function without her man-servant, not so much without her twin. So with all that in mind, Cara was intent on completely ignoring the person walking by until she heard them climb up onto the rocks and then acknowledge her presence with their irritating voice. Of course it was Riley. “What do you want, Fudge?” she barked back, not taking her gaze from her notebook even though her hand had stopped writing. She purposely ignored his request to sit down, because that meant giving in to a slew of questions, or at the least talking about stupid things. All she wanted to do was get the thought of the test out of her head, and that was practically impossible with a housemate standing next to her. It would have been one thing if it was a random student asking her a question about something, but the fact that it was a person from Ravenclaw, and Riley Fudge at that, only made her more irritated. After a few seconds of staring at the same scribbled notes on her notebook, Cara finally glared down at him. “Well?” she asked impatiently, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Does it look like I have the time to play this game all day?”

[Deleted]

Riley had already decided to sit down and he decided he didn't need her permission, it was more of a formality anyway, wouldn't his parents be proud of their darling pure blood son, asking formalities, being polite, but not backing down regardless of the answer. How ever entitled of him. How very pure blood family. She asked him what he wanted and he gave her a shrug, turning so he wasn't looking at her. "Am I not allowed air and a view? Last I checked you didn't own the rock." he said. he opened his bag and pulled out a notebook of his own and a rather boring blue pen. He liked to write notes about his encounters, especially ones with people who interested him, not that he'd ever let anyone know that he wrote research notes about them, if anyone asked, it was merely a private journal. It was no surprise that she wanted to be alone, everything about her screamed how badly she wanted him to leave and was already very allowed with his presence, a fact that he sort of liked, it provided good groundwork for conflict of one's self. Would she consider leaving if he lingered? He wasn't near her, he wasn't looking at her, but he was paying attention to every detail, whether or not she knew it.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

Of course, it didn’t matter how she responded to him or her feelings on it, because he still sat down. That was her fault, mostly. She hadn’t specified that she wanted to sit on her own up here, and that only opened the floodgates to those that knew how to play the game correctly. Fudge knew how to, if their past encounters said anything about him. He pulled the whole public space tactic as he sat down, and Cara sighed. There was no winning here. She hated that. Sometimes it was unavoidable, like in the library or Great Hall. She could deal with those instances. This though? While the rock wasn’t hers, this was her space for the time being. And he was impeding on that. Somehow she hadn’t been clear enough about that. Too late now.

Cara decided to ignore him completely. It was the only option available to her aside from leaving entirely, and that would mean victory for Fudge. She couldn’t give him that satisfaction. That and there was the possibility that he would follow her to the next spot she found. So she stayed where she was on the rock, moving only just enough so that she could have a little of her personal space back from what Riley just took from her. Even though he was quiet after his initial statement, Cara didn’t look away from him immediately. While she was intent not to respond, watching him wasn’t a crime. The interesting part about it was that he pulled a notebook out as well. Was he copying her now too? “You never answered me,” she stated, finally breaking the silence. “If you wanted air, anywhere on the grounds would do.”

[Deleted]

Riley had a feeling that if he played correctly, she would be the one who broke the silence, the research never lied. There was a pretty direct way to get any response from someone that was desired, and putting those theories into practice also proved interesting. Based on the fact that she broke the silence rather than let it go, or even, get up and find somewhere else to be, to which he wouldn't have followed her (he was a man of research, not a creep) he could conclude that maybe a small part of her, even if she didn't know it wanted to talk to him, about what was the next task. he shrugged, still looking away from her, "all my normal sports around the grounds seemed boring, I saw you walk over here and remembered that this little corner even existed." he admitted. "Look, I'll leave you alone, you don't have to worry." he insisted, glancing at her over his shoulder only to catch her looking down at him after having a moved away a little. He made very quick eye contact before turning back to his notebook, turning to an open page and putting his pen to the paper watched as his had crossed the page and words written in blue, in very scratchy handwriting spilled out. He had laid the bait, what she did next would prove whether or not the theory worked. Would she find herself curious? Would she slip out another sentence? Would she decide his company was less of a burden with time? Riley was intrigued to find out.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

She had to give this one to him as well. The fact that his spots were boring was a relatively valid excuse considering the amount of people at Hogwarts now. Except the way he put it made it sound like he was here because she was. This rock certainly wasn’t all that interesting, unless he was into rock climbing or some other equally dangerous and life-threatening sport. Though anyone that had an issue scaling this one probably had problems walking up the stairs as well. It wasn’t exactly a difficult obstacle. But why her? What made her interesting enough to follow? Was it the fact that she probably had a pissed off look on her face from the second her test was handed back, and now he was here to poke fun at her, hiding it under the guise of a friendly conversation between housemates? Or was Kinsey whining to the other sixth years about the way Cara had been acting towards her lately? That one seemed possible, considering the fact that her sister apparently wanted a pity party thrown for her every waking moment of the day. She needed to get over herself. Fast.

Riley added that he would leave her alone, and for a second Cara thought he was going to pack up his things and go. If someone had yelled at her the way she did to him, she would have deemed any form of conversation impossible and moved on. Things like that weren’t worth her time. Apparently they were to Riley though. Instead of leaving, he turned back to his notebook. Cara wasn’t sure how to interpret that. When he said he would leave her alone, she expected him to physically leave, not to just shut-up and stay where he was. This was annoying. She hated not understanding, and that was starting to look like a common theme today. First the test, and now this. Failing at one didn’t mean she could fail at both though. She could get to the bottom of this if she wanted to.

Turning back to her own notebook, she tried to pick up from where she had barely started. The thoughts simply weren’t clicking like they had been a few minutes earlier. Riley’s distraction had apparently done more than take that time away from her; it also stripped her creativity for the moment. There was no use trying to force things out though, so she snapped the notebook closed before looking back down at him. “Why follow me? There are plenty of other students around here to bother, aren’t there? Or is it because they’re in those boring spots?” She assumed people in those locations also had equally drab and boring personalities. Probably full of Gryffindors and Beauxbatons students. They were virtually one in the same as far as she was concerned. Always wrapped up in their tiny little egos. “This isn’t exactly the most pleasant spot either,” she commented, setting her notebook down on top of her bag. “At least not anymore.”

[Deleted]

She speaks. Riley gave a silent smirk into his notebook. He began to feel a little manipulative, as much as he loved research and testing theories, he always felt a little bad doing so, especially when his subjects were unaware of his experiments. She was growing frustrated and he didn't want to upset her, he just wanted to understand her, pick up on some of her hidden things and what they meant to her. However, he wouldn't do so at the cost of either of their sanity's. Why follow me? she asked. He shrugged and once again turned his head over his shoulder to see her above him on the rock. "I would have followed anyone over here, it wasn't about who it was, it was about the spot, the privacy." he insisted, and that was partially true. He had decided that his normal spots were boring and housed far too many students, and people were always harder to read in large grounds than they were alone or in smaller groups. Then the light bulb lit, she had come here for the privacy too, of course, but why? What was she hiding in the privacy of the rock clusters? What or who was she getting away from? This isn't exactly the most pleasant spot either, well she wasn't wrong about that, "no, but there aren't first years running around, are there? Which at least makes it better than the lawns." he countered. "Are you so opposed to a man sitting a ways away from you doing his own thing?" he asked, "not even bothering you?" he hadn't meant to sound rude, in his head, he meant to sound curious, but he was sure it might have come off a little rude.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

Cara was sure that he would have followed anyone over here, and that it didn’t matter that it was her. She had a hard time believing that, her automatic reaction being to shake her head slightly and roll her eyes. Did people think she was stupid or something? Always giving these awfully weak responses, or lies rather, to questions that were meant to have simple answers. She wanted to know why he followed her, and to say that he would have walked behind absolutely anyone was complete and utter shite. The icing on top of his entire statement was apparently because of the privacy. Cara wasn’t going to let him get off easy with that one. “Privacy? You mean the thing that you’re infringing on right now that belongs to me, and only me?” That was a little too snappy, but she had to make a point that his argument was a flawed one. “At least make it look like you’re trying to defend yourself. It’s sad, really.”

The second half of her questions had better responses at least. Riley had a point about the first years. They were too scared to come this far out just yet. Warnings of the forest and creatures in the lake always kept them from wandering around, their usual stomping grounds consisting of the numerous courtyards. Then he started with his nonsense again. Cara snorted loudly as he asked if she was opposed if a man was sitting near here. A man. Hilarious. “Hate to break it to you Riley, but you’re still a boy. Maybe next year you’ll graduate to a lad,” she laughed. This kid was hilarious. Did he even hear himself talking? “But you’re by no means a man yet,” Cara added, looking him up and down a couple times. Being a man required him to actually act like a mature adult first, and right now he was simply posing idiotic reasons for sitting on the rock next to her.

[Deleted]

Riley Fudge had spent 9 years training himself and learning to read people based on external signs, granted, he was still a bit of an amateur, but 9 years was more than some professionals holding graduate degrees could say they've been studying their subject for. He wasn't a master, and sometimes he got things wrong, but when it came to Cara Bainbridge, he began to wonder if she was as simple as the mask that she was putting on. When he sat down he expected a bit more of a challenge, a silent treatment during which he would have to pay closer attention to how she was holding herself and little twitches. But she had taken a different rode, one which honestly surprised him. She was being very verbal, and while doing so, she convinced him that she was one of those people who decided to insult and control others to cover up the fact that she was insecure about herself.

Riley slipped his journal and pen back into his bag, closed it up and stood. He turned to face her while he slung his bag over his shoulder. "Do you really think you're the only one in the whole world that deserves privacy?" he asked with a scoff, he knew she was hiding but was she also that entitled? "I don't need to defend myself, for I've done nothing wrong. I'm not the one hurling insults at a person because she's not confident in herself and thus has to make everyone around her feel inferior." he shrugged. "You might do a fine job fooling everyone else but anyone with any knowledge of advanced psychology can see that it's an act." he admitted, a small smirk on his face. "You want me to leave so badly, fine. I will. If that'll make you happy, but something tells me it won't because we both know I'm not the reason you're upset." he didn't know the reason, he wasn't sure he wanted to. But he knew that it had nothing to do with him. Something had happened that was frustrating her, he might not be helping, but he wasn't it.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@riley

Cara rolled her eyes as Riley immediately came back at her about the privacy comment. Was he stupid? Obviously she didn’t mean that she was the only one in the world that deserved it. “Use your head a little, would you? You know what I’m talking about. I’m sitting here, minding my own business, looking for time to myself, and you interrupted that. Get it? All I had was my privacy, and now that’s gone,” she cleared her throat as she finished, not daring to stop the glare that she was now giving him. He was an idiot if he couldn’t understand that. “And don’t give me the whole ‘its school grounds, I can go wherever’ speech. We’ve already established that there are other places that you could have gone to.” Cara shook her head, disappointed that she had to be telling someone in her house about this. Most Ravenclaws knew better than that. Apparently there needed to be more of an emphasis on most.

She had half the mind to ignore everything else he had to say and get back to her work. Today had already been frustrating enough, with the test, and the addition of his pestering wasn’t exactly helping at all. She didn’t want to play the Everyone vs. Cara game today, of all days. She wasn’t in a playful mood. Riley insisted that he didn’t need to defend himself, and she continued shaking her head as she started to take her notebook back out. He’d run out of gas eventually and move on. Then he said it. The one thing that she never thought anyone would have figured out. “Excuse me?” She turned her head back to look at him. “Not confident in myself? Who the hell are you to determine how confident I am in myself? It’s your fault if you feel inferior to me. Saves me the time of proving a point.” He went on to say something about how anyone that knew psychology would be able to see through her. Sure. “You expect me to believe that you’re some kind of expert on that?” While her mouth said one thing, she knew that a little bit of what he was saying was true. How had he figured that out? The last time they had talked had been…she didn’t even know. His smirk said that he was confident in his statement, either that or he was great at bluffing. But why bluff over her inner demons? If he had wanted to confirm those, there were better ways to get under her skin. Getting her riled up would only end in an explosion and her fuming.

“You’re sure as hell the reason I’m upset now,” Cara retorted. That much was clear. “What I’m frustrated about is none of your business. Now, or then.” The fact that Riley sounded like he wanted an explanation was ridiculous. She owed him absolutely nothing. He apparently thought he had cracked her. Far from it. If anything he just bought himself a one-way ticket to meeting his roommate in an abandoned hallway. She wasn’t sure what the relationship between Riley and Dominic was, but she knew Dom’s loyalty was with her over everyone else. That much she was sure of.

[Deleted]

Riley hadn't expected her to give up and admit defeat, he had much more respect for her than that, even if he barely knew her. He hadn't meant to bring all this out in her today, while he had been searching for somewhere to people watch, he had also been searching for just somewhere to sit and write and he thought that he could simply share space with another person, whom he hadn't even provoked, he simply sat next to. The fact that they had gone from where they began, two strangers on the rocks, to where they were now, in the middle of a confrontation, a place in which Riley rarely found himself, showed that there was obviously more than she was letting on about herself.

Who was he? Some kind of expert. "I mean, I've been studying communication and psychology for the past 9 years, which is longer than some professionals spend studying, so I'll let you make that decision for yourself." he shrugged. Throughout their entire conversation, he had been civil, he had ever offered to go if she wanted him to, if she thought that would make her happy. But she had yet to actually come out and ask him to leave. He wanted to stand his grounds, he would certainly leave, if he was asked, not demanded or threatened into leaving. He wasn't afraid of her. He wasn't intimidated by her. And based on the way that she was instantly on the defense, he was sure that he has struck a nerve somewhere within her. "I don't care about the reason you're upset." he shrugged, he really didn't. "I just want you to know that there is someone around that can see through it. What you do with that information is up to you. I'm not trying to get you to talk, I could care less about the inner workings of your mind and what exactly you're trying to hide." he shrugged. "But I don't really care to stick around and see how this little game of yours continues." he stepped down off the rock and began his exist. "So the rock is yours. Enjoy it since it's obviously so very important to you." he smirked. He never expected to get through to people, he rarely even got into these types of situations, however, he felt pretty good, at least, he hoped, that he had made her think. That he had made her consider that maybe she wasn't doing as great a job fooling everyone as she thought that she was.

~ The End ~

cara june bainbridge