ALL I WANNA BE IS EVERYTHING AT ONCE || CARA

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WE'RE BRIGHTER THAN FIREFLIES LIGHTING THE SKY

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DECEMBER 22, 2024

Christmas holiday had just started, and after returning home with the family members that decided to return from Hogwarts, she had fallen straight into bed. Even forgetting about dinner until she woke up the next morning starving at of her mind. It was somewhat early in the morning, Peyton’s body used to the schedule she had made for herself at Hogwarts and made her way down the steps at around seven thirty in the morning. Her bare feet padding against the ground as she yawned and rubbed at her eyes, her blonde locks pulled up in a messy high bun that was thrown up lazily after she rose from her bed.

The house was quiet, not that she minded, Peyton was always used to waking up before others were around. She craved cereal and maybe some tea, and made her way down the steps and into the kitchen. Flipping on the light, her kitten following close behind her as she put down a cat bowl of milk and filled the food bowl with some food, smiling lightly as she pet Kitty for a second before heading towards the fridge. Grabbing some milk, cereal, and a bowl, she started making her breakfast—yawning every few seconds as the tea kettle boiled the water.

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TAG cara june bainbridge

NOTES <3

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[cara june bainbridge]

@peytonbainbridge

12.22.2024

Peace and quiet would not exist at home until the triplets were back in school for the second term. Cara had resigned herself to the fact that she was going to get absolutely zero work done the holiday break because the three of them were going to bug her constantly. It didn’t help that she had promised to let them read the draft of her novel, or whatever its current state was. Calling it a draft was being nice, because there really wasn’t much to it other than a few solid chapters and a bunch of half-assed ramblings taking up the rest of the space. She had refused to go to pick her sisters up with her parents for the simple fact that the hour or two before they got home would be the last she would write until they were gone once again. At least Kinsey wasn’t coming back with them, because then she would have to compete for a pity party.

That night had gone as expected, and the noise had been palpable enough that Cara actually managed to squeeze out a few more pages after she went to bed for the night. Early the next morning though, she had completely forgotten that the triplets were back in the house, and decided to be an early riser to pick up where she had left off on her writing the night before. Sleepily wandering down into the kitchen, she didn’t even see Peyton there until she practically stepped into her. “Shit,” she exclaimed in a hushed voice, taking a deep breath to collect herself over forgetting her sisters were back in the house. “Forgot you were home. Why are you up this early?” she asked, taking the time to kneel down and scratch her sister’s cat as it drank out of its bowl.

[Deleted]

IF PEOPLE DON'T LIKE IT THEN THEY CAN CLOSE THEIR EYES
WE'RE BRIGHTER THAN FIREFLIES LIGHTING THE SKY

Because of Hogwarts, she was used to being up exceptionally early. Maybe not for classes or even for breakfast, but because she enjoyed getting some work done before others woke up and descended the stairs to head for the Great Hall. Because it was so soon after getting back from Hogwarts and the fresh start of a new day at home, she was still used to the early rising.

She had a saying though ― the early bird always catches the worm ― and it had been true so far. Wandering around getting her early breakfast prepared, she wasn't even paying attention until she was walked into. Her older sister, Cara, seemed just as surprised as she was to have walked into one another. Peyton laughed, shaking her head at her sister's forgetful nature before answering her question. "I'm used to being up this early cause of school..." she started, "I didn't think you'd be up this early though..."

cara june bainbridge

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[cara june bainbridge]

@peytonbainbridge

12.22.2024

Peyton’s reasoning for being up early was…acceptable. Even though it had only been a little over half a year since she had graduated, Cara couldn’t recall what her sleep schedule had been like while home on school breaks. Probably something to her sister’s, but certainly not this early in the morning. This was something else altogether. Only working people were supposed to be up this early. Cara, of course, considered herself a working adult despite not having a formal job yet. True to her word though, since she hadn’t made enough headway in the writing, she sent out job applications for part-time work earlier in the week. The one she hoped to hear back from the most was Flourish & Blotts, but there were also ones sent to Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour and a secretary position at Obscurus Books (as an attempt to get an in with the famed publisher). So pretty soon here she could count herself as one of those real working adults instead of just indulging herself in a pipe dream that probably wouldn’t come true even if she did finish the entire book.

“I always get up this early,” Cara responded, partially lying about it. There were times where it was certainly true, but more often than not she slept until one or two in the afternoon and then stayed up all night wracking her brain for something to write about. So technically there were days where she was still awake at this hour, having yet to pass out from mental exhaustion. “But you,” Cara pointed at her sister, “Don’t need to be up this early. It’s your break Pey. You should be sleeping in as much as possible. After next year you won’t be able to do that anymore.” Because the real job her sister would most likely get right out of Hogwarts would be demanding. Unlike Cara. The future for the older Bainbridge girl was probably bleak with empty novel pages. Being up early in the morning brought out so many negative thoughts in her head.

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'I always get up this early,' came her sister's response, and she wasn't sure if she believed it or not. When she had been younger, she was always the early bird, and Cara seemed to sleep forever, as well as some other siblings. But who knew what she was like now that she had graduated, maybe like Peyton, Hogwarts had gotten her on a schedule, and she still followed it.

She was quick to point at the blonde, telling her that she didn't need to be up this early and that she should sleep in while she still could, because once she graduated she wouldn't be able to do so. She shrugged her shoulders, "Maybe...but I'll already be on a schedule by that time. Plus, getting up early doesn't bother me, I have enough energy throughout the day," she said with a smile. She didn't take naps between classes, as other students did.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

@peytonbainbridge

12.22.2024

It seemed sort of futile to debate the semantics of whether or not Peyton should be getting up this early during her break, especially if she was already being forward thinking enough about post-graduation already. Cara had to hand it to her, it was a positive tune to have at sixteen and with a year and a half left of school. That was far ahead of where she had been at that age, and maybe even further along than where she was at graduation. But anything could happen between now and then, and the pessimist in her said that things would change. They always did. She had been absolutely positive that she would have her novel finished by now, and instead she was floundering around trying to find part-time work so she didn’t have to live at home with her parents for the rest of her life. Her own self-assessment over the last few months proved that she didn’t have any unique skills aside from her subpar writing and the fact that she could play a ukulele. The problem was that there weren’t any magic related jobs that interested her either, and so she was stuck with either going professional as a ukulele player (was that even a thing?) or finishing her damn book and hoping for the best. It seemed like Peyton was ahead of her in regards to knowing about her future, and Cara felt like she had hit a wall and gone completely stagnant.

“As long as it isn’t wearing you down…” Cara shrugged, unsure of how to continue on with that part of their conversation. She could only warn her sisters about the adverse effects of sleep deprivation from her own experiences, which only served to make her crankier and snappy. “So how did school go? Anything interesting happen this term?” She hadn’t really followed any of the news coming from Hogwarts since she had been so focused on her own work. As far as she knew, nobody had died yet this year, so that was a plus. Anymore dead kids and she was sure their parents would start contemplating pulling the triplets out. Maybe Kinsey too, but Cara didn’t really care what happened to her. She couldn’t even be bothered to come home for Christmas. That really showed how much she cared about seeing the family.

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Peyton had always been an early riser, something she was sure had happened during her toddler years as well. But no one commented on that; her parents probably couldn't even remember at this point. But she didn't mind, she had once always liked watching the sunrise, so getting up early was easy for her. Since...she still had somewhat of a bedtime. She didn't cram everything into a single night, so it wasn't like how the other students experienced life - the sleep deprivation way.

She nodded her head with a smile as her sister shrugged her comment. And then came another question, and she shook her head. "Nothing exciting, except for the Ilvermorny transfers. But so far, classes are great. Everything is great. It's going by way to quick for me, though." she said with a smile, "What about you? How's the book coming along?"

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

She didn’t know how to process this. School couldn’t solely and only be great, could it? Had they gone to the same school together? Because that wasn’t anywhere close to how Cara remembered her time at Hogwarts. She was quite sure she hadn’t forgotten about all the stressful hours staying up late to study for exams or to finish papers, already. It had only been what? Eight months? That could have been the difference in houses though, and the constant need to one-up her fellow Ravenclaws had nearly driven her mad at the end of it all. Especially considering she wasn’t the greatest student in the world. The face she put on was to hide the real struggle. Nobody knew about that except Diana.

But even with Peyton saying school was ‘great’, Cara had a hard time believing that. “I don’t understand,” she started, deciding it was best to speak her mind, “How can school be great with literally an entire other school packed into the castle? Like, I get that the halls aren’t really empty anymore, but it has to drive you crazy trying to deal with that many students all at the same time. And having them encroach on literally everything you’ve spent the last five years working towards.” And Americans were loud and rude. The few she had bumped into over the summer break had been like that, and they really rubbed her the wrong way. It was always ‘y’all’ this and ‘y’all’ that. She didn’t get it.

“The book? It’s fine…” Cara lied, not really wanting to get onto that subject even though it was the only thing she had done since Peyton had left for school in September. “I didn’t get to where I wanted to be by this point though, so I’ve started to look for part-time jobs. I’ve started to go a little crazy the last few months since all I do all day is sit in my room and brainstorm plot points and then write the ones that sound decent,” she let out a long sigh, the type that she didn’t even know was in her until it escaped from her lungs. “Honestly, I need a break from working on it. Something to break the monotony.”

@peytonbainbridge ● 374 ● Mortal Projections by Djo

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'I don't understand. How can school be great with literally an entire other school packed into the castle?' Peyton frowned as her sister spoke, shrugging her shoulders in reply to the question. "Didn't we have two schools packed in for the year of the Tournament? And sure, there are more people in the houses and class - but it doesn't bother me. Plus, some of them are nice."

Cara went on to talk about her book and how she had been looking for a job, having taken a break from it. Peyton, once more, frowned at her sister, scared of the answer to the question that was about to leave her lips. "Am I still allowed to read what you have so far?"

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Peyton’s point about the previous school year wasn’t anywhere even close to the current year’s situation though, and Cara took slight issue with that. “Yeah but those were just their seventh years. And not even all of them at that.” Emphasis on how they were the students. All of them were blown up in some fashion on their way home, and Cara still didn’t like to prospect of even more kids packed into Hogwarts. Had none of the adults in the Ministry realized how stupid of an idea that was? A hundred or so dead people apparently wasn’t enough of a body count for them to take any real action on. They probably needed half of Hogwarts and a thousand-ish dead children to really start to look at how bad this whole thing was. She didn’t mind being called paranoid for her stance on it either. It wasn’t like the students from either school got to have a say in what went on with their education. They were all thrown together and told to coexist and just deal with it. Everything about this was different from the Tournament no matter how she looked at it.

“Of course,” Cara responded, half-waving off the question with her hand. “It’s not anything impressive. You’d have more fun reading my short stories than any of this drivel that’s been pouring out of my pen lately.” She could feel the distaste for her own work seeping off of her tongue as she said it. There were times lately where she thought about how easy it would be to just scrap the whole project and start anew on something else. Her heart wasn’t really in this one anymore and the motivation was severely lacking every time she sat down to try and work on it. “I’d much rather toss the whole thing in the bin then finish it at this point.”

@peytonbainbridge ● 315 ● You Loved Me, You Killed Me by Odina

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'Yeah but those were just their seventh years. And not even all of them at that.' Peyton's argument had fallen upon death ears, and she didn't mind. Her older sister was quite right; it had been a smaller amount of students than this year with all of Ilvermorny knocking on Hogwarts doors. But the staff had made it much more manageable, and it didn't seem as bad as some outsiders may think. "That is true. I don't know; it doesn't feel any different...maybe the professors charmed the school to feel bigger?" she said, a small laugh leaving her lips at the unsure question she stated.

Peyton found herself frowning, "You think it's that bad...that you wanna toss it? What do you think is wrong with it? Someone once told me that we are our toughest critics and sometimes another opinion proves it wrong." These words came out with a smile; she wanted to help her sister...wanted to prove to her that her work was gold.

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

Peyton did raise a good point about the castle: Cara had heard rumors during her time there that it was possible to ‘expand’ it, in a way. She assumed that meant the dorms, common rooms, and Great Hall, but virtually anything was possible with magic in her experience. Widening a corridor by a few meters on each side would open up so much more room for students to pass through and would still make everything feel the same. If the ceiling in the Great Hall could be charmed to match the weather, doing something as simple as making everything slightly bigger definitely seemed feasible.

The optimism in Peyton’s words about the book was nice, but Cara was beyond wanting to give her story any more time. It had been a good thought a year ago, but she had planned poorly and by the time she decided to take it seriously, she was too far gone down the path of being able to make it work. It was being written out of a spite, somewhat mimicking Kinsey’s stupid romantic situation. The more Cara tried to force herself to write about it, mocking her sister for the choices she was making, the more she actively disliked the characters, plot, and even the thoughts that were coming to her head. If she wanted to burn bridges with her sister, finishing it would have been her number one priority, but even that was too much effort at this point. She wasn’t enjoying the writing process, and there was nothing simple about it. Her short stories that she had worked on for the last few years were loads better than this thing was, and she generally enjoyed working on them. “Right, but I also know what quality writing looks like. This isn’t even close to it. It reads like one of those awful muggle fanfictions you can read online. If I wanted to do that, then I would. But I want to be taken seriously, and bringing this story as a finished product to an editor would get me laughed out the door. Trust me.”

@peytonbainbridge ● 350 ● Mannie's Smile by Her's

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Cara didn't answer as Peyton revealed that she thought the castle felt bigger in some ways. But she did seem to consider it, seeing as her eyes and face seemed to be lost in thought at the possibility. Her theory was probably correct. If they could spell the ceiling of the Great Hall to reflect the weather and the staircase to move...they could make the place bigger for their new roommates.

However, she did answer the question of what she thought was wrong with it — saying that she felt that the quality read like fanfiction rather than a novel. And she wanted to write the latter to be taken seriously by the writing world. She nodded her head, "Well...what did you write about? Did you accidentally base the story on some Twilight wanna-be?" she questioned, joking lightly with her sister. She swallowed, straightening her demeanor, "But I understand. So toss it, but keep the parts you like and tweak them? Is that possible?"

cara june bainbridge

[cara june bainbridge]

▲

There may have been a point in time where Cara had glorified the book series that her sister was talking about, but years of reading quality literature and actual ‘love stories’ had shown that the ones Peyton had mentioned were made for a quick buck and nothing more than that. The unfortunate part of all of this was that she wasn’t far off the mark though: Cara had created something she absolutely despised in an attempt to get back at Kinsey. She didn’t know what exactly she disliked about her sister the most, whether it was the insufferable amount of attention she required on a daily basis, or the fact that she always wanted to play the victim. Trying to put that sort of blither into written form came out as an extremely vile piece of writing, and it had become increasingly harder to put into words the more she tried to continue with it. There were also bridges ready to be burned if it ever had the chance of being published, and Cara wasn’t so sure that was the best way to take out her frustrations. For a while, she had been under the impression that this was the only way to work out her feelings and emotions on the Kinsey subject, like musicians did with their songs post break-ups, but putting it into a novel form was absolutely preposterous now that she could look back on it with more clarity.

“Sort of, and I don’t think that’s how I want to be remembered as an author if I decide to go down that path…” she finally answered after a bit of hesitation. Admitting this had all been for naught was easily the worst part about the entire process. She had yet to see the positive in being an absolute failure at doing the one thing she thought she was good at, but apparently failing was a part of growing, or something like that. “I think burning the entire thing might be for the best. All of the notes too. There’s really nothing good about it that I’d want to carry over into a new story, and if there was, it’s all up here anyways,” she tapped the side of her head with her finger. After this conversation, she was going to immediately go up to her room and chuck the whole thing in the trash bin next to her desk and ignite it. Then she could finally start from scratch and remove the cancerous story from her mind.

@peytonbainbridge ● 420 ● Face In A Nighttime Mirror, Pt. 1 by Wolves In The Throne Room

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'Cause I feel like I can do anything when
My head is spinning and my feet off the ground
When I can't stop dancing like no one's around

Peyton was not creative like Cara was, and probably would never be. She was more logical, someone that favored reality over the ones in books. Unless those books were historical, then she enjoyed them. But that didn't mean Cara's writing was horrid, or something she had a distaste for because of how her mind worked. It was quite the opposite. Anything Cara wrote, Peyton ate up as if her life depended on it. Her fingers bled from paper cuts as she flipped through pages upon pages of scribbles her sister left around the house, or had even allowed her to read herself. Maybe it was just because she adored Cara that she loved anything she wrote.

And as her elder sister spoke about not wanting to be remembered as that type of author, she nodded her head. Every author should be their own person, remembered for what they brought to the table instead of what they copied and changed. However, there was a bit of hesitation between the question and the answer. Peyton didn't question why; instead, the conversation went on as if it were never asked.

The blonde nodded her head as her sister said she was going to burn the entire thing. "If that is what you feel is best, then go for it. I hope that I'll still get to read something eventually since you did promise," she said with a wide grin upon her face.

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