grumpy gingers {victoria}

[CLEO EVERETT]

Cleo Everett was sat in a booth at the Pipin’ Hot Tea shop, which was run by some crazy lady who asked way too often about how things were going with Jacob, with a Harry Potter book open and a cup of coffee growing cold. She had been sitting there for half an hour, switching between staring into space, resting her head on the cool table, or leaning back and counting the tiles on the ceiling. When she had left that morning, she’d been on her way to Gingey’s. Halfway to her favorite bakery, she remembered she was on a dare and that she couldn’t eat any sweets. Pastries and candy were forbidden, only honey was allowed in tea, fruit was allowed. In fact, her coworkers had encouraged eating strawberries and raspberries because healthy sweet had to be better than no sweet at all, right? Wrong. She was regretting ever getting drunk with them all, but she still loved work at the Disney Store, and this stupid dare wasn’t going to change that.

Leaning forward, Cleo carefully placed her forehead on top of the pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and breathed deep. It still smelled brand new, which she took quiet joy in. For having been read six times, it was in nice condition, as were all of the books. She took very careful care of her favorite series, and her mother often joked that Cleo could probably make some money on them if she were to sell them online. Raising a hand, Cleo hoped the nearest server understood that Cleo was waving them down. A couple minutes later, somebody was clearing their throat. She looked up, smiled, and ordered another coffee. When asked if she wanted it the same, she unhappily said ‘yes.’ They gave her the same look as before, and she assumed that they had a sweet tooth just like her. She’d never understand how people drank coffee like this, but it was helping with her headache, so she’d put up with it.

Cleo took a deep breath and let it out slowly, looking around at all the other customers. People watching was one of the most relaxing things she could think to do, but it was hard in such a small café, especially when they all seemed to get that somebody-is-watching-me tingle as soon as she started admiring them. Then she had to look away quick as a bunny and suffer the embarrassing feeling of it afterwards. However, when her eyes landed on a ginger at a table diagonal hers, Cleo couldn’t help but to stare. Maybe she needed the company of another person, or maybe her curiosity was too strong to ignore. Whatever it was, she didn’t hesitate to call out to the girl. “Hey. Uh. Hi, excuse me.”

When she looked up, Cleo knew right away that they’d met before. It took some remembering and sorting through some pretty painful memories, but it came to her suddenly. “You’re Victoria, right?” The server arrived with her coffee and she thanked them before looking back to the redhead. “Cleo. We had that big picnic, like, forever ago. Remember?” At this point, she didn’t care how strange it was to be bugging the poor girl like this. Even if she didn’t feel like talking, it’d at least be nice to catch up for just a minute. See how she’d been. Act like she actually had her life together right this minute, when it was falling apart, and all because she’d agreed to not eat sweets for two weeks. She was such an idiot.

[VICTORIA ROMENZ]

Her boss had given her a day off. A whole entire day. What was she even going to do all day? Victoria wasn’t in school anymore and she sure as heck had no time for real friends. Ana reminded her about Lyndee. The crazy but amusing owner of Pipin’ Hot Tea always seemed to want to talk to her when she was rushing in and out for conference coffees. Maybe today they could actually talk. Or she could just order a reaaaally nice latte and sit for a few hours mulling over life. As her eighteenth birthday neared, Victoria was preparing to inherit her father’s company. His partner didn’t seem to pleased about that but decided to let her intern until then. Victoria wondered if he was trying to break her so she’d just sign the company over to him.
Ana decided that the man ‘gave her the creeps’ and he should probably be the first one to go whenever Victoria got in the big boss chair. Victoria was also pretty stubborn so this guy couldn’t get her down too easily. She was going to make her dad proud. Even if it was postmortem. A lump rose in her throat. No she wouldn’t think about that today. Not especially since the investigators couldn’t figure out the cause of death or even if it was foul play. They had asked her too many questions already and she’d spent too many nights crying. No, no, she wasn’t going to let that encompass her mind. It was their job to figure it out, not hers. She was being protected by the FBI since there’s suspicion that someone went after her father and in part could go after her. Crap, she was thinking about it! Victoria took a long sip of her latte and looked around hoping to find something that would stop this train wreck of a thought pattern.

“Hey. Uh. Hi, excuse me.”

“Huh?” Victoria turned back to the woman. “Oh, yes. Hello. Uhm, what is it?”

“You’re Victoria, right?”

“Yes,” she responded, sitting up a little in her seat.

“Cleo. We had that big picnic, like, forever ago. Remember?”

“Cleo...” Victoria looked up thoughtfully and slightly remembered the picnic. Oh god, her life was so much simpler then. “Right! I uh, well, how are you? It’s been a while,” she asked turning towards her. Being an intern, she had to master the annoying skill of small talk. It was a pain at first but seemed to get a better reaction than her usual ‘What?’. She was all made up to. Her hair straightened and make-up with business attire. Victoria finally checked her voicemail after all that prep to realize she didn’t have to work. Ugh, sometimes she just wanted to toss hot coffee on that jerk but that wouldn’t get her too far. The weasel would probably put her in juvie for it. Anything to have the company to himself.

[CLEO EVERETT]

How she ever could have missed it in the first place would baffle for the next two weeks. The moment Victoria had turned and responded to her, it was suddenly clear as day to Cleo that the girl was host to a literary character. Her goldfish came to attention rather quickly, floating near Cleo’s left shoulder. If a goldfish could give somebody a critical look, that’s what her hers would be doing. She had absolutely no idea what character, but there was that feeling that she got when she was around Jamie or Jemissa or Jacob (she always found it funny how many J named people she knew). Sometimes if she was with two of them at the same time, it was weirdly overwhelming. That had been her number one reason for starting to ignore her goldfish and all other storybook people or animals. (If you asked her what it felt like, she’d tell you it was a tingle at the back of her neck and her ankles going weak; yeah, it was uncomfortable).

That the redhead at least recognized her was reassuring. It made her feel a bit better in the ‘appreciate the little things’ way. “Uh.

” … How was she? If she took the honest route, she’d probably break down right there and moan about the stupid dare and how she hadn’t felt this awful since her mother swore her off sweets for five days straight way way back when they still lived in California. That was nothing compared to this. Her mother had been looking out for her then, seeing as Cleo had had five cavities and was dangerously close to losing all the hard work her braces had done for her. She took better care of her teeth now, mostly because the pain of it all had been enough for the rest of her life. “I could… certainly be better,[/color]” she answered finally, plastering on what had to be the most obvious fake smile anybody had ever tried to muster.

As if it would make her feel better, or at least make lying easier, Cleo drank half her cup of coffee, ignoring how hot it still was. She was starting to wonder if it was even helping to get rid of her headache; the pounding behind her eyes hadn’t stopped since she’d gotten here. “It feels like it’s been ages, doesn’t it?[/color]” So much had happened since then, to her anyway, and it felt like it’d been years. Really, it couldn’t have been more than a couple of months, right? “And how have you been since?[/color]” She wanted nothing more than to ask Victoria about the character she was host to, and if she herself knew about it. That was just it, though; if she didn’t know, things would get very awkward very fast. Besides, she was dressed for business and she looked like she would be heading back to work anytime now. The last thing Cleo wanted to do was put her on the spot and stress her out.
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[VICTORIA ROMENZ]

Ana began to grow more and more curious as the girl Cleo continued talking. She even went to a point to sit in the chair next to Victoria. Of course, to anyone else it was still an empty chair. Ugh, what was it now? Couldn’t Ana see Victoria was trying to be normal for once?

Ana ignored Victoria’s thoughtful griping and looked Cleo over.

“She’s... one of us, Victoria. A reincarnate. Can I meet her?”

Victoria bit her lip but silently agreed to let Ana show herself but only when the time was right. The worst that could happen is that Cleo didn’t see her at all. Victoria attempted to continue conversing just in case that happened. Ana wasn’t exactly happy with Victoria’s distrust but she had been used to it by now. She waited patiently as Victoria continued her little chat.

“That’s unfortunate,” Victoria said with a small frown. “You do look, well, tired. I probably do too. Work and such.” She glanced over at Ana quickly but covered it up with a drink of her coffee. If it were up to Ana, Victoria would probably be in bed sleeping. Not that she really got much sleep during the nights. Nothing like a murder in cold blood to give you nightmares. “Miss Lyndee though, she has tea that will cure anything,” Victoria said with a small smile. “I think she’s secretly a good witch,” she joked with a small chuckle. Another sip of coffee while the girl replied. Maybe she’d been getting better at the social thing. Or she just put on a good show.

Oh yes, ages seemed like a good word for the time that passed. It had been certainly a long journey since then, she thought. Seven layers of Hell, as her aunt so kindly described it. Victoria nodded weakly and nearly flinched at the next question. How would she even begin to answer that? “Well, I...” A small shiver ran down her spine as Ana saved the day. She appeared in the seat across from Cleo and grinned.

“Hello,” she said softly. Victoria held her breath. A small part of her hoped that Cleo was a reincarnate. She wanted to be able to trade notes and maybe even... have a friend? It’d been a long time since she met another reincarnate and they’d lost touch after she graduated. It’d been dreadfully lonely since then.