The dead trees streched eeriely above Lynne's head as she lay looking up at the bleached wintery sky. In an uncharacteristic move, Lynne had 'opted out' of that days lessons. She couldn't stand the idea of being surrounded by all those people, all that laughing and chatting. It was still a challenge to ignore Cas and Scarlette. Luckily, she mostly saw Scarlette in their room and it was easy to steer the conversation away from Cas. With him Lynne decided complete adversion was the key. she sat as far away from him as possible in their classes, left her room before he came to pick up Scarlette for dates, avoided him at lunch and break times and walked quickly when she spotted him in the corridors.

All in all it was going quite well, she no longer felt that pang in her chest when she saw the two of them together and she no longer felt physically sick when she heard Scarlette talk about him. Lynne was pleased.

Her feeling of pleasure, however, were interupted by the crack of twigs eing walked on...

Scarlette drifted through the wasteland that had once been the forest, her arms that hung loosely at her sides occasionally brushing the charred stumps of trees, or wispy shrubs that were only just starting to poke their heads out of the blackened ground.. She didn't even know where she was going anymore. She had just wanted to get away from that school with all those people, the ones who pitied her now Casimir had left her, looking on with sickeningly sympathetic eyes, and the ones who were glad of her misfortune. She couldn't stand any of them. So she had slipped away that morning, unable to face the fact that now, she was all alone.
She was so lost in her thoughts that ranged from self-pity to self loathing, that she didn't even realize she wasn't alone. Her watery eyes remained fixed on the ground, and it was only when she looked up to sigh tragically to the clouds that she became aware of the form near her. She was tempted to slip away silently, but she recognized that long mousy hair and the familiar shoes and couldn't bring herself to ignore her friend.
"Lynne?" she asked hesitantly, checking that she hadn't mistaken her for someone else.
"What are you doing out here?" she asked concernedly. In her experience people only came to this desolate place when there was something wrong.

"Scarlette" Lynne managed a smile "Oh, I just fancied a break from lessons" she frowned, her friend didn;t look weel "Are you alright?"

Scarlette walked over the ex-forest floor hearing a crunching under her feet as she stepped over the charred remains of what this barren haven had once been. She sat down near Lynne on a rather uncomfortable rock, wrapping her arms around her knees. She wasn't sure how to answer Lynne, she really wasn't alright, she felt like she had lost control and was now spiraling downwards to some unknown but undesirable end.
"Not really," she replied after a while, smiling strangely, almost amused at her own misery. It was so stereotypical, it was such an obvious reaction to being dumped, coming from her, who always tried to be so different.
"Haven't you heard? Casimir's left me." she said, her voice blank, seemingly indifferent, not wanting to burden anyone else with her teenage angst.

"Oh Scar" Lynne's face crumpled and she put and arm around her friend "What happened?"

It felt good to have someone's arm around her shoulders, a gentle voice comforting her after having kept her sadness to herself ever since the break-up and suffered alone. Again, she found it hard to answer Lynne, because even she didn't fully know what had happened.
"On his birthday, after I gave him his present, he said he needed to talk to me. Then he told me how he was going away for a while, and how we had to end the relationship. He was telling me all this stuff about he takes drugs, drinks, smokes and has snogged other girls while he was with me. I sort of knew the first part of that, not the second, but I wouldn't have minded if he'd stayed with me, I'd have forgiven him. I know it's hard to understand, but I need him so much I don't care what he does so long as he stays. I think he was trying to protect me or something, he said something about how he didn't want to drag me down. I begged him to stay with me, really begged him. But then he told me he didn't love me..." Her voice faltered and she held her hands up to her face so the palms pressed against her closed eyelids.

Lynne felt the rage well up inside of her. she was going to kill him. She has going to surgically remove his vital organs and forcef eed them to him. How dare he do that!

"Scarlette, he's a Bastard" she told her friend firmly "You deserve much better than a Junkie who cheats on you". She didn't add that she had been one of these girls. Girls. Plural. she hadn't been the only one.

She was going to have a very long talk with Casimir.

Scarlette shook as she sobbed into Lynne's shoulder. She hated this, it made her feel pathetic, confessing her emotions to someone. Showing how vulnerable and weak she really was. She shook her head sadly, drawing back to look Lynne in the eyes.
"I know, but I can't hate him. I still can't bring myself to. He was all I had, and if I stop loving him, I'll have nothing left," she said in a mumble, ashamed of how tacky and emotional she sounded.

"You have loads left" Lynne told her firmly "All your friends! We're all here for you". It sounded corny but it was true.

Scarlette nodded tearfully, trying to feel comforted by these words. Somehow she still felt so pained though. There was a massive anvil attached to her chest, weighing her down whenever she tried to feel anything other than misery.
"Yeah, I know. And I love you all. I really do. So much I can't even say it. But I'm not supposed to cry in front of you. There's enough going on without me shoving my grief in your faces.
Oh god, I'm doing it even now. I'm so sorry Lynne," she said, trying to keep herself from moaning melodramatically.

"Everyone needs a good cry every now and then" Lynne reassured her "I have an idea. how about we hold a sleeepover party in our room. we can invite all the girls, have a good moan and eat tonnes and tonnes of junk food. That would cheer you up!"

Scarlette smiled, albeit with a hint of sadness. It felt better now, after having all this attention lavished on her.
"Yeah, that would be....lovely," she replied, already imagining the utter bliss of it. Then a thought entered her head and her spirits dropped a little.
"Although...It would be a bit weird, with all the girls. I might just spend the whole time wondering which ones Casimir had been involved with when he was with me. I guess I always kind of knew there was something going on between him and that bitch, Starling, but he said it like there were more than just one."
She shuddered, the idea of Casimir's lips touching any others but her's filled her with revulsion.

"Some people like to create the illusion they've been around" said Lynne drily "And I meant inviting people like Cat. SHE hasn't been with Casimir" though right now Lynne wouldn't put it past Casimir to have tried it one with her.

It hurt to think that what she had done could hurt her friend so much. She hadn't even known they were going out at the time but she still felt guilty. But more than that she was angry that Cas hadn't set her right sooner.

Scarlette nodded, brightening up. Her mood at the moment was going up and down like a yo-yo.
"Yeah, Cat's good. I love Cat, and you too, Lynne. Obviously," she said smiling sweetly, and randomly kissed her friend on the cheek. She stood up and twirled around in the charred glade, her arms spread out.
"We can eat cake....and listen to The Pipettes and be incredibly girly. And rant about Johnny Depp and how much better looking he is than Casimir. I'd rather go out with Edward Scissorhands than Cas any day," she rambled.
It still hurt to even say Casimir's name, but making fun of him made it easier. Maybe if she ridiculed him enough she'd stop idolising him, seeing him as some sort of god.

"Yeah, that would be awesome" Lynne jumped up too "We can eat tonnes and tonnes of sweet and watch horror films untilthe wee hours of the morning!"

Most of the time Scarlette felt too sick to eat nowadays, but she reckoned she could manage sweets. Just the thought of all that brightly coloured sugary goodness made her clutch her bony sides in hunger.
"We should hold a seance to call up the ghost of my love-life. That'd be more interesting than Davey any day," she quipped, tears rising in her eyes, though she wasn't sure if they were from laughter or grief. Probably the latter, but it didn't exactly matter anymore. She could cry all she wanted, Casimir wasn't coming back to her, she had realised that. In the meantime, she might as well try to have fun.

With this new bittersweet inspiration in mind, she grabbed Lynne's hands and swung her around with her until she got so dizzy she was practically seeing double. She toppled clumsily onto the soft ground laughing.
"God I've gone insane," she gasped through her smile.

Lynne wobbled, trying to regain stability until she too toppled over.

"Gone?" she teased "I think we all arrived there AGES ago!"

Scarlette lay back on the soft ground, not caring if she got ash in her hair. The sky above her had cleared to reveal a pale shade of blue that served to calm her down until her mood was pensive rather than hyper.
"I want you to get a boyfriend, Lynne, then I can just be happy for you and stop whining about myself. There are loads of eligible singletons in this school, there has to be one who is perfect for you," she mused, raising her arms so she could rest her head against them.

"I don't think any of them will have me" laughed Lynne as she leaned against a tree "I'm crap girlfriend matierial". No one wanted to stick with her for long. Casimir had gone back to Liza, Bobby Jones had run of with Mary from the year above (that had been when she was eight but the principal still applied).

"Nonsense," Scarlette chided, rolling onto her front, propping her head up in her hands.
"You don't know that. Hey, If I was a boy I'd be totally in love with you," she commented, then realised how bizzarre that sounded and added, laughing-"And I mean that in a completely non-lesbian way. But seriously you're so kind and cool and you make me laugh all the time. Plus you're probably the nicest person I know. There's no way you'd make a bad girlfriend. I bet one of the guys is already in love with you and we haven't even noticed."
She considered all their guy-friends, trying to come up with the perfect match.
"Caspian maybe? Nah, he's a jerk. Same goes for Dorian. There's a real good-looking guy in 6th or 7th year. I think he's a model. Tarquin? I think that's his name. Then again...he looks a bit stuck up. I don't know...Who do you like?" she asked, hoping to finally figure out if Lynne had any secret crushes.

Lynne smiled.

"That's sweet Scar" she said warmly "And if I was a boy or a lesbian I would taotally go out with you too!" it felt good to be chatting with friends again, like nothing bad had happened " I don't really know much about Caspian or Dorian. There was guy called Alex but he left after all the gjost stuff started happning. Says a lot about his personality. I need a guy who can hold his own against murderous ghosts and there aren't many of them left". She paused thoughtfully, there really weren't. Casimir seemed to be able to hold his own but he no longer counted the only other person was Jase...

Unbeknownst to her, Lynne blushed slightly. They had been spending a lot of time together recently and he was good looking and funny and brave and clever...

Scarlette's eagle eyes picked up on a tinge of red in her friend's cheeks. She grinned, she recognised it, it was the same one she had sometimes caught on her face when thinking about a certain someone. A certain someone she could now do very well without now thank you.
"Hey, you do like someone. Don't try and deny it now," she laughed. It felt good to be acting normal and girly again.

(ooc: Shall I start the girly pyjama party thread yet? I think we need to before Casimir starts appearing in other threads. I'll post an announcement inviting any other girl chars who want to come along, yeah?)

OOC: That sounds awesome!

"No" protested Lynne "Well, I don't know. I don't think I like him that way..." she was confused "That would be weird and I'm sure he wouldn't feel the same way in a million years..."

"Oh darling," Scarlette exclaimed, taking her friend's hand sympathetically. "I figured there must be someone. Come to think of it, you have looked more....in love lately."
She was smiling widely now, dimples indenting her cheeks. She was slightly surprised that she was unable to guess who Lynne's secret crush was. Then again, she had probably been too self absorbed to notice.
"So tell me, who's the lucky fella?"

"No I haven't" Lynne protested half heartedly but she was starting to think that maybe her friend had a point.

But that was insane! She'd only just maaged to get over the Casimir incident there was no way in hell she could be ready to feel that way again. Could she?

"Now I'm confused" she said aloud "Thanks a bunch Jase"

When Scarlette heard the boy's name she practically squirmed with glee. This certainly did lift her spirits. She was already determined to make this coupling happen.
"Jase! God that's perfect, I can't believe I didn't see it before. You two would be so good together! And plus, you're like my two favourite people. I HAVE to see this happen," she rambled, the colour rising to her cheeks as she marveled at the prospect.
"And he talks to you all the time as well. You're like his confidante."

"But that's the point" said Lynne miserably "We're friends, he won't be interested in anything more than that..." Lynne was sure of this "There's more chance of hell freezing over than of him asking me out"

There it was again, the standard "We're just friends" argument. It seemed to be the basis for all the romance-themed drama nowadays. Scarlette barely had any guy-friends anymore, so at least she was free of that torture.
"Well maybe you should ask him out," she suggested, unable to think of a better response. "It's the simplest way of finding out if he feels the same way. If he doesn't then it'll be fine cause you're good enough friends to not let something like that mess things up."

Lynne bit her lip. It actually sounded like a good idea.

"Do you honestly think it would be okay?" she asked slowly, valuing her friend's opinion.

"Hell yeah," Scarlette gave an animated reply. "That's what happened with me and Casimir..." she began, faltering for a moment. She really had to remind her self not to bring him up in conversation. "But we didn't actually know each other at the time, so you and Jasey-Jase probably have more promise."
Thinking about it now, asking someone out cause she had thought they had cool hair hadn't been the best idea in the world.
"And he's a hell of a lot nicer than Casimir too. I can't imagine him ever cheating on you or being all moody."

Lynne bit her lip, deep in thought

"You know what" she said slowly "You're right. I'm going to do it. I'll see him later on so I could always ask him then. Or should I wait until the whole ghost thing is over? But what if it's never ove? Oh God and what would would I say?! Scarlette you have to tell me what to say!"