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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 11, 2010 20:26:30 GMT -5
Al smiled as a plate of snacks - Lupe's favorites - appeared on his desk. He had invited the Mexican teacher to his office to catch up - they hadn't seen each other in a while, and Al needed to talk to her about what had happened to Mattie.
And, hey, she was his best (female) friend.
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 11, 2010 20:42:42 GMT -5
Lupe stood quietly at the door of Alfred's office door. She was invited to have a chat with the American, which delighted her. It had been a while since she had a private conversation with him.
She reached out to knock then stopped herself. She bent slightly to straighten out the wrinkles of her flowing skirt, quickly tightened her hair bow, then gently rapped at the door.
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 11, 2010 21:46:56 GMT -5
Al raised an eyebrow at the door. "Lupe? You should know by now that when I invite you I don't expect a knock." He swung the door opened and grinned.
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 12, 2010 20:10:56 GMT -5
Lupe made a mental note to smack herself for forgetting that fact. She grinned back at the blond. "Sorry! Force of habit." She walked into the familliar office and smiled when she saw the plate of mini churos and various small breads. "It's been a while since I've been in here..." She sat down into a chair and reached for one of the pink colored snacks, grinning. "Thanks for inviting me again. Was there anything you wanted to talk about?"
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 12, 2010 21:25:32 GMT -5
Al shrugged and laughed before sitting down. "Mostly just wondering how your summer break went, and sorta apologizing a head of time that I'm going to be so busy this year. I mean, last year was pretty weird, it being my first 'n' all." He sighed and nibbled on one of the snacks.
"Help yourself, by the way."
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 13, 2010 0:05:29 GMT -5
Her plump lips grinned and she bite into the bread.
"Oh, don't worry about it, Al! I've had my hands full too, with the first years and all. Some have had trouble staying up late to study...Yeah, you've been a great teacher to the students though. A lot have taken a liking to you."
She brought her hand up to chomp on the sweet, but also to cover up her grin. She had noticed that a few girls had already taken a great liking to him..
She heard about the summer and her eating froze. Her hand twitched before reaching to put a hair behind her ear.
"Oh summer? It wasn't anything special. Just went back to Spain to visit my grandmother, thats all..." But it wasn't. Something did happen. "And I...I got a letter..." Brown eyes looked down to her hand holding the pink snack.
"...from Mexico. From my parents." The first one in 13 years...
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 13, 2010 6:49:43 GMT -5
"I'm glad you think that. Though sometimes I wonder if I'm a terrible rolemodel for some of the stuff I do." Al shrugged sheepishly and sighed.
Then she mentioned the letter. Al was suddenly torn between being glad that his friend finally heard from her parents and worried that it was fake. "Do you think it's real?"
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 14, 2010 21:44:35 GMT -5
Lupe looked up at Al, his question sparking a sudden fear in her. She swallowed hard, the food sinking like a rock in her throat. When she received the letter from a rather strange looking owl, she didn't know what to think. At first, she wanted nothing more then to tear the letter in two and throw it to the fireplace. Pf course, she instantly regretted thinking that. If there was a slight ray of hope that Lupe might be able to communicate with her family, she didn't want to throw that away. Since then, she had kept the letter with her, trying to decide if she wanted to take the chance.
But now that Alfred brought it up, she had no clue if this could truly be them.
She smiled reassuringly to Alfred. "But why wouldn't it be? It's not like there's anyone out to get me."
...unless, it was...
She ate the last bit of bread, dusting off the pink sugar from her fingers. "Well, I'm still deciding whether or not to even respond to the damn thing. I mean, what do you say to someone who you haven't talked to in years?" Lupe felt horrible now. She didn't want to dump all of this onto Al, even if the man was her best friend and extremely supportive. She couldn't even deal with all this drama herself!
She gave a grin and waved a hand dismissively at the subject. "But I'm sure I'll now what to do! Maybe I'm just overreacting to it all."
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 17, 2010 15:27:04 GMT -5
Al sighed as he watched his friend. "Girl, you had to flee Mexico because people were hunting down your parents." He leaned over, caring showing on his face. "Hey, follow your instincts. They're sharp." He leaned back and grinned popping one of the snacks in his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
"My summer was the usual, hanging out with Mom and stuff." He took a deep breath, "But when I got back... I had a talk with Mattie. Lupe, something's up with him."
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 18, 2010 2:01:11 GMT -5
Instantly, Lupe grinned at her friend's words.
"You're right!" She beamed with new confidence. "I just gotta do what's best for me."
She grabbed for a snack and chomped down on the small sweet. She nodded towards Alfred when she heard about his summer.
"That's good..." Then she heard about Matthew. In a mere second her eyes flashed with the overprotection of a mother eagle. She leaned forward instantly to the American.
"What!? What's wrong with Mattie? Is he in trouble?"
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 18, 2010 7:37:16 GMT -5
Al resisted smiling at Lupe's predictable reaction. "Not as much as he used to be. The past year and a half.... Lupe, that boyfriend he mentioned whenever we visited was abusive. He died - thank God - but Mattie's still struggling with the aftermath. I was talking to him the morning after the feast - he's barely been eating just 'cause that bastard ex told him he was fat once. He's definitely underweight, but not to 'skin and bones' yet."
((If Lupe had visited mattie over the last year and a half, she'd also know that Mattie's ex was a wizard....))
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 22, 2010 19:36:50 GMT -5
(ooc: PFFF, sorry for LAGED!reply. My wifi was messed up for a while..."
Lupe watched Al and listened silently as her friends explained. As her went on, a sickening chill stabbed through her spine and stomach. Her jaw set hard, the tanned woman lowered her body back onto the chair. She avoided looking the other in the eyes, deciding instead to gaze down to her sandals instead. It took all of her strength to control the rage building inside and not unleash her magic on the environment around her, as she did as a child. Her shaking hands gripped the armrests.
"Thank you for telling me Al.." Her grip grew tighter. "...if you hadn't told me, I probably wouldn't have noticed," Lupe shamefully admitted. "Or at least denied it."
Snagre couldn't take herself right now. She had known Matthew for so many years. How could she not tell? She looked back up to Alfred. Unconsciously, she tried to force a smile, but the muscles denied her. Lupe sighed in a failed attempt to relax and closed her eyes at a growing headache.
"Have you talked to Mattie yet? You know, about not eating?"
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on Apr 22, 2010 19:54:30 GMT -5
Al nodded solemnly. "And watching him like a hawk at meals. He isn't too happy about that, but well, things might be looking up soon. I - I think he might have been cursed, so I'm going to talk to Arthur about that. Hopefully if we can figure out a way to lift it... Well, He'll at least be able to address what happened to him." He leaned back, taking note of the emotion's playing on Lupe's face.
"And don't feel guilty about not noticing! I mean, he hasn't been here all that long, and it wasn't until the feast and the morning after that I caught on. He barely ate a serving of food at the feast, and I only realized that because I was right beside him, and then the next morning he tried to get out of breakfast with me...." Al grimaced. "I'll be honest, it sucked when I found out why."
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on Apr 30, 2010 23:44:22 GMT -5
Despite her better intuition, Lupe smiled when Al explained more.
'Of course,' she thought, 'there's no way Al would just stand by idly while Mattie was through such pain...'
Mattie...Lupe was so grateful to have her American friend here to look after him. Yes, they were alway a trio but...
She thought back on those two, the way they talked, the secret glances, everything they did and never realized. It tore at Lupe's young heart.
'Those two were always on a different level...' She stopped and shoved her thoughts away. Now was NOT the time for that.
She sighed, her body slumping against the frame of the chair. "So he's getting better, huh? Gracias a dios....But a curse? Why...?"
But something else was bugging her. Some irritating buzz at the back of her head that wouldn't leave her alone. "Al, is there anything else I should..," she paused and looked up, determined to find something in the other's face. "Is their anything else you think I should know about? Anything you need to tell me?"
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on May 1, 2010 0:06:44 GMT -5
Al was about to explain why a bastard like Mattie's ex would use a curse when Lupe's next question caught him off guard.
Anything else to tell her.... Al puzzled that over, then sighed. He was torn on those notes, they had thrown of his equilibrium, but could he trust Lupe with his self-doubts?
"At the banquet... Both Gilbert and Francis said that I was acting like I'm in love with Mattie. I -" He struggled for the words and looked off to the side. "I haven't a clue on what to think about that anymore. About how much I care for him. It's a moot point anyway. Nothing will happen until he's okay."
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on May 10, 2010 22:43:35 GMT -5
Lupe frowned, but nodded towards Al. Yes, in another situation, she would have jumped at the thought of her dear friends FINALLY realizing his true feelings. But her was right. Right now was no time for romance. They had to help their Mattie!
Her eyes turned hard and she leaned foward, her elbows resting on the space above her knees, her fingers locked and supporting her chin. A stature she recalled picking up from her father...
"So, you think Mattie's been cursed?" She met her friend's blue eyes. "Do you think it was that bastard ex of his?"
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on May 11, 2010 9:23:48 GMT -5
Al gave her a rather flat and exasperated look. "Lupe, it's BECAUSE he had such a bastard ex that I even suspected it. If he is cursed, and I'm ninety percent sure he is, then his ex did it." He leaned back into the couch, looking up at the ceiling. Thinking. Lupe was great and all... but he needed someone with a little more knowledge and experience to help him with the final curse breaking.
"I'm most worried about his health in the meantime. We need to figure out ways to get him to eat before he ends up -" Al cut himself off. "Getting him to eat. And figuring out how to break the curse. He'll need his strength when we know what to do. And I need to get Arthur in on this - he knows his stuff, and what he doesn't know, well, he has the portraits too."
The blond nodded firmly. "I wish there was more we could do NOW... but I can't think of any."
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on May 12, 2010 23:28:31 GMT -5
Lupe held her breath as she thought. Well, that was it, huh? There wasn't much else she could do but offer advise. She resisted the urge to stand and punch a wall in frustration. She couldn't stand it. This feeling of helplessness. Lupe hated that emotion. Like she couldn't help the two people who meant the most to her.
She sighed through her nose and forced herself to relax.
'Oh well!' she shouted at her inner self. 'Suck it up! No self-pity, tonta! GET YOURSELF TOGETHER.'
She looked to Al and nodded in agreement.
"Defiantly, Arthur's the way to go on the curse. As for Matt eating, we might just just have to edge him along on that..." After all, they couldn't stuff the food down his throat. "
"Either way, he has to eat just enough to look alright. At least to others. If he gets to the point of looking sick, some people might start to say something...."
Of course, if that happened, Lupe might get physical in defending her friend's honor.....which would NOT end well....
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Post by Alfred F. Jones on May 12, 2010 23:39:37 GMT -5
Al frowned, but nodded. "Yeah, getting him to eat will be a pain." He smiled weekly up at her. This was terrible. He was just dragging Lupe along in his misery. She had the right to know, though. Mattie was her friend to. He sighed.
And then he saw an envelope flutter up from under his door and glide to land beside him. "What? A letter at this time of..." He picked it up and looked it over, then stopped when he saw his Mother's scrawl. "From Mom. Of course." He set it aside for later. He didn't need this right now.
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Post by Guadalupe de la Sangre on May 16, 2010 23:50:37 GMT -5
Lupe's heart went out to her friend. Mattie and Al shared a special bond that she remembered envying during their school days. To see Al, optimistic, caring Al, go through this turmoil for their violet-eyed friend.
She smiled, trying to be reassuring. "As long as we're around, he'll have a hard time resisting. Plus with Arthur, you most likely find something relevant to Mattie's situation."
She watched curiously at the letter that swooped underneath Al's door. Lupe couldn't help but smile when she heard it was from the blonde's mother. Of course, she quickly coughed and straightened herself out.
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