i fought the law / AINSLEY

[Faye Stanley]

Faye Stanley was certainly not a morning person. During school-time, she dealt with mornings as best she could - somewhat grudgingly, and yet generally gracefully - but during the holidays it was rare that she rose before two o'clock in the afternoon. So it was something of a miracle that she was fully awake at mid-day, preparing pancakes (the craving had struck her the night before and she hadn't been able to shake it) in an over-sized t-shirt that read FINE YOUNG THING which her father had bought for her mother many, many years ago and her mother absolutely never wore and a pair of underwear, already showered, her hair tossed into an excuse for a ponytail at the top of her head, still somewhat damp. Both parents were out - her dad was running ragged organizing this and that at the arts centre he managed and her mother had murmured something vague about something to do with art before disappearing. Either way, she knew she had the house free until late, because her mother was sure to pop into the arts centre and end up staying and admiring positively everything.

Faye had scribbled a hasty note for Ainsley to come over and sent it before starting up on the pancakes, tossing them coolly and most expertly. It was thoroughly amazing she could find anything in the kitchen due to its mess, but Faye had a certain knack. The Stanley household was utterly chaotic, and yet Faye breezed through it with a cool indifference. Years of weaving her way around tottering piles of books and an absent-minded artsy mum had her immune to chaos.

She tipped the pancakes onto a plate and snatched her fags up from where she'd deposited them on the kitchen table amidst piles of sketches her mum had done the previous night and propped one on her lip. She usually only smoked out of the window of her room upstairs or outside, ducking around in order for her parents not to catch sight of her, but she knew a spell that would get rid of the stench and anyways, she'd need a cig for what she was going to tell Ainsley. Merlin bless the days her parents weren't home.

With a roll of her eyes, she began a hunt for the maple syrup, finding it very easily indeed and deftly splodging a generous amount onto the stack of pancakes.

[Ainsley Rickett]

Ainsley had already dressed and eaten breakfast about an hour before she’d gotten Faye’s owl to come over, and not having any plans at all for the day had left her sisters a quick note that she would be back later before stepping into the Floo. She hadn’t expected to hear from Faye that morning, but it was a welcome enough surprise nonetheless. Granted, it wasn’t early for her, as she was accustomed to being an early riser, but it was a well known fact that Faye wasn’t a morning person, which made the turn of events all the more unusual, even though it was now almost noon.

“Hi, I’m here,” she began upon stepping out of the fireplace in the Stanley residence like she had on so many occasions, not immediately spotting her friend but knowing that she was likely close by. Brushing off her skirt, she caught the unmistakable scent of smoke and something else, and duly made her way into the kitchen to see what was cooking. She saw the pancakes and maple syrup on the table right before she saw her friend, who, sure enough, was smoking a cigarette. “So,” she nodded, taking a seat at the table, “Making brunch is cause for you to be up this early? I never would’ve guessed.”

[Faye Stanley]

"Want some?" Faye settled herself down at the kitchen table, motioning for Ainsley to do the same. "The pancakes were calling me, Ains, I did what I had to do." She dragged over an empty tin that had for some reason been deposited on the table and dragged it over to her. She unscrewed the lid and tapped her fag against the side of the tin. Seeing as no one in the house smoked (as far as her mum and dad knew) she'd had to deal with a lot of makeshift ashtrays.

"So," she announced coolly, snatching a fork up and tackling her pancakes, "How's the love-life going? From what I got from Addie, you've gone from zilch to really fucking tangled." She smirked, popping a square of maple-soaked pancake into her mouth and cocking an eyebrow in Ainsley's direction.

[Ainsley Rickett]

“No, I’m not really hungry,” Ainsley admitted, “But thanks for offering.” Leaning back slightly in her chair and watching Faye alternate between smoking and eating, she threw her friend a smile, resisting the urge to ask for a smoke because then she would undoubtedly never hear the end of it. It wasn’t even that she smoked often - in fact, she rarely did - but seeing Faye do so made her feel a bit restless in her seat considering she now knew it wasn’t that bad. To the best of her knowledge, Faye didn’t even know yet that she’d tried smoking, and that was the last story she wanted to tell at the moment.

She was about to say something just for a distraction when Faye spoke up instead, and her words caught Ainsley by surprise, even though she probably shouldn’t have been too surprised. Of course Addie had filled Faye in on what had been going on so far that summer, and of course Faye had every right to ask about it. The problem was, however, that she didn’t know exactly how to answer. “Well,” she began diplomatically, drumming her fingers lightly on the table as she regarded Faye with a bit of apprehension, “The love life is the way it’s always been - non-existent. Whatever Addie’s told you must be exaggerated.” She shrugged, her fingers stilling once she realized that she likely looked nervous, and added in a more serious tone, “It’s not tangled. There’s nothing going on for it to be tangled.”

[Faye Stanley]

It hadn't been the greatest idea to start smoking just about when she was going to eat, so Faye pushed the plate to the side momentarily, chewing her mouthful of pancake thoughtfully. "Your loss," she informed her friend once she had finished the mouthful. "They're worth it." She resolved to finishing the cigarette before she returned to the pancakes, inhaling deeply and surveying her friend noncommittally as she did so. Ainsley had been one of her best mates - one of her only best mates - for years, and she was the main reason that she even tolerated Hogwarts. It wasn't often you came across someone who didn't enjoy Hogwarts, but Faye had found her interest slipping even more so during that summer. It was fine for someone like Ainsley, who had a goal and ambitions and all that crap, who was motivated and got along with people and had some sort of purpose. For Faye, going to school was a thoroughly soul-draining experience. It wasn't even that she found it upsetting, or isolating - it was more so that it felt like a tremendous waste of time.

"Non-existent," Faye repeated these words lightly, but she couldn't stop herself from rolling her eyes expressively. "Okay, Ainsley. I believe you. Sure. Sure," she tapped the cigarette against the tin once again. "What's with the drumming fingers and the nervous look and the tone of voice that suggests you're spewing bullshit?" Her words were half-teasing. "Thought we were best mates? Don't best mates, I don't know, gab about boys?" She widened her eyes mockingly.

[Ainsley Rickett]

“Don’t give me that look,” Ainsley reprimanded when Faye repeated her words, even though she knew that saying so would only motivate her friend further. She’d seen Faye roll her eyes so many times that the gesture had next to no impact on her at this point, and it was more so the sarcastic I believe you that made her take a deep breath and tilt her head to the side, very calmly going on, “I know you don’t believe me, but it’s true. I’m not spewing bullshit.” She shrugged, clasping her hands together on the table and breaking out into a smile. “We are best mates, but since when do we gab about boys? Have you lost it?”

Truth be told, there were plenty of things that Ainsley could have told Faye, but most of them were pointless if she happened to know them already. “So what did Addie tell you, anyway?” she inquired casually, disregarding the other reason why she was delaying really having this conversation, which was that a part of her didn’t want to talk about it all that much. Talking about it made it seem ridiculous, and she didn’t want to sound ridiculous. “Oh, and do you have any coffee?” she tacked on, the sight of Faye abandoning her pancakes to finish smoking making her rather anxious. If she couldn’t smoke, she could at least drink some coffee. Maybe that would help.

[Faye Stanley]

"I have absolutely no idea what look you're referring to," Faye responded, thoroughly dead-pan, although the effect was ruined only seconds later by a wide grin that certainly didn't appear often on her face. "Oh, please. It's so bullshit. You're with-holding vital information. Not that I care hugely," she reminded Ainsley. She didn't want her to go getting the wrong idea. She wasn't Addie, for Christ's sake. "Still. Nice to be in the loop. And whatever are you talking about Ainsley?" She held her fag aloft, speaking in the driest tone anyone possibly could. "Gabbing about boys is my life."

Faye hadn't been paying much attention to Addie when Addie had been filling her in, and she admitted this shamelessly. "I only caught bits and pieces. The name Julian popped up a lot. I mean, seriously? God, he's grim," she screwed her face up. "So sullen. Like Jesus, man, calm yourself. Seems to think he's superior to the whole damn lot of us. It physically hurts me sometimes, you know," she said this as she threw a pointed look at Ainsley. "And I got the bit about Julian boning that Slytherin girl. Poor thing," she shook her head, an expression of distaste rolling onto her features. "Terrible taste. She'll probably never live that down." It wasn't often Faye talked so much, and she very nearly missed Ainsley's question. Once she'd processed it, she shrugged and motioned to the cupboards. "Probably. If you want to hunt for it. Make some for me while you're at it." She took her final drag, chucked the butt into the tin and dragged her pancakes towards her, although she gave herself time for her stomach to settle. She didn't like digging in right after a smoke. When she'd first started smoking, she'd gotten quite light-headed during almost every fag and it could make her feel absolutely rotten, but she'd gotten mostly used to it. It was odd, that something that could make her feel like crap also seem so absolutely vital.

[Ainsley Rickett]

Ainsley threw Faye a thoroughly knowing look in response to her dead-pan comment, unable to stop herself from raising an eyebrow as she heard her friend continue on. “Vital information? Come on, you and I both know that you probably wouldn’t care either way,” she replied, merely echoing Faye’s own words, “But yeah, I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop next time about boys - and by next time, I mean when there’s actually something to talk about, which there really isn’t right now.” She bit her lip momentarily to stop what would likely turn into her rambling pointlessly, as the next thought in her mind to voice was that she and Julian were just friends, since the chances that Faye would believe that were scarily low.

“Oh, okay,” she breathed a sigh of relief, for once glad about Faye’s apathy and lack of attention surrounding most things. She wasn’t immediately sure what to say as soon as Faye directly mentioned Julian, because even if she’d only caught bits and pieces of the story like she claimed, that was still more than none of the story. “He’s not that bad,” she said cautiously, not wanting to sound too defensive but at the same time wanting to make her point, “I mean, he doesn’t act like he’s superior to us all the time. At least not when he’s around me.”

The comment about Julian boning that Slytherin girl caught Ainsley off-guard, and though she should have known it was coming, Faye’s way of phrasing it was hardly eloquent. Rather than bothering to reply along the lines of how much she didn’t care and how it was none of her business, she focused on the latter half of what her friend was saying and once again found herself sounding a little defensive despite her best efforts. “What do you mean she’ll never live it down? C’mon, he’s really not that bad,” she responded, attempting to cover up the fact that she was being repetitive and vague by getting up to search the cupboards for coffee. She was close enough that she would still be able to hear Faye if she spoke up, and awaited the dry response that she was almost completely positive was coming as she found enough coffee for both of them and set it to brew, leaning against the counter and facing the table across the room.

[Faye Stanley]

"Probably not," Faye admitted, and it was the truth. She'd always surveyed the rumour mill in Hogwarts as something to laugh at, to quirk one eyebrow in her general half-amused manner and then continue on with life. Perhaps that was a bit lofty and superior, but she usually couldn't care less about who had slept with whom, whose boyfriend had cheated, or who had utterly reinvented themselves and had brought half of the population of the school to their knees in sheer lust. But the fact that she was seriously considering - hell, she'd practically decided - that she was dropping out did make her feel it was somewhat her duty to be informed of what was going on. There'd be no one to inject common sense into the proceedings if she wasn't there, after all. At the same time, however, she knew she was scarcely needed at Hogwarts. Even so, she was unsure of how to bring the subject up. "Nothing to talk about?" Faye's words dripped with disbelief. "No hot make-out sessions? No loss of the snogging virginity? No steamy gropes with Fancy Pants Julian? So much for a summer of love..." she finished this with a dry chuckle.

"Not that bad?" Once again she repeated Ainsley's words, and - once again - her own were dripping with disbelief. "Alright," she shrugged, popping a sliver of pancake into her mouth. "Suit yourself. Whatever you say."

At Ainsley's defence of Julian and Whatever Her Name Slytherin Girl, Faye smirked towards the table. She had a definite feeling Ainsley's would-be casual tone meant the situation was anything but, vague as she was on her search for coffee. She didn't say anything, allowing Ainsley's words to settle in the air, waiting until Ainsley had started making the coffee and turned to face her before she responded. Jerking her chin upwards, she opened her mouth to tease Ainsley about Julian further, and somehow found herself moving in an entirely different direction altogether: "You know, I'm not going back to Hogwarts after summer." Her voice had barely changed; it sounded as though she was commenting on the weather.