17 Jul 2025, 06:02
A Very Unhappy Birthday
@Ellie Randensmith
@Eflamm Fustec
January 20th. A Monday. Great. I am already having a bad enough birthday without it being a Monday too, Claire thought sadly. Claire rocked on a bench swing near the school. She pinched her eyes to let a tear finish falling in the dirt near her.
Even though Claire had finished school for the day, the feeling of a Monday was still there. The feeling of a week ahead of school. The feeling of no rest until the week was up. The feeling of barely started in a chunk of work.
One could normally ignore that if one was happy. One could ignore it if it was not one's birthday. One could ignore it if one was not feeling terribly lonely. But, Claire was. Claire's family had merged her birthday and Christmas together, when she was home.
That had made a great Christmas. Claire had gotten the most presents and attention. It was a great day. Claire had felt top-of-the-world. But, that did not make for a good birthday a few weeks later. She should have known. She should have not let her family talk her into it.
So, now Claire was crying on her bench swing. She wiped the back of her hand across her face to dry her tears. School can be terribly lonely at times.
Claire felt her glass bracelet swish. She smiled through her tears. Her brothers, Louis and Paul, had made it for her as a birthday present. They insisted that their mother buy a pack of colored glass beads for them to string a bracelet for Claire. The boys had strung it on a piece of black elastic refusing any help for a pattern for the beads; their father had made better use cutting, holding the elastic still, and knotting it off.
She smiled sadly again as she looked at a few beads, the black elastic showing through. Blue, yellow, green, blue, blue, pink, yellow, pink, green, and so on. Claire smiled once more. How strong her family love must be, to now feel comforted by her brothers, even though they are many miles away.
Don't be fooled by my looks, blood, and riches; I am actually really nice.
Visit Claire's Codes!
Lillian McMason
21 Aug 2025, 14:57
A Very Unhappy Birthday
@Claire DucassePfff Monday, already ? Weekend had gone so fast, as usual of course, but it made Eflamm annoyed. He wished he could come back to Christmast, where all his family was there, where he could just chill out and think nothing else but what was he going to eat for dinner, or what could he do with his cousins. But this was a month ago, and now he had to attend classes and make interactions with people he couldn't care less. He thought learning how to be a wizard could be fun, until he realised we wouldn't only teach him cool wizard stuff, such as spells or potions. School had therefore become boring.
While he was walking outside, getting some fresh air and looking at Beauxbatons's castle, thinking over again Shoot, this school is beautiful anyway., he noticed a girl, looking particularly sad on a bench swing. He realised it was Claire Ducasse, recognisable with her long blond hair, sat here. He didn't like that girl. Not that he ever talked with her since the beginning of the year, but yeah, he didn't appreciate what she gave off, still taking care of her look, and showing off her money. Well, he wasn't sure of that last part, maybe he was a bit jealous of her. Anyway, he had never tried to interact with her, since he had never seen any interest with it, until now. The more he was approching her, the more he could see some tears rolling from the girl's face. Even if he didn't appreciate her, he did somehow feel bad. Did she have money issues ? Or was she really sad about something important, therefore she would be more human than Eflamm thought she was ?
He decided to get closer to her. What could he say ? Hey, are you okay ? She obviously wasn't. Well, he would go simple. "Hi, what's wrong ?" He didn't really care if she would dare to answer, after they had never interacted before. But he was curious if Claire really was the person he imagined.
26 Aug 2025, 01:28
A Very Unhappy Birthday
@Ellie Randensmith
@Eflamm Fustec
Sorry, I'm late!
Claire needed to calm down before someone found her like this. She had to get control of herself and walk back inside normally soon. But it was too late! Hi, what's wrong?" said someone. Claire looked up to see who it was. Eflamm. Eflamm Fustec, if Claire remembered correctly. She wasn't sure if she wanted to talk to him. She had a feeling that he might be one of those 'All rich people are stuck-up and free of problems' kind of people, based on how he seemed to her presence.
She checked for a tissue in her uniform pockets, but didn't find one, so she used the back of her hand to dry her eyes. It was fine, because there was no snot, just tears. Claire very quickly thought of what to say. She couldn't say the truth, 'Today is my birthday and I am sad that my family isn't celebrating it with me.' That would sound spoiled. It would especially sound spoiled to a 'All rich people are stuck-up and free of problems' kind of person, if she was right in the kind of person he was. Claire likely was, because she had been experiencing that kind of stuff nearly as long as she could remember.
She decided to tweak the facts instead. "I just miss my family," she said with a little tremor in her voice. "I was really close with my brothers before I came here." Claire blinked her eyes to stop a tear, because thinking about her brothers made her remember why she was sad to begin with. Pih. Claire realized that there was a hair strand in her mouth, probably from all the looking down. So, she started gathering her hair to the back of her head and started twisting it into some kind of braid, in an attempt to keep it out of her way.
In her point of view she was alone again. She doubted he would respond, but if he did she would talk. She probably should hope he would stay to distract her from crying, so mabie she could return inside faster. But, Claire's heart wasn't into hoping for anything right now.
Don't be fooled by my looks, blood, and riches; I am actually really nice.
Visit Claire's Codes!
Lillian McMason
3 Sep 2025, 16:58
A Very Unhappy Birthday
@Claire DucasseWow, what was that look Claire was using "against" him ? Eflamm didn't really want to talk to her, but it seemed to be reciprocal. Great, next time I'll just keep walking. However, now that he got Claire's attention, he couldn't just turn around and leave, so he just watched her whiped her tears with her hands. He could have simply gave her a tissue, but would she have accepted it ? He wasn't sure. So he just stood there, starting to feel a bit embarassed of the situation.
Even if he didn't appreciate her, he was thinking of what she could have gone through to be like that. Did she got her heart broken ? Did she get some bad grades ? Did she get hurt ? He was starting to imagine scenarios more and more horrible, so he was definitly surprised with the girl's answer. A birthday ? Really ? He could "understand" it wasn't this easy to spend a birthday alone for the first time, but it wasn't this big of a deal... She could see her family during the holiday, write to them... All solutions were good to keep contact with your beloved one. Was it an appropriate reason to cry ? He didn't know, he couldn't be into her head. But he believed it wasn't a serious one.
But then she started to confess to him. Oh no, please I don't want to hear all you story. He thought, but ovbiously kept it to himself.
His eyes frowned. They just went back from Christmas holidays, she had seen her family less than a month ago.
Eflamm didn't know what to say. He could just say he was sorry to hear that, but it would be obvious he was lying.
"Well hum, first of all happy birthday." That. Was. A. Stupid. Sentence. But he didn't care.
"Listen, I get that you're sad and all, but you have seen you family during Christmast correct ? And you can send and receive letters. I'm sure you got some today, so you don't need to cry. Lots of people love you."
He meant his last sentence, but not in the "positive" meaning. To him, lost of people liked Claire because she was popular. And he found that pathetic.