Everyone Has A Breaking Point. PV Rhea Miller closed

[font=Times New Roman]Rhea had been having an absolutely atrocious day.

Things had been falling out of her hands from the moment she awoke in her four-poster bed to find that she was not, in fact, in her four-poster bed, but collapsed uncomfortably on the floor beside it. Her torso was twisted uncharacteristically; her limbs were all splayed out; her hair was tangled and her pajamas had required serious adjusting. That whole experience, including trying to grab on to the vague memories of whatever nightmare had caused her to thrash so violently that she literally fell out of bed without noticing in the slightest, had set the tone for the rest of the day so far. She had struggled in all of her classes, misspelled things more than usual, misreading incantations and speaking them accordingly, until her mood was irrepairingly cranky. The girl remained in that state for the entirety of the morning, and predicted she would stay that way for some time afterwords as well.

Okay, it was true that her bad mood was almost entirely her fault. She did not completely regret this. Sometimes bitterness was satisfying. Being dramatic had saved her from being embarrassed plenty of times, ironically.

As she walked the Corridors, distracting herself from her claustrophobia by thinking about how miserable she was, a crumpled piece of parchment sailed over her head like a baseball before hitting the wall and unfolding perfectly. Those who surrounded her seemed unbothered and moved on quickly, but this sort of thing was just enough to push her to the edge.

"Hey!" she said, stomping over to the perpetrator. It was a girl with long blonde hair and striking green eyes. Despite her height (or lack thereof), she looked about a year older than Rhea. Because of that, Rhea straightened quickly, trying to make herself taller. "What the hell?" she demanded.

The Gryffindor did not often use anything that could be perceived as a swear word, but this was a special situation.

"Why did you throw that at me?" she yelled. "I was just minding my own business, and then this... this ball of paper comes flying out of nowhere at my head!"

Okay, now Rhea was beginning to realize how ridiculous she was sounding. It was just a piece of parchment. Still, there was no going back now. She had chosen to waste time by getting angry at this random girl, and now she was going to suffer the consequences. [/font]

@Rhea Miller

Elzabeth sneered at the girl in front of her, anger churning in her stomach. How dare she? Who was she to stick her nose all up in Elzabeths business?

"If it was aimed at you, it would have hit you." She spat out, leaning off the wall. The girl may have been taller than her but then again, who wasn't?

Elzabeths eyes caught the students emblem sown on her jacket. A Gryffindor, of course.

"Only Gryffindor's would be so entitled to take offense from a piece of paper." Her eyes met the girls in an act of defiance. "Get over it." The voice in the back of Elzabeths head was warning her, telling her she was coming off rude and abrasive yet she chose not to listen.

Her head was filled with ugly thoughts as she pushed past the Gryffindor, brushing by her shoulder to pick up her report card at the other end of the hall. Elzabeth was embarrassed as she shoved the parchment into her bag, feeling it crinkle under the awkward force. She had no doubt that it would come out of her bag perfectly straight just to taunt her even more.

"Who do you think you are anyways?" Elzabeth hissed, hastily wiping the tears away from underneath her eyes as if to come off a little less pitiful. That old familiar burning feeling in her face took over and she knew she was blushing, not because she was flustered but because she was down right pissed.

[font=times new roman]Okay, the statement about entitled Gryffindors genuinely stung. That was a new feeling. Typically Rhea could not be truly offended by the things people said to her - take Jennifer from the train - but this particular jab was something she herself had spent a lot of time fretting about. For quite awhile after being sorted, the girl had been in denial that she truly belonged in her house, but at this point she had more-or-less come to accept it as unalterable. That was fine. In fact, she had nearly forgotten about it, to the point that she had let her guard down. Now some random girl in the hallway that she had provoked was salting an old wound. Rhea swallowed.

"Talk about entitled," she said. "You Ravenclaws are all so snotty, going about like you're better than everyone else."

Actually, Rhea quite liked Ravenclaws. She found that she had a lot in common with many of them. But the blonde didn't need to know that.

This girl pushed pashed Rhea, knocking into her shoulder and walking a bit to retrieve the parchment she had thrown. Rhea, offended, followed her. "Hey!" she snapped. "What was that for?"

The Ravenclaw spoke again. "I'm clearly an immature, entitled first year Gryffindor," Rhea retorted, almost mockingly. "Who do you think you are?"

Then she noticed the tears glinting in her new not-friend's green eyes, just before they were hastily wiped away. This blonde girl's face flooded with furious scarlet. Rhea remained stony, lacking any pity for her acquaintance's situation. "What happened to you?" she sneered. "Awww, did I make you cry? Are Gryffindors just too scary for you?"

That was probably not the case, since Rhea hadn't yet said anything drastic enough to upset her like this. It was probably something entirely unrelated. Still, it felt kind of good to take credit. To be mean. To convince herself that she had some sort of power over a girl that was a year older than her.[/font]

@Rhea Miller

Elzabeth huffed, crossing her arms. "Please, like you could be scary." She bit the inside of her cheek, chewing that same spot she would always go after whenever she had a lot on her mind. At this rate the inside of her cheek was going to be raw by the end of the week.

She knew how short she was and she knew that there was nothing intimidating about her, which is why the stubborn look on her face only came across as pitiful to those who looked.

"If you're so bothered by a stupid piece of paper I don't know how you've lasted this long at Hogwarts." Elzabeth guessed she was younger than her but decided to play it safe, she didn't want to be further embarrassed.

"Now leave me alone, I have better things to worry about beyond some stupid Gryffindor." Her body was coming off of its emotional high and right now the last thing she wanted to do was have a repeat of last year. It seemed the Corridors were bad luck when it came to Elzabeth.

Just the reminder of her fight made the back of her head start to hurt all over again. There was no way she could give a good explanation to her mother as to how a similar incident had happened again.

[font=times new roman]Rhea was perfectly cognizant of the Ravenclaw's furiousness with her. Quite frankly, it couldn't have been clearer. But there was something else, something that she perhaps did not want Rhea to notice. A strong, painful emotion apart from anger. Rhea tilted her head, as she often did when trying to understand someone, and gazed it this blonde girl, trying to reason what was going on inside her mind. Something personal, undoubtedly, beyond anything that Rhea could determine simply by looking at her.

"Perhaps my stubborness is the very reason I've lasted," Rhea commented finally. "And speaking of stubborness, no. I will not go anywhere."

She stared at the girl. "If we're acquainted, we might as well introduce ourselves, shouldn't we? Unless you're impolite as well as mean." No! Why did she call her mean? She sounded like a wounded toddler, both for her grammar and for the use of the word. The exact opposite of the effect she was trying to achieve. "Er, I mean, impolite as well as acerb."

Acerb meant leaving a bitter or sour taste in someone's mouth. At least, that was what Rhea remembered of it. Anyway, it was an accurate word for the Ravenclaw.

Rhea removed her bag from her shoulder and set it down, trying to imply that she was not going anywhere. She did not break eye contact.

"So," she said coldly. The Gryffindor did not have it in her advance this to a real fight, and ideally, she would learn the reason for this girl's pain, if not just to use it against her. "First of all, my name is Rhea Miller. Now, tell me about yourself. What's going on with you?" [/font]

@Rhea Miller

Elzabeth shook her head with a disbelieving scoff. "Elzabeth Gillian, at your bloody service." Her words were dripping with sarcasm. She dipped her head in to an exaggerated bow, coming back up with a sneer.

"Sorry to disappoint but I'd rather keep my business to myself, thank you very much." The last thing she wanted was to explain herself, it was embarrassing enough as is. She had known too many horrible people in her life to just spill her feelings all over the place, more likely than not her issues would be used against her.

Elzabeth glanced down the hall, contemplating what her next move would be. She could try to hide out in the Library, it tended to be empty this time of day and it were a better option than going to the commons and having more people see her in the state she was in.

She needed to come up with a letter that somehow fixed the situation, there was no way she would go back home without at least trying to fight. Perhaps she could appeal to her father before her mother could see it, he may be able to convince her this was only a one time thing.

[font=times new roman]Rhea noticed the girl - Elzabeth - seemed to be searching for an escape from the conversation, despite her venomous disposition. "Oh no," Rhea said immediately. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me why you're crying like a wee little baby." Though it was true that Rhea also wanted to walk away from this, they were both in too deep, and it would be cowardly to leave now.

The thing that Elzabeth had said about entitled Gryffindors must've really buried itself into Rhea's mind, because now it was like she was trying to act like the portrait of a Gryffindor cliche. Somehow, it didn't feel terrible or wrong. Almost... fitting.

She planted herself firmly, her feet shoulder-width apart. Every ounce of intimidation and claustrophobia (from the students swarming the corridors) had dissolved, replaced by pure superiority. "Get past me," she growled. "I dare you."

Except she didn't want her to get past. She wanted to learn Elzabeth's secret, the reason for her stress. Rhea's ego faltered. She was no better, or stronger, or braver than she had ever been. She was just a little girl with an ugly haircut in a ridiculous stance, trying to stand down a random Ravenclaw girl for the sake of conflict.

"Well anyway," she said drily. "Tell me. I won't let anyone know. Plus, I could take you, probably. You don't look that strong." She regarded Elzabeth, trying to appear unimpressed. It was so annoying how quickly her mood - as well as her entire perception of the type of person she was - could shift. She hoped Elzabeth hadn't noticed.

@Rhea Miller

Huffed, crossing her arms. Her whole life people had constantly underestimated her due to her appearance. Because of her height or lack-there-of, most people thought she wouldn't be able to land a finger on them but after going to public school and facing some bullies within the walls, Elzabeth could defend herself surprisingly well.

"You really want to challenge me? Just because I'm small doesn't mean I wont beat your ass." She hissed, scrunching her nose up in anger.

Her proposal of telling why she had thrown a fit in the hall was a little appealing, she knew talking about her issues with another person might help but then again she was basically arguing with said person.

"You're nosey, Rhea." Elzabeth said, her shoulders slumping. The loss of sleep was getting to her and slowly the fight that once kicked up in her veins died down, she was tired of feeling things. Her morning had already been eventful enough to fill her week, anymore drama and she might just explode.

She then looked at the girl, locking eyes with her for a moment. "Why do you want to know so badly anyways? It's my problem, not yours." Elzabeth raised her eyebrow, tilting her head.

The Ravenclaw's comment made Rhea pause to think. "You think people underestimate you? At least you're not the youngest at the school. I've had to deal with bullies in Muggle school too and I can fight quite well, but no one..." She had planned to say no one believes me, but that sounded like a complaint or a plea for pity, so she switched directions. "... No one should want to cross me." Well, could've been better, but good enough.

Nosy? No, just curious. It wasn't a bad think to want to know. Besides, Elzabeth was doing a bad job at hiding whatever emotional torment she was experiencing, and it was completely natural for Rhea to want to be aware of it. Rhea came to this conclusion just as Elzabeth spoke again.

Why did she want to know so badly? She didn't care about the life of this entitled fool. "You're right," she said. "I don't. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about your life, or your problems. The only reason I did was so I could use it against you! And you nearly did it, I could tell." Elzabeth looked exhausted; somewhere within Rhea she knew that her adversary did need someone to talk to, and even sympathized with the Ravenclaw for becoming defensive. It was something Rhea did often. They were both constantly underestimated for their height, both disliked talking about their feelings (Rhea assumed)... in another scenario, perhaps they'd be friends.

But no. Rhea hated Elzabeth and it felt good to hate people. Somehow the experience provided some sense of power.

"You're a whiny baby," she snarled. "Stop playing the victim."