The Park. It was Eris's favourite place in the world, even when she was alone and cold in the middle of the night, sitting under the sky full of stars, there was something comforting about the open expanse around her, the faint wind blowing her tangled hair out of her face, and the play structures that supported up childhood dreams, and countless hours spent playing.

It was more comforting than anything in the world, better than the small flat in London that she had occupied with her mother and sister, and sometimes father. Tighting her sweater, which was the only protection against the soft breeze blowing in the trees, and through her hair. Not that cold, but cold enough to lead to the small pinpricks of goosebumps to appear on Eris's exposed legs, as she sat on a park bench.

Eyes closed, it almost looked like Eris was asleep. Besides for the fact she was sitting upright, slouching a bit, admittedly, but still upright. The faint hum of a melody could be heard coming through her lips, quiet and far from intrusive to any who were enjoying the night breeze and the almost vacant playground. An abandoned candy wrapper was next to the girl, half eaten Flakes exposed to the air. Although the chocolate was better in ice cream, Eris wasn't complaining about having it to herself.

The girl's thoughts were focused on the family that she had left behind in the London Flat, wondering, as she often found herself doing when she was alone with her thoughts, without the distract of a playmate, or an intrusive parent or baby sitter to ask doting questions. What was life like without her? Was her mother finally content, no longer pron to fits of anger? Or was her sister suffering at the hands of their insane mother, wondering about her sister--like Eris was wondering about her?

And was her mother right when she said crazy things, like that Eris was a witch? Or was it just her rage, and insanity rubbing off and causing her to say weird things? Eyes still closed, Eris tried futilely to remember the lines of her mother's face, the way she had smiled on a blue moon, laughing as she spun with her daughters, or the way she had looked when she was calm. It wasn't working though. She couldn't see anything but the rage that had been on her mother's face when she kicked Eris out.

But these thoughts were trivial, and Eris was not going to plague herself with trivial thoughts. Opening her eyes, Eris was suddenly aware of the strong sent of shampoo, and a foreign feeling in her lap. Eyes blinking, adjusting to the sudden movement and light, Eris found another red head lying on the bench.

Amusement and worry warring in her head, heart racing at the sudden presence of another child, Eris coughed, as the girl leapt to her feet--seemingly as worried and confused as Eris, herself was. "Who are you?" Eris blurted out, raising an eyebrow. She had never seen the girl at the park before, and she looked lost. Like she was out of town, which was unlikely. Who would go to the park, when there were other things to do in London?

.

Ami desperately tried to gather all of her thoughts into one, single coherent list that she could understand, but completely, utterly failed to do so. So many thoughts ran through her mind- who was this mysterious other girl, and what on earth was she doing out here all alone in the middle of the night?

"Who are you?" she shot back at the redhead she'd accidentally slept on in response to her question, backing away a few steps. "I- I swear, I don't have my wallet on me!" she yelled, eyes widening and her voice raising five or six decibels when she realized just how strong her American accent was. She- she- she probably thinks I'm a tourist, she'll take my money, she'll probably beat me up...

All the common sense flew out of her head, as she clearly forgot that the girl was her age in her suspicion and fright. Eyes fixed in horror on the redhead perched on the edge of the bench, Ami's thin frame was trembling with shock, her eyes wide. Her hands clenched into fists, as if mentally preparing herself for a fight, and her eyes were on the redhead the entire time, as if anticipating an attack from her.

.

Eris shrunk backwards on the park bench, warily eyeing the girl, who had appeared out of nowhere. Where did these redheads come out of? Normally, she was the only red head in the whole park. Since when did other children share the red headed trait?

Eris managed a broken laugh at the girl's thoughtlessness, pulling her sweater tighter around her shoulders. This was another girl she had never seen around the park before, which put her on high alert already.

Then the first girl spoke in a strong American Accent about wallets. She had a wallet? Eris didn't even have a 50 cent pence on her, much less a whole wallet to gallivant around with. Who's parents gave them a wallet with money in it? Was that a normal thing for American families, and families in general? Or was Eris's family just uncultured, and too dysfunctional for that? What on earth? Confused, Eris raised an eyebrow, unable to understand that the American actually thought that Eris was going to steal from her. Eris didn't steal from people her age, and she tried not to steal if she could help it. Evidently confused, Eris's forehead wrinkled slightly, as she studied the American.

Then there was the matter of her accent. Oh, it was so different! Eris had never met anyone from america before, but she had seen movies with them! They always really liked hamburgers, and sometimes had cool superhero names. Like Captain America. Why couldn't they have a Captain England? Totally unfair.

Keenly aware of her own British accent, Eris swallowed her nerves about speaking to other children, and took a deep breath. The American was staring at her, trembling like a cornered animal. "I..a wallet? What? Why would your parents give you a wallet to run around with? Mine didn't even give me allowance when I lived with them."

Realizing she had said too much, Eris's face turned bright red, and she wrapped her sweater around her tighter, hoping the other girls wouldn't question her statement about not living with her parents anymore. A silence dragged out, and Eris's face turned redder and redder as she waited for a reply from the American, so finally, almost under her breath, Eris muttered one more thing.

"Er, what is your name?"

Ami's tense posture relaxed slightly when she finally got it through that thick skull of hers that these two girls weren't going to mug her or rob her, or anything stupid like that. Her fingers twitched, itching to reach for her knife, but she tried to control herself, so she sat back down on the bench, a good distance away from the shorter redhead she'd slept on earlier. Kathleen repeated her questions asking her identity and purpose of being at the park, as did the redhead sitting along the same bench.

"Amelia," Ami found herself blurting out, seemingly no longer having control over her mouth. Where did that- oh. Amelia Scarlett. You fangirl, Ami thought to herself with a bitter smile, realizing she had drawn inspiration subconsciously from Flavia de Luce... again. "I- I'm Amelia." Taking a deep breath, and reminding herself not to slur or stutter her words, she continued on to answer Kathleen's second questions. "I'm just on a walk," she mumbled defensively, crossing her arms. 

Ami had nearly entirely blocked out the short redhead's comments about her wallet and her money, but they immediately came back to the front of her mind after she got the whole whats-your-name thing out of the way. Who didn't have a wallet, was the better question? Just leaving cash in your pocket was dangerous- who knew who you'd rub against on the street? And all the kids in London, even the adults- no locks on their purses. What kind of idiot didn't put a lock on their purse?

Was Ami paranoid? Honestly? Probably. But her mom had been overprotective, the type of mom who taught Ami the 'right' things early on, like putting locks on purses and replacing the windows with bulletproof glass, unable to see that this would harm Ami more than it would help, in the long run. However, the one upside of all of this was that Ami listened to her intuition more than most people would when it came to strangers. Kathleen... Ami got a kind of, eager, helpful and sweet vibe off of her, which seemed alright. The other redhead, however... Ami felt like she would desperately want to be her friend in the future, she just seemed hilarious, and snarky, and everything a good friend would be.

"Name," Ami demanded, staring at the redhead who still hadn't offered her name. "I mean, what's your name?" she tried again, attempting to soften her tone. Don't snap, you sound like a tiger.

Amelia. There was something about the way the other girl said it that made Eris wonder if it was really her name. There was a certain anxiety to her tone, a nervousness that Eris caught onto, having the same expression in situations that she found herself lying in. Oh well, who cared about a little girl's fake name? It wasn't like she was going to ever see Ameliaagain after this. And Eris could understand the need to lie to a stranger. She lied more than enough, living at a park, and deflecting the questions of adults that were bothering her, or trying to send her into foster care. Although, Eris wasn't that good at lying, she managed it, slowly getting better at it.

There had never been a reason to lie when she was younger, having lived a sheltered life, alone with her mum, sister, dad, and dog, Rufus, the light of the young girl's life. Than the chaos came. The fighting, the lying, the screaming. All of those events had turned Eris into the person she was today--the girl with dirty hair and a ripped up sweater, unable to understand the fellow redhead standing in front of her, looking out of place with her fancy shoes and American Accent.

Oh, she really was a girl with an ego. Eris thought with a huff, as the girl demanded to know Eris's name. Was she really that stupid? It wasn't smart to tell strangers your name, even strangers with cool sounding American Accents. Had this girl never learned about the perils of talking to strangers? From the start of her life, Eris's mum had drilled into her head just how horrible people would be.

Even when her mother wasn't home, when she left the house clothed in all black, kissing Bella and Eris's heads goodbye, she always left with the same words.

"Don't let anyone in, don't talk to anybody. Strangers will kill you, just as fast as friends will."


Then she would leave, evidently, with two very scared daughters. Those words had always stuck with the young Elcan girl, efficiency making life on the streets harder. Although, she tried not to let the words apply to her friendships with other children, Eris still felt worried, as she studied the fellow red head with the brash words.

What was tonight? Think about family and feel sad night? No it was not. Snapping back to reality, Eris returned her wary gaze to the freckled girl in front of her. She would have to talk to her, maybe even make a friend out of her. Even though she seemed bossy, and not British, no child that was alone at night could be that bad. Right? Right.

Raising an eyebrow, Eris edged herself off the bench, letting her sweater sleeves fall away from her face. Staring up at her, cursing her smallness, Eris watched the second of the two strangers walk away, until she was left with Amelia.

"My name is, uh, Bella." Eris said the first name that popped into her mind, her sister's name sliding through her tongue. The lie came easily, as she had just been thinking about Bella, anyways. Even so, her face flushed pink at the lie, as Eris looked around the deserted park.

"Why are you here in the middle of the night?" Eris finally said, face souring in displeasure as she awaited a rude response from the girl in front of her. Her awkwardness was rivaled only by her fiery personality, and at this moment, Eris couldn't figure out whether she was embarrassed or ready to defend herself...or a mix of both.

Bella. From Bella's eyes and her tone of voice, Ami knew that Bella had caught on to her lie, but had simply decided to ignore it and counter with one of her own, which was perfectly fine with her. It wasn't like she was ever going to see Bella ever again after this, because she was being shipped off to some dumbass wizarding school that was just going to be a waste of her seven years. 

At Bella's question, Ami blinked. Hadn't she heard her? "I'm just on a walk," she repeated, rather huffily, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here?" she added, looking the girl up and down suspiciously. To be fair, she looked about nine, and Ami would've never guessed that Bella would have been her age. What would a nine-year-old be doing in a park at midnight?

Without warning, Ami was pulled back into a memory that didn't want to relive- no, not a memory... more like deja vu, if anything. Her head spinning, she grabbed the edge of the bench, desperately trying to blink away the memory, to no avail.

She remembered this park. She'd been here before, last year, maybe about five or six months after she'd moved back to England from America. She'd started her school (which she hated) in England, then got shipped back and forth between the two countries, never getting a proper education, never getting to see both of her parents together at the same time. While both her dad and mom insisted that everything was alright, that they were okay, Ami could already spot the tell-tale signs, the furious whispers, the arguments over the phone that were never quite soft enough. 

She remembered this park. She had run here after school one day, sick and tired of England, longing for her home in urban Chicago, longing for the bad neighborhoods she grew up in, longing for the gym, longing for her best friend, longing for her dad. 

She remembered this park. It was the second time she'd been fully aware of her magic. She'd been an idiot, such an idiot, coming here alone, so young, so beautiful... In short, she'd been jumped, mugged, assaulted, whatever you wanted to call it. She was already a black belt, at the time, and a good one. Slipping into her self-defense mode, she started kicking and punching and breaking both knees and faces... but every time she made contact with someone, their skin and flesh started to burn, to boil, to sear. Horrified, nine-almost-ten-year-old Ami ran, she ran away, she ran home into her mom's arms.

Boy, oh boy, did she remember this park. Blinking rapidly, she glanced at Bella, hoping she hadn't noticed that utterly embarrassing display of nostalgia, and waited for her answer to her question. Indeed, what were the chances of two tiny, adorable little girls meeting in a park and midnight?

HI i'm not being part of the rp I just wanted to apologize for not knowing this was private I'm still new so understand that was why