Quote:
Originally Posted by
Harron Peasley 
A smile was good, right? Charlie grinned back, noting the younger girls accent. "I'm almost annoyed with you for being so confident." When she started, Charlie was barely able to approach anyone, and she'd been in her fourth year. "You're from America, yeah?" Like Connor was. And like Elodies family. What was it like, where abouts, can I come visit?
All of the questions for you, Gwen.
Or at least, you'd have them asked soon enough. At her next words, though, Charlie was shocked, and it showed in her eyes, but at Gwen's reaction to her own speech, the seventeen year old couldn't help but smile, and almost laugh. And her little ramble, it was so cute! "I can understand that. I don't like a lot of good books." She shrugged a little, eyeing the pile before continuing. "Literature is subjective, not everyone's going to like the same thing." Like Dels and Lottie loved Game of Thrones, right? Too much gore and, ahem... for Charlie. She'd tried, a long time ago. "Well, if it's any good, I'll recommend it to you." Flipping the book over, Charlie motioned it towards Gwen. She'd even do lending and stuff if it was any good. There was, however, one burning question on the older girls lips.
"Why? I mean, what about Romeo and Juliet don't you like?" Book discussions were fun, you know. Unless she was going to make her cry over her favourite thing.
Annoyed with her for being so confident? Was it not obvious that Gwen was shaking on the inside, completely afraid of rejection? She shrugged and smiled like she was the confident girl Charlie was imagining.
"My dad is a lawyer. Confidence comes with the territory." Because he was not going to stand for a child who didn't speak up. That was the nice thing about having a lawyer for a father. There was nothing Gwen couldn't tell him. And no rules were set in stone. If she had a solid argument as to why the rule should be changed, it would be.
The blonde girl nodded at the question.
"Yeah. Sort of. I mean, my mom and siblings live in London now but I grew up just outside of New York City." Her mother had been from England in the first place, and she had cousins and grandparents there, but she considered herself American. She even had a little bitty flag hanging above her bed.
Gwen felt like she was talking a lot about herself.
"Um, where are you from?" It seemed like an appropriate question. What Gwen really wanted to ask was 'how do you pronounce your last name?' but she worried it would be rude.
Literature is subjective. Gwen turned the words over in her head. That made sense. Because nothing was ever going to be so perfect that it spoke to everyone. Maybe just art in general was subjective. Literature was art, wasn't it? Ha! As if Gwen could read that huge book! Gwen wasn't a reader. Not that she didn't like books, she did, very much. Reading was just so difficult for her. Maybe she could borrow a copy from the library over Christmas and ask someone to read it to her.
Annora might do it. The problem with Annora reading though, was that Gwen couldn't close her eyes and lay back. She had to pay attention. Which wasn't so bad. Maybe her dad would read it to her. She was spending Christmas with him this year.
Gulp. What about Romeo and Juliet didn't she like? People didn't generally like to have their favorite things attacked. Gwen had learned pretty quickly that most Ravenclaws were different, welcoming the chance to argue their point. She just hoped Charlie was one of those kinds of people.
"I think it's heralded as a great love story, and honestly? It's a story about hate, and teenage romance. It's about how the hate of two families caused their children to die. If Romeo and Juliet had never been forbidden to see each other, they would have dated for a few weeks and broken up. At that age of thirteen nobody loves another person enough to marry them. Hell, your brain isn't even fully developed at that age! Gwen knew that she wasn't about to get married in a year. It just bothered her that everyone talked about how much Romeo and Juliet loved each other, but it was rebellion and hormones. Not the same as love. They were stupid kids who threw their lives away for no reason.