coffee chats

[coeur_de_lion]

Alli is the one who arranges the weekly coffee date in Avalon. She's got plenty of friends at school, she's not lonely, but she's never really had critter friends before. She hadn't even realized how much she enjoys having people to hang out in midform with until she has them. She decides she likes it, and that she would like this to continue, thanks very much. She tries the spontaneous approach for a while, more out of laziness than anything, but Jenny has school and work and siblings, May has her girlfriend and has turned into a bottomless pit of magic practice, and Emma can't leave Avalon. So Alli finally just throws up her hands and proclaims that everyone's meeting in the Avalon coffee shop at the same time every week, okay, okay? Cool.

It works better than she expects, honestly. She's not sure they would have become friends naturally- it's probably telling that they weren't, before- but they've got enough shared history under their belt by this point that it hardly matters. Everyone has the occasional conflict, but they're rare and they're mostly good about telling the group beforehand. (Okay, so everyone except Alli is great about it, and Alli has a memory like a sieve.) But Alli had last minute detention last week, so she's feeling guilty enough to arrive early. Almost early. A few minutes early, anyway.

She's amused but not particularly surprised to see Emma and Jenny already there when she arrives. Emma's usually early, since she lives in Avalon and all, but she and Jenny look like they've been there for a while; they've got half empty cups in front of them and Jenny's most of the way through a cookie. Alli grins and joins them. "Even when I'm early, I'm late. Frimeuses, vous deux. May here yet?"

Comments

[coeur_de_lion]

"I mean, I did say that if it was an explanation issue it wasn't a big deal...? I'm bad at thinking about things when I panic, dude. Maybe we just panic differently."

[hatchedplan]

"Maybe."

[horsefeathered]

Before Alli can come up with a response, Jenny shows up. Where she's been for the start of break is presumably fetching the plastic bag she immediately offers to May. "Hey. Er- hey. This is for you."

[hatchedplan]

May blinks and takes the bag. "Thanks...?" She peers inside.

[horsefeathered]

There's a cake and a bag of cookies, and a folded card. "I'd like to send one to Isabella too, if you have her address," she says, mostly to the floor. "From me and Father O'Brien. I just- I'm really sorry. We. Both of us. We didn't mean- he said he actually tried to stop them, once he found out, but it was too late."

[hatchedplan]

"I have her address." She writes it out on a notebook corner and hands it over. "It wasn't your doing."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny tucks the note in her pocket. "You can probably get lifetime cookies out of it anyway," she admits.

[hatchedplan]

"I'm not going to trade on your priest making a mistake to turn you into my cookie servant."

[horsefeathered]

Jenny nods, somewhat tearfully. She'll be staying Hail Marys for the foreseeable forever, but she does appreciate that May doesn't seem to blame her. (She can do that all by herself.)

"Yeah, I... sorry," she mumbles again, then gives May a hug and flees. She doesn't want to be around when May reads her apology note. Yep, that's totally her reason. No crying here.

[hatchedplan]

May opens the card.

[horsefeathered]

Careful, cramped writing on both sides of the note detail the things she told her priest, what Father O'Brien has told her of his interactions with the priests, and many more apologies from both her and Father O'Brien. Father O'Brien is not important enough to know much in the church, but as far as he could tell the whole incident chalks up to well-meaning idiocy more so than malice.

[hatchedplan]

Good for the well-meaning idiots, but May kinda doesn't buy abducting a teenage girl from her home to borderline torture her as a zero-malice act. Whatever, she's not going to hassle Jenny on that point.