Once, just once, had Fiona Grimm talked to Christine Evans. Christine was beautiful, popular, well spoken, and absolutely loved. She was one of those few popular girls who were not completely horrid. She had been, until just a few months back, when she had begun dating Micah James. Now, there was a complete transformation in the girl. She watched out for the less popular girls, she studied more in class, and, most importantly, she had begun watching romantic comedies.
Most people did not catch the latter, but Fiona did one night. Christine had spent the night in Finn’s dorm, hanging out with Ginger Collins and Leslie Li. Finn had been pretending to sleep while the other dormmates actually slept. And then, suddenly, Christine was saying something Finn actually wanted to hear.
“Have you guys ever seen the movie… Pretty in Pink?”
Eager voices assured her they had not. Christine hurriedly began telling the plot. Finn blinked as her interest piqued, sparked by… something. She suddenly sat up and the girls that had all sprawled across one bed, painting their nails and cramming chocolate frogs, suddenly looked up, starting in surprise. “Merlin, Fiona, you scared us!” Leslie said, giving a significant look to their guest, proud to admit that she was a ‘we’ with Christine Evans.
Finn shook her head, not really caring for that. “What… what are you talking about?”
Christine raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow, one of her pink lips twisting upwards into a smile. “What? The movie? It’s called Pretty in Pink.”
Finn blinked. “Don’t… Don’t spoil the ending. I want to see it.”
Leslie and Ginger glanced at each other, appalled that Fiona Grimm had the nerve to command Christine Evans to do anything. Christine looked a bit surprised, too, but Micah hated hearing that she had been catty. So she forced a smile. “Sure thing, Flinn.”
Finn didn’t even bother correcting her. She rolled over and slept.
That had been in March. Fionna had been trying to convince her father since the start of summer that a muggle television was not a horrible idea. He had finally acquiesced and she had sent the delivery boy on an urgent task to secure the movie Pretty in Pink. The next day, he had arrived and she had thanked him heavily. That night, she watched Pretty in Pink. And then she watched it again. She fell asleep on the third watch.
She was in love, and it wasn’t fair. Sure, she was a bit different from Andie. She was not ashamed of her home for lack of money. She was ashamed for her fortune and the ways she suspected it had been collected. She was not embarrassed because her father was well-meaning but unemployed. Orpheus definitely did business, but she had a gnawing feeling that good intentions had never been one of his tools. But, like Andie, she felt alone, torn between two worlds, just looking for that one person to welcome her into one of them. She wanted a boy with a charming smile, and intense blue eyes. A boy who had to fight everything he knew to love her, but he would do it for her.
She wanted her Blane. She could even settle for a Duckie… Oh no. She had a Ducky. Correction – she wished she had a very specific Ducky. Goodness – she couldn’t even get her romantic comedy life casting just right.
She knew it was immature, and silly, and totally unrealistic. But her heart ached for a boy who should have never been interested in her to just… look her way. Give her that chance. Make her feel… something. Something other than lonely.
For a week, the girl had watched the movie. Clutched her pillow, cried tears of joy for the protagonist, bit her lip to hold in giggles. Her father would have been mortified to see her hung up on a fictional situation, and one so ‘below’ what she was naturally entitled too. But she found it was becoming more and more easy to defy her father. In fact, today… she was venturing off shopping alone, something her father rarely approved of. But even worse, she was stepping into a muggle store.
It was not far from the Leaky Cauldron, where Norman was conducting some business. She had slipped away and hurried to a muggle secondhand shop. Now, she sat on the ground, her legs curled before her, a large crate of old DVDs before her as she rifled through them, desperate for more. More and more. If she couldn’t have a reality to live for, she wanted fiction.
by Fiona Grimm Sun Jul 06, 2014 9:32 pm
