Escaping From It All ((Carey))

[Iris Eldridge G5]

Iris held her breath as she listened to the fighting coming from downstairs. Her parent’s voices rang off the walls, the sounds ringing through her ears. “John! He needs to start taking his medicine!” her mother shrilled echoed down the hall causing Iris’s stomach to do flips. This was the first time in weeks since they argued. Well mostly because Iris and her mother went up to England to visit her Grandmother. “He’s old enough to make his own mistakes!” Iris groaned as she grabbed the nearby pillow, covering her head with it. Why did they always have to argue this early in the morning? Turning her head over on her cheek, she stared at the digital clock on the bedside table. “Eight-thirty!” she shrieked quietly groaning once again while burying the pillow onto her head. It was amazing that she hadn’t gone insane living with this family. Her oldest brother was off in Switzerland and rarely called; her other brother was a maniac with a bipolar disorder. Then to top if all off, her parents argued about almost everything. Iris remembered her father talking about it in the car as they went out for dinner one night. He told her that her mother was threatening to leave them for a while now. It caused Iris’s stomach to do flips at the thought. How her mom could just abandon her already? Of course, Anne didn’t follow through with this, but was trying to spend more time at home with her only daughter. It was nice sometimes to have her mother around, not always sleeping. Though, now, Iris was getting sick of all of the arguing; all of the fighting. She wasn’t going to chose between her parents, but just ignored them as they talked about each other behind their backs.

The walls shook violently as one of the doors of the rooms closed. It was probably her mother retiring to her bedroom. Iris and her father always joked about Anne’s mood swings, which must be brought up with menopause. At least she wasn’t taking those pills that were made from pregnant horse pee. Listening to the silence, Iris sighed as she sat up on her knees from the bed. She had to get out of the house today. Quickly jumping off the bed, she opened her closet door, looking for something to wear. She was still wearing her favorite pair of pajama pants with an old baggy tee shirt. Her hair was probably all matted too. Her brother referred it as the, rats nest. Pushing those thoughts from her mind, Iris took out a pair of jeans with a short sleeved purple shirt. Pulling the clothes on over her body, she zipped up the front of her jeans sighing as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her hips looked huge in these jeans, but it was better than wearing shorts. Iris didn’t like her legs at all. They were chubby, with enormous thighs and calves. Even after all this running she had been doing lately, they still looked huge. Biting her lips, Iris took her purse off from the table as she headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth. The house for once was fairly quiet, but it wouldn’t be for long she bet.

Bringing comb through her hair, Iris smiled as she was happy with the reflection in the mirror. Turning off the faucet, she put her toothbrush into the container gagging at the booger flavor fluoride rinse her brother liked. Quickly heading down the stairs, Iris pulled on shoes tennis shoes from the bottom of the stair case. “Where you going fatty?” her brother’s voice asked as she turned around to see him eating waffles on a plate. She rolled her eyes at his nickname. Honestly, he was a grown man now. “Go crawl up under a rock and die,” she sneered back at him turning on her heels at he laughed at her attempt. He didn’t follow her though as she entered the large chimney. It didn’t take long to already be standing in the middle of The Three Broomsticks. Brushing off the powder from her jeans, Iris exited the small pub. Noticing the joke shop at the far end of the village, she made her way over toward the store. Opening the door, she heard the familiar jingle of the bell as she entered the small store. It was one of her favorite shops at Hogsmeade, beside Honeydukes candy store, but who didn’t like candy?

Iris looked over all the books and gadgets as she made her way around the small room. There weren’t that many people visiting Hogsmeade that day, which meant that, had to be too early for people to want to be shopping. Stopping at a certain container that caught her eyes, Iris picked up the box opening it as she stuck her hand inside to take out the instructions. Feeling the little piece of paper crumble under her touch, Iris tried to pull her hand out but it wouldn’t bulge. Feeling a bit panicked, she jumped hearing another girl’s voice behind her. Turning around, Iris grinned showing Carey the trick she fell for. “Hey Carey..uhh...I seem to have my hand stuck in this box...” Iris began wiggling her fingers as she grinned at her friend. "Extremely clever I have to say..mind helping me get it out though?"

[Carey Brighton H5]

Carey pulled the brush through her hair and then twirled a twisty hair tie around a bunch of it before pulling it over her shoulder and letting it lay there naturally. She looked at herself in the mirror once more before heading out of her room and down the stairs to the foyer. She had decided to go to Hogsmeade today when she had finished everything up for the day. Her father hadn’t been too happy about it, but Carey figured he’d deal. She hummed as she went into the kitchen where her mother and sister sat discussing some book or another. “She obviously loves the first guy, Mum.” Mallory was protesting vehemently as her mother shook her head and stirred her tea, “No, no, she loves Jared, Mallory. You can just tell it by the way she talks to him.” Angela sipped her tea as Carey sat down beside Mallory, reaching for a scone, “Mum, you have no idea what you are talking about.” Carey smiled as they broke into another argument and hardly realized that she had joined them at the table. This was really the only time her mother and her sister got along, as sad as that was. Mallory didn’t get along with most of the Brighton family; Carey was really the only family member that didn’t treat her like an outcast on a regular basis. Sometimes, though, she was graced with a conversation about books with her mother and Carey knew Mallory took advantage of it as much as possible. Because, even though Mallory loved being able to do her own thing, she’d admitted to Carey that she missed out on the family life.

After about ten minutes of arguing, Mallory finally gave up and turned to return to her scone that she had abandoned on her plate to argue with her mother, noticing Carey beside her; “Mum has weird notions about the book we’re reading,” Mallory explained with a small sigh. Their mother shook her head, “No, no. I just can see what your sister can’t. Carey dear, is that all you’re eating?” Carey nodded and finished off her scone and tea, “I’m heading to Hogsmeade for the day so I’ll eat some more there when it’s around lunch.” Angela looked at her a moment and then sighed and nodded as if she were okay with that even though Carey knew she wasn’t. If it was one thing Angela Brighton wished her family would do it was to eat meals together. But with David’s conflicting schedules and Carey’s set routine and Mallory’s unpredictability…things like that just never happened. Jeremy was never home, he was always at work, so…family meal times were a dream. A hopeless dream. Carey wiped her mouth with the linen napkin and then stood from the table, “I’ll be back hmm…before 9 I suppose.” Angela hmmed and hahed for a moment and then nodded again as Mallory gave her sister a smile of approval Carey left the dining room to make her way into the sitting room where the fireplace was kept. Since she couldn’t apparate just yet, she had to settle for flooing although she pretty much loathed flooing. It was so messy and it usually got her clothes sooty. They never cleaned the fireplace at the Three Broomsticks.

Checking to make sure she had all the stuff she needed and wanted, Carey stepped into the fireplace and threw down the floo powder while stating her destination. Within a few moments, she arrived at the Three Broomsticks. She looked down at her outfit, brushing off the random spots of soot, and waved at Rosmerta before breaking out into the sunny day. Normally, Carey would be meeting Loki here, but they hadn’t met up yet that week. She figured she’d get in some shopping done while she could. The only thing was Hogsmeade wasn’t exactly some place she’d like to shop. Well, technically, Carey didn’t like shopping at all. She didn’t like the gruelling process of looking for clothes or what have you. She thought it was a waste of valuable time. Yes, Carey was not like an ordinary teenage girl. She looked around the streets of Hogsmeade and then let her eyes land on Zonko’s deciding that she would look around there for a bit. She knew she wouldn’t find anything interesting to her in there, but it was always worth a laugh to see what unsuspecting kid would set off a prank without realizing they were doing it until it happened.

She pushed open the door and stepped inside, looking around the shop. As always, nothing caught her eye – until they landed upon a familiar person. Iris Eldridge was one of her closer friends not that Carey really had any of them. Iris had her back turned to her and she looked like she was having an issue with one of the Zonko’s jokes. Carey approached her and spoke with a smile, “Having problems, Iris?” Iris explained what was wrong and Carey chuckled to herself before reaching and tugging on the box. It didn’t budge. She tugged harder. Still nothing. Finally, she frowned and looked around for a salesperson – seeing no one, she turned back to Iris and smiled guiltily; “Think they have scissors we can chop the box up with?”