Two Recipients ((Closed for now))

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla had taken the longest route to the Owlry, and had climbed the tower's stairs as slowly as her legs allowed. In her hand were two letters, identical to each other. She gave the last few steps a hop and let her eyes scan the collection of owls above before finding the one she was looking for.

Before she even called her, Canela swooped down and landed gently on her shoulder. Layla sat on the very spot she was standing in and motioned for her owl to come to the spot right in front of her.

"I finally have a job for you."

[Charlie Jones]

Charlie's mouth hurt by the time she herself arrived at the owlery. It had been from the excessive smiling caused by a certain morning owl. The letter was another one from the family back home, but it was from Mike, the brother she had the most quarrels with. As usual, it was pithy, misspelled, and rude in his scrawled handwriting.

Charlie,
Happy now? The wedings called off til sumer. Tam told me sumthing aboot you cuttin your hair, and she wants it all growed grown. Can you belive that? Shes got me writing to you becuse of your stupid hair. Don't mess it up next time, I'm warning you.
Mike

She could have cared less by then, as the happiness rose in her. What luck! More time to plan for destruction on her father's wedding! She would have to tell Hiro and Drew about this one. Her grin reached far beyond ear to ear, and her cheeks were pink from the excessiveness.

She was opening the door to the owlery, and spotted a certain girl sitting on the floor. She hadn't seen her face quite yet, only the back of her head. She thought about ignoring her, but she chose the better, more honest path. (A better, more honest path meant that Charlie would make up a lie.)

"Dude... you're sitting on a huge pile o' bird crap," her grin was replaced with her usual sly smirk. She waited at the door for the girl to turn around for the reaction.

[Layla Jimenez]

Two letters that were off back to London. One was to her brother, the only person in her immediately family she still got along with. For this one she had to ask a 7th year to help her charm it so only he could read it. The second was to her muggle friend, Damian. In the short amount of time she was back at home, she'd made a single friend who somehow figured out she was a witch. They were inseparable until she told him she was coming back.

Just as Canela had extended her left claw to her owner, Layla's head snapped up at the voice coming from behind her. The first clue was the voice. Female, stern, yet obviously joking. The second was the word 'Dude'. Not many people in the UK or even in Hogwarts used that word. She grinned and leaned forward to attach the letters to her owl, replying casually, "In some cultures, bird crap is considered a very important substance for certain rituals. But at the moment, it's just comfy."

[Charlie Jones]

Charlie was almost taken aback by the face being Layla's. So sudden, that Charlie's expression changed five times. Smirk, confusion, extreme bewilderment (featuring an open mouth), realization, and more grinning. She promptly forgot about her own business, including the miniprank. Instead, she just said, almost incredibly, "LAY-LA?!?"

[Layla Jimenez]

"Who's that?" she asked innocently. She held it as long as she could, but a grin of her own was spreading across her face and she bouced up from her seat to grab the Slytherin into a hug. It was similar to Drew's when she had first arrived, she figured she'd pass it around.

"How the hell are you, Charlene!?"

[Charlie Jones]

Charlie would never, ever admit this, but Layla was the only one she could ever be remotely girly with. She was one of her best female friends, and she knew it could never change. So it wasn't any surprise to her when she embraced the hug and smiled widely. "DUUDE! I've been frickin' rockin' this place, but it ain't the same without you!" She let go of Layla and looked at her. "You look different, man... What's been happenin' in your alley?"

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla was surpised to have her hug so warmly accepted, and more surpised at not being slaughtered at the mention of her friend's full name. She let Charlie inspect her, smiled and shook her head at her observations. "I just lost some weight, it's nothing big," she said, trying to shrug off the last few months. "I did a lot of running and I was kind of sick. I'm much better now!"

She pulled her friend into another hug before exclaiming, "Oh wait!" She turned around and tapped her shoulder. Canela dutifully flew up to it and leaned in, awaiting instruction. "Alas Fuertes*," she whispered. The owl took flight and left the two girls alone again.

"So... tell me everything!"

[Charlie Jones]

"You were sick?" Charlie asked a bit worriedly, accepting the hug again and looking at her. "What'd you catch?" She stod and looked at her, not budging or spilling any of her own info until Layla did her own.

[Layla Jimenez]

"It was nothing, just some food poisoning when my parents and I went out. I was in bed for like a week puking my brains out." she said, lying flawlessly with a smile.

At times she felt she overreacted being pulled out of school, and she'd spent her time out of Hogwarts in a mild depression... and a bit of anger. She was going to get better now that she was back, it was nothing Charlie should be worried about.

"How much have I missed?" she said, trying to change the subject again.

[Charlie Jones]

"Dude, that sucks," Charlie said as she nodded. She had food poisoning before at home, when Mike cooked some rank meat because her father had been working late in the local wizarding newspaper. She could stil remember the vomit and disgust, so it made sense why she didn't press on the subject.

Charlie laughed a bit with the question. "What've you missed? Not much. Drew's still hung up on Alhana, Gwen hasn't been around in ages, Hiro's..." Charlie paused a bit. Did he change since those months ago that Layla hadn't been around? He seemed weirder to her, and in turn she was weird as well. "Hiro's Hiro. And I'm still me, just 15 now. You missed my birthday party."

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla wrinkled her nose and nodded at Charlie's sentiments on food poisoning.

Layla listened as carefully as she could as Charlie summarized what she had missed. Drew and Alhana.. check. They're like an institution. Gwen... crap. She hadn't heard from her either. Hiro... pause? A pause. What does that mean? Layla shrugged it off as nothing since everyone else seemed to be the same as well, why would Hiro be different?

But her face quickly changed at the mention of Charlie's birthday. "Blast! I missed your birthday! I'm so sorry!! I'm gonna make it up to you, I promise. What did you not get to do? We'll do it."

[Charlie Jones]

"Hmm..." Charlie contemplated on it a bit. She hadn't any clue about what to do. Her birthday was, in fact, quite perfect. "I need payback. Reina got me a.. a..." The disgust grew on her face. "...a stupid dress and makeup! What the heck? So I need to get back at her. Just dunno how.

"Speaking of revenge," Charlie continued when an another event popped up. But this time it hadn't passed. "I invited Drew and Hiro to my pop's stupid wedding. Wanna come? I need to keep him from marrying that crazy dragon." She said it so casually that it she could have been asking Layla to go to Hogsmeade in that tone.

[Layla Jimenez]

"They're not married yet!?"

Yes! Something she hadn't entirely missed. "If she really is a fire-breathing hag, then yes. I'm there. What do you have in mind so far?" Layla knew that her father's fiancee made Charlie entirely unhappy, as far as she knew. It was worth ruining a wedding.

"A dress? No way!" This time Layla couldn't contain her laughter. "Imagine that! Charlene Jones in a dress. "I'd pay to see that. But either way I'm sure we can find something nice for Reina without getting all of Slytherin into it."

At this point, Layla was beyond herself. She'd never been one for revenge or preventing weddings, but she was so excited that she was up for just about anything now.

[Charlie Jones]

"Yeah! Thank Merlin, dude. 'Fact--" Charlie held up the letter from her brother, "--it's been postponed. So that gives me time to work out the details. So far, I wanna separatethe two and make them hate each other somehow. If not, I want Tammy to hate my pops 'cause of me. She already does, but you know-- enough that she calls it off. Details are rough, we're gonna have to go through them with the guys."

She shook her head at the dress in her mind. A horrid, Barbie pink that would haunt her nightmares for the rest of her life. "Reina did that 'cause she froze me in a spell one time and gave me a makeover. Scared her off, though, when the spell wore off." She shuddered at the story that had never told before. Everytime she saw tweezers, she would cover her eyebrows with her hands. In fact, she did that right then and there.

[Layla Jimenez]

Layla took one of Charlie's hands off her face. "No she didn't!" She took the other hand off and laughed out loud. "She did!" Although Charlie hadn't bothered to keep up with it, Layla could still see the outline of two very well shaped brows surrounded by new growth. Layla saw a mental image of Charlie with trimmed brows and make up. Completely ridiculous, but she knew Charlie was a pretty girl.

"You know we're going to do that again, right? But I promise you don't have to show anyone," she teased. "I just sent a letter to my brother. He told me I needed to update him. Sometimes I feel like he's the older one."