Meadowlark and Cheval come home (Saturday?)

[Cres]

[[ok! ^-^]]

Meadowlark felt a fleeting moment of sadness at the mention of Madame Percheron's retirement. Well, she knew the older woman could sometimes be at least as insufferable as her mother, but she had always considered Madame her mentor, and it was sad to hear she wasn't there anymore. This distracted her enough that she didn't catch anything suspicious from Clover's voice or choice of words as she mentioned the "natural dancer" in her. She smiled, a little less warmly than she meant to. So many things seemed to change. She wondered in her heart if any of them ever changed for the better.

"Oh, I'm so sad to hear about Madame Percheron," she said. "But it's good if you are developing, Clover." She meant to say that she hoped she'd make it to the brightlights some day as well, but then she didn't. She didn't really hope that. These days she remembered only vaguely the time when she had danced for the sake of dancing, for the sake of art. What she wished for her sister was that she would keep the enjoyment, the thrill, the preciousness of dancing. If fame came with it, it should be treated with caution.

Meadowlark found herself having learned that very lesson the hard way.

"When is this show, exactly?" Cheval was now asking, Meadowlark realised she had fallen silent for too long, and tried to correct it with a smile. "We have some engagements I'm afraid we can't move."

This made Meadowlark's expression grow just the tiniest bit resentful as she glanced at Cheval.

"Certainly we can make it," she said more sharply than she had meant.

Cheval looked at his wife and put his hand on hers gently, a polite affectionate expression on his face - the same as always. It made Meadowlark want to scream and cry at the same time, but all she could do was to force herself to smile.

"Certainly we will try, my love," Cheval said kindly. "But we must not neglect our duties, must we?"

Meadowlark swallowed. Yes, duties. They were always there. She averted her eyes down and said nothing more.

[Kat]

Clover watched her sister and Cheval with a curious expression. Obviously it seemed that whatever these "duties" were, that they seemed a bit more important to Cheval than they did to Meadowlark. Looking at her brother-in-law-- it was so weird to think of him with that term, Clover knew she would probably get yelled at by her mother any second now.

"So, are you saying that your duties are more important than family, Cheval? I'm just curious exactly what these duties are, if you'd be so quick to dismiss an important family event for them." There had just been something about the way he'd responded, the way he had looked at Meadowlark, that led Clover to believe that perhaps her sister wasn't all that happy with having so many duties.


Mrs. Springling was horrified by Clover's comment, immediately sitting up straight and stamping her foot on the ground for emphasis. "Clover! I did not raise you to be so rude! One more outburst, and I'm going to have to ask you to go to your room until you can act civilized!"

Clover looked at her mother, completely unphased. "There was nothing wrong with my question, mother. After all, we're all family, aren't we? We should be able to discuss our opinions and feelings, which I am doing quite civily. Maybe if you would stop yelling at me constantly, and relaxed a little, you would be able to see that." She sunk back into her chair, her cool eyes firmly planted on her mother. There was no way she was going to be the one coming out of this arguement looking like a child.


Mr. Springling sat in his chair, glass of wine in his hand. Glancing briefly at Meadowlark, he shook his head apologetically and proceeded to down the contents of his glass. He couldn't stand it when his wife and daughter argued, and their arguements had only grown more frequent and more heated over the years.

[Cres]

Cheval felt most uncomfortable at Clover's question, and even more uncomfortable at the girls' mother's outburst and Clover's statement following. Families were not for talking openly. That he had learned a long time ago.

He kept his polite smile.

Meadowlark felt so horrible she might have died, and she was too frozen to say anything. As usual, Cheval got to take the lead in the discussion.

"Please, Mrs Springling, don't be too harsh on your daughter," Cheval said gently. "I am sure she didn't mean to be offensive." He directed his eyes to Clover now. "My dear, you are of course too young to fully understand yet, but the obligations of having a public life can be very... pressing. Besides, your sister and I have the lead roles in the upcoming performance, and you can't surely expect us to tell the rest of the cast just reschedule the practice over some little family matter."

Meadowlark felt so choked that she simply could not speak, though Cheval's categorisation of Clover's performance as "a little family matter" made her feelings toward Cheval grow just a bit colder.

[Kat]

Clover turned her gaze to Cheval now, intent on remaining calm and polite as well, even though she felt like walking over to him and kicking his front teeth out. "I can assure you, Cheval, I am more than old enough to understand the pressure of a public life and I would appreciate it if, in the future, you refrained from using my age as a reason for my disagreement on any matter we may have." Though she often simply blew up at people she was angry with, when the matter called for it Clover could conduct herself with a striking bit of cold civility, obviously something that had been passed down from neither parent.

"Now as for my question, if you had simply stated what your duties were that I had inquired about in a polite manner, instead of assuming that my request for information stemmed from any selfish reasons, that would not have been a problem." She paused, her eyes still locked on Cheval. "I would also like you to understand, Cheval, that every waking hour of my young life not spent in school is devoted to my dancing. Being one of the lead dancers in my own group," she decided to throw in that little bit information for fun, "I know all about scheduling practices and working around very busy schedules. So you don't need to lecture me on that subject, Cheval. I've been living it for the past six years and quite appreciate the difficulties involved."

Looking now at her sister instead of Cheval, Clover's expression softened immensely. "So sis, if you're not busy next Thursday night, that would be the 30th, day before Halloween, it would really mean a lot to me if you could make it to my show."

[Cres]

Meadowlark was at first aghast and then thrilled at how Clover was silencing Cheval completely with her lengthy, cold polite reply. To be quite honest, she was terribly exhilarated by it, but she didn't show it outward.

Cheval, for his part, lifted his chin and stiffened in the way that told Meadowlark, who had learned to read her husband's body language well - or as well as possible, anyway - that he was quite huffed. He said not a word, but his expression was most cold.

Meadowlark smiled to Clover most warmly.

"I will keep it free," she said firmly, with not a single glance at Cheval.

[Kat]

Clover smiled and allowed herself to get a little more excited, showing it outwardly. "That's awesome! I hope you'll like it, we've been working long hours on the show. I'll let you know more about it later." Clover smiled again, glancing briefly at her mother, who looked quite upset. It was obvious that Mrs. Springling agreed with Cheval instead of her own daughter, but that suited Clover just fine.


Mr. Springling was surprised and a little pleased at Clover's outburst as he too had found the stiff reaction of Cheval to be a little unpleasant. He hoped it was just from the long flight, but the fatherly side of him still couldn't help but think that maybe there was something more going on in his daughter's marriage than he would have liked. Not wanting the day to get any uglier, he decided to step in. "So do the two of you have any plans for tonight? Are we doing dinner?" He spoke in a pleasant manner, hoping that switching to a different topic would help.

[Cres]

Meadowlark smiled to her sister happily.

"I'll look forward to it," she said warmly.

When Mr Springling spoke, Cheval looked at him. He had by now got back his composure, and though Meadowlark still saw from the slightest of signs in his body that he was not about to feel jovial toward Clover any time soon, he had got good enough an upbringing to be able to put it behind him quickly. He smiled to Mr Springling and nodded.

"Dinner would be wonderful, thank you," he said with all the pleasantness back in his voice. "You must forgive us, however, if we retire early tonight. The flight was long."

Meadowlark would have wanted to mention that she might want to stay up later to talk with Clover, but she didn't dare to. She had before tried to contradict Cheval a few times, and something in the way his behaviour had changed had warned her that it was not a wise thing to do too far. So for now, she remained quiet.

[Kat]

(Are they staying over here for the night/weekend? Do they have their own place yet set up for them?)


Mr. Springling seemed happy enough with the answer, really just glad that it had shifted the mood away from unpleasant topics. He looked at his wife, seeing a smile on her face now. Apparently she and Cheval had matching attitudes when it came to putting unpleasantness behind them.

"Wonderful, I was hoping you would be having dinner here with us, I made a wonderful pasta dish, chicken alfredo. Do you prefer white or red wine with your pasta, Cheval?"

Clover watched as her mother latched onto the dinner idea, rolling her eyes and glancing back at Meadowlark. Putting an elbow on the arm of her chair, she leaned her head against her hand, catching her sister's eyes and making hand gestures to show her annoyance with her mother. She wasn't a big fan of formal small talk like this, she'd rather invite her sister downstairs to show her how she'd done up the basement into her own little dance studio. She had been surprised when her father had been able to convince her mother to let the two of them decorate the basement to Clover's liking and let her move her room down to the room down there. The basement was like her own little apartment and she had no problems keeping it neat and tidy if it would keep her mother off her back.

[Cres]

[[gee, I hadn't thought of that. Hmmm. I think Cheval probably has arranged for a hotel room for the weekend, at least. Cheval's loaded, so he might, like, plan to stay in the hotel room for the whole time they're there. I'm sure they'd welcome an invitation from the Springlings to stay in their house though - well, Meadowlark would, anyway. So they don't have to go back to the hotel room at all. I have the feeling that they wouldn't have told about their plans yet to the Springlings. Well, Cheval wouldn't - Meadowlark is mostly just following along.]]

Cheval smiled pleasantly to Mrs Springling, completely comfortable with her way of handling things.

"Always white wine with pasta for me, Mrs Springling," he said with a smile. "Thank you. Yes, we thought it would be nice to have a family gathering, it has been far too long since we saw last."

Meadowlark smiled when she saw Clover's hand movement, almost giggling as well. She managed to keep her composure, however, even if from her smile it was obvious she definitely didn't disagree with Clo.

[Cres]

[[jump to the end of the dinner!]]

Meadowlark pondered upon her next move the whole dinner, gathering courage to ask her sister if she'd want to show her round the house. She realised faintly that if she needed to gather courage for that, something must be wrong, but she discarded the thought quickly. It would only upset her.

When the family had eaten, Meadowlark launched on her opportunity quickly.

"My, that was marvellous, mother," she said with a smile. "Thank you." She paused, then looked at Clover. "Now I feel like taking a little walk to let it settle. Clo, how about you and me go look around the house?"

Cheval, who had no obsession over being with his wife all the time, smiled to her.

"Yes, you two have a lot of catching up to do," he said and looked at Mrs Springling. "Perhaps the rest of us might enjoy a glass of wine in the meanwhile?"

Meadowlark looked at her husband and smiled thankfully. That moment made her remember just why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.

[Kat]

Clover looked at her sister and smiled excitedly, getting up quickly from the table. "That's an awesome idea, Lark! You can see how dad and I fixed up the basement dance studio." She looked at her father and smiled, laying a hand on his shoulder as she passed by his chair, leading her sister toward the basement where she was living. Once they were far enough from the table to not be heard, Clover turned back to her sister and grinned. "Way to go, I wanted to bolt from that table so bad and just spend some time alone with you." She opened the door to the basement, flipping on the lights and leading her sister down.

The room had been painted a very light blue, with stars of different colours stenciled on the walls that glowed under black light. The floor was still soft wood, excellent for dancing. There was a small couch that was often moved out of the way when Clo danced, that sat before an entertainment system on the wall. There were bookshelves in the walls as Clo loved to sit and read sometimes. One of the walls was all mirrors and a bar was before it, left over from the girl's days of ballet. Clo still used it for stretching.

There were pictures on the walls of she and her dance group, from various performances and just hanging out. There were potlights in the ceiling, sending soft light down on the two girls. "So, what do you think?"

[Cres]

Meadowlark followed her sister, happy to get away from the others for a while. Her parents were nice, well, at least her father, but she had missed being with Clover so much. She looked around in the studio with wide eyes.

"Oh my," she said as she smiled, turning to Clover after a long admiring look round the studio. "This is marvellous, honey! I am so jealous, you know. A small cosy place like this, just for yourself. It looks great!"

[Kat]

Clover smiled, ushering her sister over to the couch and pulling a photo album off the side table. "Here, sit and look! I'll show you pictures from the past few years and get you caught up a little." She grinned and flipped open the book, which started around the time when Meadowlark had left. Her mother liked to scrapbook, and had made her a scrapbook from the past few years of her life. The first page had a picture of she and her old six friends at the their tea house. She frowned a little, looking at the picture. Seven best friends, and the years had torn them all apart. Did any of them even talk to each other anymore?

"Well, here we go, starting at the beginning. It's weird you know, you remember them? We almost ruined your wedding?" She laughed a little before shaknig her head and letting the frown return, "I don't even really talk to any of my old friends anymore. It's kinda sad."

[Cres]

Meadowlark followed Clover sheepishly to the couch and sat down next to her. She smiled when she took the scrapbook out, and as she opened it out from the page of the picture of Clover and her old friends. Meadowlark had never known them very well, so she had to push her memory to recall their names. Her expression became rather sad when Clover said she didn't really talk to them anymore.

"That's really sad, Clover," she said quietly. "Friends are important. I do remember them. Especially the pink-haired one there. She cried through the whole thing." Meadowlark smiled ruefully. "I know how easily one can loose touch," she added quietly, not even meaning to say it aloud.

[Kat]

Clover grinned, remembering fondly the wedding. Sweetheart had cried through the whole thing, setting their mother off as well. It wasn't often that she thought about her old friends but now that she was, she found herself missing them just a little. She had a new group of friends now, mostly dancers, so it wasn't like she was missing anything. Just missing specific people.

"Maybe I should see what they're all up to these days, surprising we all go to high school together but never talk. Anyway, let's move on." She flipped through the book, catching up on the years, before finally getting to the present. She flipped to a page with her new group, a picture of she and Skale on the opposite page. She pointed at it and smiled. "That would be Skale, my new boyfriend. We dance together, I don't think mom's happy with the idea, but that could be because he's six years older than me. You know mom, she thinks he's just using me." Clover laughed, wondering what her parents would think if they knew what the couple got up to at Skale's apartment.