A Familiar Stranger

Chapter 8: Vicinus

NOTE: Interactions Josie has with anyone other than Caroline and Penelope are usually in French unless I state that otherwise, because Josie knows French.
Enjoy this chapter! :)

The twin reached the front door of her house and, as she usually does, put her hand in her jacket's pocket to take out her keys. To her surprise, she didn't find them there, her heart skipped a beat, as she hurriedly searched her jacket and short's pockets, not finding anything but scuffed tissue.

She sighed, "Oh God" she whispered amongst herself. The brunette then reached for her phone and called her mum.

"Hello this is Caroline Forbes, unfortunately I'm unavailable at the moment so please, leave a message!"

The twin sighed, seriously? She forgot her keys and she couldn't reach her mum, what now?
She kicked the wall in frustration.
She leaned against the door thinking of what do, as a car pulled up in front of her neighbour's house.

Caroline's neighbour was a friendly old lady called Mrs. Aragon, who was widowed when she was only 38 years old, leaving her with her daughter, who commit suicide a few days later, and granddaughter, who then moved in with her father in another city.

A young, short girl with a bob of platinum blonde messy hair left the car along with a dark skinned girl with gorgeous, tight, curls, they somehow looked like opposites; the black girl was put together while the white girl seemed messy. The girls were laughing about something, as they knocked on Mrs. Aragon's house door.
That's strange Josie thought, she doesn't remember her neighbour making friends with college girls.

The old lady opened the door and shrieked with delight, surprisingly. She hugged the blonde girl and then formally shook hands with the brunette. The blondie then said something to her, causing the short, fashionable old lady to turn her head across the garden towards Josette.

"Uh— Bonjour!" the twin said, awkwardly.
"What're you doing there? Don't you have your house keys?" asked the old lady, in French. Despite being in her 50s, she had a young, posh, voice and the most alive sky blue eyes the twin had ever seen.
"I forgot them inside earlier" she explained, laughing a bit while doing so, awkwardly —also in French, thankfully she had learned the language from the amount of time she spent in the country.
"Would you like to come inside and wait until Miss Forbes comes back?" asked the young blonde girl, who also had a very posh voice, suit for a narrator of a French rom-com. Usually people associate posh with snoopy or snotty, but, the twin thought, her voice was calming and the tone she used was very kind, so she took up on her offer.

"Josette, this is my granddaughter Jacqueline, and this is her friend Dominique, Jacqueline, Dominique, this is Caroline's daughter, Josette." introduced the old lady. Her and Caroline have been neighbours for a long time, Caroline would always bring her cookies and they'd have little chats. Josie never bothered to interact, she never did. She had her mum.

"Pleasure to meet you Josette" Jacqueline smiled at the twin warmly and shook her hand.
"You too" Josie said, eying both the girls, "and you can just call me Josie" she smiled at them warmingly, her all so familiar chuckle coning into show and nose scrunching up as she did.

They spent the next hour getting to know each other better and having small talk.

"Caroline told me you and your sister go to that fancy boarding school in America, yeah?" asked Mrs. Aragon.

"Yeah, actually she owns the school so— hah"

"I go to a boarding school, too!" said Dominique. She was quite quiet, she mostly observed conversations, but somehow Josie found a way to associate her voice with bubbles -or what she preferred to call them, soap balloons- ; it was clear and beautiful.

"Oh yeah Dominique goes to this super expensive boarding school in Belgium, they have a super high standard, barely let any students who apply go." explained Jacqueline, almost a bit snobbish.

Josette's heart skipped a beat, a boarding school in Belgium? This could either be her associating everything with Penelope Park or a crazy coincidence, she didn't know which.
"Why aren't you there, then? Or do you have a holiday?" asked the twin.

Dominique and Jacqueline looked at each other and burst out laughing, as if it was some private joke. Josie stared awkwardly until they stopped, finally explaining, "There was an
uhm— incident there, one of the students kinda went crazy, ish." said Jacqueline.

The Saltzman twin as well as the two girls chatted for what seemed like ages, until Caroline called her back finally.

"Josie you called like 10 times is everything alright??" asked Caroline worringly as soon as the brunette picked up the phone.

"I'm fine I just- I left without my key today morning. I'm at Mrs. Aragon's house right now." Josie reassured her mother, then glancing at the old lady and smiling at her.

Caroline sighed in relief and someone else who was next to her chuckled. "Alright, thank God! Why don't you go to that art club thing? It's just around the corner and it'll do you use,
come on Josie!!"

Josette rolled her eyes and whimpered a bit, hoping her mother could hear -or perhaps feel- how much she didn't want to go anywhere other than her house or Eucelia's office.
And maybe if she did want to go somewhere else, as her mind told her deep down, it definitely wouldn't be an art club. Surrounded by art lovers. It reminded her too much of her former crush, half the reason her and Penelope broke up the first time...

"Mom I'd really rather not" she whispered, and then looked over her shoulder to where Jacqualine and Dominque were sitting on Jacqualine's bed, whispering about something.

"Fine, whatever makes you comfortable baby. I'll try be home by dinner time."

The line closed and the twin went back to the set of best friends and smiled at them awkwardly as she sat down on the opposite side of Jacqualine's messy yet elegent looking bed. Her room was a lot like Jacqualine herself; there were a few polaroids all over the place of random stuff, some paintings or writings drawb directly onto the white wall, and there was a galaxy light thing taped on one of the walls too. All of her furniture was dark wood, her bed had white sheets, however it wasn't made and there were paint splotches all over it. In conclusion, Josette thought, the room could be neat and expensive looking if the blondie could simply bother to clean, but she didn't mind the current looks of it, very homey.

"Did you talk to your mum?" Dominique smiled back at the twin warmly.

"Yeah, she's coming later at around dinner time, she just really wants me to go to this— nevermind"

Jacqualine turned her head to Josie and frowned a bit, "what is it?"

"This art club thing I guess, it's nearby apparently. But I'd rather not" Josette explained.

Jacqualine's face lit up suddenly, as if she finally found something exciting to do. "Let's go then!"