Losing her entire family was hard enough on Josephine Cohen, but to lose them, upend her life in Boston to live in Beacon Hills, and move in with her infamous cousin Lydia Martin all within a month's time didn't make it any easier.
To make matters w...
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Smile. Nod your head, don't make unnecessary eye contact, and just...smile.
They won't see the pain behind your eyes if you do.
It was all Josephine Cohen could utter to herself in her head as she combed her hairbrush softly through the red hairs framing her face, eyes never straying from the green ones in the reflection of the mirror before her. She'd been dressed for an hour now, her first day outfit meticulously chosen by her cousin the night before from the new wardrobe items she had recently been bought. Apparently winter and Januarys on the West Coast are quite different from the East Coast, resulting in what Josie described as an unneeded redo of her entire closet.
Smile. Smile, laugh, and make friends. Be the new girl...not the new girl with dead parents.
Josie slammed the hairbrush down on the vanity before her, burying her face in her hands with a groan as she willed the thoughts in her head away. It was one thing to lose your family, but to lose them and have to move across the entire country and attend a brand new school in the middle of the year in the timespan of a MONTH was ridiculous. Her aunt had offered to allow her the rest of the school year off to properly grieve, but if Josie ended up that behind in school she'd regret it down the line for sure.
Just smile and get through the day...one step at a time.
There was a small thud on the vanity before her as Josie peaked through her fingers, smiling at the small bundle of orange and white fur that was Rune, her 16th birthday present from her parents. She gingerly reached out a hand, petting the small kitten on the head affectionately as she purred back at her, pushing her head into the palm of her hand.
"It's just high school, right Rune? What could possibly go wrong?"
"Well, for starters: quite a lot if you're going to talk to your cat,"
Josie let out a short chuckle, turning around to see her cousin, Lydia Martin, leaning in the doorframe of her bedroom, already dressed as impeccably as she always is.
"No one at school needs to know that I'm talking to a cat,"
"Thank god for that," Lydia mumbled, walking over to the vanity desk and adjusting Josie's hair herself with close attention to detail. "They'd think you're crazy or something, and I can't be THE Lydia Martin with a crazy cousin."
"My apologies, Lyds, I would hate to tarnish your stellar reputation," Josie teased her cousin, watching her closely in the mirror before her eyes went back to the desk in front of her, Rune jumping down to run back over to her spot on the bed. "They'll find enough to say about me other than crazy, I'm sure."
Lydia paused for a moment, watching her cousin in the mirror before them. She placed the hairbrush back on the vanity, grabbing Josie by the shoulders as the girl looked up to meet Lydia's eyes through the mirror.
