thick skin and an elastic heart

Chapter 13

The world faded away whenever Juliana sketched. Minutes became hours, and when she finished, it was like waking up from a dream; disorienting but oddly satisfying.

She knew Val would sit quietly while she drew, waiting patiently for her to finish. While on Christmas break, Juliana had a lot of time to draw and spend more time with Valentina. There was a rough sketch she wanted to finish before joining Valentina for a walk around the lake before dinner, but time slipped away from her. She blinked, looking around the common room and noticed Valentina beside her.

"Val, I've been drawing for over an hour!" Juliana yelped, looking at the nearby carriage clock in shock. "Why didn't you say something? Weren't you bored?"

Valentina grinned. "You get a really cute crinkle between your eyes when you draw. Juls, it's fine. I told you I like to watch you draw."

"Valentina..." she groaned, unsure of what exactly to say. Ever since their recent blowup, Valentina seemed to walk on eggshells around her. Juliana wondered how much of that was also because Val knew about Alcarán and El Chino.

Whatever the reason, Juliana felt guilty.

"You know, I really like this design," Val said, peering over her shoulder, "I like the skirt."

"Yeah?" A glimmer of an idea formed in Juliana's mind. "What do you think about this shape?" she asked, flipping through her sketchbook while showing Valentina different designs and asking for her opinions.

"What about the collar? Plunging, square?"

"What about a high neckline?" Valentina asked, looking down. Juliana made rough lines and sketched out the design.

"Like this?"

"Yes!" Valentina squealed.

Finally, Juliana finished a very rough sketch of a pair of dress robes.

"It's absolutely amazing that you can create something out of nothing," Valentina said wistfully. "This was a blank sheet of paper and now look at it."

"You think it looks good?" Juliana questioned.

"I think anyone would be lucky to wear something you design," Valentina said passionately.

Juliana's mind continued to race, the idea solidifying in her mind as they walked together down to dinner. She brushed aside her momentary guilt for ignoring the egg. She had until February to solve it and one week wouldn't make a difference. With everything on her plate, juggling her responsibilities was getting harder and harder, but Val was worth it.

----

Last summer, Juliana had bought some fabric at a local muggle seamstress's shop because her Hogwarts had listed Dress Robes as part of her school supplies. She knew she couldn't afford a dress robe; therefore, she had to make one. Muggle fabric was cheaper to buy, and Juliana thankfully found a pretty midnight blue. The bolt of fabric sat in her trunk, forgotten during the school year until McGonagall announced the Yule Ball.

Now Juliana knew why she needed dress robes.

She half-heartedly began designing one for herself in December, when the Idea hit.

Juliana was bad at apologies. It was easy to blame her father, who never apologized for anything in his life; or her mother, who never expected one. In reality, she was horrible at saying sorry.

Juliana knew she was wrong to freeze Valentina out. It had seemed like the only thing she could do at the time, but after seeing how supportive the other girl was, she knew her primary motivation was fear. Juliana had gotten scared and pushed Valentina away before Val could abandon her first. Unfortunately, she hurt Valentina in the process.