Long Overdue Rebellion (Elliot, openish)

[Savannah Lyons]

Visiting Cameron's family had been a real eye-opener for Savannah. Whatever she had thought might be between her and Cameron clearly didn't exist, and he thought of her as nothing more than his best friend's twin sister. He preferred girls like Brenda, girls who were cheap and dressed in tight, low-cut clothes and wore too much makeup. Girls who didn't care one bit about proper manners or behavior. Savannah just couldn't compete with that... not the way she was now, anyway. Her father had been wrong; she could see that very clearly now. Boys didn't want the lady. They wanted the tramp. Even her own brother didn't want her to be the way she was anymore. So she would try to be someone else.

Savannah asked around among the other Ravenclaw girls, trying to find something different to wear. Kellie had provided Savannah with a pair of jeans--the first pair she had ever owned. She liked them; they fit nicely and were surprisingly comfortable. One of the other girls had given her a T-shirt with a picture of a mouse called Mickey on it. This was also comfortable--much better than the stiff, lacy tops with the high collars that she usually wore. And finally, Hallie had given her a pair of shoes that were apparently worn for playing tennis, although Hallie assured her that they were appropriate for all occasions. These were white and laced up with strings--vastly different from her stiff, buckled up Mary Janes.

Savannah liked the way she felt in these clothes. She felt loose and free, like she could finally breathe. It wasn't exactly something that Brenda would wear... but it was a definite improvement from her usual clothes, at least.

It was Sunday, so she had the day to herself. Even though she had homework to do, she decided, as another act of rebellion, to put it off until later. She left the dorm room later than usual, planning to head down for a late breakfast, and then maybe sit out by the lake for a while.

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot hadn't really seen his sister all that much since he told her that things should change. It was his fault that he hadn't seen her. Most of his time was spent with Ingrid instead of the way it used to be where most of his time was spent in the common oom doing homework. He knew that he should spend more time with his sister and he thought maybe he would be able to catch her today. He was in the common room with one of his school books open on his lap.

He made sure to get up early so that he would be able to catch his sister and maybe have breakfast with her. However, Savannah didn't come down from the girl's dorm, nor did she come in from the portrait. Elliot thought maybe she accidently overslept, but then again that wasn't like Savannah at all. He was going to keep an open mind because he did tell her that things needed to change and maybe that was what was happening, but then again he didn't really know.

Turning the page in his book, he heard footsteps coming down the stairs and he turned to look. "Savannah," he asked in almost like a question. The girl that reached the bottom of the stairs looked different. Her clothing was completely different. She wasn't wearing her usual dresses or shoes. She was actually wearing pants and a tshirt. Elliot wasn't complaining about what she was wearing. It was just a shock to see that Savannah was actually changing. Obviously, Elliot wasn't sure to what extent this was going in, but he was glad that she was changing a little.

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah had been deliberately trying to avoid him. Her emotions were all tied up in knots where he was concerned... she was simultaneously hurt and angry, with a little bit of jealousy mixed in, because he was obviously so happy with Ingrid. And she had nothing; she wasn't even sure she had someone she could call a friend, other than Cameron. And Cameron was Elliot's friend first.

She hoped that by going down late to breakfast, Elliot would already be off with Ingrid and she wouldn't have to face him. But as she came down the stairs, there he was. She felt a little spark of pride flare up inside her as she noticed his shocked expression at her appearance. Good. She wanted to shock him.

"Elliot," she replied in a crisp tone. If he had said her name like a question, her response was almost like a challenge.

[Elliot Lyons]

Yes, Savannah had changed. She didn't seem like she was still the really shy girl she used to be. Elliot didn't know what exactly was sparking all of this changed. To him, it seemed sort of all of a sudden, but then again he had been with Ingrid a lot lately. He wasn't exactly sure how much he really was going to like the whole change, but he was going to try to keep an open mind about it all.

"I was hoping that you hadn't gone to breakfast yet. I thought maybe we could go to breakfast together."

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah hesitated. She wanted to say no, just to be rebellious, but she couldn't actually think of a good reason why. She was going down to breakfast, and so was he. It just seemed sort of stupid to say no just to spite him. What would she do, just not go to breakfast? She was hungry.

"Fine," she said in a chilly tone. "I suppose we could do that."

Suddenly she felt very self-conscious again. Because it was the weekend, it was appropriate for students to be out of uniform, but it was unusual for her. She imagined everyone's eyes focused on her, and she wondered what they would be thinking. And what would Cameron think if he saw her?

[Elliot Lyons]

Savannah's chilly tone did not go unnoticed. A questionable look crossed Elliot's face at her response to his question. Her response started to question how exactly she was starting to change. Elliot knew that he should spend a little bit more time with Savannah. To be honest he became wrapped up in starting to help Ingrid, he sort of started to leave his sister behind. Elliot refused to really leave her behind like that. He was going to start spending more time with Savannah, if she would allow it.

"I like your shirt by the way," Elliot said as he started toward the portrait.

[Savannah Lyons]

What Elliot didn't understand was that she didn't want him to spend time with her out of pity or guilt. She felt like an afterthought to everyone, a fragile, helpless doll that had no life of her own. She had been controlled and manipulated by her father for so long, even after his death, that she didn't even know who she was on her own. She just seemed to be an appendage for all the men in her life.... Elliot, Ryder, her uncle and Tyler, and even Cameron.

The more she thought about it, the more scared she became. She hadn't been raised to stand up on her own. She had been raised to be married off at the earliest convenience; to go straight from being a daughter to a wife, always under the control of a man. Her father's death had left her adrift... her brothers weren't going to arrange a marriage for her and she had been taught to be too timid to look for one on her own. Which meant that she needed to figure out how to stand up on her own, because whether he wanted to or not, sooner or later Elliot was going to leave her behind, just as Ryder had already done. She was not going to be the poor maiden aunt crocheting doilies in her brother's house, or spend her life cleaning up after her drunken uncle and cousin. She needed a life without her family.

She was somewhat startled when Elliot complimented her shirt. It still felt odd to her. She liked that it wasn't so stiff and uncomfortable, but it was so thin and stretchy that she felt rather as though she had no shirt on at all. She had asked about the cartoon mouse on the front, and was told that it was a very famous mouse among muggles.

"Thank you," she said stiffly. "I borrowed it from one of the other girls."

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot wanted to maintain a relationship with his sister. He did have Ryder, but there distance between them and he felt that now there was a distance growing between him and Savannah. Elliot knew that it was probably his fault that there was a distance starting and he didn't want that, but then again he didn't want to smother his sister either. It was going to take trial and error to make things work since he was used to being with her all the time.

Elliot smiled. "If, if you want, we could go to London one afternoon. I mean, if you don't want to, that's fine, I thought I would just ask." The meaning behind it was that they could get more clothes than what they usually wore, especially Savannah. He didn't know what Ryder was going to think, nor his uncle, but Elliot discovered that he didn't really care.

[Savannah Lyons]

(If you get a chance, can you have Elliot post for Ingrid, too? I just watched August Rush last night, and am now totally in love with Jonathan Rhys-Meyers... )

Savannah glanced over at him, not quite sure what to say. She wanted to be angry with him, and he wasn't making it easy on her by being nice to her. Not that he was ever not nice to her, but it would have been easier if he just left her alone so he could go be with Ingrid, since she felt certain that that was what he really wanted to do. But curse the good manners that had been drilled into her head, she was having a really hard time not at least being polite to him when he was being nice to her. Even if he was probably only doing it because he felt guilty or because he felt sorry for her.

"Wouldn't you rather go with Ingrid?" she asked softly, unable to keep the hurt tone out of her voice. "I'd just be in the way."

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot felt extremely guilty when Savannah responded. He shook his head 'no'. "You're my sister," he said simply. "We need to have a little time to ourselves, don't we?" Yes, he knew most of his time was spent with Ingrid. He needed to spend more time with Savannah as well. Ingrid understood that, or at least Elliot thought she did. He told her earlier that he was going to try to make time to spend with his sister today since he hadn't in awhile.

"And you're never in the way Vans. I want to have something like a brother/sister day today, that is if you want to."

[Savannah Lyons]

Why was he being so nice? It made it hard for her to be mad at him, and she wanted to be mad at him. It wasn't even that he'd done anything wrong... it was just that she needed someone to be mad at, and he was a convenient target. Who else could she be mad at? Her father and mother were dead, and Ryder was never around.

"Brother/sister day?" she repeated skeptically. "And what exactly would we do for this brother/sister day? Study? I don't do anything fun, Elliot. I never learned how."

She wanted to cry, and she looked away from him, hoping he wouldn't see the tears filling her eyes. "Besides, I really should check on Uncle and Tyler today, since I didn't go yesterday."

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot knew that she would be a little skeptical about spending the day together. After all, if they spent time together they were doing something their parents would have considered 'good'. "I dunno, just do whatever we felt like doing. We wouldn't study, goodness knows we've done enough. We could go to London, walk around maybe going into a few shops and eat things we've never had before. Besides, there's a first time for everything."
"Uncle and Tyler are just fine, they're probably in their same states as usual." Elliot sighed. "You could go check on them some other time because knowing them they'll still be hung over."

[Savannah Lyons]

She should have been excited about this idea. And a part of her was, if she was honest with herself. After spending the day with Cameron and his mother and aunt, Savannah had filled her journal with a list of things she wanted to do that she knew her father would not like. She was already doing one of them right now by wearing her borrowed jeans, but she wanted a pair of her own, and not one that she borrowed from her dorm mate.

But she was still determined to be angry, and it still sort of felt to her like he was condescending her in some way. He probably didn't mean it that way, but somehow it bothered her.

"I had pizza yesterday," she said, lifting her chin proudly. "I even ate it with my hands. It was very good."

She wasn't sure why, but it felt important to tell him that she could do different things without him escorting her. But it would beg the question of just what had she been doing the day before. She had asked Cameron not to tell Elliot, and a part of her even wondered if he had been able to look away from Ingrid long enough to realize that she wasn't around at all.

"For all you know, Uncle and Tyler could have drunk themselves to death. Or at the very least, someone's got to clean up the mess they make and see that they eat a proper meal once a week."

She hated cleaning up after her drunk uncle and cousin, but right now, it was a convenient excuse. Elliot usually didn't come along when she went over to her uncle's house, so she was usually left to do all the work on her own.

[Elliot Lyons]

Once Savannah said she ate pizza, a questioning look was on his face. Where would she have gotten pizza? From the kitchens, or did she actually slip off somewhere? He did notice that she was missing yesterday, but Elliot didn't think too much of it because he knew that Savannah needed some time to herself. He didn't want to suffocate her too much, but he didn't want to let her go completely either.

For some reason, Elliot just wanted to roll his eyes and make an extremely rude comment about their Uncle and Tyler, but he kept his mouth closed. It seemed if Savannah didn't want to go with him to London since she was trying to come up with something else to do, or at least in Elliot's mind she was.

"They're old enough to be responsible for what they do," Elliot said keeping his voice even and normal, not wanting any sort of disrespect to enter it. "Besides, you could go tomorrow. I'm more than sure that they'll still be there." Their Uncle, Tyler, and Ryder were the only family they had left. Ryder had gotten away from that family and went on his own, Elliot wanted to do the same. He didn't want to have to worry about if his Uncle or Tyler drank themselves to death, and he didn't want Savannah to have to worry about that either.

[Savannah Lyons]

But Savannah did worry. They were her family, and she really wanted them to get better. Her uncle, in particular, after a lifetime of heavy drinking, had to be suffering some pretty severe liver damage. Tyler was younger, but he was also reckless and foolish, and more likely to do something stupid. And although a part of her knew that her tendency to go over there every weekend and clean up their messes was really only enabling them, she still felt obligated somehow. After all, what other family did she have left? Only Elliot and Ryder, and they didn't really need her. Ryder, in particular, Savannah was convinced that he would be perfectly happy never to see her again.

"Yes, they are, but they aren't responsible. They have a sickness... They can't help themselves. And I can't go tomorrow, I have a full day of classes."

Now she just sounded snippy. She didn't even have a really good reason for turning him down, not really. In fact, she really should go with him, just to get another pair of jeans, so she wouldn't have to keep borrowing Kellie's.

"Maybe you could come with me and we could go after," she found herself saying. "It would be faster with two people."

[Elliot Lyons]

Elliot didn't like the idea of Tyler and their Uncle drinking all the time. They knew that since Savannah went over there every weekend, they could just take advantage of her. Elliot didn't like going over there because he knew what state they were in. Not once did he really remember his Uncle or Tyler sober. Quite frankly, as far as Elliot was concerned all he really had was Savannah and Ryder even though his older brother was never there. He knew that if he ever needed Ryder, however, he could always send an owl and Ryder would help.

He nearly forgot about classes. For once, he wasn't concerned with his classes. Elliot sighed. He knew that Savannah was going to do whatever she wanted to do, even if he would advise her against it. Elliot hadn't seen their Uncle or Tyler since the last time they went there for their break. Even then he tried to make it a point to avoid them.

Knowing that it was the only way to possibly get Savannah to go, he gave in and nodded. "Fine, we'll go, but I don't want to stay too long there. They probably won't even register or remember that we're there."

[Savannah Lyons]

Savannah frowned. She had expected that to be a deal-breaker, that he would decide that he really would rather spend the day with Ingrid or Cameron. He never went over uncle's if he could possibly avoid it. He really seemed to want to spend time with Savannah for some reason. But, rather cynically, she thought it was probably because he felt that he needed to prove something to her, that she still mattered. Or maybe he just felt obligated in some way. And she was so tired of being an obligation.

"You don't have to come," she said, looking at him. "I'm sure there's something else you'd rather be doing than spending the day with boring little me."