Work Text:
Dear Cath,
Haven’t heard from you since school started. Is everything all right? I know that you were crushed when Wren decided to go off and do her own thing. But you know what? You’re the strongest of two of you and although it really hurts to be pushed aside by her, you’re going to be the one that she comes to for help so many times. She’s going to regret tossing you aside for some sparkly new friend that probably has more make-up than common sense. You’ll be okay. I know that and I have confidence in that and in you.
Now, tell me what classes you ended up getting into. I’ve managed to get into two of my wanted art classes and one poetry writing class. The others are like the basic maths, sciences and English classes. You know, those classes that we got our fill of in high school but the law says we have to take few more of them in college before we’re ready to get past them and be let loose in the world with our plans to succeed in our employment of choice. I swear, no matter how old we get, we’ll never get away from people trying to tell us what they think we need to learn inside and out for the rest of our lives. I’m sorry, but I see no point in taking classes that will never come up after we’re securely settled in our new companies. I think sometimes the teachers all forget that they used to be young people with dreams.
How’s your writing coming along? Are you getting brave enough to show people your own stuff along with your Simon fic? I think you could write some amazing fic of your own that doesn’t even include Simon. That would be the thing to rub into your Judas twins nose. We wrote Simon Snow fanfic but I wrote this amazing epic all on my own. It’s going to win a Pulitzer.
I know you would never do that to your sister because you don’t have that kind of temperament to be that mean and bitchy. I, on the other hand, would really have no problems with doing something like that.
I have to go get some supplies for my art class -- and why is it at just too damn dark in the morning? Whose idea was that? Oh, right, mine. It was the only way I could have both the Impressionism class and the Romanticism classes on the same day. Thank god they’re on Wednesdays and not on Mondays or I would be dead, I tell you, dead!
Write me back soon,
Mel
Dear Mel,
One of these days you’re going to have to explain to me how all of those different types of art get sorted into their little box. I love art, but I couldn’t tell you what artist did most of them or even what -ism they all fit into. There just seems to be too damn much of them. There are a lot of different painters I like and their art both soothes and inspires me, but if anyone asked me what kind of organization that they went into, I would have no answer at all. I do two types of art, though. I don’t like Surrealism and Abstract art makes no sense to me with the way my mind works.
As for school, well, I managed to get into that fiction writing class by that author that I wanted to be in so badly. I’m trying to figure out what her end result goal for us is going to be. We’ve already been told that our end of semester project is going to be our major grade for the semester. I’m not sure what my project is going to be and I’m already getting nervous about it. Right now, she’s giving us smaller writing assignments so that we can get to know ourselves and the writer within us. She’s an interesting teacher and very engaging, I just don’t know about some of these assignments. Don’t writers mostly write to get away from their inner and real self? That’s part of the reason the Wren and I started writing Simon Snow fan fic. We needed an escape from the thing in our world that were just too painful and stressful to deal with. It makes no sense to peel all of those layers back to pretend like you’re going to get a good story.
Okay, my roommate, Reagan, is back with her boyfriend, Levi, so I’m going to send this off. I can’t really concentrate in my room when they’re both here because Levi tries to get to know me and then tries to get Reagan to get to know me. I don’t think she likes me or wants to get to know me. She was supposed to be single occupancy in the dorms this year, only she got me, instead.
Talk soon,
Cath
Dear Mel,
I’m not even sure where to start because so much seems to have happened in a short period of time. Reagan and I have actually started getting along and I think that she’s trying to be my friend. Why would she want to do something crazy like that? I mean, I’m not the easiest person to be friends with and I’m not exactly the girl that gets asked to parties. You know that I’m not a fan of parties, but Reagan and Levi keep trying to get me to go out with them to a bar or a party at Levi’s place. Mel, parties freak me the hell out!
Okay, anyway, Abel and I broke up. At least, I think we broke up. We don’t really talk all that much now that we’re at separate colleges. We text a few times a week, but, well, it’s not exactly texts that steam up the cell screen, you know? I still care about him, but I don’t know if I love him. I’m not sure I know if I ever loved him. He was fun to be around and I felt calm and comfortable having him there since he was so reliable. Shut up. I know that the one thing you agree with Wren on is that anything I say about Abel can also be used to describe household furniture. He’s not a table and just because I think that he’s good and reliable doesn’t mean anything bad.
So, even with that, it wasn’t the worst thing that happened. No, first I got into a well, not a fight, but I got chewed out by my favorite teacher. We had to turn in a scene written from the point of view of an unreliable narrator. I worked so hard on the scene, Mel. I worked so hard on it and was so proud of it, But she made me feel like such a loser because even though the story was mine, the characters were created by someone else and that meant I was stealing and plagiarizing. She wouldn’t even listen to me, Mel. She kept going on about how fan fiction wasn’t an acceptable way to create things in her class because she had clearly asked for originally written stories by us and my assignment was not proper work. She gave me an F. An F, Mel! I’ve never gotten an F on anything I’ve done. When I got back to my dorm, I was glad that Reagan and Levi weren’t there because I just wanted to cry.
But the night just got worse. Levi showed up while I was having an Emergency Kanye Party in the room and he joined in. Reagan showed up and thought we had lost our minds. Reagan and Levi were going away and I was staying home, but then Wren texted me with a 911 text. She sent me a 911 text from a bar. She was in trouble -- I thought -- and Levi took me to the bar to find Wren, I knew that she and her friend, that Courtney, have been partying and drinking a lot, but I had no idea what had happened that would necessitate a 911 text from a bar. I was freaking out and trying not to panic as I imagined all kinds of horrible things during the time it took to get to the bar and find her.
We finally found her and it was nothing like I expected it to be. She wanted to know what I was doing there and I told her that I got her 911 text that she was in trouble. You know what she told me, Mel? That she had meant to send the text to Courtney; that I was the wrong “C”. 911 texts are for emergencies or if you are in trouble. You don’t send them to your twin sister by accident because you want your friend to come and get even drunker with you while she drools over the band member that she wants to screw.
It was not a good night, Mel, and I wish you could have been here. Wren was pretty awful and she just seems to be getting worse. First she teased me about Baz and Simon the last time she got drunk and then she gets wasted and sends me into a panic because she’s drunk and can’t read the names on her damn contact list.
I hope that your week went a whole lot better than mine did.
Love,
Cath
Oh, Cath,
I just can’t imagine how hard it must have been to sit there and take that from a teacher. There’s nothing wrong with fan fiction and in my opinion, it helps us become stronger writers. I’m never going to be the writer you are, but in the years since you’ve started writing fan fiction your writing has only gotten richer. I know that this lady is supposed to be a writer and a teacher, but she doesn’t seem to have a clear understanding of the soul and heart that goes into your writing. The interesting writers are the ones that know how to look outside the cage and create your own language. Those are the writers that you buy their books and read them over and over again until the book falls apart. Then there are the writers that make you bored before you get two chapters in because all they can think about it how there is a strict form and outline that all writers must follow to get the story that they want, That’s not the kind of writer you are, Cath, and that’s why you have so many fans of your Simon and Baz stories. You get put into a box and then you tear yourself out of it because no literary box can hold or control you, my friend, and that’s one of the really amazing things about you.
As for your evil twin, I thought that her going off to do her own things was to make her more learned in the ways of the world and make you more independent. It seems like all this great independence thing of hers has done is put her in the path of her liver deciding to remove itself from her body. She’s certainly becoming the poster girl for really bad decisions. Is she even attending classes that you know of? Do you ever see her in class or when she doesn’t need you to bail her out of her latest screw up.
I know that you love Wren and that she’s your twin sister, but Cath, she’s her own person who is going to keep making this bad choices. It’s her responsibility to take care of herself, You have to take care of yourself, Cath. You need to make sure that you start focusing on you and what you need. You’re not the person that needs to be stressing about her 24/7. You can let her know that you love her and you would do anything that you can for her, but not at the cost of your own security and your life. I know that you’re still not used to the idea of twins doing different things, but I think that you’ve already shown that you want more out of your life than to be the one holding her together while you’re also trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. You have dreams and desires for things in your future, but those dreams don’t include always being there at crazy early in the morning because she can’t tell Ca from Co in her phone.
Don’t enable her, Cath. You love her and want to make sure she’s all right, but don’t enable her to keep making these bad decisions because she knows that you will be there to get her out of trouble because of your sisterly love and familial responsibility.
Love you,
Mel
Mel,
When did you turn into the psychologist? I thought you were the artist among us.
C
Cath,
Most artists and writers are crazy, haven’t you figured that out already?
M.
Mel,
I don't think that all of us are crazy. I think that in general, every human being is broken in some way, and the artists and writers are the ones always looking for ways to try and fill in the breaks with something meaningful so the breaks heal or at least become smaller cracks in their foundation.
C.
Cath,
Maybe you should look into becoming a Philosopher if your teacher causes you to get putt off writing. I think you'd do a really good job at that. You could be like Aristotle or Socrates, even.
M.
Mel,
It would take a lot to put me off of writing, but it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to take a Philosophy course or two. I could use it in my writing. But I don't want to be Socrates, though. I have a horrible Hemlock allergy.
C.
Cath,
See, you're starting to feel better already.
Now, tell me about this Levi guy...