A Friendly Competition (Rory)

[Rory Lennox]

As a competitive dancer, there were a lot of things that Rory didn’t get to do when she was back home. Her schedule often lead to long hours in the studio and weekend competitions, so while her friends from school always had sleepovers and parties, Rory had to miss out on a lot of them. That wasn’t to say that she didn’t make her own experiences with her dance friends; she was almost always with them. But most of the time she was rarely able to hang out with her school friends outside of school.

It never really bothered her though, missing out on those experiences. She loved being in the studio and wanted to be there as often as she could. And that’s where her best friends were, so even in class they were always having fun.

In turn, Rory also wondered what Maggie had been like before Hammel. She was so quiet and growing up in Europe had to be so different than the US. Rory had never left the country before (aside from a week-long family vacation in Mexico a couple years ago) so she had no idea what Europe was like. Well, she did have an idea from what she’d seen in pictures, but she’d never actually experienced it firsthand.

She tilted her head to the side as Maggie explained the demographics of Germany. That was definitely something she didn’t know. She’d always just assumed most people in Northern Europe (like the Germans and the Dutch, etc.) were all really really tall. But she took Maggie’s word for it. She was the one who grew up there, not Rory. “That’s really interesting. I didn’t even know that. I just thought they were all about the same height, since it’s such a small country.” She knew it really wasn’t that small compared to some other European countries, but compared to the US it was pretty tiny.

“No, I swear it is.” Rory thought most people would prefer to shop with their friends (unless their parents were buying them stuff, of course), but she supposed it does depend on the friends that go with you. Some friends might not be as fun as others. Rory thought she was a lot of fun to be around though. Most of the time. “We’ll have fun.” Rory said, with a grin.

[Maggie Probasco]

Maggie had often had the chance to try many things in her life. She'd had many experiences, her mother always tried to get that right for Maggie. She'd gotten to go to Disney when she was six, and she'd even gotten to try loads of different sports. But she'd never had the chance to make friends, until now.

She'd never done the things most girls did, like have sleepovers, or just even hang out with friends. And she didn't really do much as a kid, well, besides reading, lots and lots of reading. She wondered if Rory had gotten to do things that most girls her age had done as well, Maggie already knew she was a competitive dancer, so most of Rory's free time was probably devoted to that. But still, Rory didn't seem like the type of person who would not have any friends.

Maggie could already tell that Rory loved to be the center of attention.

"No, it was because originally Germany was devised of two separate halves, Northern and Southern. So they were two different groups, each with different sizes, and demographics. For instance, I have brown hair and gray eyes, so that's common where I came from. Other people have different colored hair or eyes than me." Maggie brushed a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, her eyes scanning Rory. Rory was pretty, and she was the same size as Maggie, despite their age difference. "Germany is not small." Maggie elbowed Rory jokingly.

"Okay, I trust you." Maggie laughed lightly, she did trust Rory, but she didn't have any experience with shopping with friends. Maggie was excited, but she wasn't sure about the style of Rory and Maggie, they wouldn't clash, would they? They were friends, so Maggie agreed that they would support each other's style. Maggie liked Rory's style, but prefered her own, but she guessed that was just because she had grown accustomed to cold weather and harsh winds, even though she'd been in the United States for most her life. She had spent the most important time of her life, in Germany, though.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory did have a lot of friends back home between dance and school. She only kept in touch with a couple of the people she went to school with, since she wasn’t that close with anyone in her old classes. They were great friends while she was in class, but her real friends were at her studio, who she still talked to and texted whenever she could. Admittedly, she was a little bit jealous that they were all still dancing every single day and advancing, while Rory was here in Vermont. It was going to be be hard to keep up with them when Rory went back for the month-long summer break.

“Oh, I remember learning about that.” Rory said, recalling the history lesson. “I just didn’t know that everyone looked different too. Is the other half the people who are supposed to be blonde and blue-eyed?” She’d always assumed that most Germans had that coloring. Isn’t that what they were known for?


“And it is small.” Rory grinned, elbowing Maggie back. “It’s barely bigger than Arizona. You could probably drive across the whole country in like a day.” Not that that was a bad thing. It was so easy to get from place to place in those little European countries, whereas going from state to state in the US was a pain. It’d take days to drive from Arizona to Vermont.

“Good.” Rory said, shuffling all her papers back up into her folder. Why wouldn’t Maggie trust her? It wasn’t like Rory would ever pick out clothes that would look bad on someone. And since they were both about the same size, anything that looked good on Rory should also look good on Maggie, and vice versa. It would be perfect. “So we’ll take the bus on Saturday afternoon?”