"Don't you know that we's a family? Would I let you down?"
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"THIS SUCKS."
Eloise Micah and Hunter Marino sat on the front stoop of Hunter's house. The sun was setting and a cool breeze wafted down the Brooklyn street. They were eating popsicles they had gotten from the bodega on the corner.
"It does suck." Eloise sighed.
"Why do you gotta leave tomorrow?" He grumbled. "Just live here. Keep going to Ilvermorny with me. My parents wouldn't mind."
"I think they would." She chuckled. "They don't seem too keen on having Meatball here."
She reached down a step to the St. Bernard that was laying down next to them and scratched his ears. He thumped his tail happily.
Eloise had been staying with Hunter's family for the last week. She couldn't bare staying alone in her apartment in the city. She didn't want to be alone with her thoughts right now.
Eloise's mother, Felicity Micah, had died just over a week ago. She had been sick for a while now and it had gotten worse and worse until it had become too much for her body to handle.
Her mother was a singer at wizard bars and speakeasies all over the city. Her father, Dimitri Bennet, was a famous Quidditch player from England.
Her parents were not married, or never even properly together. They had met at some fancy New York party her mother was singing at. He had charmed her with his good looks, accent, and kind nature while she charmed him right back with her talent, beauty, and jokes. They had dated for a while, just until her father had to go back to England.
Eloise was the result.
Her parents had remained friends and both raised Eloise in their own ways. She lived mainly with her mother in New York City but often went to England to visit her father for holidays and a month every summer. Dimitri loved his daughter dearly, but it didn't take a genius to see that he didn't know how to deal with children. He assumed showering her with gifts was a good way to show affection.
Eloise had gone to Ilvermorny where she met Hunter in her first year. They were both sorted into Thunderbird and when they learned that they were both from New York, became fast friends. Hunter's parents were both no-majs who were just happy that Hunter had made a friend. He was Eloise's way into the No-Maj world.
But now they would see much less of each other. Eloise was going to live with her father in England and attend a completely different school. Hogwarts. She was terrified that she wouldn't see Hunter again.
"We should do something tonight." Hunter said as he bit off the rest of his popsicle. "Something big. Important."
"How about we run away." Eloise mumbled. "To fuckin'... Jersey."
"If you want to go to Jersey," Hunter wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Then you definitely want out of this. You wanna watch a movie or something? Take your mind off things?"
"What movie?" Eloise tossed away the finished popsicle stick, already knowing the answer.
"What else?" He grinned cheekily back at her.
"Newsies." They said together.
The movie had come out at the end of their first year at Ilvermorny. Eloise and Hunter went to see it (more like snuck into the first theatre they saw) and had been obsessed with the movie ever since then. They had inside jokes, quoted lines, memorized songs, and even knew some of the dances.
It was their thing.
The pair stood from the porch and made their way up the steps of the brownstone. Meatball let out a humph and followed them inside. They passed Hunters parents who gave Eloise sympathetic looks.
She hated that. She hated when people felt sorry for her. But she still smiled and waved back as they passed.
They came into the living room and Eloise plopped herself down on the couch as Hunter got out the VHS tape. Meatball sat under Eloise's feet as she looked out the window. It was dark now. In the morning she would have to leave. She really didn't want to.
Hunter started the movie and sat next to her. He looked down at her.
"Hey," He said. "Promise you'll write to me?"
"All the time." She nodded. "You gotta keep me updated with Ilvy shit."
"Oh trust me you'll be the first to hear all the hot gossip." He nodded. "Just... don't come back with like, a British accent."
"Oh god I never thought about accents." She groaned. "I'm gonna get made fun of."
Eloise and Hunter both had pretty thick Brooklyn accents. They often exaggerated them to be funny or when they were of course, quoting Newsies.
"Throw their tea into the fuckin' harbor if they do." Hunter laughed.
She giggled as they turned their attention to the movie. They quoted their favorite lines and sang along to the songs like they always did, but their hearts just weren't in it.
It wasn't until the song Santa Fe did Hunter say anything.
"Hey," he whispered. "Do you think this could be your Santa Fe?"
They had used Santa Fe as a way of saying where they were meant to be. Where they dreamt their perfect lives would be. Eloise thought for a moment.
"I mean," She said. "Maybe? I'll let you know when I get there."
"I bet it will be." Hunter said. "Good things are comin' to you Elle. I'm sure of it. Even if it isn't here."
He turned his attention back to the movie but Eloise just stared at her best friend.
She didn't say it out loud, but she wasn't sure she was ever going to find her Santa Fe.
