Mo skipped another rock and then wiped her hands on her robes. She looked over at him when she thought she heard something other than cool disinterest in his voice. "I like chess, too," she smiled warmly. "I'm not very good at it yet, but I do like it." When she was forced to be indoors and not bouncing around. It was a good use of her focus. Mo could begrudgingly enjoy a mental challenge instead of a physical one. Maybe that's why she liked music too.

"Some things," Mo shrugged. "We both like quidditch and music, she's better at art than I am. Stella is a little quieter than I am." They were very similar but still distinctly different people. Plus if both of them were loud, nobody would ever get a word in edgewise. "She's more thoughtful. I tend to speak first before thinking." She shrugged sheepishly, blushing a little. "Do you have siblings?" He struck her as an only child, but she wasn't sure.

---

  

---

“No,” Connor said, shaking his head. “Just me.” His stomach made a funny turn at that, as if it knew he was lying. But it was difficult to know what to categorise Angie as, when they weren’t related, in the usual sense, and he had no real memories of her in his life, beyond the occasional letters. It might have been interesting, to have an older sibling – especially a cursebreaker who had travelled places he and Rebekah and Marius hadn’t, remote, dangerous places – but he wasn’t going to beg some ungrateful girl who had left home years ago to spare him any consideration. He would do better than her in life, anyway. It was better that they weren’t tied.

This Pendergast girl was a little nosy, but if she never thought before speaking Connor could forgive her for it. And he was indebted to her, for introducing him to skipping stones (an activity that was ultimately useless but also oddly addictive), so he added, carefully, “I could help you at chess. If you want to get better at it.” (Or to give him someone to play against.) Or he could accept her company for music practice, maybe. It would be useful to have someone to pressure him into practising more, even if he didn’t join the club.

---

  

So she'd been right. Mo had retroactively thought that maybe he was just the youngest, but who knew really. All that nonsense about birth order and the like didn't always pan out the way people thought it did. Then again, it was only her and Tells, so who really knew anyway. She always thought that if they hadn't lost Duncan, that maybe there would have been more of them, but as it turned out, it was just too much. Mo could understand why, even now.

What was more surprising, was his offer to help her get better at chess. Slightly taken aback, Mo smiled sincerely to cover it up. "I would like that!" She agreed readily, hoping she could focus long enough for him not to regret giving her a shot. "Maybe Mama will send my pieces from home." Mo hadn't thought to bring them with her, but now that she would have more of an opportunity to use them, it would make sense. "This will be fun." She concluded, excited now by the prospect.

---

  

---