An invitation to supper Sylvia brushed a strand of long brown hair over her shoulder. She had eschewed her initial choice of a bow, deciding that it might be too childish, in favour of a silver filigree clip. This kept some of the lightly curled tresses back from her face but the rest hung loose. The holidays were dwindling. The rush of preparing for Christmas and the swell of New Year parties were both past. In this lull, time had been found during which all the boys were free, and Simon’s friends had been invited over, so that Sylvia could make those all important connections before school (not that they had been told anything more than it being a casual supper invite).
It turned out that Victor’s brother was to be the year above Sylvia, and Winston’s sister would be her year, but after careful consideration, Sylvia had elected not to have them invited - something that would easily not be seen as a slight, given that the invitation ostensibly came from Simon, and was just a case of having his friends over for dinner. Sylvia had only been slightly worried by the possibility that Caitlin might compete with her, but as there was a ratio of three appropriate boys to each girl, and not even the same three to each, she hadn’t thought it too much of a danger. Her bigger worry was that the boys would see Caitlin’s presence as a reason to ignore both of them altogether - the girls, who after all were the same age and likely to be roommates, could sit and get to know each other, whilst the boys all hung out as friends. That would never do. The loss of the second Callahan boy had been a sad but acceptable casualty - he had no personal connection to her brother, and so to invite him meant that they were ‘inviting siblings’ and would have had to include Caitlin. She had nothing against the girl, and indeed hoped that they would be friends - perhaps they could even meet during term, once the prospective husbands were locked away at school again - she just didn’t want her here right now.
They had been introduced and sat down to dinner. She surveyed Winston and Victor across the table, keeping her features even and her smile delicate and friendly. Her etiquette tutor had schooled her against showing strong emotions - mostly meaning that she should stop her fits of temper, but she had seen the use in applying that elsewhere too. She wanted to seem grown up and sophisticated, not like an over-excited child. She had revised her chapters on conversational etiquette before the party but they had been singularly useless.
If you have just been introduced and exchanged ‘How do you dos?’ you will need to think of something to follow it up. It is polite to make your next remark fairly promptly and not leave a silence. If your hostess or the person who has introduced you has given you a helpful clue then follow that up.
She had decided that it would be safer not to rely on Simon for that. However, the subsequent suggested topics of whether or not they had come far, what the weather was doing, or a remark about a recent sporting fixture all seemed similarly useless. She knew how far they had come given their family branches, and the distance was relatively immaterial given the Floo network. The weather was singularly dull, and the most recent sporting fixture of which they all definitely shared knowledge was the match in which Winston had been dropped from the combined house team and in which Victor had shown no desire to participate, so she suspected that was out. She wished the boys were all a year younger so that they would still be in beginners classes now, which she could then ask about. It seemed a little presumptuous on her part though to start asking how intermediate classes were.
“Are you excited to go back to school?” she asked, figuring that it was at least a subject that both boys could provide an answer for, and the closest thing to a common interest they all currently had. “I’m sure there’s a lot of wonderful things about Sonora,” she added, keen to hear all about it.