it's your world, baby girl

history & headcanons

her father started giving teri vocal lessons by the time she was four years old. she was too young, most would say, still figuring out how to form coherent sentences. but he insisted on starting her out young, creating his own little shining star. he taught her how to carry a broken melody, to smile so big that her cheeks hurt. it’s how she found herself in the living room in front of all her father’s friends, performing twinkle twinkle little star for the guests of his new year’s eve party. she cried before he pushed her in front of them, terrified to be in front of even a small crowd, hating all those eys on her. but as soon as she finished singing, it was the applause of the crowd, loud and encouraging, that told her she was good. it’s a sound teri hasn’t forgotten nearly twenty years later, forever her favourite melody.

it was in her first ballet class that teri fell in love with dance. while the moves she learned were simple at first — she was only a child, after all — the young girl knew she was good. or at the very least, both her father and her dance instructor told her she was good, and who was she to disagree? she begged her father for the best ballet shoes money could buy, refused to take off her tutu even when she went to bed, and walked around the house doing pliés even though no one was watching.

as she got older, teri found herself wanting to broaden her horizons past the ballet, jazz, and tap classes her father enrolled her in. she loved them all, but found herself more interested in the dancing she saw on tv, obsessed with learning the choreography to every beyoncé and janet jackson music video she saw. whenever she had down time, that’s where her father would find her, imitating the moves she saw on mtv. they were the perfect performers, and she wanted to be just like them.

being the baby of the family, teri got used to getting everything she wanted with a pout of her lips or the bat of her eyelashes. it was no question that she had her father wrapped tightly around her finger, and her older sisters always seemed to have a soft spot for her as well. so used to hearing the word “yes” as a child, she refused to hear the word “no”. the first time her father told her no, a four year old teri found her eyes welling with tears, her lower lip quivering in sadness, unable to wrap her head around the rejection. it was something so simple, being told she couldn’t add candy to the cart when they were at the grocery store because they had plenty at home, but she couldn’t quite wrap her head around it. noticing the way her father moved quickly to get her the candy she wanted, she quickly realized that tears were the way to get what she wanted.

over the years teri has taught herself to cry on cue, turning on the waterworks to get exactly what she wanted. while there are a few people that see right through the crocodile tears, it always worked on her father, and that’s what mattered the most. whenever he said no, teri would let her head fall back and start wailing, the waterworks flowing until he finally gave in. now that she’s growing up, she’s starting to realize it’s a tactic that few are falling for, especially with her father gone. she’s trying to grow, to be better at hearing the word no, but she still can’t keep her bottom lip from quivering when she’s faced with losing out on something she really wants.

when her father came up with the idea to form the muses, teri said yes with little to no hesitation. she loves her sisters and loves getting to spend as much time as possible. and of course she loves the spotlight. choreography has always been her strong suit, making sure they have the best moves when they’re on stage. she can be something of a nightmare sometimes, refusing to wrap rehearsals until they have their moves just right, all four of them perfectly in sync. she’s sure her sisters resent her for it sometimes, but she’s knows it’s worth it when the reviews of their shows come rolling in, all of them praising their choreography.

teri keeps a notebook that’s filled with every piece of criticism she’s every received. whenever she gets a note, whenever someone tells her she’s not good enough, she writes their words down carefully in the book so she never forgets them. she’ll sit in bed and read the notes late at night, beating herself up for all the ways she could be better. refusing to become complacent or lazy in her talent, it’s how she pushes herself to be better, motivated by all the times she was less than perfect and demanding more of herself.

her time at corona college has been filled with ups and downs; while she loves being surrounded by people that are nearly as passionate about dance as she is, teri never quite found a place she belonged in her program. she came to her first day fresh faced and excited, eager to expand her horizons and come back to the muses with countless new moves to take their choreography to the next level. instead she found herself in classes where she was met with mixed reactions. some students recognized her right off the bat, and teri found herself feeling awkward as she tried to make friends with girls that already had a clear idea of her in their minds. others felt she had an unfair advantage and were rooting to see her fail. while she’s moved through her time at school with as much poise and grace as she possibly could, sometimes she wonders if it would have been easier to simply put all her time and energy into the band. maybe she doesn’t need a backup plan.

there are few things teri loves more than her fans. while she doesn’t consider herself to be the fan favourite —  she happily lets clio claim that title — she’s filled with a rush of joy whenever someone recognizes her on the street. it doesn’t matter what she’s doing, teri is always thrilled to stop, say hi, and snap a quick picture.

from a young age, teri was taught discipline and it’s all she’s ever really known. in order to be at the top of her game, she eats healthy and works out religiously. she doesn’t smoke and rarely drinks. she abides by a curfew and rarely allows herself to let loose or party. she doesn’t leave much time for dating because she can’t be distracted from her dream. she rehearses every single day and consistently pushes herself to be better. her father always told her to keep her eye on the prize, and he set out a long list of rules for her to follow to ensure she was always the best. even after he’s gone she finds herself sticking to them, both because she’s determined to make him proud and because she doesn’t know anything else.

there’s a small part of her that wonders what it would be like to let loose and have fun for once. to let her hair down and actually act her age. she’s nearing the end of her senior year in college and she’s yet to go through her rebellious phase, hasn’t even made any big mistakes or done something she woke up regretting the next morning. as much as she loves her life, teri can’t help but wonder if she’s missing out.

she’s absolutely terrified that her sisters will want to break up the band. her mother leaving when she was a child left a residual fear of abandonment that she refuses to address, but constantly whispers in her ear reminding her that she might not be good enough, might not be enough to make people stay. after her father’s death, teri found herself clinging to her sisters more than ever, needing regular validation and reminders of their love. she might have a backup plan, but that doesn’t mean teri wants to use it.

absolutely obsessed with instagram, teri can’t go a single day without posting on her story at the very least. whether it’s showing her followers her outfit of the day, giving fans a sneak peak of rehearsal footage, or just sharing a selfie with a cute filter, she likes to put her life online.  she’s craved validation ever since she was a little girl, and this is her favourite way to get it.

she’s more intelligent than most people give her credit for. she’s particularly good at math, not that she thinks it’s a skill she’ll ever really need to use in her line of work. but she does know how to do her own taxes.

teri takes zodiac signs very seriously. she checks her horoscope every morning and always likes to find out someone’s zodiac sign when she gets to know them so she’ll know whether or not they’ll vibe.

she’s extremely non-confrontational and is afraid to get into arguments. the only people she can truly put her foot down around are her sisters because they’re the people she’s the most comfortable with in the world. if she has to confront anyone else, she’ll practice her argument ahead of time. in front of the mirror, in the shower, teri carefully chooses each word and gets extremely upset in the moment when the argument doesn’t go exactly the way she planned. it ends up derailing everything she practiced and she finds herself getting easily flustered.

wanted connections

“and yet, somehow we’re still polar opposites.” mel laughs. they often joke about how sometimes it felt like mel was more of a mother to teri than anything, and as much as she rebuked the concept of being called a sister-mom-friend, mel knew there was a lot of truth to the sentiment. their father hadn’t raised a single one of them prior to teri, and it showed. so, mel did what she always did — take care of people, filling the cold empty space her mother had left with the warmth of loving teri. “you give him too much credit.” for as long as mel has known hans she has been his biggest (and sometimes only) supporter. he was her best friend friend long before he ever became something more, so of course she could find more reasons to stick it out with Hans. she didn’t really have to try all that hard, even if a lot of the reasons revolved around familiarity, comfort and routine. but still, mel can’t resist the urge to tease him every now again. if she wasn’t quite literally wrapped around teri right now, mel would roll her eyes and be done with this conversation, walking away as teri played dumb on the topic. “oh because there’s a difference?” she snorts, not believing for once second that teri honestly thinks chip would have gotten the bunny if teri didn’t specifically ask him to. “i have met ears,” she nods, honestly forgetting for a second that they’d named it that. it was something that stayed with her for days until she eventually tried to push it out of her mind. but despite knowing exactly what the bunny looks like, she still looks down at the photos teri shows her as if she’s never seen it before. “he’s the cutest. but if you think it’s a dumb name why’d you let him name it ears?”

“Come on, we’re not that different,” she argues, though as soon as the words leave her lips she frowns, really thinking about it. All her life she’s looked up to Mel, wanting to be exactly like her older sister, but there really aren’t too many similarities between the two. “Well he is Penny’s bestie,” Teri giggles softly, neve quite sure how her best friend ended up being so close to her sister’s boyfriend, and why she even wanted to be. It shouldn’t be all that surprising considering Teri has watched her make friends with just about anyone over the years, effortlessly bringing people into her orbit, but it’s still somehow a little weird. “And if Penny vouches her her German bae than he must deserve some credit.” She knows that she doesn’t actually need the reminder, knowing perfectly well that her sister wouldn’t be friends with someone (and certainly wouldn’t be dating him) if she actually thought that. But Teri has always been too nice for her own good, always trying to find the positive. “Yeah, there’s totally a difference! It wasn’t a gift, we’re like... co-parents,” she shrugs, sure that she’s made a great point despite only going to further prove exactly what Mel was saying. Most people that are just friends don’t typically raise a pet together, but Teri has always been a little bit oblivious. Cooing softly at each new photo that pops up as she scrolls through her phone, Teri continues for another minute before setting it aside once again. “He wanted to let Phil name him, I don’t know,” Teri shrugs, still not quite sure why the gave Phil naming power of all people. “He wanted to name it Buntar at first, so at least Ears is better than that.” A small bright side, though to be perfectly honest Teri has gotten so used to the name Ears over the past few months that it almost sounds like a normal name now.

for as long as she could remember, mel had kept everything she’d ever thought and felt close to her heart. her father never had the time to listen and her mother made it very clear that she never had the interest. and so, little mel built walls around her heart in an effort to preserve her feelings as best as she could. and as mel got older those walls stenghthened. the little girl who spent her childhood being told she was less than everyone else had outgrown most things, but she’d never outgrown the need to treat her heart like a fortress. it’s probably why she was having such a hard time with the current state of her love life. all it took was a moment of honesty and vulnerability to resolve the mess she’d made, a mature conversation with benny and hans respectively would settle it. that was all she needed — to let the walls down for just a second. but something about that was so paralyzing to her that she wouldn’t even consider it, settling instead for longing and emptiness where laughter and bright smiles once lived with both of them. “yeah.” mel answers Teri, voice quieter than usual as she stares up at the ceiling. pretending to be asleep was a viable option but when it came to teri it was always just best to go with whatever she wanted as opposed to fight it. “that’s sweet ter, really.” it wasn’t a direct answer to her sister’s question, just more avoiding the problem at hand, and that was deliberate. “there’s nothing going on though, i’m fine.”

For nearly their entire relationship, Mel has been the one looking after Teri, doing everything she can to make sure the youngest Muse is okay. It’s something that means the world to her, but just this once she wants to be the one there for Mel. And since she clearly isn’t going to ask for help, she has no choice but ot offer it. “Mel, come on,” Teri sighs, not about to let her sister brush off her problems this easily. She could swear that she was fine, assure her that nothing is going on all she wants, but she’s never going to believe it. Mel might keep her walls up, refusing to let very many people get close to her, but Teri likes to think that she’s one of the few that really knows her sister. She can see past the walls and occasionally icy exterior, knows that there’s more going on underneath the surface than she likes to give up. “I know I’m dumb but I’m not like, that dumb.” She gives her sister a knowing look, even if she probably can’t see it in the dark. “You deleted all the pictures of Hans from your instagram. You haven’t talked about him or Benny since you got back on tour. What’s up?” That alone was enough of an indication that something is definitely wrong, as if the way she’s been acting since December wasn’t indication enough. Teri might not be in any position to give relationship advice right now, but she can try. And even if Mel doesn’t want to hear her advice, the least she can do is listen. “I know I haven’t always been the best at giving advice but I’m better now! Promise.” She’s not eighteen anymore, isn’t just going to nod along as she listens to Mel’s problems and go along with whatever Mel thinks is best. Finding her sister’s hand in the dark, she gives it a small, reassuring squeeze. “So what’s wrong?”

mizzprouds​:

the audacity. penny can’t believe benny has the nerve to sit there and pretend he has no idea what she’s talking about. she’s about to call benny out on playing dumb with her when teri greets him, excitement and joy still clear in her voice. “what?” penny looks at the phone screen, eyes narrowed at teri before she looks back up at benny. “give us one second please.” and without waiting for a response she steps away from benny and the table. it’s not far enough for benny to not overhear, but he should honestly stay out of black women’s business on this one. “teri! you’re not supposed to be all happy when you talk to him. you’re supposed to have my back!” to be fair, penny knows in hindsight that teri is far too much of an angel to ever be good at confronting anyone. penny had always been the one who could bring the hostile energy if need be. but considering this involved mel’s confusing ass love life, she thought teri would at least try. “we’re gonna try this again.” penny declares, turning on her heels and marching back over to benny. “’sup homewrecker.” she repeats, giving a pointed look at teri through the phone to make sure she gets it right this time. @bennyshippe​

Hearing the familiar voice of Mel’s little sister, Benny’s eyes flash down to the phone where Teri was currently displayed, waving to grab his attention. The confusion he felt moments ago only increases at this new development, but he tries his best to hide it as he raises a hand of his own in a return wave. “Hey Teri?” he questions, looking between both girls for a moment as he tried to piece together what they meant. Though as the youngest Muse girl mentions himself and Mel it makes a bit more sense - things finally clicking right as Penny excuses herself and takes a small step away to yell at her friend through the screen. He’s thankful for that moment to gather his thoughts, to put together everything they were implying in this confrontation. So when Penny turns back and greets him again, calling him a homewrecker once more, all Benny can do is shake his head a little. He wants to declare that he’s not a homewrecker and that they’ve got everything a bit mixed up - but he knows better than to jump in now. Instead he just stays quiet, looking back down at the screen to wait for Teri to regreet him before he explains himself. @terithemuse​

“What?” Teri parrots back as Penny’s energy is suddenly focused on her, not quite sure how she managed to mess this up so quickly. “We’ll be right back!” she calls over the phone to Benny as they settle only a few feet away from him to argue. “What did I do wrong? I thought we were doing a kind of good cop, bad cop thing?” Shrugging, Teri’s lips curl up into a sweet smile, the one she’s perfected to keep anyone from staying mad at her for long. It should be no surprise that she isn’t good at coming at Benny with an intense energy. She’s always been non-confrontational, preferring to stand behind Penny and support her whenever there was a fight, but the least she can do is try. “Okay, I’ll do better this time.” Despite her promise, she still lets a giggle slip from her lips as she once again addresses him as a homewrecker. Looking between Penny’s serious, expectant expression and Benny’s clearly baffled one, she takes a moment to get into character. “Hello Benjamin,” she says in the most serious voice she can manage, fixing him with a hard stare. It’s still likely not the energy that Penny wants her to be coming with, but it’s as good as she can do in the moment. “What do you have to say for yourself?” // @mizzprouds​

very little has ever been able to get under chip’s skin. he’s always done his best to let things roll  off of him, trying his hardest to keep hurt feelings to a minimum in an effort to roll through life with the brightest smile in the room in hopes of making everyone else feel as happy as he often wishes he were. but something about being shut out of people’s lives is unsurprisingly enough to upset him. maybe it’s a sign that he should be acknowledging the way britney had hurt him with their sudden inexplicable breakup. maybe he should pay closer attention to the way being ignored for no reason seems to set him off, there’s surely something there worth looking into, worth working on. but right now, all he can focus on is all the confusion and hurt that breathed deep within him once teri had begun avoiding him. a part of him wanted to believe that she’d just decided to cut him loose, that dealing with his obsessive and often times vicious fan base simply wasn’t worth it. and if it were that – well, could he really fault her for doing what was best for her? no, of course not. he just wishes he’d been in the loop, or at least a part of the decision. so, when he’s wandering the backstage area of the venue he can’t even deny that he’s looking for teri. there’s no pretending, and certainly no fooling any of the other boys the second he peels away from the group on a mission. somewhere behind him he can hear his bandmates chatting and laughing loudly, and as much as he should be a part of that moment with them he can’t bring himself to care once he sees teri. everything around him stops, voices behind him muted and eyes focusing only on her. there’s a pang of something dark in his stomach, something sour and heavy that he’s not used to feeling around her – sadness maybe? annoyance? he’s not too sure. “hey?” he repeats, tone harsh and disbelieving as he looks at her. all he can do is blink, trying to wrap his brain around what the hell she even means – she shuts him out and all he gets is a weak ass ‘hey’. and yet, he finds himself stepping towards her anyways, almost willing to accept it like the fool he is. “that’s all you’ve got? hey?” 

.

She’s not quite sure what she expected, but seeing him now, she remembers exactly why she spent the past few days stressing about seeing him again. From the moment they met there’s been nothing but affection between the two of them but it’s all gone now and there’s no denying that it’s completely her fault. She’s never been the best at admitting her faults, but this one she can’t deny.  A million excuses run through her mind, trying to come up with any believable reason for nearly a month of radio silence. She’s been busy with tour, press was draining, they’ve been working on their second album. It’s all true, but none of them a good enough reason for practically cutting him out completely. They all feel too much like likes and she’s never known how to be anything other than honest with him. It’s the whole reason she started avoiding him in the first place.

“I...” Biting her lip nervously, Teri falters at the harshness of his tone, a pang of guilt in her chest. She never really stopped to think about how pulling away would affect him, acting on impulse without realizing that he might be hurt by the sudden silence. “I’m really sorry.” Shuffling uncomfortably where she stands, a wave of sadness washes over her and all she wants to do is cross the short distance between them and wrap her arms around him. But spending the past month avoiding him for a reason, and she has to keep reminding herself of that now when all she wants to do is forget about these past few weeks. It hurt more than it was supposed to, seeing him with someone else, and she was still struggling to confront the feelings she wasn’t supposed to be feeling, the ones she’d spent nearly a year avoiding. “It’s good to see you,” she tries again, doing her best to plaster a smile on her face. And it is good to see him. She didn’t quite realize how much she missed him this past month until he’s standing here in front of her, and she can hardly imagine how she managed to go nearly an entire month without saying a word. “I like the blonde,” she adds with a quiet giggle, unable to help herself as she closes the distance between them just enough that she can ruffle the new blonde patch in his hair.

Satisfied with her sister’s outfit choice, Clio turned back to her reflection to continue working on her makeup. “Penny and Meg looked good. I haven’t gone searching for anyone else yet,” she answered, honestly. Though she didn’t doubt that plenty of the dresses the other girls back on the island were indeed boring - or potentially even hideous. “Gigi and Rosie aren’t going and I don’t really follow anyone else from back home.” So it’d take a bit of digging to find all the other outfits of the night - something she’d do later on once they had posted their own photos and got tucked back into bed for the night. “Also black. The one with the top cut around my tits. It’s hanging on the bathroom door.”

“Penny and Meg always look good,” Teri reminds her sister, not able to think of a single time where their friends weren’t able to make an outfit look. “I can show you some later. There’s too many people trying to make yellow work.” While there are some people that can pull of the colour, it’s definitely not for everyone and she shudders at some of the looks she came across in her short time scrolling through Instagram. “Oh I love that one! Your fans are gonna love it!” After this past month her sister definitely needs a win, and there’s no doubt that the thousands of comments telling her how amazing she looks will cheer her up. “You should do a dark lip,” she adds, taking a moment to inspect Clio’s collection before pulling out what she believes to be the winner.

mel opens her mouth to argue that no matter what chip would always be dumb in mel’s book but she stops herself, smiling softly at her younger sister instead. the way teri defends chip, almost a bit petulantly, isn’t lost on mel and it would make very little sense to continue insulting (even if it was just jokingly) someone that teri cared about. “that’s my girl.” she giggles, kissing teri’s forehead when she repeats back the most important lesson of all. she knows that the person most suited for these conversations is probably clio or thalia, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure teri is reminded of how she’s better than literally any man ever. “is there any other reason?” mel asks with a quiet laugh, wrapping her arm around teri to hug her tighter to her side. it was the furthest thing from true, mel valuing the way hans’ makes her feel far more than the fact that he’s rich. thalia often criticized her for it – the only sister with a rich boyfriend who was more than willing to drop any amount of money on her, and she refused it every time. but mel had always been fiercely independent and hans’ wealth mattered very little to her. but that didn’t mean she expected all of her sisters to be the same – get that bag at any cost, and all that. “what do you even mean?” mel asks, eyes narrowing as teri questions if chip agrees. even getting complimented and booped on the nose hardly changes the expression on mel’s face. “don’t you guys text like 24/7? didn’t he get you a bunny?” surely teri can’t be that fucking dense.

“You’ve taught me everything I know,” Teri laughs softly, but even as she says it as a joke, it’s undoubtedly true. Sometimes she thinks about where she would be if Mel didn’t move in when Teri was just a little girl, how different she would have been if she was left with only their father for guidance. “I’m sure you can probably think of a couple reasons if you really tried.” Cuddling into Mel’s side as she wraps her arms around her in a hug, there’s no hiding the smile that lights up her face, her mood immediately lifting. They don’t do this much anymore, her older sister being more selective with her affection, but she’ll never pass up the opportunity. “What do you mean?” she repeated blankly, looking over at her sister with a small frown. Over the past few months she’s made her feelings clear enough that both her sisters and her best friend have caught on; if Chip felt the same way, he would have said something. They’re just friends, and she’s slowly doing her best to make her peace with that. “He didn’t get me a bunny, we got a bunny together!” Teri points out as though there’s much of a difference. As if that was something friends typically did together. If she really thought about it she would realize that they only got a bunny because of her, that she certainly used cuteness to her advantage to get him to agree. “You’ve met Ears before!” Reaching for her phone again, she pulls up the album dedicated to the bunny, using the opportunity to show Mel the countless photos she’s taken “Ears is still a stupid name but isn’t he so cute?”

mizzprouds​:

while most people would sulk that their best friend was missing out on yet another event, penny had long since made her peace with the fact that teri would be thousands of miles away. being upset wasn’t going to change anything about it, so, instead she found the next best solution. just like at the winter festival, penny planned to spend as much time with teri on FaceTime as she could. even if people did think it was strange that she ran around the ball insisting that all of teri’s friends say hi to her virtually, penny was determined to do it. “hmmm, i still can’t find clio’s friends,” penny pouts, feeling a little bad that they couldn’t stop and say hi to Rosie and gigi for clio’s sake. looking around penny’s eyes gloss over the crowd, trying to pick out everyone she recognized based on the pictures they posted of their outfits on Instagram. but before she can spot an actual friend she sees someone sitting at a table, a head of curly hair and a spaceship tie on. “oooooh space camp’s here.” penny announces, it’s something that shouldn’t matter to either girl as much as it would but since teri told penny about hans and mel’s weird New Orleans day they’d been spending their time trying to figure out what was wrong between them. of all the theories they came up with the most obvious (or so penny thought) was that mel cheated on hans with her exe. if it were involving anyone else penny wouldn’t think it was her business, but teri’s favorite sister and penny’s own best friend (shout out to German buddy!) found themselves in a weird place. so, now it was their business. “wanna go yell at him?” teri doesn’t even get to answer because penny is already marching over there, prepared to tell benny all about himself. “what’s up homewrecker.” she greets, attitude dripping off her words as she does. @bennyshippe

with lucy gone and kitty off on the other side of the ballroom with some other friends, benny hadn’t expected anyone to approach him at the table he and his friends had claimed as their own when they first arrived. and he certainly hadn’t expected anyone to approach him with a greeting as harsh as that. “nothing?” he questions, unsure what he’s really supposed to say. it shouldn’t be so confusing - he knows penny is close with all the muses and after the whole mel situation it would only make sense that she’d be talking about that - but as the the accusation is thrown at him, all benny can do is wonder what the hell was going on. “what - what do you mean i’m a homewrecker?” @terithemuse​

“Clio says they might not be there so maybe they’re not,” Teri shrugs, glancing over at her sister (who has long ago lost interest in this conversation) for confirmation. “Ooooh yeah let’s do it!” she nods eagerly, knowing in the back of her mind that her sister would have a lot to say if she ever found out about this. But what Mel will never know won’t hurt her. She’s never even been the confrontational type, her position in their friendship to stand back and nod as Penny does the confronting, but after weeks of bouncing theories back and forth she’s ready for some answers. Letting out a high pitched squeal of surprise as Penny approaches him with no holds bared, it’s no surprise to see the shock reflected on Benny’s face. “Hi Benny!” Teri calls from the phone to bring their attention to her presence too, waving to her sister’s friend from the screen. She’s not all that good at this, her own energy not quite matching her best friend’s. “You know, you and Mel...” she trails off, eyes wide as though it’s obvious, staring intently at her phone screen to get a good read on him. They don’t know for sure what actually happened between them — and her love and admiration for her sister has her rooting for Mel — but she hopes to get confirmation one way or another. When no one tells them anything they just have to do the detective work themselves. @mizzprouds​

Pausing in her application of her eye makeup, Clio looks at her sister first just through the reflection of the mirror, but when that doesn’t give a good enough image she turns to give Teri her full attention. It’s not something she does so easily usually, but this whole trip has made her far more appreciative of her younger sister - the person who had willingly stayed behind so that she didn’t have to be alone for the holidays. So if Teri wanted her genuine opinion on their fake little New Years Eve outfits, the least Clio could do was take it seriously. “The black one,” she decides after a few seconds of looking them both over. “It really emphasizes the young and hot in New York part. Especially when it’s in the line-up of all the stuffy gowns everyone’s wearing back home.”

Planning to spend the entire evening in the hotel room there’s absolutely no reason to get all dressed up, but neither one of them has ever been able to resist the opportunity of a good photoshoot. “Okay yeah that’s true,’ Teri agrees with an eager nod, throwing the purple option over her shoulder as she focuses on the black dress Clio selected. “Did you see some of the pictures on instagram? Those dresses are so boring.” And in some cases just plain ugly, whoever helped them pick out those dresses clearly not doing their friends any favours. That feels a little too mean to point out though (not everyone has the luxury of a designer sister like they do), so she keeps her mouth shut as she changes, changing out the sweats she was wearing for the little black dress. “What are you wearing again?”

“Come on,” Teri whines, nudging Chip in the side for his cheesy (albeit kind of adorable) joke. They’ve been wandering through New York shops for the past hour, the disguises they put together at the hotel miraculously allowing them to wander around the city undetected. While he keeps picking things up off the shelves to get her, he’s yet to give her any idea of what he wants. “You already got that, so you’ve gotta come up with something else before I get you those sunglasses over there.”  Laughing she points at the first thing she sees, a display of cheap, bright coloured plastic sunglasses. “I don’t think even you could pull those off.” It’s a blatant lie, she’s almost certain Chip has never met a pair of sunglasses he couldn’t pull off, but she’s hoping it will be enough of a threat to get some sort of idea out of it. // @chippyskylark

As much as she hates not being home with Mel for the holidays, unable to participate in one of her favourite traditions, being far away from the kitchen is probably for the best. Nothing Teri has ever baked has come out well, everyone in her life pretending for her sake while silently suffering as they eat whatever creation she comes up with. “Wait, where are the sparkles?” Teri demands, unable to see the edible glitter that she insists on sprinkling over the cookies every year. “If I can’t be there to make them, they have to at least be sparky!” she insists, wanting everyone to know she had a hand in helping even if she’s halfway across the world. // @mel-ancholymuse

“Why is every single Christmas movie about romance?” Teri mutters under her breath, curled up in the bed next to Clio as they scroll through movies on the hotel tv. While her own love life is mostly sorted out, Clio’s remains something of a mess and she’s pretty sure the last thing her sister wants is to watch two people find love over the holidays. “What about Die Hard?” she offers, glancing over at her sister with a hopeful smile. “Everyone says it’s a holiday movie and I don’t think there’s gonna be any cheesy love story in this one.” // @officialcliomuse