Yes, I know this has the same title as the book I'm reading in English class, but it has nothing to do with it…it was just the inspiration for the title. Anyway, Voldemort is after her, so for her protection Hermione is put in a witness protection-like program thingy, which will prob come up in the next chapter. Something happened to Ginny earlier on, but what that was is still a secret (shhh). Oh, and other people might show up later, like Malfoy (good? Kinda good? Evil? Kinda evil? …Who knows?), or the twins (yay!), oh and Harry and Ron too….maybe.
Oh and I don't own the Harry Potter-yummy-goodness, but everything else is mine. But the English class debate actually happened…today as a matter of fact…spawned from a LOUD discussion of how fanfiction.net is like life. Took up a good 15-20mins of class :P
And if this doesn't make much sense, its not just you; my first chapters tend to be somewhat…odd. But theoretically speaking it should all be good by the next chapter!
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"So we have another exchange student?" Mari Smith whispered to the person sitting next to her.
"Yeah, but maybe this one will actually leave." Samantha Miller whispered back, referring to the fact that Mari herself had started out as just an exchange student at the end of the previous term, and now almost a year later, she was still there. No one really knew why.
"Sick of me already?"
"Already!? Already was six months ago, this is jus…." Sam trailed off when she saw that their English teacher, Miss Conner, was looking right at them.
"Alright," the teacher began, "It seems that our new exchange student will be joining our class. Jayne, would you like to introduce yourself."
All eyes were on her. From where she was sitting across the room, Mari could see Jayne visibly tense up at the attention.
"Um, alright," She said with a horrid Southern accent. "Hi y'all, my name is Jayne Johnson and, um, I'm from Austin Texas."
At once the questions began-
"What's it like in Texas?"
"Whose your host family?"
"How long are you staying here?"
Jayne's face began turning a dull shade of red, a color that clashed greatly against her jagged platinum blond hair and she looked nervously at the teacher for assistance.
"You girls have two whole months to ask all these questions." Miss Conner noticed Jayne's reluctance. "You are here for two months, right?"
"Yes, Miss Conner. And I am staying with Kerri McBride and her family."
"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"
"Are you sure you're only staying for two months?" Interjected another student, "Because Mari" She pointed jokingly in her subject's direction, "Was only supposed to stay for two months last year and she's still here."
"Well that's just because I knew you all loved me so I wouldn't want to leave as I knew you'd all be crushed; possible even driven into an incurable depression." Mari defended. She got the feeling that there was something out of the ordinary about this exchange student, and she was determined to find out what it was…just, not now. After class, yeah, she'd do it after class.
'But wait'- she realized, 'I have another class after this one. Lunch! I'll do it during lunch…no, my history class is having a special lunch today. Alright, I'll talk to her after school! No, I'll never find her after school…tomorrow! I can do it tomorrow!' But she didn't talk to Jayne the next day, or the day after that…something always came up, until she more-or-less just forgot about the whole thing. Until, that is, another English class six weeks after Jayne arrived.
"Harry Potter is like, my life!"
"Oh I know! And Sirius is TOTALLY still alive"
"If you ain't got a body, you ain't got a death!"
"You know, I happen to prefer Lord of the Rings…"
"You what!?" All heads turned in the direction of the one person claiming to like Lord of the Rings over Harry Potter.
"Actually I kind of do too…" And for the next 15 minutes, the class debated back and forth which was better, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Meanwhile Miss Conner just stood there in the middle of the room waiting for her chance to regain control of the class.
"Alri-Alright…we need to get back to Things Fall Apart" Normally, that would have worked, but today something…else happened.
As a general rule, Mari tended to stay out of conversations that revolved around Harry Potter. No, it wasn't because she didn't like the books. She had made it a point to read the entire series upon first learning of their existence; she finished all five in two weeks. And, as a matter of fact, she liked them very much…except the second one. No comment on that one. She was usually a fairly outgoing girl; she just didn't like to get involved in discussions about the series. Today's argument was dying down, but Mari couldn't help but notice the startled, even slightly frightened, look on Jayne's face.
"Ha-Harry Potter?" Jayne said slowly.
"Yeah," echoed another student, "Harry Potter, you know, like the books?"
"Books?"
"Oh don't tell me you haven't read them either!"
"Hey," Sam cut in, "What is it with you exchange students? Last year Mari didn't know about the series either…of course now she's addicted too…"
The chatter soon died down as Miss Conner led the talk back to the book they were supposed to be discussing. The class got pretty boring after that, but Jayne's ignorance about the most talked about books in their school was something that Mari could not get off her mind so easily, and after class that day she finally got up the courage to confront the exchange student.
"YAY! LUNCH!" Sam jumped out of her seat as soon as the bell rang.
"Um, yah know what, I think I'll meet you in the cafeteria." Mari collected her books and walked over to where Jayne was preparing to leave.
"Suit yourself." Sam followed the rest of the class out the door.
"Um, Jayne, could I talk to you for a sec?"
Jayne put down the books she was holding and sat back down, "Ok, sure."
Mari took the seat next to her. "Ok, I know that this is going to sound reeeeeeealy strange, but….oiy this is so awkward, um, are you really just an exchange student?"
"What do you mean? Of course I'm an exchange student. I went to school in Texas, now I'm spending two months here. That's the general classification of an exchange student."
Mari sighed and took a minute to collect herself.
"Alright, here's the thing. You seem…different. I noticed this when you first arrived, but I had forgotten about it until today. First of all, I don't know where you got that accent, but it wasn't Texas. A parrot could do a better accent than you. Secondly, I could possibly understand your not having read the Harry Potter books before, but not knowing what they were!? Now I may not be from down south, but I do know that the books do exist down there, so how is it that you could have possibly never heard of them?"
It took Jayne a minute to respond. She was obviously quite flustered, but she quickly remembered to calm herself.
"People in different parts of Texas talk with different accents, and this is just how I talk. As for the Harry Potter books, I never said I hadn't heard of them. I just haven't read them is all."
"Then why did you look so startled when we were talking about them?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Oh don't give me that! You know perfectly well what I'm talking about! You're not even from Texas, are you!?"
"I'll have you know that I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. And while we're on the subject of hometowns, why don't we talk about you? From what I've heard, you came here as an exchange student and never left. Some exchange!"
Mari grew quiet at that. "There happens" she spat out, "To be a perfectly reasonable explanation for that."
"Well I'm waiting."
"You know what? Just forget about it!" Mari stood up, yanked at her bag, and walked fiercely out of the room.
"Bloody hell that was close," Jayne whispered to herself in an English accent, no longer caring about the slow southern drawl her alter ego was supposed to use, "She almost found out that I'm a witch."
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Hehe! It took me two classes to write this bloody thing (better than paying attention :P) but mwah! The first chapter! Yay for the second chapter where things start to make sense (I think…maybe)! Oh and pleeeeassse review or I might not update ^_^
Oh, yeah, and I know that Mari was no where near finding out that Jayne's a witch, but still this ending just...fit.