It was a well known fact that, in the summer, most kids in America run around free, lazy, and having an air of one hog having being confounded and left to the butcher's store, thinking that he was going to get more food and not chopped in half. Echoes of laughing kids as they biked down Whitney Street were different from last year's. The boy's voices were deeper, girls' shriller. Time had passed.
Hersia yawned while scratching down a few notes about Muggle Studies on her parchment, under the comfort of a large oak's shadows in the U.S.
Today was the hottest day Hersia had endured for a year; England wasn't nearly as hot, especially in winter, spring, and autumn. A lightbulb seemed to appear on top of her head as Hersia scribbled more information about the making of an airplane.
She felt a gentle nudge on her elbow, making her quill splash a splotch of ink on her essay. Turning her head, she asked irritably, "What is it?"
"Can I ask you a question?" Jay asked with a furrowed brow. As a muggle-born, finishing Muggle Studies homework wasn't hard for Hersia, to say the least. By asking her the answer to every question, Jay was then able to do more about Charms, his favorite subject in Hogwarts.
"You just did." Hersia returned to her essay, but listened to him nevertheless.
"Are you familiar with a calculator?" Jay stretched "calculator" as if it was a foreign word. Hersia nodded.
"What does it do?" asked Jay.
Blankly, Hersia slowly looked up.
"It… calculates."
Jay grinned. "Alright, thanks." He was then quiet. Frowning slightly, Hersia went back to writing. She didn't know whether he was joking or not, but she had an idea. When it came to muggles, Jay was as hopeless as the famous Professor Snape to kindness.
Moments passed as the two friends completed their homework and laid down in the mossy roots of the oak. Suddenly, Hersia noticed that the laughter of the muggles riding bikes became nearer…
"HERSIA?" a muggle screeched. Hersia gave a jolt and sat upright. Jay blinked lazily and propped himself up on the trunk. There was a redhead, large amounts of freckles and curls cascading from the useless ponytail ontop of her head. Her mouth was stretched to a giant "O" of surprise.
"Luce!" Hersia called out, feigning shock. Of course, she was very enthusiastic, seeing her elementary school friend again, but she was not surprised. The Revelation Scope she got for Christmas had warned her about the names of people that were going to turn up at the tree a half hour before they arrived.
Lucy abandoned her bike and sprinted towards her friend. As she was embraced into a mass of ruby hair, Hersia could barely see four people behind…
Amelia, Sunny, Alexa… and Bryce? He stared at her with his blue eyes round, shocked… She hadn't seen him in such a long time….
Soon, Hersia was choking under the bodily masses of 5 people. She looked sideways and caught Jay's eyes. He raised an eyebrow, clearly trying not to point and laugh.
"Stop killing me, please?" Hersia managed to ask. Immediately, the muggles flung their arms off of her. Bryce stayed in the back, nonchalantly making his bike stand up with more time than necessary.
"He never got the hang of engineering," mused Hersia quietly. Lucy looked at her quizzically. Not wanting to be nostalgic at the moment, Hersia shrugged.
Amelia launched into speech. "Oh my god! It's been so long since we've seen you. What school do you go to now? You look different. Taller, I suppose, but aren't we all. Your hair! It's so short! What happened? So much has changed!"
Finally, Bryce waltzed towards them. "Give her time to speak, Amelia. She's, like, pale with sentimentality."
"Naw, it's just mighty cold in England." Hersia would be more specific, but she didn't know where Hogwarts was located. Alexa sneered.
"You've been in ENGLAND? No WONDER you sound so different!"
"You've only been talking to her for thirty seconds," Jay spoke up. All five of her old friends turned to look at the newcomer. He, with his English accent, pronounced "been" like "bean". Alexa was keen to point this out.
"Rubbish," scoffed Jay. "As if that matters." Sunny and Lucy exchanged an awed glance. They, unlike Alexa, seemed to find his accent cute.
"Anyway," Hersia butted in, keen to stop the snappy Alexa from starting an argument, "What's so different here, Amelia?"
Amelia took a great breath of air before she started speaking again. "Lucy went out with Lance! Can you believe it? LANCE PLATE! He's so hot, remember?"
To Hersia's horror, she couldn't remember. She wasn't about to stop Amelia from talking, however. Relishing the fact of filling up the gaps through out her aged 11-14, Hersia listened. It was just then that she noted casually that Americans loved to exaggerate random words.
"But they JUST broke up because, SHAME, he MOVED! They were falling APART, though, anyway, and LUCE was just SICK of him by then."
"And guess what?" interrupted Sunny. "I got a puppy! His name's Caramel, and Bryce just LOATHES him! He's so mean." Sunny pouted flirtily.
Bryce scowled. "He broke my f***ing leg, Sun."
"How does that even happen?" Hersia laughed. It felt good, to reminiscence, but not really.
"Damned thing tripped me down the stairs," sighed Bryce. To this, Hersia laughed even harder. From her half-closed eyes, she could see that he was blushing, but smiling also. Her stomach gave a jolt.
He had the same, jet-black hair that was gelled up at the front. A dash of freckles dotted his nose, which had grown longer, as the rest of his face. He was no longer the cute little round-faced boy, cheerfully laughing at every joke, innocently doodling pictures of Hersia and himself. Instead, he had a sharp jawline, rosy lips, and dark eyebrows. His eyes looked lazy, but handsomely so.
Her gaze turned to Lucy. Hersia gasped. "What's with the scar?" Lucy had a reddish line from her ear to collarbone. Her dark red hair falling out of the ponytail only covered some of the scar.
"Oh, biking accident," giggled the clumsy ginger.
"Yeah, the idiot didn't see the stop sign. It's sad," Alexa drawled. Her dark brown hair was tied- quite tightly- into a ponytail, like Luce, but the hair stayed in place. It gave her face a look of her jaw being wider than the top of her head. It was not favoring her looks, is the point Hersia was trying to think, but not meanly. Alexa's ice-blue eyes made her pupils look bored.
"At least she didn't get hurt," added Amelia brightly. She was still as plump, with rosy cheeks and a large, warm smile. Blond hair with dark brown strands was cut short to her shoulders, straight. Her bangs didn't cover her eyebrows like they usually did, so Hersia reckoned that she got a recent haircut.
So," Sunny said, getting bored of the subject, "Where have you been in England!" Her voice was high and energetic. Her tube-top didn't cover much, as well as those short shorts. Sunny's pale blond hair nearly fell to her waist, unnaturally wavy, but attractive. She beamed a perfect, fruity smile.
"Boarding school," Hersia answered truthfully.
"So you got accepted into one after all! What's its name?" Amelia asked. Technically, she did- but not in one that she was expecting. All those applications for numerous schools, wasted! Because she was going to have to attend Hogwarts anyway.
"Liverpool International," Jay interrupted. When Hersia glanced at him, he gave the smallest nod. Of course Professor Llevantine would create a fake school and website for questioning relatives.
"I'll look that up!" Lucy said, according to their predictions. "Hey, Hersia, want to join us to the park? We were just going there."
Hersia grinned at Jay. Although terrible at Muggle Studies, he couldn't say that he wasn't interested. "If Jay's up to it."
"Course," he said. When her friends rode away, Jay stuffed all their things into a knapsack and stuffed his wand in his jeans. Hersia watched him skeptically.
"In case, right?" he smiled.
"In case we want to get expelled, you mean," Hersia said. Jay ignored her and gave Hersia her own wand. After hesitating, she didn't want anyone to steal it, so she pocketed the magical stick also.
"But com'on, or we wouldn't be able to get a seat on the swings!"