Author's Note: Alright, so, while I absolutely love Lily/James stories I've become extremely irritated at the usual plotline where Lily and James become Head Girl and Boy (respectively), their forced into being nice to each other, Lily discovers she likes James, Lily's friends get paired of to each of the Marauders' and blah blah blah… so, after much deliberation and treats from my friends, I decided to try a different approach and have finally uploaded the first chapter. I personally blame Megan but eh… I hope you enjoy but I have to apologise in advance for my grammar, there's more then likely going to be a few mistakes and I can only hope it doesn't distract from the story to much, but apart from that read, enjoy and review! ;D
CHAPTER ONE: Banana-Toffee Ice-Cream
Lily Evans closed her eyes in bliss and moaned, whoever created banana-toffee ice-cream was a God. "Hey, Lil'," the voice of her best friend wasn't even enough to bring her out of her banana-toffee worshiping daze. "Hum, don't you just love the man who first thought to add banana and toffee together with ice-cream?" Emerald-jade eyes opened with a glare as Candice Worchester licked the remains of the stolen ice-cream from her finger with a cheeky smile as Lily gathered her bowl and held it towards her chest, eyeing her as if she was untrustworthy. In truth she most likely was, especially when it came to banana-toffee ice-cream, but it was all Lily's fault in the first place for introducing the Muggle flavour to her when she and the rest of their friends visited Lily's home last summer. The temptation was just too much...
"What are you doing back so soon?" Lily asked shifting back on her mattress to make room for her friend to sit down, spooning another mouthful of her ice-cream and eating it loudly without ever taking her eyes of her friend who she knew, from past experience, was more than ready to take any given opportunity to steal some more of the heavenly banana-toffee goodness. Candice's smile fell slightly and Lily watched as her friend's bottom lip was trapped by her teeth, her blue eyes becoming worried as they stared into her own. Something was wrong. "Candy?"
"It's nothing important, not really." A false smile brightened Candice's face and Lily watched on silently, her bright eyes demanding answers. Candice sighed. "Fine. I was working on the Herbology essay for Professor Davis when the Marauders came strutting in." Lily's eyes became round and her bottom lip fell into a pout, with only a slight hesitation she extended her arms and offered Candice what little was left of her banana-toffee ice-cream with a sad look on her face. "Oh, honestly Lil', you look like I just told you your cat drowned." Lily rolled her eyes at the mixed-up attempt of using a Muggle phrase. Honestly, Purebloods.
"The phrase is actually: 'you look like your dog just got run over', and are you going to take the banana and toffee ice-cream before my resistance crumbles and I steal it back or not?" Lily raised a red eyebrow in question and watched in amusement as Candice jumped off of the bed they were both lounging on before circling it so she could climb under the covers beside Lily and lean against the headboard while she eating the offered ice-cream. Lily looked on jealously. "So... the Marauders came strutting into the Library?"
"Yeah. They had that mad glint in their eyes, you know? The one they have when they've just pranked the Slytherin's or when there thinking up plan that ends with them in a month's detention?" Lily nodded. "Well, they just walked over and sat on the desk next to mine without a word, unpacking their bags and doing their homework of all things! Their home, can you believe it? Since when have the Marauders, apart from Remy of course, ever done their homework? ... on time that is, of course."
"If this is the peak of the story I think I want my ice-cream back now please." Candice held the bowl out of Lily's reach with a glare.
"Where has your patience gone, Little Miss Perfect-Prefect?" Emerald-jade eyes burned with her glare. "Alright, alright – I'm sorry." Candice waited for that fire to lessen some before continuing. "Amazingly they didn't say or do anything for the two hours I was there finishing my essay – I know what you're thinking, it shouldn't have taken me so long but I couldn't help it! Sirius kept fighting and coughing and he wouldn't sit still and I kept waiting for them to jump up and start laughing and shouting that my hair was bright pink or something as equally as horrible." One thing Candice Worchester hated with the same passion as she loved banana-toffee ice-cream? Pink, it was the colour of the devil in her eyes. "Anyway, when I finally finished I figured it was best not to push my luck and packed up my stuff and left, 'cause just because they hadn't done anything to me yet didn't mean they were planning anything, you know?" Lily nodded, oh yes, the Marauders were sneaky like that – they had the patience of a snake, willing to wait until you felt that you were safe, foolishly relaxing and taking your eyes off them, before they striked. "I'd just turned the corner by the portrait of Moraga, you know, just past the door of the Library? When Sirius stopped me, and, well..." Lily's eyes narrowed in suspicion, that was the second time she had called Sirius by his first name now...
"Since when did you start calling Sirius by his first name?"
"Hu?" Ah, Candice, ever the articulate one of their little group.
"Since when did you start calling Sirius by his first name?"
"Well, I mean... his name is Sirius, and you call him it all the time!" Lily rolled her eyes at the lame answer, her eyebrow inching higher – whatever had happened had to be good, or bad depending on how you looked it, if Candice was attempting to stall this much.
"Yes, his name is Sirius and yes, I do often call him as such unless he or his stupid friends have managed to blow up the Slytherin's Common Room again, but my point is that you have never called him by his first name before today – ever!" Lily grinned as Candice's cheeks flushed with colour, a rare sight for anyone to see, it was almost impossible to make her blush and Lily only wished she had a camera so she had some proof that it wasn't just her eyes playing tricks on her. "You calling Sirius by his first name is as shocking as me suddenly calling Potter 'James'." She cringed at the thought.
"Em..."
"You've always called him 'Black', even when we were first years – or 'it'. You said that he wasn't part of the human race and certainly shouldn't be counted as one... you even said he shouldn't be allowed to sleep in the tower because he might contaminate the rest of us with whatever disease he was carrying that was eating away at his brain and demanded that instead he sleep outside like the dirty dog he was!" Lily tried not to laugh, she really did, but the memory of Candice standing red-faced and spitting daggers at a stunned Sirius Black as she shouted at him for being the biggest egotist prick she had ever had the misfortune to meet, in the middle of a crowed Common Room back in their fourth year no less, she couldn't help but laugh. Candice attempted to glare at her but the corners of her lips lifting upwards into a smile at the same memory ruined the effect.
"Well..."
"Candy," Lily smiled as blue eyes looked up at her, that same worry she had seen earlier returning. "Whatever happened you can tell me... it can't be as embarrassing as when they put that beetle in your soup in third year and only told you when we got to potions – Slunghorn makes sure not to stand too close even now, you'd think he's never been thrown up on before!"
"Lily!" Candice whined while shoving another mouthful of the almost finished ice-cream into her mouth, her bottom lip jutted out in a pout as she ate leisurely, obviously thinking how she was going to tell her best friend what had happened. "Sirius Black told me he's admired me ever since I had the balls to shout at him that night in-front of the entire Common Room and he thinks anyone who is brave enough to risk pranking by the Marauders and disownment by her fellow peers deserves his respect." She breathed in deeply before quickly continuing. "He also said that his admiration turned into attraction when we feel into the Common Room in our fifth year after that snowball fight, do you remember that, Lily? He said he'd never thought anyone as beautiful as I looked then with melted snow in my hair and my cheeks flushed and my nose red and wrapped up in that hideous orange coat Grandma sent for Christmas... he thought me beautiful, Lil's... and he said he finally realised that he liked me more as a silly fling or number on his list of girls when he heard Amos Diggory telling one of his friends last year that he thought I had really 'filled out' and would have to keep an eye on me and he felt jealous and – and angry and protective over the way he was talking about me." Candice finally stopped with a gasp and allowed herself to breathe again while Lily Evans, brightest witch of her generation, all round know-it-all and number-one Marauder-hater blinked stupidly at her best friend.
"Hu?"
"Sirius Black asked me out."
Green eyes widened. "Hu?"
"I said yes."
"What? Candy, no! Have you forgotten everything they did to you, to us? Or how horrible they are to everyone else that isn't Gryffindor's?" Lily frowned at her best friend – she was so smart, so beautiful and kind and gentle... and she was the newest arm-candy that would be hanging on every word Sirius Black was said, giggling at his terrible jokes and flatter her eyelashes at him when he didn't pay her enough attention. She would be the girl they usually made fun out of. Who was going to sit with her on the overly-stuffed chairs by the fire in the Common Room and make fun out of the new girl Sirius had managed to catch in his trap of pretty words and handsome smiles? Who was going to feel sorry with her over the poor girl's best-friend who had to sit around with the Marauders and watch as the two attempted to try and eat the others face off... wait... she was the new girls poor best-friend and it would be her who had to sit with the bloody Marauders and watch as Candice and Sirius 'made out' at every given chance. Lily almost cried at the thought. "Please don't tell me you were actually sucked in by his speech, I mean – I love him like a brother but he probably tells that to all girls!"
Candice nodded with a shrugged while spooning herself another scoop of banana-toffee ice-cream. "Probably," she licked her lips with a far away smile as she stared over Lily's shoulder, "but it was his kiss that made me really believe him."
"But – but... who's going to make fun out of his new arm-candy with me? You are the new arm-candy!"
"Hum... the new arm-candy named Candy, has a certain kinda ring to it, don-it?" Candice smirked, in Lily's opinion, evilly over at her. She breathed heavily through her nose and glared at the blonde beside her, snatching her ice-cream back and kicking her covers off both of them as she moved to jump up.
"As long as you don't expect me to deal with his friends while you two are making lovely-dovey eyes at each other..." Candice smiled and held out the spoon obediently as she finished licking it clean.
"They'll be expecting us for breakfast." Lily Evens screamed and slammed the door to the sixth-years girls' bathroom closed, locking it behind her before skinning to the tiled-floor under the row of white-marble skins with a frown on her face and a scowl on her downturned lips. Candice was Sirius' new arm-candy... she was Candice's best-friend and therefore was the stupid sod that was expected to put up with the Marauder's while said best-friend practically dry-humped him at any given chance... she was also the stupid sob that was in the unfortunate position of being on the receiving end of James Potter attention, attraction, admiration, lust – whatever it was! Emerald-jade eyes blinked down at the empty bowl of banana-toffee remains, a pout on her lips as her spoon fell into the messy dish with a loud clatter. Oh yes, life was just great.