Chapter 1: What Never Came…Never, ever, ever

"Oh my gosh! I can't believe we're almost there!" squealed Hayden to her friends. Annie and Susan shared a laugh as they examined their excited companion. They were traveling to London to and visiting their old friend Taylor. He had moved from Jacksonville, Florida to London a few summers back but the quartet had kept close and had conquered the time zones early on.

Hayden stood tall and proud at the station, as her eyes skimmed the crowd. Meanwhile her model thin body attracted the men passing by. Her long hair blew into her face as she impatiently swatted it away. Her hair was an astonishing brown that would never be sold in a box; they could never manage it. She had always been the group's wild child and their constant source of perky. She was SO perky and SO talkative, that she'd been nicknamed Times Union or T.U. for short.

"I know what you mean! I'm in shock!" Susan exclaimed, jumping for joy and also attracting attention, but for an ENTIRELY different reason. She was a wacky, fun loving person but she was known for how focused she was when serious Her long black hair blew into her face as well and she patted it away just as impatiently as her dark brown eyes lit to an excited chocolaty tint that was usually present. She struggled on her tippy-toes trying to overcome her height's 'midget tendencies'.

"So when are we suppose to land?"

"About 9:00am, just like the last four times you asked Hayden" said Annie. In the last ten minutes…

Annie herded her friends onto the plane and sighed as Susan asked when they would land. At first glance anyone could tell she was exceptional. She was tall and of average weight but held herself like an adult, and anyone who actually tried to treat her like a child got a rude awakening. A swift and intelligent chastising awaited anyone who tried (Meaning she yelled her head off and used big words till the idiots shut up and hid…they were usually too late, once she got started she didn't exactly stop…ever). Her alabaster face accented her intelligent sapphire blue eyes. Her white blond hair waved gently to her shoulders giving her an ethereal look. She was all business. The killjoy. But then again she had the brain, and the boarding passes so they still loved her.

Annie did something so characteristic the group didn't even slow down to check on her; she tripped. Yup, brains, beauty and bruises. That's Annie! If it was flat, stable and stationary Annie was guaranteed to injure herself.

Once the plane had landed they went to get their luggage (or rather Annie got the bags while the other gaped, whispered about the guys passing by, and grabbed every travel booklet they could get their hands on…..there was forty-six at last count) and hailed a taxi (it should have been harder to get a taxi in rush hour…but hey three teenage girls and a male driver….do the math) so they could make their way to Kings Cross station.

They arrived an hour early at the station, and looked around hoping to find a distraction. The read and reread the posters, rearranged their bags and exhausted their supply of blond jokes in an effort to make Annie angry. They succeeded.

Eventually Susan couldn't take it anymore and decided to instigate, "I'm bored, fix it"

"Um…want to help me do polynomial division?" Annie asked, gesturing halfheartedly to her bag, hoping to postpone the inevitable. Whenever they started this they either broke out in song or got lost trying to "investigate". Characteristically Annie would be angrier with their pronunciation than with their location.

"Poly wants what? Why? We have no homework! Stop being such a NERD!" Hayden answered while lazily reorganizing Annie's purse behind her back…

"A number made of binomials and other monomials and blah, blah, blah, you couldn't keep up anyway"

"Gee thanks for being So helpful." Hayden rolled her eyes, "hmm platforms. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8"

"Focusing here!"

"Platforms 9 and 10!!!!" Susan and Hayden exclaimed in sync.

"Huh why is this important?"

"Because that's where platform 9 ¾ is suppose to be" they answered while rolling their eyes.

"Harry Potter is fiction. As in not real. As in made up."

"Prove it"

"I am immune to reverse psychology"

"Oh come on! What could it hurt? We have plenty of time to kill!"

"I will if you promise to behave."

"YES M'AM!"

"STOP RUNNING! THAT'S NOT BEHAVING!"

"Not in our book!"

"Yeah! We promised to behave; you really should have defined it…"

After a few minutes of staring at the barrier chickening out Susan called out "Well this is boring…..we should run at it"

"Now THAT is the stupidest idea I have EVER heard. Hitting the wall won't help us at all" Annie declared looking at her with disbelief.

After thinking it over for a minute or so Hayden decided "We might as well. it's not like we have anything better to do. Come on we will run that fast right into the post"

"Fine!" said Annie giving in "On the count of three we'll run for it. One…Two…THREE".

They all raced towards the post, keeping their eyes firmly shut before they could chicken out. Fully expecting an impact they ran forward, but it never came.