Most people would wholeheartedly agree that school is what consumes the majority of a teenager's life. For 9 months out of the year, their only points of conversation have to do with classes; they get their daily exercise by carrying their pounds of books and their social lives consist of the niceties shared with their professors instead of with friends and boyfriends. Late night study sessions are what keep the fatigued, not parties until the wee hours of the morning. That's why summer is the one thing they look forward to.
Summer is what keeps them going, this girl specifically. She can handle school and the work that comes with it during the fall and spring, but once winter hits, she feels like a caged animal just waiting to pounce. See, one person can only sit and read a textbook for so long before hitting the verge of insanity.
This summer was the one before entering her last year of school. While she always tried her hardest to make the summer months off special and fun, she wanted these three to count most of all. Once school was over for good, summer might not feel so exciting, so this one was going to be the best out of all her sixteen, going on seventeen, years.
Now, it was the beginning of June, and she woke up, not to the sound of the annoying buzzing of an alarm, but to the rising sun over her home in Holloway, just outside London. She moved over the sheer curtains covering the window next to her bed to see a beautiful day waiting for her. She started thinking of the things she could do during the day while walking down the stairs and into the kitchen. Her mother was already tinkering around the stove when she made her first appearance of the day.
"Good morning, darling," her mother greeted her, smiling her tired smile. "Would you mind running to the market quickly to get some groceries?"
She agreed and ran upstairs again to make herself look acceptable while her mother wrote up a list. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt from her trunk, having still not unpacked from school, and made her way to the bathroom connected to her room. She made sure to throw her pajamas in the hamper next to the sink, not wanting to make any sort of mess.
After brushing her hair to make it look slightly decent, seeing the blonde flash through the mirror as she turned, she made her way down the stairs again. Her mother had gone to take a shower, but left a list of items she needed and the money to pay for it on the counter. The girl grabbed the pile of paper, folding them each neatly, and put them in her back pocket.
It was warmer than she expected one of the first days of June to be, which just made it all the more beautiful. Leaving her small neighborhood, she stuck to the sidewalk as the streets around her got busier with cars and people. The market was only a few blocks away, so she got there quickly.
The store wasn't full yet. It was early in the morning and lots of people weren't out of school or on holiday yet, so the aisles were filled with just her and a few other wandering souls. She pulled the list out of her pocket and began to load the items for her mother into a small basket provided by the market.
One of the last things on her list was a jar of some specific kind of sauce for her special chicken her mother made on summer nights that they had guests. The girl slowly searched the shelves for the sauce, pausing now and then to indulge her curiosities with other jarred or canned objects. Finally she found the one she was looking for. She reached up to put the sauce in her basket, expecting to see just another jar behind it, but was surprised by finding a pair of eyes instead.
She was startled, to say the least, letting a small gasp escape her lips, but never did more than blink to break the stare. The eyes were gray and bright, but held behind them something mysterious that was hard for her to place. They intrigued her, and she kept her gaze steady to try and break into that something that she couldn't quite see. Their owner never broke the contact, either, except at the very last moment when she could tell they smiled, the corners of their eyes wrinkling slightly. She saw them move to the end of the aisle, and she followed, wanting to find out who the strange person was.
He was tall, to begin with. His black, somewhat curly hair fell over his eyes just a bit. It transformed his face from what might have been sweet and gentle, to a bit dark, yet still strangely charming. His eyes, though, were what still held her attention. This stranger was attractive there was no doubting that, but their whole personality was held behind those wonderful gray eyes.
"Hi," was all he said when they finally stood in front of each other, a slight smile playing on his lips.
She smiled, too, greeting him the same way.
No that they were standing where she could see him well, she realized that she recognized something about him. Perhaps something about his face that she remembered from someone else…However, after examining him a few seconds longer, it occurred to her that she actually knew him from somewhere.
"Do I know you?" she asked him, the smile still on her face.
He looked confused, and she saw him to the same examination of her face as she had just done to him.
"I don't think so…" he responded, his voice deep and gentle.
Still not being able to place where exactly she knew this boy from, she decided to look for some clues. His clothes were simple; he was wearing a plain, dark navy shirt, and jeans, something any normal boy would wear. When her eyes reached his jeans, though, she saw something sticking out of his pocket.
"What's that?" she asked, reaching for the item.
He instinctively stepped backwards and covered his possession with his hand. "Nothing," he responded, the smile falling off of his face immediately.
She raised her eyebrow, suddenly realizing what exactly this sacred item was. While he was looking around to make sure no one was looking at them, she grabbed her new discovery from his pocket and got a good grip on it, right as he tried to pull it from her fingers. She held the long, brown object in her hands, turning it over and inspecting every part of it.
"Give that back," he insisted, trying to pry it from her hands.
She pulled her hands from his reach, and smirked at his nervousness. She held the piece at its base making sure no one was around them, and pointed at one of the cans in the aisle next to her. Muttering something under her breath, the can began to lift upwards, the power coming from the wooden stick-like thing in her right hand. As she lowered it down to the shelf again, she looked over at her new acquaintance.
He looked extremely surprised, and when their eyes met again he questioned her. "Where did you learn to do that?"
"I think there's a slight possibility that we might go to school together," she told him, smiling sarcastically.
He smiled, too, admitting to a sort of defeat and took back his want, putting it where it originally was placed. "Why haven't I seen you around before then?"
"I keep to myself, mostly," she told him, starting to move along the rest of the aisles in the market. "How about you? Are you some sort of lone wolf?"
He chuckled, but itched his nose in a nervous twitch sort of way. "Hardly. I'm Sirius, by the way."
The newly named acquaintance of hers extended his hands to shake her own in a delayed greeting. She put the container of berries that she was examining into the basket that she was holding in the crook of her arm and shook the hand that was waiting for her. "Natalie," she replied.
His hand was a mixture of rough and soft, some parts having calluses and other parts being completely smooth. Sirius' grip was firm but gentle, and somehow she knew this was natural and not practiced. They let go of each other, and she went back to shopping, picking up the last needed item from her mother's list.
"Well," she said, reaching the cash register and unloading her basket so the employee could scan her items. "I'm about done here, but it was nice meeting you."
Sirius nodded in agreement and smiled a little. "Nice meeting you as well. Maybe we'll bump into each other again sometime?"
He said this expecting an answer. She laughed and said, "Maybe."
Taking her paper bags, she paid the cashier, smiled once more at Sirius, and left the market making her way back home.