I'm horrible with first and last chapters. I bet you'll be able to tell after you read this. But I'm better with the other chapters, so please don't just ignore them because this is a bad chapter. I'll try my best to make this chapter good.

….

It all started when Professor Kane assigned groups for a Defense Against the Dark Arts research project, and my group was Lily, me, James Potter and… Sirius Black.

My best friend Lily hates James Potter. She absolutely hates him, and I'm not sure he even knows it, no matter how much she tries to get the message to him. He asks her out constantly, and she constantly declines. There's something about the way that he's always messing up his hair and playing around with a golden snitch that makes Lily want to kill him.

Now, I don't mind Potter. He's okay. He would actually be pretty cool if he didn't bother Lily that much.

The person I hate is Sirius Black. He has this way of making girls falling for him the second they look at him, but I know better than that. He has a different girlfriend every week, which must be interesting, but even though I'm not sure who dumps who, I think it's pretty mean of him.

Lily thinks I might like Black, but that is the opposite of how I feel about him. For some reason, in her eyes, she can hate Potter, but I have to love Black.

….

Taryn Summers walked into Professor Kane's classroom and sat down in a seat in the middle of the room. Normally, she would like to sit in the back of the classroom so she could occasionally whisper something to her best friend Lily Evans (who would listen but never answer until the end of class), but the Marauders were in this class, and they always sat in the back of class.

Lily was already sitting in the seat next to her. She was writing her name on the top of her homework with a rainbow quill, dipped in pink ink that matched the color of the bracelet and earrings she was wearing.

"Good morning class!" said Professor Kane as she walked into the classroom.

After hearing the class mumble a 'hello' back, the professor continued talking. "Today I will assign groups for the research project I mentioned last lesson. There will be no option to switch groups, and you should have no reason to want to anyway. It's time to break away from the same old groups of friends, and meet some new people to add them to your collection of acquaintances." She paused. "Before that though, I will describe some details of the project I had not mentioned last class."

Taryn looked over at Lily and whispered, "If we're not in the same group, I'm going to hurt Kane."

Professor Kane paced around the classroom, talking and watching the class. Eventually, she started to assign the partners. "Pettigrew, Lupin, Daniels and Baroncini… Brouillet, Malfoy, Lestrange and Diaz… Evans, Summers" Taryn grinned at Lily. "And Potter and Black."

Her happiness flew away as she looked behind me and saw Black giving Potter a high five. She was going to fail this project!

….

Black caught up to her after class. She was walking one way and Lily the other because she had Ancient Runes, while Taryn had Divination. She felt someone grab her shoulder, and she instantly turned around. It was Sirius Black.

"What do you want Black?"

"Stuff."

Taryn tossed some of her long brown hair behind her shoulder. "What do you want Black?" she repeated.

"For you and Evans to meet in the common room after dinner." He said. "So we can discuss the project."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"Becau-" he started but Taryn interrupted. "Bye."

….

"They're either not coming, or they're pulling some prank on us. I know it." Lily muttered.

"They'll come. I know it." Taryn sighed.

Lily closed her eyes. "They better be here in 10 seconds… 9… 8…"

Taryn blinked. "Lily…"

Lily ignored her. "7… 6…"

"Hey Evans." Said a voice.

She turned around. "Potter… One word about going out with me, and I'll kill you."

Taryn looked at Sirius. He was sitting on the edge of the couch. "So, I was thinking that Prongs and Evans will research the first part, and everyone else could do the second part."

By now, she had figured out that Sirius was Padfoot and James was Prongs, but why had Sirius decided to make Potter happy and leaving him to do the part with her? Why?

"Can't we split it into four parts?"

"Well…"

Taryn gave him a look that said you-better-say-yes-or-I'll-kill-you and he finally agreed.

"Okay, okay, but can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"Why do you really popular girls all hate us Marauders?"

She was baffled by the question. Popular? She wasn't popular. No way. "I'm not popular."

"Yes, you are. Think about it." He stood up and walked away with Potter.

….

So she thought about it that night, when she was trying to fall asleep. What was the exact meaning of popular? Popular… Everyone knows popular people, and likes them.

Everyone knew her, but did they all like her? Most of them at least…

Taryn had always thought popular people were the opposite of her, but the more she thought about it, she knew she was popular.

….