Game On
louisaeve
When 15 year old Lily Evans receives the letter her hand jumps to her mouth and lets out a squeal of delight. "I got in," she screams into her mothers direction, before dropping the letter to the ground and running down the street toward her best friends house, and calling out.
"Sev!" She calls, and moments later her pasty friend exits his house, a grin taking over his severe features even as he closes the door quietly behind himself. "I got in!" The redhead exclaims. "You too?"
"Yeah," Severus smiles back, holding out his letter.
Indeed a similar letter is sitting in Lily's front yard, addressed to her from the Camp Master, inviting her to attend the summer camp.
"So you ready?" Lily cocks an eyebrow, pulling at the waist of her worn and unhemmed jean shorts, tight under her football jersey.
"Ready for what?" Severus replies.
"To play ball."
Of course they don't get to leave straight away. Lily's mother pouts at the whole idea and buys nice underwear and dresses for her and packs them into her suitcase (the major it of which Lily unpacks and hides in the bottom pot her wardrobe). Meanwhile her father takes her out to buy new football new football boots, so she has two pairs to take, and socks in plain white and black, and her sister chucks her a roll of strapping tape, while taking to frowning and going out late with friends.
All through the week of preparation Lily is consumed by a sort of nervous energy, excited most certainly, and can barely drag herself to football in the park.
However as the day before the camp starts arrives, Lily finds herself hauling her luggage downstairs as Petunia paints her fingers on the porch outside, the sun drying the liquid quickly.
"Have you got everything love?" Andrea, Lily's mother asks, her hands grasping another nervously. "Your bandages? Shoes? Jerseys? Tape?"
"Everything," Lily smiles. "Checked it all last night."
Andrea embraces her daughter, as Petunia rolls her eyes. "Be good okay?" She cups her daughters face in her hands. "I love you."
"You too," Lily smiles and puts her duffel bag in the boot, before she and her dad jump in.
Shortly after some awkward goodbyes upon arriving at the camp. Lily shoulders her duffel bag and heads towards the park of buildings, with boys and girls mulling around.
"You new?" An auburn haired girl asks her.
"Yeah," Lily shrugs, blushing slightly at having took out so much already.
"What room you meant to be in?" The girl frowns.
"G7," Lily replies.
"You're not near me but I'll take you there," The girl grins, flashing teeth with braces over them. "Amy Bones by the way."
"Lily Evans," she grins in response. "So where are you?"
"I'm with the Puff's," Amy grins, taking Lily's pillow out of her arms, and leading her towards the buildings at the edge of the forest. "Hufflepuff's," Amy confirms after Lily's questioning stare. "There are four different groups - Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor."
"After the four founding players," Lily grins. "So I'm in Gryffindor?"
"Right," Amy smiles. "The ones you wanna watch out for are the Slytherin's."
"The Slytherin's?" Lily frowns, even as a smile tries to force its way through her lips.
"Rich kids," Amy rolls her eyes. "Parents pay extra for them to get special rooms, meals, all of that. Half of them are pretty self obsessed."
"I got you," Lily nods, having run into people like that more than once in her life.
"You'll get some dinner in the hall later, and then tomorrow we'll start drills," Amy shrugs. "And this is it," she announces as the pair arrive in front of a wood (or perhaps fake wood) cabin. Unlike the neighbouring cabins which were well lit as it slipped into dusk, or even had nice curtains around the windows, with posters and other adornments visible, this did not appear to possess any of that.
"Thanks," Lily grins at Amy.
"Good luck," Amy calls back, having handed Lily back her pillow.
"Yeah," Lily sighs, and paces forward, rapping on the wooden door.
A tall girl in a hijab meets Lily with a frown on her face. "What?" She scowls.
"I'm your roommate," Lily shrugs and the girl rolls her eyes and turns her back in the redhead, leaving the door open. Lily takes a tentative step before shaking herself and marching forward ito the cabin.
The girl has seated herself on her bed, folding up scarfs and football shorts and an array of other clothing. the left side of the room she's claimed is decorated already. A shiny new red football rests at the foot of her bed, and posters of various pop stars and the occasional Bollywood actress decorate the wooden walls. the bed is covered in crisp white sheets and embroidered pillows, as well as being coated in a knitted rug three quarters of the way up.
Lily moves to the right of the room, places her duffel bag at the end of the bed and chucks her pillow on top of the mattress. "Your name is?" Lily's new roommate raises a thick eyebrow at her in question and Lily is feeling something looming her way.
"Lily Evans."
"Well, Lily Evans, my name is Fatima, and let me just confirm some things for you,' The girl, Fatima, states as she continues to work on her laundry. "I'm not here out of charity of some higher up. I'm here because I play good. I am not going to deal with any white girl bullshit, so do not think about taking any of my things or acting like an idiot in any way. No boys are to come here, just randomly, you here me?" Fatima fixes Lily with a glare, only for her to respond back with a nod. "And if you are to have anyone over, you are too let me know beforehand."
Lily nods again, only for Fatima to rolls her eyes and leave her by herself, storming out of the cabin.
Sighing at the drama that had already met her, Lily went about unpacking until a knock sounded against the door, which after a few moments of self doubting, Lily stalked over to answer.
A blonde girl in ragged shorts (encasing exceedingly long legs) and a tight black tank top stood in front go her. "You Lily Evans?" The girl asked, snapping her gun. At Lily's nod, she grabs the redheads arm and pulls her gently our of the cabins doorway. "Marlene McKinnon," the blonde states, looping arms with Lily and bumping hips. "But you can call me Marly."
"Okay," Lily gave a small smile. "Just wondering why you came to, y'know . . . "
"Amy dropped by on the way," Marly answers, "Said you were rooming with Fatima."
"Is there something wrong with her?" Lily's eyes blew wide in response.
"She's just a solitary person," Marly shrugs from next to Lily. "Can be a bit hostile," she waves at a shirtless boy who is bouncing a basketball with a group of other boys. "I'm a Gryff too."
"Cool," Lily smiles.
They make their way to the canteen in relative silence, with Marly practically bouncing by Lily's shoulder, yelling out greetings to near everyone she passes. "So this is the canteen," Marly flashes a grin at Lily, as she pulls her through the doors, and up to the food spread at the top of the room.
Marly grabs two trays, throws a wink at another girl whose sitting down, and hands one to Lily, before grabbing a plate of lasagna and placing it on her plate. "Vegetarian?" She asks Lily, who shakes her head, and grabs a plate as well, balancing it on her tray.
Marlene follows up with an apple for each of them and rolls and butter, as well as a juice box, before leading Lily over to a table where another girl sits, earphones in and banging her head to the beat as she picks at a salad.
"Yo Mary!" Marly calls out, and places her tray on the table and slides into a seta next to her, sliding an arm around her waistband stealing an earphone.
"Who's this?" Mary smirks, her hair curled into perfect curls in silky dark brown.
"Lily," Lily smiles back, tentatively taking a seat, when Marly makes a motion with her hand suggesting as much.
"You pumped for tomorrow?" Mary cocks an eyebrow, spearing a tomato slice with vengeance.
"I guess," Lily shrugs. "I haven't been to a camp before."
"Really?" Marly raises both eyebrows, and steals a piece of lettuce from Mary as she's distracted.
"And you got in here," Mary shakes her head. "Damn, girl, you must be pretty good."
"I guess I'm okay," Lily smiles awkwardly, only for a tall and dark boy to interrupt the girls conversation.
"Marly, Lupin's having trouble down at the lake. He needs your help," the boy insists.
"I'll be there," Marly waves her hand dismissively, standing up, and unplugging the earphone. "Bye guys," she waves, only for Mary to unplug her own earphone.
"I'll come with you," Mary insists. "I haven't seen you in forever."
"Lily love, can you watch our food?" Marly flashes a hopeful grin, and Mary hands over her iPod, a worn thing which has a crack in the encasing.
"Go," Lily waves them away with a grin taking over her face, and puts the earphones in, and copies Mary's earlier motions as the beat of M.I.A. rushes through her body, and starts eating her food.
Of course, it would be too much to expect that she would be left in peace now. A boy seats himself next to her, and Lily turns up the music, and continues eating her food. The boy takes it upon himself to start saying hello, repeatedly, and Lily intends on ignoring him, until he pulls the earphones out of her ears.
Lily snaps her gaze up from the crack in the plastic tables encasing she had been studying to the face of the boy who has seated himself next to her. "What?" She snaps, and examines his face.
He was tall, certainly, in the lanky way that teenage boys too often embraced. Around her age, she reckoned, with brown eyes under unfashionable glasses which nearly had her snorting aloud, as well as inky black hair which perched on his head in an unruly mop. His lips were pink and chapped, the type of lips one gets from spending too much time in the wind and the sun, from worrying them before games. His cheeks were pinker than the rest of his skin, which had a light golden tint to it, no doubt from the time he had spent in the sun playing football. When he opened his mouth to speak, his right front tooth was chipped, almost like he'd been in a punch up and come out a little worse for wear. "Just wondering what a pretty girl was doing sitting all by herself," he shrugged, running a hand through his hair.
"Oh really," Lily raised an unamused eyebrow at him.
"You're new right?" He leaned in. "Haven't seen you around camp," he picked a piece from her roll, and Lily unplugged the other earphone and stood up.
"If you'll excuse me," she stated, a cold glare fixing on his face. "I just lost my appetite.
Much love as always, and I hope you like this. Please tell me what you think as always :)
Xx Louisa