A/N: Hey, guys! Not many reviews but hopefully it will get better.

A whole load of cookies to aasiya333, wannabeme15 and irish4eva for adding me to their favourites list. Thank you!

Chapter 2

Lily stretched her hand towards her bedside table and searched for the alarm clock before banging it shut. She was about to turn and burrow back into the warm covers, when her eyes suddenly fell on the alarm clock. She let out a muffled scream and hurriedly scrambled out of bed.

"Mum, mum?" She yelled as she grabbed her toiletries and rushed to the banister on her way to the bathroom, "Could you not wake me up earlier?"

"I did wake you up, but you're not the only person in the house that has to get ready." Her mum's voice floated up the stairs.

Lily groaned audibly and continued her way towards the bathroom. Was she the only one with sense around here?

She was on her way to Costa just after twenty minutes, having said a hurried goodbye to her mum and a quick kiss to her sister Olivia. She was dressed in her uniform which consisted of a white buttoned up shirt and a knee-length black skirt.

She checked her watch which showed 8:05 and quickened her pace. She stopped to fix her hair as she passed a window.

There were small squeals and sounds of footsteps from behind her. She turned around and staggered back a few steps when a pair of thin arms strangled her neck and hugged her tightly.

"Hello? Can you let go, I'm having difficulty in breathing here." She managed to say when another two pair of arms wound around her neck and waist.

"Omg, I've like, not seen you since like, a whole week." Angel said dramatically as she let go of her neck.

"Yeah, like, since forever," Jumped in Sam.

"Yeah, like forever." Summer echoed.

"Yeah and why are we all speaking like Naomi McCord?" Lily said, happy to have her friends back after a long holiday.

"I'm really excited and can't remember the way I usually speak." Said Angel as she linked arms with Sam and motioned for them to walk forward.

"Yeah, me too, I'm excited, I mean, not that I don't remember how to speak," said Lily with a shake of her head.

Sam and Summer laughed. They entered the warm cafe and made their way towards their seat at the back in the far corner. It was always that way; they tended to find places away from the public eyes, so they could mess about without any eyebrows raised.

"Is it the usual, guys?" Sam asked. The girls nodded and got their purses out as Sam went to order.

"So how's it going with Mr 34 Lang-ham Close?" Summer asked Angel with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, how's it going with lover boy?" asked Sam as she came back with four hot chocolates and placed them on the table.

"Nothing much really," Angel sighed, cradling her cup and looked down. "He's being really awkward. He called me twice to go watch a movie and he's cancelled on me twice."

"What?" Lily cried outrageously.

"What the hell? How dare he?" Summer asked disbelievingly.

"You're not serious, are you?" asked Sam.

"I am. I mean what guy does that? Sometimes, I think, I might just start being like Lily and fall in love with the fictional folk, you know, to avoid heartache and all that." Angel said with an expression that clearly showed that she didn't mean what she was saying.

"Yeah, Angel, I think you're right. You know I th..." Lily nodded her head enthusiastically but stopped abruptly when she saw the other two giving her the eye.

"What?" she said innocently. Angel was right. How many times had she seen Sam and Angel cry over a lost boy?

"Nothing. You just forgot to think before you spoke. It's OK, we're used to it." Said Sam sarcastically.

"Anyways, guys, it doesn't matter. If he likes me as much as I like him, then he'll come round. I'm officially not going to date until I'm seventeen." Angel said with a determined face.

"Yeah, I'll remind you when you start flirting as soon as you walk in class," Lily said as she placed her empty cup on the table and stood up. "Come on, it's 8:30 already."

They stood up, their chairs scraping against the tiled floor.

"Let's go to the newsagents." Lily announced suddenly as they made their way out of the cafe.

"No, we can't. You just said we were getting late." Summer reminded her.

"By late, I meant, if we don't get out of Costa, we won't be able to go and buy my swizzles fizzy love heart sweets and..." She trailed off with a pleading face and what she thought was puppy dog eyes. "I mean, guys, please, come on."

"Fine, you've got exactly 120 seconds," said Sam wickedly. They entered the shop and Lily ran ahead to get her sweets and the rest stood by the newspaper stand and flicked through the magazines. She saw Sam's eyes travel over the Lad's magazine as she darted away.

The bell tinkled over the shop as the shop door opened with the cold morning wind. To their horror, Naomi McCord and James Potter walked in, laughing too hard to notice who was standing right in front of them. Sam nudged Angel.

"We should warn Lily before she sees them or else there'll be some bloodshed even before we've started school." She said and raced off to find Lily. But it was too late. Lily was in the queue; with James and Naomi just a couple of places behind her. She seemed not to have felt their presence as continued humming 'I'm a Barbie girl' happily. Not for long it seemed, the girls groaned inwardly as they saw James lean over to speak to her.

"We're standing in the queue to pay at the counter, not to listen to your singing." He said as Naomi started laughing.

Lily turned around slowly and placed her hand on her hips.

"What do you want?" she asked quite fiercely.

"A lot, but nothing from you, that's for sure." He replied with a smirk on his face, which encouraged Naomi to laugh even harder.

"Yeah, very funny. Shame I forgot to laugh." Lily said and turned towards the front again as the queue moved up. She quietly wondered where Sirius Black was, James's best friend. It was unnatural to see one without the other.

Summer went up to Lily and dragged her towards the front of the queue, which raised a few protests but Summer carried on. Summer wasn't in the mood to let Lily humiliate herself and them in front of anyone, even if they were strangers and they might never see each other again.

"Can she just pay for this before an actual fight breaks out?" She asked pleadingly to the shopkeeper, a short friendly man with a big belly sticking out.

"Sure." The shopkeeper said cheerfully. "Although I wouldn't have minded the fight much."

"Right. Whatever." Summer muttered as Lily paid for the sweets. She then dragged her towards the door without a glance towards James's direction.

"Bye, Barbie." He called as they exited the shop.

Lily snatched her arm back from Summer's grip angrily.

"Why didn't you let me say anything?" She said as they continued towards the school at a quick pace.

"You don't only speak. You also have 'the violent streak'. Remember last time you broke your hand when you tried to punch him?" Angel said, and Lily scowled at the reminder.

"Yeah, it was embarrassing for us, when we had to hang around with you when you were tagging along with your cast." Said Sam jokingly, sensing the tension brewing between them.

Lily didn't say anything and they walked on till the school gates.

"Look, I'm sorry; I didn't mean to snap at you guys." She apologized after a few minutes of silence. She knew her friends had just been trying to avoid a scene. Which was probably for the best.

"Hey, it's OK. I do sympathize with you, but don't give him the satisfaction." Said Summer in a mature way that made Angel and Sam laugh out loud.

"I'll keep that in mind." Lily told her as they walked in through the school gates and marched silently towards the assembly hall, under the beady eye of their Deputy head, Professor McGonagall.

A/N: review please, otherwise I'll be self-conscious and unable to have enough confidence to update.