A/N: This took longer than I expected it to, so sorry to all you people. Thanks to everyone who reviewed!!! You guys are amazing!
Warning: I have some unhealthy addiction to italics. So if you're thinking, Whoa, why does she have all these italics? It's weird! Well, that's why. Bad reason, I know, but italics are fun.
This chapter is dedicated to Hannah, who wrote, like, half of it. Well, maybe not that much, but hey, she's still amazing.
If you asked he, though nobody did, Lily would have said that June 25 was the worst day of her life. Here she'd been thinking that she wouldn't have to put up with James Potter for the rest of the summer, at least, and now she had to spend it with him! Life was so unfair.
James, on the other hand, thought that June 25 might very well be the best day of his life. He could still barely believe his luck. He got to spend the whole summer with the beautiful Lily Evans, who he'd fancied for six years. Practically forever. Of course, she hated him, but he would have the whole summer (!!!) to work on her.
When James and his parents arrived at the Evans' house, Lily was hiding in her room, hoping she could escape Potter for this one day, at least. Sadly, this was pretty unlikely.
She heard a tinkling laugh from downstairs, and her mother's voice said, "I don't know why she's not down here. Maybe she forgot… Let me go get her."
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, then Janine's annoyed face appeared at Lily's door, and she hissed, "Lily, get down there right now. You're being extremely rude. I know you don't like James much-" Understatement of the century, Lily thought. "-but he is a guest, and you will welcome him as such."
Lily sighed. "Yeah, sorry, Mum. I'll be right there." Her mother's face vanished. Lily went to the circular mirror on her wall next to the door and combed her fingers through her hair, arranging it carefully. She may hate Potter, but she refused to show any weakness in front of him, and that included messy hair. She finally stomped downstairs, carefully fixing a calm expression to her face.
When James saw her, he grinned. "Hey, Lily."
"Hi," she said shortly. She would've ignored him completely if she wasn't afraid of being rude in front of the adults.
"Lydia, Devon," Janine addressed the tall, balding man and small, dark-haired woman standing behind James, "This is my daughter, Lily."
"Pleased to meet you," Lily gave her knee-jerk reaction. She wished they were gone. The whole stupid family. But no. He had to come invade her house, and ruin her whole entire summer! Damn him to hell.
***
When James was all moved in, (Lily's mother had insisted that everyone help, and he seemed to take an excessively long time) Lily locked herself in her bedroom. She wasn't about to spend one extra second with that boy that she wasn't absolutely required to. Oh God, how was she expected to survive this summer?
***
Two miserable days later, Lily was called out of her room (possibly the first time she'd left it except for meals yet) by her mother.
"Yeah?" she said when she got downstairs, deliberately ignoring James, who was lounging at the kitchen table.
"Mrs. Joyous came by yesterday, I almost forgot to tell you," Mrs. Evans said.
"She didn't ask to talk to me?" Lily asked, a bit hurt. Mrs. Joyous was their neighbor, and possibly Lily's favorite ever adult.
"Yes, she did," her mother answered, "but you were up in your room pretending to be asleep, so you missed your chance." Lily grimaced. "She was wondering if you could take care of her dogs while she's gone. She left early this morning, and she'll be back in two weeks. I said you could."
"Okay," Lily said happily. She loved the Joyous' dogs. "I'll go walk them now."
As Lily crossed to the door, James said, "Can I come?"
Lily's mouth was open to give an, "Absolutely not!" when her mother, the traitor, said sweetly, "Of course, James. I'm sure Lily will be glad for some help. Those dogs can be a handful."
Horrified, Lily yelped, "What?!?"
"See you later, honey."
Tight-lipped, she stopped out the door, followed by a very pleased Potter.
Inside the Joyous's pretty blue house, two very big and very excited golden retrievers leapt onto Lily.
"Blizzard! Flurry! Down!" she yelled, biting back a laugh. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm here! Flurry, you idiot! C'mere girl! Yes, Flurry, I know you're excited. Chill. Flurry, sit! Good girl." She finally managed to hook the leash onto Flurry's collar. "Good girl." Se thrust the end of the leash at James. "Hold this. Tight. She's strong." James glanced doubtfully at Flurry's silky golden fur and sweet brown eyes- and was nearly yanked off his feet as the dog charged for the door.
Lily smirked as she called for Blizzard. "Come here, boy. Yeah, Blizzard, that means you. Good boy. Sit." She clipped the leash on his collar as well and stroked his slightly graying fur as he panted patiently up at her.
Her smile turned quickly into a scowl when she saw James grinning at her, amused. "You take Blizzard," she snapped.
"Why?" he asked. "I've already got what's-her-name. Flurry?"
"Yeah, but I doubt you can handle her." As if to illustrate her point, the dog once again launched herself at the door; James went sprawling.
Lily choked back another laugh as she snatched up Flurry's leash and thrust open the door. Blizzard panted excitedly as Flurry tried to dash into the sunshine. Lily was more prepared than James had been, though, and merely lurched forward a step before regaining control of the dog.
"Flurry, stop that," she commanded. The brown eyes looked reproachfully up into her green ones, as if telling her off for being so slow. She swept out of the door as majestically as she could with two insane dogs yanking her forward.
"Hey!" James called, scrambling after her down the wooden steps leading away from the front door. "Don't I get one?" Lily regarded him coldly for a moment before disdainfully dropping Blizzard's leash into his hand.
Potter was better with dogs than Lily would have expected, possibly because, unbeknownst to Lily, his best friend turned into one on a regular basis. It didn't matter much to her, in any case. She walked fast, hoping that he wouldn't be able to keep up and he'd get lost. No such luck.
He caught up with her at the top of a long hill. "You're making this a lot harder than it needs to be," he panted.
"What? Walking?" she asked innocently. "It's not that difficult."
"No, not walking! I mean in general!"
"In general, you are a git."
"Ouch."
"Yeah, life sucks and then you die. Mine would be a lot better if you weren't in it, but I guess there are some things you just don't have any control over. Unfortunately."
"That hurt. Great outlook on life, Lils."
"Bug off, Potter. And don't you dare call me that."
"That's nice."
"And I really could care less what you think."
"That, Love, was harsh."
"If you call me 'Lils' or 'Love' one more time, I'll smack you so hard, by the time you come round, you'll need a haircut." More than usual, I mean, she thought.
They were in front of Lily's house again now, and her mother was outside, gardening. "Oh, Lily, good, there you are. You have a haircut with Kelly in about an hour."
"Oh, thank God," she commented.
"What?" James and Mrs. Evans asked.
"That means two hours less spent with you," she snapped, and ran inside the house, leaving James outside with her mother and two crazy dogs.
"Wow, she's not usually like this," Mrs. Evans commented.
"Yeah, well, I tend to bring out extremes in women," James said before he'd thought that comment through. Janine didn't know whether to raise her eyebrows, tell him off, or laugh. He left to take the dogs home before she got a chance to decide, thankfully. "What have I gotten myself into?" Mrs. Evans asked her tulip bulbs, shaking her head.
When James got back to the Evans', he got out a quill and parchment and wrote,
"Dear Padfoot,
So Lily's not too happy about me being here, big surprise. But hey, it's all good. I'll wear her down. I have all summer.
Oh, by the way, you're welcome to stay at my house if you still have a key; I don't. There's food and such, which will probably be good as you don't currently have a place to stay. I would invite you here, but I think poor Lily would crack under the stress. Not to mention her Mum. Wish you were here.
Prongs.
P.S. 1932 Teribithea Dr. - floo."
***
Lily touched her new haircut self-consciously. It wasn't nearly as long as she was used to. Soft locks in front framed her face, but behind, it dropped a third of the way down her back. It felt so weird. But she did like the look; Kelly had always been a genius with hair. She walked into her house and tried pulling her hair behind her ears, but it was too short to stay.
She managed to get all the way up the stairs and within eight feet of her room before running into James, which had to be some kind of record.
"Whoa," he said, blocking her way. "You look… I mean… you look hot."
"Don't make me hit you."
"What? I just complimented you!"
Someone wolf-whistled from behind her. "Oh, no. Potter, please tell me you didn't duplicate yourself," she begged.
"I would, but…"
"You do look hot, Evans." Lily turned, her fist outstretched, and felt it collide with the person behind her.
"Ouch! Lily! What was that for?!" Sirius Black yelped from his new hunched- over position.
"Oh, whoops. Sorry, Sirius. Didn't know it was you back there. Potter made me do it."
Sirius straightened. "You're forgiven. I'll kill him for it later." He grinned at her, and, to his surprise, she smiled back. Then, even stranger, she gave him a hug. "What's this?" he whispered in her ear.
"I'm trying to get on Potter's nerves."
"Oh, I am so in!"
Meanwhile, all James saw was his best mate and the girl he liked hugging for way too long and whispering in each other's ears. Not the greatest combo. When they pulled apart, which seemed like forever to James, Lily smiled sweetly.
"I hope you're staying for dinner, Sirius," she said in her best empty-headed flirt imitation.
"Definitely E… Lils." She always yells at me for saying the name! James thought. What is going on?
Lily beamed. "Good." Leaning over, she kissed him on the cheek as he shook with suppressed laughter. James looked positively horrified. He was going to kill Sirius later, no doubt about it. "See you later, then," Lily said sweetly. Sirius winked at her when he knew James was looking as she practically skipped back into her room.
"What was that?" James hissed when she was gone.
"What?" Sirius asked innocently.
"You know exactly what!" James cried as he dragged his so-called 'friend' into the guest room where he was staying. "She hugged you and gave you a kiss and asked you to stay for dinner- and you let her!"
"Well, I have to eat," Sirius pointed out. "It's not really like I can go back to my house after I've run away and ask for food. The things my mother would do to me…" He shuddered.
"Yes, but that's not the point!" James said impatiently.
"Then what is?"
"You flirted with her when you know I've fancied her for ages!" he wailed as quietly as he could.
"I wasn't flirting; that was all her," Sirius defended himself. "I know, she's all yours."
"And you forget it, you die."
Sirius was thinking that this was going to be the best summer he'd ever had.
A/N: Whoo-hoo! That was fun. Sirius and Lily are so amazingly mean… I love this story… hope you do too! Please please please review!!! I can't promise a super-fast update, but I'm more motivated when you guys let me know what you think!
Hope you love it. If you do, review! If you don't, review with constructive criticism!
Just press the little purple button. It's not that hard, I promise.
Love yas!
-k
