The gentle bird feeles no captivity

Withing her cage, but singes and feeds her fill.

-Edmund Spenser

Chapter Three

Free as a Bird

When Kayla woke up the next morning, she had forgotten what had happened the day before. She stretched out, her eyes still close, and rolled over fully intending to go back to sleep, when she fell and landed on the ground with a thud and a groan.

"Musta fallen asleep on the coach again," she muttered thinking of the small chair her and her roommate, Lauren, had managed to squeeze into their dorm. Kayla had a habit of collapsing in it and falling asleep right after her classes.

Squinting open her eyes, she sat up and blinked a couple of times. Her glasses were askew on her face, which signaled that she had woken up late yesterday and forgotten to put in her contacts before class. She fixed her glasses and looked in the direction of her roommate's bed to see if she was still sleeping, but she was not there. In fact, her bed was not there either. None of their stuff was there.

Kayla scrambled up and looked around taking it all in, as everything from yesterday came back and she swore silently to herself. She had been so sure that it had been a dream or drugs and that when she woke up this morning everything would be back to normal. Obviously, she had been wrong.

"Well if I'm still here, then where are those blasted twins?" She said and brushed her hair from her face. She started towards the nearest door and was about to open, her hand already on the doorknob, when she hear voices. She stopped and listened, leaning against it.

"-stay here."

"Why not? She's not dangerous and, even if she is a bit crazy, she won't hurt us."

"We don't know that! We don't know anything about her. She could be a Death Eater."

There was a snort. "I highly doubt that and anyhow she doesn't have a wand. We can stop her if she does try anything."

"I don't care. I don't want her to stay here."

There was muttering and Kayla leaned even more forward, straining her ears to hear. She was so intent on figuring out what else they were saying that she did not hear the footsteps or the turning of the doorknob, and suddenly she was falling forward. She let out a scream, but was cut off as two arms caught her.

"Thanks," she said looking up only to find the redhead glaring at her.

"What are you doing?"

She pulled herself away from him. "Was just looking for you guys is all."

"Right." He pushed passed her and Kayla looked over at the other twin.

"Woke up on the wrong side of the bed I take it?" She questioned taking a seat at one of the stools. The twin chuckled. "I hate to ask this, but which twin are you again? My memories horrible and it's been a long twenty-four hours anyway."

"George, I'm George. Did you sleep well?"

"Eh, I've slept worse," she said, making a face. She watched as he began to take out bowls and spoons. He held up a box of cereal and she nodded.

"So what are we doing today?" Kayla asked swinging her legs back in forth. George slid a bowl to her and she began to push down the cereal with the spoon, wanting to soak them all up in milk.

"We're not doing anything," a voice said from behind her and she flinched at the tone.

"Fred and I've got to work today," George said in explanation and Kayla nodded. Fred was busy rummaging through the fridge.

"Righty then. Can I come?"

"No," Fred snapped slamming the fridge door shut.

"So, I'm just supposed to sit up here, bored out of my mind?" She demanded.

"Don't know and I don't really care," Fred said. Kayla glared at his retreating back, her spoon clattering into the bowl.

"Don't pay him any mind," George said throwing her a smile as he took her dishes. She gave a small smile back and leaned forward, resting her chin on her arms.

"Do you mind if I at least shower? Promise I won't drown anyone."

"Sure. Bathroom's down the hall, first door on the right," George said and she nodded in thanks, getting up and heading out. She paused in the doorway tempted to say something more, but decided against it and went and took her shower.

When she got out, the rest of the flat was quiet. Not wanting to disturb the peace that had settled she tiptoed out of the bathroom desperately wishing she had a change of clothes.

In the living room she noticed someone had folded up the blanket she had used last night and placed it on the couch. There was something else on top of it and she scrunched up her face as she moved closer to see.

Thought you could use some clean clothes. Sorry if they're a bit big.

-G

Unless someone had broken into the flat just to leave her clothes, she could safely assume the 'G' stood for George.

Tossing the note aside, Kayla looked at what she had been given: a pair of jeans that would most definitely have to have the pant legs rolled up, a tee shirt, and a faded hoodie. She pursued her lips, but could not say she wasn't grateful to have something besides her dirty gym clothes and what she had thrown on in a hurry.

She changed in the bathroom, too afraid that one of the twins would come back up and not really sure where any of the other doors led to. Once down she headed back to the living room area and fished her gym clothes out of her bag.

"Guess I could explore a bit," she muttered, "see if I can't find a washing machine of some sorts."

So, off she set, opening up doors and peering into different rooms. The first two doors led to bedrooms with the bathroom right across. Then there was a closet and another bedroom. There was one more door, right next to the bathroom. She reached for the doorknob, hoping that it wouldn't be the room where they kept their torture devices.

Kayla held her breath as she pushed open the door only to find it too dark to actually see anything. Awkwardly caressing the wall, she finally came across a light switch and flicked it up. A single light bulb flickered on illuminating a room only slightly bigger than the bathroom. Dark curtains were on the only window, which sat up a long bench. On the other side of the room was an old beat up washing and drying machine. Surprised to see it, Kayla quickly strode over to it and began examining it. Like everything else in the room, it was covered in a light layer of dust.

"I don't think they've actually ever used it," she muttered to herself, "but it seems to be in working condition."

She threw her clothes in there, looking around for soap. It was then that she noticed a door that she had not seen earlier. It was right across from the one she had come in and almost instantly her curiosity got the better of her and she tried to open it.

"Locked, damn." She could try picking the lock. She bent down to take a look at the lock.

Half of her hoped she'd find soap and the other half off her hoped she'd find something more exciting. Like a dragon...or an elf...or Santa C-

"What are you doing?" A voice asked from behind her. Kayla straightened up and whirled around, pressing her back against the door.

"Nothing," she said quickly, "I mean, uh, I was looking for soap for the washer and, um, I thought maybe there'd be some in this room."

"Well it's not," The Weasley twin snapped, striding over to the bench and bending down to pull out a container of soap from under it. He took one step and was standing right in front of her. Even if she wanted to leave, she would not have been able to. "Stay out of that room. What's in there is none of your business."

And he left, leaving her with an almost full thing of soap in her arms. Kayla was fairly certain it had been Fred, but she really couldn't remember all the small differences between the two (except their personality).

She hurried and got the washer working before leaving and wandering back into the living room.

There had been several books on a shelf in there. She grabbed one and started flipping through it. She normally was not much of a reader, but there was not much else she could do. She listened to her music as she skimmed the chapter titles, but she was afraid the CD player's batteries would soon die. They didn't have a TV and she had chosen a mighty fine day to leave the old gameboy her brother got her back in her dorm. To wrap it all up, Kayla was trapped, trapped like a bird in a cage, and did not know for how long it would be for. She was alone, and unlike the bird in the cage, started getting antsy after the first chapter of her book.

Halfway through the third chapter and she was about to throw the book down when two words perked her right back up: time travel. There was only a brief sentence on it, but it kept her going until noon when one of the twins came upstairs.

"Hey Kayla," he called. "I'm going on my lunch break and figured you could use some company. Do you like ham or turkey sandwich? Or both?"

"Turkey," she called back as she marked her page and stood up, stretching out the kinks that had formed in her back. She then made her way to the kitchen.

"Fred tells me you found the muggle machine for your clothes?" George said as he slapped bread on two plates. Kayla took a seat at the island.

"The washing machine? Yeah, I figured I might as well have clean clothes that aren't like ten sizes too big."

"Oi! I'm not a giant," George shouted slamming a piece of ham down on one of the sandwiches. Kayla giggled.

"Well it certainly feels like it."

"Well if it feels like you're wearing giant's clothes than you've obviously never met a giant."

She snorted. "Obviously not."

George hummed, looking her up and down, which caused her to quirk an eyebrow at him.

"George Weasley, do not tell me you're checking me out while I'm wearing giants clothes."

He started turning red and she snorted, slamming a hand over her mouth to stop from laughing at the fact that his face was now brighter than his hair.

"No!" He shouted.

"What am I not attractive enough?" she teased. "I'm feeling quite offended over here."

"No, I mean you're, um, you're plenty attractive enough, but I wasn't, I wasn't checking you out," he said stumbling quite a bit. "I was just trying to figure out if any of Ginny's clothes would fit you."

"I know. I'm just kidding," she said grinning and he relaxed. Then tilting her head to the side, her smile turned down into a frown. "Who's Ginny?"

"Our little sister," he replied leaning forward on the counter. He handed her one of the sandwiches and she began to eat, suddenly realizing how hungry she was. "She's tall too, but she much less a giant's size."

"She's the one who has the crush on Harry Potter right?" Kayla asked and George laughed.

"I wouldn't suggest saying that in front of her, but yeah I suppose you could still say she has a crush on him. We can go on Sunday. Fred and I usually go for supper then anyway, so we'll just bring you along as well. Although I wouldn't tell them you 'time traveled' here. Might not be a good start."

"Wasn't planning on telling anyone else about that," she snorted. "Not unless I get desperate for help."

"Well time travels not a very common thing even in the Wizarding world. It has been done, although never over a span of so many years. At least not that I'm aware of," he said scratching the back of his neck and glancing at the clock. "Oh bugger. I gotta get back down. It's Fred's lunch break now."

He stuffed the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and began for the stairs. "Bye. Don't get into too much trouble."

"I'll try not to, but you know how much I love getting into trouble with my time travel and shenanigans and what not," she replied. She finished the rest of her sandwich and then went back to reading.

Sometime before Fred and George closed up shop and came up for dinner, Kayla fell asleep. The book lay open on her chest when they found her snoring and sprawled out on the couch. A blanket was laid over her before they went and had their dinner.


20.02.2015

I don't know what I'm doing still up. Yeah, but go look up the song Fuck a Dog by Blank because it just came on my playlist thingy and all I want to do now is laugh because I wasn't expecting that to come on my 8tracks playlist and it's so late that my brains mush so it made me want to laugh. Haha I'm just gonna stop now and post this in the morning. Goodnight dearies.

Okay so it's the next morning and I'm slightly more sane. Or not considering I am watching a child's TV show...? I was going to edit something in here (I thought of it last night while I was trying to sleep), but now I can't remember what it was. Damn. Well I'm gonna go eat and finish getting ready for class now. Bye now!