Seven

"I still can't believe we managed to get through this week without getting sent to Dumbledore for something," James said incredulously. "It's a bloody miracle we can even go to this dance at all."

I laughed, "I know. I kind of expected to be cleaning the owlry with you guys by now." We arrived at the common room and I said, "Well, I guess I have to make myself look presentable." I said goodbye to the guys and headed up to my dorm.

I found Lily, Abigail, and Thalia already getting ready for the dance. Just as I was about to sneak off into our bathroom to get ready alone, Lily said, "Um…Kate? Do you want to get ready with us?"

I felt astonishment resonate throughout my body. More shocking than them inviting me to some girl-time was that none of them looked annoyed that I was here or that the invitation was even being made. I sputtered a, "Sure," and sat on the bed.

"So…" Abigail said, trying to break the sudden silence. "What're you guys wearing for tonight?"

Thalia answered first, "I'm wearing a yellow ball gown with my hair up like this," she made an example really quick, "and these shoes," she held up a pair of tall, sparkly heels.

"I'm wearing this," Lily said, pulling a dark green a-line dress out of the closet. "I think I'm just going to pull my bangs back," she said, studying herself in the mirror.

"This is my dress," the blonde girl said. She pulled a light blue, straight lined dress out of the closet. "I'm putting my hair in a bun."

Lily turned to me. "What about you, Kate?"

I was still frozen with shock but managed to say, "A red mermaid dress. It's in the closet if you guys want to see it."

Of course, they did. "Ooh, this is pretty," Thalia said. I could only see the back of her dark-haired head as she plunged herself into our shared closet.

"I like it," Lily said, removing herself from the closet and fixing her ginger hair.

"It's really nice," Abigail smiled a genuine smile at me. "What're you doing with your hair?"

"I—uh…" I stuttered. "I have no idea…" I laughed nervously. "To be honest, this really isn't my kind of thing."

"We've noticed," Thalia said, bright teeth contrasting with her flawless dark skin.

"Don't worry, though," Abigail said, "We're going to help you. That's what girlfriends are for."

My hazel eyes widened with surprise, "Girlfriends?"

Lily furrowed her eyebrows at me, "Yeah. You know…girls who are your friends?"

"We're friends?" I asked blankly.

Thalia chuckled. "We'd like to be. We've all been roommates for six years now and we hardly know you, Katie."

"Katie?" I asked, never having had someone call me that.

"We really want to be your friend," Abigail said, blue eyes shining. "You're a pretty cool person and we let our jealousy of you get in the way of our becoming friends."

"Jealous of me?" I asked, still not recovering from how nice and honest they were being. "But…why?"

Lily shook her head, "Never mind that, Kat." Kat? "Just stupid girly jealousies that we want to forget."

"Okaaay…" I said.

"Now let's get ready," Thalia said. "We've already wasted too much time."

I seemed to come out of my daze. "I—okay," I said, laughing. "Let's do it."