Don't own anything except OC's.

Chapter 10. Spinning out of control, masks and strange sisters.

I awoke the next morning just as the sun was rising outside our dorm windows. I tossed and turned for the next half an hour before deciding I couldn't get back to sleep. Instead, I dug through my bedside table draws and started to read The Tales of Beedle and the Bard. It was a children's book and I shouldn't really still have it, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. First, because it had been passed down to me and Coco from our grandparents before we were born, and second I could remember my mum reading it to me at night and it was one of the only good memories I had of her.

Cautious not to wake any of my roommates, I flipped the worn pages of the book without really reading a word. I thought of how many times the book had been used when Coco and I were younger, when Bruce was only a kid and begged for me to read it to him, how Sage made me read it to her on a night when I was home from Hogwarts. The way that if you turned it to page 67 there was a large stain in the right hand corner from when my mother spilt her perfume when I was only ten-years-old, and if you sniffed really hard, you could still smell it. I felt my heart contact when I thought about reading this book to my children—maybe the one that was currently growing inside me. But then I remembered everything that had happened and just what situation I was in, and that image swiftly disappeared.

My life was spiralling out of control and I was just holding on by a small, thin thread.

Sixteen and pregnant, no money or job, still in school and have no qualifications, have no idea how to bring up a baby, and to top it all off, the father walked out on me. My real life sounded life something from a really awful, cliché sitcom from the mid 60's that my Nana loves to watch. I always hated those bloody sitcoms.

I stayed lying on my bed until I heard the shuffling of Megan and Linda, who were always up the earliest, down the bottom of the room. When I knew someone was up, I swung my legs over to the side of the bed and disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower. Linda and Megan raised their eyebrows and gave each other a "what the hell" look, but I ignored them.

I dressed in the shower as quick as I could and opened the door just as Megan started to scream that she needed a piss. She was dancing, or hopping, along the floor outside like a deranged rabbit, singing, "Holy shit, I need a piss," under her breath. I would have laughed and started to make water noises if I didn't feel like complete shit.

I avoided eye contact with Rose and Coco, though I could feel them watching me. Slowly, I started to sort out my school bag for the day, feeling their eyes burning into my back like lasers.

"Morning." Coco said softly, looking like she wanted to say so much more, but just couldn't find the words.

Rose caught onto Coco's game and smiled at me. "Good sleep?"

"Fantastic."

They both flinched at my harsh tone and Coco dashed off to the bathroom. I felt guilty, but I couldn't bring myself to care. For the first time in a long time, we got ready in awkward silence. I hated it. Rose, Coco and I never had awkward silences. Whenever we ran out of things to say Coco would bring up something about the new fashion range, or Rose would spew stupid shit about History of Magic out of her mouth. The only awkward silence's we had together was when we first met and were all so uncomfortable and gangly we just didn't know what to say.

My heart started to shudder as we walked down to breakfast together. Coco and Rose stayed a little behind frantically whispering to each other and I pretended I had no idea. When we got to the Great Hall it was, as always, packed to the brim with students, including James' friends, who all stared at me as I slid past them and sat next to Albus. He simply rested his arm across my shoulders and carried on his conversation with Scorpius. I loved him for that.

We went off to lessons fifteen minutes later, I kept my head down and just silently went throughout my day. No one battered an eyelid at me, it wasn't unusual for me to be quiet all day, though the people who really knew what was going on were staring at me with sympathetic eyes.

After lunch Albus and I were sat in Charms when my stomach churned dangerously. Swallowing, I tried to keep it down, but to no avail, I could feel my lunch slowly creeping up my throat.

"Al," I hissed desperately. The pencil he was balancing on his upper lip clattered to the table as he whipped around to look at me in shock. I hadn't spoken a word all day, not even to him. "I'm going to be sick."

"What? Seriously?"

"No, I'm taking the piss. Yes, seriously. I'm going to up chuck all over this table in about five seconds."

Albus' eyes widened like saucers and he pounced to his feet. "SIR!" Professor Flitwick squealed and whipped around, his glasses askew. "Callie needs to go to the bathroom."

"Mr. Potter, please sit—"

"Five."

"Sir, seriously, she's going to be sick—"

"Please, Mr. Potter I'm sure she can hold it in—"

"Four."

"Sir, you don't understand, she's in bad condition."

"Honestly, Potter, is she bleeding?"

"No, but—"

"Three."

"Is she in a life or death situation?"

"No, but, Sir—"

"Two."

"Therefore, you need to sit down—"

"But, Sir, she's on her period!"

Oh dear Merlin, why did you give me friends like this? I've never done anything particularly wrong in life, and you let James Potter knock me up, the least you could have done was give me normal friends.

"Oh!" Flitwick squeaked, his little face turning a bright, tomato red. "Go, then."

I didn't have to time to take in the disgusted, embarrassed and amused faces of my classmates, I was too busy focusing on not throwing up in the classroom. Though, I would have liked to throw up on Rose's head again, it would have given me a laugh.

I made it just in time to throw up my guts into the ladies toilet. Once I'd stopped, I fell back against the stall of the toilet and watched as Albus came into the small space, looked down the toilet, grimaced and turned a weird shade of green, then flushed it and sat down opposite me.

"She's on her period?" I croaked, "you couldn't have came up with something better?"

"I was under pressure," Albus flushed red. "You were counting, I was desperate, Sir was saying no, I got confused! It was the only thing I could think of."

A small laugh breathed from my lips. "Honestly, Al, you're a douche sometimes."

He laughed softly and shrugged in a "what can you do?" kind of way.

"So," he paused, eyeing me. "How're you feeling?"

"Great."

He rolled his eyes. "Really, Callie? There's only me here, you don't have to wear your stupid mask."

I massaged the back of my neck uncomfortably and glanced up at him through my eyelashes. Albus was the only person that could read me. Coco could, when she really looked at me, but she was always smiling and laughing too much to pay a lot of attention to the things around her. I loved that about her, that she could always be so happy without even trying. Albus, however, was observant about the things around him, he saw past people's smiles and laughter and frowns. He knew when Rose was PMSing and always warned me not to get on the wrong side of her, he knew when James was feeling down about himself and always went off to have a talk with him. I always remember James coming back with a large smile on his face. Albus knew when Scorpius was feeling shit, and they always went off to play one-on-one Quidditch.

Albus was just one of those people who loved helping others. I always wondered who looked after him when he was down.

"Shit," I replied, letting my head fall back against the stall. I blinked away my tears and sighed. "Complete shit. I was thinking about how I have to tell my dad and Aunt Annie about being pregnant and all. And then I was thinking about how I have to tell my dad that James has walked away, it's going to crush him. My grandparents are going to be so disappointed. Not to mention my Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Shit, I have to tell everyone. Even your family."

Albus blew up his cheeks and puffed out a long breath. "That'll be fun. I can imagine my mum's happiness now," he snorted humourlessly. "She's going to go fucking mental with James when she finds out. She always said he was going to get a girl pregnant one day, now look what's happened." He nodded to my stomach. "Not only has he knocked someone up, but she happens to be my best friend."

"You're mum loves me, too."

"One of the few."

I kicked him in the shin.

"OW! Absolutely no need for that, Callie Denison," he mock glared. "Yes, she has expressed her like for you a couple of time, but I think she thinks your Coco or something. You know what she said? "I like her humour". You have no humour."

"I have plenty of humour."

"What, like pushing people down the stairs?"

"That was twice, and it was hilarious both times."

"Yeah, for you."

I smirked lightly and a small snort escaped my nose. Albus had been on the receiving end of both those times, the first one was when Rose was really angry at him and told me she would give me ten galleons, the second time was just to hear his girly screams as he fell.

By the time we had left the bathroom last break was nearly ending. Albus and I collected out bags, avoided a very awkward and embarrassed Professor Flitwick, and headed off to our next lesson.

"Hey, you okay?" Rose hissed, leaning over to our table with a worried expression.

"Fine." I replied with a fake smile. She nodded and leaned back into her chair, her face hard as she listened to the lecture.

After lessons I collapsed onto the couch in the common room and stared up at the ceiling as my Gryffindor friends gathered around me, opening up their books to finish off some homework we had gotten. I tried to do some, but my mind just shot blanks and I ended up making no sense when I wrote things down. After twenty minutes of staring at the lines of a blank piece of paper, I threw my stuff onto the floor and sighed, running my fingers through the roots of my hair.

"Hey."

The couch jerked and I looked up just in time to see Lily Potter jumping onto the seat beside me. "Um, hello?"

"So, James knocked you up, eh?"

"Lily—" Albus said warningly.

"What?" the beautiful redhead asked innocently. "I haven't even done anything," she snapped. "Anyway, how're you feeling? Don't worry about James, when I get my hands on him he'll be so messed up you won't even want him to be around."

"Honestly, Lily—"

"He can be an idiot," Lily carried on smoothly. "And he acts more in the moment than actually thinking about things. That makes him seem like an arsehole, but he's really not."

"We don't think," Cooper added in cheekily. Lily sent her a mocking glare. "But Lily's shitting her pants excited about becoming an Aunt."

"It'll be so much fun," Lily beamed brightly, clapping her hands together. "I'll teach it how to burp the alphabet, and how to click all your toes, and how to tie a cherry with its tongue, and how to be the best beater in the school, and—"

"Breathe, Lils."

Lily made a strange croaking sound. "I am breathing, or I wouldn't be alive, Cooper."

The blonde winked.

"Ignore her," Lily waved her right hand in Cooper's general direction. "She'll corrupt your mind, why do you think I'm so crazy?"

"Hurtful."

"Anyway, we have detention, but we'll talk later, yeah?"

I didn't have time to answer before she flounced out the portrait hole, laughing and making wild hand gestures to Cooper.

I turned to Albus with a dumbfounded expression. "Is she always like that?"

"Always. It's scary, really."

What had I gotten myself into?

With that thought in mind, I picked up my homework again, maybe now I had a break I could start.

I stared at the paper for fifteen minutes without anything but food coming to mind.

Damn.

Thoughts?

This chapter if kind of a filler because I didn't think you'd all just want me to skip the day after James left. The next chapter has a bit of drama in though ;) And then it's Christmas time! That should be a few fun chapters.

-Laylax