Spring Break! You've gotta love it! A whole week of doing absolutely NOTHING and feeling great about it. But now I'm starting to feel like I should do something productive. That's where this writing thing comes in.
You know, I decided to read the second chapter again…and I didn't actually write it very well, did I? I'm thinking that maybe I should go back and redo some of it. Let me know what you think.
All Harry Potter material belongs to J. K. Rowling and Warner Brothers.
The Night World belongs to L. J. Smith.
(Weird how women writers like to go by their initials, huh?)
BEYOND WHAT MEETS THE EYE
BY EMPRESS JADE
"Padfoot, calm down. They're fine," James Potter said for the tenth time.
But Sirius continued to pace, looking at the portrait hole expectantly every few minutes.
"You know…if I didn't know better, I would almost think that you cared about her," James looked at his best friend devilishly.
"Yeah, me too," Remus joined in. "But then I reminded myself 'Sirius Black doesn't care about girls. Just their bodies.'"
"Well, she's a Quidditch player, they all have nice bodies. She's a hot chick," Sirius shot back defensively.
James smiled to himself. "C'mon man, it's Lily and Eve. If any two girls could handle a collapsing building, it would be them." But the words 'collapsing building' seemed to catch his own attention. "Hope Lil's okay," he added quietly.
"But still, why was she acting all whacked up before they left?" Sirius suddenly looked up at his friends.
James looked confused.
"I meant Eve, not Lil."
The boys were all quiet, trying to think of an explaination.
"Maybe she was on drugs. She looked like she hadn't had her heroine for a few days," Peter chirped sarcastically.
"She's not on drugs!" Sirius erupted and soon found his hand at the chubby boy's throat. Peter looked terrified and shrank backwards as he advanced on him.
"Hey dude, chill," James pried Sirius off Peter and pushed him down into a chair.
Peter muttered something softly and went up to bed, fearing another outbreak.
The room was quiet as the other three continued to wait for the girls.
Lily and Eve stood in a dimly lit hall. Eve looked nervous.
"You do like someone, don't you?" Lily asked quietly. "You pretend like you don't by getting every other guy in this school."
Eve's first reaction was to deny it, but she knew that Lily had seen into her mind. She was so used to putting up mental barriers when she fed, but this time, she forgot.
Her second reaction was to blank Lily's memory, vampires had that power. Yet she couldn't bring herself to do it, Lil was her best friend.
"Look Lil, it's not that simple. It's really easy for you, you know that? You like the guy, you get the guy to like you, and everyone's happy. Minus the occasional jealous ex."
Lily nodded, what Eve was saying made perfect sense.
"But there's more of a conflict for me. Remember when I told you about the first rule of the Night World being that you couldn't tell a human about the Night World? Well, the second rule is that you can't fall in love with a human."
"Why not?"
"Well, falling in love with a human usually directly leads you to tell them about the Night World. Plus, just about everyone else in the Night World considers humans to be vermin. Second class people. I guess it's pretty racist, huh?"
"Definitely."
"So I can't go out with a guy I actually like, because the Night World would send people to kill him," Eve summed up simply.
"Oh." Lily knew that saying 'oh' was the worst thing she could have said. But the whole idea hit her by surprise, that 'oh' was the only word that would come out.
The girls were silent.
"So, um…" Lily's voice was almost a whisper. "Who is it?"
Eve sighed. "You just don't give up do you?" She smiled, but then looked disheartened. "It's probably better if I don't tell you."
Lily made a puppy face, and Eve continued, "Nothing personal. It's just that, maybe, if no one else knows, it'll be like it doesn't really exist. Like I don't really like him. Know what I mean?"
"Sorta. I guess so."
"So, if it doesn't really exist, then I'll have the possibility of dissolving my mind of the thoughts. So maybe I'll get over it or whatever. And then no one gets hurt. Not me or him. And no one has to die."
Lily opened her mouth to argue, but shut it promptly. She knew when to keep going and when to stop pushing it. And now was a time to stop. Eve's face was dead serious.
They made their way to the portrait hole in silence.
"'We're not in Kansas anymore'," Lily murmured to a disheveled Fat Lady. The password had been changed in honor of the storm.
The girls were two steps into the common room when they spotted the boys sitting around the fire, waiting for them.
Lily's mind froze. How could she have been so stupid?
They hadn't thought of a story to tell the guys. And obviously telling the truth was out of the question.
"Eve!" Sirius jumped over the back of a wing chair toward her, but then slowing down and approaching her cautiously. "Um…you okay?" he asked sheepishly.
Lily glanced apprehensively at Eve.
But Eve was a step ahead of her.
"Yeah. You know those vitamins my grandma insists that I take?" she was saying, looking perfectly candid and cool. "Well as it turns out, they weren't packaging them properly. They're a special mixture that has to be taken right away, but the bags were leaking. And when oxygen hits, it ruins the molecular structure and causes the mixture to ferment. Which is really kinda weird, because normally nonaerobic substances ferment because only aerobic…" and she kept going on and on and on. She knew that talking about chemistry would get these guys confused.
Lily smiled to herself. Yep, Eve was most definitely her old self. Always able to talk her way in and out of anything.
"…so the whole thing has been running around in my system for a few months and my body just couldn't take it anymore! But don't you worry, Madam Pomfrey fixed me right up and I'm as good as new!" she exclaimed, beaming all the while.
Sirius looked puzzled. Calm, but puzzled. As if his gut instinct told him that there really was something wrong, but his mind told him that everything Eve was saying was making perfect sense. Not to mention that he really didn't know anything about chemistry.
"Oh good," James spoke up from behind Sirius. "We were afraid something was really wrong. You looked pretty sick when you left." He turned to his best friend, "See? I told you there was nothing to worry about."
"Me? Worried? I laugh at the word!" The old Sirius was back. And was doing a very bad James Earl Jones voice. "Ha ha ha!"
James had maneuvered himself so that he was standing next to Lily with an arm around her waist. "So you didn't get caught in the earthquake, did you? Parts of the building were coming apart."
"Now now, if we had gotten stuck, would we be here now?" she smiled sweetly and leaned against him.
He shrugged and kissed the top of her head.
Sirius gagged quietly, pretending to hide it. " *cough* getaroom *cough cough*"
James glared at him. "Don't be jealous just because you aren't getting any, my friend," he smiled.
"I get plenty more than you do and we both know it," Sirius stated in a nonchalant voice.
"Okay boys, that's enough," Lily cut in. She turned to Eve. "I'm tired and it's late. Let's go to bed."
There was a little chorus of "good night"s as the girls headed to one stairway, and the boys to the other.
"Eve, come here for a sec," Sirius's voice called as she was almost up the stairs.
She hesitated for a moment, and then back down a few steps to meet him. "Yeah?"
"Wanna go to the Fall Ball with me?" he asked in a casual voice that sounded a bit forced.
Eve tried to hide her surprise, but her mouth still hung open and her eyes stared in disbelief.
"C'mon, it won't be that bad. It's me!"
Lily watched from the top of the stairs as Eve looked uneasily at the floor. She had never seen Eve vacillate when it came to a date. She always said yes if she didn't have a date and the guy was decent. Okay, so it was Sirius, who was most certainly not normal in any way, but he was decent.
Lily thought to herself quietly for a moment, and suddenly her eyes gleamed in understanding. There was only one reason why Eve would say no.
"Hurry up, it's almost one!" Lily shouted, hoping it would be enough to rescue her friend from the situation. For the time being, at least.
Eve looked up at Lily with an expression of relief. "Look, I'm dead tired, I'll talk to you later. Maybe tomorrow or something," she glanced quickly at Sirius.
Then she bolted up the stairs and into their dorm room.
"So you figured it out, huh?" Eve whispered, so as not to wake up the other girls.
"Hate to say it, but it was pretty obvious. Well, not obvious obvious, just because I know you."
Eve sighed and sat on her bed. "So I'll just have to say no tomorrow, simple as that."
"But he really likes you, I know he does. You're not just another pretty girl to him, Eve! Imagine how much you're going to hurt him," Lily looked at her earnestly.
"Look, he's better a little emotionally hurt now, than eventually dead!" she hissed back, a little harsher than she had planned.
Yet she knew Lily was right. Somehow Lily was almost right when it came to these kinds of things, as if she had some inner insight or something of the sort.
"Sorry," Eve added quietly. "It's just kinda stressful. I've always hated making decisions like this."
"Don't worry, I know what you mean."
"How about this? I'll write to my cousin. He knows a lot about dealing with humans, maybe he'll know what I should do. And he's part of Circle Daybreak, a group of ex-Night Worlders who are trying to help humans and stuff."
"Sounds like a good idea. Why don't you write now, so it'll get to him as soon as possible."
A few minutes later, Eve was sealing a little envelope. Suddenly she stopped.
"Ugh…Lil, we are so stupid!"
"Okay…Why?"
"Owls can't fly in this whether!"
"Oh great. What are we going to do?" Lily sighed.
Eve sat down again, and puckered her lips in thought. "Alright, vampires are telepathic."
"You already told me that."
"So…maybe, if I concentrate hard enough, I can send a message to him. It won't be very clear though, he's far away, he doesn't even live in England."
"Where does he live?"
"Um…I'm not actually sure. He moves around a lot. But he's always on the west coast."
"West coast of what?" Lily feared the answer.
"The U.S."
Lily's jaw dropped. "Can telepathic messages go over an ocean and a continent?"
"I don't think so. But it might come to him as sort of a …premonition. Like he gets the feeling that I need something, so maybe he'll try to contact me. It's worth a try."
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Thanks for reading and please review!
Hey, I know I said it was only going to be a couple chapters, but I'm having a lot of fun writing this, so it looks like it's going to be longer.
I really need a beta reader! Anyone who's interested, let me know in your review (which you're all going to write one, right?). I really need someone who's good with grammar, has read a lot, and can provide "constructive criticism" as well as enjoy the stories.
Okay, LJS readers, I wonder who her west coast cousin could be…hm…?
Once again, I didn't proofread or edit or revise (bad girl) so excuse errors please. If there are a lot , tell me and I'll get it fixed. Another reason why I need a beta reader.
Lastly, do you think I should talk about the night world less and go into the romance story more, or talk more about the night world and stuff too?
Oh I forgot, (I know, I said the last comment was going to be last) I'm thinking about starting the new L/J series soon and write it at the same time I'm writing this. I can't really get any good ideas though, so if you have some and would like to share, that would be great!
Fun word to say of the day: disingenuous
THANK YOU!
Love ~ Empress Jade