Chapter 3 The Party Begins

The next morning Christine had trouble getting up because of her late night conversation. When she got to school,(she just made it as the clock read nine o'clock) Marie turned to Christine with a look of annoyance.

"Christine, look what I got from some nut, this morning. Do they actually think I'm gonna believe them? I mean, come on, an owl delivered it!" Marie said handing Christine a piece of parchment with emerarld ink. Christine scanned the letter and saw it was the letter Dumbledore had been talking about.

"Um, yes, you should believe them, Marie,"

"Omigod, Christine! You are going insane! It's impossible!"

"It's not a joke, unless the people who appeared in my house last night died when they left through the fireplace."

Marie just stared at her. "You mean, I am g-going to H-hogwarts with you? That's just-just, un-unreal!" Marie said with complete awe.

"Well, ya better believe it," Christine replied, and she relized that the entire class was listening to her conversation with Marie, obviously curious about the letters they recieved too.Without anyone asking, Christine could repliy to the question. "Yes, everyone it's true, we're going to Hogwarts."

The class practically erupted with everyone yelling at once. Even with sixteen people screaming at once, Christine could here Everett the best. "Yeah, and a limo could come pick us up and we could hang out the window and yell 'Mr. Roboto!'" And with that remark, the entire seventh grade class cracked up just as Mrs. Jennette walked in and yelled at everyone to be quiet so she could do the attendance. As the class calmed down, all Christine could do was smile to herself, she'd be starting the best summer soon, and she couldn't wait.

***

The last week of school was great, except for a small gas leak that occured in the other building. The eighth-graders laughed and cried as they approached their last few days at St.Thomas. Marie had great news, too.

"Guess what? I can have everyone over my house for a pool party and sleepover the day before we leave. Dumbledore had my parents go to Greece for Father's Day for a relaxing vaction and left me home. And the limo's coming to pick us all up at my house, instead on going all over Jersey," Marie said excitedly.

"But how're we supposed to get to your house," Matt Gullace asked very sarcastically.

"Dumbledore wrote that a portkey will take us. It's gonna be a baseball," Marie answered.

"Ok, then, got it,"Gullace replied.

The conversation ended there because the Mc Donalds had come and the boys had started to chomp on their food.

"Oh, dude, wait!"

"Huh?" Christine snapped back at Dave who was rudely saying something with his face full of a Big Mac.

Dave turned around to face Christine and swallowed. "Gulp. I just remembered, are we supposed to wear the Hogwarts robes or regular stuff?"

"I dont know," Christine replied," I hope not, but just bring casual stuff in case, besides, you'd probably want to wear something underneath the robes."

The rest of that Wednesday seemed so long, but everyone was having a blast playing board games. Thursday went by like that too, and finally it was Friday, June 15 th, or The Last Day of School.

Everett was dancing around the room singing," The Last Day of School, The Last day of School," and Marie was singing, " Two days till we go to H- " she suddenly stopped because Mrs.Jennette walked into the classroom. "Until we go to sleepaway camp!" Marie finished.

Everyone was so excited and they were yelled at many times because they were so rowdy. The yearbooks were passed out,and also their report cards.

"I told you, Justine,"Marie said as Justine started to bang her head against the wall. She had got a "D" in gym, which was no surprise, since she had recently been aking up excuses to be exempt from gym.

That day seemed to go very slowly, and now Christine wasn't so bummed about school ending-she had something fun to do. And then finally, the end of the half-day had come. The eighth-graders toilet-papered the teachers cars and hey all hugged and cried as one-by-one they left on a bus or got pickedup. Mike was dancing aroung outside yelling, "We Rule the School!" until Mrs. Tancona (their teacher next year) said, "If you act like that in my class, you will be spending a lot of tie in the office!" and he stopped. Then Christine's dad pulled up.

"Bye, Barton!" Liz called.

"Adios, El Barton!" Justine yelled.

"See you soon, Pesh!" Marie said with a smile.

Christine said goodbye to the rest of her seventh (now eighth) grade class and everyone else, and got into the air-conditioned car for the twenty-minute ride home.

"Are you looking forward to camp?" her dad asked.

"Yeah,'Christine replied.

"Why did your class say 'see you soon'?"

"Inside Joke,"Christine simply replied.

***

Christine spent that next Saturday at the mall shopping for her sumer wardrobe. Then she and her mother went home for Christine to pack. She could hardly sleep that night because she was so excited. Hoping Marie was awake, Christine called her. When someone answered the phone at the Karpodinis residence she had that person,presumably Marie, say, "Mmmm, Christine, yawn?"

"Yeah, sorry, I couldn't sleep," she whispered over the phone.

"I couldn't either, and Iwas about to finally go to sleep when someone just had to call!"

"I'm sorry. It's 11 p.m., and I'm not about to go to sleep, I'm just too tired too sleep," Christine tried to explain.

"Okay, imagine the first thing you're gonna do when you get to Hogwarts, it almost worked for me!"

"Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow, when should I get there, around two?"

"Yeah, bye."

"Bye," Christine said and she hung up the phone. She watch ed the lightning stor outside and thought of what she'd do at Hogwarts,and slowly drifted off to sleep.



Christine woke up the next morning around 11:30, since she was so tired after being woken up many times by her cats, Charlotte and Saantha. At least Christine was totally packed, but still, when she went downstairs, her mother was doing the thing every mother does.

"Did you finish packing?"

"Yes."

"Did you fold everything neatly?"

"Yes, I did."

"Did you pack enough socks?"

"Yes, mother."

"Is your room clean?"

"YES!"

"Don't you start with me young lady, or I won't let you go to camp. I'lll keep you here and you can go to that camp at Cedar Grove with Mary-"

"Um, how about, no?"

Christine's mother just gave her that trademark look, with the glasses on the tip of the nose and the raised eyebrow, and she knew to stop.

As it neared 1:30, Christine brought her bags downstairs, and yelled, I'm going to wait outside, see you at the end of the summer bye!" so her mom wouldn't go through the whole "I'll miss you," etc.

When it was 1:58, Christine was sitting on the side of her house, playing catch with the portkey. "Goodbye," she whispered as the baseball whisked her through a whirl of colors to Marie's house.

"Oomph!" Christine grunted as she fell out of thin air onto the couch of the Karpodinis residence.She heard her luggage fall on to the floor behind her.As Christine got up, some of her class came to see what all the noise was coming from. "Hey, guys, it's only me," she reassured them. Most of her class said some form of "hello" to Christine except for Jack.

"Do not tell me those are all yours!" he shouted, pointing at Christine's three large suitcases. She just smiled guiltily."What did you bring?" Jack asked like this was abnormal.

"Well, the neccessities, of course," Christine explained," I needed my summer wardrobe, shoes, and accessories. And I also brought mynail polish and sport stuff. If you think I could fit all that into one suitcase, I'd like to see you try."

"Geesh, there's about twenty suitcases, and that's more than half the girls. What's up with that?" Brian said.

Kathryn, Liz, and Sara came to the front of the liittle group watching the debate, and Sara said defensively, "Just because it's the summer dosen't mean I, I mean we, can't look good!"

"Right on!" Liz catcalled.

Matt Gullace snorted at Liz's comment, and the rest of the boys were doubled over with semi-silent laughter.

Marie then broke the silence, while the boys tried to contol themselves,which was a surprise. "An owl brought a letter this morning. It says a limosine is to pick us up at 6 am.Our flight is at 8 a.m., and don't worry about passports or international flight check-in, Dumbledore's taken care of it."

Everyone started complaining. "Who gets up at a time to be ready at six in the friggin' morning?" Matt Freeman whined.

"I do," came a voice that belonged to Justine.

"Yeah, so you smoke, that dosen't make it right! Actually, because you do it means no one should!" John said. If he expected laughter, he didn't get any because Everett yelled, "Last one in the pool is a piece of sausauge!" and everyone ran for the pool.

The pool was warm because it had been in the sun for so long, before it started to become overcast. Of course Justine, who didn't want to, was the piece of sausauge. Mike hopped out of the pool and went over to Justine standing by the edge of the pool with her arms crossed. Mike then yelled at the top of his lungs "DO YOU VONT A BAGEL?!" swung his ars arms wildly and hit Justine, flinging her into the pool. "You bloody bastard, I can't swim!" Justine said as she shook her fist at him. "Ow! You hurt me!" Mike replied and he pretended to be pushed in the pool and plopped in, creating soMething of a tidal wave.

"Help! I'm drowning" Justin screeched as she stood in three feet of water. "Hellllllllllllp! John, help me John!" Everyonr knew this was a plea for attention, so everyone ignored her. Justine then went and sat on the deck cursing to herself, dripping wet.

The rest of the class and Andy and James had a lot of fun. They played Marco Polo, had a diving contecst, Butt Bob contest and played volleyball. Then, all of a sudden, the reason it had been become increaseingly cloudy was evident. It had begun to pour and a thunderstorm was coming.Everyone dashed inside, and stood by the sliding glass doors, just looking at how their fun had been stopped.

"What should we do now?" asked Chris.

"I'm starving, let's order a pizza," Matt Freeman suggested, and everyone shook their heads in agreement and Everett yelled his Pizza joke, and made the boys laugh hysterically.

"Ok, anyone got some cash?" Marie asked uncertainly.

Everyone looked at each other for someone with money. "I do," Christine said, "I'll go get it."

"And I'll take requests for toppings," Marie said as Christine left for the money and everyone started to call out what they wanted.

***

Twenty minutes after the four large pizzas with every topping imaginable arrived, they were gone, eaten by eighteen people. "Weakest Link" was over and they switched to MTV, but nothing good was on. Everett drained his Coke bottle as the TV was turned off and belched really loud. While everyone cracked up, Everett's bottle flew into the air and landed on the floor and spinning a few times before stopping.

Jack stared at the bottle, smiled mischeviously, and said, "I have a great idea! Let's play Spin the Bottle! Or are the little girlies scared of getting cooties?"

Sara stood up abruptly. "No we're not, 'Jackie,' are we ?" Sara asked the five other girls.

"Nope," Marie, Christine, and Kathryn replied.

"Bring it on," said Liz.

"I think I'll go w-"

"Oh, no, you don't, Justine, you are staying right here. Trust me, it'll be fun,"Marie said sweetly with a look at Andy.

That game of spin the bottle was pretty awkward, since the people you were playing with were your classmates. The best part was when Justine had to go in the garage with Jack, but they got locked in there for alost a half-hour. You could hear Justine kicking and screaming at the door, then cursing in rage. She must have said "John!" 100 times. When they finally let Justine and Jack out, Justine looked ready to kill and Jack almost threw the TV at Everett, Mike, and Matt Freeman for laughing at him.

"Ekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!" Justine shrieked.

"Do us all a favor," Christine shouted back, "and GO TO HELL!"

"I think I'll goto bed," Justine muttered and she went upstairs.

"Ya know, that's a good idea, it's 10:30, and we gotta be up at 5," Jack said. "But, um, how're we supposed to uh, ya know, get undressed and go to sleep?"

"Well, um, let me see, the boys can slepp down here in the living room, and the girls can sleep in my room."

" I'll get my stuff," Andy said.

"Huh?" Dave asked.

"I'm sleeping with the girls cause ther's, um, no more room down here." Andy answered. Dave didn't answer, but he looked mighty disappointed.