All My Life
*~* Back to School *~*
Back to school, Back to school,
To prove to dad, that I'm not a fool.
I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight,
I hope I don't get in a fight!
Oh! Back to school, back to school,
Back to school…Adam Sandler, Billy Madison
"Have any of you seen Ava?" Lily asked as she looked around the compartment, which seemed empty without her best friend.
"I haven't seen her since the ball. She went back to her house with the remainder of her family, and I haven't heard from her since." Elle said, peering out the window of their compartment.
"Maybe she's coming to find us?" Sirius said hopefully.
"Or maybe she went to a different compartment so she wouldn't have to be around us." Remus said thoughtfully.
"What?" Sirius, Lily and Elle said together.
"Just examining all options…" Remus answered.
"Yeah, well shut up." Sirius said. He really missed Ava, and he wanted to see her.
"Any ideas James?" Lily asked, but found no answer.
"Woo hoo? Earth to James?" Elle said waving her hand in front of his line of vision. He was just sitting there, gazing out the window.
"What." He said, not losing his stare.
"Why are you so quiet?" Lily asked. She went and sat right next to him, but instead of talking to her, trying to get her to like him like he usually would, he just got up and walked away.
"I need some air." His retreating figure mumbled.
"I just don't understand him lately." Lily said angrily, crossing her arms. "He's been acting gay ever since after the ball! What's his problem?"
"Lily, just shut your mouth for one second ok? Or is that not possible for someone as blatantly ignorant as yourself?" Sirius said, leaning forward.
Lily just sat there, staring at Sirius.
"Leave him alone Lily." Remus said.
"Yeah Lils, lay off, you don't know the whole story." Elle told her.
"Well, if you all know so much, enlighten me!" Lily said sarcastically.
"Once you went inside after the funeral, we stayed back and heard James talking to Rhyce's grave," Elle explained.
"And he was saying sorry and stuff. And how he could have stopped it, but he was outside, and how it was all his fault. He blames himself Lily." Remus said, shaking his head.
"And you are sitting there, getting mad at him because he's not falling all over you, like he usually does!" Sirius said, getting angry.
"What? He doesn't fall all over me! And why is he blaming himself?" Lily said, perplexed.
"Lily! Open your pretty green eyes and take a look around you! James has been obsessed with you ever since he first saw you in Diagon Alley! And as to the reason why he blames himself, oh I don't know, let me think REAL hard about this one. Voldemort wants to kill him, and some how, Voldemort and his stupid followers show up at the Ministry Ball and start murdering people!" Sirius said in one breath, "Why would James blame himself? Hmmm. That is a HARD question. Come on Lily, your smart!"
"You ever notice how James seems to throw away his mail at breakfast? Hmm, maybe because after the first DOZEN little notes from his good friend Voldie, he decided that he had enough DEATH THREATS for the rest of his life. God Lily, get off your pedestal and put your self in someone else's shoes. Not everyone has a perfect life." Sirius said leaning back and shaking his head.
Lily just sat there, as did Elle. They didn't know the whole extent of James's story.
"Sorry for yelling Lil, but you needed to know." Sirius said as he got up and gave her a hug.
"How does he do it?" Lily asked, once Sirius had let go.
"We don't know, I would be a basket case, personally." Remus said truthfully.
"Well, he does have AMAZING friends." Sirius said grinning.
"I'll give you that one Sirius," Remus said, laughing.
Meanwhile, at the other side of the train, James was looking for an empty compartment.
"Oh sorry I thought this compartment was… Ava?" James said, just as he was about to shut the door.
"Hey James," Ava said, not looking at her friend.
"Why aren't you sitting with everyone else?" James asked her.
"I could ask you the same thing." She answered back.
"Right you are," he said while sitting down next to her.
"I'm sorry." He said after a few minutes of silence.
"For what?" She asked looking at him straight in the eyes.
"For Rhyce dying. I didn't mean to be outside, I could have stopped it, but, I, I didn't know what was happening," he said to her. "I didn't know that he was going to die. I'm so sorry Ava, its all my fault."
"It's not your fault James! It's not yours at all! Don't feel like it was your fault! It wasn't. I don't blame you in the slightest. I, I just am sad because, my brother is dead! And in the last few moments of his life, instead of being a good sister and telling him I loved him, I was mad at him! I was mad at him for being with Lily. My brother died, and I was MAD at him! I hate myself, I can't believe I did that!" She said crying. James put his arms around her and held her as she cried.
"It's ok Ava, you didn't do anything wrong."
"Ok boys," Lily said, getting up and taking Elle's hand, "we are going to look for Ava. If we aren't back in ten minutes, send out your search team, because Snape might of Avada Kedavra'd us!"
The boys laughed and the girls flew out of their compartment and searched the train. They finally got to the last compartment and Elle looked inside.
"Oh my gosh, Lily, come here!" Elle whispered at Lily, "look at them! They are really cute together!"
Lily glanced in the compartment and felt a pang of jealousy sweep across her.
"Lets go, lets just leave them alone or something. Come on." Lily said walking away to find Remus and Sirius.
"Ok Lil." Elle said as she looked at her friend, and noticed the look in her eyes. It was desire. But there was something else she couldn't decode. Jealousy.
"So where did you guys go?" Sirius asked Lily and Elle as they walked back in the compartment. Everyone just stared at him as if he was kidding.
"Well…?" He said when no one answered him.
"Sirius," Remus said leaning forward, "do you some times stop to think, and then forget to start again?"
Sirius just stared at him, contemplating what he said.
"Dude, are you on drugs or something?" Remus asked seriously.
"I tried Coke once," Sirius revealed, as Elle and Lily's mouths dropped open.
"Yeah," he continued, "but the ice cubes got stuck in my nose."
Lily raised her eyebrow at that, "How long have you been waiting to use that line Sirius."
"Ever since I bought this book from Zonko's in third grade!" He said excitedly. "But no one ever thought I was on drugs so I could never use it!"
"Imagine that." Remus stated as he shook his head, laughing.
"So did you guys find James?" Remus asked, while tossing a few Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans in his mouth.
"Well," Elle began, but the look on Remus's face made her forget her words, "what Remus?"
His face contorted as he jumped up and murmured, "I think I'm gonna hurl!"
Elle's gaze followed him out the door, and then she finished what she was saying, "Well, as I was saying, yes we did find James. Found Ava too. Found them together. Interesting." She said grinning. She looked at Sirius as his face fell. She glanced over at Lily, and she was just sitting, looking out the window.
"Whoa, what happened in here?" Remus said as he walked back in.
"Well, uh, nothing. But a better question is, why you ran out of the compartment, clearly in pain, a minute ago?" Elle said, looking up at Remus.
"Well, I popped a few Bertie Bott's in my mouth, and let me tell you, I'm no Betty Crocker. I ended up mixing 'liver n' onion,' 'chocolate covered worm,' and 'vomit.'" Remus said, the pained expression coming back to him, "and I never will eat again."
"Gross!" Elle said, scrunching her face up.
"So, back to my question. What's wrong with these two?" he said, pointing at Lily and Sirius who were now BOTH staring out the window.
"Well. We found Ava and James," Elle whispered.
"Oh, together." Remus said nodding.
"How'd you know?" Elle asked him.
"Oh, just cause I saw them going at it in the compartment next to the bathroom." He grinned and Lily and Sirius's head snapped around faster than you can say "muggle."
"Whoa! Did you see that! These damn eavesdroppers," Remus said looking at the two, "must have whiplash now! Did you see it Elle? Did you? Whoa, you guys might need to go to a chiropractor now!"
"Shut up." Sirius said.
"Yeah, get a life!" Lily said rolling her eyes.
"At least I'm not the one who listens in on other peoples private conversations." He emphasized 'private,' "That's just sad."
"Leave us alone Remus." Sirius said, shaking his head.
"Point taken." Remus said, and then turned towards Elle and struck up a conversation with her.
"Where are Ava and James?" Sirius asked Remus over the drumsticks.
"I dunno," he answered, "Lil, pass the mashed potatoes."
"Here," she said handing him the bowl, "I haven't seen them either, Sirius."
"Oh."
In considerably lighter moods, Lily and Sirius made it through dinner, well, almost.
"Where could they be?" Elle asked, getting frustrated. She was halfway through her dessert and James and Ava were still nowhere to be found.
"Ah ha!" Remus said pointing his cake-filled fork at the opposite end of the table. This, in turn, made the cake on the end of his fork go flying, and then made it land in a first-years pumpkin juice goblet. The first turned his eyes to meet Remus's. Remus's eyes widened as he muttered, "Er, real sorry bout the, uh, cake in your, er, juice." The first year just nodded when Sirius broke the ice.
"Ah ha what?"
"Oh, I found the missing friends." Remus said, pointing at them with his finger.
"Oh my goodness! Why would they go out of their way to avoid us!?" Lily asked in an exasperated tone.
The three friends shrugged their shoulders.
"Ugh!" Lily cried as she threw down her fork.
Over the next few weeks, things didn't get much better between the group of friends. Ava and James grew further and further apart from the rest, as Remus and Elle grew closer.
"I can't believe them!" Lily said, breaking the silence in the common room. Only her and Sirius were in there, sitting on opposite ends of the same couch, both with looks of murder on their faces.
"Who?" He said, still staring straight into the fire.
"You know who! Ava and James!" She said, turning to face Sirius.
"Are you serious?"
"No, you are."
"That's original," he said rolling his eyes.
"Had to give it a shot"
"But really, are you kidding?"
"No! They frustrate me so much! Can't James tell that I want to be with him?" She covered her mouth.
"Ha! I knew it!" He said laughing, "But yeah, I really want to be with Ava, and she is just pushing me away from her!"
"You know what?" Lily asked grinning, "We should divide and conquer."
"I like the way you think, Lily Evans." Sirius said, stroking his pretend beard.
"Like-wise Mr. Black."
"So what's the plan?"
"Well," Lily said, thinking, "we could get them apart, and then pull the ol' 'Lily and Sirius' charm, and then WHAM! Their ours."
"Brilliant!"
"I know!" She exclaimed as he took her hand and they began to dance around the common room.
"So," she said as they broke apart, "tomorrow, plan AJ2BLJSA goes into action!"
"Can't, quidditch tryouts, and what in God's name is plan AJ2BLJSA?" he asked.
" 'Ava & James to be Lily & James and Sirius & Ava,'" she explained, "and we will just have to plan it after your tryouts!"
"Sounds great!"
"Lily!" Sirius said, tearing into the common room, snatching Lily's book and throwing it to the ground, "Guess what?"
"Uh, the fifth dentist caved and now they're all recommending Trident?"
"No! I made the team!"
"Great! Now for plan AJ2BLJSA…"
Ok, sorry for that rather short and DUMB chapter, I just needed to get some information there. Ok, yeah I know you noticed the 'Friends' reference too. I love that show! But that's a little off the topic… ok to answer some reviews, (woo hoo I have reviews! Only a few I know, but still! Woo hoo!)
Silver10wolf: I'm glad you like my story! But, yeah someone had to die, and I decided to kill off a rather unimportant person versus a main character. You'll see why someone had to go later, it was pertinent to the rest of the plot.
TinkerbellIdol: Thank you for reading, reviewing and liking my story! I hope this was out quick enough for you!
Ok, to all the rest of you, thanks for reading so much, it really means A LOT to me that you like my story. And if you have ANY questions at all, don't hesitate to ask, elizabethcm@charter.net, or leave it in a review, I promise that I will answer it ASAP! Ok, well I will see you all later.
Next time, on All My Life: (soap opera-ish, isn't it?) Plan AJ2BLJSA goes into action, someone MIGHT die, and Sirius gets a girlfriend!
Love you all! Adios!
Disclaimer:
Nothing belongs to me, not the song used in the beginning, nor MOST of the characters in the story. Well, now that we've got that cleared up…