I KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO VINCE AND KIARA…

Okay, I'm tripping. I'm just out of my body lately. I don't exactly know why but I'm having a pretty damn good guess that it's something about school pressure.

Anyway, does anyone read this anymore? I have no idea. But I'll keep writing anyway. It's my only way of unwinding.

Oh, yeah, I may sound really pathetic but if you wanna read something original from me, visit my compositions in cause I'm still working on my second Harry Potter fan fic. It's still just brewing in my brain. I haven't had time to write 'em down yet. Anyway, what am I saying?

Enjoy reading. Don't forget to review.

i love the way you love... but i hate the way i'm supposed to love you back... -- silverchair, "i miss you love"

~*~*~*~

CHAPTER TEN: Confession and Reconciliation

Lily looked down onto the cookie batter that she was mixing. Mostly because she was trying to avoid glancing at James and get into a fit of laughter.

She wasn't kidding when she said that she needed his help with her baking. But nobody knew that he would end up covered with half of the contents of the sack of flour that he tried reaching from a high shelf.

As usual, since the sacks of flour were stacked very high up, it was up to James 'the giant' – as Lily would tease him – to reach for them.

"That's my part?" he complained when Lily told him to get the sack down. This was partly because the shelf was way too high, almost to the ceiling of the kitchen, that even he couldn't reach it without any chair or stool to step on.

"Yes!" Lily replied cheerfully like what she just said was a universal known fact that 'James reaches for things from very high places.' "You can do it. That pair of big feet you have are quite proportional with your height – which makes you… tall," she started to babble.

James rolled his eyes but found the chance to casually glance down at his feet. She made a rather shady comment about his feet. It made his confident ego rather conscious for once. But, oh, well… "You should try stacking up some calcium yourself," he said as a comeback. "Maybe you'd actually grow," he concluded, giving her nose a playful pinch. Although, inside he thought that her height was just fine. Her height was up to his cheek and that wasn't actually short. It was perfectly fine when it came to teasing her, or touching her face just like what he was doing or kissing – wait… That wasn't part of it. He shoved off the thought.

Lily shook her head vigorously like a fly was on her face. "Get off me," she ordered him, trying to release her nose from James' fingers.

James giggled at her expression. Then, remembering what they were standing there for, he reached for a stool and decided to reach for the stack of sack that seemed to be located in the highest place in the kitchen. As he reached for a sack, he wondered how the house elves could reach those high places… only to realize, quite too late, that, yup, there was always the magic to move things…

It was the most unfortunate thing that happened to him in that kitchen. As he reached for the flour (and realized his stupidity of forgetting that he could use his wand to do his task), the stool that he was stepping on proved to be unstable. He tumbled down to the floor, together with the sack – that opened up as he grabbed it. As a result, a flour-covered James Potter was lying on the floor; with a very breathless – from laughing – Lily Evans standing beside him.

Apparently, not looking at James didn't do any good. After a few seconds, Lily remembered what happened to him and laughed at the cookie batter that she was finishing.

"Fine. Laugh," James pouted. He looked so much a mess. His uniform was covered with flour and the best of all, in Lily's opinion, his messy hair was even messier. He tried to shake off the flour from his hair and as a result, he now looked like a storm just hit the Hogwarts kitchen and the only thing that it disturbed was James' hair.

Lily looked up and tried to talk in between laughs. "I told you I was going to need your help." When she managed to stop laughing, she looked at him with mock pity and pursed her lips.

James, who was sitting just across her from the table, smirked. "I am never taking down a sack of flour for you again," he declared, pointing to the now almost empty sack lying on the table. "Look, half of the contents are on me."

Lily flashed a fake look of shock. "Hey, it wasn't my fault," she defended. "I wasn't the one who picked up a shaky stool and stepped on it," she added as a matter of fact.

James shrugged letting go of the conversation. But he couldn't quite completely let it go as Lily was staring at her, with a wide smile on her face. "What?" he asked with knitted, suspicious eyebrows.

"You have something on your nose," she replied, pointing to her face, gesturing for him to wipe his cheek.

James, not thinking twice, wiped his face with his hand. And when Lily laughed even harder, he realized that he just used his whole flour-stained hand and rubbed it against his face.

"So, James…" Lily trailed, trying to stop from giggling. "You look a little… pale." Now it was her turn to use that tone that he always used in trying to get into people's nerves.

James narrowed his eyes at her. "Oh…" he groaned. "Spending all that time with your boyfriend rubbed a little Malfoy in you," he said, as he stood up from his seat, trying to reach for the sack of flour on the table.

Lily stopped mixing the cookie batter and looked at James defensively. She put her hands on her hips and said, "He's not my boyfriend. And actually, it's spending these past couple of weeks with the Head Boy that rubbed a little Potter in me."

James didn't mind what Lily was just saying. He was busy taking two-handfuls of flour from the sack. Then, he smiled mischievously at her.

Lily took a step back and glanced him sideways. She tried to look threatening as James slowly neared her but her voice gave her in. "What are you doing?" she said, as she took another step away from him.

"Oh, nothing," James said in an innocent tone, as he enjoyed the panic that he was causing out of Lily. Still, he approached her. "Since I'm spending my precious weekend in this hot kitchen, might as well light up the mood a little bit," he said as he took long strides toward her.

Lily tried to step back faster but James' legs were far too long that he could reach her with just a couple of strides. "Don't even think about it, James!" she practically screamed.

James laughed evilly. "Oh no. I'm not thinking," were the last words from him. And so quickly, he took one long step toward her and threw the mass of flour in his hands onto her, sending her into a shriek of hopeless panic.

"James!" Lily exclaimed. She could just imagine how she looked like with all that flour all over her – only to hear it from the prankster himself.

"Aw, I think white goes well with red, don't you think?" James uttered referring to her flour-stained hair. He was trying to look so much like nothing happened that it was completely annoying. When she frowned at him he said, "Oh, come on. Do something a little stupid once in a while." But his tone was almost scared – he wouldn't want to get into another fight with her when they had just reconciled.

Lily relaxed at the said of that. Maybe she was just really overreacting… but… "You messed my uniform," she whined.

"Oh, yeah," James snorted. "Like mine are as black as ever."

"Fine," Lily said with a shrug. But as she said that, she grabbed an unused mixing bowl from the table and, yes, scooped the whole thing into the sack of flour.

It was a pretty wide mixing bowl… and pretty deep too. This time, James was the one who stepped back from Lily. "Oh, that's a little too much don't you think?" he said, as he watched her scoop some more flour with her hand and into the bowl.

"Yeah," Lily said casually like it wasn't anything out of the norm. "Oh, and a little stupid don't you think?" she added, mocking what James had just told her.

"Okay, you win!" It was James' turn to shriek like a girl. "Please don't throw tha—" His words were suddenly garbled. Lily just threw a bowl-full of flour at him and now he couldn't even imagine what state of a mess he was in. He couldn't even see with his glasses anymore.

And so, he removed his glasses and wiped it with… a small part of his uniform that was actually not completely covered with flour.

Lily neared him and tried sounding surprised, like she just saw him. "James, you're so messy. Look at all that flour on your face," she said in a tone like a mother talking to her five-year-old who just played in the mud. She reached for his face and wiped it with her hands. Obviously, it only made things worse as her hands were also covered with flour. She was laughing so hard especially as he was bobbing his head away from her hands.

Instead of pouting, James smiled mischievously at Lily then past her. Wondering what was going on in that mind of his, she turned around and saw that he was looking at the sack on the table that was now almost empty. It was almost empty… unfortunately, it was still more than what a mixing bowl could contain and was still enough to cover her.

Lily tried to run for the table but he was much faster than her. The next second, she was looking at a grinning James holding the sack of flour. Something told her that he wasn't kidding. And as an impulse, she ran away from him.

But James was persistent enough to chase her around the kitchen. Even the house elves were jumping out of their way as the two of them ran across the room.

Lily was shrieking 'no' the whole time as James made that 'hahaha' evil laugh as he chased her while holding the sack with his hand.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Vince and Kiara stood facing each other. Both of them seemed to be frozen from what was said and what was heard. Vince was starting to want to kick himself in the head for saying what he just said. He knew that would happen. He knew that she would probably lose her mind knowing that he liked her. He knew that from that day that he told her, something would change. Something. And from what he could see in her eyes, that something might be from good to bad.

"Uh—" Kiara couldn't get a single word out of her mouth. There wasn't really anything that prepared her for this. Who would've known what to do when out of… god! nowhere! one of your best friends would just blurt out that they liked you as more than a friend could actually like you? Suddenly she felt herself shiver. Although others might say that it was because of the snow, she knew that it was mostly because of the sudden fact that was revealed to her.

She looked down, trying to avoid his eyes. "Vince…"

Vince sighed audibly. "I know. I – I – I probably shouldn't have said that. I—"

"Vince, you're my friend," Kiara interrupted, looking him in the eyes. She was turning down this person that became a part of her life since the first day she stepped into the floors of Hogwarts – the least thing she could do was to look at him in the eyes and be honest. "We're friends," she repeated, as if saying it would turn back the hands of time. "We've been friends since we were in first year. I – I'm not so sure how to react to this." She tried to catch his eye, but he kept on turning away. "Vi—"

"No. No," Vince said, shaking his head. He couldn't look at her. Suddenly, he felt like he was the stupidest person on the face of the earth. Suddenly, he felt that he didn't deserve anybody. He didn't deserve to even look at her because he felt that he had betrayed her. He had betrayed his best friend. "Forget i— I'm sor— look." He paused thinking of ways to disappear right then and there. "I don't even know why I said those things," he said forcing a quiet laughter. A shaky chuckle. "That – that's fine. I'm – I'm a little tired from all that walking. I think I'll go back to the dorm," he finished, as he started his way back to the castle.

"Vince…"

Vince walked as fast as he could, leaving Kiara behind him. He didn't even hear her call his name.

* * * * *

Back in the castle, unfortunately, Lily ran into one of the corners of the kitchen. And she realized that she just ran herself into a dead end. "DON'T do it!" she shrieked at James, who was approaching her with that devilish grin plastered on his face.

But James wasn't in any forgiving mood. He took the sack, which he was carrying, in both hands, and emptied it on Lily's head. "This is the most fun I've ever had with you," he said joyfully, as he poured every last bit of flour onto her. After which, he dropped the sack on the floor and marveled at his achievement – a Lily Evans covered in white flour.

"James, I'm all covered with flour!" Lily whined, looking at him just smilingly looking at her.

"Yes! I'm aware of that," James replied, annoyingly, giving Lily's head a gentle tap. "You're flour girl."

"How am I supposed to get this off me?" Lily said, shaking her clothes to take the excess flour off her. She reached for her hair, where most of the stuff went, and shook it off too.

"Um, you can use magic to take it off. Or… you can always take a bath," James said sarcastically. "If you want I could even give you a hand removing any flour from places… you can't reach," he said, moving his eyebrows up and down while smiling at her sheepishly.

Lily scrunched up her nose like she suddenly felt sick. "Don't be a pervert," she said, as she pushed James out of her way. She marched back to the table where the cookie batter that she finished was waiting to be poured into cookie sheets.

James ran to the table and reached there first. He grabbed the mixing bowl and offered something bizarre. "Can I do the forming?"

Lily's eyebrows would've been twisted in knots out of confusion if it were possible. "Uh, you… what?" she asked, trying to make James repeat what he had just said.

"You know. Pouring the batter into the cookie sheet," James replied casually. "I always thought if cookies could be made as big as a saucer."

"Of course," Lily said slowly, suddenly thinking James was being all too interested and weird. "You just have to form them like so."

James breathed deeply. It would be so funny, if only not so strange. "Then why don't you make them that big?!" he blurted out like Lily just made a very, very wrong thing.

Lily glanced around her if anyone else was sharing her opinion of this suddenly peculiar James. But the only thing she saw was the house elves cleaning up the mess that they made around the kitchen and Mimi taking the pasta out of the oven. "Because… it's impractical to make cookies as big as saucers," she patiently replied. She didn't know why, but she felt the necessity of answering his questions.

"Okay," James started again. "How many cookies do you usually consume when they are in their normal size?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I dunno," she shrugged. "Four, five, seven…"

"SEE!" James' voice was so abrupt and loud that Lily almost jumped. "What's so impractical about baking cookies that's enough as one serving?"

"I don't see the point in this."

"I'm just saying saucer-size cookies are better."

"What's the difference? They're just cookies."

"But saucer-size cookies are definitely better."

"What are you trying to prove?"

"That I don't see the point in baking cookies that are so small you have to go back again and again for some more."

"So what are you saying?"

"That I wanna be the one to pour the batter on the cookie sheet."

"Who's stopping you?"

There was a pause. James suddenly realized that he was clutching the mixing bowl close to himself. He was almost hugging it, actually. He felt slightly embarrassed and placed the bowl on the table in front of him. "I dunno. Are you going to stop me?"

Lily scratched her head. "Don't be weird," she said. "Just do the cookies and I'd do the lasagna," she decided before she walked to the lasagna that Mimi placed on the table beside James.

At last, a full fifteen minutes of silence happened between the two of them. Lily was busy in preparing the presentation for the pasta and James… well… he was being unusually child-like with his happy face because he got to form the cookies.

After Lily finished the presentation of one serving of lasagna, she carried the plate beside James. "Peace offering," she said, as she brushed his head that was still covered with flour.

"Oh yeah. From what I heard, the chance of that being served in the ball depends on whether I choked eating it or not," James replied, not really refusing the scrumptious looking food that Lily just placed in front of him.

"Oh, come on. I've seen you eat," Lily uttered. "You practically swallow all your food whole."

"Hey," James said, pointing a finger. "That's an exaggeration," he said, as he picked up a fork and took a part of the lasagna that might very well be unnecessary as he practically gobbled the food down. He could only nod to convey his approval for the pasta, as his mouth was so full. "That's good," he finally said, after he successfully swallowed his food.

"You think?" Lily sarcastically said, as she watched James devour the dish.

"Yeah, it's not bad."

"I can see that."

* * * * *

In the girls' dormitories, Toni came silently into their room, wondering where her friends could be – only to find out that Kiara was waiting for her.

"Where have you been?!" Kiara greeted her in a panicked tone. "It's – night time!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mom. I was with Sirius," Toni replied, confused as to what was happening with her friend. "What's wrong with you?"

"Vince!" Kiara shrieked.

"Vince? What?"

"He asked me out."

Toni paused, trying to absorb the information before talking. But, as far as she was concerned, she couldn't quite get the big deal. "He – uh – asked you out where? He always asks us out," she said.

"No, not that," Kiara blurted out starting to sound impatient. "He asked me to go to the dance with him… not as a friend but as a date."

"A date?"

"Yes! A date!" Kiara's pitch started to raise again, her voice was breaking. "Vince! Vince Stradler asked me to the ball and…"

"Kiara."

"…I don't even know what to think!" Kiara continued like Toni just didn't interrupt her.

"Kiara!"

Kiara paused and looked at her friend. "Toni, I'm panicking here!" she exclaimed.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a bit?"

"No, Toni! This is not overreacting? Overreacting is when your palms are sweaty and your hands are all shaking and your voice is rising to the ceiling because you don't know what to do when your friend asks you out on a date!"

"Which is what you are doing right now," Toni was finally able to say, right after Kiara finished her sentence to breathe.

"Toni, you're not helping."

"Don't worry," Toni said, shrugging. "It's Vince. He'll come off it."

"No, he won't."

"I'll talk to him," Toni offered.

Kiara calmed down for a moment – probably tired of getting into hysterics. She plopped down on her bed and sighed audibly. "Why does he have to make things so complicated?" She waited for Toni's reply but the only thing she heard was the dorm room opening. She glanced and saw Toni getting out of the door. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to find him."

"What? What about me?" Kiara moaned.

"Don't worry. You'll survive," Toni replied trying to sound cheerful but teasing at the same time.

Kiara lay back down on her bed and took a deep breath. "Fine."

* * * * *

After a long day in the kitchen, James and Lily entered the common room. Their robes and faces were still stained with flour.

James was carrying the pouch of cookies (that he proudly formed) while each of them were munching on one.

"What happened to you?" was Sirius' greeting, when he saw them enter the room.

"Want a cookie?" James offered the pouch of cookies to his friend.

Sirius leaned back and suspiciously looked at James. "You made them?"

"Yeah," James said, quite proudly.

"More like he formed them," Lily interrupted, not really wanting to let James take the credit for her hard work. "He just poured them onto the pan."

"Well, in that case, sure," Sirius accepted automatically, taking a piece of cookie from the pouch.

"Oh, that's just what I need from my best friend," James complained.

"Hey," Sirius began defensively. "All I'm saying is that I wouldn't trust you to turn anything into something that's actually edible."

James smirked at him. "Go to bed, Sirius."

"Nah," Sirius replied. "I'm too happy to go to bed."

"Is this about Toni?" James suddenly uttered. "Just promise me you won't stress her too much. We have Quidditch matches to win."

Sirius was about to retaliate what his best friend just said, when Lily interrupted.

"Well, I'm tired," she said.

Suddenly, it was like a bulb shed some light in Sirius' mind. "Oh, by the way, you guys are talking again, huh?"

"Well," Lily began, as she started taking four cookies from the pouch in James' hand. "He put the Big Dipper in the Head Prefects room."

Sirius turned to James. He looked rather confused with what he just heard. "You did what?"

"Yeah, it's pretty cool," James replied, smiling. He wasn't aware that his friend was thinking of another Big Dipper. But what he was aware of was that Lily took the pouch from him and gave him the four pieces of cookies she took out of it a while ago. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"You get to keep four and I get to keep the rest," Lily answered. "After all, I made them."

"What?" was all James could say as he watched her take away the cookies from his hands.

"Goodnight, James. 'Night, Sirius," Lily said, before marching to the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

When Lily was gone, Sirius turned to James. "There's a big dipper in the Head Prefects Room that she was quite happy with?" he asked, looking quite perplexed. Apparently he wasn't thinking about stars – he was thinking about a dipper (that was big).

James had to laugh at the said of that. "The constellation, Sirius," he replied. "Big Dipper constellation."

"Oh," Sirius said, realizing what was going on. "Cool."

James rolled his eyes. "For someone who's named after one, you were pretty slow with that one."

"Oh, well, I ate the cookies you made," Sirius retaliated as if that would make a really good excuse.

"I didn't make them," James said, suddenly taking back what he said earlier.

* * * * *

Toni had been searching the classrooms where Vince would usually hang out when he would just want to be left alone and think. She had only one option but it seemed far-fetched. She thought about going to the Astronomy Tower rooftop to find him but it was snowing and… And, yes, Vince might probably be wanting to die right about now because of what he did, she thought.

So, she went up to the Astronomy Tower rooftop and lo and behold, Vince wasn't only there, he was lying on the floor while mindlessly watching the sky.

"Hey, are you trying to kill yourself?" she called softly, as she walked to him.

Vince stayed lying on the floor, not budging an inch, even when snow was slowly filling the rooftop. He glanced at Toni but then went back staring up at nothing.

Toni sat, leaning back on a wall near where he was. "So… you never did answer my truth question," she said, referring to the truth or dare game they had before. She asked him if he had ever been in love and he never answered the question.

Vince sighed audibly. "You probably heard that I just made a fool out of myself."

"Don't give yourself such a hard time," Toni said, comfortingly. "She's going to make sense out of it soon."

Vince sat up and sat beside her. "Huh – I just injured a perfectly good friendship. I think that's the sense she's going to get out of it."

"Hey…" Toni said, as she put her arms around his shoulders. She rested her head on his shoulder and tried to make him feel as better as possible. "It's gonna be alright."

The snow was getting thicker. But they never moved. They stayed for an hour more just watching the frozen clouds fall and slowly cover the rooftop. They talked for some time. And Vince came down to a decision. It was a decision that demanded something very tough to do. But if he was about to save his friendship with Kiara, he had to do it.

~*~*~*~

realize that sometimes you're just not okay... -- our lady peace, "clumsy"

Okay. Review. Review.