Lily sat in her room reading her magazines the following morning when she heard the telephone ringing downstairs. Mrs. Evans picked up the receiver downstairs and minutes later Lily heard her climbing the stairs toward her room.

"It's for you, dear,"

Lily looked up. "For me, Who is it?" she asked since it was strange when somebody called her.

"Your friend, but he appears to be having trouble with the phone," said her mother handing her the phone. Lily frowned slightly as she answered and watched her mother exit her room. "Hello?"

"Lily?" The person at the other end of the line sounded distant.

"Potter," said Lily dully as she realized who it was. "You're holding the phone upside down . . . "

"What?"

"You're . . . holding . . . the microphone . . . onto your ear!" Lily yelled into the speaker.

It took James a couple of seconds to realize what Lily was talking about. A few moments later, he managed to get it right. "Sorry," he said. "Can't get used to this thing."

"It's quite all right,"

Silence.

"So," started James to break off the tension between them. "Are you coming?"

Lily furrowed her eyebrows as she closed her magazine. "I said I was, didn't I?"

"Yeah . . . Just wanted to make sure,"

"Oh," said Lily. This was followed by more silence in which Lily took her time to polish her nails. Once or twice it seemed as if James wanted to say something but couldn't, she he closed his mouth.

"Okay, see you here, then," said James finally.

"Fine," said Lily as she now blew air on her nails to dry them.

"You won't get lost, would you?"

"Um, no," said Lily forcing back a giggle. "At least I don't think so when I live a block away . . . "
"Right," he replied rather apprehensively. All of a sudden Lily heard tones at the other end of the line, she jumped and held the phone away from her ear. She rolled her eyes as she realized what James was doing.

"Potter . . . " she said dully again, but her voice was drowned in the loud sound of the dial tones. "Potter . . . !" she yelled. "You already dialed!"

"Oh, right, so that's how this works," he answered. "So, I'll see you at midday."

"See you at midday," said Lily, and smiling to herself, she hanged up the phone. It wasn't until a few moments later that Lily realized she was smiling. 'Why am I smiling?' she asked herself before slapping herself mentally and returning to her magazines.

The sun burned with intensity over the large city of London. At the scorching noon, Lily grabbed the sac in which she stuffed a large towel and her spare clothes, and made her way down Shell Street over to Charlotte Lane where James lived. It didn't take her long to locate his house since his was the largest of the lot.

Lily knocked on the Potter's front door. "Is James home?" Lily asked politely at the blonde woman who answered the door. Mrs. Potter beamed and stepped aside for Lily to enter.

"You must be Lily," Mrs. Potter said looking at Lily from foot to toe. "James has told us a great deal about you. You are much prettier than he said."

Lily could feel her face growing red. "Thanks," she mumbled. The idea of James talking to his parents about her didn't make her any more comfortable about the situation.

"Come on down, dear. James and his friends are by the pool." She led Lily through the den and out the large screen door.

Lily walked outside and felt the warm breeze of the day once again. She looked around. Apparently, a few of the seventeen-year-olds from Hogwarts had decided to stop by and hang out by James' pool. It was at least twenty known faces in that place. As soon as Lily walked into the back yard of the Potter's residence, James immediately jumped out of the pool and walked over to her, smiling from ear to ear. However, there was someone else who wasn't as pleased at her arrival.

As James sprinted over to Lily, she looked over his shoulder and saw a girl with tempting, luscious blonde hair and a royal blue bathing suit sitting in a beach chair. The girl scowled and whispered behind her hand to the brunette next to her while still glaring at Lily, who furrowed her eyebrows and recognized the girl as Gina Harvey from Hogwarts.
"Hey, Lily, glad you made it," grinned James as he took Lily by her wrist and slowly led her over to where he was sitting previously. Before Lily could release herself from James' touch, he had already taken her over to where an extremely good-looking boy with elegant black hair was.

"Hey, Mrs. Potter," taunted Sirius as he flashed her a charming grin.

Lily rolled her eyes and took a deep sigh. "Sirius, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me that."

"Not enough," said Sirius as he gave James thumbs up which Lily failed to notice.

"Wanna swim?" asked James after Lily sat down at the edge of the pool and dipped her feet into the cool water.

"I am afraid not," said Lily, shrugging slightly.

James smirked. "What's the matter, don't know how to swim?"

Lily looked down at her feet as she dangled them over the edge of the pool into the water. She looked up at to where Gina was and her gaze burned into Lily as she muttered nonstop to her brunette friend. "I just don't want to embarrass you," Lily said, looking back at James.

Sirius laughed loudly before diving into the water.

James frowned slightly. "Embarrass me?" he asked in mock indignance. After Lily nodded reassuringly, he added, "Well, I want to see that for myself."

"Are you daring me to something, Potter?" Lily asked innocently.

"It's a challenge, Evans," he smiled slyly. "Are you willing to accept or are you a coward?"

"I more than accept. What's the challenge?" she asked as she stood up and prepared to stretch out her legs.

James stood up as well and looked over at her. "The challenge is to swim across the pool— from deep to shallow water and back."

"Fine with me," said Lily as she took off the shirt she wore on top of her bathing suit. She caught a glimpse of James and realized he hadn't stared away all the time. "Under water or above water?" She asked in hopes that he would look away.

"Bellow water," he said snapping back to reality.
"Ok, I am ready," she said as they both stood at the deep side of the pool. James stood besides her and they both positioned themselves, ready to dive in the water. Nothing happened for a while and Lily realized she had to count down since James wasn't going to. "On your marks . . . get set . . . go!"

Just as these words left her lips, Lily and James dived into the water. A cool rush washed over her as she submerged into the depths of the pool. She opened her eyes underwater and looked to her right and saw James trailing, the idea of winning and ruining James' ego made her stroke harder. After a few seconds, Lily couldn't feel her arms any more for swimming so fiercely but it wasn't until she reached the wall of the end of the pool that she swam above the surface to gasp for air.