Chapter Eighteen

Win Win Games for all Ages

In the morning, the girls woke up and wandered out to the kitchen, where they were greeted by a note from Lainie's parents saying that they'd gone out to go walking and to visit friends and wouldn't be back till the evening. They sat eating breakfast and discussing what they would do.

That day, they swam and sunbathed on the beach. Lainie tried to get away with wearing a one piece but the others convinced her to wear her black triangle bikini. Lily was wearing a blue bikini with white stripes and Livvy wore a red bikini with white polka dots. That night they had dinner at a little Italian place and went for a night swim. The next day, was much the same, sunny and beautiful.

On the third day, they were just walking along the beach, well, Livvy and Lily were walking, Lainie was running. She was doing some exercise to stay fit. Lainie suddenly disappeared into a house, the other two followed.

They were greeted by James in boardies and munching on a muffin. Lily felt herself turn red, as had been happening a lot.

"Hey James" they greeted him.

"Higorls" he said, his mouth full of muffin. "Lily" he said, tipping his muffin at her.

"James, didn't expect to see you here." She said.

"Haven't you realized that practically wherever Lainie is, I will soon be. Rather unfortunate." He said, Lainie hit him while passing.

"So you here alone" Lily continued.

"Nope, the whole crews here. They're just changing" James said.

"Thank God, I thought it actually just might be you, but no" Lily said, with a smile.

"Want to go for a walk, Lily. I can show you the sights" James said, offering his arm charmingly.

"What, all the sights that Lainie hasn't showed me" Lily said, smiling.

"That would be about right" James said,

"So, you want to"

"All right then" she said, accepting his arm. James turned round and winked at the others, all standing shocked on the deck. Lily knew perfectly well what he did but decided not to say anything.

"Well, I see those two have abandoned us. What shall the rest of us do." Lainie said.

"Well," Remus said almost guiltily, "We were going to take a walk too"

"We're sorry. But Sirius will look after you. Won't you" Livvy said, dragging Remus away before Lainie had a chance to protest.

"So," Sirius said, trying to bridge the awful silence. Lainie was scowling.

"What" she said, shortly.

"What's up"

"Nothing"

"But there is something up. I know"

"What, are you trying to be the new best friend who knows me too well. I'm sorry but I've already got one" Lainie snapped

"Come on, I'm your friend. Tell me"

"You'd think I was stupid and immature"

"No, I won't, you know I won't"

"Fine"

"Fine what"

"I'll tell you. You can't laugh, smirk or pity me because of it. Got it"

"'okay,"

"Fine, well, ummm, everyone's falling in love, and I'm not. I feel as if it's something I'm missing out on" Lainie said, very fast.

Okay. Want to go walking."

"Why"

"I'll think better when I walk"

"Fine"

They walked along the beach and Sirius tried to convince Lainie of the benefits of single life. No commitments. Lots of action guaranteed. They went and got a gelato and went walking to the rocks at the end of the beach. They were talking about trust......

"So, of you think trust is so important. How come your so unwilling to trust people" Sirius said, munching on his cone.

"I do so trust people" Lainie said, indignantly.

"Who" Sirius said.

"My parents, James, Lily, Livvy and ............Fergus and......"

"Right, your best friends, your parents and your owl. That's a lot. It makes you sound really anti-social. Don't you trust me" he said, faking hurtness.

"Well, no, I guess not" she said slowly. "Fine. I guess I'll have to earn it. I will lead you over these rocks with your eyes shut. I promise I won't let you fall." he said, looking straight into her eyes. She looked right back, then she shut her eyes and let him guide her onto the first right with a small sigh. What is there to lose she thought.

He guided her across the rocks, talking about stuff, to be specific, the amount of action he got and the lack of it for her, as they walked. He actually enjoyed her having to trust him. He liked making her change his opinion of him. Now there was just one opinion that was the problem. When the returned to the beach, he guided her off the rocks, she opened her eyes and looked around.

"Wow, I'm impressed." She said,

"Good, I expect you trust me more now, right" he said, grinning at her.

"If that's what you want" They began to walk back along the beach, but his arm stayed round her waist, for some reason, she just wanted it there. Another thing she couldn't explain.

They others were watching them walk up the beach. "Well, I see Sirius has made some progress with the Ice Queen." Livvy commented.

"Look, his arms around her waist." Lily said.

"That as close as she'll let him get" James said, not wanting his friends to talk about them behind their backs. He had a few concerns but he wanted to leave it up to them. He just hoped that Lainie wouldn't hurt him too bad. Maybe she wouldn't hurt at all, the hopeful part of him thought.

As they arrived to sit with their friends on the beach, she noticed that they all were giving her odd looks. Or maybe it was just the fading light. No, it was definitely weird.

"Why are you all looking at me like that? And James, don't think I can't see you because you occasionally look the other way. Have I done something strange?" she said, questioningly.

"Well, I do have something I would like to ask you" James said, cautiously, knowing that Lainie hated people asking searching questions.

"Fine. Shoot" Lainie agreed.

"Actually, I have something to ask, too" Lily said, seizing the opportunity.

"Me too" Livvy put in quickly.

"Yeah, mind if I do too" Sirius said.

"Fine, fine. Ask away. But can, can I suggest, that while we're on questions, maybe everyone should ask other. Not just me." Lainie said.

"Fine. But first, lets go get the pizza that has just arrived for us." James said, putting his stomach first, as usual.

When they were all seated back on the beach after stuffing themselves with pizza, armed with tubs of ice cream and six spoons. They seated them selves in a circle and for a while all was silent except for "Pass the chocolate chip".

"Right, let the questioning begin. I'll start" he paused to place a large spoonful of ice cream "So" he said with difficulty, trying to speak round a mouthful of ice cream, "Lainie, I'll start shallow. Do you have a crush on anyone?"

"No" she said, quickly.

"That's not the truth. I can tell, I've known you since forever. So who is he."

"That is the truth. If it isn't then I don't know what is"

"Right, so it's someone you don't want to tell me about. Is it me" James said.

"Yes, James. It's you. You caught me. Why, since your such a stud, I must like you." Lainie said, sarcastically

"Right, so it's not me. Do I know him"

"Just leave it, James. There's probably a very good reason why she doesn't want to tell you." Lily said, sticking up for Lainie, who was feeling very embarrassed. Lainie shot Lily a grateful look.

"Moving on. I have one. James, do you like anyone" Lily said.

"Course. I always like someone." James said, not in the least embarrassed.

"And we all know who that is." Remus said.

"Who" Lily said, very interested. They others rolled their eyes.

"Lily, it's you. And please don't act coy, you knew that" Lainie said, speaking as if Lily was a silly child.

"Lainie" Livvy said.

"Surprise, another question about me" she said.

"Why do you reject any guy that comes near you." Livvy said, she had always wanted to ask Lainie this.

"What" Lainie lost for words for a moment. "I don't do that, do I"

"Yes, you do." Everyone chorused.

"To who. I didn't reject Alex" Lainie said defensively.

"Lainie, Alex was one of the only guys who stuck at you for about three years. Trust, he did get around while he was trying to woo you. But still. Guys usually stopped trying to get you to go out with them after you rejected any advances they made." Livvy said truthfully.

"What, those guys didn't like me. They were probably just trying to get to one of you two" Lainie said, indicating at Lily and Livvy.

"You can't just assume that though, they probably liked you for you. You don't seem to realize that you're just a bigger guy magnet as we are. You doubt yourself and I don't know why." Livvy said, while the others nodded in agreement.

"But......" Lainie floundered for words. She couldn't believe she was hearing this. She was the ugly duckling of her three friends. She knew it and she thought they knew it.

"You're still the girl at primary school." James said, the others looked at him. No one had heard this before. "You used to be just a skinny little sports mad girl. But, as much as you're the same, you're also different. Now you're, now you know this is hard to admit for me, but you're pretty hot, well very hot. Why you think you're not, I don't know. You need to switch. But I think you actually nearly have." James said. It was greeted by silence.

"Woah, that was deep" Lainie said uprised that James's 'deep' actually existed.

"Moving on. Who does Sirius like? He hasn't had one of those flings where he can't keep off the poor girl for a while, then she joins the club "I Got Dumped by Sirius Black", I actually think their selling T-shirts, now. So anyway, who do you like."

"I actually don't like anyone. But if I did it would be you. I think you'd suit a I Got Dumped By Sirius Black T-shirt." He said, "Guys, I was joking," he added when he realized they thought he was serious. "Joking, as in not serious".

"Right" James said. "Next. Wait, I've got one. Lily, do you really hate me. You said you did in fifth year. Does that still hold true." He said, flashing her his, 'how can you hate me when I can grin at you like this' look.

"No James, I don't hate you" Lily said, seriously, looking at him, and she was just looking at him. As if trying to just see him, not staring, not glaring and just looking. James looked straight back, he knew now, that she liked him. He was just going to wait until he was sure she knew it too. When, at last, all the questions ran dry, they all went to bed. But for the girls, there were still a few more questions to be asked. They were just lying in bed, Lainie and Livvy in the big bed and Lily on the sofa bed.

"Lainie, you like Sirius, don't you" Lily said, frankly.

"I'm not sure." Lainie faltered. "Everyone seems to think I do, so maybe I do. I find myself doing things, odd things that I wouldn't usually do. And I don't know why," she finished, lamely. The other two could feel the confusion and vulnerability, she seemed so child like, especially to Livvy, who could hardly believe that this was her same best friend. The one who was so naïve but dealt with growing up without needing help, or never seeming to be at a loss.

They both could see what a hard time she was going through, though she never seemed to show it, people who knew her well could tell. She had been cheated on and pushed too far by the one guy she actually let close. Now she found herself doing things she couldn't explain, like almost flirting with this guy, why couldn't she just cut him back like the rest. She had done it to him before, why couldn't she do it again. To top it off, she was losing one of the most important people in her lives to another. James was falling for Lily, hard and the scary thing was she liked him back. She didn't resent Lily, she couldn't. she just couldn't bear the thought that all these people would find something she couldn't and leave her behind. And she couldn't lose James, he was like both her brother and best friend. He was always there, always listened and she didn't know who she could find if she lost him. She didn't begrudge him for finding this thing, this emotion that she couldn't.

The other two felt for her, as they were like her mother's away from home. They had guided her everywhere else but they just couldn't put it into words for her. It was too much, Livvy couldn't explain it still and Lily was too confused. They could hardly tell Lainie that they thought Sirius was falling her. Last time they even hinted that a guy liked her, she couldn't be in the same room as him for more than five seconds. No, they had to let her figure out by herself, they had decided that night. If she worked it out for herself, then maybe she wouldn't push him away. It was actually a wonder they had time to think about her since they had much excitement in their own lives but Livvy's was reasonably calm, and Lily's mind seemed to be crammed with James.

Now that Lily knew he still liked her, always had, she had to work up the nerve to tell him. To tell the truth, she was kind of looking forward to it. Well the aftermath, being able to waltz up to him and kiss him in the corridors, common room, by the lake, the quidditch pitch. Well, let's just say she'd had a long time to plan this.

hey ho guys, tell me what you think please, and to tha girl who gave me a really good long review, thanks a lot and also to fain, she's just cool. and all my other reviewers, i love you all so very much. can you tell me what you think should happen, i would like some advice, come one, i know you all can probably do this better than me so tell me.

cam xx

p.s if you're wondering about the title it's a book of games that my friend bought at some random bookshop when we went skiing and we played them like all the time at school captains stuff.