CHAPTER 1 – The red-haired girl

When I opened my eyes I saw Maya above me anxiously gnawing at her fingernails.

"Bad habit," I warned, surprised to find my voice rough.

"Lala! You're awake!"

"I noticed. What happened? Ouch." I had tried to push myself up and discovered a throbbing pain in my head.

"You fell." Jessie noted, off to my right. "We're at Maya's right now because her parents are home."

"O-"

"Lela!"

I knew that voice. "Shannie"

"Oh. Hi!" Her cheerful sounding voice bugged me. I had just had a near fatal accident and she was happy? As if reading my thoughts she explained that she was happy because I was okay. That was enough for me. I smiled, "Where's Matt?"

"Lover boy's coming."

"Lover boy's here." Shannon informed, clearly trying not to laugh. I shot her the evil eye and turned my eyes to Matt who had just walked in the room.

"Alla, you okay? I just got the message from Jess. A doorknob?"

"Yeah, a doorknob. You have a problem with that?"

"No."

"Good!"

"Hey, Alla, don't lose it. Can you move?"

"YES" came my exasperated cry, and I straightened – ignoring the pain, "Are we still going shopping? C'mon. I'll be fine in about an hour!"

"Ella Roseanne Desmel." Jessie fake mothered, "You are being so irresponsible. You could hurt yourself! You could-"

"Jessica Lauren Desmel shut up."

"I think that because of that fresh tone you'll be staying in bed young lady."

"I think not."

And with that I got out of bed and promptly fell on Shannon. She made to say something but I interrupted her, "Let's go."

When we walked down the stairs Maya's mum asked me if I was okay then said she supposed it was alright for me to go out for a little while but, "I'm counting on the four of you to bring her home if she looks faint or tired. All right? Okay?" Mrs. Zerub is a short thin lady with brown hair always in a bun. Her appearance looks stern but once you get to know her you find out just how motherly she really is. That's opposite from Mrs. Sopa. Mrs. Sopa is a large lady with a loud laugh but when she is annoyed – stay away.

They nodded their agreement while trying not to look at me.

As we walked to the shops we discussed where to go first. Maya clearly stated that I needed feminine items. I playfully slapped her then agreed telling Matt to go somewhere else first.

"Where?"

"I dunno. But we'll meet at that corner," I pointed next to the stop sign, "In half an hour."

"It takes that long?"

With a glare, I nodded, and Jessie, Shannon, Maya and I walked to the store. We could hear him sigh – loudly – behind us. Was it just me…or was everyone being so immature today?

When we arrived back at the corner Matt was nowhere in sight. Shannon grabbed Mayas smoothie and drank almost all of it. My pyjamas were in my shopping bag and I was wearing a new outfit. While Maya tried to get her drink back I pulled Jessie aside and told her about the messenger supposedly coming from Hogwarts in three days. She shook her head and looked unworried, "Mum has the day off that day so we'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"What day. What happens? What?" Matt appeared out of thin air – or so it seemed. He does that a lot – pops up in random places.

"Nothing," I airily replied, "Or rather – it's none of you business."

I turned around to see Maya happily slurping her snack and Shannon rifling through her bag.

"Let's go" Matt said

And we were off.

"Lala! Are you done yet?" whined Maya outside the dressing room, I heard Shannon blurt, "Mi, shut it okay? Anyway I get it next." Scuffling noises told me they were having a cat fight, and it was all I could do not to laugh. Soon, the shop keeper came over and asked them to either stop or leave. At that I burst out laughing and opened the door to display my outfit.

Once we were done shopping we were walking down the street when I saw a girl with reddish auburn hair approach the road and walk across. It was to my astonishment when I saw a car hit her and she didn't even flinch. "Did you see that girl?" I asked Shannon.

"What girl?"

"The redhead… wait, where'd she go?" The girl was gone – vanished.

"There was no girl Lela."

"Right…oops…it must have been a trick of the light." but I was sure I had seen someone. Positive. And I didn't know I would soon see her again.

The next morning when Jessie was taking a shower I was watching TV and looked out the window to see the stranger looking at our house. She was eyeing the number on the door, so I went outside to ask her what she was doing. I opened the door and she was gone again. This was starting to creep me out.

The rest of the day was spent with Jessie and me watching TV and drinking cool drinks. I didn't see the girl again that day, so I went to sleep that night with restful dreams.

When I woke up the next morning, I could hear my mother snoring softly in the next room, and Jessie in the shower 'singing'.

Knock, knock.

I ran downstairs to open the door. There, standing in front of me was the girl.

"Hello. My name is Lily Evans." she introduced herself, "I'm here regarding Hogwarts."

A/N: As you might have noticed Ella has 3 nicknames. Alla is what Matt calls her because they met when she had a cold so that's what he thought she said her name was. Lala is what Maya calls her because Ella and Maya both love to sing. And last, Lela was what Shannon used to call Ella when they were toddlers. The nicknames stuck. Leave lots, Luv lots, Hematite