Chapter Five

Sorry this chapter took so long. I went away to New York City! It was very exciting because I've never been before that trip! Also I've been working on another fanfic with my friend Kirsten. It's called Bloodwin, the white flower. It's not a James/Lily but it's pretty good. I've also been working on a James/Lily story –which I started before I started this story- called the Truth behind the Lies. It's really great! You should read both my other stories! (sorry to be a human advertisement for myself. But both stories are great, and not a whole lot of people have reviewed. So if you'd review, I'd be really really appreciative!)

"Hey Ladies" Maya, Cassie, Ellie and I all turned from where we were playing a game of Casino (a card game) on the floor of our bedroom, to see Sirius standing in the doorway. Behind him were James, Remus, and Jon.

"Can we help you?" I asked, not overly eager to be spending time with the Marauders.

"You may." Sirius, James, Remus and Jon all filed into our room.

"We were wondering if you lovely young ladies would grace us with your presence, in a delightfully-"

"What Sirius means to ask," Remus cut in "Is if you all had any plans for today. If not, we were wondering if you'd like to go for a swim down at the pond. We were planning on bringing a picnic and.."

"The more the merrier!" Sirius grinned enthusiastically.

"I think we should have a little group discussion in the bathroom." Ellie dragged Maya, Cassie, and I into the spacious bathroom and shut the door behind us. She turned to me.

"Now, I know that James Potter is not exactly your favorite person."

"Got that right." I muttered.

"But he's a great guy and I think you should give him a chance and try to move on from past experiences."

"All we're saying is for you to try and get to know him. Have you actually ever tried to have a civil conversation with him? Did you know he wants to become an Auror? And that while he's somewhat of a prankster, he also has a strong set of moral beliefs." Maya decided to put in her own two cents about this issue.

"And he's also really nice. You just are sometimes… blinded to his good side. He cares a lot for you. Try and be nice to him." That was Cassie.

I realized that they'd all planned this out (convincing me to get to know James, not getting the Marauders to invite us to hang out with them) and also planned their arguments carefully. They knew, that when they all worked to convince me of something, I could never resist.

"Fine." I grumbled. "I'll try and be nice to James. Maybe even talk to him. But just because I'm being nice to him, does not mean we're suddenly best friends and I want to hang out with James and his friends at every possible moment." I finished.

"So does that mean we're going to be taking up their offer?" Cassie jerked her thumb at the door, and the guys waiting outside of it.

"Yes." I said grudgingly.

"Yay!" Ellie shrieked enthusiastically (An enthusiasm which I did not share).

"Are you almost done in there?" Sirius shouted through the door. "We don't want to wait all day!"

"Yep. We've decided. We're going swimming!" Ellie opened the door and bounded out. I swear, Ellie sometimes has as much energy as my two-year old cousin. In other words, a whole lot of energy.

"Ooh! You guys! Well actually, I meant girls." Cassie amended as James, Sirius, Jon, and Remus turned to her. "So, you girls! Did anyone bring their yellow bikini?"

"Yes!" we –all the girls- shouted.

Let me explain. At the beginning of the summer we had been watching a muggle show called Friends, when a commercial came on during the middle of it.

It went like this: "She wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini, for the first time today". It was an add for some fat-free yogurt. Anyway, we had all seen the commercial and had sworn that we would buy "itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot" bikinis. (A/N I didn't make that commercial up. It's real.)

The very next day we had gone on an expedition for "itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot" bikinis.

Or at least started out planning on buying yellow polka dot bikinis. We had agreed, that while Ellie with her red hair looked good in a yellow polka dot bikini, Maya with her dirty blond hair did not. She had instead bought a blue bikini but we all agreed that it was still –in it's heart- a yellow polka dot bikini.

The rest of us had still bought yellow polka dot bikinis. We –or at least, I- didn't usually wear our polka dot bikinis when I was swimming alone because while it looked great when we were all together, it looked kinda funny when we were separate. Not that we were separate much, but still…

"Okay, peoples of the male gender, time to leave. We'll be down in a couple of minutes." Maya announced.

"Can I please stay if I promise to be extra good?" Sirius asked with an innocent look, and a wink at Cassie.

"Sirius, you pervert!" Maya laughed as she pushed him towards the door.

"Fine, fine. Girls are so touchy." Sirius whined. The other Marauders plus Jon, traipsed out behind him.

Cassie closed the door, locked it, and then walked into the walk-in closet that we all shared.

She emerged from it with her yellow polka dotted bikini. Unlike most of her other swimsuits, this bikini was a true "itsy bitsy" one. Normally Cassie opted for tankinis -liking the top going down lower but disliking going to the bathroom in a one piece- but Maya, Ellie, and I had convinced her that it wouldn't be a "itsy bitsy teeny weeny" bikini if it wasn't actually "itsy bitsy teen weeny".

I had already found my bathing suit and had started putting it on. It was a bright yellow (all of ours were) with light blue polka dots. Ellie's bathing suit had red polka dots, and Cassie's had green polka dots. We all decided that if Maya's bathing suit were yellow and polka dotted, it'd have purple polka dots.

"Cassie!" I wailed. "It's all twisted! I feel as if it's going to strangle me!"

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Cassie hurried over and started untwisting my bathing suit, where it had gotten all messed up in the back.

"Mine's twisted too!" Ellie yelled from across the room.

"Coming." Cassie finished untwisting mine, and went over to start untwisting Ellie's. "Maya? Do you need me to untwist your bathing suit too? Because it'd spare us all having to hear you yell and wail, if I just went over and untwisted your bathing suit."

"No, I'm fine!" Maya laughed. "Unlike Ellie and Lily, I can actually manage to put on my bathing suit on my own." Ellie stuck out her tongue at Maya.

"It's hard! And I can never get it on right myself! Cassie's the only one who can untwist it!"

"You two are so immature." Cassie muttered.

"Just so you know, I resent that. You all ready to go?" Ellie asked.

"Just a minute." I poured a large amount of sunscreen into my palm and started slathering it all over me.

I get burnt really easily, and usually wear a shirt in the water to protect myself from the sun, but that would defeat the point of us all wearing yellow polka dotted bathing suits if no one could see them.

It's no fair because Maya tans really easily but never burns, I burn really easily and almost never tan. Ellie doesn't tan easily but doesn't burn either –she only becomes frecklier than before- and Cassie burns bad and then tans a little. Cassie and I always watch out for each other because we both burn really bad.

Finally, after all four of us had been changed, slathered from head to toe in sunscreen, and gotten towels, were we ready.

"Let's go!" Ellie shouted and raced out of our bedroom. The rest of us followed, all equally shouting exuberantly. We raced down the stairs and I collided with Ellie and Cassie as they stopped suddenly to avoid slamming into Remus.

"Ouch!" Cassie and I said at the same time, each of us rubbing our heads.

"Are you ready?" Ellie asked Remus.

"Just about. See, when we invited you to have a picnic, we hadn't counted on there being nothing to eat."

"Boys." Ellie said "How could you go on a picnic with no food!"

"Well, knowing Sirius, he'll probably order a Domino's pizza."

"Not to worry peoples!" Sirius along with Jon came through the kitchen door into the hallway. "We've got Domino's pizza on its way!"

"What'd I tell you" Remus rolled his eyes.

"Now are we ready!" Ellie asked impatiently. "Where's James?"

"Here. And what do you mean "Now are we ready!", we've been waiting for you. I mean seriously, all it takes is for you to change into a bathing suit. Last time I checked that wasn't very hard. What else do you need to do? Brush your hair?" James asked.

"For your information, there are some people who actually brush their hair more than once a year." I said. "And yes, my hair was a mess. I needed to brush it."

"Your hair wasn't a mess!" James said exasperatedly "It looked beautiful. It always does." Although James grinned cockily at me when he said this, I could see a faint blush on his cheeks. For some reason, even though I was used to James saying those sort of things, it made me feel uncomfortable and faintly… What? Appreciative? Glad?

There is no way I'm falling for James Potter! I told myself sternly

"C'mon you two. Let's go!" Cassie led the way through the kitchen, and out onto the back porch.

"Last one to the dock is a rotten egg!" Sirius took off down the path towards the lake.

We all ran down the expansive green lawn, James and Jon overtaking Sirius, and shouting at each other. I stopped to take off my pink flip-flops and ran barefoot the rest of the way savoring the warm sun soaked grass beneath my feet.

James reached the dock first, and pulled off the shirt that he was wearing. I couldn't help but notice how fit and tan he was from playing Quidditch. He did a cannon ball into the lake. Followed closely by Sirius who did an almost perfect swan dive.

"Let's see who can beat that!" Sirius yelled from the water.

"Hey, Cassie!" I said loudly. "Feel like showing these guys how a true dive is done?"

"Someone has to!" Cassie grinned at me. Cassie was a great swimmer, and diver. She took off at a run, did a summersault off the dock and into the air, and then went into a perfect dive.

"That," Cassie said saucily to Sirius "is how you do a true dive."

I stepped off the dock and put my stuff in the shade of the trees lining the sandy area next to the dock. I took of my shorts and short, revealing my bathing suit underneath. I then went back on the dock and jumped in. While I'm a strong swimmer, I can't for the life of me do a dive. Cassie's been trying to teach me but…. I just can't do it.

The water was warm, but refreshing. I splashed happily.

"What is up with you all?" Jon asked. "You're all dressed in yellow polka dotted bathing suits. Except for Maya." He amended.

"Don't ask." Remus told him. Being Maya's brother, he had heard it way too many times.

I slid under the water and swam out a little ways away from everyone.

"Lily! I'll race you from here to there." Maya pointed at the finish line.

"Okay!" I swam over to where she was.

"On your mark, get set, go!" Ellie yelled.

Maya and I took off both swimming breast stroke. It's the only stroke I can do well. But I can do it very well so, I've never really found a need to learn a different stroke. It was almost a tie, until the last five feet where Maya got a burst of energy and won. I arrived a second later laughing.

"This is no fair, you always win!"

"Yeah, but you always have Ellie rooting for you." I turned to see Ellie booing Maya. I waved at her and gave her thumbs up.

"Look! Pizza's here!" Sirius ran out of the water to meet the Domino's pizza man who had just apparated over. I know you're thinking "A Domino's pizza man just apparated?" Yes. There's a wizard service company called "Apparo", which has its employee's working at different stores. Therefore when you order from one of those stores, there's a special code word that gets you the wizard deliverer. It's a lot faster than waiting for someone to drive up to your house.

Sirius paid the man and arrived back bearing three large pizza's.

"Who's hungry!" he asked.

I hope you like this chapter! The next chapter will probably be about the rest of that day. I've already started working on it.

Does anyone know about the new rule? Apparently they're deleting all stories that personally answer reviews. That's just what I've heard from the author of the fanfic Linked (by the way, that's a great story!). If anyone knows about this new rule, will you tell me? I just don't understand it.

Thank you reviewers!

Rachel