CHAPTER ELEVEN

With the Easter holidays coming to an end, and with Sarah and Jane running out of things to do, Sarah finally invited the infamous Sean over. The pair of them were in Sarah's bedroom, waiting for him to arrive.

"Did I tell you that Sean and I are in the same house at Test Valley?" Sarah said. Jane shook her head.

"You haven't even told me what house you're in," Jane pointed out as she lay on Sarah's bed, staring up at a poster of Davy Jones that Sarah had tacked to her wall.

"Oh," Sarah said. "I'm in Wyckam. That's why I painted my room blue. That's our colour."

"I thought your uniform was green."

"Well, that's the uniform, isn't it? The houses have different colours."

"Oh," Jane said. "My house colours are red and gold."

"Oh, yeah. What's your house called again?"

"Gryffindor."

"Your school has some weird house names," Sarah remarked as she peered out her window expectantly.

"Hey, Nightingale and Sopwith are pretty weird names too if you get to thinking too much about them," Jane pointed out.

"Well, that's only two out of six. All of yours are weird," Sarah said smiling, tearing herself away from the window for a moment. Jane laughed. She supposed they were a little weird. The founders of Hogwarts had some pretty peculiar names, but then again, Hogwarts was a pretty peculiar place. Jane didn't think having common sounding names for the houses would have suited the school very well at all.

"So, from what you've told me in all your letters, Sean seems to really like you," Jane said, though her experience on how boys showed affection was limited to watching James make a fool of himself in front of Lily, who absolutely hated his guts.

"Yeah, I think he does," Sarah said, blushing. "But it's hard to tell if he likes me or if he like likes me."

"I'm sure he does. I mean, he invited you to that musical festival in Reading. Sounds kind of like a date thing."

Sarah smiled at Jane's words.

"You think?"

"Yeah."

Sarah turned back to the window, and the ditzy smile that was already plastered on her face grew wider.

"There he is!"

Before Jane could speak, Sarah rushed downstairs and out the front door. Jane followed at a much slower pace, not wanting to seem too eager to meet a boy that she'd only heard of in letters. Once she was outside, Jane found Sarah squeezing the daylights out of the poor boy.

He is cute, Jane thought, taking in his light hair and green eyes, but she pushed the thought from her mind because Sarah liked Sean, so she wasn't really sure if she should be thinking of how cute the boy was.

"Took you long enough!" Sarah was saying. "Sean, this is my best friend in the entire world, Jane. Jane, this is Sean."

"Hello," he said.

"Hi," Jane said shyly with a small wave.

"Sarah's told me a lot about you."

"All good I hope?" Jane said smiling. Sarah clapped her hands together excitedly, happy that the boy she'd been crushing on for months now was finally meeting her best friend.

"Let's go to the river," Sarah said. Jane shrugged and followed Sarah to the River Test.

Sean was really sweet and funny and cute and everything Sarah had said he was in her letters. He had moved to Stockbridge from Wolverhampton. Apparently, his dad had grown up in Stockbridge and decided to move back. Jane couldn't ever imagine getting out of Stockbridge and wanting to come back. The thought seemed out of the realm of possibility to her.

"There's pretty much nothing to do here," Sean complained. "There was plenty to do in Wolverhampton. I like cities. One day, I'm going to move to London; there's loads to do there."

"I've always wanted to move to London," Jane said. "I absolutely hate Stockbridge."

"At least you don't have to go to Test Valley," Sean said. Jane laughed, nodding in agreement.

"Test Valley's not all that bad," Sarah butted in quietly.

"Yeah, you're right. Football team's pretty decent. Think I might try out one year," Sean said.

"James, Sirius, and I are going to try out for our house team next year," Jane said; she knew football and Quidditch were completely different things, but that's what she called it in front of Sarah, and she wanted to be nice to Sarah's new friend.

"What position?" Sean asked.

"Up front," Jane said, thinking that she would try out for Chaser with James.

"Me too," Sean said, happy to find something in common with Jane besides just the hatred they shared for the town they were currently stuck in.

As it turned out, they both had a lot in common, and Jane was growing increasingly aware of Sarah's new attitude as she tried desperately to inject herself into their conversations. Finally, feeling that she was drawing Sean's attention away from Sarah too much, Jane's responses to him became brisk and one worded. She did not want Sarah mad at her, but Sean, however, seemed oblivious to this change in the mood, and after a while, Sarah stopped trying to enter the conversation altogether and took to throwing rocks into the river.

"Hey, Sarah and I and my brother are going to that music festival in Reading in August. You should come too," Sean suggested.

At first, Jane was happy for the offer. Then, she glanced at Sarah, who looked crestfallen, and she could feel what felt to be a stone sink to the bottom of her stomach.

"I don't think my parents would let me," Jane said, which wasn't really a lie. "Thanks though."

After that, Jane was able to properly change the subject to Test Valley, and Sarah was able to join in while Jane listened. Everything was going great until right before Sean left.

"We should hang out this summer."

"Sure," Jane said out of politeness.

Once inside Sarah's bedroom again, Jane waited for Sarah to speak to her.

"He seemed to really like you," she said, not looking at Jane. Jane shrugged, trying to seem indifferent at the words.

"He was nice," she said in her best nonchalant.

"I mean, he seemed to like like you," Sarah said in a sour tone. Jane let out a nervous laugh.

"Now, I doubt that."

In all honesty, Jane felt almost giddy on the inside; no boy had ever liked her before, not that she'd known at least. But the giddiness was quickly washed away by the guilt she felt. She knew Sarah liked Sean a lot, and had the tables been turned, she would have felt hurt.

"Seems like he did," Sarah said. Jane sighed.

"Look, Sarah, it's not like he likes me more than he likes you. And-and even if he did like me like that, which he doesn't, but if he did, you're the one he liked first. Besides, I'll be gone in a couple of days anyway, and he'll probably forget all about me. And besides, I would never go after him. I would never do that to you," Jane said.

Sarah half smiled at Jane's response.

"I know you wouldn't."