The next morning brought about a brand new day.

It also brought a still fast asleep, all limbs hanging off of the bed, Dani at ten in the morning.

With an opposite, kinda freaking out, Hermione.

Hermione had no idea what to wear! And it's completely throwing her off. She's freaking out about something she knew shouldn't be freaked out about.

They were just going to an arcade for goodness sake!

"Get a grip on yourself Hermione" she scolded herself as she folded away another shirt she deemed unworthy.

She must have dressed and undress so many times it was hard to figure out what she didn't try on yet.

She was just so glad her parents had already left for work and didn't see her like this. Imagine the field day they would have.

Throwing her eyes in the direction of her clock on the wall she saw that it was already ten.

Dani would be here in an hour and Hermione still had no clue what to wear!

In the mean time Dani was still deep in dream land.

Samantha, having gotten the later shift, knew Dani was suppose to meet her new friend at eleven.

She saw the time and thought it'd be best to go wake her, seeing as she wasn't going to wake up by herself.

As she entered Dani's room she saw the state of her sister asleep.

She can't for the life of her imagine sleeping in that position could be comfortable or healthy!

It looked more like a spaghetti mix.

Having made her way to the bed she proceeded to wake her up.

"Dani. Wake up" Sam said nudging Dani.

Nothing.

"Wake up little sis" she started shaking her by the shoulder.

"Hmm no. Just five minutes please" Dani mumbled sleepily.

"You don't have five minutes. You've got 30minutes to get ready"

"For what? School isn't on"

"The arcade? With Hermione you moron. Now wake up!"

This made Dani shoot up in bed.

"Hermione! The arcade! Shit I forgot!"

"Hmm you totally did yeah"

"What time is it?" She asks frantically.

"You've got thirty minutes" Sam answered instead.

"Shit. Shit. I need to get ready" Dani was so caught up in her distress that as she made to get out of bed, her foot got tangled and Dani found herself face down on her carpeted floor.

She could hear a bemused giggle from Sam.

"Shut up Sam and help me get ready"

"What? I'm not helping you get washed"

"Not that you idiot! Help me find clean clothes while I go do the washing. Please Sammy" she added an after plead.

"I shudder to think what your going to do one day without me"

"Yeah well at least I have another hundreds years to worry about that"

Dani ran into the shower. It was properly the quickest shower she ever had.


Twenty minutes later she stepped onto the Granger's front porch.

She tried desperately to tidy her always unruly hair but to no avail.

Deciding to give it up she rang the door bell.

It was an agonizing ten minute (it wasn't even a minute) wait until she heard footsteps on the inside. The door opened to reveal a bushy, tied up, brown haired girl.

"Dani. You're here. I almost thought you'd forgot"

"Hey" she smile greeted. "I'd never forget. I was already up by nine" she told that little lie.

"Cool. That's awesome."

Now they just stood in front of each other, neither saying anything.

Until a car honked behind them.

"Oh yeah. So are you ready to go? My sister is actually going to drop us off. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah. No it's fine. I don't mind. Let me just lock up quickly."

Hermione had manage to wear a comfortable jean and loose fitting top with her favorite tennis shoes she likes to wear when she's home. It isn't way over the top and it will allow her to enjoy the games at the arcade.

After making sure everything is okay she locked the front door and followed Dani to her sisters car.

Dani opened the backseat door and climbed in, motioning for Hermione to do the same.

"So you must be Hermione then?" A woman who looks almost like a twin to Dani greets her.

"Hi. Uhm yes that's me. I'm Hermione"

"I see that. I had almost believed my sister made you up" Sam grinned.

Rolling her eyes she turned to face Hermione.

"This is my very annoying and obnoxious sister Samantha"

"And loving and caring sister. It's nice to finally meet you Hermione" Sam turned in her seat to shake hands with Hermione.

"It's nice to meet you too" Hermione smiles.

"You won't mind if I just drop you two off right? I actually wanna get to know you better but I really need to get to work. Maybe Dani can invite you over sometimes when I'm a day off"

"That sounds good. I'd love to come over and stuff"

"Cool stuff. Now let's get you two boring people to your destination"


"Now I see where you get it from. Your sister is equally crazy"

"Hey. Don't let her catch you saying that. She might just have a breakdown" Dani jokes as she and Hermione walked the couple of blocks to the arcade.

Hermione saw the entrance to the arcade but just before they entered, she grabbed Dani's arm to stop her.

"What? What's wrong? Why do you look so worried?"

"I uhm. I...just.. This place"

"Hermione if you didn't like it why did you agree to come?. We could go do something else if you'd like"

"No. No. It's not that. Its just I've... Never...been...inside an arcade before. I've never played here either"

Hermione was beyond embarrassed.

"Okay then. Then now I can teach you and it'll be way more fun and funny. I won't let you make a fool out of yourself. I'll be a fool with you okay? Now c'mon"

Dani had subconsciously taken Hermione's hand in hers and let her into the arcade.

The funny thing about it, Hermione didn't take her hand back until the first game.


About three hours later, with a huge stuffed frog added to their baggage, they decided to call it quits.

Not only were their stomachs protesting but Hermione swore she was going to wet her pants from all the laughing if they didn't stop now.

"You should have seen your face Hermione. I've never ever seen someone concentrate that hard to throw a ball into a hoop. It was beyond funny. And you took a WHOLE MINUTE to make one hoop. That has to be a new record"

"As I recall correctly. I couldn't concentrate because YOU kept making weird noises and funny faces every time I tried shooting the ball."

"I had to make you laugh. You looked so serious"

"It wasn't that. And you know it. You were distracting me because I beating you by two games. Two games! You just couldn't take losing" Hermione smirked.

"Pfft. As if. I'm not scared of losing. Especially not to you. I can beat you anytime with my eyes closed. I'm like the Matrix, can do anything without sight" Dani answers, puffing out her chest for emphasis.

"Oh really? So then you'd go in for another round again? See who's really the boss"

Dani shut her mouth.

"You know I am kinda hungry. Aren't you? I can't do re matches on an empty stomach."

Hermione burst out laughing.

"Knew it. Your afraid to challenge me again cause you know I'll win. Ha!"

"Am not"

"Are too Dani."

"Am not"

"Yes you are"

"Nope"

"If you won't admit defeat I'll give Mr. Puddles here (stuffed frog) to someone else." Hermione threatened.

"Whaaat? Your joking right?"

"Does it look like I am?"

"But I thought really hard on his name and I had to scare an eleven year old boy for life when I told him that frog comes alive at night and eats little boys for dinner , just so that you could have the frog"

Hermione giggled.

"Hey I didn't tell you to go that far. I just told you that I really wanted that frog. You were the one to come up with that"

"I'm not a good on-the-spot-thinker. But besides I got you the frog didn't I? It should count for something..."

"Hmmm. Maybe you might have beaten me after all then" Hermione conceded.

"Great! I knew you'd admit defeat!" Dani laughed while dodging a stuffed frog aimed at her head.

They had decided to split a plate of fries and had a milkshake each to go with that.

After that, they decided to just walk around a bit, neither wanting to go home just yet.

At one corner there was a guy selling ice cream and Hermione was craving an ice cream right now.

"Hey there. Can we please get two banana flavoured ones? Yeah. With the sauce too. Thank you"

Dani turned to look at Hermione and saw Hermione looking at her with an odd look on her face.

"Uhm are you okay? Is something wrong?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Know what?"

"You ordered my favorite ice cream. And I've never told you that"

"You just look like a banana flavoured ice cream kinda girl. Or it was just a really lucky guess?" Dani offered.

Hermione nodded her head and smiled.

"Yeah. It was a lucky guess"

"Here you go ladies. Hope you enjoy it" the ice cream man handed them their ice cream.

"Thank you" they said in unison then proceeded to keep on walking.

That simple gesture made Hermione experience a weird feeling inside her. It wasn't unpleasant at all. On the contrary it made her feel fuzzy and warm. A feeling that she finds herself liking a lot.

And that's what's confusing her.