Finally, it was the holidays. My parents decided I should come home for Christmas, despite my begging to stay at school. They missed me, and I must admit I was missing them too, even though I had been hoping to spend the holiday with my new mates. So there I was, curled up on my bed, my fluffy big queen sized bed covered in pillow pets and various items I hadn't seen in months. Number one was my trusty old laptop. I adored everything about Hogwarts, but I couldn't deny that I preferred my own bed and room with wifi. I arrived in Brighton yesterday, and told my friends I had wanted to stay home for dinner so I could spend time with my family. I wasn't totally lying, as I did want to spend time with my family, but I also was avoiding my friends. However, I couldn't get away with not seeing them on the first night, and we made plans to go get ice cream after dinner.

"Hello!" squealed my little brother, Alfie as he crawled onto my bed. The little squirt was probably the number one thing I wished I had at school.

"Hey bud!" I sat up criss-cross applesauce style across from him.

His eyes, big and blue as always, squinted at me, skeptical.

I rolled my eyes, "What!"

Alfie scratched his head in contemplation, before making his way across the bed closer to me. He got up on his knees, and whispered into my ear.

"Okay first of all," I laughed, leaning back onto the headboard, "You don't have to whisper, no one is here silly. And second of all, yes, you can see it,"

Reluctant to get out of my bed, I practically rolled onto the floor, and crawled over to my closet. I got up and rummaged around in my "magic box". Mum and Dad wanted me to keep anything magical hidden away in the closet while I was here, incase anyone unexpectedly happened to come into my room. The last thing we wanted was the electrician finding my cauldron or something. I pulled out my wand and placed it on Alfie's lap.

"Wow!" he gasped in amazement. Even though he had already seen in so many times before, every time was like the first.

"I want one of these," the little eight year old breathed as he mimicked motions. I had taught him a few motions like the swish and flick for wingardium leviosa. But when he said that my heart sank a little. I knew he would make such a great wizard, but as muggle borns it was completely possible for him to be non magical. Being as I was only eleven, and didn't really know how to deal with this, I just ignored his comment.

"Hey wanna see something cool?" I said, changing the subject. Alfie's attention immediately shifted to whatever I was pulling out of the magic box now. It was the most recent sports section from The Daily Prophet. Calum received it regularly at school and he knew I always enjoyed reading the sports section of his copy. He had sent me clippings of it since I had arrived home to keep me updated on the wonderful sport. The clipping I held now had an amazing moving picture of The Chudley Cannons' beater hitting a bludger right into a Puddlemore Chaser's chest.

Handing it to Alfie, I mentioned, "This is quidditch, I think I want to play when I'm old enough, it looks really cool,"

"It does!" He commented, mesmerized by the moving figure, tracing its pattern with his fingers. Just as he was observing it, a knock came at the door, and Mum came in.

"Hey sweetie!" she said, sitting next to me on the bed. I gave her a hug, and Alfie squeezed himself in between us. "It's quarter past seven, the girls will be here soon, you really should get ready," Mum motioned towards my outfit of sweatpants and old summer camp t-shirt.

"I know, I know," I groaned, standing up to make my way over to the closet. Poking my head out I sighed, "It just feels so good to be out of those itchy uniforms," I went back into the closet and came out holding jeans and a sweater. After telling my mother that those were honestly the nicest clothes I was willing to put on, she took Alfie downstairs.

Dressed, I sat down in front of my mirror, and took a long hard look. Okay June, I gave myself a pep talk, these girls are your best friends. It's going to be tough to fool them. They watched your best, when you "didn't know how that vase broke", or when you "were feeling too sick to go into school for the day". This is going to be a tough one, but you can do it. You didn't do all the school plays for nothing. Who's the best liar around?

"I am," I put on some chapstick, scraped my hair into its usual mess, and walked out of my room, determined to do well tonight.

But it's me, people. Remember me? June? Yeah, how do you really think that went.

When I walked into the ice cream parlor, the girls already had gotten their ice cream and were sitting down. I casually slipped into the empty seat, dropped a "what's up," and was followed by the squeals of three eleven year old girls. After all the hugging and squealing and "oh my gosh"-ing, we sat back down in the seats. Next to me was Poppy, who, like me, had trouble shutting her trap. She gabbed on and on most of the night, which was okay with me considering I really didn't know what to say. Across from me was Nicole, who's pin straight hair I was used to being tied up in a ponytail, but it seemed like since I left she had been letting it down. And then diagonal from me was Jo, who would be talking a lot more if she wasn't busy shoveling ice cream in her mouth. Mind you, she was a beautiful girl who could honestly eat all she wanted. Thinking back, that's what pissed me off about her. Her annoying ability to eat whatever and never gain weight.

But that's just me putting all my nerves on them. I actually was quite glad to see my old buddies. And our conversations were going quite well when we were talking about what was going on at my old school. But then Nicole turned the topic around.

"So how's your school?" she dropped a bomb on my mind. Don't panic.

I smiled, "It's great," Not really sure what to say, I stopped there. The best trick of a liar is to not over do it, that makes it way to obvious.

"June!" Poppy groaned, "don't be silly! We want to know everything!"

I scoured my brain for a safe topic that didn't involve giants or jinxes made with magic sticks. "Well I've made some awesome friends!" Friends was a good topic to start with, I could still be truthful about them but still avoid the whole magical wizard stuff. My friends suddenly smiled, glad I was telling them something finally. "Yep," I continued, "First is Eloise, my best friend from school,"

I added "from school" so they wouldn't feel awkward with me talking about a new best friend.

As I blabbed on about Eloise and the others, all the colors from the ice cream shop seemed to drip down, as if they were draining away. My friends faces faded. The gum ball machine was limp and grey. The sprinkles on Jo's small cup of cotton candy went from rainbow to black and white. This world faded from focus to a blur. But school was clear and colorful. My memories of Eloise's bouncing curls or Anders's laugh. The warm crackling fire in the common room or the warm smiles of the passing students in the corridors.

"Quidditch?" Nicole's confused voice snapped my attention back.

Oh god, this is why you gotta stay focused June.

"I'm sorry, what?" My face was perplexed, just like I wanted it to be. Staying calm and collected was not one of my strong suits, but I needed to try and pull this off.

"You said you wanted to join the quidditch team?" Nicole gave Poppy a look, "June, are you alright? What is quidditch?"

I faked a laugh, "Oh, silly me,"Think faster June, how do you cover this? I took a long swig of water, stalling for as long as I possibly could. "Did I say quidditch? I meant quit-itch. Yeah, it's like the nickname for the girls football team. A few years ago, before they had a girls team, all the ones who wanted one were just itching for them to make a girls team. Get it? Quit the itch to make a girls team?" I laughed, nervous and uneasy, "It's a pretty weird nickname if you ask me,"

Poppy threw her head back giggling, and I honestly think I sighed the biggest sigh of relief that had ever come out of my mouth. Wow, I was way too cocky at that, I needed to focus or else next time something weird was gonna come out like potions or my wand and I'm not going to be able to cover it up next time. I still could see that Nicole was barely buying it.

"Yeah, that's a pretty weird nickname," Jo was obviously judging my new boarding school, and seeing as I was giving such vague details, I couldn't blame her.

Poppy then leaned in closer, "What about boys?!" Oh bugger. The three girls all squealed, again, and I cringed at the intensely high pitch. At first my mind went to James, but what could I say about him. I'm an eleven year-old who has a crush on a twelve year-old who knows me as "blondie", that hardly counts as a Romeo and Juliet story. What about my guy friends? I mean I "love" them and all, but I don't love them. My nose scrunched at the thought. The thought of me dating any of them! Calum and I would get too competitive. We are always seeing who can belch the loudest, or eat the most in one sitting. People who try to out gross each other don't make a good couple. And Xavier and I aren't very similar, I mean besides quidditch we wouldn't really have much to talk about. Anders, well, I guess he's too good of a friend. It would be like dating my brother!

I looked at Poppy and simply shrugged, "Nothing really going on with boys right now. Not to mention I wouldn't even be allowed to date! I'm eleven for crying out loud. I need to worry about my studies," We all stared at each other in silence, before I cracked and we all broke out into the loudest most genuine laughter. Minutes later, our abs hurt, and our eyes were watering from all the laughing.

"Hah, that's funny… studies," I breathed, wiping away my tears.

Finally, it got to be time for us to all go home, and Mum texted me that she was outside the shop. I hugged Poppy, Jo, and Nicole, and smiled as I made my way into the car. I really had been dreading that meeting, but besides my little quidditch slip up, it went well.

Once I was seated, Mum looked at me with her skeptical face, "So how did it go?"

"Why do you have that tone!?" I was greatly offended, "Do you really think I screwed it all up,"

"Well, it is the classic June thing to do, sweetheart, now did your precious blabber mouth accidentally mention werewolves, or mandrakes?" Mum sure knew me well, and surprisingly knew a lot about magic too.

"Yeah," I laughed, but I hated it when she was right, "But it's all fine! I said something about quidditch, but I somehow made some weird story up about the football team or whatever,"

"You seem to talk a lot about quidditch," Mum pointed out pulling into the driveway, "Do you want to go out for the team? You know your father and I fully support you,"

"Mum, of course I'd love to try out!" I hopped out of the car, and ran around the yard mimicking the flying brooms, "Quidditch is honestly the coolest sport ever!"

"Then why not?"

I rolled my eyes and plopped onto the grass, "Because I'm a bloody first year, and we can't play quidditch,"