Chapter 4:
"He's the kind of reckless that should send me running, but I kind of know that I won't get far…"
-Sparks Fly, Taylor Swift
Elizabella and I ran in through the door of the greenhouse right as the bell rang- something I have always wanted to accomplish. I must say, it felt pretty awesome.
Being the last to enter the class, finding seats close to each other in the greenhouse was fairly difficult. The only way we would be able to sit near each other was if one of us sat with the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan and the other sat with three boys from Ravenclaw, two of which were Nick DiAngelo and Drew Lucas. Nick and Drew were numbers four and five on Elizabella's list of the hottest boys in Hogwarts, and you can guess which seat she dove for when she recognized the choice she had.
Yeah, I would have thought the Ravenclaw table as well. But instead she took a seat next to either Fred or George, I still couldn't tell the difference.
Seeing as Sprout had yet to make an appearance, I followed Elizabella to her seat and bent over to whisper in her ear.
"What are you doing? Don't you have a crush on Nick or something? Don't you want to take this opportunity to flirt? And besides, these blokes hate you!" I said quickly, gesturing to the boys at her table toward the end. They didn't notice, thankfully, as they were resolutely ignoring my best friend.
"First of all, it's Drew I fancy, not Nick. And his code name is Honey. I told you to memorize the list and then burn it, did I not? Secondly, I think I might just apologize and get it over with. I'm not as strong-willed as they are, I'll be the first to break anyway. And lastly, weren't you paying attention last night? Jess- I mean River is such good friends with those blokes that he went on the opposite side of the castle from his Common Room to finish a conversation. If you can make friends with them, then you're in. Now go, Sprout will be here in a minute!"
I really should not have been as surprised as I was at how quickly that girl can talk. It's like a superpower from one of those Muggle comic books my dad likes to read so much.
Perplexed, I turned around to the empty seat at the Ravenclaw boys' table that was placed right behind Elizabella, I dumped my bag on the dirty ground and looked up to the blokes sitting there. "Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked quietly, looking at each one in turn.
"No, go ahead." I looked at the boy I hadn't recognized at first, and saw that he was Jake Clemens. Elizabella had never spoken of him except in passing, but he seemed like he was a nice enough person.
"Thanks," I said, and offered a small smile as I sat down.
"I'm Jake Clemens," he said, reaching his hand across the table to shake, as he was diagonal from me, "And this here is Nick DiAngelo," he said, nudging the (quite gorgeous) bloke beside him and across from me, "And that's Drew Lucas," he finished, nodding at the boy beside me.
"Adelia Litwin," I said, and flashed a quick, broad smile.
"Oh! So you're the girl Daugherty was drooling over at breakfast!" Nick said, looking at me for the first time.
"I don't know about that, but Elizabella did accost him for my sake in the Great Hall this morning, so I may have been mentioned." I said quickly, seeing Sprout making her way toward our Greenhouse.
"You're friends with Lizi?" Nick asked, looking longingly in my direction… and then I realized that Elizabella was in my direction, right behind me. Well this was an interesting development.
"What's your interest in Elizabella, then?" I asked, feeling bold with the awesome lipstick I was slowly growing accustomed to.
Nick jumped a little, jerking back into reality, "Who said I had an interest in Bates?" he asked sharply.
"Alright then," I said innocently as Sprout walked in and began what I would come to know as the usual OWL speech, "Forget I said anything."
Later, we were going over a review sheet from our previous Herbology lessons over the years. We weren't allowed to use our texts but instead had to go around and ask if anyone knew any answers. Elizabella and I gave up about five minutes in, choosing to do it for homework later when we would be able to use our books.
We were chatting at Elizabella's table when Fred, George, and Lee all re-joined the group.
"Decided to put it off as well, then?" Fred asked conversationally.
"Yeah," Elizabella said, "We got through the first ten answers and then realized it wasn't worth our time."
"Quiet;" I hissed when I noticed that Sprout was patrolling not far from us, "Pretend to discuss an answer."
The following minutes consisted of terrible acting and a suspicious Professor of Herbology.
"Say, I thought you were Ravenclaws," Lee said once Sprout had passed.
"We are, and your point is…?" I asked.
"Aren't you supposed to want to get your work done with as soon as possible?" George asked.
"We aren't complete nerds," I said, rolling my eyes, "and besides, Sprout will give us ten minutes at the end of class to go over our answers with our tables. I'll get them from my fellow Ravenclaws and then give them to Lizi."
"That's a devilishly clever plan," Fred quipped.
"'Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure,'" I quoted. And then I noticed that Elizabella was tearing up and I turned to her.
"Lizi, what's wrong?" I asked, worried that I had said something wrong. I had never spoken in public for so long at one time. She burst into fake tears and threw herself at me to give me a hug.
"I'm so proud of you!" She wailed, receiving odd looks from other students. My, we were just the centre of attention today, weren't we?
"What for?" I asked, chuckling nervously like the socially awkward person that I was.
"Y-you're talking and flirting and convincing boys to do your homework for you and- "she stopped, dissolving into what I was sure were fake sobs. I wondered why she wasn't that good of an actress when Sprout was passing us.
I looked to Lee, Fred, and George. "Will one of you please help me?" I asked gesturing to the mess that was my best friend.
"Why? Seems normal to me," George said.
"Obviously she's gone mad," I said, "First of all, she's blubbering like a walrus drunk on rainbows and chocolate frogs, and then she thinks I'm actually flirting? She's barking, I'm telling you."
They merely shrugged, and turned when Sprout announced that we should all go back to our seats to exchange answers with our tablemates.
I threw a lazy salute toward the boys and Elizabella, who was still fake-sniffling, and walked back over to my seat with my fellow Ravenclaws.
"Hullo boys," I said, "Do any of you maybe possibly have the answers to this sheet?" I asked hopefully- I didn't want to disappoint Elizabella, or my grade.
Unfortunately, they all shook their heads.
"Brilliant. Whatever. I can always do it later." I said, looking around the greenhouse.
Elizabella was conversing with the twins and Lee in whispers, so I figured that part of her plan had succeeded and they had made up. This also reminded me that I should probably start on the other part of Elizabella's plan since there were only ten minutes of class left.
"So, I feel kind of embarrassed to have to ask, but are any of you on the Quidditch Team?" I asked, figuring this was always a safe conversation starter with blokes.
Of course, they gave me weird looks to show their surprise that I did not already know the answer.
"Er, yeah- I'm captain," Drew said.
An awkward silence followed.
"Okay, I'm sorry," I said, "But I've never really paid any attention to that type of thing. So I'm sorry if I've offended you or anything."
"What do you mean by 'that type of thing,' and why would I be offended?" Drew asked with amusement in his voice.
"I meant that I don't really know anything about the social hierarchy around here, seeing as I've never really socialized with people before. I'm not very good at it." I answered honestly.
"You seem fine to me," Nick said, smirking amusedly.
"Gah, this is awkward. Let's talk about something else." I said ever-so-subtly.
"Whatever you want," said Jake, joining the other two in their smirking. I've decided I don't like smirks.
"So… what position do you play?" I asked Drew, deciding to pick up where I had left off.
"Chaser."
"How do you think the team will be this year?"
"Good."
"Can you answer with more than one word?"
"No."
I huffed and turned to the other two, catching the sight of Drew's smirk growing bigger in the process.
"Do either of you two play? Or do you have any other hobbies?"
They both looked at me incredulously once again.
"What?" I asked, feeling self-conscious.
"We're in a band. It's called The Little Brothers. Ring any bells..?" Jake asked.
"Oh! That's so cool! I love music! But I don't think I've heard of it, sorry." I replied, getting excited, but then once again feeling awkward.
"Well then…" Jake said, looking offended. I cleared my throat.
"So… why is it called The Little Brothers? Who's in it? What do you guys play?" I asked, hoping their answer would use up the last five minutes we had of class.
Jake looked away and refused to answer. I think he was acting offended jokingly now, though. Still, it was Nick that answered.
"We're called that because two of our members are the little brothers of Myron Wagtail and Kirley Duke of The Weird Sisters. I'm assuming you've at least heard of them..?"
"Oh, of course I have. I listen to music much more than I pay attention to society, I promise," I added with a small embarrassed chuckle.
"Well, that's good. And to answer your question, I play guitar, Jake is on drums, Billy Wagtail plays bass, Tristan Duke plays keyboard and backup vocals, and Jessie Daugherty is lead vocals." Nick responded.
"Wow. What kind of music do you play?" I asked.
"Rock mostly; sometimes others, upon request. We can also do covers for Muggle songs as well. It's a load of fun."
"Oh! You play Muggle music?" I repeated, getting excited.
"Yeah, do you like it?" Jake asked, getting back into the conversation with excitement in his eyes. I could tell he enjoyed music as much as I did. We would get along splendidly.
"Yes! My mum is a Muggle and used to be a music teacher. We'd have music on at all times in my house. I've grown up with all kinds of genres." I explained. These blokes were really easy to talk to.
"Do you know any instruments?" Drew asked, interested now.
"Oh, a little bit of just about everything. I've always focused on guitar, mostly."
Jake and Nick's faces lit up at this news.
"What..?" I asked warily. Their expressions were very similar to that of Elizabella's when she had a bad idea that she believed was very well thought out.
Before they could answer, however, the bell rang for dismissal and I grabbed my bag and walked out with Elizabella, who was in a conversation with Lee, Fred, and George.
"Adelia! Wait up!"
I turned around, surprised that anyone would actually call out to me, and saw that Drew, Nick, and Jake were all running across the lawn after my small group of friends, trying to catch up with us.
They eventually caught up and surrounded me, separating me from my best friend and only source of comfort during social interactions.
"We were wondering if you would consider joining the band," Jake said, the same excitement from earlier in his eyes. I looked at him as if he was crazy and opened my mouth to say no when I was very rudely interrupted.
"Before you say anything, listen to what we have to say," Nick said, "We have several reasons as to why you should join, otherwise we definitely would not ask you. Trust us on that."
I was about to answer with a witty comeback that I hadn't yet come up with, but I was stopped from speaking yet again.
"Our first reason is that we need a backup guitarist in the band. It would make our sound so much better in most of the genres we play," Jake said, getting to the point immediately.
"But mostly, we need that backup guitarist to be of the feminine variety, preferably actually female," Nick said.
"We need a higher range on the vocals, and we're assuming you can sing, considering how melodic your voice is already when you're speaking." Jake added to back up Nick's reason.
"And having such a fine specimen as yourself would help to improve the male demographic as well," Nick finished. I thought about their reasons for about a second, and then opened my mouth.
"First of all, please stop referring to me as a specimen; I am not some rare delicacy to be served at a restaurant- although I might as well be with the description of this job that you happen to be giving me. And besides, I'm most likely not the first person you should go to for guitar expertise; it's really just a hobby for me. Lastly, I don't really want to have to go to dinner because of all the socializing I have to do, so I don't think joining a fairly popular band would exactly be the first thing on my to-do list, do you?"
They looked at me as if I was mad. I suppose not many people would reject them like I just had.
"Well, we're not planning on giving up on you just yet," Nick informed me after a pause.
"And once we tell the others of our plan, I don't think they'll want to do so either," Jake said. I turned to Drew for help. He certainly seemed like he would be the most helpful of the three.
"There's no arguing with the band once they have their minds set on something; so good luck, Adelia." He said somewhat apologetically in response to my helpless look as he walked away from me with the other two. A fat lot of help he was.
"It's called Little Brothers for Merlin's sake!" I shouted after them desperately as my final attempt. They mostly ignored this- highly valid- point with the exception of Nick waving his hand behind him as if it didn't matter.
I turned around to once again locate my best friend, registering as I did that we had already made it to the Great Hall.
Elizabella was waiting for me by the marble staircase, her former companions nowhere in sight.
"That went about a million times better than I expected!" She exclaimed when I joined her and we made our ascent up to our next class.
"Yeah, well, you know me, charismatic as ever." I said jokingly.
"They even sought you out after class ended! What on earth were you talking about that made them that interested?" Elizabella asked. I then vaguely explained to her our entire conversation.
"Okay, first of all, I need to teach you how to convey a conversation to others, because that wasn't very detailed. At all. But- Merlin! They want you to join the most popular teen wizarding band in all of England!"
"Is it really that popular?" I asked, surprised. I hadn't even heard of it before, and it was apparently famous.
"Absolutely! Have you not heard me obsessing over it for hours on end before?" Elizabella asked.
"I tend to tune out at that part of our conversations," I replied.
"Well then…" She said huffily.
"You sound exactly as Jake did when I told them I'd never heard of their band before." I said.
"Really? I sounded just like Jake Clemens? The Jake Clemens?" She asked in a shrill voice.
"Yes. I really don't see what the big deal is." I replied.
"It is definitely a big deal," Elizabella said, "You'll figure it out soon enough. So why don't you join the band? This is an amazing opportunity for you!"
"I just don't want to, is all. I'm not really interested." I said.
"How are you not interested?" Elizabella exclaimed, waving her arms around in exasperation.
"I'm just not. You know how shy I am, Lizi, I want to be able to ease into society now that I have the confidence to do so, not take a swan dive only to find that there is no water in the pool." I said.
"I hate your metaphors," she retorted exasperatedly, "And besides, you've always said you've wanted to be in a band or something of the sort! You're incredibly talented and now you've passed up this wonderful opportunity to live your dream!"
"You should be a motivational speaker," I said in a monotone as we finally reached our Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Walking in, I realized that this must be one of the classes we had with the Slytherins. I also realized that I would be in the company of the harassment from Nick and Jake for just about every class I had on my schedule. Oh joy.
"Addie! Over here!" I heard from the far back corner of the room, exactly the opposite of where I usually sit; up front and near the door, in order to avoid the wave of students as I left at the end of class. Looking over, I saw Nick, Jake, and Drew surrounded by their Ravenclaw and Slytherin friends, none of whom I recognized.
Realizing they were going to bother me until I gave in and approached them, I sighed and slowly walked to the back of the classroom.
"You know, I generally only allow my friends to call me by that nickname," I said as I neared them with Elizabella trailing close behind. The group chuckled, all except Jake.
"Oh, Addie, you wound me so," He said, clutching his heart with a dramatic gasp.
"And you wound my eyes with your poor acting," I quipped. There was another chuckle as Jake pretended as if he was pulling a knife out of his chest. Oh yes, we would be very good friends.
"Is there anything you actually wanted, or can I go?" I asked, wondering why in the name of Merlin these boys would want to speak to me again.
"Yes." Jake said.
"And..?" I asked.
"Join the band." Nick said quickly. Another boy, a Slytherin, started.
"Ah, so this is the famous Adelia." He said, holding out his hand to me, "Tristan Duke. Jake and Nick have told me so much about you." This Tristan fellow sure seemed like a charmer; I wasn't fooled, though.
"They only met me about twenty minutes ago." I said bluntly, ignoring his proffered hand.
"Ah, well," He said, looking a bit confused, "They did tell me that they found the girl we were looking for to join the band, and that her name was Adelia."
"Okay." I said. I was bored of all this social interaction. Really, it wasn't as great as Elizabella had made it out to be.
"Well, I really do hope you consider joining the band. We could use someone like you," Tristan said, observing me with a neutral expression as Professor Lupin entered the classroom.
I nodded and turned to go to my usual seat and enjoy my first Defense class of the year alongside Elizabella, but was stopped.
"Addie, sit by us," Jake said, tugging on my arm toward the seat next to him. I noticed he had also saved the seat next to that one for Elizabella. Smart boy.
I rolled my eyes, and, seeing that the class was already starting and I needed to take a seat, decided that I might as well do as Jake asked. Dragging Elizabella with me, we sat between Jake and Nick.
And I hated myself for it for the duration of that class.
"Addie, do you have a quill?"
"Addie, join the band."
"Addie, do you think Elizabella has any interest in Nick?"
"Adelia, please join the band. For me?"
"Addie, I made sure Nick sat next to Elizabella, you wanna know why?"
"Ads, Nick fancies your best friend."
"Addie, do you have some spare parchment?"
"Adelia, I think it would really benefit you to join the band."
"Addie, aren't Elizabella and Nick so cute?"
"Addie, this professor is brilliant."
"Ads, we're turning to page twelve, pay attention!"
"Adelia, why do you have your wand out and pointing at me? We're only doing theory today!"
A/N: Alright. So it's been like a really long time since I've updated. I'm trying, guys, but there's so much stuff going on. Believe it or not, I do have a social life to go along with a ridiculous amount of school work.
Besides that, my computer broke and I didn't get a new one for several months. But after that I had either writers block or no time to write anything down when I had an actual idea.
So yeah. Let's talk about the actual story.
THIS CRAP IS ACTUALLY IMPORTANT, SO READ IT, PEASANTS:
I'm assuming you see Adelia as quite the Mary Sue, am I correct? Well, it's on purpose, I promise. This story was mostly just to improve my writing abilities. I mean, if I can make a story about a Mary Sue character sound good, then I'm pretty well-off, aren't I?
Agreed.
Oh and you guys should go listen to A Rocket to the Moon. They're amazing and I can't get A Whole Lotta You out of my head but I don't really mind.
Kbye.
… I don't think I even remember the name for this story. Aca-awkward.
Okay I'm actually leaving now.