"Hello, Todd, Gary, and Miles," greeted Samantha kindly, "I know the rest of you are the J Club girls, but I don't know which of you is which."
"I'm Jennifer Johnson," piped up a tall black haired with blue eyes.
"I'm Jesscia Jones," said a somewhat small and short girl with medium brown hair and green eyes."
"I'm Julia Jackson," revealed the third girl, who was of an average size and height while possessing brunette hair and purple eyes.
"All three of you have last names that start with J as well," giggled Samantha, "I guess the J Club really was the perfect name for you three."
Jennifer, Julia, and Jessica all grinned and giggled themselves.
"It's nice to meet to you three," said Samantha warmly, "I hope you will all find your stay here hospitable."
"Samantha," said Jennifer gratefully, "Jessica, Julia, and I would like to thank you for agreeing to allow us to be part of this."
"Absolutely," agreed Jessica, "We are only complete strangers to you after all."
"I third that," added Julia, "You didn't have to agree to allow us to come here. It's noticed and it's appreciated."
"It's not a problem," smiled Samantha, "I've got plenty of room and this place can be expanded if needed. Have Todd, Gary, and Miles previously introduced you three to Devon?"
"Yes," confirmed Jennifer, "Just make you sure always allow Devon to go first in any turn taking situation."
"You know Devon quite well already then," grinned Samantha.
"Devon, Todd, Gary, and Miles have made us aware of your strict no yelling policy," Jessica informed her.
"Good," replied Samantha.
"Devon also make that all the parents would be here and that his mom has serious smoke allergies," said Julia, "Not that we smoke anyway because we don't."
"No one in the now Circle of Twenty Three smokes and that's A Very Good Thing," said Samantha firmly, "Tobacco: Tumor causing, teeth staining, smelly, puking habit."
"The red and green chairs for Christmas are a really nice touch," complimented Jennifer.
"I put simple Color Change Charms on some simple white lawn chairs," bragged Samantha, "I'm a great witch with great Charms Skills!"
"We have heard you like to compliment yourself," smirked Julia.
"These inflatable decorations are clearly supposed to be light ups, but it's so hard to see right now because the sun is so bright," observed Julia.
"Don't worry," promised Samantha, "We'll come back outside at night and see them in the dark. They'll look spectacular then."
Devon, Todd, Gary, Miles, Jennifer, Jessica, and Julia all smiled at that.
"So," requested Samantha, "Would the J Club girls tell me a bit more about themselves. If your legs are getting tired, you may all sit down while we continue to chat."
They all sat down in one of the lawn chairs and Jennifer began telling Samantha about the club girls.
"So," explained Jennifer, "Jessica, Julia, and I all met each other in Kindergarten and the three of us hit it off right away. We immediately got on like a house of cards on fire."
"Was there any common interest that you three bonded over early on?" inquired Samantha.
"Basketball," replied Jennifer a nanosecond later, "From a very early age, we were all basketball fans and loved both playing basketball and watching it."
"I'm more of a football fan," acknowledged Samantha, "Especially of my beloved Arizona Cardinals. To me, Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most important days of the year. Having said that, I do like basketball and I'm a Phoenix Suns fan. It does bother me that Phoenix has never won a pro basketball championship, although we came close in 1993 before John Paxson broke our hearts."
"We were already all into basketball when we met each other on that first day of kindergarten," said Jessica matter of factly, "We are Utah Jazz fans because another common interest we bonded over is music, both listening to it and singing ourselves. We loved the team's name and musical note logo."
"I love to sing," grinned Samantha, "I published a Christmas album last year and I'm going to publish another one with my own original Christmas songs this year. Next year I'm going to publish various albums of my own with my own original songs in the future, including a summer themed album to be released in June of next year."
"That's so cool, Samantha," said Jennifer adoringly.
"I'm going to give everyone here a free copy of my latest Christmas album once I've published it," Samantha informed them.
"That's awesome," said Julia happily, "I can tell that you have a great friendship group going here."
"Anyway," said Jennifer, "Music and basketball are our two biggest passions."
"It must have been really heartbreaking for you three to have lost that three on three basketball tournament the way you did, if basketball is one of your passions," moaned Samantha sympathetically.
"It was," admitted Juila, "It was a definite punch to the gut to lose the championship game at the buzzer on a three quarters court shot over all the heads of our triple team. "
"To their credit though," praised Jessica, "Todd, Gary, Miles were very gracious winners. They of course got very excited and acted like it when Miles made that shot. But they didn't get in our faces or taunt us. In fact, they were very complimentary about what a good team we were. Truth is the Buzzer Boys and the J Club were an even match."
"We won fair and square," said Miles calmly, "But there was no reason to act like jerks about it."
"We also like to prank, but only occasionally so that we can catch our victims off guard," added Julia.
"Miles, Gary, and I have been on the receiving end of a few J Club girls pranks," reminisced Todd.
"Nothing overly harsh though," said Gary fairly, "Unsuspectingly squirting us from behind with water guns or stunning us by screaming "BOO!" at us when we might not expect it, silly stuff like that."
"If anything, being on the receiving end of their pranks has helped us bond with them more," mused Miles, "From their point of view, they appreciate having people they know will be good humored about being on the receiving end of their pranks. From our point of view, their pranks give them some personality and add some fun and light heartedness to life."
"My friend Ainsley Cochlain likes to prank us," said Samantha smoothly, "She'll be delighted to meet you three."
"Devon, Todd, Gary, and Miles have told us about her," said Jessica dreamily.
"We hate the cold," piped up Jennifer.
"Then I'm sure you're happy to be spending Christmas Vacation in Arizona," cooed Samantha.
"Very much so," responded Jessica at once, "Apart from the dangers of frostbite and hypothermia, the cold is just fucking uncomfortable and miserable."
"There's no beautiful or magical or wonderous about cold weather to us," said Julia bluntly, "Being away from the cold is the best part of spending Christmas Vacation here."
"It feels a bit weird being muggles ourselves but being able to be affected magic," spoke Jennifer slowly, "Being able to use portkeys or have spells put on us or feel the presence of magic while having no magic ourselves feels a little odd. "
"It took us a while to get used to that too," mentioned Miles, pointing at himself, Todd, and Gary, "You'll get use to fitting in though."
"Jennifer, Jesscia, and I share a common favorite dinner," Julia told Samantha, "We love it when dinner is spaghetti and meatballs with a side of crusty Italian bread."
"Do any of you have a favorite dessert?" wondered Samantha.
"'FUDGE BROWNIES!" yelled Jennifer, Jessica, and Julia a nanosecond later.
Samantha had a thoughtful look on her face as she filed the information away.
A shout out to the following members who have added Lily Luna Potter and the New Era of Hogwarts to their favorites and/or follows lists since the last update:
DavidBrookes
lordganon1
waretheborg
Much love from Arizona for all the support. Love you all-Michael. :)