 #8 Wowza!
November was doing that thing she did when she was upset, but trying not to show it; it made her look like a fish. Ezra had told her as much in the past, only to receive a glare in return. He thought that'd been pretty ungrateful of her because he hadn't been saying that to tease her, but as an observation she could take note of and later correct. Of course, she'd done with the information absolutely nothing other than completely disregard it. Thus she continued to look like a fish.
Ezra was tempted to repeat it, again, but refrained. Rishi was still around, and he thought it'd not be very kind of him to point out Noe's physical flaws in front of the bloke she fancied. "Yeah, I know." He didn't. "You told us a few times." At least November said she had. Ezra grinned, again, and tilted his head to the side. Distractedly, he lightly drummed his fingers against his jar. "Y'know, Rishi," He said, directly addressing the boy, "Noe talks a lot about you." It wasn't strictly true, but November was a friend, and well - how did that saying go? 'Anything for a friend' right? Now, Ezra would not be above denying November a few things because he did have his limits, but he didn't see anything wrong with giving her a helping hand.
He turned back to his star in time to see Edita snatched away his notes. Ezra frowned, not because it'd taken him a long time to neatly write them down but because it'd taken him a lot of planning, stealth and precision to snatch them from someone else's school bag. "Well, on the bright side, if you do remedials, Ed, at least you'll be surrounded by people who are just as bad at this. Maybe even worse."
Mostly, he meant his words as a consolation of sorts, but he was smart enough to quickly move himself and his star out of Happenstance's reach. He cupped his hands around his mouth, and leaned in closer to his star. "Y'know, Jefferson Arnold," Ezra whispered, his lips almost touching the jar, "I know Gryffindors are s'pposed to be brave, and I reckon I am brave, but there's nothing wrong with having a healthy dose of fear, yeah?" When his gran found out he'd been sorted into Gryffindor, she hadn't congratulated him; instead, she'd sent him a letter that only said 'Courage turns people into idiots.' Ezra hadn't been sure then what to make of that, but then he'd befriended Edita Happenstance and he found he understood it well enough. "There's no shame on running away from someone who can drop-kick you into another season."
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