When the road looks rough ahead,
And you're miles and miles,
From your nice warm bed,
Just remember what your old pal said:
You've got a friend in me.

You've got troubles, well I've got 'em too,
There isn't anything I wouldn't do for you,
We stick together and we see it through,
You've got a friend in me.


OOF.

The moment Ruby Sarden slid open the glass door of the last compartment on the Express, a pair of fair arms flung itself upon her, pulling her down and landing her in a heap on the floor. The said arms belonged to the owner of a luscious crop of red hair and bright, blue eyes.

“I see your sense of style has gotten even shorter,” the petite newcomer grinned, as she disentangled herself from the redhead's grip and [in a manner that happened to be just a little over-graceful] took a seat, one long leg crossed over the other, eyes noting that an important person that ought to have been in the compartment, did not happen to be there. “Isn't Philippine her yet?”

“Her brother stooole her pygmy puff. She's gone to sneakily bring it back," Ariel supplied happily [the real story? Philippine and her brother had accidentally grabbed each other's pygmy puff's cages, and Philippine had gone to let him know] and would have supplied more - perhaps an account of exactly how shiftily Philippine intended to bring the cage back - if the door had not opened once again, at that moment, and Philippine herself had not stepped in.

Philippine herself - a rather average-looking girl, not tall, not dazzlingly stunning like Ruby, not innocent or permanently bright like Ariel, but intelligent-looking, rimless glasses perched on her nose, and extremely proud of the dark black hair that cascaded down her shoulders to reach her waist, and made more than one girl envious.

“There you are,” Ariel said brightly, chucking a pack of Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans at the dark-haired arrival. “Talked to Dot, have you?”

Dot being Philippine's brother, and his name not being Dot but Cam. Ariel had called him Dot since he had been eleven and [i]not[/] handsome though, because her first impression had been of a goofy, dotty, tantrum-throwing kind of kid. Seven years later, she still called the poor guy Dot, even now when he was a head taller than her, and certainly not dotty.

Philippine nodded [she had gotten used to her friend calling her brother that odd nickname] as she brushed back the bangs that had settled on her glasses. “I have, but –” she bit her lip, and suddenly hesitated. This happened each time they met, and both Ruby and Ariel knew the rest of Philippine's unfinished sentence [it was the only major problem in Philippine's life, and had been for a couple of years now] but both pretended to look highly interested.

“Something happen?" Ruby asked, encouraging Philippine to tell them [and inwardly sighing and thinking, not again maaan, not again.]

Philippine sighed, bit her lip and looked dramatically huge-eyed. “I still don’t have the courage to talk to Rylon,” she said, tones all a-whisper.

Ruby gasped, in an oh-my-how-terrible manner, and proceeded to offer advice [the same advice that she offered each time] at once. "You’ve known him for seven years, you’re neighbours, you share the same common room, you’re even pals, Philippine. I'm sure he can't mind if you ask him out on a date, as friends. In fact, I think it should be easier for you to talk to Rylon, of all people, since you know him so well."

Philippine hung her head, manner still all this-is-terrible-so-I'm-going-to-whisper. “I don’t mean talking like that,” she clarified. “I'm always talking to him like that, as friends. I mean... you know -" Her voice got even less audible - "I want to talk to him like that.”

Ruby blinked, shrugged, gave up.

Philippine looked like that made matters even worse [and for her, it did]. "Do you think he thinks I'm pretty?" She asked. "I mean, I know I study a lot -" She happened to have a huuuge Runes dictionary tucked under one arm, even now - "But I have nice hair. Do you think he likes my hair?"

Ruby coughed rather skeptically, but before she could think of a response [that she hadn't already given Philippine in the past God-knows-how-many-months of Rylon problems] Ariel had decided to take matters in her hands.

“I don’t get either of you,” she declared most unhelpfully. “First there’s Ruby Sander. She goes around declaring love is stuppppid, after she has a huge, messy breakup with her twenty-seventh boyfriend, and then I catch her snogging that Slythie prefect the next day. Then there’s Philippine Andrew. She's been telling everyone in the universe - I bet even the Martians know by now - for the past five years, that she likes her neighbor and doesn’t have the courage to tell him." She paused, found both her friends looking completely outrages, and said all happily, "You two -- SUCK."

“He was not my seventy-second boyfriend!” Ruby flared up.

“He isn’t my neighbour – he lives next to the guy-and-cats next door!” Philippine protested.

Ariel snorted. The one time she tried to help her friends out, they had all sorts of excuses to ensure she didn't. “Fine,” she said coolly, though not offended. “Fine. But you know what?”

“What?” Ruby asked the question, since Philippine had slunk into a corner and was now staring at her feet, looking as if her Prince Charming had fallen into a bottomless pit full of mermaids faaaar more gorgeous than her, and all hopes for a happily-ever-after been brutally extinguished.

“I said twenty-seventh, not seventy-second,” Ariel replied brightly.

Ruby had not blushed this hard in ages.



Reference:

[] "When the road looks rough ahead -" Lyrics of You've Got a Friend in Me from the soundtrack of Toy Story 3.