D'oh! Jake totally missed his chance to reach out and grab the gumball. It was probably meant to be; gum was the candy Jake was allowed the leeeeeast, since there was sugar all the way through it and you could chew for hourrrrs and hourrrrrrrs.

And there was that time he fell asleep on the sofa, chewing away, and it went all in the sofa and the carpet >.<

BUT HE WASN'T AT HOME and he was purposefully breaking the rules this summer, so the boy just didn't care. As the girl finally got her candy out, Jake moved straight to the gumball machine there and took a hat out of his back pocket, before holding it under the little door thing, and then paying and twisting and catching ovvvvver and ovvvvver.

"Candy. Nuhh-need some."

Salander's brows went up on recognizing the location "Really? Virginia Beach or one of the Norfolk stretches? I've gone there a few times myself getting into scuffles visiting some folks. Its a great place, great weather!"

"Virginia Beach, I don't like hanging around Norfolk, it's a bit scruffy there, if you know what I mean?", a fellow Americano!
He seemed nice too!

Chew. Chew. Chewww. Yuuuuuum. This was nice. She hadn't had gum since she bought that looong strip of gum that was taller than her but it was super cheap so she thought she'd buy too then she didn't like it. Then flavour was horrible then it went straight away so it was all plain and stuffs after like two mins of chewing. Boring. No wonder they gave you so much of it for so little money.

She watched the boy that was standing behind her, but now he was standing infront of her as he put money in and grabbed the sweets then put more money in and grabbed more sweets. Woahsa. He sure liked his sweets a lot. Did he just say he needed some Candy ? But he already had lots.

"Um Don't you already have a lot of Candy ?" Or was she the only one able to see the gumballs in his hands.

Stopping mid-twist of the fifteenth or so gumball, Jake turned to look at the girl who had spoken and blinked at her.

"Th-this?" he asked, appearing slightly amused... yet also somehow offended. "Nuhh-no way... I need wwway more."

YUP.

Oh crap... where was he gonna put the gumballs once he'd filled his hat.

Suppose he could just get loads more candy and have a bag with it.

She smiled at him as he turned around that was nice of him, he could've just carried on with his machine twisting sweet grabbing action he seemed to have going on.

"Um yeahh That." she said. "Ohh right. I have some if you want some." Probably too much and more than she wanted and would eat so it wouldnt hurt to give some to this boy.

This quite tall boy. "Um. Im Callie btw." she said looking down at her nails in disguist.

Deciding that 15 gumballs was just about enough, and that he needed to spare some change for if his parents confiscated what he already had, Jake quickly did the final turn and got the last gumball; a black one.

Oooooh, she had candy?! Jake grinned and changed his grip on his hat so he was holding it like a swag bag, and turned to face her. "Ssssure! How m-m-much do you wwwant for it?" he asked, fully intending to pay the girl for her sugarry snacks.

"I'm Juhh-Jake," the boy replied, and tilted his head at the way the girl kind of... glared at her fingers. "Duhh-do you nnnnot like your hhhand?"

IT COULD TOTALLY HAPPEN!

Laughing (maybe a little too loudly) Salander replied "Yeah... yeah I know what you mean." he said as he rubbed his nape absentmindedly, memories of an old wound. "Some parts could use a bit more TLC. But there are some pretty nice spots there, cottages, near the muggle school Old Dominion. But yeah The Beach is the best. Sand. surf. malls. chow... rock concerts.." at the last part his eyes glazed over. Oh to be owning that stage with thousands of muggles screaming my name. Catching himself from going into daydream mode, he cleared his throat and continued "Ahem yeah, all the great hang-outs practically a stone's throw, but its sprawling so you never feel like its too crowded or hemmed in. Not like.... well..." He said quietly as he looked around. London was quite a different place from California, or Virginia or anywhere where he stayed in the US. He liked open spaces, easier to avoid.... whatever. "So, what brings you around these parts? Are you joining the Invasion Party?" he winked jokingly.

She smiled as he turned away from the machine again, she liked talking to people. Having friends. It felt good. But it was kinda strange like knowing that she wasn't gonna have moved school by next week. Shrug.

She smiled again as he grinned. "Oh no. You havn't gotta pay me, Its my brothers money he won't know what ive spent it on if we eat then evidence." He couldn't tell on her, one because he knew what she was capable of, two because their parents were going out of town like um tommorrow. She handed him the bag before saying "Take what you want. But leave me some."

"Nice to meet you." He had a stutter ? She'd never met anyone with a stutter, it was kinda cool from her point of view he probably wasn't too fond of it though. "My hand ?" she blinked. What ? "Ooooh. No I was just looking at my horrible nails." she really shouldn't bite them.

She laughed at what he said. "You're very...elaborate. I like that," she said with a smile. He was such a change to Keefer, who was shy and awkward and liked to take things slow.
"I'm actually muggleborn! So this is all new to me," she said getting misty eyed about her dead witch grandmother. She meant so much to her after all, and she was just gone, gone... and what killed her was the worst part..
She noticed she was looking off and shook off this expression.
"I'm a first year too, even worse, huh?", she said with a laugh. He was interesting!

Ahhh, first years! Lexi should have guessed by how young the two girls appeared to be. Then again, you never could be too sure with the younger ones. They could easily be second or third years, too. "Well, in that case, welcome to Hogwarts! I went to school there as a student, too. This is my second year to serve as Charms professor," she explained.

Lexi nodded, thinking to herself that not being familiar with the currency made a little more sense than not being familiar with gumball machines. Holding up a knut, she said, "Well, this is what you're looking for. You need two of them." She inserted two knuts into the machine, turned the little dial, then watched as a white gumball made its way down. Lexi hated white gumballs.

As she popped her gum into her mouth, she gave both girls a puzzled expression. How did they know which house they were in before they even reached the school? Hmm. Shrugging, she turned back to her handbag to look for two more knuts. Maybe she'd luck up and get a more colorful this go round.

"Can I call you Sal?" she asked with a bright smile as she placed her hand in his and gave it a small shake. Mia had never been very good at pronouncing long names. And it was easier to remember also not that she was going to be forgetting this guy in a hurry.

As they both moved to the side, Mia flashed him another bright smile. The boy had manners which was good to see. Her grandfather was always telling her how the younger generation lacked manners. A his question, Mia's eyes lit up with excitement. "Oh I am here to buy my school things. I'm going to be attending Hogwarts this year. What about you?"

Turning to look at the young girl, Sal had started talking to, Mia gave her a big smile and waved enthusiastically to her. "Hello."

Ohh, Charms professor! Other then Potions, Charms was easily one of her favorite subjects!

She understood as the Professor held up the 'Knut'.
"Ohh ok, thanks!", she said as she took 2 out of her bag and inserted them into the machine.

Two gumballs popped out instead of one and she decided to be polite. She gestured to August and the Professor. "Would either of you like to take one of my two?", she said with a polite smile.


Returning her smile and wave, she said, "Hi! I"m Sapphinelle. First year! How about you?"

She smiled my sister was a ravenclaw she works for the Ministry. Her name is missy riddle shes my half sister shes 30 years old.she works in Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures in the spirit divison.So thats makes a ravenclaw.

FREE candy?

THAT WAS THE BEST TASTING KIND!

Eyes positively lighting up, Jake wasted no time in putting his hand into the candy bag and scooping some out, not realising he may seem a bit forward, and, well... kid-like.

Not that he'd have cared.

"You t-t-too," Jake replied, putting the handful of candy into his hat. He'd made sure there was enough left. Jake was cool like that. When Callie commented on her nails, Jake looked at his own. Only his left thumbnail looked odd, being a little longer than the rest, but otherwise, he was okay.

"I nnnever really lllook at p-p-peoples nails," Jake stated matter-of-factly.

Oh dear another person with a long name. Mia was going to look like an idiot trying to pronounce all these names. "Nice to meet you Sapph - in -elle. Can I call you Sapph or Elle?" she asked with a grin and then belatedly realising she hadn't introduced herself. "My name is Mia and I'm a fourth year but this will be first time at Hogwarts too."

Vashti couldn't possibly stay away from a candy shop - she just didn't have the willpower. Dashing into the shop the first thing she saw was the very Muggle-like gumball machines. EEP! Something familiar, something actually from the Muggle world, was here in the Wizarding world! Awesomeeee!

As she headed for them, she saw another girl, a few years older than herself, flailing about, probably trying to find some money to buy a gumball. A fellow gum lover? Awesomeee!

"Need some help?" she asked. Because she could totally spare a few knuts to a fellow gum lover in need. She only had a few more things on her school list she needed to get (and a few things she needed that weren't on there), and she was quite certain she'd have enough even without a few knuts.

Hehe, everyone asked her about nicknames.
"Hah, Saphh. Or Sapphi. Doesn't matter!", she said with a smile.
"How come it's your first year here?", she asked with curiousity.

She then turned to the boy.
"Oh- I never asked your name! I'm Sapphinelle," she said with a warm smile.

"I was homeschooled" Mia replied cheerily. If you could call it that. She had the feeling that she was going to be way behind everyone else. Her dad hadn't been a very good teacher and her grandfather certainly lacked patience. "I grew up in a commune in Australia. My dad tried to teach me but between you and me he really sucks with magic. So he decided that I should go to a proper wizarding school."

And so here she was. Well actually not yet but very soon she would be walking through the doors of Hogwarts.

"Oh, that's pretty cool, actually! I'm a muggleborn from America," she explained. She didn't have much experience with magic, except she read everything there is to know about the wizarding world.


She looked at the guy who bumped into Mia and laughed because he looked so absorbed with the gumball machine. "Is it a bit new to you?", she said in a sweet tone.

His eyes widened as he saw the gumball machine. It was marvelous and wonderful. It was down right magical. He slowly walked toward like it zombie with his eyes held open. He wanted to hug the machine and stand in front of the glory and pump it full of money and chew bubblegum till his jaw fell off. He didn't see anyone as he walked and he bumped into someone and it brought him back to reality. "Oh..um..excuse me." he said blinking to bring himself back to Earth.

Salander smiled and shrugged. He considered "elaborate" as a compliment. Certainly a lot better than being "irascible" Chattin it up with the chicks, whoduthunkit? he thought as he listened to her talk about her background "Hey muggleborns aint bad, in fact their pretty darn great!" he said trying to keep her cheery, her eyes didnt escape his notice. "I'm half n half, my mom's the magical person, she's in the hotelier and travel biz, although I think she mostly does the social circles than the number crunching, its more her thing. Dad's.... eh he's a musician." he said shrugging. He didnt want to elaborate on that one person he traveled so far for. Just not worth the wasted breath. He laughed with her on the common firstie sentiment. "Hey everybody was a firstie at some point. Its a learning curve. Just dig in and do it." Right like he can talk about it as if he was a pro! Oh if she only knew... "I'm guessing you're going to Hogwarts too?" One other thing Salander thought was unusual, there seemed to be only one magical school in the whole country, albeit an extremely reputable one.

If he had missed hearing it before, he certainly didnt miss it this time. Hogwarts. Professor. Charms. His eyes flickered realizing now that one of the people in line for gumballs was a Professor at the new school he was going to. Carefully he turned to make sure his back was facing the professor's line of sight. Preventive tactic. Aint that what they taught at that warlock military?....



Salander ran his fingers through his hair and had to grin sheepishly. He always had some trouble with his name, specially the first two. He didnt quite like having whatever remained truncated even further but... "For you Mia, Sal will be just fine." he smiled, wanting to spare his new pretty friend from the grief of even just remembering his name. He certainly didnt want her to forget him. That would be bad!

She's attending Hogwarts! How convenient! "Well imagine that, I'm going to Hogwarts too. Enrolled for my..." Pause. Trying to count. "...4th year." Was that right? yeah that sounded about right. Otherwise he could just say he was 16 and maybe she'll know what year he was supposed to be in. "I'm getting my stuff too. You almost done?"

He turned to the other girl and smiled at her slowly. "I'm sorry I just really like gum," he answered her with a shrug. It was a spectacular display he had to admit though. It had pulled him right in like a tracker beam. "Diggy Greenwood," he told her with a small bow.

So there he was, talking to two pretty ladies (ok so maybe the other one is a little young) when someone slammed into his shoulder. He looked around and saw a student just totally oblivious. Under a spell? Salander didnt care. The oaf just totally crimped his style. "Hey watch it!" he yelled back giving him a dirty look. "Excuse you?!? Why dont you look where you're goin' first so you dont have to be excused!"

To say Diggy was caught off guard would be a total understatement. It took him a second to register that this giant was screaming at him. If he weren't so tall it would have reminded him of one of his little brothers having a tantrum. But that analogy was totally lost in the boy's rage. The easy smile and trademark Greenwood dimples slid off his face. Dealing with his sister had taught him how to turn off the nice guy Diggy when the situation called for it. "There's no reason for shouting mate now is there?" he asked quite nicely though he wasn't smiling anymore. "Its a beautiful day, gumballs are a plenty and the ladies are lovely," he turned and smiled at the girls before returning his attention back to the boy. "How about the first round of gumballs on me." Diggy certainly didn't like confrontation. Not that he ran from it he just didn't like it.