"Alright, its nothing to worry about, its just something I want to ask you" Amanda said, leaning up and kissing him on the cheek. She sat back down in the seat and smiled to herself.

Jake prayed frantically in his head as his eyes went wide. Ohnopleasedon'tputthepiecestogether! He was petrified when he realised he'd let the Prefect's name slip. Curses for speaking to someone who he knew wouldn't drop the subject.

Going back to calm, disturbed by the occasional nervous twitch, Jake looked out of the window to think of something to say.

"Do you like squirrels?"

FOOL! IDIOT! IMBECILE! TWIT! GOOSE!

Squirrels?!

Jake smiled innocently at Allie.

Seeing that Amanda wanted some time with Zeke and Kayla seemed to have stolen his attention away from her. She gave Amanda a smile and stood up from the seat. "I better go and...patrol the corridors" she rolled her eyes at that. She glanced between Zeke and Amanda before heading towards the door. "I'm sure I'll catch up with you both at school. It was nice to meet you Zeke" Kayla looked at Amanda and gave her a sly grin. "Watch that PDA, missy" she burst out laughing as she walked out with a final wave.

"That's good. Maybe I will see her later." she said. "Are you hoping to be a Gryffindor as well?"
What was this? Confuse Allie day? Really squirrels? What was this boy talking about? First years have to get wierder and wierder every year. I mean first he yells at her for something that happened in Diagon Ally, now he asks about squirrels?
"What the heck are you talking about Jake?" she said sounding very confused, with the look on her face to match.

"Ok," Zeke said. "Nice to meet you, too, Kayla."

"Yup, family tradition to be in Gryffindor," Zeke smiled. "I actually got sorted as a first-year, but I've been homeschooled the past few years, so I don't really remember too much about the school except that I liked it. It's been four years, after all," he admitted.

"See you later Kayla, we'll talk when we get to Hogwarts about you know who" Amanda said, and a smirk, waving at her friend. "Don't worry I will, I'll be good of course" She said with a wink, then laughed. Ah she loved to have a Prefect friend, it could definately be used to her advantage.

Amanda bit her lip softly, there was something that she needed to say to Zeke and it couldn't wait. "Alright I know I said we'll talk later but this can't wait. When I didn't see you in Diagon Alley, when I was back from my first tour, I started to think that maybe what happened with us in the Leaky Cauldron was just a joke. I mean I really do like you, and I want to be with you eventually since we aren't rushing it, but I need to know if you feel the same." She said honestly, sighing slightly, waiting for his response.

Mariel shrugged as Sarah tried to understand last year's Quidditch season. "Don't know..." she said. "I don't know what goes on in the Hufflepuff common room, but I imagine the party was after the first win... that's reason to celebrate, I guess." Although a bit premature. Grinning at her wink, Mariel's expression soon changed to slight surprise. "Oh, really?" she said in response to Sarah's desire to fly. "That's great. I hope you do get the chance to play someday. Then you'll see for yourself why everyone's so crazy for the game," she added, knowing Lasca and Nathaniel loved the sport as much as she did.

Mariel frowned at mention of the House Cup. "Yes, me too," she nodded grimly. "I didn't do much better, just over 100." Pathetic for a Ravenclaw. Glancing up sharply at Sarah, she added, "You're not an idiot. Don't call yourself that." She hated when her friend put herself down. Noticing she had more sweets, Mariel eagerly got up from her seat for a closer look. "I imagine the yellow ones are lemon?" she said picking out a few that color. "Thanks."

The young Ravenclaw gave a look of sympathy to Lasca as she mentioned the Muggle hotel she had been required to stay in over the summer. "I'm sure if your father has to travel next summer that you can spend the summer at my house," she said. "That would be better than a Muggle hotel again, anyway." And Mariel would like to have a witch her age around to help her get away from the craziness at home.

She gave a little wave as Kevin left their compartment. "Guess he saw someone he knew," she said with a shrug.

Turning her attention to Nathaniel, Mariel said, "All that travelling sounds like a lot of fun, but um.., what's surfing?" Probably something else Muggle-ish that Mariel always got confused about. Sounded dangerous if it involved sharks.

A slight look of shock crossed Zeke's face. "Uhh," he said, rather unintelligently. He hadn't expected her to say that. "Well. Er. I do like you, too." He stammered. "I'm... not sure what I want right now. That's not really fair to you, I know..." he said, fidgeting a little. "But I don't know." He didn't want to upset her at all; he did like her. He just didn't know if he wanted to be in a relationship with her. Of course he wasn't just being a playboy and looking for a "friends-with-benefits" type of thing at all. He wasn't a jerk like that. He knew it should be all or nothing. He just didn't know whether he wanted the "all" or the "nothing." He wished he felt differently. He wanted to tell her that he wanted to be with her, but he knew that wouldn't be right for either of them - he'd be lying to himself AND her and leading her on, which was most definitely not him.

She couldn't help but feel happy for Amanda. At least one of them had had a happy,fun,loving summer. 'As opposed to...' "That sounds,well,amazing." she told her while looking through the pictures. Whitney could not believe the reality in it. No,she'd never thought Amanda was lying,but pictures just confirmed it all. "Wow," was all she could get out.
Whitney really couldn't imagine losing her best friend so soon. Although she knew that day would come soon enough. "I'm sorry hun, I know it's not the same but,as you said, keeping in touch is always good. And you can visit her." She replied with a small sympathetic grin. "New friends help too."

Then that change of expression Whitney knew to well came across Allie's face and she couldn't help but smirk a bit. Since the dreadful day she'd received the letter from her mother she'd tried hard to ignore the pity. "Well,honestly, my father died last term. The funeral took place this past summer and well..." and she figured there wasn't any need to finish the sentence. Somehow,she knew what was coming next.
She simply broke down laughing at Zeke's odd fist movements. "Now that's the Zeke I met in Diagon Alley." she said through what was almost tears. "Talking to hands now, I see." Whitney still found it rather odd that he surprised her.

Zeke laughed along with Whitney. "Please excuse me, that was one of my spaz moments," he said, cracking a large smile. He remembered how they'd practically read each others' minds back in Diagon Alley with the whole Grease-my-feet-are-named-Sandy-and-Danny thing and it made him laugh even harder.

"Oh.." Amanda said, and that's all she had to say. Needless to say she felt quite confused as to this whole thing, it wasn't like this made her upset at all. She just truly wasn't sure what to feel, she thought that things were better than they actually were between her and Zeke. She put her hands in her lap and sorta moved closer to the window, she just didn't know what else to say to him. All she wanted was to be loved and it seemed like maybe this wasn't going to work out for her after all, it was just so frustrating for her. "Once you figure things out.. come find me, I..I just need to leave for a bit." She said, getting up and leaving the compartment, heading down the corridor.

"It was honestly, could you just watch my stuff here for a little bit, I'm just going to the snack cart to get some more candy" Amanda said, taking her coin pouch and heading off to find the snack cart, that wasn't the real reason she left.

"Oh." said Allie. She wasn't quite sure what to say, but he obvious. "I'm sorry about that. I know its hard to lose a family member."

"Something I'm rather used to by now." she told him with a wink and suddenly Grease popped up into her head. Now she was really laughing,she could still see Zeke singing his lungs out. "So,um," she started,stifling a laugh, "watch Grease recently?" and once again she burst out laughing. She was sure had it been anyone else they'd be laughing just as hard.
Even though she wasn't sure if it was right,Whitney couldn't help but listen in on their conversation. Yes,she told Amanda to talk to him,but this couldn't have been her fault... 'right?' She raised both eyebrows once Amanda had asked her to watch her stuff. "Of course hun. Do you wa-" but Amanda had already left.

"Umm..." she mumbled looking back at Zeke. 'What did I do?!?!"
There it was. "Thanks, and it is,but being around friends has a helped a bit." 'More then being at home with mom.' she though and automatically felt bad. She loved her mother but sometimes... "I'll always miss him but hopefully Hogwarts can get him off of my mind a bit,you know?" Was it even right to not want your deceased father off of your mind?

Amanda came back into the compartment about 20 minutes after she left, with her arms full of treats. She tried not to let this whole thing with Zeke bother her but it was difficult, she just pushed it from her mind and opened the door, sitting back down and dropping the treats on the seat beside her guitar.

Zeke looked after Amanda walking down the corridor. Good job, he chided himself.

"All the time," Zeke said in response to Whitney's Grease remark.
After the mini-scene with Amanda, he saw Whitney giving her retreating figure a strange look. "It was me, not you," he said. "I told her I didn't know if I wanted a relationship with her. I feel guilty and bad about it, but I thought I should tell her the truth... Do girls not like that or something?" he said confusedly. He thought she'd appreciate the honesty. Girls. He'd never get 'em.

She was a little shocked to see Amanda walking back through the compartment doors. Then,she reminded herself who this was and ignored it. "Got hungry I'm assuming?"
Although she loved talking about Grease,now was not the time. "Um,parts of it might have been." Was she supposed to tell him about the conversations over the summer break. "Let's just say...er...." How was she supposed to put it? "It wasn't all you?" Or at least she hadn't thought it was.

"Yeah I did, plus its good to have them at school. Help yourself, that's what there for" Amanda said, with a small smile. She took a licorice wand and put it in her mouth, taking a big bite out of it.

"Not all me? Really? Why?" Zeke was confused. Of course, he was relieved that it wasn't ALL him, but... how was it not all him?!

"Very true" she said, agreeing with Amanda. Although it all looked great, Whitney knew she wasn't supposed to have any. "No thank you, I really shouldn't" She felt like those girls at her old muggle school who would not eat junk food because they thought they were a little big. 'Crazy girls.' That,obviously,was not why she was doing it,she just figured she shouldn't.
'Shi-' What had she gotten herself into? Now what was she supposed to tell him? Maybe it wasn't her fault? Maybe she just felt bad about their situation and decided to blame herself? Was that possible? "Well,Amanda and I spoke a couple of times after you and her met and..." Perhaps it was best she didn't finish her sentence? "And....and...." Now she was at a loss for words. "Very smart Whitney! Now what?!?!']

"Alright, whatever works for ya" Amanda said, shrugging and putting the rest of the stuff in her bag. It wasn't like she didn't have enough in there already, she just seemed to cram more stuff into the bag, seeing how much stuff it could actually hold before it broke.

Zeke looked at Whitney confusedly. "And... what?" he said? The suspense was killing him, and his confusion was displayed clearly on his face.

Soooo bored. She had to find something to do. She sighed, walked around the corner and smacked straight into someone, causing her to fly to the ground. Ouch. She looked up as she rubbed her elbow, which had slammed into the floor with more than a lot of force. So Gryffie boy around her age. Oops. Oh, and there was Amanda. And that Whitney girl. How embarrassing.

"Sorry", she murmured quickly, still on the floor.

"Hey Camira, that's quite an entrance you made there." Amanda said, getting up and holding her hand out in case Camira wanted help getting up. "You alright there?" She asked curiously. Never before had she seen such a forceful entrance.

Camira gave Amanda a sheepish grin before taking her hand and gently pulling herself up. She brushed off her robes, more as an expression than because there was actually dirt on it and ran her hand through her hair, making sure it hadn't been ruined by the fall. After she was satisfied, she looked at Amanda again. "Yes, well, what do you expect. I'm a Yaxley, after all", she said jokingly.

"Well I think you deserve the award for the best entrance into a compartment, seeing as you attracted a lot of attention." Amanda said, laughing. "So how are you?" She asked curiously, sitting back down beside her guitar case.