"Well, it's in the Girl's Dormitory, but I'm sure you'll have to help me hold it up at the game. I cut all of the poster paper really long."

Satine listened intently to the next part. She was pretty sure she looked like a little kid listening to one of her parents read her a bedtime story, but this story was better. "Jenn Blood! Wow, she is pretty...that's that girl you were sitting with a while back?" she could picture the beautiful girl in her head and she remembered the way Kel had been reacting to her..."Of course I approve...I gave you a thumbs up back then and you sluffed it off..." then a thought came to her mind. "So, I guess that means that....I.....Told....You...So!" she finished giggling...."How'd you con her into dating you....just playing...Look at you all growing up..."

"But really, I think that's great Kel! Congratulations!" She said more seriously this time.

....?

Plymouth's mouth sort of hung open for a moment. What? Where did that come from? "Wait... wait. Who on earth is telling you that you're a bad person, Cela? You're GOOD people. There ain't no nicer! Who said that?" Plymouth reached for her hand with both of his. "We have lots of fun. All the time. Air nuzzles and secret hand shakes and jelly and ice cream and taffy. Where did all that bad person stuff come from??"

Plymouth was going to go VIOLENT on someone - and he was NOT the violent type.

"I am a bad person." Celandine shook her head and a few tears escaped. "I'm a bad person because even though I like everything that you said and you are so nice and wonderful to me and you kiss pretty good and buy me nice things and like flowers and give good hugs and everything is easy and nice and simple when I am with you,"

Breathe.

"Even with all that..." eughhhh her throat was closing up.

Plymouth's face quickly went from confused concern to TOTAL HORROR. She... was crying????? Every tear might has well have been a drop of poison to Plymouth. They killed him all the same. It was hard to concentrate on what she was saying with the little death drips running down her cheeks, but Plymouth was listening.

"I did something wrong?" Plymouth offered her his sleeve to wipe her face on. He was BEGGING her with his eyes to stop crying. BEGGING desperately.

"No! You never do anything wrong! I do! You are wonderful and perfect and amazing and you make me laugh and smile like nobody else can." Cela wiped her eyes on his offered sleeve and bit her lip to stop it from quivering.

After a moment she took a deep breath, "I have to... we have to... I have to... I, I, I," Sniff. Sob. Gulp.

"Cela, just tell me. You're killing me here. I'm ... I'm going to go out and hurt everyone because SOMEONE out there hurt you." Plymouth reached for Cela to hug her to him. The little sobs... MERLIN. They. Were. Killing. Him. Slowly. "Please, please, please Cela." He didn't ask her to stop crying because that generally made tears worse in his experience, but he ... so wished she would.

Ughhhhh that just made her cry MORE because she had DESERVED to get hurt and UGH. She hugged him back, still sobbing. "I... we... should break up and not... not be, " sniff. Sob, "Boyfriend and Girlfriend any... any... anymore."

...

Oh.


Plymouth froze. Outside and in, his body, heart, mind, everything just froze. He refused to think, or breathe, or generally live for a few long moments. Plymouth just didn't MOVE, not a muscle, not an inch.

Celandine lifted her head to peek at Plymouth for a moment, saw his non-reaction and burst into a fresh batch of messy, despairing sobs. "I did it wrong didn't I? I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I, I, I..."

Plymouth pulled his arms back and sat back on his heels. "Umm... I... I .." Plymouth put his hand on his heart and stared up at her. He was trying to convey that he was pretty sure that his heart just broke - not in the way people say when people have relationship issues - but literally broken. His chest HURT.

"W... w-why? I .. like you so much.. W... why?" WHY??? Plymouth's mind was starting to RUN a thousand miles an hour with questions. Most of them started with 'why?'.

"Oh, okay. I guess I shall have to wait." Kel said cheerfully. He suddenly got a mental picture of Satine and him, in the front row of the Quidditch stands. Both of their faces were painted blue and bronze...and they were holding a very large banner above their heads. ...Whoa. He had a huge imagination.

Before he could stop himself, he burst out laughing at Satine's intense expression. It was worse than a kid with a bedtime story. "She's very pretty." he agreed, nodding. "Yeah, I suppose so..." he said slowly. Had she seen him with Jenn before? "She's the one with long dark hair and big brown eyes and a cute face and..." he stopped, his ears going red again. "Yeah. Jenn Blood. Otherwise known as Fwig." he gave a determined nod. No more rambling.

Oh yeah! So Satine had seen Jenn and Kel together. Kel chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, I remember the thumbs up." he said, rolling his eyes. "And I did not just sluff it off. But...I didn't want to respond to it, because Jenn was sitting right there." His eyes widened as he pictured what could've happened if Jenn had seen Satine's show of approval. It would've been the death of Kel - he was sure of that.

"Con her!?" he scoffed, shaking his head. "What? You don't think I have enough gentlemanly charm to get a girl if I really wanted to?" he shook his head in mock-shame. "But no. It wasn't charm." Big shocker. "Actually, we got in a fight." Now that was an interesting story to tell people. That is, until you got to the embarrassing part where Kel yelled - with the whole common room being able to hear - that he liked her and cared about her and was upset that someone had hurt her and blah blah blah.

"And thanks, Satine." he said, looking back down at the bean bag. "And...yes. I have to admit - you told me so." he was smiling when he looked back up at her.

"I...HLUH-like.. HYU-you.. TUH-oo." Celandine agreed mournfully. She tucked herself into the foetal position on her chair and tried to stop sobbing.

Celandine's stomach was churning in a big way. Turmoil.

"Be... be-be-be... because... you... y-y-y-you and Co-c-c-c-co-pe-pern-ni-ni-nicus should be friends and and and I ke-ep getting in the waa-aa-yyy."

Celandine continued sobbing, pressing her face against her knees.

"Well that is just great!!!" she paused before she threw her next remark in there...[/B]" especially that I told you so...but I'm really proud of you she's def a keeper...and if fighting is what made her fall for you then you better start believing in tough love." [/B]she said with a little giggle. "So other than your love life, how are things going?" she knew she sounded like a psychologist but she decided to change the subject because she didn't want to be the nagging little sister that demanded every little bitty detail. She believe that some things were better unsaid, plus she wanted him to feel comfy sharing with her in the future.

"Me and Copernicus are friends, CellBell. We are. We.. we talked about this, it's fine now. I talked to him," Plymouth was a liiiiiittle desperate, but who could blame him, right? "You don't have to break up with me for Copernicus. We're friends. I promise, we're friends. Brothers, even. Really." Plymouth reached for her again, this time going for her face. She was going to make herself throw up from being so upset - needlessly upset! Plymouth was BESTFRIENDS with Copernicus!!!!!

"You talked about the summer?" Celandine looked up and sniffed a few times, "And... the poem? And the other day? I..." Celandine shook her head, "It isn't... because of him exactly... its because you and me are friends and I don't... I can't... we aren't..." She gestured between them, not quite able to put her thoughts into words. She felt like she was going to be sick. WHY was she breaking up with him? It was PLYMOUTH MORGAN and he was AMAZING and she was INSANE.

She started sobbing again.

Kel smiled and shook his head. "Tough love," he repeated, rolling his eyes. He was going to mention that she had fallen for him before they'd gotten in a fight, but the specifics didn't matter. At Satine's giggle, Kel couldn't help a laugh of his own.

"Besides my love life?" he asked, getting a o_0 face. 'Love life' was an odd way to phrase it. Or maybe Kel just hadn't accepted the fact that...no. He wasn't in love with Jenn. Love was for like, adults. He just liked Jenn. Like Life. ...Anywho... "Things are going good." he told her, shrugging. "Nothing very exciting has happened...school work...homework...oh! I have a new pet!" Not that that was terribly exciting...but oh well.

"And all the stuff happening in the school's kinda weird. Almost to a freaky level, ya know? With the water and Huffies sharing our common room..." he frowned.

"A new pet!" she could tell that he didn't think it was near as exciting as she did, "Details please?" she asked with a sweet voice.

"I have to agree. It's almost like whoever is doing or whatever is causing it wants all the houses to be together...you know...like be closer or something..." she paused thinking that what she said sounded way too deep and childish..."I'm not really sure where everyone's gonna fit in our CR...I mean we're kind of packed as it is and then adding all those peeps too...it'll be like clowns getting out of a car at a circus but with different colored robes..." she smiled at that thought..."but I guess it'll be a good opportunity to meet new people and our colors do work together I guess." she paused for a minute to refluff her bean bag and grab a blue pillow from the floor..."I just hope no one gets hurt...you would think the Professors would be able to fix the water rising and that scares me the most." she knew here eyes had to be huge with that last statement.

Plymouth pushed her hair back so that it didn't get wet in the flood of tears. "I don't understand, Cela. I'm ... Me and Perni talked about it. He said he liked you and he was sorry and that he would stop because... well.. you're my girl, CellBell. You're my girl... I..." Ugh.

Somewhere in Plymouth's conscience, he knew he was causing all these tears. That he could stop them. Plymouth took a deep, shaky breath before asking, "Are you sure?"


Plymouth wanted to rip his ears off so he didn't have to hear the answer.

"Well, Jenn gave him to me." Kel told Satine. "Um, he's a white pygmy puff. I named him Neige - the French word for 'Snow'." Now wasn't THAT exciting? Yes. Very much so. "He gets along with Jasmine quite well. Although I think that might be because Jas thinks he's a toy. But who knows."

When Sat gave her opinion, Kel nodded slowly. That was a good idea...but who in the world would flood the castle just to get the houses to interact a bit more? "Yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking. We're kinda crowded...and I suppose they'll have to sleep in the dorms, too. And I don't know about the girls, but the boys dorms don't have that much room to spare." He frowned, looking down at his hands. "Oh yes, it'd be a great way to meet new people. If you were the kind of person to walk up to a stranger and introduce yourself. Me, I'm not that kind of person." Not that he didn't wish he was...but he just wasn't. "And yeah. Our colors look good together. Everything's wonderful." he winked at Satine, though, to show he was joking.

When she told him that the fact the professors couldn't stop the water scared her, his frown got more prominent. "That's the thing. You'd think that the professors could fix it..." he trailed off, not having a clue where he was going to take that statement.

"Mmmphhhhh... but I couldn't stop. That's why I took the potion." Celandine didn't know how to make Plymouth understand when she didn't quite get it herself. "I don't want to hurt you. I don't..." She shook her head furiously and sobbed again.

"No I'm n-n-n-not sure. But that's why. I sh-should be sure, sh-shouldn't I? If we are supposed to be together? I should be sure about that! But I'm not sh-sh-sh-sure about an-an-anyth-th-thing!"

"Ooooo a Pygmy Puff...I've always wanted one...and this is going to suprise you...but a purple one...and I bet Jasmine does think it's a play toy just for her...I can see her now playing with him." that thought made her smile seeing the poor puff rolling across the floor with Jasmine chasing...

Satine listened to Kel's ideas..."Yes, it's just so....tragic...I mean who would do this to us...we're just lucky no one has been hurt...and I really hope they can get it figure out quickly..." remembering Kel's comment about walking up to new people..." Well, don't worry about having to walk up to new people to meet, we'll be sooo crammed in there that you'll just fall over everyone and then you have to talk to them." she said with a wink..."but you did great meeting me so you can talk to strangers."

Avoiding the serious mood that had fallen on their conversation about the flooding and the Huffies moving in, Satine got a mischievious look on her face, "You know what I have an idea." she said with her sneaky voice. She closed her eyes and thought really hard and just for show wiggled her nose like the genie on I Dream of Genie and then in the center of the room the bean bags and pillows and chairs disappeared and a huge trampoline developed out of thin air and four sides of it were smaller trampolines.

Satine opened her eyes and looked around, "So, you wanna have some fun to make this serious mood disappear?"

Oh.


Plymouth TRIED to not let his brain register what she was saying. Ohhhh what he would have given to have the ear hair back to drown her out! Copernicus had stopped liking Plymouth's CellBell, like he said he would when they talked over the summer - but apparently ... Copernicus's feelings weren't unrequited. Was that what she was saying? When she said she couldn't stop?

Plymouth got up and took a few steps backwards from her. He was nodding because what else was he supposed to do? Or say? She wasn't sure about him and that kind of said it all for him.

Cela let out a strange little strangled noise when Plym moved away from her, like it physically hurt her to be seperated from him. She knew this feeling. It was similar to when she and Garret had fought and when she'd stopped spending time with Barry. A sense of loss. Friends were, above anything, the most important thing to Cel and the fact that SHE was hurting Plymouth...

She let out another strangled little noise and sobbed silently whilest hugging her knees and rocking back and forward in her chair. Celandine just looked at him, unable to say anything else.

Plymouth took a few more steps towards the door. The thing about the Room of Requirement, besides that it was the WORST room in the entire castle, was that it was QUICKLY running out of oxygen.

He just wanted to hug Cela and get her to stop crying, above everything else, but he couldn't make himself go back to her when she ... didn't want him. She wasn't sure about him. "Should I go get someone for you, Cela? I .. I ... need.. I have to go. Air."

"Purple? Shocker." Kel commented, smirking. He chuckled, getting a mental image of Satine with her purple hair, sitting on that purple bean bag, and holding a purple puff ball. ..."Purple's your favorite color?" he suggested, knowing the answer.

He was about to reply to their current conversation, when the room decor changed very suddenly. He gave Satine a suspicious look before falling with a THUNK on the floor. He glared at Satine breifly before standing up. "Trampolines?" he asked, nodding in approval. "Clever. But..." This time it was his turn to close his eyes.

Nodding to himself and opening his eyes again, he saw the trampolines vanish, and instead the whole floor (or a covering on the floor, or however the room did it) became a trampoline. There were small platforms of real hard wood here and there, but for the most part it was a trampoline mat.

"How's that?" he asked, bouncing slowly up and down while still sitting.