"Oh," Reid had time to breath before Rachel was kissing him. And not on the cheek but. Eyes sparkling at the answer she gave Reid couldn't help but want to laugh. She was so adorable.

"Well then it's lucky that I guess I kinda like you too Miss Rider." he responded, answering her in kind. "And no it didn't really bother me. Just confused me a little bit." Reid shook his head at her fake innocent look. She pulled it off too well to really be innocent.

"Luck, huh?" Rachel repeated with a slight snort and grinned up at him with happiness. Ok, she WASN'T insane - but she could swear the alley looked more cheerful than before. Seriously.

Oh, who cares about the alley. She had her boyfriend back!! It took all of five seconds before she practically threw her arms around him and squeezed him half to death, not intending on letting go. EVER. She laughed out loud as her feet left the floor; not being tall enough (hey, he was HUGE) to hug him and stand she had opted for the hanging option.

"Well, confusion looks cute on you," she replied in his ear, still reluctant to let go. If it were up to her, she'd hang here the whole day but something told her that as strong as her man might be, he also had a red line - and she might soon cross it.

REID WAS HERS AGAIN!!

Evan wandered around the Hogsmeade, really bored in the castle. He didn't pay attention to where he was going, the silence was just good. He was whistling Love Me Tonight by Tom Jones as he walked, and sat somewhere. Maybe he should turn back to the alive alley? He pulled his book out of his bag, and started to read as there was nothing to watch here. He could go to the library as well, but being outside felt better.

"Yes luck." Reid replied giving her the smile he'd always reserved for her. The smile that would always be reserved for her.

Standing still Reid waited for the attack that was sure to come. If he knew Rachel he'd have his arms full of her in approximately five seconds. Yep he knew Rachel all right. She'd jumped him and he couldn't be happier about it. That changed a little when she started to hang from his neck. He may be strong from lifting weights but he wasn't strong enough to have all her weigh hanging from his neck. Not wanting to let go of her though Reid simply brought his hands underneath her, supporting her weight more comfortably.

"Most things look good on me to you." Reid said confidently. It may sound conceited to others but he knew it as being the truth, just like for him most things looked good on Rachel. Shifting her position slightly he leant down and gently kissed the top of her head.

It was good to have Rachel back where she belonged. With him.

Ahhh... Hogsmeade. It was good to be out and about again. The air inside of the castle and on the campus was too much for her. A break was exactly what she needed at that moment. Livvy smiled as she strolled through the streets with her book bag slung over her shoulder.

She felt like skipping at that moment. Her problems seemed to fade away at that moment. All the things that had happened seemed to have disappeared. When in fact, it didn't. It was still there.

And then when Livvy came upon the back alley, she stopped dead in her tracks. Oh merlin. Oh merlin oh merlin OH MERLIN.

REID AND RACHEL.

Livvy felt like she was going to die now. Her cheerful mood had slipped away. And all her original and unsolved problems came rushing back like a stampede of caribou. That's right. Caribou. She didn't know if she and Rachel were in the freeze-out mode... or the "Hi. Bye" mode... or the, "Let's be friends and forget about it" mode. It was sort of confusing. Rachel had left it hanging when they last talked at the Start-of-term feast. But that was ages ago. And the girl never seeked Livvy out to talk. Did that mean their friendship was over?

She didn't know what to do. Go up to them? Stand there like an idiot? Run away? But waiiiit... they seemed happy now. Better than they used to be. Possible that they made up? Would they still be mad at her?

Foolish girl. Of course they would. After all, she was the one that broke them up. They didn't deserve her as a friend. Livvy wanted to make it up to them and renew their friendship, not that there was ever much of one with Reid, but she knew it was impossible. They wouldn't want to risk her ever breaking them up again.

So what to do?

Crunch.

Fact of the week. Don't try and walk into a dark alley with sunglasses on. In fact, scrap that. Don't try and walk around anywhere in the winter with sunglasses on, it isn't worth it, sooner or later the sun will go in, and you're left stranded in the dark, then you have to take them off, put them carefully over your well moulded hairstyle, walk a bit further, and then the freakin' sun will come back out, and you have to put them back on.

Still in contemplation mode whilst facing the wall that he'd walked into, Ashton rubbed his face, specifically the bridge of his nose where his sunglasses had pushed into. Life was cruel when you were as hot as he was.

Eventually turning away from the wall that had been offensive enough to... Be there, Ashton made his way further into the alley way. It wasn't that cold for the month that it was... Which ever one it was, which was nice. He had been expecting it to be as cold as it was the previous year, but, England had been kind to him, and it wasn't that bad. Seriously. He could of sworn that the year of his twelfth birthday was colder than this, and he had been in Arizona then.

Sighs. Arizona. America. New York.

Man, he missed his homeland. Especially when summer came around. He missed the huge tower blocks, the bustling business people, and the traffic. And what did he have here?

Brooms.

"Mmmhmm," Rachel agreed, giggling as he kissed her. She felt... Light. Happy. ECSTATIC. And she was breaking his neck. Grinning, she pecked him on is cheek and lowered herself down, kind of glad her feet were touching the floor yet again.

She liked hanging on Reid like a monkey, but being on the ground was REALLY nice. "So, whe-" she began, then froze as a figure she had not noticed before suddenly appeared behind Reid - and that figure was that of her best friend, Livvy Zhang.


"Liv! Er, hi," Rachel began, walking away from Reid and towards the new arrival. This was REALLY awkward. In her mind - somewhere deep were she was only borderline conscious of the thoughts - she had always imagined making up with Livvy first... She WAS her best friend and everyone knows that they are worth so much more than some boy.

Although Reid was SO NOT just some boy Not the point.

"Listen - I'm sorry. For freezing you out, for being insufferable after you apologized profusely for the huge misunderstanding that happened," yes, the sixth year believed that, unlike Reid's blatant betrayal, Livvy had been manipulated into the situation.

Oh, how she HATED that Sienna.


AND she hated it when people randomly came a-walking into VERY serious conversations; expecting to be given attention. True, the new boy who had stepped into the alley hadn't really barged into their conversation but he was still THERE - and the alley had good acoustics, unfortunately.

Run. Yeah. That's what she'll do.

Sighing, Livvy tried to turn away just when Rachel spotted her. Oh crud. Now there was no way for her to leave. She wanted to make up with Rachel, but she wanted to run away too. Transfer. She should just transfer to a different school. But what did Copernicus say? No... Livvy couldn't run away from this problem. She'd have to solve it. But still, that didn't help her feeling of the need to escape.

"Hi..." she said awkwardly, offering a small smile. Her heart raced as Rachel walked towards her. Was she going to slap her? She deserved it.

Livvy crossed her arms and braced herself for a slap. But there wasn't a slap. But words.

She sighed and stared desperately at Rachel. "No, Rachel. I'm sorry. It was my fault. I shouldn't have been so stupid. No matter how much Sienna tried to manipulate me, I shouldn't have given in. I'm so sorry, Rachel. Ugh. I'm sorry," Livvy said, saying that EVIL girl's name with much distaste and ran her fingers through her hair.

And then there was a crunching noise.

Turning her head away from Rachel, she glanced over to see a boy standing in front of a wall. Umm....? Livvy raised an eyebrow at the boy and couldn't help but smile. Did he seriously just run into the wall? Why in Merlin's beard was he wearing sunglasses?

Rachel sighed. It wasn't easy to forgive someone when they kept insisting that they should be eternally guilty... "Livvy - I understand. Sienna," a shiver of disgust went down her spine at the name, "happens to be a top notch manipulator. Anyone could have co-operated," she said, her eyes flicking back to Reid for a second before making contact with Livvy's.

"But you know why I forgave you? Because you never pushed me - you were so truly sorry that you thought it would be best if you suffered... And I admire you for that," Rachel said earnestly, willing Livvy to believe her with all her heart. This no-talking thing needed to stop.

And now was as perfect a time as any. "Now - what is UP with that guy?" she whisper-giggled, nodding towards the sunglasses clad person who had annoyed her before but was now providing a good source of entertainment. And she preferred a funny situation to an awkward one any day - that is for sure.

Stupid. STUPID.

Why did she agree to go on that trip anyway? She could've stayed with a different friend or returned home. Why did she even think that going to Los Angeles would be good? Stupid. STUPID. Livvy wanted to crawl under a rock and stay there forever. At least under there, she wouldn't break anybody's hearts or anything.

She bit her lip and held her arms to her chest, swaying from side to side, her eyes flitting from side to side.

For-forgave? Rachel... forgave her? Really? It felt like a dream in Livvy's eyes. Too miraculous. Turns out the Pernipants was right. She had to give Rachel her space. Her lips broke out into a small and happy smile as she closed the space between the two best friends and wrapped her arms around Rachel. "Oh merlin. Rachel. You don't know how much I've missed you. Never having anyone to talk to, sucks. You're my best friend and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the world," Livvy said, happily as she held onto Rachel.

She hadn't been this close to Rachel in ages. It felt so nice.

Smiling, the girl clung to her arm and glanced back at the boy and giggled. Boy was she glad at a change of topic. "No idea. Sunglasses? Really? Is he confused with the seasons?" Livvy whispered back, snorting slightly and tried to stifle another giggle.

Wondering why Rachel stopped her sentence Reid turned slowly, a feeling of foreboding settling into the pit of his stomach. And there was Livvy. Yep he'd been right. Something bad would probably happen.

"Hello Olivia," Reid said walking a few steps closer but giving the girls their space. His eyes darkened with suspicion as they gazed upon the girl. But really who could blame him? She'd already tried to break them up once so what would stop her from doing in again. Although from the way she looked as if she wanted to run he could guess that Rachel had been giving her virtually the same treatment she'd been giving him.

"She probably wont hit you, you know." Reid remarked, thinking that if Rachel were to hit either of them it would most likely be him. Because he just knew that somehow Rachel had managed to put what he did on a seperate level to what Livvy had. And he could guess that he was put on a worse one too. "She's more likely to hit me."

Rolling his eyes at the girls mushy reunion his attention was distracted slightly by the boy that walked into the wall. Ahh sunglasses in winter. They were killer, because although they may look fashionable they made it awfully hard to see. Reid had learnt that the hard way.

"Oh please. Sienna may know how to manipulate people but even that has it's limits. And Livvy lets be honest you haven't liked me since we met and on the first day in LA you weren't even happy that I had time to eat dinner with you and Rachel let alone anything else. You let Sienna involve you in her schemes because of the simple fact that you didn't want me to be anywhere near Rachel and didn't think about how much that may actually hurt her." Harsh maybe and he could only imagine what Rachel would say but it was the truth as he saw it. He knew Sienna a lot better than either of the girls and therefore he knew that her manipulations had limits.

What was with that look? "I didn't fall for it. I knew after awhile what she was doing. Unfortunately Sienna knows how to hurt people and she knew what to say to get you to believe her. Granted there was fact in there but still, I never fell for it. I may have defended her in Paris but I have habits to you know so it wasn't like I completely betrayed your trust." Reid said somewhat tiredly. This whole situation was getting old but for some reason he couldn't forgive Livvy like Rachel could. Maybe it was because she'd never hidden her dislike for him and made it apparent whenever Rachel wasn't around but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Maybe after she proved that she wouldn't do something like the stunt she pulled with Sienna again he could but he doubted it.

Oh and now they were laughing at the guy with sunglasses. That was so not nice. Having had the same thing happen to him before probably coloured his thinking a little but anyone would hate to be laughed at like that. Whatever, they were girls and if he said anything else he may end up losing the girlfriend he just got back.

Alley=Dark.

This Alley wasn't pitch black kind of dark but yeah reasonable light.Light enough for Shana to spot her favorite big brother,Mister McVeigh.Skipping over to him she jumped on his back and clung to his neck.Heeeey Youuu. Poke.Poke.Cuddle.Poke.

Great.

Her reunion with Rachel had been disrupted by the infamous Reid. She really did honestly want to like him, but he seemed to want to make it hard for her. Livvy couldn't blame him for not being able to forgive her. What she had done was horrible. But she just wished that he would try to give it some effort.

"Hello Reid," Livvy said quietly, attempting a small smile. She remained quiet, staring at his dark eyes even though she wanted to look away. Somehow she had to earn his trust. She wanted him to at least try to trust her.

It was probably too much to ask of him though. It showed in his face and the words that he spoke to her. The tone gave away how he felt about her, and it made Livvy's face fall drastically. She may have won Rachel over, but she most definitely did not win Reid over. And for Rachel, after all the horrible things that Livvy had done, she wanted to at least try to get along with Reid. At least try. But how exactly was that going to work when Reid kept on bringing back Livvy's errors? Didn't the guy understand that she wanted to move on instead of being reminded? Obviously not. Boys would be boys. And it seemed like he wasn't ever going to let it go.

But she'd have to deal with it if she wished to continue on being Rachel's friend. Which included dealing with his harsh words.

Livvy flinched at what he said. It felt like a slap to her face. And at that moment, she deserved it. She shouldn't complain right? It was indeed her fault. "Reid," Livvy said, pausing for a moment to sigh and tell herself that she had to try and make things work. "I know. I know. We all know that I never showed anything near to liking towards you. Honestly. I think it's my own problem. Pfft. It IS my own problem. And... I don't think that I ever said this to you, but I can't tell you how deeply sorry I am."

She stared at him sincerely, biting her lip as she gathered her thoughts one more. "I can't... expect you to forgive me. It beats me why even Rachel would," Livvy said sadly, glancing over at her best friend. She didn't deserve a friend like her. "And you're right," her voice crackled a little. But Livvy vowed never to cry in front of people. Especially not HIM. "I didn't think about how it'd hurt Rachel. I was stupid. Careless. I was too protective. But..." Sigh. "I won't meddle anymore. You guys are clearly happy together and my dislike for you shouldn't matter. And I honestly want to change that dislike to... somewhat... courteous acknowledgment. So. Yeah. I just want to push it all behind me. Though... I understand if you don't want to," she said the last sentence with a steely gaze.

Livvy desperately wished that she could make amends. But she knew that it'd take a while. Along while. And amends with whom? She meant Reid. Compared to how long Reid may take to trust her, Rachel's situation seemed like a walk in the park. And it took a lot of effort and time to get Rachel to forgive her. Guess it was harder to forgive someone when it was someone you hardly knew.

Oh no. No. Livvy was NOT allowed to cry. Because if SHE cried, then there was no way Rachel could hold back the waterworks. "I missed you too - I needed someone to talk to and when I realised that you weren't there... Gosh, it's just REALLY nice to have you back," she admitted and hugged her newly instated best friend (although if she was true to herself, Livvy had always held that position and always will - no matter how bad things get) back fiercely.

"Might be... Or maybe he's a foreigner who doesn't know what the English winter is like," she suggested as they both turned to the guy, a beatific smile on her face as she gazed at him. She was just so HAPPY - it was almost unreal.

You know what would be a bummer though? If she woke up. And found out that all of this had never actually happened.



Uh oh. At the sound of Reid's tone, Rachel's head whipped towards Reid so fast that she heard a crack. "Reid," she stage-whispered, knowing what he was going to say but trying to make him not to it in the end.

Dangnabbit. He was off.

"REID!" she gasped, shocked by just how horrible he was being. She had expecting something of the sort - of course, Livs had hurt Reid too - but not THIS much.

Pretty much speechless from the terrible accusations, Rachel settled for letting the two talk it out. Wait - what was she saying?! She couldn't just let them be! That only meant one thing; and she didn't feel like going through another catastrophe.

"That was harsh, Reid. Way too harsh for-" she began, speaking seriously, before Livvy cut her short and began talking herself. Well - there was one good thing in that; Livvy had just prevented an argument between her and Reid since there was no way she would have let the things he said to her go.

He had defended Sienna yet AGAIN! The sixth year fought to keep herself under control - he didn't know what he was saying, he was being unpredictably stupid all of a sudden, he was failing miserably at trying to be an all round gentleman... Any way you want it, he didn't mean it.

He didn't.



And that was when Rachel melted.

...
Not really - but she felt close enough to the actual melting. Livvy's words - her pleas for forgiveness - were heartbreaking and Rachel found herself forgiving her all over again.

Although it didn't really help that SHE was convinced - she had to make sure Reid was convinced too. Otherwise this was NEVER going to work. "Before you answer, Reid," she spoke up softly, speaking to him and only him, "think of what's at stake here."

It's true - if Reid declined Livvy's apology, Rachel would be forced to choose between her best friend and her boyfriend. And the prospects didn't look great for said boyfriend, as painful as that was to her.

"Sorry is just a word. My parents taught me that." Reid said softly looking into Livvy's eyes, trying to see if she was telling the truth. "Actions that back up that word though are different. You can tell me that your sorry a thousand times and I wont believe you." Reid stated truthfully. There was something in the girls eyes though that made him want to believe her. Still he wasn't as forgiving as Rachel and it was hard to forgive someone who's good side you've never been witness too.

"I don't believe that you wont meddle. All friends will at points. I just hope for Rachel's sake that you'll only meddle IF I hurt her or if you see that she isn't happy. Especially next year considering I wont be here and so many things can be mistranslated through the post." Reid said, still not willing to trust or forgive Livvy for what she'd done but knowing that Rachel would rely on the girl.



"It may be harsh and direct Rachel but Livvy and I haven't spoken before this point and we both went through a lot because of her. This is another side of me and it's not one you've ever had to see before because normally when I'm angry I don't have a chance to be bitter about it. But lets face it I do feel bitter. Bitter that the blame for nearly everything that went wrong was placed onto me. Bitter that I barely got a chance to explain my side of the story at all because what Livvy said had to have been the truth," Reid's voice was pleading as his eyes begged Rachel to understand him. It had seemed like Rachel was the only one hurt for the majority of the summer but it had hurt him just as much, if not more that Rachel hadn't trusted him enough to let him explain most situations and just let the things Livvy told her stay as one side of the story. It had hurt but Reid couldn't show that then, not with Rachel being as upset as she was.

Reid closed his eyes slightly to hide the pain that was tearing through him with those words. "Before you answer, Reid,think of what's at stake here." Did he really mean so little to her that she couldn't even understand why it would be hard for him? Obviously, since he was the one she threatened. Throughout all of this he was the one that had received the brunt of Rachel's frustrations and anger and part of him couldn't help but wonder why he was putting up with it. He was a film star and he could have every witch in America if he wanted too. He could have Sienna easily and if he went back to her his family would welcome him back with open arms.

But for some idiotic reason Reid couldn't see himself with anyone other than Rachel. Rachel who would walk away from him right now without a second glance.

"I can't do something just because you want me to Rach. I can't make myself forgive her and I can't force myself to trust her. It takes work and since I've never trusted her it isn't easy. I've never seen her good points, only her bad so what do I have to base my feelings off other than the parts of her that I've seen?" Reid sighed in frustration, running his fingers harshly through his hair. "Yet your demanding that I trust someone I've never had cause to trust or to lose you again forever. Maybe to you it seems fair but to me it isn't. It isn't fair that I either have to trust her or give you up." Reid said looking directly into her eyes, his voice practically emotionless as he looked at her. Looking for any hint that she actually cared about what he felt in this situation. He didn't find it.

Turning his back to her Reid felt as if part of his heart was being clawed out. AGAIN.

"I don't trust her Rach and I'm not sure I believe her. I don't think I will for a long time. I can be civil to her and about her and I can promise not to come between the two of you but right now that's the only thing I can promise other than that I'll try to forgive her and trust her. If it isn't good enough..." Reid trailed off shrugging his shoulders slightly. If it wasn't good enough then maybe they just weren't meant to be. If it wasn't good enough then maybe Rachel would need to adjust her expectations of people, most importantly of him.

He turned back towards her half-way, wanting to see her reaction and also wanting to be able to quickly turn so that she wouldn't see him breakdown if she said that it wasn't enough.

He was just about making the decision to leave the dark Alley place when a monster leaped a-pon his back! EEP! Desperately clinging to his balance, Ashton grabbed on to one of the railings that were lining the outside of the shops. Now, to the best of his knowledge, there was only one person who threw themselves at him like that.

"Ohaii!" She may annoy him to high heaven, but at least she was about.. And still alive. He'd eat anyone who tried to hurt her. Giving her the best hug he possibly could when she was on his back, he added, "Y'allright?"

Attempting to make her way round to the front of his body her brow furrowed.Okay this was going to be alot harder than she thought.Jumping down from his back she skipped round so she was standing before him holding out her arms; indicating for him to pick her up.Beaming at him she waited patientinly in the cold dark alley in hogsmeade.How she loved Hogsmeade but oh how she wished they sold Pygmy Puffs and she didn't have to wait to go to Diagon Alley to buy one.

"Haaai!" She shouted back at him,Shouting just so people knew it was safe to come down here,possibly with tourches.Giggling as he attempted to hug her,her giggle turned back into a normal smile.Yep.I'll be better if you picked me up.

And just when things began looking better - the world turned on it's axis and her sweet Reid became this unforgiving person and all the problems came back. Nice.

She felt bad. Bad for Livvy and bad for Reid, even though the two were on opposite sides of the argument. All she had ever wanted was for Reid and Livvy to get along - that had been the original point of the summer; to get them to see what she saw in them, so that they will like each other.

And, as all three of them knew, it hadn't turned out quite like that. The opposite, in fact. And now Reid wouldn't trust her best friend. "Your side of the argument? Yes, we fought because of Livvy and yeah we managed to find all our weak points because of Livvy but ultimately I left the film set because of you and Sienna - and that had nothing to do with Livvy," Rachel said quietly, almost consciously aware of her mood dropping to the minus areas.

"You are right - I have never seen this side of you, and I'm not sure I ever want to again. Reid, I know you were hurt too - I really do, and I understand how you feel. Thing is, I do trust her. You don't know Livvy like I do - which probably has something to do with you mistrust - but I do and I know that she will never do something like this again," Rachel explained and looked over to Livvy, giving her a reassuring smile. Whatever happened; she would always believe the best in her.

"It's probably hard for you to understand that now but at least try - she's my best friend, and I forgave her. You don't even know her... Can't you at least try to get past this? I'm not saying that the two of you should become instant buddies - far from it - I'm just suggesting that maybe you should give her the benefit of the doubt before giving her such harsh a treatment as this one. She did something bad, but everyone deserves a second chance, right?" she concluded, almost pleading, as she looked at Reid full on - noting all the expressions on his face and trying to convey her own.

It saddened her - this whole thing - because she knew that if she would be forced to choose between Reid and Livvy, she'd probably alienate them both since the sixth year could not imagine a life with one of them but not the other. At least if they were both gone, she'd have nothing to remember them by...

BUT - it's not going to come to that. No way. Not ever. She WOULD fix this - even if it took her all year. True, she didn't like this side of Reid much but everyone had their flaws and apparently this was his. And she loved him for it, even if she would never admit it.

ACK. Don't you DARE cry, Olivia Zhang.

She held her composure and made sure she wouldn't break into tears. The Ravenclaw girl wrapped her arms around herself, rocking back and forth on her heels. She wanted to leave. She wanted to run away. Maybe coming up to them wasn't a good idea after all. But NO. She had to face this... this... nightmare... and solve it and deal with the consequences.

Livvy sighed deeply. She wanted to crawl under a rock and stay there forever. FOREVER. And never come out.

She knew that what she had just said weren't going to be enough for Reid. No. It wasn't going to be enough. Livvy could tell from the looks on both Reid and Rachel's faces that even though Rachel had forgiven her, it was not going to be easy to get Reid to forgive her.

The girl smiled weakly at her best friend who tried to defend her. But it'd be no use. Though Livvy wished it would.

True. Sorry was just a word. Who was to say that she wouldn't ruin Rachel's life again? Oh merlin. Who was to say that she wouldn't get stupid again and do something stupid AGAIN. Livvy wanted to leave. Real bad. Rachel didn't need her right? She had Reid. There was no need for Livvy. No need for a bad friend.

And great. They were fighting. Just wonderful. Or at least it seemed to be the beginning of a fight. WHY? Why did she have to be born into this world and cause so much misfortune to the person she cared about the most? WHY?

She wanted them to stop. Weren't they so happy just moments ago? Weren't they so cheerful? Livvy wanted to go back into time and just not have come up to them period. Scratch that. She wanted to never have met Rachel so then they wouldn't be in such a predicament. It was all her fault. GAH. Stupid.

"Reid. I understand. You're right. There's definitely no way to say whether or not I'd do something again. But... I just want you to at least try to get along with me. You don't have to like me... just give me another chance to prove myself."

She had been walking around, not really entering any shops but looking inside through the window, and soon came to stand close to this alleyway she had not seen before.

Frowning, Miranda stepped closer, hearing voices - some pretty loud and AngrRryyy voices.
Biting her lip, she knew eavesdropping was not cool at all, but her curiousity got the better of her. The voices weren't that coherent, Miranda had no idea what they were talking about, but she did notice one girl in particular who looked sad.

Miranda hoped she was allright, but this was a part of the Hogwarts experience. Growing up, learning. Finding love and hearbreak. Wether it's from a boyfriend or friends.

There was a large waste bin a few feet away. If she could reach it, she could crouch and take cover to take a picture.
Miranda hurried over to it, a firm grip on her camera, and prepared to take a picture.

Miranda aimed, looked through the looking hole and focused on the girl who was hugging herself. Sadness... But with sadness, alot of joy came after it. Because you make yourself go on. And that was a strong thing to do.
Miranda made sure to not get the face of the sad girl on camera, because her sorrow was her business. Bu you could still see the outlines of her face, even though you wouldn't be able to identify her.

No flash... Because it wasnt necessary, it was daytime. Pausing, her thick mitten covered the flash-thingy, just in case. Miranda did not want to draw attention to herself.

*click*

Yeah...that should be good enough.

With that, Miranda scrambled up from her hideout and hurried back to the main street.

"You think I don't know it was my fault for defending Sienna? Of course I knew and I don't blame her," Reid said, pointing at Olivia, "for that. No for that I've been tearing myself apart and applying glamour charms so that no-one would know anything was wrong. I admit that I screwed up but I can't change it." Reid said tiredly, regretting ever drawing Rachel's attention to himself today. If he hadn't of then he could have avoided meeting with Livvy for a few more days. The few days it would take before he decided to give up on it and accept things. Because Reid knew he would have given up on Rachel in a few more days. Well maybe not completely but he would have resigned himself to the fact that he didn't have her.

"Your right she is your best friend and she's nothing to me so why does it matter if I trust her or like her?! You will anyway and I'll get over it." Reid exclaimed, sick of being the one that had to be understanding. Just because he was the man he had to seemingly understand girls and their mood swings. He had to understand when they said things that they wanted to take back. He had to understand when they wouldn't talk to you because of something you didn't even remember doing and he had to understand this too!

"Maybe you don't but I can't change who I am Rach. This is as much a part of me as the person you knew last year. It isn't the better part of me admittedly but I can't change it." Reid turned back so he was looking at them fully and his heart hurt by looking at Rachel's face. Even the emotions displayed on Livvy's face were getting to him. "I've never trusted people easily, and I've never been one to forgive easily. We're different like that Rach." Reid said turning away from both of them.

"OH for." Reid exclaimed. "Did I not say I'd try to trust her? I said I'd be civil and at the moment that's all I can do Rach. I know this can't be easy for you and maybe if not for this summer Livvy and I wouldn't be like this now." Reid raked his hand through his hair again in frustration.

"Livvy," Reid said turning to address the girl. "I did say actions speak louder than words. So show your sorry by being the best friend to Rachel you can be. Do that for a month without deliberately doing anything to harm Rachel, me or our relationship and I'll trust you." Reid said, hoping that this would be good enough because if not he was done.

Since Jake knew how spooky the back alley was, he hadn't expected anyone to be there. But there WERE people hanging around.

Grrr.

So much for a private moment.

Stopping quite for away from the group, where the upturned bins lay, Jake stared down silently at them for a moment, feeling as though he wanted to cry, but not being able to. In one sudden movement, he lashed out and kicked the fallen bins with all his might.

Oww, yeah. That did it.

The tears started to fall, at first from the pain in his foot (the bins, now dented, had been up against the wall) but then once he'd started to cry, the tears turned to tears of anger and upset. He wasn't bawling, just sniffling, with now overly bright eyes. "I hate this stupid place," he mumbled to himself, sinking down to the floor a little way away from the bins and whipping his glasses off, burying his face in his hands.

So Ethan was actually looking for Annie, not that he'd expect her to be down an alley way, no. He'd just been walking past and heard a crash. Upon investigation, aside from a few of his older students having what appeared to be a private discussion a fair distance away, at his feet was Jake Upstead looking a little worse for wear.

Without saying a word, Ethan crouched down and regarded Jake gravely.

In the process of drying his eyes and taking some breaths, Jake saw a blur out of the corner of his eye, that was blocking the sun. Fearing the worst, the boy frantically put his glasses back on and tensed up, but relaxed when he recognised who it was.

"Sir," he gasp-sighed, leaning back against the wall and running a hand through his hair and making it stick up on one side. That was good timing... Jake had planned to go looking for Truebridge pretty soon. "I dddddi'n't know y'was th-there..." he stammer-slurred, looking round at the man and hiccoughing.

"I wasn't." Truebridge answered matter-of-factly. True enough, he'd not been there long. He gave Jake a brief look and took the cherry wand from his holster, conjuring a mug and filling it with water.

"Drink." He offered the cup and reholstered the wand.