The tangles in her head were not fixed yet. Marie was about to yell and plead for help, although not being one of her majors as in her social aptitudes. So, in order that no one would listen to her in case she'd scream at herself for pulling too much hair out in order to fix it, she headed outdoors and away from many students that could think she was going crazy.

A small bench was set on the corridor, which seemed empty and had no possible echo system around it. Marie pulled out her brush and started untangling her hair, one strand after the other...

If only she had that beauty potion...

Ahhh, it was a nice, cold day outside. And Sophia was happy, just like she always was! And why should she not be?

Well, except that she was in her dreary school uniform right now. How LAME and BORING was this. She wrapped her scarf a bit tighter around her, as the wind blew through her hair and against her face. At least it wasn't freezing outside. But the wind and cold would damage her hair. UGH SPLIT ENDS ARE THE WORST. She wouldn't let that happen, uh heck nooooo. She didn't know exactly what she was up to right now, so if someone asked...

She started skipping a little, and humming a tune of which she didn't really know. Her eyes glanced around, looking for someone to talk to.

And at that moment, she noticed a girl sitting on a bench, silently screaming, trying to brush her hair out. Oh no honey, that is NOT the way to do that.

"No no nooo," she said, rushing over. "From the tip to the root... that way you won't damage your hair and make split ends, or just cause yourself an AWFUL headache."

Gently tugging the brush out of the girl's hair, she noticed she was also a Ravenclaw. SQUEE. Someone to have SLEEPOVERS with!!!!

"Here... let me help you..." Sophia said, gently dragging the brush through the girl's hair. "My hair is like this too. It's a right mess in the morning. I think my brush is what does it. I soak the bristles in Sleekeasy's every night, then after my shower in the morning I run it through my hair. Usually helps out a LOT. Maybe you should try it." She kept humming as she helped brush out the girls hair. This poor thing. She knew only too well that pain, because she herself had it. Along with her siblings. Her older sister taught her how to do it properly, and it was only her duty to pass on the trick. "By the way... I'm Sophia. Or your new hairdresser." She had a huge smile on her face, which she hoped was warm and friendly.

YAY FOR HELPING PEOPLE.

Marie had the deep intention to just pull out her hair if she needed to in order to get her normal silky and soft hair, if that could be possible. Though, just the minute she was about to do it, a girl jumped out of nowhere and started to make the most familiar hairdressing care tips Marie was used to hear from her Nana back when she was a little girl. She couldn't say a word, deny to her the big relief she had brought her in her little chaotic moment.

So, she let go of the brush and let Sophia, as the girl had introduced herself, take care of the job. Sophia's smile assured her that she wasn't one of those pranksters, or someone who had decided to have sort of pity on her.

Actually, no one in Hogwarts had done that and that was the first thing Marie had to notice; that, no one knew about her past and all of them were the friendly kind, sort of, who just wanted to have new friends and offered a good handshake when it came to recieve new students. Maybe that was why she had no intention of going back home...

"Thank you..." She said, trying to make her whisper sound more like her real voice. "And nice to meet you, Sophia...I'm Marie, Marie Santiago." There, her tone was becoming normal by then, as she turned around to glance at the girl for the second time. She noticed Sophia was a Ravenclaw. Strange coincidence, maybe, "What year are you in?" Marie asked, curious.

"Oh no problem!" Sophia said, smiling again. "Well, I'm a third year, but I should be a fourth year. I had problems as a first year with my studies, but now I'm alright." Working harder was one thing she always had to do. Which was kind of lame, but she would do what she had to.

She glided the brush along, hoping not to hit a snag. As that thought crossed her mind, she did. Grabbing the section of hair that contained it, she held on to the middle and gently (or as gently as possible) pulled the brush through the tangle. Ugh, these things were awful when you were having a bad hair day.

Geez, this girl's hair was a right pain in the rear.

"Don't move..." she said softly. "I'm going to try to get this one out. If not, we'll have to go to our dorms so I can get my Sleekeasy's out for you. Or just my brush." As she struggled, she was running topics to talk about through her hair. "Well since you asked me, I'll ask you. What year are you?"

There was something they had in common: Marie was supposed to be a sixth year by then, but thanks to the lack of attention her mom applied on her the year her father died, and probably Marie's depression about it as well, it became impossible to focus on her magical studies on her second year of magic training. "Oh. What kind of problems?" Marie asked, knowing it would keep her off the tangling situation. "But it's good that you're alright now..." Yes, Sophia was fighting through her situation.

Then, Sophia told her not to move. At that moment, Marie knew something wasn't going alright, and even less when Sophia mentioned the hair treatment as before. Maybe, Marie's eyes were shut already showing that she feared that any kind of pull, either strong or gentle could force her to yell and be heard all through the first floor of the castle. "Alright, I won't move..." She whispered, slowly putting her sweater sleeve inside her mouth.

"I'm a fifth year, but like you, I should be a sixth year..." She mumbled through the fabric inside her mouth, trying to think that everything was going to go alright. Sophia seemed more experienced than she was, although at a very young age.

Walking towards the courtyard, TJ wiped another tear that had fallen. Why in Merlin's name was it so hard for people to break up? She knew she'd done the right thing, but Matt she knew was hurt though he agreed. What the heck was up with that! He agreed, that the relationship was forced, and that a relationship shouldn't be that way. They should both be happy and neither one was. ARGHH!

Leaning with her back against one of the pillars, she shook her head. It was over, over and done. And there was no reason to be upset, it was a mutual agreement, that they broke up. Pushing her palms against her eyes she took a deep breath before looking out over into the courtyard.

Now...for Ivan...were these feelings real? She certainly thought they were, her heart got flutters whenever he was around, or even just the memory of kissing him.

Ivan had been sitting outside under a tree, voluntarily, when he saw TJ walk out. Was she...crying? He swallowed suddenly upset that she was upset. Ugh he was becoming a sap.

Even after all his thinking he still didn't know the answer to his question. Hadn't known if he'd liked her before but figured he'd play it out and see what happened.

He took a deep breath and stood up to go comfort her. He didn't want to see her sad and it made him sad to see she was. Walking over to her he tapped her on the shoulder and smiled slightly. "Are you okay?" Hidden question, why are you crying and should he go beat someone up?

Hearing someone coming up she turned as she felt a tap on her shoulder. Seeing Ivan there, she gave him a small smile in return. "Yeah, just stupid really. I told Matt that we should break up." Ugh, sighing she shook her head, "He seemed to take it ok, and agreed that we really were working too hard on what we had. So much so that it was ridiculous."

She hadn't even gotten to the point of telling Matt of the kiss, and eventually would if he'd ever talk to her again. Looking up at Ivan "I just hate the idea of having hurt him. Because I know I did."

Ivan looked at her concerned and wrapped his arms around her in a hug to comfort her. "Well what did he expect? You to stay unhappy?" And if he did he was a selfish jerk who didn't deserve her anyway.

He reached one hand up and wiped a tear from her cheek giving her a smile, "I'm sorry." Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut to begin with. But then she would be unhappy and he'd have still been mad at the world. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. "Come on now no more crying," he said quietly.

Shrugging, "I don't know, he just walked away." She felt so safe and his arms felt so right with her in them. Feeling him wipe the tear away, she smiled in return. "I know it would be hard but now it's over." she said quietly. Taking a deep breath, she knew there wouldn't be more tears, because the hard part was over. Or so she hoped.

Looking up into his eyes, her hand found his that was wrapped around her, and she threaded her fingers into his. "Have you thought anymore of the other night?" she asked softly.

It was sounding all too familiar to him as she described what happened. He had walked off too of course he had just confronted Lexi and Sal so not exactly the same thing...kind of.... He still hadn't gotten to talk to Sal yet. Surprisingly. Usually the bloke was always around.

He smiled as she grabbed his hand and glanced at it before looking back at her. "I have." How could he not have? "I've determined that I like you," he said with a smirk and kissed her cheek. "You?"

Seeing his smile, her heart leaped as he said he said he liked her. So she hadn't had to worry that maybe it all was just a dream, or that it was just in the moment. Feeling the kiss on her cheek, she turned her head closer to his, her lips close to his own.

"I have determined the same." she whispered. Ok, they really risked getting caught by a professor out here now. Did it matter? Well, yeah detention didn't sound fun, but this was exciting! They'd finally both come to the realization of liking one another!

Ivan smirked and glanced around to make sure there weren't any professors around when she turned her head. Hearing her say she liked him too he grinned and kissed her on the lips. He pulled away juuuuust in case though he didn't really care if he got detention, he just didn't want her in trouble as well.

"Good now that we've covered that we can move on," he said with a smirk. He was glad she wasn't crying any more though. Smiling he looked at her. "So...what now?"

Her eyes shining as he kissed her, she grinned back happily. So if they both liked one another then the obvious thing would be them actually dating and being a couple. She couldn't help but giggle softly and ask though "So does that mean we're just kissing friends?"

Cuddling closer she leaned her head near him, "Or should we actually...?"

He raised an eyebrow as he heard TJ giggle and then hearing her question looked thoughtful. He didn't like the idea of kissing friends actually...meant she should kiss other friends and that was sooooooo not happening. But at the same time he didn't want to rush her.

As she moved next to him he smiled. "Well...only if you want. I didn't know if you wanted that yet or not." See he was taking things one step at a time.

Hearing what he said a smile flickered across her lips again. Lifting her eyes to his, her hand still threaded through his, "I like the idea of being a couple." she said softly.

She'd said it, and wow, instantly her heart felt like it was beating overtime now. Her eyes searched his, almost knowing the answer even before he said anything.

Ivan glanced at TJ and saw her smile before he head her answer. A couple huh? Sure...why not he could do that right? Giving her a smile he squeezed her hand, "Alright." He leaned in and kissed her again.

"So...I'll admit I've never done this the proper way before," he said with a shy smile. And he hadn't things with Lexi had gone slightly backward and she was the only real girlfriend he'd had.

Feeling him squeeze her hand, she smiled shyly back. "It'll be a learning experience for both of us then." Seriously, her and Matt's relationship hadn't been anything to base a real relationship on. Not to mention it flopping from the get go.

The first kiss as a couple. Wow, now that was something she'd not thought would happen between her and Ivan when they'd first met. But it felt perfectly natural now. "So what should we do first then?" she asked softly turning to face him completely.

They could learn together! Sounded good to him. This should prove interesting indeed. Looking at her as she faced him he shrugged, "I know what we COULD do," he said wiggling his eyebrows teasingly.

Well he wasn't really serious. "Hmmm...walk around? I'm not sure. Kind of tired myself right now," he said laughing and wrapped and leaned his head against hers. "Can we sit down and talk?" Always a good idea.

Grinning at him she giggled loving the feel of his arm around her. "I think that would be a great idea." Sit and talk, and get to know each other even better! "Where should we go?"

Ivan smirked as he heard TJ giggle. She sure did giggle a lot. That was alright though. Meant she had a sense of humour. "Umm..." he looked around pulled her over to an empty bench.

Sitting down he sat her beside him and kept his arm around her with a grin. "Alright. So..." Hmm. He was still trying to wrap his mind around everything that had happened in the last few days. He looked at her and broke out into a laugh wrapping both arms around her. "Who'd have thought this would happen."

He sighed and kept the grin on his face. "And I promise to give you a hard time still," he said cheekily. "After all that is what you like most about me right?"

Grinning at him she snuggled into his arms, shaking her hea"d "I certainly never thought this would happen when we first met." Particularly the way Lexi appeared to have tried to chase her away. Despite all that had happened between the two of them since meeting, the teasing and all, she was thrilled that the two had finally connected in the end.

"I think I'd miss it if you didn't." she replied a smile on her face before she kissed his cheek. Might need to give me those lessons on flirting again, she said coyly. "I got a great person to practice on now." Laying her head on his shoulder she sighed happily the smile still on her lips.

Nika walked into the corridor and looked around. She didn't see anyone she knew and she didn't want to stand all alone doing nothing. So she decided to pull out some of her homework and work on that. Nika scanned through her list of assignments and noticed that she forgot to work on Karate for DADA. Well this is going to be a problem. Nika doesn't know how to do karate.

Uh oh.

Nika shrugged and decided to try. She threw a few punches in the air and kicked it a couple times as well. She felt rather ridiculous doing so but what else did this professor want her to do. She thought about some karate movies she had seen and decided to amp up the effect a bit by adding a "HIGHYA!" Here and there as she kicked.

She was quite satisfied with her work and scrambled away as fast as she could so nobody would go and ask her what she was trying to do.

Ivan smiled and looked at her, "Still want to know where I got that pretzel?" he asked with a smirk. Yeah he remembered that day though he admit he hadn't thought of that in awhile.

His smirk turned into a grin and he laughed. "Well could've given you those lessons before too," he teased. "I'm sorry about things between you and Matt though," but not too sorry since if she hadn't they wouldn't be here.

Laughing as he asked about the pretzel, she nodded, "I never did find it, not even during the last holidays." She was beginning to wonder if he brought it from home! She remembered that day well, particularly because of his teasing and also her shoes.

Laughing again she shook her head, "I suppose you could've if I'd been willing." She'd been so determined to prove that she could do it herself, she hadn't been even willing to have him teach her. Her eyes widened in surprise, at that thought. She wondered then especially with his last statement regarding her and Matt, if maybe her heart had just been in the wrong place even with Matt.

Looking up at him, she said softly "I wonder if the main reason that Matt and I didn't click was my heart just wasn't in it...it was elsewhere, even before I knew it myself."