Tay laughed and smiled at her friend, "I only met him once but i might get Maxwell to set up a meeting between you two."

Laura smiled at her. 'My sister too used to play guitar well,' she said. She used to get Sabrina to play her favourite songs, especially 'Love Story' by Taylor Swift. That was before she died.

Laura smiled at them. 'Never met your boyfriend, Tay..,' she remarked.

Tay looked at her, "Used?" and about the boyfriend thing, "Oh he is a second year gryffie." Taylor smiled.

'Yeah..'used to' because she's dead..,' Laura said, trying to sound quite matter-of-fact about it. 'Oh is he? What's his name?,' she asked.

"Oh...." Sadness came across her face, as she thought about what Laura said and about Carina.... "Sorry to hear that....." To the boyfriend subject, "Maxwell Rookwood."

Laura smiled at her. 'That's okay...,' she said.'Happened three years back..'. Laura missed her sister so much..

Tay nodded but stayed quiet. Her fingers slowly tapped a little as she thought.

Laura hated this awkward silence. 'So..tell me more about your family..,' she said finding something to break the silence.

Tay grimaced a little, "Not much to tell, a father and sister died, a mother who was gone most of my life come back over summer, a brother who is a prankster who puts spells and potions on you, a twin, and a baby brother a few months old."

Oh..Laura realised that she should have asked something else to break the silence. 'Oh..I'm sorry to hear about your dad and sis,' she said.

Tay waved it off, "Its fine, i only seen my sister 2 months in all of her life....." 2 months out of 8 years... "As for my father, he was always too busy for us so it just seems weird...." After a few moments of silence, "So any plans for summer?"

'Plans..umm..nothing yet..what about you?,' she asked.

" Taylor i love your a awesome." nicki said with a laugh

nicki gave a little chuckle

Laura smiled at Nicki. 'Ever had a boyfriend, Nicki?,' she asked.

[B]" sadly no, there was this one boy that i like in my old school."[B] nicki said remebering what her sister said to her " have u" nicki said trying to not think about it

Only one week till the beginning of the end. Or well, Louisa thought it was the end since her head was swarming with figures, names, dates and other weird facts. Taking her friends' advices didn't turn out to be an easy step for old habits die hard. As well as memories. Joao's face seemed to pop out of the book every now and then but once her eyes went to focus again, it was the same plain page. For the past month, however, Louisa didn't get time to worry and mourn over her messed up relationship with Joao AND Adam. In fact, she was making sure to avoid any accidental encounters with her lion best friend. And his mate's.

Today, though, she was leaning on the table, on top of an open book that laid over an empty plate. Only one week to her exams and she was already tired of studying and sleeping instead of revising.

A faint snore made its way out as Louisa breathed in deeply asleep.

Tay shook her head at Laura's question, "Nah not really. I mean my boyfriend is going to show me London and NewYork, and I going to show him Scotland. Beside that, there are family parties that i have to go to." She sighed, "So it wont be that filled." To Nicki, Taylor smiled, "Aww thanks Nicki." She laughed, "You are awesome as well."

Adam walked into the Great Hall pretty hungry, but at the same time not. In all honesty Adam had been kind of numb the past couple of days due to another letter from his grandfather that brought more news that Adam wasn't sure how to respond to. Suddenly the sanctuary he had made with his grandpa was becoming less so, and instead of the semester hurrying to an end Adam wished desperately that it would slow down for a minute so he could try and comprehend what was happening. Of course issues here weren't much better, considering Adam still had no idea what to do or say to Louisa since they're big blow up and Paulie's rather bold advice.

Adam let out a little sigh as he walked along the tables, looking up at the right moment to spot Louisa who was snoring soundly on top of her book. Well...Adam certainly didn't want to wake her up, but unfortunately his clumsiness had the tendency to appear at the most inopportune moments. As he was walking by the pin on Adam's back pack caught the edge of one of the books sitting next to Louisa, sending it with a rather loud and unforgiving thump on the ground. Adam cringed, swiftly bending down to pick it up and replace it without Louisa noticing.

One moment she was in a classroom, scribbling hard on a parchment with Johnny, her younger brother, sitting on the floor reading to her from a book before the book grew bigger and bigger for the nine year old to hold it and it fell down with a rather loud thud. Louisa awoke startled letting out a faint gasp before she caught a hand resting on one of her books beside her. She jolted away and spun to peer at the person who'd just busted her asleep.

Oh. Him. She relaxed, her shoulders dropped a little as she stifled a yawn. "Merlin, Adam. You scared me." Rubbing her eyes, she went on weakly, "What are you doing with my books?" They weren't comics or anything fun to draw attention anyways.

Adam looked up at Louisa with a look that one would often find on a small child with their hand stuck in the cookie jar. Adam cleared his throat before setting the book back on the pile with an apologetic frown. "I'm sorry Louisa. My bag hooked the corner of it and knocked it off. I was trying to be quiet so as to not wake you, but as you can tell I didn't do a very good job," Adam said with a gentle smirk.

Uncertain as to whether or not Louisa would be okay with them chatting, Adam fidgeted slightly before sitting down stiffly on the bench, his legs aimed out towards the aisle. "So....how are you doing? Feeling prepared for the OWLs?" Adam asked, figuring that she must be given the number of books sprawled out in front of her.

She made sure not to meet his eyes for longer than three seconds, her mind was still waking up and she didn't want to recall their last messed up encounter. The girl's head was jumbled enough as it is. And yes, his eyes being piercingly blue made her a tad embarrassed confused lately. "Don't apologize," she murmured turning to her open book to check for any drops of drool on it. None. Good, her charms worked just fine then.

Holding her head in her hands and leaning her elbows on the table, Louisa sighed loudly. "Horrible if you want the truth and fine if you want the usual nonsense answer." Dropping one arm strongly, she tilted her head to look at him cautiously without drilling her eyes into his. "I'm not as focused as I want to be. I doze off a lot lately. I see hi-" HALT. Swallowing she corrected herself, "I see some weird dreams about someone trying to help me cheat in the exams and all that silly pre-exam pressure."

The Ravenclaw sighed again and returned her attention to the book before her, playing nonchalant and all friendly. Maybe their last encounter would just dissolve and Adam didn't mean any of what he'd said? Yeah?

Was she supposed to ask him how he was? She wanted to know. Very. Did he think about her? Did he regret saying that he liked her? Did he decide to already move over and find another one worthy of his feelings? Did he ask Paulie's advice? Did Paulie tell him that he saw her cry back then? There were other dozen questions to ask Adam, her best friend who felt slightly more distant than he used to. Maybe if she stretched her arm and touched his knee close to her, she'll make sure he wasn't really that distant...?

Eventually she just kept quiet, not risking any of the options roaming in her head.

Adam kept his eyes towards one of the books next to them, partially not wanting Louisa to feel like he was staring at her and partially because Adam wasn't sure what look he was going to find there once the sleepiness wore off and honestly he wasn't sure that he wanted to know. At Louisa's comments about her dreams, Adam gave a small little smirk that kind of touched his eyes but probably not as much as it should have. "It's a stressful time and am sure you are not alone. I know I was freaking out that much...and about the dreams of someone trying to help you cheat...well...you would never cheat and you don't need to so I wouldn't think too much into it."

Perhaps that was too long-winded of an answer but Adam wanted to convey support as much as he could through his words since any kind of physical gesture, even if done in a friendly manner he was sure would be misinterpreted or lead to problems. Adam wasn't sure what to say next, so he sat there, picking up the book he had so gracefully knocked off and flipping through the pages. Adam didn't want to apologize for before...he had said what he meant even if the way that it came out maybe wasn't as kind or composed as he had wanted it to be. Adam couldn't apologize for how he felt, and apologizing for things that were out of his control was something Adam was resolving to stop doing. Besides, if he had remembered their conversation as well as he knew he did, he told Louisa that it would be her decision to decide where the chips would fall, so bringing it up was going to be something that she was going to have to do.

"So....how is everything else going?" Adam asked finally, figuring that maybe the OWLs were a stressful topic for her and maybe something else would be better...

Nodding her head seriously at his comforting answer, Louisa kept her eyes on the book. Then the awkward silence stretched on, she wasn't seeing the pages really she was still thinking about the questions she wanted to ask him. Some time in the midst of that silence she'd sneak a glance at him, Louisa did not know what she expected to see him doing but she was disappointed to see him staring at a book intently gazing down at it. Exactly the way she must've looked like.

When Adam raised his head to ask, she quickly returned to her book a bit flushed. He better not think she was staring at him. She wasn't! She was just... looking at him. WHICH was totally a different thing, very different too.

Everything else. "Well. Everything else is just... terrific." Her tone was a bit shaky from the rush of thoughts in her head, "It's everything else that made me even more stressed than I am, I guess." Did he figure out what 'everything else' meant by now? "I don't want to talk about everything else," she added weakly, glancing at him quickly.

Maybe deep down she did. It was tugging at her all this time. It even hurt to be like this with Adam. It was wrong being awkward with him. Wrong, sad and very very depressing. Dallin was busy with his fiance now, probably serving detention for snogging with her heatedly or something like that. Vashti was mysteriously invisible for the past week. And Louisa had no one else to whine about her OWLs other than Adam, who was sitting awkwardly on the edge of the bench and yet further than the former two other best friends.

It was then when Louisa frowned and looked up at him in her half-heartedly hard eyes, "I'm mad at you, Adam." Because it was his fault they were like this. If it was her fault too or not, she didn't acknowledge that fact. She'd rather hook him up with the blame. Easier this way.

Adam sat there as he listened to Louisa's response, definitely picking up on what the everything she said was referring too, but Adam wasn't going to comment on it. After all it wasn't just him he was sure...things with Joao so far as he knew hadn't gotten better and was surely contributing to her mood just as much if not more as him. "I'm sorry to hear that," Adam said, closing the book in lap and returning it to the pile, stealing a small glance at Louisa whose face he realized was slightly flushed. He had felt her eyes on him when he had been flipping through the book, but he wasn't going to comment on it or think too much of it.

Things were just awkward and he knew he was partially to blame, but how long can someone pretend before they burst? How much longer did he really think he could kid himself and just keep acting in such a phony way that Adam hated himself for it? Adam hated lying and lying was what he had to do. He could no longer pretend how he felt, and being the good person that she was Louisa was always going to ask what was going on, and Adam was always going to have to lie. What kind of a relationship, friendship or otherwise, was that? Not a very good one...so...no...Adam was not going to comment on it. As hard as it was making things right now Adam was not going to take it back or change his mind.

And then the words came. She was mad at him? Adam looked up at Louisa, no hatred or anger or desire to fight back. He gave a small nod of the head before stretching his legs out in front of him. "I know you are, but I'm not going to apologize Louisa. You may not believe it but I would much rather have this than have the rest of our...whatever you want to call it...lying to you or only telling you half truths. It's not fair to you and it's not fair to me. I don't want things to be like this forever, but....I don't know..." Adam said, running his hand through his hair and letting out a sigh.

She watched him intently as he placed the book aside and stretched his legs in order to answer her. She even forced herself not to notice his hand through his hair in the end, did he do that often? The Ravenclaw found herself trying to recall when exactly did it look as good as it did just now. People passed their hands through their hairs all the time and Louisa couldn't care less so why exactly should she care now? Yeah, she wasn't going to care.

... and what did he say? Yeah. No apology. She whirled around on her butt, releasing her legs and stretching them out as well to the aisle. They were now both sitting parallal to each other, only she crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't want an apology anyways. It's not that you... hurt me... yet." the last word came out faintly but she really meant it. Two stinking boys had hurt her so far, Dallin and Joao. She managed to get back friendly enough with Dal but she didn't want to take chances with Adam. No way.

Sighing Louisa looked at him again, "I don't know either. How do you know it's not just friendship? How do you know it's those kinda feelings?!" She sat up straighter to face him as they sat side by side now. Her voice mirrored her irritation by the situation, she even scowled in denial of his confession.