"Are you really crying over me not doing your homework?" he asked, looking down at his own and scribbling away. Wasn't this part of their deal anyway? But of course, leave it to Mikey to make the vampire cry over not doing her homework. Couldn't she at least try to do it? Even if the answers were wrong? "For once, you should try to do your own homework. And besides, you can't get all good grades this year since your mom will get suspicious again," he reminded her.

She ignored his question--wasn't it obvious? But she hated admitting that so Hailey just kept sniffling, wiping her face with the back of her hand.
She would have succeeded in keeping quiet if he hadn't mentioned the thing with her mom--dang, he was right.

Slowly, the brunette looked up and blinked at her genius friend. "Only if you help me," She responded, all traces of sadness gone, though she still a bit wary.

Mikey nodded, waving his wand at her art supplies. They were cleaned up, along with any of sign of paint, and stored back into their cases. Might as well get those out the way and not get anything else dirtied. "I've never denied you help, so let' start," he said, taking his stuff and setting himself down on a chair next to hers. "Which do you want to start with?"

Hunter entered the library and looked around for somewhere to sit and study. It always seemed like the number of people in the Slytherin Common Room grew in hours and he just couldn't focus in there anymore. Even his roommates were getting on his nerves. How in the world is it his fault that they get annoyed when he turns on his lamp in the middle of the night to make sure he still looks good. Nightmares are so realistic nowadays.

Realizing he wasn't going to find a little cubicle to study in, he decided to look into the study rooms in hopes he would see someone who looked so into their studies that he could join them and they'd all just study in silence. Instead, Hunter managed to find two love birds who seemed to be working on...well...he wasn't sure what. But there was a bit of tension in the room and he wasn't enjoying it. Closing the door behind him, Hunter saw the red puffy eyes of his lovely cousin, Hailey, and then he glared at Mikey. "Why has my cousin been crying?" Love birds or not, other people making his family cry was unacceptable.

She watched him clean up her mess (and twinged slightly as all signs of paint were gone) with wonder. She needed to learn that one--unless it was just 'reparo'.

"I know. But I'd rather you do all the work," Hailey said seriously and scooched over so he had room. When asked to pick, however, she went blank. What were their classes, again? However, she was saved from answering as a figure stopped by.

Jerking upwards, Hailey looked into the curious face of Hunter Pierce. Now, what was he doing here?
"Hunter!" She said loudly (the librarian eyed her again) and then jumped up from her seat. Now grinning wildly, she threw her arms around her cousin and hugged him, getting some paint on his hair. Whoops.

As she let go, she explained about the crying. "Oh, Mikey was refusing to help me with my homework again," She said nonchalantly.

"Of course you do. That way you won't have to use your brain and concentrate more on your painting," he answered, not looking up from his paper. "We'll start with charms, since that seems to be a bit difficult for you," he added, opening the appropriate book and placing it in front of them. He was going to have to teach her how to cast and say incantations correctly. And Mikey had a feeling it wasn't going to be too easy.

Cousin? The almost-murderer was cousins with the vampire.. How lovely. Was he going to have to be nice to Hailey all the time now because her killer cousin was at school with them? "Hailey is your cousin, killer boy?" Mikey asked, with a smirk on his face. "Now I know why you haven't drowned her yet," he said, mostly to himself. Then again, Hunter named Mikey the "genius" who saved Arai from drowning. So Mikey was going to refer to Hunter as the twit that almost killed the Canadian girl.

Before he could really look at what they were doing, Hailey ran up to him and squealed his name. Now he couldn't help but smile at her. He gave her a huge bear hug, wondering why this was the first time he'd seen her since the new term began. At her response, he couldn't help but roll his eyes. Of course. "Now, shouldn't you be doing your homework on your own, darling?" Then he realized that his dear cousin had paint all over her hands. Hunter's eyes went wide as he realized what might have just happened. "Did you get paint in my hair?!" He whisper-yells this though because after the glare the librarian gave Hailey, he already knew better than to talk any louder.

Now, he turned to Mikey and remembered why he had been glaring at him in the first place. He was glad to see his cousin had a friend, even if it was a boy, and that he was helping her, but he still made her cry. And now he was calling him killer boy? "Really, Michael?" He let out a long sigh, something he seemed to be doing a lot lately. He moves over to sit down at the table with the two, pulling Hailey with him, and then he shakes his head. "Don't make my cousin cry. It's rude." Upon hearing the next senetence out of his mouth, he grew aggravated. "I didn't do it on purpose! I would never almost drown someone on purpose!"

At this point the whole room went quiet and the librarian was rising from her desk. His cheeks turned a deep shade of red and he mouthed a sorry to her. Charms and good looks only went so far in most cases.

As Hunter scolded her for not doing her own homework, Hailey rolled her eyes playfully. "Yeah, yeah." When He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named comes back, maybe she will! Hehe. As for the paint, though, she tried to look innocent. "Uhhh...no," The Gryffie lied, unconvincingly though. She wasn't about to get smacked again, though she was sure Hunter would never hurt her.

But then Mikey noticed Hunter and...it seemed they knew each other? What a small world! However, the things Mikey was saying weren't making any sense. "Killerboy?" Hailey repeated and looked at her friend with confused eyes. WHAT was going on?
But before she could ask, Hunter was replying to Mikey.
Michael? Ewww who would call him that? Only the teachers. Hailey wrinkled her nose at the name but listened. Something was going on here...

As Hunter pulled her towards the table, she followed and sat down again. When he scolded Mikey about making her cry, Hailey giggled. He was acting all big brotherly. But his next sentence wiped the smile off immediately.
"You almost drowned someone?! Hunter! How could you!" She said wildly, the poor Librarian sighing loudly and slowly making her way towards the trio. However, Hailey ignored her and faced her cousin. He had some 'splainin' to do!

"Oh oh, you're calling me Michael now? I recall you saying, 'Mikey, you're a genius!' or did you not say that?" he said, leaning back on his chair. "It doesn't take a genius to have common sense," Hearing his actual name made him feel all weird. Mainly because only the professors called him Michael; everyone else called him Mikey or Mike. Don't make Hailey cry? He would never. She started crying on her own accord. "I didn't. She started crying because I wouldn't do her homework anymore. But she did promise she would at least try to do it herself since last year her mom got suspicious of all the high marks and what not,"

Mikey suppressed a laugh. This boy was short tempered, obviously. And especially about the incident at the lake last month. "Then why did you push her after the countless times she said no?" But Mikey quiet down and let the cousins catch up on the little episode at the lake. "He's not a very good listener," Mikey added, turning towards the vampire and shrugged.

He glanced at Hailey but decided a little bit of paint wouldn't falter his great looks anyway. He'd just make sure to really get it out when he washed his hair later.

"Now, those words never actually left my mouth." They hadn't, after all. Typing something out was different then actually saying them. And Hunter never said the boy wasn't still a genius for knowing to save Aria, but he didn't have to call Hunter 'killer boy' for listening to her when she said she could swim. "I haaaave common sense, we've gone over this already. Aria said she knew how to swim!" Just because she didn't want to didn't mean she didn't know how to. He was already forgiven, for the most part, so he wasn't sure what the big deal was anymore. It was over and done with.

Hunter sat up straighter once he realized that he would have to tell his lovable innocent cousin, who was actually older than him, that he almost killed a rather rude girl. He glared at Mikey one last time then turned back to Hailey. "Don't think of me as anyone different. I'm still your gorgeously charming younger cousin, got it?" Before waiting for her to answer, he just went straight in the way Aria had in the dungeons. "AriaandMikeyandIwereathelakeandshekeptsayingshedi dntfeellikeswimmingbutthatshecouldswimsoIpushedher inbecauseIthoughtshewouldcomebackup*deepbreath*but whenshedidntMikeyhadtogoinandsaveherandshealmostdi edtheend." What a shameful cousin he was turning out to be. "She's forgiven me now! She's actually being a tad bit nicer than lover boy, over here."

Then a light bulb went off and a smirk grew on his face. Turning back to Mikey, he couldn't help but laugh a bit. "My cousin? She's the girl?" Mikey fancied his cousin and now he had that over him. Perfect.

Glenn sat down at the study table. Since Muggle Studies, she had changed out of her lace dress and scrubbed off her make-up, she was now wearing just casual clothes.

She took her journal out of her bag and flicked to the nearest empty page, here, she started on her Muggle Studies homework. She had been pretty useless at Dinner Etiquette but perhaps she could earn some points if she made a decent attempt at this.

Angelina walked near the study tables, to work on her wonderful muggle studies homework. Once she was about to sit down at her own table alone she spotted Glenn. Smiling she walked over to her and said, "Hey Glenn." she hope she got her name right. Glenn looked different, because she was wearing different clothes from the Dinner Etiquette. Angelina looked down at what she was wearing and realized it didn't change much! Just a skirt and cute top like she always wore, with some cute little flats.

Glenn looked up and smiled, "Angelina! Hey!" The Slytherin didn't look too different from when Glenn had seen her in Muggle Studies. Glenn dipped her quill in some more ink but paused above her blank sheet of parchment. "What option are you doing for homework? The menu one or the acrostic poem?" She asked. Glenn just realised that Angelina looked a little confused, while looking at Glenn. Yes, she supposed without lots of make-up and high-heels, she probably did look a little different. She was just wearing a knee length dress, a warm jacket over the top, a brown beanie, boots and her over the shoulder bag that carried her journal and and any books she needed to return. She suppressed a smile and wondered if the Ravenclaw boy, Nate, was going to come as well.

"Hey!" Angelina said again? She sat down and placed her things on the table and said, "Can I sit here?" even if she sat down already she didn't want to be rude and not ask. She frown a little and though. "Im not sure. What about you? Maybe we could work together?" Angelina was happy to find a study buddy, she likes having friends to do anything with.

"Sure," Glenn said, gesturing to the seat beside her, "Probably just the acrostic, I'm not a particularly good artist." Glenn shrugged at the girls next question, "Sure! But, we have to make our own I think. But we could help each over?" Glenn tucked her hair behind her ear, effectively spreading some dark blue ink in her hair, "Whoopsie!" Glenn giggled and dipped her quill in the ink again. Writing down the side of the parchment in capital letters-

SPOILER!!: Acrostic Poem

D
I
N
N
E
R

E
T
I
Q
U
E
T
T
E

Nate sprinted into the library, cutting his stride short at the sight of the two girls from the Muggle Studies lesson the previous night. "Hey girls!" he greeted, with a quick look at each of them, first the Hufflepuff, "Glenn?" and then the Slytherin, "And Angelina? I've got the names right?" It was important, after all.

He sat down across from them at their table, pulling out a quill, his blue ink, and some parchment. The others seemed to have a similar getup... "Let me guess. We're all doing the Muggle Studies homework?" he asked with an eyebrow cocked up.

Nodding Angelina said, "Oh yes of course!" She already knew she had to do it on here own, even if she didn't really want to much. Maybe they can just give each other some ideas. Angelina began to look around them, she hasn't really been here, but she caught Gleen pulling her hair behind her ear and getting some ink in it. She wished she could help, only if she knew the spell. With this Angelina giggled a little, not in a rude away of course!

As Glenn began to write down her homework, Angelina started digging in her bag for a quill, ink and parchment. Once she finally found some, in between her books and at the bottom she placed it on the table and began to write. "I guess I'll acrostic, even if I draw good enough, I'd rather do this for fun!" She loved to write and draw both, but she loves writing way better.



Angelina looked up to see how called out hey and who too, luckily it was to her and Glenn. "Yes you have," Angelina said with a small shy smile, while nodding. She watched as Nate sat down across from them both and began to do the something the same as her and Glenn. Angelina decided she could try to concentrate on her work, tell Nate started speaking again. "Yep, you are right," She said with a small laugh, and looking back down at her parchment thinking of what to put on D for the first acrostic.

"Hey Nate!" Glenn said, "And yes, you got our names right." She grinned and doodled in the corner of her parchment for a second or so while she thought. Hmm, a word or phrase for D. "For D, how about Don't- err- Something. Don't lean on table? Or do we need to only do the rules we learnt in Muggle Studies?" She sucked on the end of her quill. "I might start on my Care of Magical Creatures homework in here too," Glenn sighed, "I'm quite behind."

Hailey's head went back and forth between the two boys, as if she was watching a game of tennis. At least Mikey agreed with her about the name thing, though she hadn't said anything. But when he explained about the crying, the brunette nodded her head vigorously. She didn't want Hunter to think Mikey was a bad best friend! Cause he wasn't. Well, maybe sometimes. *whistle*

The talk turned back to the lake, though and Hailey got interested again. "Who said no? Not a good listener? Aria?!" She repeated as Mikey responded to Hunter and the latter responded back. Ughhh she was getting tired of being in the dark about this story but luckily Hunter decided to explain--though very fast.

She had to listen very hard to catch his words but in the end, she sorta had an idea of what had happened. She couldn't believe Hunter had met Aria, too. That dumb CANadian girl who threw the worst insults (ignoring the fact that hers were equally as bad). "She almost died?" She said, stressing the middle word particularly. Too bad, Hailey thought in her head but of course didn't voice it out loud. Cause she really didn't want people dead, even if they were annoying.

So the Gryffindor sighed and smiled at her cousin. "As long as she's alive, no harm done. And she's forgiven you, too! See, you're still charming!" Hailey said with a giggle and pet him. Which he probably didn't like but whatever.
And she was about to turn back to the homework she was supposed to be doing when Hunter said something else. Something that didn't make sense...or maybe it did but she didn't want to believe it.

Slowly, she looked from Hunter to Mikey, locking eyes with him. "What? I'm the girl?" She repeated questioningly. And had Hunter just called Mikey 'loverboy'?! WHAAAAAATTTTT was going on!

She looked at Mikey for answers, though. Cause he would explain, right? Since he was her BEST freaking FRIEND and wouldn't keep SECRETS from her. Right? "Explain."

Oh, okay. So...she was fine? And it wasn't Head Girl duties? He was relieved at least a little...at least there wasn't something physically going on with her right? She wasn't sick or anything. That was a blessing in itself. But...he was confused as to what the issue could be, and though he didn't verbally SAY anything and just continued to hold her hand while waiting, his mind was frantically trying to think up what could have happened...

O_________o

She'd been...kissed? Okay. So...maybe his mind wouldn't have come up with THAT one. Not 'cause Vashti wasn't gorgeous or desirable or anything, he KNEW she was, but just because he was surprised someone would be so bold as to do that to the Head Girl. Was it someone she knew and hung out with? He couldn't help pulling his hand back to gape at her some more.

An...didn't know what to say. Was he a little mad? Absolutely. Not at Vashti, but at unnamed person. Was he feeling a little insecure? Bloody hell yes. What if she was so nervous because she was nice and didn't want to have to tell him to his face she preferred other guy over him?

Both trains of thought wasn't helping him think of anything to say though. And he KNEW he needed to speak, just in case she thought he was mad at HER. But...how? Without showing his insecurities? So Anakin said the only thing he could think to.

"Who?"

Silence.

Vashti tried not to take that as a bad sign. It was natural that he'd be shocked, even speechless. Who would actually kiss her, right? Besides Anakin, obviously. But when he pulled his hand away, she wasn't sure she could take that as anything but a bad sign.

He was mad at her. And she almost couldn't blame him for it.

As the dreadful, tense silence continued, she drew her hand back as well and set them both in her lap, not really sure what to do. Should she speak? Apologize? Leave? Give him some space? She honestly had no idea.

But then, finally, he spoke, but it was only one word. Who?

Vashti hesitated only briefly before answering, "Dallin." Did he know who that was? She wasn't sure, but she decided to wait and see what else he might say or ask. If he said anything at all.

Along with Glenn, Angelina sat staring at her parchment in deep thought of what to write for the letter D. Once Glenn announced her changement from Muggle Studies homework to Care of Magical Creaters, Angelina nodded and placed her head on top of her thing looking doing at the letter D, seeming like it is waiting any day now to feel loved my some answers. She began to tap her quill on the table and though aloud, "D.. Huh? Did you.." she carried out the question searching for an ending, "Did you forget to place... Your...napkin on your lap at the beginning of the meal?" she guessed that could work for now, to feel like she accomplished something at lease!

"But still, if someone doesn't want to go swimming, you shouldn't have to push them into the lake," he said, crossing his arms. Now it wasn't so hard to believe that Rose and Hunter were related to each other. They both obviously didn't think straight or even think at all before they did something. But Mikey snorted to Hunter's comment about him being charming. It was funny since there was absolutely nothing charming about this twit. "Is there any reason for me to be 'nice' to you when you almost drowned my friend?" Of course not. It would be like Mikey pushing rose into the lake after countless times she said she didn't want to go swimming. Hunter wouldn't forgive him as quickly and he thought Aria was foolish to do that for Hunter.

This girl?
Oh, that girl.

"No, she isn't the girl. That would just be completely awkward if she were the girl," Mikey answered calmly.

Explain? Mikey thought it was pretty much self-explanatory. But this was Hailey he was talking to after all. "I told Hunter that there's this girl who's homework I'm always doing. He wanted to know who it was but I wouldn't tell him because he was being a nosy twit. So now he finally found out it was you and he's in a bit of shock," the nerd explained. well, obviously lied but he wasn't going to let Hunter win this little stupid "charming" game of his.

Hunter was so glad to hear Hailey's response to the whole situation. Obviously someone understood what happened. Just because a certain someone was upset about having to save a person's life didn't mean he had to be so blatantly rude about the whole thing. He could feel pressure growing in his head now and he knew he was getting one of those headaches he often got when arguing with Aria. It was no wonder why they were friends! How his sweet cousin became friends with him, aside from getting him to do her homework, Hunter would never get. They were total opposites from what he could tell. " Thank you, Hailey. I knew you would understand." And then she called him charming as well! He knew he loved this girl for a reason! He did have to keep from pushing her hand off when she petted him though but that was normal.

If Hunter ever need to burn extra calories all he'd have to do is be around Michael. With the number of times he's glared at him, Hunter was almost positive he burned off all of the calories he'd gained in the past month or so. Maybe he would even completely stop "working out" altogether and just sit around Aria and Mikey at the same time! Sure, they'd bring down his confidence quite a bit, but at least he'd lose some weight. Not that he's gained weight yet, it's still waiting to kick in. Anyway... "I don't see how, no matter what you say, you're still rude. He was slowly regretting ever coming here. He'd have gotten more studying done back in the common room...or at a quidditch game. "I know she's your friend. Granted, I don't actually know why, but fine, it's your life. But I would never try and drown a person." Especially not a girl. That's just wrong. Who drowns girls? He let out a very long and very loud sigh. "Let's just drop it?" He knew the subject would just come back up the next time they saw each other anyway.

Then Hunter sat back to let Mikey explain what exactly was going on here. He'd have to tell his best friend the truth. What kind of best friend wouldn't? "What?" Apparently, Mikey is that best friend. Hunter scoffed and rolled his eyes. What was the boy so afraid of? Did he approve of him crushing on his cousin? Not really. But that didn't mean he shouldn't tell her anyway! "You're a liar!" Hunter stood up, sat down, stood up, and sat down again. "You've got to be kiddiiing." Then he threw his head down against the table with a smack and wished it could explain things he wasn't quite understanding in life. So maybe he was a bit of a drama queen. What did anyone expect?

Okay, Raven must work hard for this transfiguration homework. She took a piece of paper, pencil, eraser and pencil sharpener. First, she sharpened the pencil and start designing a good frame for her photograph. She started drawing a square.

"Tsk.." she erased the pattern. She had a problem with drawing a line because she suffered astigmatism. Then she took a ruler and drawing again.

"Good!" Now, the next step.