It's been months since Sophie last went to the playgrounds! Not that she didn't like it there, she diid! But she really loved the other areas of the grounds, soo...

With a smile on her face, Sophie skipped her way down to the playground. It was pretty awesome! She had already climbed those parts over there... she liked that slide... she stared at the mni Hogwarts for a few seconds before diciding what she wanted to do.

SWINGS! Coooooool! She was glad that the swing set was empty. It was usually difficult finding an empty spot in muggle parks... After a few moments, there was Sophie, going back and forth. Woooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Ronnie nodded. "Yeah, I see what you mean." she said as she began pumping her legs to make herself go higher. She frowned at the next thing she said. "Well, you have me to talk to!" she said with a smile as she swung higher.

Eeeep! Secrets. Alice got some secrets too, just like Erin. Yeah, secrets were meant to be hidden but friends share secrets, right? It could be about boys, or Professors or inferiorities or even scheming. She missed her Muggle bestfriend, that's the person she shared a lot of secrets with, even those dangerous ones, where her bestfriend's parents ended up filing a divorce and now living their separate lives. Secrets were fun but when it's way over the limit, it's dangerous and not fun. It'll make you lonely or even lose everything you think you already owned forever. "Yes. I do have quite a few as well," She looked towards Alice's eyes and leaned over a bit, "..so, you really don't want to share even one?"

Erin knew Blue, but were they friends? Have they reached that level to call each other friends. Think more like an un-intended frenemy. "Yeah. But I don't think we're friends. We're just acquaintances. We kind of had a technical difficulty too when we first met. And we just met recently," Erin paused and bowed her head down. Hearing from Alice's opinion about getting involved in their fight too, Erin decided to just leave them alone so that they could patch things up on their own ways. And they better make it soon. Chocolate Frogs were great. "I love eating Chocolate Frogs and the collections were great too. So, do you mean Blue doesn't eat them?" Poor Blue. It's yum.

Erin listened as Alice gave her argument about the over-obssessed pygmy puff owner and Domino giving a sharp look at her Kent. And as Alice finsihed her last sentence, "See? She's judgmental. And we should talk it over to her. I don't want my cat being accused of being a pygmy puff eater. Posy's classy and all." Feeling like she needed to add the Domino incident, Erin continued, "..and Domino shouldn't be deprived of food, right? Er...I mean, his right to look towards anything he thinks is beautiful." Okay, she just said that Kent was beautiful but he was. "He's just probably admiring Kent's color." Nod.

Gosh, yes. Look at her! Evelyn was being way too mean and it just wasn't her. Edric was a bad influence, that's for sure. "Uh, I hope not. One Edric is more than enough, don't you think?" Oh, geez. It just made her cringe every time he called her Casper.

HUH? Last month!? "And..you didn't even tell me." Hmph. She felt quite bad, honestly. Not wishing her friend on his birthday. Yeah, she didn't know..but still. "Did anything special?"

"Hey. Just because you like to bully people does not mean it's okay." And, before she could stop herself, she added with a smirk, "BUT. I can't believe you let a third year bully you though." Heh. That was funny..whether he liked it or not.

The playground seemed like a good idea to Darwin. It had been a long time since he'd been there and he was in the mood to go on the swings. As long as they weren't occupied, and everyone knew that the swingsets were the most sought after thing there.

Luckily, as he passed through the gate, he could see that only one swing was taken, and another was free. WHEEE. Bouncing over, he paused before passing in front of the other swing.

Because the girl on it was swinging back, and forth.

Quite high, too.

And there were lots of people in the playground. And now he was struggling to get around the other swing. Pause - start - pause - start - pause -

RUNNNN.

WHEE. Grabbing onto the other swings chain, he slipped onto the seat and began swinging back and forth, in his mind trying to get higher than the girl next to him.

OOOH, competition.

"Of course I'd make a jump for you." Tag said in a matter of fact voice. Sooner or later it was bound to come that she'd get a dedicated jump.Now he felt bad that it took until this for him to make her one, but he shouldn't feel too bad,though. It'd only make Anya's mood go down. And I know you'd name a twirl after me.Right?" Cue melting smile.

"Yeah February. Why? You wanna do something this month that you can't do any other month?" He asked.

"Thanks Ronnie. It means a lot," Jezzabelle said pushing off on her swing. She just didn't know how to begin somethings. She she chewed on her bottom lip. Would she be able to talk about winter break without a thing of water works?

Ronnie smiled. "Anytime!" she said, swinging higher. "WATCH THIS!" she yelled loudly. She got ready, tightening her grip. Ok. She was gonna jump off the swing. Like a crazy person. And land on the ground. And she wouldn't get hurt, 'cause the ground was changed to be safe to land on.

THREEEEEE....

TWOOOOOOOOOOO....

ONEEEE!

Ronnie flung herself off the swing, and soared through the air for two seconds. "I CAN FLY!" she cried right before she plopped onto the ground face first. She sat up immediately. "THAT WAS AWESOME!" she said giggling and hopping up onto her feet. She turned to look at Jezz with a wide grin on her face. "You should try it!" she said, hopping up and down. That was amazing. It was like it had just shot a bolt of energy through her. Now she felt like she could do ANYTHING!

Jezzabelle watched in amazement as Ronnie flung herself off the swing. That right there was a true Gryffindor. Fearless. But she could be that way too could she not?

Pushing herself higher she closed her eyes so she wouldn't chicken out again. She felt the wind in her hair and the movement of the swing help indicate when she would push off and soar.

One....

Two...

Three...

She pushed off the swing and felt herself flying through the air and was still to scared to open her eyes. Her heartbeat increased and she felt herself going down and with a soft and painless thud she found herself on the ground

"Bahahaha!" She sat up and began to laugh tears forming and a grin stretching across her face. "That was amazing!" Almost better than a broom.

Erin had quite a few secrets as well? Ahh. Alice hoped her private thought weren't about boys. Or dating. Or anything loosely related to those topics. 'Cause boys were GWOSS. Did her 'Claw friend think that, too? "Erin, do any of your secrets involve boys? Do you like BOYS?" The lioness crinkled her nose. But then again, Erin was the kind of girl who wore heels and liked pink. Teeny, tiny things that the third year had already gotten over. BUT BOYS. They were a big, gwoss deal. "I'm not sharing a secret unless you share one first," she said matter-of-factly as she beamed at her friend.

Blue and Erin had an argument, too? There were too many arguments in the world. And why did more than half of them have to be between her friends? "What happened between you two?" Alice asked curiously, cocking an eyebrow at the claw. "I hate arguments. But I'm good at arguing, even though I hate doing it." When she was Queen, was she allowed to jail anyone that argued? Well, she wouldn't want to have to jail Blue or Erin or Messer on accident, so she'd just have to erase that law. "You eat Chocolate Frogs?!" The lioness asked the question with surprise in her voice and shock spreading across her face. "Oh, no, no, no.. that won't do. Otherwise, Blue may almost kill another person. And Messer has already been scared enough from the first time she got angry.." She whistled through her teeth, trying to clear the memories of that day out of her head.

The third year shook her head. "No, no, Selena's not judgemental! She might have been towards your cat, but I don't blame her for the way she treated Domino." If Alice was in Prefect Pygmy Puff's shoes, she would have acted the same way. "And I don't think my owl likes purple. And he was definitely not admiring the so-said King of Pygmy Puffs." Nope. Domino was surely trying to eat the little furball. The lioness frowned in confusion once more, and it came out in her voice. "Besides, aren't cat's known to cough up hairballs? Kent is enough of one, so if Posy had eaten him anyway, he would have come right back up." GWOSS. "But Posy didn't eat him. So either way, I think Sel was just scared. A lot of people hold grudes against the little thing.." The Slytherin was very attached to that animal, for reasons unknown. The world may never understand..

Ronnie stood there, watching as Jezz flew off the swing. She grinned as she sat up, laughing. She twirled around in happiness. "HOORAY!" she cried, doing a fistpump. Heh. Ronnie was excited now. "LET'S DO IT AGAIN!" she said, hopping back on the swing. "At the same time!" she added with a smirk. Now THIS would be fun.

"Okay!" Jezzabelle ran back to her swing and began to push off going higher and higher. She looked to Ronnie hoping she would be the one to count down to the jump off because while it was fun the young lion was terrified to go again.

Boys...and secrets? They somehow go side by side. But Erin wasn't at all keeping secrets about boys. Or maybe just one, that one person who caught her eye from the very first time she saw him. But that was like ages ago. She hadn't even given him gifts last Valentine's Day. And she might just have a little girl crush that's easily gone as years went by. And she was actually talking about her fellow Asian Jonathan Kim. Ah, that cutie guy. "Er...Do I like boys? Not in a way that I'll keep secrets about them...I..." Erin trailed off. She was totally caught off-guard with that. Should she tell Alice that she once had a crush on someone so beyond her years? But, she's all free now of the feeling she once felt. She wanted to enjoy her childhood first. Teen-childhood to be more accurate. "...No."

And about the Blue argument. It was totally blue and Erin wanted to make her relationship with Blue not to be blue but to be yellow and orange and pink and all the lovely colors. Not blue. She didn't want to be blue with Blue. As a matter of fact, it was all Erin's fault. Blue was still super nice even helping her when she fell down on the frozen lake. Erin was the one who was holding back and if she could just rewind the past she'd totally changed her reaction. But she couldn't, even with a Timeturner. "I just wanted to be cool with Blue as soon as possible. She's fun and nice. And yeah, I'll keep in mind that I should never cross Blue's principles about those Chocolate Frogs."

Oopsie! Erin glanced at her watch and thought of something she needed to do. "Er, Alice. It's really nice seeing you and all, but my Minister duties should be fulfilled." With that, Erin darted off to the Hogwarts castle leaving the lovely Alice at the playground.

Marlow twisted around the tree and sat on the bench beside Taylor, legs crossed at the ankles and her hands held together in her lap. "My name is Marlow Stella Queen, but you can call me LowLow." Spoke Marlow, ending her sentence with a small nod and a large gleaming smile. Her outfit was complimented and Low blushed just slightly, returning another large smile to Taylor. "Why thank you! I'm glad to have met someone who finds my nature normal." Marlow's eyes where caught on Taylor's fingers, watching them strum the guitar stings. Like Taylor didn't have to pay attention to herself to play a song right. "What kind of music do you like to play?" Marlow asked, interested in the tune.

Taylor smiled, "Your name is pretty." She laughed, "Okay, Lowlow, it is a pleasure meeting you." Her Scottish accent was coming out rather than her forced British accent. Tay shrugged, "Any except rap." Taylor chuckled. "Do you play?"

Taylor was having a continuous knack of getting Marlow to blush. "Thank you, miss." Marlow was feeling pleasant, as it's been awhile since making new friends, even her first time in private school, this was all fresh to her. The scotty peeked itself out of Taylor's voice and vanished just as quickly, making Low giggle under her breath. "I don't blame you," Marlow stated as to rap music. Not that it was bad, Lowlow has had her share of favorite rap songs, but nothing beats the rhythm of a guitar. "Ehe, I do. I have an acoustic up with my bags, and everything else that hasn't been unpacked yet." The girl huffed at the end of her sentence, pressing a small hand against her forehead. Too-excited-to-get-out Marlow leaving aside her belongings at the end of her bed since she first got here today. Her eyes adjusted on Taylor again, and she smiled while placing a hand out, palm up. "Can I give it a go?"

Taylor laughed, "Of course." She stopped strumming and handed it to her. "What year are you in? I mean I havent seen you before... what house as well?" Neither of them had anything house related on so it wasnt that stupid of a question...

The guitar was handed to Marlow and she examined it for little then started strumming, playing Pantomime by Incubus, the song being one of her favorites. Remembering the days she'd be with her older brothers, laying on their bedroom floor singing this song at the top of her lungs with the both of them. She hummed to herself for a while and Taylor asked her a couple questions. With a little twitch of the edges of her lips, she replied, "I am a fourth year, but today is the first day of my appearance here. Which, kinda sucks. Don't really know anyone and I'm a little behind, so I'll just have to work a little harder." Marlow pressed with a giggle. "And I'm a Ravenclaw. How about you, Taylor?"

Taylor smiled, "You play wonderfully!" She grinned, "Well congrats and welcome!" Tay shrugged, "I'm a third year, Ravenclaw, though this is only my second year here. I went to Beauxbaton my first year. Where did you come from?" Taylor glanced at the older girl.

"Alrighty! Here we go!" Ronnie said, tightening her grip on the swing again. "We'll go on three!" she said as she got higher and higher. Man, this was fun!

"ONE!"

"TWO!"

"THREEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

she yelled, thrusting herself out of the swing and into the air again. "Weeee!" she cried, then she landed on the ground. She sat up immediately, laughing, feeling a bit dizzy. "Oh boy that was awesome!" she said, giggling.

She heard the countdown and she closed her eyes swinging.

Back and forth...one...

Back and forth....two

Back and forth...three

Jezzabelle let go of the swing and she felt herself flying...flying..and falling with a soft thud.

Then she was laughing. "That was great!" Her stomach still tangled with a million butterflies. So much better than a broom.

"Ehe, thank you, Taylor." Being encouraged and welcomed is always nice, Marlow felling a bit repetitive with her 'thank you's. Taylor explained a little about her history and Lowlow grinned, not feeling so overwhelmed anymore. "I'm from North America. California, in fact. I went to the Salem Academy for Witches and Warlocks for a while. It felt like I went to a college for all ages," Marlow furrowed her brow on that note, "I also had a lot of home schooling, and then my parents sent me here." Smiling again, she added, "Honestly, It's nice scenery."

Taylor wrinkled her nose, "I dont believe I have heard of that before but didnt Salem kill our kind?" She tilted her head, "It is lovely scenery indeed." Tay smiled and laughed. "So what is your heritage?"

Ronnie giggled. "Ohh boy!" she said, standing up and laughing again. "It sure was great!" she exclaimed, looking around the playground. "Hey, wanna go on those dragons spring rockers?" she asked. THOSE WERE SO MUCH FUN. She looooved them.

Backward..... forward....... backward..... forward.....

Woooooooooooooooooo!! This was FUN! Sophie was grinning as she moved her legs and leaned forward/backward as she kept swinging as high as she could.

Oh! There was a boy trying to get to the other swing. She tried her best not to kick him, since she couldn't stop all of a sudden. And she didn't want to completely stop, really. She smiled at him when he finally got to the other swing and started swinging back and forth himself.

Hehehe! He was getting pretty high now. "Hello.......... there........ I'm...... Sophie!" She introduced herself as they passed by each other while swnging. She would have waved at him too, but she remembered Theodore telling her that he had fallen off the swingset at the start of the term, so she decided against it.