Snippet #1987419

Priscilla Barsotti

She was surrounded by girls younger than herself, mostly second, third, and fourth years. They were all staring dreamily at her as she was describing her family's visit to Paris this summer. "Oh ladies, it was magnifique!" she exclaimed, sighing happily. Paris actually had been magnificent... for the first few days. Then the charm had been lost on her. It definitely wasn't one of the best places she'd ever visited. But she certainly wasn't going to say that to all these girls who were hanging on her every word.

"The Eiffel Tower was breathtaking! I mean, you've never seen anything like it, I swear," she said, a smile on her face. In truth, that had been her favorite part of the entire trip, easily. "And when I was there, I met the most handsome guy. Jean Baptiste." The girls sighed, or a small smile spread across their faces. She had them absolutely hooked. They were so easy to control. "C'était de l'amour! We spent the rest of my trip together, and he was absolutely devastated when I had to leave." Now the girls all had sad expressions on their faces.

"Did he give you is number?!"

"Are you going to keep in contact with him?"

"Will he come visit you?"

All the girls asked at once. She smiled, making it look as if she were sad. "I've tried to contact him, but he won't respond to me." They all awwww'd, and she shrugged her shoulders. In reality, Jean Baptiste hadn't been attractive at all. He'd actually followed her around whenever he saw her, and tried to ask her on a date like five billion times. He'd really creeped her out. But that wasn't exactly romantic, so she had made up her own version. And she was getting exactly the response she had expected.

"Let's not talk about it anymore, okay girls? I don't like to think about him... So, tell me about all of your summers!" They all start talking, one by one, and she kind of zoned out, although she nodded and gave all the 'yeah' and 'mmhmm' responses that she should in the appropriate spots. All of their stories bored her, but she waited until they were all finished before taking her leave. As she walked away, she heard them all taking about how they had to visit Paris. She smirked as she continued to walk down the long table.

Priscilla found Îrem sitting a little ways down the Arietem table. All she had to do was look at the first year that was sitting next to her, and the little kid got up and moved immediately. She took the vacant seat and smiled at her friend, giving her a small and quick hug. "Hey girl," she said, releasing her hold on the sixth year. And amazingly, Zackariah was sitting across from them. Life truly was good. "Zack," was all she said, acknowledging his presence and no more. A girl had to play hard to get, after all.

---

Rosina Garenne

While waiting for Micah's response, she had decided to actually eat a little more, since her stomach had settled a great deal. She had realized that she was actually really hungry. She reached for her cup and took a sip of her absolute favorite beverage... Sierra Mist. The cool bubbliness went down her throat, and she almost wanted to sigh out of happiness. Things were going to turn out just fine. She turned her eyes to Micah's once more, when another voice entered their conversation.

Oh. My. God. It was Emerson.

Her stomach preceded to have twice the amount of knots it had had before, and she thought she was going to throw up the food she just ate. Her heart began beating so fast and loud she thought that Emerson might actually be able to see it pulsing outside of her shirt. She put a hand up over her chest, as if she was preventing him of seeing just how flustered she actually was. She somehow managed to give him one quick nod as he asked if they were talking about books.

He then went on some really long speech about how awesome Micah's books were. Her brain didn't seem to register just how weird it actually was. She could only see his perfect mouth forming words. Her face just had to be the same color as a tomato, even brighter than her hair. Before she knew it, he was standing and stretching, then waved a quick goodbye to her. No, don't go... she thought, wanting to reach out for him. Yet at the same time, she was jumping up and down enthusiastically inside her head, screaming like some sort of twelve year old fangirl of Justin Bieber. He talked to me... he actually TALKED to me!

She turned back to Micah, a smile on her face, and waited for him to speak to her.

---

Finn Pollack

He watched Teiver stare at her cat intently, longer than most people look at their animals. It was actually kind of creepy. He looked around the empty stone walls, looking for something interesting to stare at instead of her and the cat. Then she spoke, seemingly to the cat, and he didn't say a word. She was acting as if he could't hear what she was saying about him, even though he was standing directly in front of her. He narrowed her eyes at her as she poked him, but she took the lead, and he followed.

His hand still gripped his wand in his pocket, prepared for any kind of spell she might cast on him. She wouldn't take him unaware, though. He'd be ready for anything. He walked behind the cat, who was right on her heels. She led him right back to the wall they had entered earlier. At least he thought it was. He was already sort of turned around in this maze of a tunnel. The cat jumped in her bag, and he didn't even register shock. It had already been quite a weird night.

Finn chuckled at her statement of him needing how to climb. What a laugh. He was one of the most athletic people in all of Magus Grex. He could probably climb better than she could. He watched her ascend for a few moments before approaching the wall and beginning to follow her up. Unfortunately, he couldn't hold on to his wand while he climbed, so he had to hope she wasn't going to curse him when she reached the landing above them. It wouldn't have been a pleasant trip back to the bottom. When she almost fell, he tucked his head against his body, letting the small pebbles hit him and then keep falling father below. "Hey! Watch what you're doing!" he complained.

He followed her exact path up, and thankfully didn't falter once. She made a hidden door appear farther up the wall, and he crawled in to it after her. He was only slightly out of breath, but he kneeled over as if he couldn't catch his breath. Probably out of instinct. "What the heck are you leading me to?" he exclaimed, looking up to meet her eyes. Now the wild ideas were coming back. If a secret entrance wasn't enough to hide whatever she had going on in this tower, he was almost afraid to find out what it was.