Shrugging, Jake smiled as she ruffled his hair. "Maybe." He could never understand why people were proud for telling the truth, since that was supposed to be what everyone did.

Taking the photo gently from Vannie, Jake studied it carefully. He couldn't say that he agreed with the girl looking like Miles... Jake had rarely seen the guy. "Oh rrright," was all he could try... it was rather non-comittal. "Ssssounds good. I thhhink she likes me. Ava has always llliked me..." When Jake said this, he made a slight face. The boy was still extremely jealous of Ava. The feeling never seemed to go away.

Lexi shuffled a few of the items in her hands. She needed an extra hand to grab a few of the green flies she'd seen earlier. Yes, she'd changed her mind and decided to pick up a few on the off chance Apollo would actually like them. She supposed the snowy white owl would. Ewww. Maybe Apollo would eat them quickly, and they'd been out of sight and out of mind forever. Or at least until Lexi decided to treat her owl to a bowl full of them once again.

The professor sighed and reached upward until she was finally able to grasp a jar full of flies. Ewww. Apollo better be appreciative, yupp. She eyed the jar then turned her attention back to Cameron. "Rude to decline? No, it wouldn't have been rude to decline prefectship," she said, giving Cameron a wondering look. She hoped the girl hadn't said yes just to be polite. Lexi had faith in Cameron, though. She wouldn't have asked her for the position if she didn't. "It's a job, and you have to either want it or be willing to do it."

Lexi had never been a prefect. She'd never been asked to be one either. She guessed most of her professors realized she saw school as more of a social gathering instead of a place for education. "I think you'll be excellent in the position," she commented, giving Cameron a quick smile before beginning the walk to the front counter.

"My summer was...relaxing, I guess I'd say. Too short, maybe," she answered, suddenly wishing the new school year wasn't just a few weeks away. When a thought suddenly came to her, Lexi paused in the aisle and turned to Cameron. "Listen, I know this is a big responsibility, and I don't expect you to come in and play the role of Superwoman. If you need anything, you know where to reach me---either in my classroom or in my office. Or somewhere nearby...," she said.

"I thought as much. Hope I don't have to beg the hat to let me in." James grinned. He was surely brave enough and rawr enough and all that other junk. Surely. "Yeah, actually a friend of mine," Friend, semi-accidental-not-so-bad-after-all-girlfriend, whichever, "Used to go and she got pulled out last year. She really wanted to go back so I helped her convince her parents and... in the process convinced my parents too." Persuasive, was Jimmy Wilkes. It might have been the smile.

"I reckon you can tell a lot about a person by the quality and quantity of their friendships, you know?" Jimmy responded, grinning back. "Oh yeah? Well, thats all good. Too young to settle you know? Nothing weirder than kids that spout off about their 'love being forever' and all that." Pssssh. He'd met second years that went on about being in love with their sweetie and junk like that.

"Maybe you'll want to get a butterbeer with me sometime." He added, not quite asking, though the crooked grin was firmly in place and he had his eyes fixed on her. He tossed the box of owl pellets over his shoulder and caught it behind his back with a flourish. Time to go to the counter. yep.

"She will be." Vannie smirked at Jake. Of course she would be. "I know her remember. I know she'll be proud of you jakey." His Mum was her best friend, and best friends new these things.

"Ava likes anyone." Vannie grinned, as she looked at the picture. She was with Daddy today, Seth Daddy, and Vannie couldn't wait till it was closing time so that she would go see her. She didn't miss the face he pulled, and she shook her head. "Jake...you don't have to be jealous of her. She's only a little girl." And they all loved Jake anyway. "And I know Gracie will like you." Because her mother liked him an awful lot too.

Cameron frowned as her Charms professor took a jar of flies from the shelf. Ew.. Huh? Oh.. they'd been having a conversation right? "Oh.." But now the idea of giving back her badge wasn't so appealing. She kinda liked it. It was shineh. *sparkles*
"Well.. no, I mean, I'm happy to do it. I just.. don't understand why you gave it to me." Yes. That hadn't been the question, no, but it was what Cam had wanted to know. Really and truly. She had zilch house spirit and Professor Carlton had chosen her. Why?

Excellent? Cameron gaped at Miss Carlton but quickly shut her mouth. Erm.. it was rude to gape. Right. Yes. Where was she? "But Professor.." But she sighed. If she was 'excellent' then so be it. Cameron didn't believe her - but if she had faith then Cam wasn't going to break her spirit. Especially not about something like this.

Relaxing? Lucky lady. Cameron's summer had been horrible. The whole argument with Oliver and then subsequently moving out of home and then .. urgh. Her summer had been far from relaxing. Short? Cameron smiled slightly. "Not enough time to destress from us annoying twits?" She knew teaching wasn't fun at times, especially when children were being brats.

She began to walk and Cam snatched the box and followed her. It was a HUUUGE topic change as the woman started to reassure her. Cameron just blinked. "Erm.. " What could she say? Umm.. yeah.." Errr? "Thanks Professor." It was kind of comforting that she now had someone to whinge to when the first years wouldn't go to sleep or when the third years were playing illegal games in their dorms. Yays. [/sarcasm]

All of a sudden, she was jolted and ended up flat on her face. Why did she get the feeling that Merlin was out to get her? Especially in Diagon Alley. She wasn't THAT clumsy a person, but it seemed in this street, she couldn't maintain her upright standing for more than an hour.

Peeling herself off of the floor, she turned to see who'd slammed into her. Err.. she was obviously younger and Cameron glanced surreptiously at Lexi and then looked back at the girl. Amazed by the owls? She blinked. Er.. obviously a muggle.

"I'm.. fine." Kinda. Her cheek was twitching from the carpet burn. "It's alright.. you don't have to repeat your apology more than once.." But it was nice of her to say it. Without prompting, that was.
"Yes.. the owls are .. something." When they weren't pecking your face off. :/

"Oh, ok. well i guess i'll see you around." she smiled, waved, and left.

"Well, if you can choose.." Ella started, then decided to leave it. He'd be in whatever house he wanted. "All the houses are pretty good, I guess. You particularly don't strike me as a Slythie, but.." she trailed off again. He probably had no idea what she was talking about. Hmm, time to say something new. "Oh, who?" Ella asked, referring to his friend. Maybe Ella had some idea of who she was. Of course, there was a huge chance that she didn't because of the thousands of students there, but why not.

Ella nodded in agreement, grinning at his comments. "Definitely. I met a firstie once who claimed to be in love. I didn't know what to say," she admitted. What was there to say? Fell in love at eleven, yeah right. And by James's personality, Ella could tell he'd have many friends. He was the sort of.. class clown type of person. That was good, because Ella loved to laugh. Hehe.

She didn't think she had much of a choice when he asked her to get a butterbeer with him, but she didn't feel obligated either. Ella glanced up at him; he was the slightest bit taller than her. And pretty cute. "Maybe," she said with a smile she couldn't supress, looked elsewhere, then back at him, "Yeah, maybe I would." She saw him do the little trick with the pellet box and grinned, doing it herself. Quidditch for two terms hadn't taught her nothing, you know. "Better buy these," she told him.

Ahhh. Lexi had been waiting for that question to come. She'd had a sinking feeling Cameron hadn't been expecting the badge, so when the girl questioned the decision, Lexi pretty much already had an answer planned and ready.

"Prefectship, Miss Caddock, isn't just about earning points and being the shining star in all the classes. It helps, of course, but there's other things we have to take into consideration when choosing the right person for the position," she said. Lexi paused for a moment to weave her way through a few crowds of children and parents alike, as she made her way out the aisles and closer to the front counter.

"You're a seventh year...of course..., and along with that maturity comes many years of magical experience under your belt. Whether you see yourself as a leader or not, you are, and they'll be lots of people who'll look up to you once school starts," she said. Lexi had a feeling that Cameron wouldn't exactly like that fact, so she turned around to face the girl, a slight look of understanding on her face. "Don't worry, though. From what I've seen and heard, the younger ones won't exactly be lining up to worry you with unnecessary questions or concerns. You'll probably just get the same ole stuff you'd normally get if you weren't prefect."

Lexi smiled then turned in the other direction, ready to get to the front and pay for her flies and owl pellets. There was a slight shuffling sort of sound from behind her, almost as if someone or something might have fallen, but with all the crowds of children around, she couldn't be too sure.

Cameron bit the inside of her cheek, listening as her Charm's teacher explained to her why she'd been picked. It kinda made sense.. but then on the otherhand, Cameron didn't see herself as either mature nor magically experienced but she nodded - perhaps just to make herself feel better about the enormous amount of responsibility that came with the tiny strip of metal. Prefect. Eurgh.

She giggled slightly as Carlton told her that the firsties wouldn't be too bad. "Sure? I was pretty annoying when I was eleven." She smiled and nodded. Well.. maybe it'd be fun.. right!? Perhaps..
But she sort of felt alone as well.. she didn't know who the male Prefect would be and she'd never been particularly close to any of the Gryffindors. Lori was a claw! She sighed slightly and had only looked away from her Professor for a moment, when she disappeared into the throng of people.

Er..

*wibble*

"Professor Carlton?" Why did suddenly EVERY person in the store have blonde hair and look exactly the same? She frowned. Being short as a paiiiiiiin.

Now it was time to get Bandit something special. Walking along the many different look insects, Kay didn't know what to get. "Their all so...eekky." She said looking at a bug in one of the jars. She couldn't believe her owl would eat that. Picking out two of the jars, she moved on.

Food pellets. This was easy. Picking up three different kinds. Bandit liked all of them so She only got a little at a time or he would want it all at one time. Putting the Pettels in her little basket, she went over to the other side of the room.

This was new. Boxs to pick from. Toys for her owl. This was cool. picking out one of the boxes she was ready to go. Bandit would be very happy when he saw her. She couldn't wait to get back to see him play with his new toys.

Amanda got the owl in the owl in the cage and she was beautiful. Amanda wanted to get some food to get for the owl, nuts, anything so it wouldn't starve.

Amanda bought the stuff and left.

Hailey walked into the Owl shop with a grin in her face, she turned around looking for her friend Adeline.

"Thats the green ones, right?" He DID look good in green. And in pretty much every colour so that didn't much help.

"Oh, her name is Neptune Bott, she didn't go last term but was at Hogwarts the term before that, for her third year. She's a Ravenclaw." And wanted Jimmy to be one of those too. Meh? Meh. That was the smart house, he didn't need that sort of reputation, it was hard enough to disguise the fact that he was secretly a brain of epic proportions.

"Usually I just laugh, it helps them realise how stupid they sound." James answered. If HE wasn't sure he knew what real love was, then how could an eleven year old when comparatively, Jimmy Wilkes knew ALL?

"I'll take a maybe." Jimmy answered, his grin widening when Ella showed off her own fast hands skills. "Yeah. Better." He echoed. "And then we'll see about that possible butterbeer." James led the way to the counter.



ooc: the counter is closed, soooo do you want to post at the leaky? Main Floor Seating okay with you? Just VM me when you post and sorry I took so long XD

Jar held at eye level, she gently drummed her finger against the side, watching the insects crawl around. The young girl had been staring at the jar for a few minutes, wondering if Altair would eat stick insects. Hmm. She seemed to like flies, but Arya thought it was time her owl tried something new. It had nothing to do with the fact that she had a few extra coins burning a hole in her pocket. Heh.

Letting her eyes glide between the jar in her hand and the jars of insects on the shelf; it was times like these when she needed Noah. He would know what kind of insects to buy.

Lexi was flouncing through Eyelops just kind of looking around and being SEEN. Hehe. Then she spotted a vaguely familiar girl holding a jar of.. ICK.. bugs. Stopping beside the girl she actually leaned over her shoulder a little and made an ACK sound. "Those things look really gross," she said in a low tone as not to offend the buggies.

"Do I know you from school? You look familiar... I'm Lexi Denver... was Alexa Kennedy but I was adopted," she said with a smile.

Arya was considering opening the jar and holding the insects when she heared a ACK sound over her shoulder; breaking her concentration. Lowering the jar, she peered over her shoulder to see who the noise maker was. "No they don't." She said keeping her tone low as well, her eyes going back to the bugs. "They're cute." Too bad they were gonna be bird food.

Taking a step back, she studied the girl's face, knowing they had met before, but unable to recall a when or where. "I think we've met at the Castle before. I'm Arya Lovegoods." She smiled at the girl while drumming her fingers on the jar. "What year are you?"

Lexi frowned at the small girl that thought bugs were cute. Bugs are gross, boys are cute. That is the rule. Mhm. Sher would let it slide since the girl looked so young. Just this once though. Maybe she wasn't much younger than Lexi. Hmmm. She tore her eyes away from the disgusting jar of bugs and studied the girl's face.

"I think we have... You nearly plowed me down at the Treehouse. But it's cool. I am a fourth year, what about you?" Lexi said with a grin. She knew the girl hadn't really almost plowed her down. Hehe. She was a bit dramatic sometimes. It made life more interesting.

Treehouse girl! That's where they had met. Lexi seemed to be in a better mood than she had been during the term which was good. "I remember," She replied cheerfully; the whole ordeal had been funny to little Arya. "You were worried about falling off of your swing I think." It hadn't taken her long to prove to Lexi that she wouldn't get hurt falling. Quite fun actually, she couldn't wait to climb in again.

Lexi chuckled a little bit and replied, "I had quite a few injuries to worry about, falling wasn't high on my list of things to do." She was a bit self concious about her scars and absently touched the one under her eye. They had tried a lot of things to try and make them go away but most of them had been caused by dark magic so no go. She smiled brighter though and laughed. Letting her hand drop she said, "Are you buying those for your owl??" Lexi only fed Wasabi owl treats and let her hunt whenever she wanted to. She was now curious about this.

Twisting the cap on the jar, she tilted her head to the side as Lexi spoke, but didn't inqure as to what injuries she was speaking of. She wasn't to sure the older girl would share; she herself wouldn't speak about a few of her injuries. "I'm a third year..." That was one of her questions wasn't it? Letting her brown eyes drift to the jar when the subject changed, she nodded her head. "Yup. Altair usually likes flies, but I'm thinkin about treating her to something different." With another twist of the cap, the jar was open and her small hand was reaching in for one of the stick insects. "Do you feed these to your owl? Do you have a owl?" She glanced back at Lexi.

Lexi was looking about the shelves and had missed the girl opening the jar. "Yes, I have an owl. Her name is Wasabi. I just let her hunt and feed her owl treats," she said before turning back to see... She wasn't. She was! Oh my Merlin! Lexi squealed and threw herself against a shelf. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! Don't TOUCH those nasty things!" Lexi shrieked. Not because of the girl or anything, but because she had a slight fear or bugs. Yeah... Not cool.

"I let Altair hunt as well, she seems to prefer it...." Especially when she was back home on the ranch. They had tons of little creatures running around for the owl to eat. Even though she was speaking to the older girl, her focus was on the stick insect that was slowly crawling onto her hand; it tickled a little which made her grin. Lexi's squeal had made her jump a little as she tightened her grip on the jar, insect still on her hand.

What was she doing? "I wanted a better glance at them." She said innocently, not seeing the harm in holding the insects. It wasn't like she was going to hurt them, and they didn't bite. Though the way the she was reacting, one would have thought different. "There not nasty.....just misunderstood." Pulling her hand out of the jar, she held the creature at eye level, watching as he crawled around her hand. "They won't hurt you..." Unlike with the treehouse, she wasn't gonna offer the insect to the girl, she would kill it. Arya was sure of this.

Lexi laughed softly then nodded her head. "I'm sure. Even I was annoying at eleven. I was probably still annoying at twelve and thirteen, too. All little kids are annoying to older kids. I think it's some...law of nature or something," she said. She paused for just a second as she glanced toward a box of treats that had caught her eye. A second later, though, she'd changed her mind and decided that she didn't need those type treats after all. Apollo had enough already! "You know what, though? I think you'll enjoy the fact that they'll look up to you. It'll have it's benefits, too."

Just as soon as she'd stepped through the crowd, Lexi heard the uncertain voice of her prefect calling out her name. Turning around, she only saw a crowd full of people...no Cameron, though. "Right here," she said, pushing her way back through a crowd full of people and toward Cameron. "I'm heading up to the counter to pay for the treats, then I'm heading home for the day. It was good catching up with you, and hey, if you need anything else or have any questions, just owl me. Otherwise, I'll see you at school."

She turned and walked up to the counter, turning back toward Cameron as she did so. "Have a good rest of the summer, though, and try not to worry about prefectship too much. It'll all be fine---trust me," she assured. She was quiet as she paid for the treats. When she was about ready to head out the door, she said, "Bye, Miss Caddock. See ya later." With a little smile toward the prefect, Lexi gently pushed the shop door open and stepped outside.

Lexi had a look of utter disgust on her face when she spoke to the girl, "You are going to want to wash that hand once you are done." First she tried to KILL Lexi on the treehouse now she was trying to SICK bugs on her. That was NO way to make friends. None at all.

Lexi was still too frightened to move from where she was but she asked timidly, "Could you please put the bug away? I promise I won't shout again if you do." PLEASE. Lexi never said please to anyone... for anything... unless it was to blackmail her brother into doing something for her.

Lexi's reaction to her handling the insect confused Arya. It was just a little bug, not some gaint dangerous magical creature. "Yeah..." She drawled, still confused. Best not ask the girl to help her find bugs to feed to Altair when they were at Hogwarts.

Glancing at the bug again, she slowly began to lower her hand into the jar; careful not to let any of the other out. She didn't want to put the insect away, she still wanted to hold the it a bit longer. But she didn't care for the shouting, and she did say please. So in the bug went.