Kurumi lunged forward a bit when he suddenly took the stick from her. Part of her shock had been that she had become somewhat lost in his gaze due to the sheer intensity of it, but one could not NOT be a little surprised when someone took something from you so suddenly like that. "You could have just asked for it," she said under her breath.

"Richard," she repeated with a small nod. There, had that been so hard? Telling her his name that is. He seemed to look like he knew what he was doing with that stick, or at least appeared more confident with it than she was. Probably knew which end was up too. Before she could ask he was talking again...and...HUH?

"D-Dove?" she said, blinking several times in confusion. Kurumi had a lot of nicknames, but they were usually given to her by people who knew her well. Richard had just met her...and why dove? "Does...everyone call you love?"

Well..

Dimitri just stared at that weird machine. He had ever seen this before. Some muggle teenagers stomp their foot and dance on it. That sounded pretty easy. His curiousity made him taking four sickles from his pocket and played them. MERLIN! THAT'S NOT EASY! The skinny guy tried to follow it but he.. failed.

Sigh.

"I wondered why some muggle kids could play it very well." He frowned and murmured. HE HAD LOST 4 SICKLES FOR THIS SILLY GAMES? WHAT? Well.. Forget that. Basketball was so much COOLER than this machine. The skinny guy just chuckled to see Jeremy and Derek at the exit. Hehehe. They were so hillarious.

Did Derek just say pool?

He stared at the green table with nine balls on it. Well, he'd ever played it before. But he lost at the time. Shoving his hand into his pocket, Dimitri just nodded slightly. "Yeah..." he said short. But not to say that he'd ever lost. "So, you want to play? This?" Then he took a long-stick that they called it cue. YEAH! DIMA WAS READY TO PLAY THIS! Let's see if he could beat this people. "Wanna bet?" suddenly he spoke. "If one of us lose at this game, he must treat ALL of us to eat at the snack bar."

He showed his big grin. But in the other side, he was afraid if he lost it. Sigh.

It had been a long trip back from his families vacation to Quebec, Canada to visit some relatives. But for Saul it was a trip worth every moment. While he was there he helped his Uncle create some pretty interesting inventions that are to complected to explain. For now he'd travel around Diagon Alley and maybe stop by the Leaky Cauldron for a bit.

There was something new up at Diagon Alley though, a bowling Alley! Saul could feel his insides giggle along with him. His excitement was building and what better way than to exhaust that excitement than by bowling some shrunken heads at pins. With a kick in his step Saul turned in the direction of the Bowling Alley and entered.

As he entered he took in the sights, he saw a few people knocking over pins, and let off a big laugh! The next thing that caught his eye was a gaming corner! Saul loved games, or at least studying other gamers before he took his turn and then dominate at it. He adjusted his thick rimmed glasses and strut on over.

before he could make his way to the area two others had blocked his path! Were they there to keep him from playing! AH Oh NO! This was awful what ever should he do! His strut turned into a slumped walk and he walked right up to the back of the one blocking the door. "You gonna let others in right?" Saul asked. PLEASE SAY YES! HE REALLY WANTED TO WATCH YOU GUYS PLAY!

Play Pool??! POOL? “How’s that a pool when there’s no water?” It was a stupid thing to ask but curiosity got the best of Jeremy. All he saw was a table with different colored balls and long sticks. “Do you know how? Because I don’t!” Jeremy eagerly went to one of the tables and got the white ball. “Sooooooooooo.....what do you with it?” he showed the white ball to Derek and placed it back on the table. He stared at it for a while and pushed it hard across the table. Too hard, that the ball bounced off the table and on to the floor. “OH JEEZ!!!” Jeremy ran after the ball like a crazy man and almost bumped into Dimitri who was trying out another arcade game.



Jeremy picked up the ball and placed it inside his pocket as he copied Dima’s dance. Leftleftleftrightright....he can follow it alright, but when the combinations came, Jeremy started to trip on his own feet. The last combination of steps was so complex that he did trip, and hanged on to the rail that was attached to the platform. “That...was some dance.” Jeremy said panting, still holding on to the rail for dear life. “I think my legs are tangled...” he could swear it felt like it since he can’t stand up. He eyed Dima who got off the platform and went toward the pool table. Hmm...looks like they are going to play it after all.

Jeremy tried his best to stand up and made his way toward the table, joining the two. He eyed Dima who got one of the long sticks. Were they going to whack each other??! This game was sooooooo weird! He got one of the sticks and started a sword play with Dima. “EN GARDE!!!” Jeremy bellowed and did his best swordplay ready stance. But before he could even “fight” with Dima, he noticed a guy standing at the entrance...what was he doing there??!




Let others in? OF COURSE! “Y’know, this is a free wizarding world, the last time the three of us checked...so..come on in!” Jeremy gestured the man with his cue stick. He eyed the stick then glanced at Dima...Jeremy was sure that the stick wasn’t for swordplay at all. He placed the stick back on the table and made his way to the guy. “Do you play pool? Weird huh? Pool? It’s Derek’s faaaaancy word play.” Jeremy hung his arm around the new guy and introduced him to the two. “The moody guy over there is Derek. I call him Ricky...but yeah he hates the name...AAAAND this cool guy over here is Dimitri. And I, dear sir, am Jeremy Kane.” He then let go of the guy and placed his hands inside his pockets. “So, who are you?”

If West looked to be mooching about doing nothing that was because he WAS mooching about doing nothing. Pretty much anyway. The tall fifteen year old had a pocket full of coins (as surprising as that was given how many coins he had spent just to eat and sleep at Hogwarts this past term), and time to spare since he had plans to meet up with people later on. A couple hours before now and then though, and West had got a bit bored hanging about at home so he'd side-alonged into London with his dad and then promptly gone off to do his own thing. Which was nothing in particular at all, because he was a teenager and had entirely perfected the art of loitering.

He'd not actually come here before, the bowling alley, and he hadn't realised there was a little arcade here. Usually if he was going to go hang around at an arcade he went to this one little one near Purge and Dowse Ltd that served pizza, but this was good too. Maybe. He idly felt the coins in his pocket and moseyed around the different games, trying to decide which would be most fun to try on his own.

... did they offer prizes? Tickets or tokens or anything for getting a high score and generally being epic? Hmmm... that was an option. Or if there were people around he could maybe hustle them play a friendly game of pool....

Unpacking done and shopping complete, Jezzabelle had taken to roaming the streets. While doing so she had found a bowling alley. Initially she had laughed at it because it was a muggle thing after all, but what had really caught her attention was the games in the game room. She was okay at darts, could really get a great score at ski ball, but her best game was playing on the miniature Quidditch pitch.

She really wanted to get her game on once again. She was trying to spend the rest of her left over change from all the school shopping. She looked around the room trying to find someone do nothing when she noticed an older boy just walking around doing nothing.

"Oi," she shouted st the boy. "Wanna play?" Its was rather rude to shout but the sixteen year old girl really didn't care. He was doing nothing and she wanted to play a game. Anyway, she needed to make new friends and touch base with old ones.

Huh?

West blinked, having been in his own little world where he made a bajillion galleons hustling poor unsuspecting folk. Play? Play what? And what was with the shouting? He had ears, and they worked perfectly fine.

"Play what?" He asked, raising one brow. And then an obvious brainwave, "You play pool?" He indicated the nearest table.

Well, did she? Whoever she even was.

Jezz looked at the pool table with hesitation. She wasn't great at pool but she wasn't awful either. She nodded, "I can play pool but I'm not all that great at it."

She extended her hand as she remembered that she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Jezzabelle, but most people just call me Jezz. Sixth year. Gryffindor." Why was she stating her year and house, oh yeah because it helped her accept the fact that she really was home.

"Would you like to play a game of pool...?" Err...she didn't know his name. Well darn. What if he was good at pool? She wouldn't know because she didn't know his name and people talk about good players right?

"Oh aren't you?" West asked casually, not confessing that he was kinda a natural, as he was with most anything that required coordination and aim. It was just one of those things.....

Sixth year Gryffindor? What?

West squinted at her. Jezzabelle.

"No you're not." He said almost immediately. "I'd know you if you were." Truth. "I'm Going into my fifth year... in Slytherin. My girlfriend is going into her sixth and she's a Gryffindor. I'd definitely know you if you were as well." For reasons. So... what gives?

... but yeah, he'd play pool, once this question was dealt with. Mhhmmm.

"I mean I can play but I'm no like supa player," Jezz said giving a small shrug of her shoulder.

She's not a Gryffindor. How would he know. He was an ickle firstie when she had to leave the school. Never would have heard about her right? "Yeah," she said trying her hardest not to roll her eyes, "you would have known I'm in Gryffindor if you had started when I did. I left Hogwarts my second year because both my parents got really good job opportunities in France. They took me with them, but I'm back now ready to jump back in."

She looked at the pool table and chewed on her lip and then attempted to stall. She really wasn't too good at pool. "What's your name?"

That explained it, and meant that West was still RIGHT: he would've known her if she'd been around. "Did you go to Beauxbatons then? Or get homeschooled?" He began racking up the pool balls.

"I'm West Odessa." She got a curious look. "Do you play Quidditch?"

"Beauxbatons," Jezz said with a huge amount of sarcastic hostility. "I didn't like it there. I never actually fit in there and their uniforms gave me nightmares." Still did on occasion.

She smiled fondly,"I like to play but I'd never make it on a team. I'm just not the greatest team player. Do you play?" She grabbed herself a pool stick. No going back now.

"My friend Vesper Bayliss went there these last four years, she's coming to Hogwarts this year too." West smiled happily, lighting up. He was REALLY glad about it, and had quite a few Vesper-related plans for the year. It would be epic, no matter what house she ended up in.

West grabbed a stick too and then chalked it up casually.

"You should try out this year, my girlfriend is captain." Of Gryffindor's team and all. "I play. Or I mean, I have been starting chaser for the last four terms." That used to come with the brag of being top scorer in the competition, but he just wasn't anymore. Up there sure, and good passing game but... not the top. It was better not to brag anyways. "Might not even make the team this year." Who knew?

"The name doesn't ring a bell," Jezz said frowning. "Then again, I was never really social there. Maybe you can introduce us one day." She wouldn't lie, she needed more friend no matter the year.

"You can break. I'm not really good at breaking." Jezz just stared at the triangle of balls. She wanted solids though. They were her lucky pick.

"Well I might. It really depends on my class schedule and everything. I don't want to over do it." She smiled. She would love to be a starting anything. "Give yourself more credit. You might make it. Never know till you try right?"

"Must've been a boring four years." Without being social? West was definitely the social sort, though he for sure like his own space and all that. Solitude was good if you needed it, but only to recharge from hanging out with people. "I can introduce you to whoever." He agreed easily. Why not right? Unless she turned out to be horrible, then not so much.

So far so good though.

He could break? Okay then.

West went ahead and lined up.... and then boom. Perfect break. The three and the nine went into the pockets. Okay so he had a choice then. West examined the balls and went for stripes since the eleven ball was a nice and easy shot. He hit it in cleanly.

Oh she misunderstood him. "I give myself credit, its just that there's no guarantees. We won the championship last term, and we have plenty of good players in Slytherin. Who knows if someone better will come along?"

He couldn't imagine NOT playing though. That would suck.

The next ball he lined up was a little harder and West had to rebound the cue ball off the rails before it hit the fourteen ball and knocked that in. Nine, eleven, and fourteen down... four more to go. West tried for the fifteen since if he missed it'd put the cue ball in a difficult spot for Jezz. He missed and stepped back. She was up with solids, one of them had already been pocketed on the break too.

"Not really boring, just lonely." She was never bored. That school almost had as many secrets as Hogwarts. She gave him a small smile, "I would really appreciate it. I think some of my friend graduated. I don't have many if that's the case."

Jezz watched his clean break and held her breath chanting in her head for him to pick stripes. With a quiet sigh of relief she watched as he pocketed two balls after the initial one on the break. Oh, he was really good. "If you can play Quidditch as good as you're playing pool at the moment I don't think you'll have a problem."

She stared at the solid balls each shot looking pretty tricky. She decided to aim for the six which was up against the rail all she needed to do was give it a good enough tap to sink it in an end pocket but the angle she needed to tap it at was seriously tricky. Taking a steady breath the made he move and watched at the cue ball rebounded off the rail and gave the ball in question a hard enough tap to move it...

...just not hard enough to sink it. One ball in and it was his turn again.

Selina had been slightly more aggressive recently, but not necessarily in a bad way. Kurumi just knew that her best friend was getting pumped up for the quidditch season and just quidditch in general, so it was on that note that Kurumi thought doing something athletic where she could knock things over would be best. Hence the bowling alley. Not to mention the twenty year old could use some stress relief herself.

Kurumi had not been here since Kevin had worked her, but she had been meaning to for quite some time. So, here they were! Just the two of them. Kurumi valued these times almost more than she had when they were at Hogwarts. They just felt more special to her somehow.

"So, what do you want to do first?" Kurumi asked Selina as she adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder.

"Hit things," Selina said blankly throwing her bag down on one of the seats. What? That was what the redhead wanted to do because it was the way she let all of her stress out, which was rather convenient that it was her career of choice. But yes, she just wanted to start with hitting things even if included pins at this bowling place.

Lately, life had just been stressing the nineteen year old out because of reasons. And it was nice to just have a day with Rumi because her best friend of FOREVER always knew how to cheer her up. It was like she could read her mind when she needed a day. Like today.

So turning back to Kurumi she tackled her friend and sniffed her face, "You smell nice. NOW CAN WE HIT THINGS?!" Preeeeetty please?

Kurumi had her back to Selina briefly while she looked around the area at something familiar to her...only there were very few activities here that she would consider familiar territory. Darts maybe? But throwing things into a board would not give Selina the same satisfaction as hitting something would. Because with bowling you were technically throwing something...but anyway.

"Did you just....smell me?" Kurumi squinted as she turned her head slowly to face her best friend. WHY was Selina smelling her? "Um...thanks...I think. It's a strawberry scented shampoo and conditioner Lewis picked up for me." At least she assumed that was what Selina had been smelling. "Yes, we can go hit things...but which things? Do you want to go straight to bowling or....do you want to try that?" she asked with a small laugh as she pointed to the pool table.

The redhead was bouncing with all of the excess energy she had stored up in her person. The EX-GRYFFINDOR wanted to get going and exercise or run or do anything at all that would keep her body busy. Mind needed to shut off for a while. Mhmm. Too much going on up there all the time, keeping things simple was ideal.

Uh, duh. Of course she just smelt a Rumi. Why wouldn't she? Sometimes you just needed to sniff your friends to really identify if they were real or not. Being a Bond girl required that kind of dedication. Anyway.

"Yes," she said super seriously, "And that makes sense," she tagged onto the Lewis bit. Actually, she had to talk to Rumi about her fiance. He had been all weird in her flat the other day. Puffer.

"No, no." She shook her head, "THAT." THE BOWLING THING.

Kurumi couldn't help but laugh. There was Selina for you, represented in a single moment. Sort of. Kurumi had always appreciated how honest Selina was with her, most of the time, and how Selina could always bring the truth out of her - even when she didn't want to admit it to herself. Although the STILL A GRYFFINDOR couldn't help but feel like her best friend had been keeping things from her. Some big things. Not that she was going to try and force it out of the red head. Kurumi knew much better than to do that.

"We both do like strawberries," she said, flushing quite considerably once again. She wasn't too sure what to make of the afterthought of Selina's, however, but best not ask about that either. Right now they were supposed to be having fun and keeping their mind off other things. Except each other. Today was a THEM day.

No no...to what exactly? She had just listed a few things you know. "So....bowling then..." she half asked as she sloooooowly took a step towards the counter. "I want to try that later though," she said, pointing to the pool table again. "I've never done it before, but it looks simple enough." Just it a ball with a stick and get the balls into a hole. Pretty straight forward.

The strawberry comment? Yes, see, stuff like that was what made Selina want to smack Kurumi's hand. The whole blushy, girl-in-love bit. They'd been dating for what seemed like FOREVER to Selina...the honeymoon phase was over...Lewis and Kurumi didn't seem to realise that. It was OKAY though, being that she was always there to remind them. She was so thoughtful that way.

And so, she did what she did best, ignored the blushing. Her duties as friend seemed endless and she was such a good one, okay?! However, she couldn't help the comment that slipped out, the ever subtle comment, "UGH, RUMI, GIRLS DAY. NO LEWIS RELATIONSHIP WE, JUST ME AND YOU." Yep. She thought she had been pretty smooth. Rumi was welcome.

Wait, wait...if they were going to HIT things, that was how Selina wanted to end their day. See, all good things culminated in brutal abuse of hitting things with a bat or a heavy bowling ball. It was simple logic. So, if Kurumi wanted to hit tiny balls with a thin, floppy stick...Selina figured they should do it first. What baffled her though was WHY Kurumi wanted to play it. It seemed like the pathetic, ugly cousin of Quidditch.

"No, we can play your game first." Could she even consider it a game?

......................................oops.

"I didn't mean to --- " but she knew better than to keep that conversation going. "Right. No boy talk or mentioning the wed----" Kurumi suddenly covered her mouth as though she were just about to reveal her deepest darkest secret to the world. She knew how, er, sensitive Selina had been about the wedding. Stressed was more like it, but this was no time for a vocabulary lesson.

"RIGHT! So...pool...wonder why it is called that when there is no water involved..." she mused to herself. Call her dumb if you will here, but she wasn't exactly familiar to these sorts of games. She was STILL getting a handle on quidditch for Merlin's sake. When she had played for Gryffindor Carter had told her one thing - get the snitch and forget everything else...so that is exactly what she had done like a good little house elf. Announcing had been more of a cramming session the night before the match, but once it was over all facts and figures were long forgotten.

Except for now. Now Selina kept a little record book for all of Selina's accomplishments each season. Which is why she knew that when Selina made contact with Mortimer she had a 93.4851% chance of hitting a member of the opposing team and a 97.3941% chance that that player was a Chaser. Hehe.

Kurumi took Selina's hand and lead her over towards the, er, sticks. "So...which end do you use on this? Would make more sense for this end. Bigger surface area..."

EH, EH, EH. WOAH, THEY HAD JUST AGREED THERE WOULD BE NO BOY TALK AND THEN SHE BROUGHT UP THE W WORD. For shame, Rumi, for shame. The girl did not want to talk about boys or anything because from what she understood girl days did not have mentions of boys. It was pretty simple being that it was in the NAME of the day. Girl, not boy.

So the redhead was serving her up a serious glare right at the moment. It even bordered on a stink eye. Fear the stink eye of the Skylar. Ahem. "No boy talk," she reiterated.

Merlin, did Rumi just SAY that. Just because the name was pool did not mean- you know what, nevermind. This was just going to be a trip and a half with Rumi. At least it would be fun and Selina would win. Her competitive streak was beaming on the inside.

But then Kurumi kept talking and things just got worse and worse. From what she could tell, Kurumi was almost waiting for the pool table to turn into a literal pool and did she just ask what side of the stick to use? Oh Merlin. Nope. The redhead was not well equipped to handle this and so she did the only thing she could think of...

...she laughed. Very loudly and very annoyingly.

Right. She had just said that. And to honor that promise she wasn't going to respond with anymore more than a nod. She may have mouthed a sorry, but couldn't be too sure that Selina had actually seen it or not.

So...moving right along to this game and how it worked then, yes?

She nearly dropped her stick when Selina started laughing. It wasn't an unusual situation - Selina had laughed at her plenty of times - but now she just felt like a troll trying to do Arithmancy, stupid. "What......." she mumbled as she put the stick back down in the stand. "I've never played this before...don't laugh at me."

Kurumi stared at the stick again for a few moments before picking it up again. She was going to assume that this meant that she did not use the big end of the stick to hit the balls with. Which brought her gaze to the balls that were on the table. At least they were already set in a triangle formation, but she didn't really know what to do with the stray white ball that obviously wasn't going to fit. Cautiously, she picked it up and turned to Selina and offered the white ball to her best friend.

"You want to start us off then?"