Had summer gone too quickly? Or too slowly? Now that he wasn't dreading returning to school as much as he'd been the year previous, Evan found he was almost looking forward to the new term. Something that felt so foreign, despite the fact for his first and second terms he'd been very excited at the start of them. But he was still going to miss Noah and his cousins. He often wished he was older so they'd been at school at the same time, but... it was probably better he was with his sister's instead.

Heading onto the train after he said his goodbye's, he bid his sisters a 'see you later' while they went off in search of their own friends and he found himself an empty compartment towards the back. They were heading TO school, which meant he always migrated to the back for the sake of the First Years.

He left the door to his compartment open, not opposed to company or silence, and pulled out a fiction book he'd been making his way through all summer. It wasn't his preferred genre, but sometimes switching it up was necessary.

With Reagan and Keighley already off with their friends, Jude set off to find himself a compartment. Or a compartment with any of his friends or cousins, whichever came first. He made his way down the corridor, peeking at the faces that had already made themselves at home. There were some familiar faces and Jude waved to them as he passed by. He continued to head for the back of the train and actually almost passed Evan. Jude quickly did a double take and saw that the fourth year was engrossed in a book.

The Hufflepuff hesitated. Despite the fact that the door was open, the last thing he wanted to be was a nuisance. His eyes shifted around, looking for the excuse in the form of little Pads so that he could enter the compartment. Unfortunately for him, there was no sign of the kitten. Jude’s gaze shifted back to Evan, his heart beginning to race at the same time. A second later, he had made his decision. The boy lifted a knuckle to knock on the door. “H-hi, Evan. Mind i-if I join you?”

Great. Did he have to stutter? And why did it only have to be in front of Evan?

-__-

While he always THOUGHT switching it up was a necessity, Evan also usually found himself struggling to get through fiction. He much preferred books based on facts. If he was able to force himself through a fiction book, it usually had to be historical so there was at least some information present in the book that was real scenarios. This one, however, was a fantasy. And he found himself not enjoying it at all.

So when he heard a voice at the door, it was a welcome distraction. Even more so when he noticed it was a familiar face. Closing his book, he nodded his head, before sliding it into his messenger bag on the seat beside him. "Hey Jude! Please do. How was the rest of your summer?"

The stutter and the fact it seemed only present when talking to him was something Evan was beginning to pick up on, but he just assumed it was because he was 'intimidating' as he'd heard often by others. He was trying to change that image though, and he just assumed the more he and Jude interacted, the more comfortable the Hufflepuff might become.

At least, he hoped he'd be more comfortable. He was finding he quite enjoyed Jude's company.

A closed book meant that Evan didn’t mind his presence, right? At least Jude thought so. Evan didn’t seem to have snapped the book shut irritably. Gah. Why was he overthinking this? However, the nod, the book disappearing and the greeting put his mind to rest. His face instead lit up with a smile as he made his way into the compartment where he chose to sit in the seat opposite to Evan.

Despite hating the fact that he stuttered around the Ravenclaw, Jude knew that he couldn’t sit there silently for the entire journey. That would just be too weird, even for him. Though… he would be quite content to pretend to be staring out of the window while sneaking covert looks at the other boy.

“It was q-quite peaceful. My sister a-and I went to a few con-concerts my older brother’s band had. Dad sort of took us camping? It was in our ba-backyard but it was still fun. M-om taught me how to m-ake Shepherd's pie.” The latter had been his idea and Addison Anders had happily obliged. “And m-my sisters? Well…” Jude held up his left hand, even though he was feeling extremely nervous about Evan’s reaction. “Reagan and Keighley tr-tried out a new shade of nail polish on me.” It was a midnight blue colour, which he actually liked. “Reagan l-loves nail polish but th-this brand doesn’t seem to want to come o-off.” Now that he was on the train, the third year was worried about other students judging him.

Jude lowered his hand. “Did you en-enjoy the rest of the summer? Wh-where’s Pads, b-by the way?” He felt quite attached to the furbaby, even though Padme was not his.

Evan was not the best of conversationalists, well... didn't used to be anyways though he suddenly found himself getting better. But either way, he didn't find sitting in silence awkward so he wouldn't have particularly minded. But it was nice to be able to have conversations as well. He also briefly looked out the window, watching the countryside fly by.

"Oh? Concerts? What kind of music?" He briefly wondered if Jude's brother would know Chase too then. Though he assumed the music world was large enough for overlaps such as that to be rather uncommon, especially if Jude's brother might already have more traction and fanbase which.. who knew. "Camping is always nice. My family and I go every year. Even the backyard can just be a really nice change of scenery. What'd you guys do?" He was surprised how similar there summers sounded in ways, though he supposed maybe that was true of everyone. He didn't know how to make Shepherd's pie, but he'd spent a great couple of weeks cooking with his Halmeoni in Korea. The highlight of his summer, outside of Padme. He looked at the boy's hand when he held it up, noting the color. "Showing your inner Ravenclaw?" He smiled a bit, "It's a good color. And clearly good brand too if you couldn't get it off. Though I don't think you really need to either if you like it. It looks good." Nails were just nails, why not paint them.

At the question, Evan considered before answering before finally giving a nod of his head. "It was pretty good. My time in Korea was really nice. And I got to see an old friend." To pretty much just say I'm sorry and good bye to said friend, but at least it was no longer hanging over him. Probably why he was feeling lighter and more willing to make friends. He smiled at the mention of the kitten, gesturing to the space between himself and the wall of the compartment where his jacket was balled up. He lifted just an edge so Jude could see the kitten, who lazily opened one eye and gave a soft mewl at them - what Evan was assuming was request to turn back off the lights which he did. "We played hard this morning to get her energy out before the long train ride. I didn't want her to go looking for trouble."