That was true. She did have something, on her mind. She had Thomas on her mind, especially lately seeing as she’d see him even less soon. She really did miss him, but she wouldn’t admit it was because of any other reason than their friendship. "Mmm…I know and my mind is usually busy thinking of other things, things that aren’t really too important." Now that last bit was an utter lie. Of course Tom was important to her, he was very important, but some thing she just wouldn’t say aloud.

This nodding was good right? She hopped so and beamed back at the boy in front of her.

Why would he be mean? Maybe because he was a Slytherin and most of them were just EVIL! Ness bit her lip and refrained herself from saying so. That would juts make her look like the mean one and she didn’t want to ruin her Hufflepuff-ness. "Um..I don’t know. Its just most Slytherins are a little rude at first." She said once again biting her lip hoping this Prefect wouldn’t get offended.

Ella smiled and followed Ronnie's gaze down to Oliver, giggling when he turned his little head sideways to look back. "Well he's great company so you're lucky!" Not to mention he was adorable! That was a plus too. "Oh I was just doing some thinking." She said with a shrug. "Walking helps me a bit."

The second year watched with wide eyes as Ronnie gave her TONS of jelly beans! She couldn't believe how generous her friend was being though she was getting worries...her hands simply COULD NOT hold that many! OH NO! And they were beginning to fall! Ella frowned but quickly recovered as her friend picked the fallen ones up and ate them. She giggled and nodded. "I do that too. You simply cannot let good jelly beans go to waste!" And she smiled, popping a few into her own mouth. "Thanks for sharing!" BEAM BEAM BEAM. Ella nodded. "I'm glad you came back so we could meet!" And she meant that. "I couldn't imagine being away from Hogwarts. It's home now, y'know?...Oh I've been good. Just trying to keep up with homework and such. I'm a little sad that Quidditch ended the way it did."

Thinking...yeah, walking helped Ronnie think too! Heh. But wait..was Ronnie interrupting any of Ella's thinking..? Ronnie looked at Ella, her head cocked. "I'm....not interrupting any important thinking, am I?" she asked. 'Cause if she was, that would be rude! When people need to think, it's easiest to do it on your own without any interruptions or distractions. Well, that's how it is for Ronnie anyways.

Ronnie laughed, glad to know she wasn't the only one who did that. Because that'd be kindaaa....awkwarddd. "EXACTLY!" she cried out loudly. She covered her mouth, blushing slightly. Well that was a bit too loud..! "Sorry!" she whispered, removing her hands slowly and giggling. Siillyyy Ronnieee. "But yeah, it is indeed a complete waste! It'd make me just cry to see someone waste such goooood candyy." she said, nodding her head like she knew everything. Even though she didn't..

"You are very welcome! I am happy to share." she said, smiling. She nodded in agreement. "Yeah, exactly! It is indeed home. It's the only home we'll ever have, and I wanna stay as long as possible. I'm real sad I had to skip a year...but at least I get to stay for the rest." she said. "Mmm, I see." she said. "Well that's good. Except for the Quidditch part." she said, frowning.

Milton was walking. He did that pretty well. Most people did, but Milton was exceptionally good at walking. He always looked hawt when he walked. He had a sort of swagger to his step. Not, like, over-dramatic swagger. But just enough to be subtly hawt.

At least... he thought so.

And as he walked, he kicked rocks down the pathway and thought about how CLOSE summer was. It was only a month away from school from being over. Thank goodness. His first year at Hogwarts was finally almost complete. And then he got to spend his summer with Anya and Amelia and... his dad. That wasn't exciting, but the other parts were.

For some reason, Gwendolyn found herself walking along one of the pathways. She hadn’t made any plans with her friends until later that day, so she had plenty of time to kill. After giving a quick look around in order to see if there was anyone familiar there, the fourth year drew her attention back to the object she was holding in her hands. It looked like one of the Quidditch quaffles, only diminished to the size of a tennis ball. She had no idea why she had even received that as a gift. She was not really the biggest Quidditch fan, nor would she even consider trying out for the team next term.

Maybe not.

Without paying much attention to where she was heading out, the fourth year started twirling the object in her hands, before throwing it in the air and catching it again. Pffft. She was probably never going to learn to like Quidditch. Though, the fourth year felt like she should at least try. What was taking her so long to decide, anyway? It was so unlike her.

The Slytherin was honestly quite bored. she didn't know what she was doing either. Well, actually, she did - she was walking her cruppy. The green leash was wrapped around her hand as she allowed the creature to walk wherever he wanted to. Selena supposed Clarke deserved some time to himself to just go around and walk. Her pygmy puff was perched on her head as she continued to walk before the cruppy went insane and started to bark at something.

She held onto her cruppy as she ran to keep up with the excited cruppy barking at something going up and down in the air. Selena didn't know what it was and she didn't know why Clarke found it remotely interesting - she did know that the cruppy was now slobbering all over the girl's shoes though. So the head girl just stood there and waited for her cruppy to grow bored of the girl's shoes.

"Hi," Selena said, wiggling her fingers in greeting. "Clarke likes shoes."

Because that was a totally reasonable explanation for the cruppy slobbering on the girl's shoes.

Gwen was still walking along the pathway, thinking about whatever she should do, until she got distracted. She felt something near her shoes. The fourth year drew her attention in that direction and was a bit surprised to see… a cruppy. Had someone lost it? Gwendolyn raised her eyes from the ground in order to look for the owner… whoever that person was, but it looked like she didn’t have to continue the search.

Selena, the girl she had met this summer in Diagon Alley was standing beside her. ‘I can see that’, she responded to her remark as she raised an eyebrow. But Gwen had to admit, the cruppy was cute. She gave the cruppy a small pat on the head before taking a step away from him. Enough with the shoes. Though, the Ravenclaw figured it wouldn’t take long before the cruppy attacked her shoes again, so she had to come up with something. Like… throw a stick?

Better yet… Gwen eyed the ball she was holding in her hand. Go get it. Errr. If he knew how to do that. The girl threw the ball on the ground anyway. She then drew her attention back to Selena, who was wearing the pigmy puff on her head… again. ‘How are you?’

Alice had plopped her rump right down in the middle of the pathway. 'Cause she was cool like that

The tiny girl was conducting an experiment to see if she was so short that people didn't notice her, even if she was right under their noses. After all, she had been sat on numerous times, and she was small enough to be hurled into a duck pond. By the evil git who must not be named. SO. There she sat, praying that no one would step on her. 'Cause that would NAWT be cool. Not even a little. Flail. The Queen of the World was not a chair or a doormat or a duck toy, thanks. She was a tiny QUEEN. Hem, hem.

Luckily for her, though, no one had sat on her this time. Or stepped on her. or tossed her into a body of water. This time, it was a rock. That landed square in the middle of her back. She decided to ignore it until another pebble came flying out of nowhere and hit her in the back of her neck. "HEYY. That hurts," the lioness said, the scowl clear in her voice, hoping that whoever was tossing the rocks would take a hint. But then another one hit her in the head, and she stood up and turned around, to see a tall boy kicking rocks down the pathway. "DUUUUUDE. Those rocks are hitting me, in case you haven't noticed." Twas not in that guy's best interests to anger 'ze Queen. "Cut it ouuuuuut." Flail.

Milton was too far off into his own little world to notice that his careless rock-kicking had been accidentally hitting some girl in the back. Oh. Is that what that annoying wailing noise was coming from?

When the girl stood up, Milton stopped and tucked his hands into his pockets with a very unamused look on his face. What in the world was she doing sitting on the ground?! "Well, I'm not very sorry." Stare. "It's not my fault you were silly enough to sit on the ground." Now she was probably all dirty. Ew.

"And stop with the whining, you're making my ears bleed." And with THAT, he kept on walking. He didn't have the time or patience to deal with immature children. Hmph.

The guy was annoying, but remotely tolerable. Until he opened his mouth, of course, and then he started to remind her of Edric. And Edric was.. not cool. Alice did not like uncool people. "You should be sorry, hitting the future queen of the world in the head with rocks and all." SCOWL. Did this guy not know who he was talking to? "AND I'M NOT WHINING." This guy was totally an Edric-clone. "Do you by any chance happen to have a twin named Edric Barlow?" Not that they looked alike or anything. But both of them were evil gits who had no respect for awesomeness.

AND THEN HE STARTED TO WALK AWAY. When she was talking to him! hmph. You did not just strut away from the Queen like that! Twas not cool. Flail. She didn't wanna trip him.. 'cause that would be mean. And there were no ponds to push him into like there was when Alice had met Edric. So, naturally, she grabbed onto his leg and hung onto it like a little child, wrapping her arms and legs around it. "HEYY. YOU. You stay put! I'm not finished with you!" Tis kind of hard to pull off hanging onto a person's leg, but the boy was fairly big, and the lioness was teensy 4'7" and sixty-four pounds. So she could totally do this. "We need to work on your attitude. And then your walk. You look like you're limping." Maybe he had been tripped by someone else?

Did Selena know this person? Selena couldn't remember but it didn't matter - Clarke was very into the shoes he was drooling on. She wasn't going to stop the cruppy and the girl could do so if she wished but Clarke would probably just keep drooling. "I think he likes yours in particular," Selena said, nodding her head. Then again, Clarke had liked the shoes in the common room too... even now she wasn't quite sure who owned those shoes that Clarke enjoyed chewing and drooling on.

She could pull on the leash and Clarke would probably stop slobbering but it was funny. Selena liked to watch the cruppy slobber on other people's shoes. When the Ravenclaw threw the ball at the ground, the cruppy was immediately distracted by the object and tried to go after it, only to be stopped by the leash. Selena unclipped it and allowed the four-legged, two-tailed animal to run after it.

How was she?

That was a completely normal question. "I'm good, I'm amazing, I''m awesomefreakingtastical," Selena said, smirking. "And how are you, Tangerine?" Selena asked.

Because fruit nicknames were so much cooler than normal names.

Gwen glimpsed at the animal who was still drooling all over her shoes before looking back at the owner. Errr. She was not going to take the cruppy away, was she? Hmm. No. The answer to that was kind of obvious to the fourth year. Hmm? What was Selena saying? He liked her shoes in particular. ‘Lovely’, the Ravenclaw said curtly. Why was she this lucky? Seriously. Hmph. Though, the ball she had thrown seemed to have caught the cruppy’s attention. Looks like her shoes were safe for now.

When she asked that random ‘how are you’ question, Gwendolyn expected to hear what everyone else usually responded. Errr. And she was wrong. Selena just said a word… actually- no- that wasn’t even a word- something that the fourth year couldn’t even understand, much less pronounce. Pffft. Something that started with ‘awesome’ had a ‘freaking’ in the word and umm… yeaaah. ‘I’m…’, the Ravenclaw started saying, in attempt to answer to her question. 'Wait-Tangerine?’, she asked, raising an eyebrow. Where did this nickname come from? Gwen did hear people calling her all kinds of nicknames, like ‘Lynn’, which she could only assume came from GwendoLYNN, and hmm… what else was there… ‘Gwen-Gwen’, like Joanna called her… and many others. She always thought her name was not nickname material. And now- Tangerine?!?

How did she end up with ‘Tangerine’?

Selena rolled up the leash in her hand and slung her bookbag on one shoulder, unzipping the top so she could stuff the leash into it. In the process, she pulled out a box of Bertie Botts jelly beans. Because really, a conversation simply wasn't a conversation without any candy. "Want?" she asked, opening it and pointing it at the girl. Because if she didn't, it was completely alright with Selena - more for her.

The girl seemed a bit confused or something though. Selena didn't get it. What was there to be confused about? Oh, the fruit nickname? "That's your fruit nickname," Selena said slowly. Perhaps she had spoken too quickly or something? "You are now known as Tangerine to Selena Zabini-Riddle and all those awesometastical." Because fruit nicknames were so totally epically cool. But really, the girl didn't need to get skeptical about it or anything, it was a perfectly reasonable fruit nickname. "You can call me Cherry if you want," Selena offered.

Because that was her cool fruit nickname.

Ella smiled, shaking her head. "Course not. I think too much anyway." Shrug. It was actually quite nice to have a distraction. She needed to get out of her own head for a bit!

Ella burst into laughter as Ronnie YELLED out so that everyone in the are turned to look at them. "No!" She said in between her laughter. "That was great!" Had Ronnie always been this funny or was this a new development? Ells wasn't sure. She smiled reassuringly at her friend. "I love your enthusiasm, Ronnie!" BEAM. "And it would make me really sad too! Candy has to be eaten, no matter what!" Well unless it fell into like...toxic ooze or something!

The second year was quite glad Ronnie didn't mind sharing because she was quite hungry! Not that that was anything new, Ells was ALWAYS hungry. Or eating. Or thinking about food...It was never ending! "I'd stay forever if I could." Ella said seriously, nodding her head. "Yeah, but I mean...you're here now! That's the bright side, yeah? And we'll have to go on lots of adventures while we're here!" Yeah! Adventures with Ronnie sounded like lots of fun! "Yeah, the quidditch part is pretty crummy but it happens." Shrug. "We'll do better next term! I'm planning on trying out again I think..." She was still debating but she really loved to play. "Do you like quidditch, Ronnie?" Ells asked curiously, turning to her friend. Had they talked about this before?

"Oh, okay." Ronnie said, almost sighing with relief but caught herself and didn't. That'd be kinda awkward if she did that. But thank Merlin Ella would keep talking to her, because Ronnie would hate to be all alone!

Ronnie giggled, relieved Ella hadn't acted like she was the weirdest person on Earth. Phew! She smiled and bowed. "Thank you!" she said, grinning. She then nodded in agreement. "Yes, indeed!" she said. Ella was very right indeed on that!

Ronnie smiled. "I looove Quidditch!" she exclaimed, jumping up and down. QUIDDITCH QUIDDITCH QUIDDITCH! "Except, I don't like playing on a team. I just play for fun, ya know?" she said. Being on teams...ehh, wasn't her kinda thing.

Ella smiled and clapped when her friend bowed, enjoying the act. "Welcome!" She said with a giggle. "So what's your favorite food besides candy?" Ella asked with raised eyebrows. Might as well chat about food since they both seemed to love it so much, yeah?

Beam.Beam.Beam. Ronnie loved Quidditch too? Awesome. "I love it tooo!" Flailllll. "Yeah, it's actually kinda stressful being on the team. I mean everyone is awesome but I get...so nervous." Cue sheepish smile. "Plus, I never like playing against friends." That was the downside for sure. "Speaking of friends, have you and Justin become friends again?" She was quite curious considering what she had witnessed all that time ago in Hogsmeade.

‘No, thanks’, the fourth year told Selena. ‘I somehow always manage to come across the worst flavours’, she explained herself. Really… she always got ear wax, dirt and even troll bogey. Seriously… what could be worse than troll bogey?! Though, Gwen remembered she had a couple of chocolate frogs in her bag, so she started searching for them. ‘How about a chocolate frog?’, the Ravenclaw said as she extended her hand with a chocolate frog box to the other student, keeping one for herself.

Having said that, the fourth year opened the small frog box and tried to catch the chocolate frog as it jumped out. After she caught the frog, the fourth year glimpsed at the card… Another Salazar Slytherin. Somehow, in the past days she only got him. Mehh… Gwen then drew her attention to the head girl. ‘When did you get the cruppy?’ Even though he drooled over her shoes, and was rather hyperactive, Gwen had to admit- he was cute.

Moving on…

Fruit nicknames? And let me guess… the awesometasticals are Selena and…no one else but Selena? Gwen was still a bit puzzled about this whole new nickname thing, but decided to just let it go. She didn’t want to offend her, so mehh… Guess Tangerine isn’t so bad. But what was Selena saying? ‘Cherry? Fine…’