TERM 7 - The First Day - Corridors - Vanessa Di Angelo, Hunter VanDerberg, Blake Ralston

"I'm sure that she'll get over it once she makes some friends in her own house," Hunter said concerning Lyn. "Next time we see her, I'll introduce you. She's not as loud as Lyra," he added. When he said he had twin sisters, people usually thought that meant that they were clones of each other. Lyn and Lyra looked similar, but their personalities were nothing alike.

"Well, luckily, if I ever need anything from the library, I have someone of your superior intelligence to retrieve it for me," Hunter laughed. "You know, since I'm so dull that I can't step foot inside." In all honestly, Hunter wouldn't rather get suffocated. But since he hadn't actually been suffocated, it was a pretty cool story. Blake seemed a little skeptical about the professor being so lenient about lateness. "Dunno," Hunter shrugged. "Never met him. But Kynan seems to like him, and Kynan hates classes, so the guy must be pretty cool."

Then, Vanessa started winking at Blake and giggling and stuff, and Hunter was a little torn between laughing at how ridiculous she looked and pretending to gag. Blake seemed to be a little flustered by it, since it was directed at him. In the end, Hunter just looked to the ceiling incredulously and followed the two down the corridor. When Blake caught his eye to see if he had any ideas, Hunter shot a grin of amusement at his friend. "I dunno," Hunter said a bit slowly. "You could always show her where the dungeons are - you have to go down to the very bottom of the castle, if you didn't know..." he added sarcastically, amusing at least himself.

Then, the unthinkable happened, and Hunter just couldn't hold it together anymore. "Blakey?" he asked, bursting into a round of laughter. "Blake - Blakey!" he repeated, stuttering due to his short breaths. "You did not just call him that!"

"Gee? You don't say? It's a wonder you aren't in Ravenclaw being so smart." She stuck her tongue out at Hunter and giggled again. she noticed when she giggled, her tongue stuck out between her teeth. It was kind of weird, she had never noticed it before. "Are you brave enough to go into the Snake Pit, boys?" Nessa was coming out of her shell around these two boys, and she really liked it. She was only ever like this around Luca.

“Oh thank God!” Blake was relieved, he didn’t know if he could take another screaming girl. Aoife and Lyra were enough to contend with for the moment.

“Yep, always here for you buddy! I never called you dull, that was all you!” He laughed as he knew Hunter was anything but dull. “Ok then, sure more time for exploring then!” Blake was up for a little trip around the castle and skipping out on a bit of class, especially if Kynan had said it. He seemed pretty cool and laid back the last time he had met him.

Blake rolled his eyes in Hunter’s direction as he seemed to be finding the new situation amusing. Some help he was! He was too preoccupied in making faces at Hunter that he hadn’t noticed Nessa grabbing his hand. He looked down at the two hands intertwined and gulped. Now what was he supposed to do?He was definitely avoiding Hunter’s eyes now! He could just imagine his friend having a fit behind him.

And then Nessa called him Blakey. Seriously, Blakey? Why not something more manly or butch that made him sound cool! And then Blake’s cheeks flooded with colour as he heard Hunter having a field day behind him. No way he was ever living this one down. “Uhm, the dungeons?” Blake questioned, promptly ignoring the nickname hoping it was never going to resurface in conversation again. He decided that he would deny it ferociously.

Blake had never been to the dungeons before, well expect for potions class but that could hardly count as it was right at the entrance. He had never properly ventured around them before, and for good reason. Those older Slytherin students were sure to be lurking around and they looked surly and mean! Blake didn’t know if he had just imagined this fact due to their reputations that preceded Slytherins, but he didn’t feel like particularly testing it out. “Yeah, sure.” He said uncertainly as he led the way down towards the dungeons, hoping that they were’nt about to go through with it.

She glared at Hunter when he started laughing noticed that Blake got all awkward when she grabbed his hand. She slowly released it and pushed her hair out of her face. "Ok then lets go." She made her way down the stairs and started humming a song that had been stuck in her head. Before she knew it, she was whispers singing the lyrics, "You, the better half of me. The half I'll never be. The half that drives me cra-a-a-azy." She started giggling again and smiled at her new friends.

((THis is the song if anyone wants to know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Yior3umyI ))

Blake looked down at his hands when Nessa released them and he wondered to himself why she did that. Probably for the best with Hunter lurking behind! Also he was beginning to worry, what if his hands started sweating? He didn’t want to have sweaty hands while holding a girls hand! At least all that freaking out was over now. Blake took a deep breath and smiled back at Nessa when she began singing. “You have a nice voice,” he complimented. “Definitely better than me anyway!” He confirmed, he would never even sing in the shower he was that bad. As they walked down a couple of flights of stairs without any obstacles in their way and neared the entrance to the dungeons Blake began to get nervous. The entrance appeared to be looming in front of them Blake wondered if they were really going through with this.

Nessa gulped nervously when Blake commented on her singing, “I didn’t think you would be able to hear me. I usually don’t sing in front of people. Only for my blogs and stuff. But even then, hardly anyone watches them.” She wished she could still be holding his hand. It had felt nice. She noticed that they must be in the dungeons now. She saw the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room and turned to the guys. “Well now I know where the room is. Where to next?” She didn’t want to leave them so soon. She was having a lot of fun.

Ryan was walking down the halls, familiarizing himself with the castle, when he saw a group walk by him. "Hey!" It was a Slytherin girl and 2 Gryffindors. "Hey guys, whats up?"

Vanessa turned and saw a young boy approach them, he seemed to be a first year. "Hi. I'm Vanessa. And you are?" She smiled at him and nudged Blake. Maybe he knew the strange new boy.

"Hello Vanessa. It's nice to meet you. I'm Ryan Sanchez." He smiled at the girl and nodded at the other 2 boys. "I recognize you two from the Common Room. What's your names again?"

It took Hunter a few minutes to collect himself. BLAKEY! Oh man. As thick as this Nessa girl seemed to be, he'd have to find a way to thank her for providing him with his friend's new nickname for years to come. Okay, deep breath. Blake didn't seem too happy about the dungeon suggestion, but he lead the way down anyway. Hunter ignored Vanessa's annoying sarcastic comment - he'd been making fun of her, after all. Blake seemed to hesitate when they neared the dungeon entrance - Hunter didn't think the dungeons were all that scary. Well, not when he was with other people at least. By himself they might be a bit intimidating.

Hunter didn't want to embarrass Blake. Well, embarrassing him by calling him Blakey for the rest of his life was fine. But it just wasn't right to point out that he seemed a little afraid of the dungeons. So instead, he pushed between the two so that he could walk in front of them, saying "I think the Slytherin common room is this way." He didn't know, of course, but it was a good excuse to take the lead.

To Hunter's amazement, after only a few short minutes in the dungeons, Vanessa said that they'd found the common room. Man, was he lucky! But unfortunately, she didn't seem to want to go inside so that he and Blake would be free to do something more exciting than show a first year around the castle. And then, another first year turned up. Another Gryffindor. "I'm Hunter," he said to the boy, who introduced himself as Ryan. "That's Blake."

“Well, why wouldn’t you sing in front of people?” If he was that good he would, maybe she didn’t realise how good she was? “You should sing more.” He confirmed, probably making it sound like more of a demand than a request. “Hey new first year guy!” Blake greeted the Gryffindor with a grin when Nessa had elbowed him. He raised his eyebrows at her and shrugged. He didn’t know everybody! “Hey Ryan," He said, as Hunter introduced him, who still seemed to be finding the situation funny. Blake rolled his eyes, “don’t mind him,” he said in the first year’s direction. “He’s in his own little world half the time!” He joked.  “And I recognise you too from the common room, next time you should come over to us!” Blake said, remembering how daunting first year was, especially approaching older students.

“So do you two know each other, seeing as your both first years?” He questioned Nessa and Ryan. He thought it’d be nice for Nessa to have a friend in first year. He hoped that they would get along.

RYan smiled at the kids and shook is head, "Nah. Never met her before. And maybe next time I will. So is this an open tour or just for pretty girls?" He smiled at winked at the Slytherin girl before chuckling to himself.

Vanessa gasped and smirked when Ryan winked at her. "I don't know if its open or not. You'll have to ask my tour guides." She giggled and bumped Blakes hip with hers.

Hunter grinned widely when Blake wrote him off as being in his own little world. "And what's wrong with that? My own little world happens to be quite interesting, thank you very much." Really, Hunter was wishing that they could shake the first years and go look for the kitchens or something cool. But Blake didn't seem to find the situation quite as boring and amusing as he did, so he kept quiet for the sake of his friend.

He couldn't help but roll his eyes, though, when the stupid little first year kid winked at the stupid little first year girl. It was so awesome that he wasn't a first year anymore. Second years were way cooler. He caught Blake's eye to share a he can't be serious kind of look when Ryan asked if the tour was closed to pretty girls. Hunter was tempted to tell the boy that it was only for girls, but that he fit that criteria well enough that he could join. But he didn't. That would be kind of mean, so he just said, "Alright kids, let's get a move on."

Ryan eyes the Gryffindor boy with the brown Hair. Hunter he thought his name was. "Ok Thanks." He stepped up beside Vanessa and smiled at her with the one smile that made girls melt. "So where too, my good people?" He said with an extremely cheesy British accent, even though he had a real one of his own.

"Yeah, well maybe if you were involved more in this one, it'd be more interesting here!" Blake didn't blame Hunter though, Nessa was mainly talking to him so she was taking up a lot of his attention. He was beginning to feel bad for Hunter and began wondering if he was just hanging around for his sake now. Wandering the corridors with first years wasn't really his thing. It was hard to ask him outright if he wanted to bail though and he didn't really know how to convey that question through his eyes. So for the moment they were all stuck there wondering what to do with themselves. Although, now the first year was taking a liking to Nessa. Not that he blamed him, he could see why. He was being so obvious about it, and..winking at her! Blake almost burst out laughing as he obviously thought highly of himself. He caught Hunter's eyes and then couldn't stop laughing, he covered it up with a fake coughing fit. Fair play to Ryan though, brownie points for trying!

"well maybe we can avoid the dungeons for the moment seen as Nessa knows where her common room is now." Blake hoped he didn't come across as if he wanted to complete avoid it (which he did!), but he hoped it wasn't obvious from his tone. "We could go outside either or I would suggest the library, but some certain people wouldn't like that idea." Blake trailed off, feigning hurt while looking pointedly at Hunter.

Hunter was really glad that Blake seemed to find Ryan's obvious attempt to catch Vanessa's attention just as hilarious as he did. Unfortunately, he wasn't as good at hiding his amusement as Blake was, and found himself doubled over in laughter. Not that Blake was hiding it all that well either. The kid seemed like a pompous git, if you asked Hunter, but he followed Blake's lead and didn't say so out loud. That would be rude. But that didn't keep him from thinking it.

"Yeah, no reason to go down there, it's no fun anyway," Hunter agreed immediately when Blake said that they could avoid the dungeon. "Just cold and boring." His friend suggested the library and feigned hurt that Hunter wouldn't like that idea. "Well, I was thinking that maybe we could feed Ryan here to the giant squid," he joked - only he was half serious - "but I suppose we could show them the library. I need to get a book from there anyway for class. May as well get it over with." Hunter made a face that made his feelings about stepping foot in the library quite clear, but laughed afterwards to show that he wasn't serious.

Ryan noticed the 2 boys watching him and Vanessa and laughing. This annoyed him a great deal, "Oi! What's so funny? Out with it. Come on." He demanded with fire in his eyes. He wanted to know what was going on. "I bet we'd all like a laugh."

Vanessa looked up at Ryan and raised an eyebrow at him, "What's wrong?" She glared at Hunter then softened her gaze when she looked at Blake. "Is everything ok, boys?"

((This is the face I imagine her making at Ryan and Blake: http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8pzt7P9S1GYAMaqJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIzaHE1MXV2BHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAMwNmJhNDg0M2VjNTc0N2I1MWM1NzVmNmRhNzFlNzFjYwRncG9zAzkwBGl0A2Jpbmc-?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DDove%2Bcameron%2Btheme%2Bsong%26n%3D60%26ei%3Dutf-8%26y%3DSearch%26fr%3Dmcafee%26spos%3D12%26nost%3D1%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D90&w=236&h=354&imgurl=media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com%2F236x%2F11%2Fbc%2Fef%2F11bcef6c0920a7fe033e7cf467f191d5.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F172825704424131805%2F&size=14.1KB&name=%3Cb%3EDove+Cameron%3C%2Fb%3E%3A+Better+in+Stereo+%28From+%22Liv+and+Maddie%22%29+-+Single&p=Dove+cameron+theme+song&oid=06ba4843ec5747b51c575f6da71e71cc&fr2=&fr=mcafee&tt=%3Cb%3EDove+Cameron%3C%2Fb%3E%3A+Better+in+Stereo+%28From+%22Liv+and+Maddie%22%29+-+Single&b=61&ni=288&no=90&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11glp5o3g&sigb=148p5vbgl&sigi=12dq30mil&.crumb=cbcO20Ddcz9&fr=mcafee ))

Hunter raised an eyebrow humorously when the pompous first year got angry over their laughter, but felt a bit of irritation rise at the younger boy's tone. "And who exactly do you think you are, anyway?" Hunter asked him, giving him a once over. "We don't have to tell you anything if we don't want to. We were having a fine time before you joined us," he said simply, deciding immediately that he wasn't a fan of this Ryan character. "But since it's so amusing, I suppose I'll let you in. You see, it's a bit entertaining watching you show off and wink at each other like a couple pathetic teenagers." His comment was directed at Ryan. "Especially when you don't look like you could be more than nine," he added cooly.

Hunter momentarily wished that Aoife was there. She'd be able to describe his annoyance in a much more creative way than he could himself. Hunter wasn't interested in having a girlfriend yet, and he was almost thirteen. These kids definitely needed to calm down. Flirting around with each other in first year - it was absolutely sickening. And Hunter was hardly in the mood to deal with it.

Ryan glared at Hunter, he could literally feel his temper rising. He could go off at any second, but he didn't want to hurt the girl or the other boy. He hadn't managed to tick him off yet. "Whatever man." Ryan moved away from Vanessa and crossed his arms, "Where are we going?"

Vanessa's jaw dropped at what Hunter said. She felt her green eyes start to fill with tears. But she would not cry. Not in front of a bunch of stupid Lions. "Hunter. Just.... Shut up." Vanessa stormed ahead and caught up with Blake to avoid Ryan and Hunter.

Aoife was just skipping happily along the corridor, humming to herself. Humming a song she'd made up when she was bored over the holidays. Mustachio the Unicorn, you are the BEST. I will never ever ever ever put your awesomeness to the test. So maybe it needed a bit of work, but it totally had potential and a cool tune!

Then she saw a cute little gathering of fairly small people. Hunter and Blake, along with that ickle firstie Ryan and a girl she didn't know. Oh, maybe this was the girl he was "in love" with! Stupid kids. It would be interesting anyway, so she headed towards the group, where it seemed there was some stuff going down there.

"Hi!" Aoife beamed at Hunter, more than anyone else. She didn't like Blake or Ryan much. "What's going on? There's an angry little girl and nobody's looking super happy like everyone should always! Who wants Skittles? They're the super sour ones!" Maybe it would make everything better and everyone would be friends and all happy.

Ryan rolled his eyes as the Skittles Girl approached them. He had met her the other day in the common room. "Hello Aofie." Ryan said just to be polite. "We're fine."

Were these kids serious? The firstie boy was trying to act all tough. He was obviously a show off. Well, so was Hunter, but at least he was awesome enough to be a showoff, not pathetic like this Ryan git. And the girl looked like she was about to cry. Some Slytherin. Just wait until she ran into Jen in the common room.

Hunter rolled his eyes when Vanessa retreated to Blake. Blake was Hunter's friend, not hers. And speaking of Hunter's friends, there was Aoife bouncing over and offering everyone skittles and asking why everyone wasn't smiling. Hunter grinned at his redheaded friend and helped half to some skittles from the bag without asking. She'd done it to him enough times.

"Ryan here is just a bit angry that I've called him out on acting like a teenager when in reality he's clearly about nine," Hunter told her casually, tossing his handful of skittles into his mouth. Hunter glanced in Blames direction to see how he was fairing with the overly sensitive Slytherin girl. Oh yeah, Blake and Aoife weren't exactly best friends either. Which was stupid because they were both awesome.