Small Home in Tourquay, England

[rachel's such a hypocrite.]

[THANK YOU]

(That's the point. XD)

"Oh, things have always been that way. I mean, don't you remember uh... what was his name?-Adrian Thompson from school? He was a jerk, as well as his parents, apparently."

~

"Yeah, she wants to squeeze her way with the more popular girls in her year." Will shook his head. "But it hasn't really worked... I feel kind of bad for her."

~

"Oh, I wouldn't if I was one of those. I think I'd dye my hair teal!"

~

"Well..." Sophia paused for a minute, before spilling out the truth. "Hugh and I did have sex together. That's why I hope he still loves me, or I made a BIG mistake." It was weird telling this to someone, especially a twelve year old of all people.

"Yeah that kid was a total ass," Kelsi said bluntly as she kicked her shoes off with a sigh.

~

"Why don't you help her?" Derek asked Will curiously.

~

"I'd just stay the same," Brian said nodding.

~

Leah blinked a few times. Eww, she thought to herself but she most definitely did NOT want Sophia to see that she thought that. Sophia was mature, and wise, and it would be dumb of Leah to say that. "Oh. Well, why would he not love you anymore?" she asked, not knowing the concepts of teenage to young adult boys.

"I wonder what ever happened to him." Rachel said wonderingly, as she slipped off her own shoes with more care.

~

"Well..." Will looked thoughtful. "I sort of believe that's her own responsibility. If she was in a true rut, I'd help her... but with something like this, she would just bad at me."

~

"Aww... really?" Anthony asked. "I mean, I'd probably the same too, much of the time, but I think I would have fun with it."

~

"You see... sometimes boys will just want to have sex with you... just to have sex with you, and nothing more. They don't care about having a relationship, they only want your body in their hands." Sophia explained, trying to sound gentle.

Derek entered Leah's room. It was a new day. "Can I ask you a favor?" he questioned her sitting next to her.

Leah looked up from the comic book she stole from Brian's. "Yeah, depends WHAT though."

"Well, you see, I need somebody to take cover for me as I go do some business. Tonight. And I was thinking of bringing you along, but I decided not to."

"Why! I wanna come!"

"Because you're twelve. But, could you cover up for me? Like, we could pretend we were going on a walk together, and split off our own ways once we're past the house."

Leah glared at him. "What's in it for me?"

"Well, you'll get to enjoy the nice summer air a pleasant night!"

"What if I got kidnapped and raped, and I was scarred for the rest of my life because of you not taking care of me a nice summer night?"

"Well, it won't happen. People here are cool. Just go see Jamie while I go do my stuff."

"What're you going to do?"

"Umm... meet some friends. We're gonna play night baseball."

"Didn't mom say she didn't want you doing that? Like, it was dangerous you could get hit since it's darker at night or something?"

"Yeah. That's why I don't want her knowing. I'd get in trouble." Not as much trouble as I'd get if I got caught doing what I AM going to be doing... Derek thought.

Leah stared at him good and long, one eye squinting a bit more than the other. "Fine," she sighed. "But you'll owe me, okay?"

Derek and Leah walked a bit with their dog, when they met at a fork. "Hey, Leah, I'm gonna go this way, okay?" Derek asked her nervously. He couldn't see very well in the dim twilight.

Leah nodded. She still really wanted to know what Derek was going off to, though. "You sure you can't tell me?" she asked taking the leash from him.

"Yeah, I could tell you when you're older!" Derek said smirking. "For now, I'd prefer not."


And so, they split off, and Derek met with the older friends. A few jokes were exchanged, laughter, and walks through the trail to the forest. Once they were in there, they settled on fallen logs and such and talked for a bit. Suddenly, one took out a box of altoids. He eyed them all intensely. Of course, this was simply a mockery, it wasn't that dramatic. They all began to laugh. "C'mon, stop stalling," said one of the taller ones- the one who invited Derek in the first place. The one with the altoids box opened it, and inside was the marijuana. They all had a good conversation, then began to talk to Derek of how to do it.

Eventually, there was Derek, holding the joint in his hand. He looked a bit nervous, to be honest, and looked casually around the forest with a slightly anxious face. "So, I just breath it in?" he asked nervously as the newly roll joint was held horizontally between his index and middle finger.

"Pretty much, yeah," said a ginger as he lit the joint with a lighter. "Alright, go on,"

Derek honestly felt quite intimidated with all these guys staring at him so intensely. He shrunk slightly in his seat, and began to feel the heat between his fingers. Slowly, he put the joint to his lips and breathed in- only to feel his throat and lungs burn. He began to cough really loudly, and nearly dropped the joint. They all began to laugh, and he too began to laugh. "Don't worry you'll get the hang of it, you rook," they said chuckling. Derek continued laughing a bit, then looked back down at the joint. He felt light-headed, almost as if this harmless thing in his hand hadn't even just burnt his throat. He put it to his lips again and tried the same. He coughed again, but a bit less, and the feeling got stronger.

Soon they were all there, smoking away and talking like before, but with much more laughter and the smell was all around them. Derek felt happy, joyous, as if nothing wrong could happen. He could stay there all night, just talking with them. Everything felt slower, and he felt kind of drowsy. But, everything was enhanced. As if, he could see all the way around his head. The flashlight on the ground made funny shapes through the shadows that loomed around them and the voices sounded rounded, as if they really did come out in rings like in those cartoons. Derek laughed at something the ginger said- his voice a bit raspy from burning his throat the first time. After a while, though, twenty minutes or so, he stood up saying he had to go back and meet his sister. "It was really fun," he said said, still feeling extremely light-headed and it seemed like the world didn't want to go as fast as his body did standing up. "But I told my sister to meet up with me in twenty minutes,"

"Whoah, dude, you're still high you know. This is your first time ever, it's gonna take a while." said one of the guys reaching over to pull him back down onto the log. Derek didn't resist, he just dropped down, leaning backwards. The other guy pulled him back upright, and they both laughed, the others began joining in too. "Wait another twenty minutes, then you can head back."

And so, it was twenty minutes even more- altogether forty before Derek finally left with a quick goodbye. He took out two pieces of gum, and some body spray he stole from his dad. With a casual wave, he walked through the forest onto the trail, and back to where Leah and him split up.

There she was, leaning against an old white fence, her arms crossed, looking genuinely pissed off. Joey the husky was sniffing around at flowers. Derek arrived by her, his arms limply in his pockets. His back was hunched a bit, and he smiled loosely at her. "Hey, sorry for having you waiting-"

She reached forwards and punched him in the stomach. "What the fuck was taking you so long?! Damnit, you're so fucking annoying! You know that pedo grandpa walked by and asked why I was alone out here? You know I could have gotten RAPED? God, you're such an idiot!" Leah mumbled, giving him the darkest glare possible.

Derek's nerves were still kinda slow with it all, so he didn't hunch over as he could have. "Calm dowwwn, Leah. So I'm twenty minutes late. That's like 0.000000.... 000... 01 times the amount of the universe has had, if not less." he said lazily.

Leah didn't say anything, and just glared at him. She grabbed the flashlight and flashed it in his face.

It took a moment for him to process what she was doing, and looked away. "What the Hell, Leah?"

"Oh my GOD!" she dropped the flashlight. "You were smoking marijuana!"

"What, what makes you think that?" Derek asked picking up the flashlight, and handing it over to her.

"Your pupils didn't even get smaller when I flashed a bright light in your face after being in the dark for so long, and just the way you're ACTING!" she gasped. "With WHO?!"

Derek glared at the sidewalk. "Larry, Camdon, Braden, you know, those guys."

"SERIOUSLY?! ... Why? And most of all, why didn't you tell me?" she asked, looking hurt. "I mean, I know we both are like fighting all the time and rat each other out for stuff, but we solemnly swore not to give anything this important up!"

"Okay, okay. Look, you found out so let's just forget it. Can we go home now?" Derek mumbled.

Leah decided to drop it- it was after all for the best. He'll open up tomorrow hopefully. So thus, she simply said: "Yeah, sure. Let's go." She sighed briskly, and with that the two went home from their "night stroll".

Rachel had apparated right into Kelsi's living room, sobbing loud enough for the rest of the house to hear her presence.

Kelsi, who was surprisingly still up reading a book in the dim light of the lampshade, glanced up from her comfortable position upon the couch. Her naked feet were kicked up on the coffee table, and her hair was held high up with her wand. She jumped a little from Rachel appearing out of nowhere, then gasped. She threw her book aside and stood up. "Rachel! Are you alright? What happened!"

Rachel slowly threw her bag aside, and she slowly made her way over to the couch where Kelsi was sitting out, still crying all the while. It took an entire five minutes for her to calm down just enough to explain everything.

She told the entire truth. The auror banquet, Rachel in a tizzy getting ready for it and Olivia came over, how the two of them got drunk on Scotch while snooping through Sophia's stuff, then Dianna coming over, and then how SHE set her drunk, and then Steph coming over to scream at her later, and then Nick getting mad, and how they just began fighting...

"...It's an awful mess, I gotten my entire family into to." Rachel said, knowing that was quite well an understatement.

The whole time, Kelsi just held Rachel's hand tightly and had the other arm around her. "Oh, Rachel, don't worry! It'll fix itself. Stay here for the night, and don't bother rushing home tomorrow. Your kids are independent- you're a great parent, don't you worry. Everyone makes mistakes once in a while, trust me! Just leave Nicolas to cool off, and around the afternoon tomorrow, before he comes home, you can fix a nice meal for when he comes home for everyone to enjoy, and afterwards you can talk to him about your mistakes! Besides, how unfair of him- I mean, a husband should be more understanding than that!" Kelsi sighed angrily, shaking her head. "Here, I'll fix you a warm drink. We've got apple cider, tea, hot chocolate, warm milk- I could add honey into it to help you more."

Rachel squeezed her hand tightly, and she reached over and gave Kelsi a tight hug. All of this kindness just made her tear up again, but things were beginning to look up again. She hoped that Nicolas would cool off, and later forgive and forget about this entire thing. Then, they could move on with their lives happily.

"I'd love a drink please... some apple cider, if you don't mind." she gave Kelsi a weak smile, to show that she was at least trying to feel better about all of this.

Kelsi winked. "A virgin apple cider, though." she said, chuckling at her own joke, and stood up to heat the apple cider. Five minutes later, she returned with it, and gave Rachel a large warm mug of it and herself one too. Then she set a plate of warm cookies.

Rachel looked at all of this, and she chuckled at the site. "You know, it's funny. I feel like I'm a kid all over again, with the cider and cookies, and the warm blanket." But she took a bite out of a sugar cookie, and a long sip of apple cider, before she set it back down suddenly.

"Oh, God, the kids!"

Kelsi put her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "It's okay. They've got each other. Sophia's an adult now, and everyone else is nice and mature. Plus, Nicolas is still home, okay?"

"I know, you're completely right..." she sniffled a little, in spite of herself. "I'm still worried, though. I just don't trust him, that's all..." she grumbled. "It doesn't even seem like he has a relationship with them..."

Kelsi looked pained. "Oh, Rachel... No, don't say that." she whispered. "He's their parent, and he loves them with his might. Nicolas may have lost that spark he had in his school years, but what I think would help bring that back is if you two went somewhere. Or did something you missed doing. OH MY GOD!" Kelsi gasped, nearly dropping her mug. "What if, I brought you two with me to Hogwarts at the beginning of the year, and one night- at the Beginning Feast, preferably, you go find that broom closet and Do it!"

Rachel's jaw actually went slack, when Kelsi told her plan. What was Kelsi on? Crack, like she said Olivia was? Well, compared to whatever came out of Olivia's mouth was completely clean compared to this little plot.

Finally, she let out and sighed, when she managed to find her words.

"Kelsi... really... it's a really, uh... cute idea, but could it really work out? I don't think so..."

"Well... it could have worked, but you're right, it's a bit far-fetched. Although, I think you two should do something together."

"You're totally right," Rachel agreed with that. "I don't know what, though, that's the hard part. I don't even know what he would like to do, it seems like I hardly know him anymore."

Kelsi smiled. "Remember that beach we ALL used to go to ever-so often in the old days? I'm sure we could find it somewhere, and you could go there with him as a picnic,"

"Oh, that was nice!" Rachel smiled at the memories of it. The salt scent of the ocean, the soft sand that got into all the food, tossing the Frisbee around with everyone, and especially the kite flying. Rachel was never particularly good at it, but if she Nick worked together, they would manage to get it up in the air.

"Too bad we didn't get to go this summer!" she exclaimed.

"It's okay, even better. Go during fall, when the kids are just starting school. Consider it a celebration of freedom. Just be sure to do something with Hayley, that's all,"

"Oh, of course!" Rachel sighed dreamily at that thought. "I was thinking about putting her in a primary school. I don't want her to be alone with only me, with all the other kids gone. I should have enrolled Hayley and Anthony, last year."

"Well, it's not too late for Hayley! Go right ahead, in fact DO IT! I really truly think you should."