The Sawyer House In Appleby, Lincolnshire

"Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy..."

As Sophia slammed her alarm clock to turn it off that morning, she certainly felt like P. Diddy. Whoever the heck he was, anyway. Probably some Muggle guy, she figured, as she slowly rose out of bed. She glanced at the clock-6:30 in the morning. There wasn't much point in that, that was the time she got up everywhere morning. Mornings were early on a farm, along with early evenings.

As she was changing, Sophia couldn't help but daydream about those crazy parties that those old Muggle singers Kesha and Lady Gaga always sung about that she woke up to the morning to. Maybe some people through them at Hogwarts. She should investigate in them.

Or...

"HUGH!" she whispered in a excited voice. Hugh was this rather anti-social boy who she considered 'her special project'-to make him Mr. Sociable by the end of their seventh and final year. He might be willing to throw a crazy party with her like Kesha always did. If she annoyed him anyway.

When she was done changing, she ran through the hallway, banging on doors, and throwing them open, with a very loud "WAKE UP!!" shout, only to meant by various groans and remarks from her siblings.

Within in five minutes, she was downstairs, watching her own mother cooking breakfast. Rachel looked over at her with an evil eye and spatula.

"You were listening to her, weren't you?" she asked.

"That girl, Keesha."

"It's Kesha. Mum."

"Either way, I don't like you listening to her. She's a bad influence, and sort of demonish."

Sophia just rolled her eyes. Her mum had grown to be a slight fanatic in her later years, but she had no idea how bad one of her friend's mother was...

Dianna Astor had ran down all the way from her house at around 7:15 (which was quite shocking, considering it was a half a mile) in her flip flops, shorts, and tanktop, trying desperately to get a tan but not succeeding. She was turning rather pink and her shoulders were bright red. She didn't let her absurd condition bother her, though, and she marched right up to the door of the Sawyer house to knock on it.
Dianna was a small girl, skinny and short, smiling and polite. Her hair was impossibly curly, her skin and smile quite white. On this particular morning, her brother had woken her up quite early, and she had decided to make the most out of the wasted day by visiting her next-door-neighbor (and friend) Anthony.
She was getting quite impatient. Was there anyone awake? She knocked on the door yet again, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. Starting to grow frantic in the 4.2 seconds she had waited, she started to list off things she could do today besides this. Water flowers, practice piano, try to tan, play tennis.. No, the tennis club was closed today. What a pity.
After another dreadful 3.7 seconds, she knocked a third time. Dianna was growing quite impatient, and her face was starting to get as red as her shoulders.

Rachel answered the door, looking rather sleepy, with dark circles under eyes. After all, it was still pretty early in the morning, and pretty door.

"Hi deary," she said, putting on a small smile, trying to sound polite. "Uh... Dianna dear. Why don't you come back later today?" she suggested. "It's still early, and I think he's just getting up..."

"My brother woke me up with a firetruck." Dianna explained, still bouncing up and down.

"It was a loud firetruck. Are you sure? Because I'm really quite bored today. Okay, then. Will you tell him to meet me at the lake? The lake with the geese? No. No, I changed my mind. The creek! Tell him to meet me at the creek, alright Mrs. Sawyer? Thank you!"

Without waiting for an answer, Dianna sprinted off towards her house, back up a hill. She was quite the little firecracker that morning.

"Whatever you want, dear..." Rachel mumbled, going back into the house to continue to make breakfast. She shook her head. How Dianna turned out the way she did she would never know.

([Only admins are allowed to see this link]

More compact and snug though.)

"There's a place downtown where the freaks all come around, it's a hole in the wall, it's a dirty free for all..."

It was a couple hours later, around eight in the morning, and Sophia was sitting at the kitchen table, listening to more Kesha with a piece of parchment and quill in front of her, and Anthony was across from her, quietly eating an omelet.

She was debating whether or not to send her buddy Hugh an owl to present her idea of an insane party, or by telephone. They were both wizards, so she knew that he would understand how owls worked, but the problem was he was also Muggle born. His parents might freak out or something if they saw an owl fly in through their living room window.

With a nod, she jumped up from the chair to phone Hugh, as Rachel walked in with a glare.

"I thought I told you stop listening to Keesha!" she snapped.

"Kesha, Mum." she retorted politely and she ran into the living room.

Anthony was quietly mumbling to the song.

"There's a place I know if you're looking for a show where they go hardcore and there's glitter on the floor..." he sung, fumbling over the S's.

Rachel rolled her eyes, and then rolled up the copy of the newspaper and whacked him over the head with it.

"Don't YOU start! It's bad enough with her!"

When Sophia came back into the living room, after talking to Hugh, she found her mother sitting on the sofa, crocheting, listening to the Backstreet Boys', in particular the song Everybody.

Sophia blinked once or twice and sighed. "Mum, and you complain about me listening to Kesha."

"But Sophia, the Backstreet Boys are classic," Rachel answered demurely. "No one is going to remember Kesha."

Will, who was reading a magazine on the loveseat, looked up at them. "I have to agree with Sophie on this one. I think I'm turning gay just by listening to them like this."

Rachel shook her head. "Kids these days. They don't even know it if they're listening to trash."

Late at night, at ten, past Dianna's curfew, Dianna had came down to the house in a pretty navy blue sailor-y dress, picked up a rock, and threw it at Anthony's window. She had left the music on and locked the door back in her room, and used her fire ladder to sneak out. She had a flyer in her hand, and was very excited.

A few minutes later, there was some clicking noises in the window, and Anthony stuck his head, looking half asleep, with his hair sticking out this where and that. When he saw it was Dianna, he sighed.

"What do you want?" he asked in a low, groggy sounding voice.

"There's a carnival in town!" She said, looking bright and cheery. "They have rides and ferris wheels and cotton candy and everything. We should go!"

Anthony's eyes boggled. "...At THIS hour?"

"It's only ten. It's not that late. Come on, we should go. Please, Anthony?"

"But that's late around HERE, and besides," he argued, but he lowered his voice with each word. "Victor is asleep-we share rooms, and he's a light sleeper. He would hear me leave."

"You can't be quiet? If I go alone I could get kidnapped!"

Unfortunately for Dianna, Serenity had seen her sneaking out/in. The next morning, she knocked on Rachel's door with Dianna next to her, looking downtrodden and guilty.

Sophia answered the door, with some Lady Gaga song blaring in the background-her parents weren't home, after all.

She grinned at Serenity. "Hi Mrs. Astor! What can I do with you?"

"Hello, Sophia! If you don't mind, I need to talk to Rachel. It's quite important." Serenity said, smiling at Sophia. "Nice music!" That was Dianna. She rather liked Sophia.

Sophia looked rather puzzled. "What? She told me that she was going to YOUR house for tea or something. I would check there if you want to talk with her. And thank you Di!"

"Oh, gosh, thank you! Alright, Dianna, let's go home." Dianna waved at Sophia before she got dragged off by her mother.

Emily was sitting at the kitchen table, with a pad of paper and a pencil in her hand. She was hunched over it, sketching something furiously, looking up occasionally out the window, at a large sycamore tree, about twenty feet away. It was grand tree, with long branches, dark wood, and big beautiful green leaves. She had no idea how it got there; it was probably there since the beginning of time for all she knew.

For a long time, she kept drawing the sycamore tree, trying to make sure it looked as realistic as possible. It was by no means a perfect representation, but Emily Sawyer was the best artist in her family. Why? Because she was the only who actually worked at it instead of just sticking to stick figures, she would gloat.

After a while, she tore out her drawing from the pad, and held it up, while brushing a strand of her strawberry-blonde hair back into her headband. She studied it for a minute, and then a large smile grew on her face.

"Perfect!" she exclaimed while jumping up. She would have knocked over her chair, if she hadn't caught in time. The next thing she was doing was running upstairs into her bedroom to color her picture.

Sycamore trees were really the nicest trees on the planet; Emily was right about that.

About thirty minutes ago, after dinner and all the dishes were washed and up away, Anthony finally was able to escape up to his favorite spot on the sycamore tree. It was high up in there, on one of the more sturdy branches of the tree. The branch was dark, and there was a canopy of leaves hanging over ahead, but that's not what made it so special. The view was the best part of it.

If someone climbed up there, you were able to see all everything all that was all around the three. There were green hills, that weren't as brilliantly green as usual, from the lack of rain through the lovely months. Dotted around the hills were other little farms. Not too far away, was a creek, with groves and groves of trees surrounding it. About half a mile away in the distance, was the peeked roof of the Astor's sticking out from the corner of Anthony's eyes. He couldn't help but chuckle softly to himself-among the small and humble farmers, the Astor's huge mansion always stuck out like a sore thumb.

He sighed contently, and leaned back against the trunk of the tree, and spaced out, staring at the orange and pink sky, that was slowly darkening from the setting sun. It was nice out there, among all the shaded branches. Everything was peaceful and content, as he watched up there, as though he were some great bird surveying the land.

It was usually quiet up there, aside for the birds that were singing their songs before they went to bed, and an occasionally warm breeze shaking the branches gently.

A few minutes later, he began to doze a little.

Dianna came walking slowly, not at her usual fast pace, over the hills and towards the Sawyer house at around seven, maybe eight. It took her fifteen long, dreary minutes to get all the way to the tree, and about another thirty-five seconds to get to the door of the Sawyer's house, where she knocked on the door after catching her breath. It had been an extremely long walk.

It was Will who answered the door this time, and he looked at her with the lines of a faint smile around his lips.

"Hey Thing 2." he answered jokingly. "He's outside by that tree of us."

"Thanks. Also if Mrs. Sawyer is around, my mom wants to see her really badly." Dianna went over to the tree and looked up in it. "Anthony?" She called up, not touching the tree. Germs, and all that.

Anthony woke up with a shake, and looked around bewilderedly; he had not remembered falling asleep. But, then he realized that he was up in a tree, and looked down, to see a tear-stained Dianna.

"Oh, hi Di!" he said smiling, but it began to flicker away. "...What's wrong?"