I'm fighting the world... and losing

[mely]

[about a week into term or thereabouts]

Kyli was with Charles in the common room. They were supposed to be doing homework, but neither had paid any attention to they depressingly blank parchments and depressingly full text books for a while now. Suddenly Charles broke of the current flow of... conversation... and said, "kyli, d'you wanna go for, like, a walk somewhere"

Kyli flushed, "sure - I'd love-" then she hit herself on the forehead, "soryr, I can't, I've just remembered I'm supposed to be helping Sei with his homework - y'know -" she glanced, hurriedly at the clock, and stood up, dislodging the book balanced precariously on her knee, "of fungdungus, I'm already late..." She flashed an apologetic look at Charles, and hurried out of the common room, calling over her shoulder. "sorry!"

Charles lent back in the sofa, barely disguising a scowl. He stared stonily at the array of books in front of him, "no problem" he said, through gritted teeth.

[.magnarock.]

A few seconds later, Elsie leant on the back of the sofa which Charles was sat on.
"Sei seems to be doing an awful lot of extra work these days, doesn't he Charles? I'll bet he's so happy that clever clogs Kyli is there to help him 24/7."

[mely]

Charles stiffened, "what's that supposed to mean?" he asked. He tried to tell himself to ignore Elsie, remembering the way she'd treated him, but somehow he couldn't let it drop.

[.magnarock.]

She rolled her eyes merrily, having gotten his interest, it would only be a matter of seconds to wind him up.
"Well. I've heard from a couple of people in hufflepuff that they just spend hours in the library gazing at each other."
She flicked a strand of hair over her shoulder and spoke dimissively. "But who'd believe a bunch of hufflepuff gossips huh?"
Walking away, she layed her final card down on the table [figuratively speaking]
"When the ravenclaws have seen them doing so much more."
She smirked inwardly and left the room feeling cool.

[mely]

Charles clenched his fists tightly, supressing his anger. Nosey stupid little gossip, he forced himself to think, chanelling his temper towards Elsie, instead of concentrating on the things she'd been saying. All the same, something nagged in the back of his mind... no smoke without fire...

Stop it.

you're being ridiculous

What would Kyli think?!

He noticed, uncomfortably, the feelings of jealously that arose at the thought of her name. No, this was exactly the sort of thing that she'd warned him about. Like she'd said, he was just jealous and hyper-sensitive. Still, just because he was over-sensitive, didn't mean there was nothing going on between her and sei.

He looked down and noticed the white marks in his palms from where the nails had been digging in. For goodness sake, pull yourself together charles.

[que ickle first years?]

[.magnarock.]

[oooh, yes! definitely]
Sophia, Nukie and Meally entered the common room.
[oh wait. just seen the flaw in that. One's his sister and the other two fancy the pants off of him. Hmmm. They can be manipulated henceforth. ]
So they came along and were happily talking after they plonked themselves down on the sofa.

[mely]

Darius entered the room on his own. His eyes were clouded mysteriously, and he walked slowly over to the sofa, "mind if I join you?" he asked the three girls, not wanting to look like a larry.

[.magnarock.]

They exchanged glances, because Meally is now seemingly not played by mel, and decided that it would be ok.
"Erm, Yeah, sure."

[mely]

[oh I forgot]

so Meally basically let's out a really loud giggle or something, and Charles looks up, all grumpy.

"dyou think you could keep it down" he snapped, irratably. "some people are tryng to work" bloody first years

[mely]

At this point, darius looks up, and says, "it's a free country isn't it?" all fierce like cos he's a) totally against taking bullsh[zz] from peeps and b) trying to look macho in front of the girls.