Chicken and Potatoes (Isabelle)

[blakeit]

Fighting with her parents didn't come often but today it was like a blow up. No one in the Elliot family liked Patricia Elliot except for Blake's mother of all people. Patricia had invited Blake and her family over for lunch today and of course Blake's mom had accepted, causing Blake to get a strong feeling of resentment toward her mother. "I am not going!" she had screamed at her mother. She thought her mother would understand which was why she had been nice and sweet the first time but after a long discussion of getting told no Blake blew up. "You can not make me." was the last thing she had told her mom before slamming the front door of her house shut and running down the walk way. She knew she had been dramatic which was why she now sat in an old rundown alley way with her back to a corner so that she was able to see her surroundings. She preformed a simple charm to clean herself up and made sure she looked decent before she left, smiling slightly because she knew her parents would never look for her where she was. The town square. She had always resented it, and didn't exactly know why, but she never went and had decided today is a day for loads of new things.

She walked back and forth across the pavement glancing at the small cute little shops that were run by elder ladies, and a few men as well. Most were full of antiques, glass, or food. But was that really so shocking? Tourists love food and spent every minute of their time in London trying it all. Like it was legacy or soemthing. Then they would head into a shop thinking it was a souvenoir store, while really it was just a shop where old ladies were getting rid of their nasty junk. Most of the time they made up a history about it and it was sold then and there. But that's business. Smiling Blake headed into one of the overly priced diners and settled into one of their old vinyl booths that seemed to squek with every movement. It was lunch time so she even pulled out a menu. She looked at the menu in shock. Some of the things people ate were just really weird, at least that's what she thought. As a waitress hurried over to her she ended up going with some chicken with grave and a side of mashed potatoes. Plus the all time favorite of hers, root beer. She figured she might as well take advantage of her freedom.

Glancing around the diner she wondered for a moment. She wished for a second that she had some friends that were near bye and happened to walk in to the diner, but she knew that was an extremely small possibility, besides all of her friends lived mostly north of where she was and about sixty miles off, plus this was a muggle restauraunt so, it was very doubtful.

[Isabelle Leynette R3]

Her eyes scanned the crowded room until she spotted her mother. She was hard to miss. Victoria was wearing her long dark hair down inn soft waves, and was dressed and an elegant black dress. Her brown eyes met her daughters and she finally replaced her bored expression with a smile. Isabelle glad to find her mother made her way over there. This wasn’t exactly an easy task. She had to walk in between many guests to get there and most of them weren’t that happy. Especially one of the woman who lectured her before letting her go. Isabelle rolled her eyes as she walked up to her mother. Before Belle could open her mouth to tell her mother she was leaving the luncheon to go out on the town her mother started talking. “Oh, it’s so good to have your father home. All these people here happy to see him. Isn’t this wonderful?” She gushed. Isabelle waited patiently while her mother went on and on. Isabelle finally cut her off. “Mom, I’m gone.” She said simply and walked away towards the door. Her mother watched her go very confused. Wasn’t her daughter happy to see her father? Isabelle was happy to see her dad, but the atmosphere of the luncheon was one that put her in a bad mood. All the stuck up friends of her parents standing around talking about the other stuck friends around them. Wizards and muggles alike. She sighed as she paused at the doorway and stole a glance at the object of everyone’s conversation that day. Her father was surrounded by many guests and he didn’t even notice his daughter leave.

Isabelle didn’t look back as she closed the door behind her. As the door shut the noise of the chattering guests disappeared as well. The only sounds where of the natural sort. She sighed as she walked down the driveway and into the street. As if by magic a taxi drove by and Belle flagged it down. “Where ya too Miss?” He asked. Belle slid into one of the seats in the back before answering. “Surprise me.” She told him and he sped off. Ten minutes later they were circling the town square and he dropped her off. “Thank you.” She told him as he drove off counting the money she gave him. And there she stood in the middle of the square looking at all the tourists milling away. Before she could do anything she got swept in with the crowd. She got stuck in between to tourists who where speaking rapid French and Isabelle couldn’t understand what they where saying. She felt being pushed from every direction. It probably didn’t help that she was standing still as everyone milled around her. She was finally pushed inside a restaurant she had never set foot in. As the door closed behind her she felt the calm surround her. The place was very retro and very crowded. She looked around and saw every table and booth was full and sighed frustrated. She was about to exit and leave when she realized how hungry she was.

She looked around again and noticed there was only one person sitting at a booth. The girl looked about her age but that’s all she noticed from the back. She bit her lip before walking over to her. “So can I sit here?” She asked. She turned to face the girl and began to laugh. “Omigosh, Blake. I didn’t know it was you.” She said laughing. The girl was in fact Blake Elliot a Ravenclaw her year. They didn’t know each that well, but they have been living together for three years now and occasionally spoke.

[blakeit]

Smiling as her plate of chicken and potatoes was set in front of her Blake groaned. The plate was huge. She knew this had been a waste of money because even she couldn't eat it all, and that's saying something when you are talking about the girl who eats it all, Blake Elliot. She was reaching across the table for one of the many clean spoons and almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Bella shriek. At first she hadn't realized it was Bella and had been a bit freaked out because some werido was talking to her at a restauraunt. "Oh my gosh! Bella what are you doing here?" Blake asked standing up to hug her friend. The weren't exactly close friends, but at the moment Blake was open to everything, she desperately wanted to have one of those friends with her right now but settling was something she did extremely well.

"I never thought I'd meet anyone I knew here, not by choice of course, but you know....." and then she trailed off, having zero ideas of what to say. She in a way was speechless. She hadn't talked to any of her friends in quite sometime and was unsure how everyone was doing seeing as Blake had no owl, but that was by choice, she knew she could have one if she wanted, but so far she had felt no need for one, her friends had olws so when they sent her a letter she could reply on their owl to, but the thing was, none of her normal friends were writing her. Everyone seemed to be off keep this year, or something was going around as a rumor about Blake and she still just hadn't figured any of it out yet, but Blake didn't care about that. Rumors were rumors, and people didn't have to belive them, but of course they did, and this was a sad fact that Blake had reminded to her friends all the time.

Now she knew why they had probably never believed her. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'Now I am here with Bella and hopefully she plans to stay a while.' "So do you like chicken or mashed potatoes?" Blake asked Bella, motioning to the extra large plate in front of her, hoping Bella would nod and say she was hungry, but then again some people did have a problem with eating off of someone elses plate, and Blake seriosuly hoped Bella wasn't one of them, but if she was what could Blake do. It's not like Blake could make Bella at them, at that thought she had to stiffle a laugh. 'What an odd sight that would have been to see as an outsider..' At least Blake thought so. She seemed to think a lot of things lately, and unlike her normal self, hadn't been saying many of them, her life was just being turned upside down.

[Isabelle Leynette R3]

Isabelle did a stupid looking little dance on the spot. Her spirit was suddenly lifted. What a day it had been for her. At first she had to help set up the luncheon her mother was hosting and was caught at her futile attempts at escape. Then she had to attend the luncheon which was so much worse. Maybe it was her punishment for not being the perfect daughter. It didn’t matter; even if it wasn’t her cruel punishment by the gods it was still horrendous. Her mother, of course, expected Belle to be nice and courteous. And she was… for a while. Until one of the guests went on and on about how she was such a good girl. That pushed her over the imaginary line in her head. She didn’t want to be treated like a dog. And who would want to? She had finally left and look where it had gotten her. This lovely little restaurant. She loved seeing her friends outside of school, it was always special. Now here she was with one of her housemates maybe she would have lunch with her. She was, after all, very hungry. She wondered what kind of food they served here. The décor was retro and she figured they served burgers and shakes and those kinds of things. There were old records on the walls and older bands playing through speakers. The Platters were playing Only You and Belle smiled. She loved that song no matter how old it was. She even hummed along for a bit. She seemed to put a smile on her face.

“I was wandering around and got pushed in here by some tourists.” She replied thinking back to about ten ago. The French tourists seemed like a distant memory to her. As did her mother’s annoying luncheon. She accepted her friends hug before asking her the same question. “So why are you here?” She countered using a mock posh voice. Then she burst into small giggles, as if she could help it. She looked at Blake as she sat down and couldn’t help but wonder why they hadn’t hung out before today. She seemed like a pretty cool person. Belle knew nothing about her and the fact that she was a stranger was so intriguing. She loved meeting new people. Though Blake didn’t exactly fit under new, new people but she was new to Belle. “I wasn’t expecting to meet anyone here either.” She admitted truthfully. It was such a weird coincidence. The wheels in Belle’s head kept turning as she tried to think of something to say. Still some how the awkward silence found her, it always did. Belle was the awkward silence magnet. She had awkward silence radar. She bit her lip and then sat down in the pleather seat across Blake. The Platters had by now switched to Splish Splash by Bobby Darin, Belle stuck her tongue out. She loved this guy too. The song was so catching.

“Both.” Belle replied laughing. She was such a pig. “But I’ll have a bite of your potatoes if you don’t mind.” She said as she reached for a clean spoon and took some mashed potatoes. They were delicious. She hadn’t had something like this in quite awhile. Belle was soon caught up in a very random mood. ‘Belle like a Puma, king of the castle, king of the castle. You do this, you do that.’ She found herself thinking. Yet she had no idea where it came from. As they ate it dawned on Belle that Bobby Darin had finished playing and was replaced by The Four Tops and their song Duke of Earl. A waitress was singing it was she cleaned a spot.

{{ and yes ash. i was doing the Vika like a Puma all night at church yesterday.}}

[blakeit]

Blake smiled on the spot, something she hadn’t done in ages until today. The person she had to thank was obviously going to be Isabelle. Though they hadn’t come across each other much in the school year Blake had a feeling they just might be closer after today. Normally making friends this fast was totally against Blake’s policy because she never knew if they were real or fake, but at the moment her signature thought was who in the heck cares. She didn’t and would let anyone who asked know it, of course she knew no one was going to ask so that made it a bit better. Blake smiled at the thought of being trampled by tourists. What a hilarious muggle news line: Girl Killed in Tourist Stampede. Blake didn’t say this out loud for fear of sounding retarded so instead replaced it with a laugh at her own expense. ‘I wish I could say the same.’ She thought silently groaning at the thought of going home to having another screaming match with her mom, or worse, her father. She thought about ditching Belle, but then thought some more as this was simply and horribly rude.

"Oh well you know how family drama goes..." and Blake trailed off. She and Isabelle weren't all that close, in fact they had probably spoke to each other a total of five times out of the whole year, and maybe even less than that. Deciding it would be rude not finish Blake continued, "Me and my parents normally get along terrific but my mom has lately gotten more pushy and pushy and I am totally sick of it. So I just split on this luncheon thing she is having with my evil aunt Patricia." Blake decided that should be enough detail considering the statistics of the kind of friend Blake didn't know Isabelle was. Smiling though even though of her unsurity Blake decided Isabelle couldn't be horrible, she did seem to be pretty darn popular sort of, at least compared to Blake she was anyway. 'Oh well,' as signature thought popped into Blake's head, 'I don't care.'

Meeting someone at a muggle diner was always possible and Blake kind of figured she'd run into someone descent enough to talk to, not necessarily someone she knew, but someone imparticular enough that they had the descency to start up a conversation with someone like Blake. She wondered if there were any other wizards in her. Glancing around the room she noticed that there were what looked like five regular families, six if you counted the one that just walked through the door, this time sporting what looked like a fifteen year old boy. 'Not bad' was Blake's thought, she glanced at Isabelle smiling, she knew how girls minds worked as she herself had one of these minds. On the outside she acted like she wasn't as boy crazy as most girls like herself but truthfully sometimes that was all she could think about, but was that really so bad. She was human after all. Glancing over at Isabelle not wanting to start up another awkward silence she thought of something to say.

But then Isabelle beat her to it, accepting some of the heaping mashpotatoes, though Blake had been hoping she would go for the chicken. Ah well, Blake could always just save some for later or something like that. The music that was playing cracked Blake up. Not only was it oldies, but one of the waitresses behind the cooks counter was actually dancing around to it as though the song was a hit, and it might have been...twenty years ago.
Blake glanced at Isabelle and couldn't help but laugh. She seemed to know the words to.

[Isabelle Leynette R3]

The potatoes where excellent. Belle tried to remember what she had for dinner the night before and vaguely remembered fish. She shivered. Belle hated when her mom choose fancy meals just because her father was there. Things were always weird in the Leynette household when Daniel was there. The meals were of course disgusting, but when they were sitting around the table together it was worse. The conversation was mainly between Victoria and Daniel. Belle sat through this ordeal painfully. Occasionally she would be asked a question and she would try not to make her face show disgust. Normally she would answer it as simply as possible, but lately her father had asked more difficult questions. She couldn’t just use fine, yes and no anymore. He knew this and kept asking these intricate questions. The dinners were painful and Belle felt happy to survive them as silly as that seemed. The only family member who didn’t seem to notice the tension was Mathew. Belle envied him at times, how simple his life seemed. The atmosphere in the house was cold and uninviting. To big to hold only four people. It was scary to saw the least. This environment seemed so much more relaxing and fun. This meal didn’t contain any painful questions or long excruciating silences.

Family drama. She couldn’t help but thinking how this was the story of her life. She decided to make this fact known, after all what was information between friends? “Yeah, family problems.” She agreed solemnly. Aren’t they the absolute worst?” This time she giggled making her last statement seem like an oxymoron. “I know all about pushy mothers.” She said trying to help. Unsure how she was doing at all she decided to continue. “I have the pushiest mother in the world.” She told her emphasizing on the word world. Her mood was making her jumpy and very random. She wasn’t sure what was coming out of her own mouth. She toke another bite of the potatoes, and chewed for sometime before continuing. “How ironic is it that we both walked out on your parent’s luncheons?” She asked genuinely surprised. Irony was on of life’s mysteries for Belle. It was so crazy. It was fate’s spice. She smiled at that. Fate must really want to spice up her life. She silently laughed to herself.

The chime of bells was heard from the front of the restaurant and Belle looked up to see who was coming in. It was a family who was probably looking for a place to eat before the hit the deadly and hot streets of London. Probably on Belle would witness on the deadly part. The family looked around speechlessly as they waited on the hostess to seat them. She smiled at them momentarily and toke them to a back room. Belle gave the woman a look, where was she at when Belle wanted a table? The family and there son passed Belle’s and Blake’s table rather quickly trying to stay up with the woman. Belle had to smile. Their son of course caught her eye. He wasn’t like her usual guys and Belle wasn’t sure she liked this. Order and patterns calmed her down. Chaos certainly excited her, but she liked things when she could expect them. Except in her art. It had to have and angle, a way to break away from her tidiness and unusual obsession with having things a certain way. Her real world, her real self, showed through her art. The paintings where brilliant and thought through. This was a direct quote from her art teacher. She smiled at this. She loved her art class. She loved coming out off the studio just as the sun was setting. Her hands would be stained with paint and the fumes would still be on her. The girl walking out of there always wore a secret smile.

Belle laughed a few intervals after Blake laughed at the waitress. The woman did seem rather hilarious singing the song. She wasn’t singing in tune and this made Belle irritated. She felt a lot better when she switched to humming. It was lot better.