A well earned rest ((Kiyla))

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy had packed all her things the night before. Nearly all her stuff was going home with her. She couldn't wait to see her father again, who she'd been fretting about all half term, and this time Kiyla was coming with her.

Ivy was slightly nervous about what her father would think of Kiyla. 'It'll be fine', she told herself. 'Now if you were bringing someone to stay who talked nine to the dozen, that might be a different matter.' Ivy smiled to herself, thinking of Kim.

She went and breakfasted quickly in the Great Hall. They had a train to catch, a Muggle train. No doubt it would be late, but it was still wise to be there on time.

Ivy walked swiftly back up to her dormitory, and found Kiyla there, who had eluded her before. Ivy picked up her holdall.

"Ready to go?" she enquired.

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla woke up that morning feeling jittery. She looked around the room to see everyone sleep, and after 15 minutes fo trying to drift back to sleep Kiyla decided to get up. She quietly crept out of the dormitries and went down to eat and shower.

"Wow, I'm supposed to be doing something right now, but what?" Kiyla thought to herself as she walked out of the Great Hall after eating her breakfast with only a few students there. Her short term memory was beinging to kick in.

"Can't wait until I go with Ivy.." Kiyla thought with a smile when it hit her.

"PACK! I didn't PACK!!" She said aloud and she blotted up the stairs as quickly as she could without nearly tripping over every stair. When she finally got to the dormitries she saw that no one was there.

"Probably all went down to eat..." Kiyla thought as she let out a sigh of relief.

Kiyla walked over to her things and began to pack quickly hoping Ivy wouldn't come in and see her like this.

After about 20 minutes Kiyla was all done. She sighed as she ploped down on her bed and reached on her nightstand for her book. She patted it a couple times confused when she realized that she packed it already - way at the bottom of her bag. She groaned and was about to get it when Ivy walked in.

"Ready to go?" Ivy asked her.

"Yep!" Kiyla said with a smiled forgetting all about her stupid book. She was happy that she was about to go with her best friend!

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled. "OK then, well we do have a train to catch you know. And it's a Muggle train. Well, from the station after Hogsmeade onwards."

Ivy grinned. "You got your parental consent form for leaving this place?" She reached down to her bag and slipped hers out of the front pocket, slightly bent at one corner.

She walked to the door, overbalancing slightly with her heavy bag. Whatever happened to house elves? she wondered regretfully. On reflection she had no idea how the elves got it up the stairs. She had no idea how she was going to get it down the stairs.

[KiylaJohnson]

"Yep! I got it right here!" Kiyla said as she opened went into her drawer and grabbed it. She smiled brightly at Ivy and picked up her bag and followed Ivy to the door.

"Now, where's a house elf, when you need them?" Kiyla wondered aloud as she tried to shift her body weight to make her things easier to carry.

Just as she said that two house elves appeared out of no where in from of Kiyla and Ivy.

"Whoa, I so wasn't expecting that..." Kiyla said as she jumped and nearly fell over with the heaviness of her things.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy laughed at Kiyla's surprise at the house elves' appearance.

"Wow," she said, "thanks guys!" Ivy handed her luggage to one of the burly house elves and went over to Kiyla to give her a hand up.

She followed the house elves with their bags to the oak door of the Entrance Hall, where they rapidly disappeared.

"They were certainly quick in going," she said to Kiyla, grinning. She stepped outside and waited for Kiyla to walk to Hogsmeade together.

[KiylaJohnson]

kiyla laughed and took Ivy's hand and they followed the elves down the stairs. She watched them disappear and said aloud, "I wish i could do that..."

"Well, it's best we go off."

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy picked up her holdall, which was still just as heavy.

"I hope you're ready for walking," she said to Kiyla, "cos we've got lots of it to do today."

They walked for a while before they reached Hogsmeade station, where Ivy set down her bag on the platform in front of her. It really was rather heavy to carry all the way. Ivy sighed.

"Well, now we've only the train to wait for," Ivy started to say, but the rest of her words were drowned out by the arrival of the train they were to get on from a nearby siding. Ivy picked up her holdall again and started to edge towards the train through the many people waiting to catch a train to take them on holiday.

"After you," she said to Kiyla, grinning.

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla laughed and picked up her luggage.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." She said with a smile.

Her and Ivy walked to the Hogmeade station making little chit chat the whole time. When they got there the train arrived to. Kiyla got aboard the train and walked to their seat.

"Here we are." She said with a smile as she sat town by the window.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled as Kiyla sat down.

"Well, we're going to be here quite a while," she said, "so you ought to get something to do. And this is a Muggle train starting from the next station."

Ivy took out a pack of playing cards and a Muggle chessboard. The playing cards had pictures of Quidditch on, and they moved, but as long as no one looked too closely...

She put her luggage on the rack above their seats and held her hand out for Kiyla's. "Just remind me to get them down again," she said, grinning, "security would have a field day if we left this stuff behind."

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla nodded.

She watched Ivy put her luggage up and she handed Ivy hers.

"I can't wait until we get there. What's your dad like?" Kiyla asked Ivy curiously. Kiyla never really had a father and she wondered what it was like.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy sat down opposite Kiyla, smiling. As Kiyla asked her what her father was like, she wondered what it would be like finding that Ivy's main parent was a male. After all, Kiyla had never really had a dad since she was too young to remember. Ivy had experienced having a mum, because she'd only left when Ivy was ten.

"My dad," Ivy said, "is kind, gentle, frail. He's very welcoming to guests... so you'll be fine... and, well, I don't know. We'll have quite a lot of freedom but we'll also have to spend some time looking after him, so cooking mainly." It was weird, Ivy thought, you didn't really think about what your parents were like until they were gone. She hoped her father wouldn't be gone too soon.

Ivy smiled at Kiyla. "You like to cook?" she asked. It was something she actually didn't know about Kiyla, which was surprising. She'd just never asked because it had never come up in conversation and it wasn't something Ivy generally thought about.

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla listened intently to Ivy talk about her dad. Kiyla never really had a dad before.

"I like to cook. Mum and I cook all the time. I don't think I'm that good but..." Kiyla said her voice trailing off. "Do you like to cook?"

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy smiled at Kiyla. "I'm sure you're a good cook, you must be if you cook all the time." She listened to Kiyla's question about whether she liked to cook. She smiled bitterly to herself, thinking about her mum's unfulfilled responsibilities.

Ivy smiled at Kiyla again, not wanting her to think that she was in a bad mood, since she wasn't. Just that sometimes the tears turned into bitterness. They'd soon translate back again, though, Ivy was sure of that. After all , she had a whole discussion with her dad ahead.

"I do like to cook. I mean, it can be a bit stressful sometimes, trying to balance all the household chores. But when I actually have the time, I do really enjoy it."

Ivy looked out of the window. "OK then," she said quickly to Kiyla, "if you have any magical stuff left, now would be the time to put it away. We're arriving at the first Muggle station on this line in just under two minutes."

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla smiled at Ivy. She nodded absently and looked out the window as well. Ivy was right. They were nearing the muggle stations.

"Well I don't really have any magic stuff..." She said looked around her. She looked at Ivy.

"When do you think we'll get to your house, Iv?" She asked Ivy thoughtfully after she helped Ivy put away all of their magical things.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy laughed as Kiyla asked when they'd get to her house. It was going to take a long time, and she had a feeling they were both going to get pretty bored. At least they had each other for company.

"Are you bored already?" Ivy asked. "Cos that's not good. We've got to travel all the way from Scotland to Somerset. I would say it's going to take us about seven hours." Ivy grinned at Kiyla. "So sit back and relax. I have playing cards with me." Ivy proffered the pack of playing cards. "Not strictly non-magical, but they'll do."

At this point the train shuddered to a halt and a few new passengers entered the train, all Muggles, as far as Ivy could tell. Ivy looked back to Kiyla.

"Do you know how to play many card games?" she asked.

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla laughed at Ivy's comment.

"No, I'm not bored... just curious." Kiyla said with a smile. She paused for a second and watched the muggles come aboard.

She looked over at Ivy and smiled broadly.

"I play cards. Do you know how to play Spade? I play Speed too..." Kiyla said shifting in her seat so she fully faced Ivy.

[Ivy Tunstall]

((Not Phoebe ... Kiyla. Um... I guess that most American games are different than British ones... so...))

Ivy shuffled the cards absent-mindedly for quite a while before she heard Kiyla answer, although there was probably quite a time delay before it registered with Ivy. Ivy had been thinking of her father, and worrying about what she needed to talk to him about when they got there.

"What?" Ivy asked. "Oh, no, I don't know how to play Spade. Um... can you play Slam?" Ivy laughed a little to herself; she wondered how long it would be before they'd find a game they could both play. If not, they'd have to resort to teaching each other. They had many hours travel ahead of them.

((Slam might well be the same as Speed, another word for it is Spit. I'll IM you.))

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla looked at Ivy with a raised eyebrow. She could tell there were things on Ivy's mind.

"Do you want to talk to me about anything?" Kiyla asked Ivy soothingly. She smiled reassuringly hoping that would help. All Kiyla wanted to do was help Ivy if she could.

[Ivy Tunstall]

Ivy put down the cards with a soft thud. Damn. This was the problem with thinking in front of someone who knew you so well: they could tell when you were troubled by something.

"Not now," Ivy said. "I just don't want to talk to you about it here. This place isn't private enough. I mean... at school... there's always somewhere, but... not now, OK?"

Ivy gave Kiyla a small smile, but they both knew she felt quite different.

[KiylaJohnson]

Kiyla watched Ivy closely and agreed. She knew there was some pain behind the smiule but didn't push it. She, instead smiled.

"So what are we playing?" She asked Ivy.

"And how are we going to keep the cards on a flat area...?" Kiyla said as she looked aorund them to see chairs and cushiny things.