Wandering At The Edge ((Ethan))

[crystal]

The sound of footsteps crunching along the edge of the Forbidden Forest seemed to echo softly around Crystal. Her green eyes studied the ground before her, deliberately taking her time to step on the fallen leaves that were on the ground, loving the sound of the leaves crunching under her feet. She needed this...had needed it for awhile. She had already for herself stressing recently and it was something that she didn't want...didn't need. An unnecessary annoyance in a world built on annoyance. Crystal sighed softly to herself as her hand moved up from her side, digits combing through her dark brown hair as the soft wind touched her cheek. She let her hand fall back down by her side, her finger tips grazing the side of her school robes.

The day was cold...much colder than Crystal would have expected even though it autumn was here. The sun had not made an appearance all day so far, which made Crystal more than delighted. The sun was not her favorite object in the sky...in fact if the sun was never out again she doubted she would miss it. No, Crystal was much more a creature of the night. She would rather sit under the stars and think rather than out in the hot sun. It was just her way. So when the sun hid behind the thick carpet of clouds all day she found herself in an awkwardly interesting mood. In fact she was about ten times happier than she had ever been in her life. Granted it could also have been because she was ignoring her studies for the umpteenth time that week.

Crystal sighed at the thought before running a hand softly over her face as her other hand reached out to touch the trees that bordered the ground. The Forbidden Forest was within her reach, but yet she could not cross over into them; could not walk slowly through the forest and discover its secrets. But she supposed it was for the best. After all, they wouldn't ban access to it if it wasn't dangerous. Her green eyes fell across the trees and then back to the grounds, her hand falling from the tree next to her. Green orbs darted back to the ground, slowly changing to a dark brown as the sound of another set of footsteps sounded in her ears. She was about to move back toward the castle and away from whoever it was, but as always just when she wanted to get away her foot catches no a rock and she stumbles forward, gracefully hitting the ground in front of her with a soft squeal. Oh that's not embarassing... she thought to herself as she dusted off her palms.

[Ethan Jacobs G5]

Ethan smiled over at the two girls who were whispering to each other. He knew exactly what they were talking about, and he couldn’t say he wasn’t used to it. He flipped high in the air on his skateboard, landing gracefully on the ground of the courtyard. The girls clapped and giggled, and Carson shouted his approval. Carson had been Ethan’s best friend for years, and he couldn’t have asked for a better friend, especially through such harsh times. Ethan had just broken up with his long time girlfriend, Esmeralda Mendez, better known as Ezzie-the rising star. It burned him inside to know he was the one who helped Ezzie be the girl she had grown to become. He was the one who discovered her on the streets. He was the one who took her into his home graciously (after all, she could have been a young thief or someone that worked for the paparazzi.) to live there for as long as she wished. He was the one who opened up doors and helped her become famous faster than any normal person out there. If it hadn’t been for him, Esmeralda Mendez would still be some lonely homeless girl begging for small amounts of money and working far more than she should at a local hotel. He had done everything and given everything up for Ezzie, and how did she repay him? She repaid him by being an insanely jealous girlfriend who can’t stand when other girls even spared a glance at him. Ethan couldn’t help himself. He was rich, he was famous, and he was good looking…not to mention he was a skateboarder. It wasn’t his fault girls adored him. He couldn’t keep the girls away even if he had twenty security guards following him around all the time…he knew it wouldn’t work because he had tried this before, and had failed miserably. Suddenly, an earsplitting sound erupted from within the halls. He groaned-the class bell had rung. Ethan didn’t have class right now, but pretty much everyone else in the school did. He sighed as Carson departed for his Care of Magical creatures class and Ethan looked up at the cloudy sky. Today wasn’t a good day for swimming in the lake, but perhaps he could visit the grounds anyway? Yes, a bit of peace and quiet and alone time couldn’t hurt.

Ethan walked around the grounds letting his feet carry him wherever they pleased. He passed a few wandering people, but didn’t stop to say hello or even to flirt a bit with the girls of his year, as he saw quite a few. He just kept walking alone, not really paying attention as to what was going on around him. He was too busy thinking. He thought about Ezzie and he thought about Carson. He thought about classes and he thought about his life back in London. He thought of quite a few things, but they all flew in and out so quickly that Ethan felt dizzy and was unable to catch all of them at once. He barely caught the thought about Amber as it flew through his head and was gone in another second. Then the thought came back again and again until finally, it stuck. Little Miss Amber Hess, the sixth year Gryffindor. He smirked a bit at the sound of her name. She had been the very reason he and Ezzie broke up…but he didn’t blame her, she was bound to crack sometime soon anyway. Ezzie was downright crazy, and Amber had nothing to do with that. Today was Friday, and Ethan looked forward to his date with Amber the coming Sunday. She seemed like the only sane girl out there, the only girl who seemed to make sense out of things that were a complete mystery to Ethan. He knew he was going to enjoy going out with Amber…plus, he had never tried kissing someone with braces before. His eyes sparkled with mischief at the thought of kissing, and just then, he noticed a girl standing just in front of him, trying to run away from him. She fell to the ground with a thud and Ethan had to stop himself from laughing. The girl was a Slytherin, and he knew that if he so much as smiled at her fall, he would be faced with a showdown. Slytherin girls were emotional that way…but then again, so were most girls… girls like Ezzie Ethan thought bitterly.

“Are you okay?” He said, walking over to her and holding out his hand, wondering if the girl would even take it. She looked like the kind who would be a Slytherin. She was rather pretty, but in that bad girl sort of way. He couldn’t help noticing her sparkling green eyes, which were definitely one of her best features. He smiled down at her.

[crystal]

Green orbs slowly darkened until they settled on a dark brown. Crystal's eyes fell to the ground, away from the irises of the boy in front of her. She knew her cheeks were red, pinked from the embarrassment of tripping over her own two feet. She would have lied and said it had never happened before, but she was a klutz. Always had been. She had had more broken bones than her entire family put together. She even had plenty of scars that proved how clumsy she was. The thing was though she hated when others saw how bad she was. Her hands slowly lifted from the ground and she rubbed them together, dusting off her palms. The cool ground was moist and she had to physically wipe her hands on her robes to be able to get most of the dirt off, from there she slowly patted at the dirt on her black robes. She didn't want to take his hand that she noticed was still being offered to her, but at the same time deep down inside her she wanted to be social...wanted to make a friend for the first time in her life. It was almost impossible for her to ignore the feeling in her, but how could she possibly take his hand? How could she let herself get close to someone...close enough to take their hand? She felt herself laugh inside, laugh at how absurd she was being. He wasn't offering her friendship in that hand, he was only offering her the ability to be helped up and she knew she had to accept it. If she didn't it would be far too rude and rather Slytherin-like if she didn't. With that, Crystal looked back at the boy as a sigh passed her lips and she took his hand. She wasn't about to be impolite and refuse his offer to help her up.

Crystal wondered if he'd be surprised by her action to take his hand. After all she was in Slytherin and most people just expected her to be some jerk who was only interested in herself. Truth was that Crystal didn't really care about houses and blood. Growing up in a family that was obsessed with pureblood and stuff she had found herself being the rebel of the family, not that they had ever noticed. She just didn't find purity of blood that important, because in reality she knew that if only a pureblood married a pureblood in the end it would become incestuous, if it wasn't already. It didn't take long before cousin would be marrying cousin just to preserve the bloodline. And Crystal was definitely not into that sort of thing. She had to chastise herself in her head to get back to reality and back to the guy that stood before her. She had been silent for a long time since his question and she knew she needed to respond or say something...anything, just so he knew that she wasn't insane or some sort of mute or anything like that.

Crystal's soft voice was hardly audible in the light wind of the grounds as she finally replied. "Yes, clumsy me. Thank you." Her brown orbs slowly returned to their green color as she looked back down at the ground, taking in the crushed leaves that had been under her body. Her hand dusted at her robes again, knocking off the few orange and yellow leaves that had clung to her. Her soft dark hair fell over her face and she pushed it back carefully as she looked back up at him an inner battle going on inside of her over whether or not to say anything more to him or just walk away. In the end Crystal decided to say something else, feeling that she needed to in the awkward silence that had followed her thanks. "My name's Crystal Harper and you are?"