Girl's Dormitory

Rachel was upstairs, kneeling down beside her trunk, unpacking, trying not to cause a huge ruckus with it. Christmas Break was an extremely dull one; certainly not the best Christmas break she's ever had. She sighed, and shrugged to herself. Maybe it was because she was growing up, and she had been wanting to spend more time away from her parents.

"Rachel?" Asked a voice, it was, obviously, Serenity. "Um, you're one of my best friends, and.. I wanted to say I'm sorry. For everything I said to you and Amanda."

Rachel looked up, and smiled at Serenity. "Finally! I've been waiting that apology for a month now!" She then give her a little wink.

Serenity laughed. "I've been busy, sorry. You can just take a number, there's a line, with people who are all pissed off at me."

"Oh, it's fine!" she said breezily. "I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have said all those nasty things and thrown food at you. But, it's over now." Rachel pulled some textbooks out, and put them back on her desk. "Did you have a nice Christmas?"

"Ah, not really. Angel was.. well, he was quite horrible, actually. He would barely talk to me. And, Liv had Amanda over, so things were a little stiff. I tried to be nice, but I didn't buy anyone any Christmas presents, I sent most of my money with Selia to Japan."

"Oh... at least you got to go somewhere! You know, see other people besides your family. My Christmas was a little dull, with just me and my family. But, I guess that comes with growing up."

"Uh-huh. You're.. you're good at advice, aren't you? I need some. Please. It's important." Serenity said, suddenly looking scared.

"What is it?"

"I'm worried about my future. I'm barely getting by in all my subjects, with mostly acceptables, and I'm not going to have a life after school. I.. I can't study well, and I'm not smart. I'm worried about Selia, too. How will she go to school and have a house for another year if I can't provide for her? I'm going to be a failure. And it's not just going to hurt me, it's going to hurt other people."

"Mmm..." Rachel was kneeling beside her trunk again, but she wasn't doing any unpacking. She was just staring down at the inside of it, thinking carefully. Finally, she took a deep breath and said:

"To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what's going to happen to me, either. My grades are decent enough, but I just lack the ambition, you know? I was thinking of finding a job in Diagon Alley, and eventually starting my own business but..." she turned to stare at Serenity.

"What do you like to do? That's a good start."

"I've always wanted to be a lawyer.. But it seems so hard. I can cook alright, and wait tables, and I can clean things. Sometimes." Serenity replied, trying to think really hard what her talents were.

"I'm not much of a cleaner-I usually just use magic for that, but my Scourgify Charm is a complete failure. I just Muggle-clean instead. I'm pretty good cook too. And, I'm really good with a needle..." she laughed bitterly. "Typical women jobs for me. But oh well. At least you're good with law. Chase after that!"

"Alright, I'll try. Thank you, Rachel." Serenity said, smiling gratefully at her.

"Remember, you can do anything you set your mind too, right? Ah-here we go!" Rachel pulled out a small quilt, big enough for someone's lap. The fabrics included two solid bright blue and green one, and a whimsical black one with bright colored fabrics. "What do you think of this?! This is my first quilt I ever made over Christmas break!"

"Oh, Rachel.." Serenity said quietly, looking at the quilt. "It's so beautiful! How long did this take? This is amazing. You should start a business."

"It took about three weeks. That included the two week period where I had to send it out to get it actually quilted. I can't do that part yet, because I don't have the big sewing machine you need for it." she smiled weakly. "I could never start a business, Serenity. I'm terrible with math and money..."

"Oh, but with things like this, you could make so much money you wouldn't need to count it!" Serenity said, grinning. "People would come from China, begging you to import your quilts.."

"You can't really mass-produce these things." she said warily. "These take a while, and you can only really do one at a time."

"Even more the reason for them to beg. Oh, just think of the possibilities.." Serenity said, smiling and hugging the quilt.

She looked at the quilt, then back up at Serenity. "Do you want that quilt? I know they're not really your colors, but you seem to really like it."

For my sake, Rachel stood up, folded the quilt, and put it back into her trunk. "See ya later, Serenity! Tell me if you want to keep the quilt or not." And she then left the dorm.

Serenity was up in here, whistling a merry tune.