A Quiet Spot Somewhere Among The School's Vast Acreage. (If that's a word.)

(Decided to take the new OC rules into consideration)

Just before sunset, and school was all done for the day, and the Rachel was pretty happy about that. It seems as though school had been especially grueling, with all the new NEWT classes. Rachel figured that they deserved a break after all the insane studying from last year. But, of course, they decided on the opposite of that.

She was sitting beneath a tree, smacking rather loudly at three pieces of Burt's Best Blowing Gum at once and trying to blow a huge bubble on it. She decided to experiment and try to see if she blew a big enough bubble, she could enchant and float right up into the air.

The sunset had the reached the state where the sky was the lovely pink and orange color. Some birds from the Forbidden Forest was off singing somewhere far away. Everything was peaceful, and it seemed as though that nothing was going on with You-Know-Who and his followers and all that junk. Everything was perfect. "Pure bliss, she thought as she tried to poke her bubble with her wand.

And then, the bubble popped on her face.

[I couldn't do that. =w=]

(=w=)

Kelsi walked down and slumped next to Rachel. "Ally's store was burned down. If she had been in the store when whoever did it, I would be scared to see what happened."

Rachel was desperately trying to scrape some of the pop gum off her face. "Whoever it is I'm not- oh, Kelsi. Sorry 'bout that." she said turning to towards her. She then began to work through her hair with her fingers the gum stuck in it. "What happened to Ally?"

Kelsi began helping Rachel. "Her restaurant got burned down."

Rachel looked completely shocked, and she turned to face her. "Really!? Why would-oh, I understand, I think..." she looked down off in the distance. "Why can't everywhere else in the world be like Hogwarts sometimes, you know?" she gestured towards the still ever-peaceful looking sunset.

"It's really pretty, yeah... OH MY GOD!" Kelsi screamed.

"What!?" yelped Rachel jumping up.

"You... you know what we should do?" Kelsi stood up, mistaking Rachel's jumping up as excitement. "We should rebel. Go into the forest!"

"Oh COME-ON Kelsi! EVERYONE goes to the Forbidden Forest." she pulled on another practically annoying strand of gum in her hair. "If we wanted to rebel and be different, we'd go off the grounds entirely!"

Kelsi's eyes widened. "Oh my god. We should totally do that- but they've sealed off all out-of-bounds by that weird gate thing. What we should do is find something insane to do iN the school."

"Like what? Agh-almost got it all out!" she said pulling on a few more strands. "But these are really in there..."

"Peanut butter, Rachel. Peanut butter. I don't know..."

"I see no peanut butter here!" she snapped. "Besides, I'm allergic to it."

"Well, that sucks. Because... well, peanut butter takes gum out of the hair."

"So I heard," she grumbled.

Kelsi sighed. She curled into a ball. "I want to do something fun..."

"Like what? Shoot of fireworks in Professor Snape's classroom?" she asked sarcastically.

"Too scary."

Kelsi had long since left since Rachel wasn't saying anything.

"Anyway Kelsi I think tha-" she looked around, and noticed that no one was around her. She sighed with annoyance. "Never mind then..."

[[Durrhurr. ]]

Why would anyone think about climbing trees this time of year? It was freezing outside, and it was just beginning to snow.

But, going outside and climbing a tree is the only place to get some peace and quiet in this darned school, figured Rachel. You'd think for a castle that big you'd be able to find a place where you can hear yourself think, but it's just way too echo-y.

Rachel was worried. No-not about falling; she was on a lower branch and it wouldn't be too much of a fall if she were to slip. She had heavier things on her mind that required deep thinking on her mind. Like pregnancy. Or STD's. Or abortions. Or... well, you probably get the idea.

"I wonder if I really contracted something that night?" wondered Rachel. She was doubtful though. If she was pregnant or had a STD, wouldn't she be sick? But you couldn't really be sure. When Rachel's mom was pregnant with her little brother, she didn't notice for a couple months or so.

"No... that only happens in books..." and her wary mind moved onto other things.

She had been reading the Daily Prophet (which was a first) well, daily lately. There seemed to be tons of propaganda about going Anti-Muggleborns lately. Personally, she thought it was a bunch of nonsense and it would eventually go away, but the propaganda hadn't been slowly down lately. If anything it was speeding up. And Karin had been acting different lately too. She hadn't been hanging out with Fry much anymore, and she had been nagging Rachel about hanging out with Kelsi and Nick.

"What a brat... a bet everyone is connected to Muggles or Muggle-borns somehow everywhere." she thought to herself. She then stretched out on the tree limb and shut her eyes.

[i]"The duchess from Alice's Adventures In The Wonderland was right: 'If everyone minded their own business, the world WOULD go a whole lot faster.'"

Libby, too, had decided to get some fresh air. But, she wasn't climbing trees like Rachel. She was just walking, staring at the ground, her gloved hands in her coat pockets. She was all bundled up and warm--hat, gloves, scarf, coat, boots, the like. It WAS winter, after all. Libby wanted to stay warm as to not catch a cold.

And, unlike Rachel, Libby wasn't thinking about pregnancy and STD's and the like. She was just... daydreaming. She'd been really quiet lately, for some reason even she didn't really know, and she wasn't really talking to her friends anymore. So what better way to fix that than to go on a walk in the cold alone rather than sitting in the warm Hufflepuff common room by the fire with Amanda and Kelsi?

Smart move, Libby. Smart move.

Libby kept walking, leaving footprints in the snow. She approached the tree where Rachel was at, and looked up at her. "Oi! You! Rachel! Why are you up in a tree?" Libby called up to her. She didn't know that Rachel was thinking heavily about her possible pregnancy, or that Rachel even HAD a possible pregnancy. Libby hadn't been informed of secks with Nick yet.