Skipping Rocks PV Oliver Cavallo Closed

It was a beautiful day. Oliver usually spent the free time that wasn’t eaten up by his ravenous schedule of homework to explore the bits outside of Hogwarts the students were allowed free range of. Anything that didn’t smell like prepubescent teenagers shoved into tiny classrooms, dank stone, burning incense, or something equally choking. There was nothing better to clear the lungs than the clear North Wind as he dashed through the light of the deep afternoon. It was a crisper day than usual, and that was welcome. Italy was a very sunny place, and while Oliver enjoyed sunshine, comfortably cool days were a novelty he rarely got to enjoy.

The sound of birds gathering about him in the trees was pleasant. Oliver knew they only congregated around him more than most because he sometimes brought them seed. The crows especially had learned to recognize him, and were often huge pests in their attempts to get his attention, but he hadn’t had any of them do anything more than pull at his robes with their beaks before hopping away, squawking.

The robins were far more enjoyable. In fact, their songs as they flew out towards the lake, where the dirt was fuller and richer, prime turf for worms, was what drew him out to the water that day.

The sun was nothing especially spectacular at this time, but the way the chipper waves tossed the light up on their hands, played with it, tossed it, and scattered it to the wind, you’d think it was the most beautiful day since the start.

The repetition of waves lapping against the shore was only disturbed by the splishes, splooshes, and plops of skipping rocks, and Oliver eyed the girl who seemed so engaged with the activity curiously. He had never skipped rocks himself, so he didn’t know the appeal, but now he was intrigued. Although she didn’t notice his quiet footsteps at first, she surely noticed Oliver when he picked up a rock from the shore, and attempted to make it dance on the water like she did.

It hit the water like a wonky frisbee, and sank anticlimactically. He huffed.

Lallie was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice the boy coming up on the beach, and she didn't hear him pick up the rock. All she hear was the plop, plop, plop of her skipping rock. She did however hear the plop of the rock down into the water though. She turned her attention and saw the ripple of water where the rock was plopped down. She turned his attention to the source of the rock and found a boy that looked around. Being rather annoyed with the world right Lallie's first thought was Serves him right. Lallie then started to feel bad for what she did, as she rarely holds grudges and feels bad when she does it. To clear her self conscious she picked up a nice smooth stone and rubbed it with her thumb. "The key is to get a nice flat rock so it gets to skim across the surface." she said turning to the boy. Lallie then took the rock and threw it, making it bounce across the water. She again continued, "And more importantly how you make the rock is arced. There's a specific sweet spot so that it skims the water instead of plopping."

Oliver nodded intently. After watching the girl’s trow once more skim the water effortlessly, he picked up another rock from the shore that seemed to match the girl’s description. He drew back, as if throwing a discus, and let it fly in a gentle curve. His heart soared in anticipation, and-!

Sploosh. It hit the water in a shallow dive, not even skipping once. Oliver laughed a little. “Well, I’m not good at this yet, am I?” He’d have to practice some more. It seemed like a pleasurable talent to have. He wasn’t near water very often, but who knew? Maybe it would come in handy eventually. He would certainly be near enough to the lake for the rest of his education at Hogwarts.

He turned to the girl, boldly offering his hand with a genial smile. “My name’s Oliver. What’s yours?”

He normally didn’t introduce himself, but after the conversation was initiated, it only seemed natural.

Oliver was always insufferably polite, in all situations. Well, he tried to be. He wanted to be respectful and kind to everyone, and being polite put other people at ease when they were yet strangers. He tilted his head slightly, much like a curious puppy, at the red-headed girl he had found skipping rocks by the lake.

Lallie smiled, took his hand and shook it. Oliver seemed nice enough, and was quite a gentleman at that. "I'm Lallie, nice to meet you. It took me a couple months to be able to skip rocks so I'm sure you'll get the hang of it soon!" she said gleefully.

Lallie always was very cheerful. A smile always on her face and everything she said filled with glee. Her mission in life was to make people happy. Whether that be making them laugh, smile, or just feel appreciated.

She plopped down onto the beach of the lake and patted the spot next her. "So Oliver tell me about yourself? What are your hobbies? What house did you get into? Are you excited for any class in particular? I'm looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures. I always wanted to go into that line of career, I mean isn't it so cool? Training or taking care of an animal with a listless amount of amazing powers? My father want me to go into Herbology though, be like the rest of the family..." Lallie started to trail off but then caught herself. "Anyway, back to you. Who exactly is Oliver?" she said resting her head on her hand.

Oliver did his best not to seize up at the sudden assault of questions. As she spoke, his mouth twitched, as if he thought that at any moment, she might allow him to finally answer. But his mind raced to keep track of all that she said as well. They did have a love of animals in common, although Oliver couldn’t imagine doing anything that his family didn’t want him to do. But, his parents were generally accepting of career choices, so he doubted that would ever be a problem for any of the Cavallo brothers or extended family. This girl was obviously very enthusiastic, and while Oliver could appreciate a certain vitality of virtue, he didn’t exactly know how to deal with this sort of person well. He got flustered easily.

“Well, my family takes care of horses. Um, I’m a Slytherin, but I can’t imagine why… I like Care of Magical Creatures as well, but isn’t that a third-year class? I’m probably going to go back to the ranch once I graduate. Grandpa can use all the help he can get.”

Oliver wondered if he had forgotten anything. He really hoped he hadn’t, that would be quite rude.

Lallie smiled chuckling slightly. Oliver didn't know her well enough to know that when she got passionate about something she would wait a million years just to be able to do it. "Oh I know it's a third year class, but that's how excited I am for it. I tend to get overly excited about things. Being a rancher sounds like a cool job and it's nice to see you want to help your grandfather. What types of animals does your grandpa ranch? Is it horses? I love horses they're so wild and free, just being able to run for miles without a care in the world. My family actually used to own a race horse. His name was Wild Tail. We called him that because it took forever for us to brush out the knots in his hair and tail, but Wild Hair doesn't really float off the tongue nicely." she said oblivious to her rambling.

Lallie then saw how flustered Oliver looked and realized how many questions she asked him in such a short period of time. "Oh sorry! I tend to be a very spastic talker and ramble on for long periods of time. I'll try to slow down" Lallie said blushing. Lallie was always surrounded by people who didn't mind her rambling that much so it was easy to forget how much she runs her mouth off.

Oliver decided not to point out that he had specifically said that they took care of horses. That would just cause unnecessary trouble for this acquaintanceship early on. However, he listened intently on her description of her childhood horse. A race horse? Did she race or ride? He wasn’t allowed on any of the really fast horses yet, but his brothers Luca and Dante had gone into several races before, sometimes as riders, sometimes as horses, since they both had equine Animagus forms. Their racehorse names when they entered were “Rampant Chaos” for Luca, whose form was a pure black Freisan, and Dante was “Big Red Thing,” because he was a red Morgan. It was amazing that so many people in his family had horse Animagus forms.

But before he could put in his two cents, the girl had already moved on quickly… to apologize for how quickly she talked.

“Oh, no worries. My only advice is to pause once in a while, in case someone wants to say something. But really, I don’t mind.” He wanted to help her if she thought it was a problem she had, but he wasn’t offended or anything. It just caught him off guard.