On Either Side of the Gate PV Henry Finished

Henry seemed quite excited about the fact that she also had an older brother, and his enthusiastic answer made her laugh a little. Then, she remembered that he seemed a little sensitive and hurried to add, "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you," Her eyes were still bright with laughter though, and she decided to explain a bit further. "It was just funny because you were so excited about that." After that had been cleared up, Gia finally answered his actual question. "Yes, I'd say we're pretty close. . . him and my dad, they're all I have. And my friends here, of course, but. . . family wise, there's only the three of us." And she left it at that, not bothering to explain why. Finding out that her mother had cancer caught their whole family by surprise, and it just wasn't something that any of them liked to talk about after she passed away. Hopefully Henry wouldn't pry, Gia thought, for she had no clue as to what she'd do if he did.

"Wow, you're brother is eight years older than you?" the nine year old then asked, shocked at how far apart the two children's ages were. "Oh wait," the girl said. "How old are you anyway? I'm nine. . . you're probably around my age, right?" She wasn't sure how old Henry was, but she could tell that he wasn't that much older than her, if he was older than her at all. Then, the boy told her that he and his twin sister couldn't read each other's minds, which made Gia's shoulders slump slightly in disappointment. "Aw, that's too bad," she said. But her mood was lifted back up when Henry told her that he'd also heard of twins that could, just like she had. "Oh, cool! I wish I could read Vance's mind. . . he's my brother, by the way. Then again, it might be a little weird, don't you think? Like, always being able to know whatever your sibling is thinking?" She shrugged. "Or wait, maybe they can turn off their mind reading at times. Ugh, this is getting confusing," Gia laughed.

When the conversation turned back to school talk and Henry explained what instruments and languages he knew, the girl couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at how many there were. "Wow." she murmured, once he'd finished telling her the full list. "That's. . . a lot. I played piano when I was younger, but then it grew boring. Now I play guitar, but only for fun. I'm pretty good though, if I do say so myself," Gia joked, a teasing smile lighting up her face. Henry then offered to try and teach her one of the languages she had mentioned wanting to learn earlier, and her smile grew even wider. "Ooh, would you? That would be amazing!" she exclaimed. "Maybe Italian, that'd be fun!" Hmm, maybe they could meet up regularly at this spot during her recess time, she thought to herself.

The boy told her that he didn't mind her rambling, which made Gia raise an eyebrow again. "Really? Well, that's a first," she said. "Everyone seems to mind my rambling." Then, he explained about his own school experience, once again starting to say a word and then not finishing it. The nine year old's eyebrows furrowed as she wondered why he kept doing that. What word was he deciding not to say? "Henry," she started, "Why do you keep doing that? You keep beginning to say a word and then you cut yourself off. . ." Then she answered his question about her hobbies. "Well, like I said, I play guitar, I also like playing tricks on my brother - don't worry, they're mostly harmless pranks - and I also really just like anything competitive. Oh, I play football too!" She shrugged. "But yeah, probably not as much as you do, right? Or. . . do you mostly learn all those instruments and languages that you just told me?"

657 words
@Henry Knight
Sorry this took a little while to get up! Also, when she says football she means English football (or soccer.)
Banner by Lucia Fox

The ten year old suffered from anxiety and had low self esteem due to his stutter that he did work on so the boy nodded with a smile while listening to Gia explain why she laughed before listening to her talk about her family.

He thought the two weren't really that different family wise, Henry wasn't one to intrud or ask about personal things but he did take note that she didn't add her mother which could only mean a handful of things as Henry spoke " I have a small family to. It's just me, my twin, brother, and father really," Henry gave a small smile before continuing " that's still nice that you and your brother are close. Does he go there with you?" He asked while pointing to the school building behind her.

Hearing her amazement about the age difference, Henry grinned a bit as he spoke " yep, I tend to get that reaction a lot really. How old is your brother compared to you?" Before hearing her say that she was nine and ask for his age in which he spoke " I'm ten, so not that fat a part. My older brother; uh Arthur is 17," adding in the last part as he thought about his brother and gave a smile.

As the conversation turn to reading siblings mind, Henry laughed a bit before saying " maybe they could only do it when near each other or feeling the same emotion? I don't know, really," then their conversation moved back to school and Henry picked up that she was amazed again by how many instruments he knew or languages he was learning which again made him want to tell her about the wizarding world and how wizarding children tend to learn things like that but sadly he couldn't so he just stayed silent.

" Guitar is so cool! I personally love violin but maybe sometime we can show each other the instruments?" Henry asked before thinking about teaching her Italian and continuing to meet there at the gate at the same time as he spoke " I'll love to teach you Italian maybe we can continue to meet here so I can teach you and we can talk? Just I won't be able to meet you on Friday's and occasionally on Wendy's. That's when I get lessons also on Saturday and Sunday to but Monday's, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I can meet you!"

The ten year old got excited just thinking about continuing to meet her and talk to her in Hope's of making a friend in a place where he currently knew no one.

As their conversation turned to hobbies or other topics, Henry listened and smiled before replying " I prefer to listen anyway and enjoy it when others do the talking really so I don't mind your rambling at all Gia," a smile forming on his face before she asked about why he kept cutting words which was because he was going to say muggle a word like 'mate' that was far to common to the boy so he thought of his to explain it before saying " that's nothing, just my stutter. Uh you a..aren't b..bothered by it r..right?" That was the first lie he told her and already he felt awful but he didn't have a choice since he wasn't allow to tell about the magical world although he really did have a stutter.

" Your hobbies are wicked Gia! Playing guitar sounds so cool and what type of tricks do you play?" Henry asked before thinking of his own hobbies before answering " I like to read and uh learn if that doesn't sound to weird. I also like to play violin and I love all kinds of animals and being outside to. I also like to climb trees and dream about going on adventures, I guess."

Henry didn't say anything about his mother either, which made Gia slightly curious. Still, she knew better than to ask, since she herself hated when others poked their noses into her private business like how her mother died and such. The girl smiled at Henry's answer though, and then asked, "Is it fun having more than one sibling? You have both a sister and a brother, I wonder how different it is." She really was curious about what it would be like if Vance wasn't around, or if he just wasn't the only other child in her immediate family. Like, what if she had a younger sibling as well? That would be so different, and kind of weird. . . the nine year old thought, and pushed it out of her mind. She was pretty content with the way her family was right now - although it would be kind of fun having someone that she could boss around, like Vance did to her. "And also no, since my brother is a few years older than me. He's in the school for the older kids now, and doesn't come here for school anymore."

The boy on the other side of the gate surrounding the school property gave Gia a smile before he replied to her surprised exclamation about how much older than him his brother was. She grinned back, and then answered his question about exactly what age Vance was. "He's eleven, so two years older than me, since I'm nine. Which you already know." she laughed. When Henry told her that he was ten, only one year older than her, she nodded, having assumed that he was somewhere around that age before he'd replied.

Yes, I suppose that would make sense, right?" she said, responding to what Henry had said to her about twins reading each other's minds. Then, the brunette laughed again. Their conversation had become quite off topic. . . or not, because there hadn't really been a topic to begin with had there? "I always end up talking about strange things in my conversations with others," she admitted out loud to the boy. "I mean, one time me and my best friend, Alayna, were talking about time travel and aliens!" She smiled at the funny memory that appeared in her mind. This had happened a few months ago, over the summer. The two girls had been celebrating Alayna's birthday, and had been outside playing on the tire swing outside Gia's house. Then somehow their conversation had turned to those two very random topics. Still, it had kept them quite engaged for the rest of the time they had together that day, and their parents were grateful. Because usually Gia would convince her best friend to prank someone, or something, and. . . well, things would just go downhill from there.

Henry seemed excited about the fact that she played guitar, which made Gia excited as well. "Yeah! That would be tons of fun!" she exclaimed, a little loudly. "Oops," she then murmured, talking much softer now. Then, he asked about meeting up at the gate again on certain days. The girl's smile grew even bigger when she heard him, and she couldn't keep her voice at the same low level she'd recently switched to. "Yes, do you want to meet here on those days then?" She asked eagerly. "I'm here Monday through Friday for most of the day, so I can basically meet any of those days. You'd probably have to come around this same time though, that's when I come outside."

Gia shook her head immediately after Henry asked her if she minded his stutter. She had noticed it becoming more prominent during certain parts of their conversation, but she didn't really care. To be honest, it didn't seem like a very big deal to her - why anyone thought so was completely unknown to her. "No, I don't mind," she reassured him. But for some reason, something he'd said kept tugging at her mind, and she couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe the feeling came from seeing the odd, almost guilty look on Henry's face? Or. . . well, whatever it was, the feeling was annoying. Still, Gia tried her best to push it out of her mind, and it worked well enough for the time being.

When the other child told her about the types of things he liked to do, the girl nodded. "You're probably a much better student than I am." she commented with a small laugh when he mentioned that he liked reading and learning, "I sort of like to read, I guess, but I'd much rather be outside." she smiled in his direction. "Also, what do you mean by 'tricks?' Oh! You mean on my brother, I forgot I said that!" she laughed. "Well, just small pranks usually. In the winter when it's snowy outside though, there a lot more fun things to do. Like snowball fights. . . but I guess those aren't really tricks."

"Hey, Gia!" someone yelled then, making the girl turn around startled. It was Alayna calling to her.

"What?" the girl called back. Her friend motioned for her to come over. "Alayna, what is it?" Gia thought she could see her best friend rolling her eyes, but it was too far away to know for sure.

"We're going back inside, are you coming?" Came the reply. Gia turned to Henry, not really wanting to have to leave so soon.

"Okay!" she said, and then turned to the boy. "Um. . ." she stalled slightly.

917 words
@Henry Knight
I was thinking that you could post again, then I could post one more time, and if you wanted you could post the ending? Idk, tell me what you think - I also owled you about this...
Banner by Lucia Fox

"I guess, it has it's good and bad," Henry replied to her question as he continued to smile clearly enjoying their conversation. However he was a bit confused when she said her brother went to a school for different kids since he only knew about muggle primary school and without anyone telling him about muggle secondary school he didn't know about it which made him curious as he spoke " what different school does your brother go to?" Before nodding when she said her brother was eleven which made Henry smiled a bit knowing he would be eleven next year and studying magic like his brother.

Henry laughed a bit at Gia's comment, he really did enjoy her presence as he spoke " that's not strange more like interesting instead. And given the choice, I'll prefer talking about interesting things than boring or normal ones anyday," smiling at Gia as he wished this conversation to continue going or for them to be there for a bit longer as he listened to her.

" This time on Monday's, Tuesday's, Thursday's, and occasional Wednesday's we'll meet here then. This will be wicked Gia," Henry spoke as he smiled toward her clearly excited when about meeting the girl by that gate again. He nodded with a smile when he heard that she didn't mind his stutter before laughing a bit at the next part as he replied "Your a great student to I'm sure and maybe we could come up with new 'tricks' together?"

Henry wished that it go on for longer but they had to part so Henry smiled a bit before saying " it was nice meeting you Gia and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow," waving a bit to her before parting ways and catching a train to go home. What the boy didn't know at the time was that he would meet her at that gate for the rest of the year and even figure out a way next year to keep in touch through mail only growing and strengthening their friendship.

Henry has left the thread

Henry seemed a little confused at the fact that Vance didn't go to the same school as her anymore, and she hurried to explain. "Oh, when you turn eleven you go to the school for older kids," Gia said. "You go there until you're, like, sixteen or something. I think." She shrugged, since she had never really though much about her school years after leaving the primary school, since that didn't seem super important to her at the moment.

"Yes, well, I guess it's a mix of both strange and interesting. I do agree with you though, boring conversations just aren't. . . well, interesting." She laughed lightly. "I mean, I guess that's why we call them boring, huh? It's basically in the title." She grinned at the boy in front of her, having a wonderful time chatting with him, even though they were talking about random things.

Henry smiled back at her, seeming to be just as excited about meeting at this same spot on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and possibly Wednesdays every week. Her own smile got even bigger and she nodded. "Yes, it really will be!" Gia replied, her voice just as excited as his - if not even more. The boy seemed very happy to hear that she didn't mind his stutter at all, and then he said she was probably a great student. He even offered to come up with new tricks together, which made the nine year old rub her hands together in anticipation. Oh yes, this was going to be fun, that was for sure!

Both children seemed a little bit reluctant to leave each other's company, but Gia's class was already halfway through the door and she knew she needed to rush if she wanted to get there in time. "Me too," she told Henry, giving him a small wave in return. "See you tomorrow!" And with that, the nine year old turned away to meet up with her friends. Alayna was waiting for her, holding the door open.

"Who were you talking to?" The other girl asked. Gia gave her a mysterious smile.

"A friend." Then, she skipped into the school building, leaving her best friend to wonder about the vague answer she'd been given.

370 words

Thread Finished