The first ride PV Kayla Realma, CJ Luck closed

Athenasmiled at the thought of sweets. She loved it.
"Yes, sweets are great! I'm lucky to be a half-blood, I have eaten lots of both muggle and wizard sweets. I love fizzing whisbees and chocolate frogs of course, but snickers is just something special..." She realised that her shyness had dissapeared when she talked about sweets. Now it was slowly creeping back, but she didn't want to stop, not when she was finally speaking like a normal human being.

"My parents are not very strict with candy. When I turned ten, they decided that I could eat candy almost whenever I wanted too, as long as I bought it myself. My dad also loves candy, especially the wizard kind, although he's a muggle. He is obssessed with the wizarding world and my mom always has to bring him wizard candy when she is shopping."

Athena glanced out the window and saw her family standing outside the window. They were waving and trying to catch her attetion. But the train was speeding up quickly, so she only had time to smile and raise ehr hand before they were gone. Her good mood disappeared. Here she sat discussing candy with strangers, while she knew that she wouldn't be able to see her family for multiple months. And her last time she saw them she hadn't even time to say goodbye. The lump in her throat came back, now bigger than ever. She tried to shake it away and enjoy the moment. She was on her way to the biggest and most famous wizarding school in the world. She should be happy! She realised that she hadn't answered Kayla's first question yet.
"Umm yeah... My name is Athena, Athena Boot, I forgot to tell you that." She cringed. She sounded like she tried to imitate James Bond. I'm Athena, Athena Boot. Who says that? She cursed herself and decided to stay quiet until someone else spoke, everything just became wrong when she tried to speak.

CJ laughed softly.

It was the first time they had laughed since boarding the train. It felt bubbly, light, and exhilarating at the same time. Candy was quite the conversation starter. From the reactions, they could tell that the duo had sweet tooths. They couldn't judge either; they had one also. A majority of their candies were from the Philippines. But wizarding candy? They never really thought about it, but they did have a few favorites. Through their journal, they searched. They flipped through the pages, skimming a few here and there. They could see fields of green in the corner of their vision through the window. They would forget things sometimes, writing would help them remember. In all their honesty, they weren't one for wizarding candies, but they favored fizzing whizzbees.

They flipped back to the page with the brightly colored and sketched candies. Maybe... Maybe they could share this with the others? They looked up from their sketchbook and thought of a reply. There were lists of sweets they enjoyed, but they didn't want to ramble. They closed their eyes and thought of all the sweets back home and in the Philippines. The smell of homemade yema, the sugary taste of potchi, and the crunch of curly tops.

"Personally, I like pastillas, potchi, yema, curly and flat tops, and fizzing whizzbees. Well, um, mostly Filipino candy, heh!"

Athena wondered if Filipino sweets was a lot different from the regular one that she knew of.
"What is Filipino sweets like?" she asked. "Are there different flavours than here?" She wanted to taste Filipino sweets, the names made them sound really tasty. She wondered if she would like them. Probably, she liked everything that was sweet. Or at leats almost everything. She hated liqourice, but almost all kids she knew hated it too.

She stretched and leaned back in her seat. She realised she had been pretty tense from leaving her family and meeting two (two!) new persons at the same time. But know she felt more relaxed. She started fidgeting with the one of the buttons or her shirt, buttoning and unbuttoning it. She liked fidgeting, especially when she was writing or things like that. Writing with one hand, and fidgeting with the other one. It helped her concentrate, either on her work, or on conversations, like now. She had gotten a bit overwhelmed at first when first CJ, and then Kayla had come into her compartment, but now when they had talked a bit, she was thankful that it was them who had come and not some cocky seventh years.

Kayla pulled a face when Athena mentioned snickers. She fiddled with her hands before saying,"I mean, snickers are good, but to be fair, Bar One's are better, the flavour is just bet term you know? No offense to snickers, by the way," she added lightly as an after thought. "But, I have never tasted wizarding sweets, my dad is a muggle, so all I've gotten access to are Cadbury chocolates and Smarties." she laughed.

"Your Filipino? " Kayla inquired,with interest. "I've never met someone from there before!"
Kayla felt quite comfortable with the two of them, it was like she had known them both for longer than- wait, how long were they in there anyway? Kayla really couldn't really describe the happy feeling of making friends for her. She usually enjoyed the company of people, because it made her feel better that people were interested in her.
"Are you guys from wizarding families?" Kayla continued. She didn't want to really have that kind of talk, but she already knew that Athena was half-blood, but she was curious about CJ's parentage. Not that it was important, but it was a detail that kind seperate Hogwarts students from each other: blood status. Not like it mattered to her, anyway.

"Bar One's?" Athena had seen them in stores before, but never actually tasted them. She thought that she would stick with snickers, seemed safer.
"Maybe those are good, I have never had one." Athena didn't like to try out new candy that much, it just felt safer too eat the ones she new that she liked. She shuffled a bit in her seat. All the talk of candy had made her hungry. A snickers right now would actually be great, but she supposed that she could do with a few chocolate frogs. When would the trolley come anyways? She hoped it was soon, she got in a really bad mood when she was hungry, and she didn't want her new friends to think that she was unfriendly.

"Are you guys from wizarding families?" Kayla asked, interuppting her thoughts.
"I'm half blood, as I said before." Athena said. "My mother is almost a pureblood, I think her great grandmother or something was a muggle and she went to Hogwarts. She's a Slytherin and has a pretty high position at the Ministry of Magic, but my father is pure muggle. He loves magic though, he thinks it's really cool, and I don't blame him, because I think that too!"

"I, uh, I'm a half-blood."

They also then wanted to say something else. But saying it felt alien. How would saying this effect the atmosphere? CJ didn't know but didn't want to overthink it either. Then again, how would the others react if they said they didn't desire to attend Hogwarts? So far, the others probably perceived CJ as another shy, awkward kid. Would their opinion change that perspective? Or do anything? Most students attending Hogwarts wanted to and enjoyed that! Their grip on their notebook tightened, and their nails dug deep into the leather. The people at school never agreed with their ideas, so why would they? They still remembered when the other kids back home teased them about their painted nails. Their parents disapproved of them painting their nails. But didn't stop them. They lectured them, hid the nail polish, and told them how their relatives would react. But... CJ simply persisted. "Hard-headed" is what their Lola (Grandma) would call them. Ann didn't care but thought it was strange at first. It was like fits of hesitation. Would the others be like their classmates and parents? Or would they be more like Ann?

It was an internal conflict, to say the least. They didn't care what the others would think, but at the same time, they did. Wait. Since when did they actually care? When did they actually care about the other student's opinions? Was it all because they didn't want to get teased again? The realization made something tense within them relax. Maybe. They'd ponder those questions at a different date.

"This is random, but, I, um. I didn't want to attend Hogwarts."

"You've never had Bar Ones?" Kayla sounded almost offended, like you just told her what she cooked tasted horrible. "I'm so sorry, my dear, but the sooner we get off this train, the better. I am litterally going to order a whole box just for you." Kayla addresed Athena specifically.
It was interesting to know they were all half-blood, quite a coincedense, really.
"Im half-blood too!" Kayla exclaimed proudly. "My dads a muggle, my mother a witch."
Kayla already knew most of her backstory, her mother married her father, he didnt know she was a witch. They had four children before she died- Liam, Alyassa, Kayla, Aiden- he never knew she was a witch until LIam goty his letter, blah, blah, blah. Kayla honestly got sick of hearing it- and saying it at times. People often showed sypathy and told her dad to re-marry. Most people thought he couldnt manage the kids himself. But what did he do? He got more kids. They were seven in the household, two at hogwarts. But being one of the kids that got to go to Hogwarts meant the world to Kayla.

"This is random, but, I, um. I didn't want to attend Hogwarts."

Wow. That was a new one.
"How come? I thought everyone wanted to come to Hogwarts." Kayla winced, that was a bit inconsiderate. "Sorry, that was a bit mean. What I mean is, why didnt you want to go?" she asked, her voice a bit more gentle.

Athena laughed at Kayla's words.
"Sure, it is okay if you buy me an entire box of candy, I don't mind! I mean, if you are that obsessed with them they must be something special!" Athena just got hungrier and hungrier every moment as they talked about candy. She tried to not think about it, she just had to wait until the trolley witch came, and then she could spend all of her money on it.

And all of them were half-bloods too! That's actually great, everyone knows things about both the wizarding and the muggle world, and she wont have to spend all her time explaining basic stuff to them, if they were to become her friends. And it actually seemed like it was entirely possible, she had never been this quick to get to know people before.

"This is random, but, I, um. I didn't want to attend Hogwarts." CJ said unexpectedly. What? Who would not want to go to Hogwarts? Athena couldn't think about a single reason, otherwise than you would have to spend a long time away from your family, but for her the other things were to cool to make her not want to go to Hogwarts. She waited to her an explanation from CJ, now she was really curious.