Rosie Parker, Set Forth! PV Adam Finished

Adam had come out to the castle grounds again to do some of his homework. It was a developing habit of his, made more enjoyable by the rising temperatures and the cool breezes of spring. It was strange to think that only two months ago, Adam had been firing snowballs off at his friends in the middle of a house-wide battle. Now, as the students entered May, the weather had improved greatly and he found it more relaxing to work through the various history essays or magical translations assigned to him while outside.

He'd grown particularly fond of one tree by the greenhouses. It was situated a good distance from the castle, letting Adam escape the noise indoors and the feeling of being at school in general. Sitting under the tree, Adam could look out over the Great Lake, glimpse the edge of the Forbidden Forest, and just barely make out the golden hoops rising from the school's Quidditch Pitch. Not many people walked out around this tree, so Adam was often able to talk to himself or yell out in frustration whenever he needed. Taking a deep breath, Adam smiled as the tree came into view, standing tall in front of its surroundings.

His plan was to sit down, relax, and get some work done while he was focused. Apparently, it didn't seem like Adam was going to get exactly what he expected. There was someone else sitting against his tree, eyes closed and humming a quiet tune that Adam couldn't recognize. It was a girl in Hufflepuff robes, a first-year as far as Adam could tell, with brown hair and a vaguely familiar face. Had Adam seen her before? He couldn't quite remember, but he'd met a lot of other students during this year at the castle.

Stopping in front of the girl, Adam's foot landed on a few fallen leaves and he winced at the quiet sound they made. The girl opened her eyes and looked over at him, probably wondering who else was out here like Adam had been moments ago. Face turning red, Adam found himself with nothing to say and scrambled to regain his composure. "Oh, uh...sorry! I didn't, uh, I didn't realize that anyone else would be sitting here. Stupid of me, huh?" He scratched the back of his head nervously and, realizing that he was acting like a foolish cartoon character, tried to shake himself out of this weird state. He looked at the girl a little more closely, and suddenly, his memory clicked into place and he recalled where he knew her from. "Oh, hey, you're that girl from the ballroom, aren't you?" I'm Adam."

It was nice to finally talk to her, instead of just encountering each other from across a room while in the middle of his competition with Anatole. He hoped she felt the same way about him.

As the figure came forward, Rosie squinted her eyes a little bit and her gaze softened at the slightly familiar face. It was the kid from... the Ballroom? Yeah, the one with her friend. With the thought in mind, she smiled and laughed a little from his apology, waving her hand. "No need to apologize! It's good. Is this your seat?" She asked, getting up and leaning back against the tree. After Adam spoke a little more, he mentioned about the ballroom. Haha! Rosie was right! "Yeah! Uh, I was dealing with... Kaegen, we had a bit of a rough start." She laughed nervously, moving some of her curly locks behind her ear. "I'm Rosie, it's a pleasure." She smiled big at him.

After she introduced herself and crouched, picking up a leaf. "Nature is so pretty, isn't it? It comforts you, and calms you down. Sends peaceful vibes." She said as she put down the leaf, and instead picked up a little daisy that sprouted from the ground, and she walked over to Adam, holding out the little daisy between her finger and thumb. "This would look nice poking out from behind your ear." She whispered, rising on her toes and setting it in his ear. Rosie backed up and grinned. "There, take that as a token of our now newfound friendship."

Oh. That was...sudden. Not unwelcome, but sudden all the same. She was the girl from the ballroom -- Rosie, she'd said. Rosie had been talking about nature, about how beautiful it was, and then suddenly she'd been in front of him with a flower. Adam wasn't used to such directness at this school, especially direct kindness. He couldn't help an involuntary flinch when Rosie placed the flower behind his ear, but prayed that she didn't see it and thanked her happily. "Thanks, Rosie, I love it. Perfect for our new friendship!" Smiling back at her, he looked over at the big tree and then returned his attention to the Hufflepuff in front of him.

"You're right, Rosie, it is peaceful. I like to come out here and do homework sometimes, or study. It's so much nicer in the spring, huh?" Inviting her to sit down with him on the grass, Adam sunk to the ground and laid his head back, looking up at the sky. He closed his eyes and took a moment to enjoy both the sounds and the feel of springtime, waiting just a minute before speaking to Rosie again.

"So, how's your year been so far? Met anyone interesting?" Adam didn't know as many people as he'd like to at this school, and he'd only seen Rosie once before, but maybe she was friends with one of the same people that he was. It would be nice to have another similarity between the two of them.

And besides, Adam wasn't sure how long he could keep talking about the weather.

Rosie's smile stayed, even when Adam flinched. She knew she was being a bit forward, but she'd rather be forward than cower by the tree and let Adam do most of the talking. With a grin, she clasped her hands together, and she felt her cheeks redden a bit when he agreed to their friendship and returned a friendly smile, he was nice! "No problem, you look good!" She said, following suit and laying next to him, her eyes on the sky. She took a moment before she answered his next question.

"Mhmm, it's warm now. I go out here when it's too much in the castle, which is rare, but sometimes I'd rather hear the birds chirp than babbling from my friends." She shrugged, her eyes fell from the sky to Adam, her head falling onto it's side. When Adam asked about the people she met. Well, hmm. She had to think about it a bit.

Firstly, she met Clary. But it's like she disappeared, nobody had really spoken to her. Then it was her sister, Marissa. She was okay, not close enough to be a friend. Anatole, who was Rosie's best friend at this point. She figured he was worth mentioning. "Uh, yeah! My year's been good, and yeah! I've met some cool people. Anatole's like my best friend at this point, Eris and Rhea too! They're super nice and cool-" She let out a sigh and covered her mouth with her hand. After another second she said something again, quieter. "Sorry I'm talking so much.. I get excited when I meet new people." She muttered, her face red. Rosie didn't wanna mention Eri or Max, that would turn into a full on rant.

Adam laughed as Rosie trailed off from her apology, thinking back on all the times that he'd done the exact same thing. "What's there to be sorry about? I'm glad you have so much to say!" Turning his head on his side so that he could look at the girl while they relaxed under the sun, the mention of a few familiar names caught his attention. "Oh, I know Eris! You're right, she is pretty cool. Don't let her know I said that, though," he joked, imagining the ways that his friend might tease him if she found that he had complimented her, especially to a relative stranger. "Anatole's pretty much the only guy I'm friends with here. Well, I guess there's Kaegen, too, but.....you know Kaegen. I can never really tell if he likes me or not." He wondered what Kaegen had gotten himself into since Adam had last seen him by the shores of the Great Lake. Probably something against the rules.

He didn't know the second girl that Rosie had listed very well, Rhea. She was the prefect of Gryffindor, that much was obvious, and they'd dueled each other about a week before. Aside from that, she was kind of a stranger. Adam decided not to bring her up, out of fear of insulting either Rosie or Rhea herself. "It's funny that we know all the same people, huh? Especially since we're just meeting for the first time!" Returning his gaze to the sky above, Adam squinted against the sun and examined the clouds above. They were nice spring clouds, fluffy and slow=moving. Raising his hand to point at one in particular, he nudged Rosie in the shoulder and spoke again. "Hey, look! It's a....a...whale?" Peering more closely at the cloud he had picked out, Adam realized he couldn't make anything out of it anymore. "Well, it was a whale. I'm not very good at this. Want to give it a try?"

Rosie did something unlike her. She felt her cheeks heat up in the form of a blush. Nobody had ever said something like that about her talking so much. It brought comfort. Suddenly more calm, she relaxed on the grass on her side, looking back at Adam. Rosie giggled at the comment about Eris, she'd keep Adam's secret, but she hoped Eris knew that Adam appreciated her like that, hopefully. She noticed how... Adam talked just as much as she did, which made her feel 100 times better than she initially did. It let Rosie listen for once, and she didn't have a problem with it.

She felt her heart flutter a bit when Adam mentioned Anatole, she wasn't very sure why. It lasted until he mentioned Kaegen and she nodded a bit, remembering him. "Ohh, right. We had an... issue in the ballroom." She muttered, sighing. "It was my fault, really. I blew up."

Rosie laughed and nodded at Adam's comment about them all knowing each other. She was strangely more giggly than usual, maybe it was because for once, besides Anatole, she was having a warm greeting with someone. With Kaegen, she blew up on him for mentioning her grandmother, Eris found her crying in the corridors, it had been a bit messy. But with Adam, it was outside, peaceful. She watched him turn up to the sky, pointing and finding... a whale, in the clouds? Rosie rose an eyebrow out of amusement, she never had done this before, only star gazing.

"Well, it was a whale. I'm not very good at this. Want to give it a try?"

"Uh, sure." Rosie said, a bit unsure and nervous. She turned to the sky and squinted past the sun, trying to find something that stuck out as some sort of object. Finally, she found a cloud that did look like something. With a laugh, she pointed up and looked to Adam. "It's a T-Rex head!" She exclaimed, turning back to the cloud. "See the open mouth?" Rosie chuckled.

Adam squinted at the spot where Rosie was pointing. He couldn't really see much of anything up in the clouds, but he definitely believed her. Studying the skies harder to see if he could spot the T-Rex, Adam wondered -- not for the first time -- if he would end up needing glasses. It had always been somewhat of a lingering threat with the Harringtom brothers, though their family didn't have a history of poor eyesight. It seemed to be something that had developed only with Dean and Adam. Dean had managed to avoid the menace of both glasses and contact lenses, but Adam was still undetermined. It wasn't that he hated the way they looked, or anything -- just that it seemed like so much more of a hassle than necessary.

Thinking about his own vision could wait until he was alone, though. Searching the clouds overhead for Rosie's discovery, he was about to give up. "Sorry, Rosie, I don't -- wait! WAIT! I see it! Right there, right? The dinosaur head? There's the nose, and the tooth!" Laughing, Adam watched the fluffy head drift almost imperceptibly across the sky. "Nice one!"

Figuring it was his turn to point something else out, Adam let his gaze wander in hopes of detecting a new shape, but got no results. Sighing, he turned his head to look at Rosie and thought about what else they could talk about. "Well, it seems like the maybe-whale and the T-Rex are all I'm going to find. I never was the most creative person. Hey, what else have you been up to this year? How's Hufflepuff?" Adam had heard good things about Rosie's House, but he knew that the experience was different for everyone. Amadea and Serena, the two Hufflepuff students he'd really talked to this year, had seemed happy where they were. He hoped Rosie was too.

Rosie laughed when Adam finally saw the dinosaur shaped cloud. "It was kinda hard to see, I don't blame you for taking a while." That was surprisingly fun! Rosie watched the clouds go by again and tried seeing more shapes, but it seemed Adam wanted to talk about something else. That was short. After another second, she turned to Adam again. He looked so carefree, and relaxed. Rosie was glad she was able to build an atmosphere that caused him to feel like that, even if they had just met.

"Hey, what else have you been up to this year? How's Hufflepuff?"

Again, Adam surprised her. He... Cared? For what reason? She seemed as curious about someone else's life as she was, maybe it was because of small talk, that made a lot more sense. She smiled at the thought of her house. "We're good, everything's good. Some of the people in there are kind of odd. And there's someone else named Rosie, and I feel kind of replaced!" Rosie sighed, crossing her arms and staring at the sky. "I think she thinks her and Howie are better best friends than me and Anatole, but it's just not the case." She huffed, pouting. She realized she had been sort of babbling, and sighed. "Other than that, though, the house is fine. We're all fine." She took a breath after ranting for a little, turning away from the sky and looking back at Adam.

Her commentary made him want to laugh again, if only because it was so normal. Adam really hadn't had lots of normal experiences with his classmates during his first year at Hogwarts, when he looked back on it. Though it had been relatively short, he'd had that month-long dramatic period with Eris, and he was pretty sure there was still a bit of tension under all of their humor, even now. Kaegen Deathmote was about as far from normal as you could get; Adam didn't think a lot of extra explanation was needed there. Even with Anatole, there was always this weird macho-alpha-prince type of vibe -- not a bad vibe, but a vibe all the same. With Rosie, there was no vibe. There was just normalcy. It was refreshing.

When was the last time that he had relaxed, laid back, and watched the clouds? Certainly not this year, and probably not the one before, either. People underestimated how good it felt to do something as simple as that every once in a while. Heads in the grass, eyes squinting up at the sky and the sun, talking about whatever came across your mind -- why didn't everyone live like this? It was cathartic, indulging in such an innocent activity, and somehow it was perpetually entertaining. In that moment, smiling with his new friend under the springtime sun, Adam felt like he could stay there forever.

Tuning back in to Rosie's voice, Adam listened to her discuss another girl by the same name in Hufflepuff and laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I barely even know you and I can definitely say that you could never be replaced." Maintaining his smile as he awaited the rest of her sentiment, a strange thought crossed Adam's mind. Was this...gossip? He'd heard about it from his mother, mostly when she talked about her own teenage years, but he could never be 100% positive on the definition. It was in movies all the time: the cheerleaders or the otherwise popular girls would whisper something to each other, point at the main character, and start to laugh. Something told Adam that he really should've known what it was by age eleven, but he'd just never come across it before in real life. He didn't think that this could be gossip, but what did he know? Wondering if he should try to steer the conversation to a less risky topic, Adam realized that Rosie had finished talking and was looking at him again. Uh oh. He had to say something. Anything.

"Oh, yeah, uh.....fine is....fine is good."

Fine is good? Fine is good? He was a better speaker than that! Where was the superhero-like bravado that he always found when he was competing against Anatole? Or even the jokes that he fell back on when he had nothing else to say? All gone, just because he had stopped to worry. Shaking his head, Adam smiled apologetically at the girl next to him and tried again.

"Sorry, I just kinda got distracted there. That sounds good! I have a friend in Hufflepuff, Amadea. She says mostly the same stuff. It sounds nice down there by the kitchens. Warm." Trying to remember what time it was, Adam checked to see if he could tell by the sun. No luck. He didn't want to be late, especially all the way out here, but he didn't want to walk out on Rosie either. "Ravenclaw's nice too, I guess. I don't really talk to a lot of people up there. But there's always next year!" It was strange to think that they wouldn't be the youngest in the school next year, but intriguing all the same. He couldn't wait to meet the new Ravenclaws. Remembering his question, he spoke again quickly. "Hey, do you know when the bells ring? As boring as it is, I can't be late to History of Magic again. I'll never pass."