Break

Hilary looked between her friends, confused. She felt like she had missed something. Though that probably wasn't surprising. She kind of felt like she was always missing something now. She debated saying something, but decided against it. She figured that if she paid attention long enough, all her questions would be answered.

Lauren laughed "You actually asked Professor Williams about that?" Lauren giggled, "That's brilliant, what did she say?" Lauren asked Shelby, but not before noticing that Resa had given Shelby a strange look. Lauren looked from Shelby to Resa... "What else did I miss?" Lauren asked. She did not like not knowing what was going on.

The second Shelby saw Lauren she felt a strong urge to blurt out what Theresa had told her earlier, but she held it in. The willingness to keep her friend's secret was stronger than her desire to gossip with her other friend. "Hi Lauren," she settled for saying.

She turned to Hilary and said, "Actually, we already decided that we were going to have Lauren go ask Professor Lewis if there is a magical cure for cooties. If we're going to make one professor think we're crazy, why not all of them?"

Theresa laughed "ye, I am asking Professor Spelling if the squid has cooties and if it was a boy or a girl and someone has to ask the other Professors" she said, laughing at the strangeness of it all. "We want them to realise that we are absolutely crazy" she said as she threw some grass up into the air.

Lauren stopped, "That's the first I've heard of this..." She said. "Why me?" Lauren asked, but she knew that her friend would probably dare her anyway, and she could never say no. "I still want to know what else I missed guys... Something happened, I can tell! It's my gossip radar... It's going crazy!" Lauren laughed and wished that she actually has a gossip radar; that would be awesome!!

Hilary laughed. "True enough," she said. "What other teachers have you got besides Professor Williams and Professor Spelling. And now Professor Lewis too, I guess?"

She turned to face Lauren. "It's good to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way. I feel so out of the loop!"

Shelby frowned. She had hoped that Hilary and Lauren had missed the looks between her and Resa, but they clearly had seen them. She looked at Theresa and then back at the other two. "I can't say unless Resa says I can. I promised I wouldn't," she looked back at Theresa with begging eyes, wanting so badly to tell the other girls. "What do you say Resa? You could swear them to secrecy too," she leaned over and whispered in Theresa's ear, "And you could make Lauren swear not to make fun of you..."

Theresa blushed bright red as she looked at the other girls. She glared at Shelby "no way, you promised that you wouldnt mention it, that was apart of the deal, I was only going to tell you if you didn't mention it to Lauren otherwise I was never going to hear the end of it" she said, she crossed her arms and ignored the other girls.

Hilary looked at Theresa. She didn't want to push her friend to share something she wasn't comfortable sharing with them. She would hate it if the situation were reversed. But at the same time she was really curious.

"You don't have to tell, if you don't want to," she said. "I promise to be sworn to secrecy if you do want to tell us, though."

Shelby looked back at the other two with apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry guys. I did promise that I wouldn't say anything."

She focused on Lauren for a minute. "So, have you heard anything back from Pete yet?" Shelby looked at Hilary and said "Lauren has a crush on Pete Walker," to explain the question.

Lauren felt a little upset that her friend wouldn't tell her. She didn't mean any of the taunting in a mean way, she was just playing with her friend. "Well, don't let me stop you from telling everyone else. No worries, I'll solve the problem. I have homework to do anyway." Lauren said as she stood up and walked away from the group. She didn't think that Theresa wouldn't trust her, but she obviously didn't. Lauren wouldn't be a good friend, if she teased Resa about whatever it was that she obviously thought that Lauren would tease her about.

"I'll be in the library. Not that anyone cares." Lauren said, and then turned to Shelby, "No.. But i suppose he doesn't trust me either."

Hilary nodded in understand, although she hadn't the slightest clue who Pete Walker might have been. She thought she could vaguely remember coming across him at one point or another, but nothing more concrete than that.

"What happened to boys being icky?" she wondered, jokingly. After all, they had been just talking about asking Professors about cooties.

"Lauren wait!" Theresa said when she realised that her friend was upset. She bit her lip before sighing "it is nothing to do with you why I wont tell and to prove that and hopefully make you feel better, Shelby can tell you" she said, smiling at her friend, hoping that she wasnt hurt by it.
"I do trust you it was just that it was embarissing but it doesnt matter" she said.

Lauren turned around to Resa. "I don't even want to know." Lauren said, still upset. "I really do have homework to finish. I'm going to the Library." Lauren didn't want to gossip anymore. She had felt like crying more than anything. She quickly raced up to the castle before any of her friends could call her back.

Hilary shifted uncomfortably where she was sitting on the grass, pulling her knees to her chest. She hated when people were upset with each other or when they were fighting. And it was even worse when it was her friends. She kept quiet, not wanting to get involved or have to start choosing sides.

Shelby frowned. This day was no longer going as she'd hoped it would go.

"I'll go after her in a few minutes, she needs time to cool off," she said.

Shelby scooted next to her fellow Ravenclaw. "Oh dear Hilary, boys do have cooties, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends with them and perhaps fancy them a bit. Have I told you about Indiana Lamperouge?" she asked, hoping that everyone would cool off if she drew some of the attention to her own gossip.

"No, you haven't," she said, curiously. "But please, do tell!"

She briefly wondered if she was the only one who didn't have a crush on one of the boys. It sure seemed that way. She felt a little bit childish, but then something crossed her mind. She couldn't stop herself from blushing a little. She hoped her friends wouldn't notice it.

She looked in the direction Lauren had left in. "Do you think it'll be okay?" she asked. "Do you think they'll work it out?"

Theresa sighed and narrowed her eyes "I cant stand this, I will see you guys later" she said in a rush as she stood up. She quickly brushed the grass off her before she turned and ran after Lauren. She couldn't believe that she thought that, she was hurt. She stormed off to the castle, not waiting for her friends to say anything, she knew it was rude but she didn't care.

She shrugged her shoulders and watched Theresa run after Lauren. "Whether or not it works out is up to them. I feel really bad, but I promised Resa that I wouldn't say anything because Lauren does like to tease a bit."

She noted Hilary's blush but decided to ignore it for now.

"Anyway, do you know who Indiana is? Well, he's that Hufflepuff boy and we found this old car by the Forbidden Forest and we're fixing it up. Turns out that it's a girl car, so we named her Elise. Well, it's more like he's fixing it up and I'm helping because I don't know anything about cars, but he does. He's so smart and he's really nice and..." Shelby blushed and trailed off when she realized how much she was babbling.

Hilary nods, still not liking the situation. She hated when people didn't get along. But it wasn't her place to try to get involved and fix it.

She giggled a little when Shelby started rambling. It was kind of cute. It was obvious even to her (and she tended to be fairly oblivious to the world around her) that her friend liked this boy.

"That's so cool," she said. "Do you think he might like you too?"

Shelby blushed again and gave a small smile. "Probably not. I think I'm going to have to settle with being friends with him," she said softly.

"So what was with your blush a minute ago?" she asked more bravely, deciding that since today was apparently the day of secret telling that she might as well get a secret out of Hilary as well.

Theresa skipped out of the castle and back towards her friends, feeling a lot better now. She sat down next to Shelby and sighed as she leaned back. "So what did I miss?" she asked as she smiled at them. She thought for a moment before she desided to climb up the tree. She sat down on one of the low branches and waited to find out what was new.

"Well, he is a boy," Hilary mused, as she waved to Theresa. "And boys are supposed to mature slower than girls. So maybe he will in the future."

Hilary felt herself blush again. Stupid, uncontrollable reaction. What was the point of it anyway? All it did was tell everyone that you had something to hide.

"I don't... Stupid... I just... I mean..." she stammered, feeling like even more of an idiot. "It's... it's nothing. I'm just being stupid." Stupid stammering. Just as bad as the stupid blushing.

"DId I tell you yet about what I did this morning?" she asked, hoping to distract Shelby.

Shelby raised an eyebrow as Theresa skipped back over to them. "Well, we were just talking about how Indiana probably doesn't like me back and about how Hilary blushed when I mentioned him."

"Is Lauren doing alright?" she asked. "Did you tell her?" She wondered if Theresa had been brave enough to share her secret with Lauren.

She looked back at Hilary. "Oh no you don't, you're not getting away with it that easily. Theresa said her's was a tiny thing and not important at all and I still got her to tell me, so now it's your turn. Talk," she pouted a little. After all, it had worked on Theresa.

Theresa stifled a giggle "boys, boys, boys" she said, sighing dramatically. "You will have to find out yourself nosey, Lauren is doing her homework so she will probably speak to you later" she said cheerfully. "Boy's are idiots so he probably doesnt realise that you like him" she said, she was very interested in the fact that Hilary was blushing.