The Tree

"Yeah, nothing my right foot," she said, picking a nearby flower and pulling the petals off in a he loves me, he loves me not fashion, letting them fall to the ground beside her.

She turned to Lauren. "Resa forgot to mention trees, monkeys and a few other things too. But she gave you the general topics."

Alycia smiled at everyone. "Um...who's Rain?" she asked curiously not really understanding the conversation going on at the moment. She tilted her head and looked around at all the girls listening to their conversations not wanting to interrupt anything. She pushed her hair behind her ear and leaned back.

"Just this boy that I apparently have a crush on, really I would rather try and avoid him for the rest of my life so just ignore these idiots" Theresa said to Alycia. "Oh yeah, Hilary said I act like a monkey in the trees and Shelby called me a Lady yesterday, I am getting nothing but insults here" she complained, crossing her arms.

Lauren giggled but didn't say anything. She didn't want to let Alycia out of the conversation but she would pay to see Resa explain who Rain was. That would be priceless. Lauren leaned back and waited to watch the show, she really shouldn't have found this so amusing, especially since Rain wasn't the only code name, but for now, the heat on was Resa, and that was funny.

Shelby instantly regretted mentioning Rain. She decided to change the topic quickly to try to save her friend some embarrassment. "Alycia, did you know that there's a car in the Forest? Me and Indiana Lamperouge found it and were fixing it up. We named her Elise. She's back in the Forest now but I think she might come out sometime to visit us," she said with a smile.

Alycia looked at the girl, "Oh...so like everyone of you have a crush on a boy then?" she took a leap and guessed that, "Since you guys talk about 'cooties' and stuff as a joke." she was a bit confused at everything. "Um.." she turned to the other girl who spoke. "I heard there was a car but i never really looked in on it." she shrugged.

Shelby intentionally ignored the first bit of what Alycia had said. She didn't mind talking about it but she wasn't sure how the others would feel about it. "Yeah, Elise is amazing. She can understand what we say and answer yes or no questions. Maybe I'll take you to meet her sometime," Shelby offered.

Hilary was glad that Shelby had tried to change the topic. But that was short lived when Alycia seemed to read them like open books.

"Well, actually, the cootie talk started back with Nick Hale," she explained. "When the story started going around that he had made out with a girl. We had been wondering why they would do that and joking about her catching cooties. And we just never let it go."

She didn't want to touch on the other topic Alycia had brought up.

Theresa laughed at her friends "yeah so really, we are a bunch of crazy people" she said cheerfully. She thought for a moment "Lauren is the most crazy though, then it would be Shelby as the second most crazy girl out of us" she joked. "I seriously think I should get down now, it feels weird talking so loud to you all" she said as she looked down at the ground.

"Okay...." she said softly. "So I'm not going to get to learn who Rain is...i understand." she said shaking her head. "Sorry. I get really nosy at times. You could have just told me to shut up on that topic. Didn't mean to pry." she gave a small shrug. "I told A Slytherin that umm...Raven I think, yeah I told him the exact same thing." she gave a smile. "Sometimes I need to be told to shut up."

Lauren laughed, "I'm not crazy.... Ok, I guess I'm a little crazy, but it's all part of my charm!" Lauren said, laughing. "Yeah, Resa, get down, it's hard to hear you all the way up there!" Lauren inwardly laughed at how all three of the other girls including herself, had avoided Alycia's question... It wasn't planned that way, but it sure was funny, and what Alycia had just said, made it even more funny. Lauren tried to hold back a laugh, but wasn't successful.

"Hey, how am I the second most crazy?" Shelby pretended to be offended. "I agree that Lauren is the most crazy, but you are definitely the second most crazy!" Shelby laughed. "After all, you're the one who sang the 'puff 'puff song willingly in the Great Hall for a dare!"

Theresa grinned "alright, at least someone wants me down, Hilary" she joked. She turned to Shelby "that was not being crazy, that was being fun and brave, what was I supose to do, just ignore the dare" she scoffed, pretending to think the idea was crazy. She climbed down the tree and sat down next to the other girls. "It's ok, there is no need to say sorry, everyone is allowed to be curious, otherwise I would be told to shut up about twenty times a day, Raven? that's Raven Drake isn't it?" she asked.

Alycia looked at the girl who decided to sit beside her. "Um...yeah I think. Only Raven I know." she shrugged with a smile. "Slytherin?" she nodded. "I met him in the library one day." she wasn't going to say HOW she met him, but she met him nonetheless. She listened to the conversation the others were talking about being crazy.

Hilary laughed. "I'm going to have to agree that Lauren and Shelby are the first and second most crazy, respectively. I think Resa and I would tie for third, since she climbs trees and does some crazy stuff, and I tend to enjoy doing stupid stuff."

She turned to Alycia. "Don't worry about it. We handled it pretty badly, too."

Shelby looked at Hilary and mock-glared, crossing her arms over her chest. "And who's bright idea was it to go giant squid hunting, huh? Certainly not mine and definitely not Lauren's. That makes you and Resa the crazy ones!" she turned to look at Alycia, "Don't listen to them, me and Lauren are not crazy," she laughed.

"Oh, I heard about him" Theresa said before turning to Hilary. "You sure about that? I think it is very clear that I am the least crazy out of us all, I think I am the only one here who hasnt been in the forbidden forest yet" she said. She fained hurt when she looked at Shelby "it was my idea to go swimming in the lake for fun because it was most likely against the rules, yes but it was Hilary's idea to go find the squid" she said, laughing.

Lauren laughed at Shelby's comment. "Well... I am pretty crazy, I admit that. I seem to fight with people for no reason, nearly drown myself by jumping from high trees and often proclaim that a house that is not my own is the best of all of Hogwarts on a table in The Great Hall, but Shelby is pretty sane. That's for sure... Well... most of the time anyway."

Lauren looked at Resa. "I haven't been in the forest yet!!"

"No, that doesn't mean I'm crazy. It means I'm adventurous. I'm like Indiana Jones or that guy Nicholas Cage played in the National Treasure movie. No one thought they were crazy," she said.

She turned to Alycia, laughing a bit to herself. "So, to condense this whole conversation, we're all somewhat crazy."

Alycia nodded. "Yeah." she trailed off wondering what the conversation was about going around her. Everyone seemed to want to change the subject and talk about being crazy or something. She was lost. She needed just one conversation going at a time. She was still really curious about these who names though..she really wanted to know.

"Resa I have not been in the Forbidden Forest. I've been near it, but I've never actually been in it," Shelby insisted. She got up and brushed a little dirt off her skirt. "I think I'm going to go see if I can find Elise. Does anyone want to come meet her? Just keep in mind I can only take one of you at a time," she looked around at the other girls, waiting to see if anyone would join her.

Hilary looked over at Alycia, feeling a pang of guilt. The poor girl probably had no idea what was going on, what with everyone talking at once and going on about a hundred different things at a time.

"A bit lost?" she asked the girl. "I had the same problem when I started hanging around with these three. But you get used to it." She paused, wanting to think of something she could discuss with her. "Have you been to duelling club yet?"

Theresa laughed about what Shelby said but ignored it, she had only been in the forest once before and she got caught straight away. She thought for a moment then brightened "oh, me, me, me!" she said as she quickly jumped up. "I really want to see her since you told me about her" she said pleadingly as she quickly brushed down her skirt and skipped over to Shelby.

"Ooo. I do, I do!" Lauren told Shelby, "I want to meet this car that has the same middle name as me!" Lauren said as she stood up. "It was nice to meet you again Alycia." Lauren said. "I'll see you guys later, I'm sure!" Lauren told the other two girls, "unless you're coming with us?" She asked.

Alycia face went blank when the girl asked her about the dueling club. "ACTUALLY I have." she said and shook her head. "It's not really that fun at ALL." she stared at the tree. "ESPECIALLY when you're being hugged by a dratted Slytherin boy and then he pins you to the ground and you can't really do a thing but curse yourself to make him get off."