Spring Awakening [Sebastien, Rosalie, and Chris]

[Arielle Ambrose]

Spring was approaching Hogwarts, and fast. Always a happy person, the news of the weather changing for the warmer was causing Arielle to squirm with excitement. No more muggy classrooms, no more having to wear gloves that caused her to be clumsy whenever she grabbed something, no more thick robes that made her unbearably hot. The time was approaching for her to be able to go outside, bask in the sunlight, run around as much as she wanted. Normally, Arielle didn't mind the castle. Hogwarts was beautiful, both inside and out, and everyone could agree with that. The winter months that were brutally cold, snow piled up wherever one went outside, forced most students inside, leaving them with little options as for fun. With Spring approaching, she was free to do whatever she wanted.

As it was the first day that had been more sunshine than she could remember having seen during the winter months, Arielle was outside as soon as her classes allowed. She'd had to fake an upset stomach to her last professor, unfortunately, but did something about her scream "give me homework"? She refused to think so. While other students had to listen to their professors assign some monster essay, Arielle got to enjoy the rare sunlight, eager for the promise of more to come. It was hard to feel guilty when she felt so incredibly happy with what she was doing. What was even better was that a friend of hers, Sebastien Dantès, was going to come find her eventually. Maybe he'd guess that she was at the Black Lake, she had no clue. On a day like this, she wasn't really in the mood to stress anything.

[Sebastien Dantes]

It hadn't been that difficult for Sebastien to trick the professor into believing that he was deathly ill and needed to leave class to go to the hospital wing. Maybe his acting wasn't entirely convincing, but he'd made such a dramatic, irritating scene that she had probably let him leave just to get rid of him. But Sebastien didn't care. He was out of class, and on a day like the one he was experiencing, it was imperative that he go outside. Sebastien was an antsy kid, and when the weather was nice, he was even more jumpy than usual. He wouldn't have been much use in a classroom. It was better for everyone that he was wandering the grounds.

His dress shirt was no longer tucked into his pants and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. He was in full leisure mode. It felt nice not to be wearing his thick robe, which he had ditched in the Hufflepuff dormitory before heading outside to meet his best friend Arielle. They'd bonded as soon as they'd met on the first day of school. He was a mischievous boy who like to stir up harmless trouble, and she seemed to enjoy coming along for the ride. Even if she wasn't always participating in the schemes, Sebastien liked to have someone to come along with him on his escapades. She was a fun companion, and she appreciated his humour when others, particularly teachers, did not.

Sebastien finally found Arielle by the Black Lake after running around the ground for quite a while. Unsurprisingly, he still had tons of energy. It was a miracle that his mother had stayed sane raising him. He was as rambunctious and eccentric as they came, and he was lucky he had an incredibly patient mother.

"Hey Arielle!" he greeted excitedly. He grabbed a couple of stones from the shore and began attempting to skip them across the lake. After a few unsuccessful tries, he gave up and started hurling the largest rocks he could carry into the water, laughing at the enormous splashes. He finally turned back to Arielle. "Wanna try? It's fun," he offered, holding out a jagged rock. Realizing how big it was, he dropped it in favour of another. "Here, this one's smaller because you're pretty small," he teased with a playful grin. "Right, Pipsqueak?"

[Chris Newcastle]

Another boy had managed to ditch his professor with a 'being sick' excuse. Chris was walking out of his dormitories sans robes, he didn't mind wearing them but felt better without them. His white dress shirt partially untucked underneath his sweater vest with its sleeves rolled up before his elbows, his tie slightly loosened and his hair as messy as usual.

He couldn't believe what just happened a couple of minutes ago. He was sitting through a lecture his professor was giving the class with his head on the desk. He kept moaning and groaning to himself about how bored he was due to that the lecture was basically a recap of what the class was just previously taught, stuff the Chris practically knew hands-down. He accidentally let out a moan/groan hybrid loud enough for the whole class, including the professor to hear. When asked what was wrong, he just went with the flow, remembering that today was nice outside and he could be doing something more interesting. So he said yes. When asked with what, he blurted out a stomach ache. Right before the professor was going to question it, Chris' stomach came to the rescue and grumbled/gurgled pretty loudly. Satisfied, Chris got sent out to the hospital wing. He left pretty too quickly to be sick.

"Never in all my life I've been grateful for being hungry," Chris said to himself, eating an apple as he walked out of the castle. But once he stepped outside, his mind went blank on what he could do. Normally on days he was outside, Chris knew exactly what he was going to do but today, that part of his brain decided to shut down. "Nice..." Chris groaned as he kicked away his apple core, "Probably cause my conscience is trying to make me feel guilty for ditching class by erasing my 'To Do' list for what I was gonna do out here."

Deciding to just mindlessly walk around, Chris started to walk, since 'mindlessly walking around' meant that he had to walk around, mindlessly already taken by his sudden brain fart. After a couple of minutes of this, he started to hear some chatting coming from nearby, somewhere by the lake. With his curious part of him starting to kick in, Chris started to walk towards the sound. He stopped at a tree and saw two students, about the same age as himself playing around.

Guessing that they also ditched their class, he walked up and see if his presumption was right. "So," he said slowly, a smirk building on his face, "Guess I'm not the only one who had the idea to ditch class for this nice day."

[Rosalie Pelletier]

Rosalie was a bit of a dreamer. She day-dreamed in class all the time about the future, her ambitions, her older-year crushes, everything. Sometimes when she was getting ready for classes, she day-dreamed and forgot that she had to go to any class at all. Today was one of those days. She had woken up at seven, which was normally a good time to wake up. However, she had forgotten that she wanted to send her parents a letter about her first year so far and rushed to the Owlery before her first class, Herbology. In the Owlery, she noticed some activity outdoors and couldn't help but think about the beautiful weather. It was by chance that Rosalie actually got the letter tied to the tawny owl and it flew out the windows because she was in Dreamland now.

And so Rosalie found herself walking out towards the grounds of Hogwarts. She wasn't really sure why she was going to the great outdoors, but she just felt drawn to the sunny rays. It was helpful that Rosalie was smart when it came to Herbology and she had already completed nearly the entire term's course work. Missing this class wouldn't be a problem, especially since the head of the house (and teacher) was currently absent. Like the substitute would care that she was skipping. Right.

As Rosalie neared the Black Lake, she saw a few other first years that were familiar faces. She smiled as she saw Arielle and Chris and another Hufflepuff that must have been in his first year as well. Arielle and Chris were skipping rocks, something that Rosalie had never really cared much for, and Chris was just settling in. "Hi guys! Skipping class is fun, isn't it?" Wow, don't I sound cheesy?

[Arielle Ambrose]

Arielle had been lying on the ground, enchanting the petals of a flower to turn various colors, when she heard a familiar voice. Sebastien. It wasn't totally surprising that they'd met, considering the fact that they were both Hufflepuff first years but it was startling that they'd become friends so fast. He was exactly the type of friend she'd always wanted; full of energy and always up for something fun. He was just the right thing for her, especially as it was her first year not only in a new school, far away from home, but also her first year realizing that she belonged in a totally different world that wasn't filled with only Muggles. A world that she, much to her surprise, found herself loving more and more each day. It felt completely right to be at Hogwarts, a place where she felt a real sense of belonging. It beat home, anyway. She wasn't ignored here.

Sebastien's exuberant entrance to where she was brought a wide grin to her face. "Hey there," she replied, moving up from the ground so she could sit, crossing her legs. For a moment, Arielle watched with amusement as Sebastien attempted to skip several rocks across the lake. When he failed to skip them properly, he proceeded to just toss larger rocks into the lake, turning to ask her if she wanted to as well. "I'm not that much smaller than you!" she protested, taking the rock he offered anyway. She bounced it up in her hand, preparing to toss it into the lake as he had when another voice interrupted them.

Chris Newcastle's sudden presence caused Arielle to jump but thankfully, it wasn't a professor. She flashed a smile over at him, grateful already that she knew who he was, thanks to the time she'd met him in the library. It saved them from awkward introductions, anyway. "Definitely not!" She laughed. "Lucky for me, I managed to save myself from having to do yet another essay." Arielle would have said more but then the entrance of another student, Rosalie, shut her up, at least momentarily. "Hello," she said happily, glad that there was another female presence to balance out the little party. "Did you all tell your teachers you were sick too?" Arielle said, a wide smile on her face.

[Sebastien Dantes]

Sebastien turned and grinned at the boy who joined them, offering him some rocks to throw into the lake. The more the merrier, in his opinion. The boy looked about his and Arielle's age, and Sebastien was all about making friends. It was all part of his master plan to be more famous than his ridiculously popular sister. Jacqueline was possible the most well-known girl in the entire school. It hadn't always been like that. From what Sebastien had gathered, she had been just your regular every-day Ravenclaw nerd up until she joined some stupid club that Sebastien didn't know the name of. After that, she had hosted the "best party ever", and now everyone knew exactly who she was. Before they were in Hogwarts, they both were home-schooled, so their only social experiences were with the neighbourhood kids. Sebastien had always had more luck with making friends than Jacqueline, and Jacqueline had always done better in her studies than him. That was the way it worked. Sebastien didn't appreciate that she was disturbing the delicate balance of their relationship. He'd also heard she had a boyfriend. That did not sit well with him. As much as she was his rival, he was also his sister, and he was protective of her. He wasn't going to let this little tidbit go without a thorough investigation.

"Hi guys! Skipping class is fun, isn't it?"

Sebastien looked up and saw another person had joined their group. He smiled and waved at her. This making friends stuff was easy. At least he could solace in the fact that he still could make friends faster than Jacqueline. It was a tiny victory, however, in a much larger war. He wanted to be a leader like Jacqueline. A more famous version.

"Did you all tell your teachers you were sick too?" Arielle said, a wide smile on her face.

Sebastien nodded, laughing.

"Of course! I even put on a little show for her. She couldn't say no after that," he told them proudly. "Anyone want some rocks?" he asked, holding out a handful for anyone who was interested. "It's pretty fun." He waved again at all the people he didn't know, deciding to introduce himself. "I'm Sebastien Dantès. Hufflepuff first year. This is my best friend Arielle, in case you don't know her," he told them, pointing to her. "What are all your names?"

He threw one in, causing such a splash that he felt droplets of water fly back into his face. As he watched the ripples of water slowly get smaller, he found himself thinking up a scheme. The details were not entirely worked out in his mind, but it was clear from his quickly growing grin that he wanted to cause some trouble.

"Say, anyone up for a bit of fun?" he proposed in his charming French accent, smirking mischievously.