Closed Common Interest

[Ren Lockwood]

Ren had been looking for Sam this morning, and when he failed to find her in the Hufflepuff hall he made his way down to the great hall instead. He surveyed the crowd, but he wasn't seeing her there either. This was the year, he knew it. He would slowly work his way into her heart, and with any luck he could actually kiss her at the Yule ball. Hopefully. She was so soft and sweet. He looked around the hall, chewing on his lip. She wasn't sitting at the Hufflepuff table, but maybe she would be at the Slytherin table. He walked over to a girl he recognized as one of Sam's friends. "Hey, Sydney, right?" He gave her a smile. "I'm Ren Lockwood," He introduced himself. "Have you seen Sam anywhere? I was hoping to talk to her."

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney looked up from her breakfast when some Gryffindor deined to come bother her. She knew Ren vaguely from classes, and as the boring guy that kept taking Samantha to some of the school events. Sydney bristled when Ren referred to Samantha as "Sam" as well. Who did this guy think he was using her nickname so casually too. Sydney didn't have many she'd consider worth wasting the time on being friends, but Samantha was one of the few she might consider, and that meant she definitely didn't need to be wasting her time with boring kids like Ren Lockwood. "Why do you need to know?" She asked with a frown, turning away from the table to give Ren an unimpressed once over. He was at the very least smart enough to ask Sydney about Samantha, so she'd give him the benefit of a little bit of her time.

 

[Ren Lockwood]

Ren wasn't intimidated by Sydney. She reminded him a bit of Rose. He just smiled, putting his hands in his pockets. "I wanted to talk to her," He replied casually. "I haven't seen her in a little bit and I wanted to see how she's been," He smiled, a slight blush covering his cheeks. He didn't want to flat out say that he had missed her, even though he had. He wanted to see how her break had been, see her smile. His heart was beating a little faster at the thought of her, but he liked to think he hid it well from Sydney.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney tapped her fingers impatiently on the tabletop as Ren seemed unfazed about bothering her, especially when he just wanted to ask Samantha benign small talk. How boring. "She's been fine, I'm sure," Sydney said, frowning when Ren just seemed to want to talk to her. Did she look like Samantha's owl or something to him? She wondered why Samantha bothered wasting her time with dumb boys like him, anyway. Honestly, Sydney would be doing Samantha a favour by intercepting Ren, he'd just waste her time and be too polite to tell him to go away. "If it's nothing important you shouldn't bother her," She added with a sniff. "She's probably busy getting back into classes."

 

[Ren Lockwood]

Ren knew enough about girls to know he wasn't going to find Sam by talking to Sydney. So he'd just... have to talk to Sydney. He moved to sit across from her. "Alright, I'll try and catch her later then." He picked up the goblet in front of him and took a sip. "How are you, Sydney? I don't think we've spoken much," He gave her a grin. She probably thought she was intimidating, but not even Rose could scare him, and she could be pretty scary. Especially when he got an alternate position on the team and she didn't.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney thought she would be free of Ren's interruption once she'd made it clear that he wasn't going to speak to Samantha any time soon, but she was caught off guard when Ren decided to go head and join her. She frowned as he made himself comfortable, raising and eyebrow and trying to appear as busy as possible when he tried to make small talk with her. "I was rather enjoying us not speaking," She said haughtily under her breath, still trying to figure out Ren's angle. Did he want something? She sniffed, shuffling some of her food about her plate. "I've been...fine," She finally settled on. "My roommates are traitorous harpies, but what else is new," She added with a shrug. Ren had to share a room with Eric Holland, so he at least has some experience sharing his space with untrustworthy students.

 

[Ren Lockwood]

Ren gave Sydney a small smile. "Yeah... I heard. I'm sorry about that. I know Eric was giggling about it. He's... questionable, sometimes," He grimaced. "Always really angry about something or the other." He shook his head. "Who are your roommates?" He asked. "Other than the hothead, my roommates aren't so bad... maybe a little energetic, but I don't mind." He shrugged. It wasn't the most normal subject, but it was a start.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney scoffed when Ren mentioned Eric had enjoyed her indignity last year. Of course he had. She felt her face burning at just the memory and angrily cut through her piece of toast as Ren continued to natter to her about roommates or something. "What are you doing? We're not friends," Sydney said with flatly, dropping her knife. Ren seemed intent on continuing the conversation but Sydney had no idea why. She'd fielded his dumb questions about Samantha and done her best to be polite but now he was surely just messing with her by continuing to sit here and 'chat'. "Can't you go bother someone else? Like your 'energetic' roommates perhaps," She groused, returning to her breakfast before Ren could construe any further comment from her as another invitation to continue talking.

 

[Ren Lockwood]

Ren raised a brow. Well, Sydney was certainly... grumpy. "Well, we could be friends," He gave her his most charming smile, though he doubted it would work. If she was anything like Rose, he wouldn't be able to win her over today. But he could still try. "You're a very intelligent girl, it would be fun to be friends," He decided, taking a sip from his drink.

 

[Sydney Townsend]

Sydney gave Ren a flat look when he continued talking. "No. We couldn't," She said firmly. She had zero interest in wasting her time with him. It was bad enough that Samantha saw fit to pity him enough to entertain his advances, Sydney wasn't going to as well. "For you, maybe. That's the thing about being intelligent, you're smart enough to know who's actually worth your time," She said snidely, hoping Ren would take the hint already and leave her in peace.