Gift exchange

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas sat on his dorm bed, he had finally finished wrapping the presents which he had gotten for his friends, even though it was only Autumn and Joceline.

He loved his friends to bits, but the fact they were girls, hindered his ideas on what to get them. After much thought he had found some decent gifts and hoped his friends would like them.

He looked at the clock and saw the time it was. He had agreed to meet Joceline in a few minutes to exchange their gifts. Lifting the small package he made his way down stairs to their meeting place, his stomach in knots.

Thomas jumped the last step and entered the fifth floor corridor. Thomas had decided to meet Joceline here, for the simple reason that it was the place where they first meet at the beginning of the year, at 2AM. Thomas sat down at the exact spot, and waited for Joceline to show, wondering if she realised the significance of the meeting place.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline had gotten her best friend three novels, she thought he would enjoy, two she had read when she was in muggle school and the third she had read the back in the muggle book store she went to and thought would be interesting. She quickly changed into some skinny jeans, a thin white top and a long yellow sweater and some converse. She usually would have dressed up but today she was feeling a little lazy.

She picked up the books and and walked up to the fifth floor corridor. She couldn't help but be a little nervous about this, the last time she had seen Thomas was when he was dancing with Autumn and she had ran off. As she walked up she smiled remembering their meeting at two in the morning, it was sweet that he had remembered. When she reached the corridor she spotted Thomas and a bright smile formed on her lips.

Joceline scurried over to him and embraced him in a warm hug, but being careful not to drop or rip them. "Hey mister," she said joyfully as she released him from their hug. "Happy Holidays love," she said with a bright smile.

[sorry for the late post, I was trying to find an image for her outfit ]

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas looked at his watch, hoping Joceline hadn't forgotten about their meeting. After a few moments he heard scurrying footsteps coming towards him. He looked up and smiled when he saw it was Joceline. He returned the warm hug. "Hey missus." He said with a bright smile. "Right back at you." He said. When she pulled out of the hug Thomas saw what she was wearing. "Looking lovely as always." He added.

"So how have you been?" He asked.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline blushed at Thomas' compliment and smiled gently, "Thank you deary." She placed a loose strand of her curled brown hair behind her ear as she said, "I've been good, how about you?" She put her hand back around the gifts she was holding for him, knowing that after this she would probably have to go wrap Brandon's present, she felt bad about just leaving him at the ball, it really was impolite of her.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas give a small bow in response to her thanks. "I've been good too. It has been nice to have the relaxing period after exams." He said with a stretch, leaning back against the wall again.

He saw Joceline's hands go from put a loose strand of hair behind her ear to, what looked like Thomas' gift. Giving a sigh he said. "Do you, um, want to." He said lifting his gift for Joceline and moving it in an awkward way, not sure how to go about exchanging the gifts. He was continuing to get more nervous.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline glanced down at Thomas' gifts and nodded gently before handing the three books to him. She had gotten him The Kite Runner, Midnight's Children and The Black Tulip. She smiled anxiously, wondering if he would like them, she was quite nervous about the whole thing, she really didn't know what kind of books he liked but she thought they would be interesting for him.

 

[Thomas Smith]

(Way to out shine him )

Thomas took his present from Joceline's hand and replaced it with his present. He truly had no idea if she would like them. By the looks of it they had both gotten each other books, but Joceline had gotten him more. Thomas almost didn't want to give Joceline her present, it was only, "Quidditch through the ages" and a Slytherin bookmark. He knew she could probably use the bookmark but the book, he was unsure about, hopefully she will at least like the inscription he thought.

Thomas opened up his present. He was speechless. "Joceline," he said shortly, "Thank you!" he exclaimed, "They're wonderful." He added, giving her a quick hug, before looking though the books.

(The inscription: "I know you'll be a great flier some day, Thomas xoxo")

 

[Joceline Richarde]

[ : ]

Joceline watched happily as Thomas opened her present to him, it wasn't much really but he seemed like he liked them. She hugged him back merrily and said, "You're welcome Tommy." She smiled nicely at him then she opened her present, only too see something about quidditch. Oh lovely, my favorite sport, she thought but faked a bright appreciative smile. The sentiment was nice though so she hugged him warmly as she said, "Thanks Tommy! I love it!" She glanced down at her book and a knot formed in her stomach, she had just lied to her best friend, luckily she was good at lying, when she needed to be anyways.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas continued to look through his presents, books he had been meaning to read for so long, now he had no excuse not to do so. He watched in hope as Joceline opened her present. When she did so, Thomas held his breath, hoping she was like them. He breathed a sigh of relieve when she said she loved it, Probably a bit of an overstatement, but I'll take it. he thought to himself.

"So," he started, "What other presents did you get?" He asked.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline shrugged her shoulders and said, "Nothing, my family doesn't celebrate Christmas for some reason." She rolled her eyes as she said her family. They were not her family, she would never consider them her family, her family was her mother and she was gone and wasn't going to come back. "What about you?" she asked curiously and smiled.

 

[Thomas Smith]

"Oh, that must suck. Do you not miss the whole idea of Christmas?" he asked. "Well there's not much I wanted this year, so my family just give me money. And the presents I got from Autumn this morning before I met up with you." He said with a smile.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline nodded her head slightly and said, "Sort of, but we did celebrate Epiphany so that was something a little normal." She smiled at the memory of Christmas with her mom and her mother's family. Joce's smile turned to a slight frown as Thomas mentioned Autumn. "Oh how nice," she said with only a tinge of bitterness in her voice, but she hid it with a warm smile to her best friend. "Did you enjoy the ball with her?" she asked with fake curiosity.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas nodded, "Always good to have some normality." He said with a light laugh. Thomas smiled again, "Yeah I got a blue quill and ink, ravenclaw novelty t-shirt, and a self-inking quill from her." he said, trying to remember all she had gotten him. It really had been too much he thought again.

Thomas, caught slightly off guard by the next question, "The ball." He said. "It was an amazing night. I went looking for you but I didn't see you anywhere. Did you not go?" He asked.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline pursed her lips in thought, Maybe I should have gotten him something more then books? She smiled sheepishly at him and said, "Yes I went, I ended up leaving not too far into it, I felt a little claustrophobic." She looked down at her hands softly and said, "I feel really badly about leaving my date there, I haven't seen him since." She frowned guiltily and sighed.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas listened to Joceline, happier now that he knew she at least went to the ball, and had a date. "Everyone gets claustrophobic from time to time." He said sympathetically, putting one arm around her. "Who was you date?" He asked, suddenly taking a protective, serious, stance. "And he'd be stupid if he was ignoring you because you felt claustrophobic and left him." He said reassuringly.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

"Okay I didn't exactly mean claustrophobic.. it's hard to explain," she said gently looking up at Thomas and said, "Brandon something or rather, he's a really nice guy." She frowned to herself gently and said, "I just ran out on him, and went to the forest." She shrugged her shoulders anxiously.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas listened to Joceline, slightly concerned. Not exactly claustrophobic he thought, What else could she mean? he thought again. His thoughts were taken away from that when he heard the name of her date, "Um Brandon," He said, the name was familiar, "Coffield?" He asked. "2nd year Slytherin?" He continued. If it was the boy he was thinking off, he seemed decent enough from around the Brotherhood clubhouse.

"Are you sure the Forest was such a good place to go on your own?" He asked worriedly, he knew he was there once last term with Professor Styx, for Herbology lesson, but he would never actually go by himself.

 

[Joceline Richarde]

Joceline nodded her head warmly and said, "Yes, that's him." She shook her head and said, "I wasn't alone, there were two other girls that were there, one of whom is a girl I met before sorting and the other one seems nice enough, though probably not someone I'd want to catch on a bad day." She half smiled at him and shrugged her shoulders once.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Thomas nodded when Joceline confirmed his suspicions. Thomas listened to her, the fact that there was other girls along with her didn't make him feel any better, especially after the description of the second one. "Still," He started, with consern in his voice, "There are things in the forest, and they don't take kindly to humans." He said, remembering what Aeon had told him. "I just wouldn't like it if you had gotten hurt, that's all." He said with a sigh.