I've never really liked you anyway

[Taylor Mercer]

Taylor fled from the Great Hall before the words she had just heard processed in her mind. The anger that had resided within her since her fight with Hoshi took interest in the situation and started coursing through Taylor. She needed to cool down and the Lakefront instantly came to mind. Taylor headed straight there, her heart beating frantically, even though it was silly to get worked up over a stupid rumour. But what if it was true? It was so easy to believe. All the signs were there. Taylor swallowed as she leant back against her favourite tree, her eyes scanning the large expanse of water, hoping the gentle waves would calm her. Jenna and Scorpius? It was true that whenever Taylor saw either of them, there was a high chance they would be together. Taylor had of course had her suspicions, but had that student been telling the truth when she said they were together? Taylor vowed never to eavesdrop on conversations again. She couldn't exactly ask the student where they heard it without admitting she had been listening and she definitely couldn't ask Scorpius or Jenna if it were true. Now all Taylor was left with was the horrible feeling of jealousy, confusion and frustration. Not even her favourite spot in the school could make her look at the situation rationally. Taylor asked herself for the thousandth time, why does it still bother me?

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

For the first time since Jennifer's return to Hogwarts New Zealand, she was walking by the lake. Taking extra precautions and every time she saw an owl would flinch. This place was not a friend to her and never had been but like first years went in to the Forbidden Forest to confront their fears she needed to see what the lake front had in store for her. She walked with her wand tightly grasped in her slender hand, should her owl come to visit her with any mail she would get rid of the mail, she would not want to read it, no matter how important it would be.

Because of her fear of this spot on the grounds, Jenn had forgotten all about Matthew Reed and the feelings Scorpius had told her she had for him. She almost wanted those thoughts to consume her instead but they didn't. Her stomach was in knots and her heart was beating uncomfortably in her chest, she was most definitely on edge. So when she spotted Taylor, she quickly walked over to her and said with a trying smile but her fear was still taking over her body, "Hi Taylor. How's it going?"

 

[Taylor Mercer]

Taylor tried to swallow the thick lump that was in her throat. Scratching her forehead that was beginning to throb with her anger, she jumped when she heard a voice. "Jenna." She almost asked, wondering for a second if maybe she had imagined her being there in her jealously. After a short moment, Taylor concluded that Jenna was in fact real and standing in front of her. Clearing her throat Taylor crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not so great." She grumbled, a scowl forming on her face. For some reason, she didn't feel up to lying. She was sick of telling people she was fine, when she wasn't. Taylor almost wished the Jenna next to her was her imagination. At least then she could make her disappear on will. "And yourself? I bet your fantastic?" Taylor said in a cold voice, the use of her and Scorpius' inside joke like acid on her tongue. What was happening to her? Why was she acting so nasty? It might not even be true, but Taylor wasn't thinking rationally to stop herself from jumping to the conclusion. She remembered back to Hoshi and how she felt like she had escaped her emotions, if only for a little while when she had hit the Slytherin. It had been a satisfying feeling, is that why she was acting this way towards Jenna? Or was it simply that the thought of her all over Scorpius made Taylor's blood boil?

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jenn looked at Taylor with confusion, not understanding why she was acting so foully to her, she was about to ask what her problem was when she spitefully spoke to her. Never had she been so confused when someone was angry at her, usually she deserved it and would deal it right back but now well she didn't and she knew she didn't. "What are you talking about?" she asked, her eyebrows crunching together as she wished that Scorpius were here to control his insane ex-girlfriend. The Hufflepuff knew that she did not know the Reeds and she could not be mad at her for that and she also knew that she had not seen any one in the group aside from Scorpius since Sam's birthday.

And since she and Scorpius had always been best friends, Jenn honestly did not know what she was so mad about because there was no reason for anyone to be mad at her! She knew she had not blown off anything important so why the heck was Taylor acting this way. It must be that time of the month, she thought with a roll of her cerulean blue eyes as she struggled for reasons why Taylor was taking her anger out on her of all people. Sure the two had never really gotten along but they were civil and never really got the opportunity to think anything much of each other.

 

[Taylor Mercer]

Taylor stared out across the lake, her fingernails digging into her arm as she struggled to keep her emotions contained. She refused to cry as she had shed too many tears. She refused to snap and attack Jenna the way she had Hoshi, although the temptation to do so was there and it was doing a darn good job of not being ignored. "Look okay I get it. It's not my concern any more, but I think I'm in a good position to be upset. It's not like you've ever cared anyway. It took me at least three times of introducing myself before you even remembered my name." Taylor said with spite, not entirely sure why she brought up that little issue, but knowing it was always something that annoyed her about Jenna. And anything to bring Jenna down at that moment was good enough for Taylor. Jenn and Scorpius had always gotten along so well. Jenna had been one of the other people Scorp had flirted with before Luna. Just as Taylor had... What if things had been only a tiny bit different? What if Taylor and Scorpius had never met down in the Dungeons to exchange gifts? Would it have been Jenna in Taylor's place instead? Taylor's jaw clenched at the thought, she wasn't sure who she wanted to blame more for this situation, Scorpius or Jennifer. As much as Taylor wanted to believe what she heard was not true, she knew she would only be trying to sugar coat the situation for herself.

"What are you doing here Jenna? Come to make me feel worse?" She mumbled, refusing to look at the girl.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

To say Jennifer Lydia Wilkonson was confused would be an understatement. Taylor was being completely nonsensical and when she brought up why she had not remembered her name with ease, she arched an eyebrow and crossed her arms against her chest, tapping her rowan wand on her forearm as she tried to make sense of the situation. "You're mad at me because a few years ago I could not remember your name? Really?" she asked incredulously. "That's so..." she said searching for a word to properly say what she wanted but she landed on something simple, "Dumb." Clearly there was something else that was ticking the blonde off but with every word that came out of Taylor's mouth or the way she was avoiding her gaze brought more anger to the pit of her stomach and she felt like bringing out her old way of dealing with her emotions; fighting.

Jenn did not need this. There were so many other pressing things in her life at the moment then Taylor's anger. For one, she had not spoken to her twin brother since her parent's divorce. She didn't even know if he was alive or how he was handling with his cancer. Two: she had not spoken to her mother unless ordered to. Jenna currently hated the woman and her new sister. She had not even known about her mother's pregnancy, only finding out about the birth three months afterwards. And then there was Matthew Reed. Why on Earth would she care about Taylor Mercer having a hissy fit about not getting everything she wanted.

"As much as you may believe it, the world does not revolve around you. I came to the lake front for my own reasons. I have no need to make you feel worse about anything except for the fact that you are needlessly acting like a b*tch," Jenn said with fire swirling in her eyes, letting Taylor's words get to her finally. She had everything and here she was, insulting someone who did nothing to deserve it except forget her name when they had only met on passing occasions. No wonder Jenn had never really liked her.

 

[Taylor Mercer]

Taylor rolled her green eyes, that were darkening as the conversation progressed. "Like that would be the only reason I'm mad at you." She said, scrunching her eyebrows together in annoyance and rolling her eyes one more time for good measure. Taylor would have confronted Jenna years ago if that had been the only reason she was angry. Taylor found it amazing that Jenna didn't know what she was talking about. Maybe it wasn't true...? Although Taylor's fury dismissed the very thought right after it processed. She knew exactly what Taylor meant, she was just trying to infuriate Taylor further by not admitting it.

Taylor had a sentence on her tongue, she was going to ask Jenn why did she come talk to Taylor if she had come to the Lakefront for her own reasons, but the next sentence cut the words off. She turned to look at Jenn, an incredulous look in her eyes. Her arms unfolded and came to rest by her sides, her palms clenched tightly into fists. "Acting like a b*tch?! I'll show you acting like a b*tch!" Taylor shouted and before even thinking about it she had thrown a punch at Jenn's face, forcing all her body into it. If someone had said to Taylor that she would have beat up two people that were supposed to be her friends she would have laughed and told them they were crazy. But hey, Taylor had never really liked Jenn anyway and it was too late to think about what she had done and now all that concerned Taylor was causing the Hufflepuff as much pain as possible. What was happening to her?

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jennifer looked at Taylor with confusion, she still was not understanding. She must have gotten into firewhiskey, or was just plain insane. No wonder Scorpius had broken up with her, this girl was crazy! She clenched her jaw and was tempted to ask her why she was mad at her but before she could Taylor gave her a rather intimidating stare and she almost backed off and went on her way.

Before Jenn could say anything Taylor had thrown a punch at her face. She let out a yell of pain and dropped to the ground, she had not expected this at all. Her back stung and her face hurt as she covered it with her arms and tried to kick Taylor away from her as blood spilled out of her torn cheek. "Ow," she groaned, still on the ground but a surge of energy shot through her body and brought her up, pushing a punch right into the girl's face, aiming for the bulls b*tches eye.

 

[Sam Prince]

[Would this be an okay time to join? If not, I'll edit ]

Sam walked out of the castle with a rare smile on his face. He was feeling pretty happy recently and he put it all down to seeing Toni more. He really couldn't imagine what Hogwarts or his life would be like without her in it. Sam shook his head briefly, he wasn't going to worry about that. He had her, she had him. Sam wasn't going to let her slip through his fingers ever again. Sam shoved his hands into his jeans pockets as he slowly walked down to the lake. A place where was usually quite peaceful even if there was people already there. There was something about the atomosphere of the place that just put a certain stillness in Sam..either that or it let it out of Sam.

As Sam walked closer to the lake he noticed a few people scattered around its edge, although two in particular caught his eye. It was Taylor and Jenn? Sam thought to himself with confusion. He always knew Jenn and Taylor weren't close, but he put that down to the fact that they never really had the oppourtunity to become close. Yet what confused him most in this situation was that Jenn was lying on the grass, looking pretty angry, they both look pretty angry Sam continued to think. He really wasn't in the mood for girl problems today, not that he ever was in the mood for girl problems but as of late Sam found himself caring less and less about them. Girls fought over the most ridiculous things and tended to blow the situation way out of proportion. Sam was about to turn away when he seen Jenn with the corner of his eye throwing a punch right at Taylor. Sam spun around. He knew how Jenn's punches felt, they certainly didn't feel like daisies. Sam hurried down to them, still completely and utterly confused at the two teenagers more so shocked at the fact that Jenn would go to the extreme of punching Taylor.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?!" Sam yelled as he took the last couple of steps to fill the gap between him and his friends. People who could pass as strangers these days, he saw so little of them. Sam honestly couldn't remember the last time he had seen any of them. Sam looked between Taylor and Jenn frantically although lingered on Jenn longer, she was the one who had thrown the punch in the first place.

 

[Taylor Mercer]

[I think it's good Louise. ]

Taylor watched as Jenn fell to the ground clutching her face and the Gryffindor was filled with the same satisfaction she had felt with Hoshi. The feeling that made all her other pains disappear, forced into the punch and pushed out of her through the connection of fist to face. It was an awful relief, one that Taylor knew would be short-lived, but for that blissful moment, she was devoid of all her emotions that had been eating at her brain for months now.

Taylor was ready to walk away, she wouldn't be able to properly revel in the emotionless adrenaline if she could see Jenna. A hint of guilt was already starting to creep it's way into her system, but before it could even begin to form, Jenn had jumped back up and taken her own swing at Taylor. The Gryffindor's arms flinched, but her reflexes were not fast enough and Jenna's knuckles connected with the corner of her eye. Taylor let out a howl of pain and brought her hand up to her face. She pulled her fingers back to see if she was bleeding, but the Hufflepuff had drawn no blood, instead Taylor's eye throbbed painfully as though it was going to burst out of it's socket. That was going to leave a nasty bruise. Taylor placed her fingers back over her eye, clenching her teeth together. She stumbled back a couple of steps as she tried to open her eyes. Her frustration returned full force and Taylor wanted to hit Jenna again, but knew that would only earn her another black eye. At the thought, Taylor's eye began to ache and she let her lids close again, cursing under her breath.

Taylor almost jumped out of her skin as she heard yelling and from the last person she ever expected to yell. Taylor cracked her good eye open to see her best friend looking between her and Jenn. Oh man, this was going to be difficult to explain, especially if Jenna wasn't willing to admit that she was with Scorpius.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

A smirk of accomplishment rode onto Jennifer's lips when she heard Taylor let out a moan of pain. Letting you frustration out physically was wrong but it sure felt nice and satisfying to let it all out. But then she heard someone yell at them and she flinched, assuming it was a professor from the booming voice but then she turned to see it was Sam.

"She started yelling at me for no reason then she punched me!" Jenn said truthfully as she craddled her bloody cheek with the palm of her hand that was not throbbing from the contact it had made with Taylor's face. "She is such a spaz!" she muttered as she took her hand away and saw the blood that had spilled onto her cheek. Quietly she groaned as she thought, Great! Now I have to worry about this healing up before I see Matthew next. Jenn clenched her jaw tightly as she imagined him thinking that she was disgusting and ugly because of Taylor. This was all her fault! Now she couldn't talk to Matthew without wearing cover-up and she needed to tell him how she felt about him, well how she thought she felt about him. She was just confused by the whole situation but when Scorpius had tried to make sense of this all it seemed right. "Now Matthew will think I'm ugly," Jenn muttered under her breath angrily before sighing as she put her blood hand on the back of her jeans to wipe them off.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam waited for an explanation from his two friends and when Jenn began to explain Sam's eyes rested on her. It was only then when noticed the blood literally pouring from her face, Sam flinched, seeing Jenn like this, it certainly wasn't a pretty sight, it turned his stomach. He wished he had some sort of cloth or..well anything to help stop the bleeding, he had nothing. Sam couldn't help but be surprised when she had said that it was Taylor who did this to her, he didn't know why he was so surprised though, who else could it have been? It was just the two of them here. He never really thought Taylor would do such a thing, yet, how could he know? He barely saw the girl all year, had she changed? Changed so much that she would actually physically attack Jenn?

Sam let Jenn's comment on Taylor slide and looked at Taylor with shock being the main expression on his face, but in his eyes there was a hint of disappointment. Sam looked back at Jenn and asked the most obvious question he could think of, "Why are you beating the sh*t out of each other?" There was a certain stillness to the way Sam spoke but that was mostly covered up by anger. He folded his arms across his broad chest impatiently, he was pretty much furious at his friends at that moment. I really should have just walked off when I had the chance, Sam thought to himself regretably. How easier it would have been if he did, but he also wondered how bad things would have got if he did walk off? What kind of friend would he be then?

 

[Taylor Mercer]

Taylor glared the best she could at Jenna with only one good eye. She tried to make sense of the last mumbled statement, but she hadn't heard it properly, her own rage still ringing in her ears. Taylor was hardly a spaz! She had a damn good reason for punching Jenna! But at Sam's question and his disappointed expression, Taylor put serious thought into what she had just done, trying to find the correct words to explain it.

It then dawned on Taylor that all her damn good reasons were completely pathetic. She turned her head to look at Jenna and the blood smear on her face. What was her reason for doing this?! She had gone off in a jealous rage after hearing a rumour (that even through all of this she still believed was true) and punched Jenn in the face? To be fair it probably hadn't helped that Jenna had called her a b*tch. When Taylor realised she hadn't answered and instead had stood with a horrified look on her face, she swallowed. "I-" Taylor took a step backwards, looking at Sam with an apologetic expression. She wasn't sorry for what she did to Jenn, but she was sorry that Sam had to witness it. Jenna was still his best friend too.

Taylor then turned and fled. She couldn't stand to look at both their faces. Her head filled with shame and confusion. This behaviour was so unlike her. She felt so lost. Tears filled her eyes as she brought her hand away from her face to run faster back up to the school. She got strange looks in the hallway, from students wanting to know why a girl was running through the school with a black eye. Taylor just couldn't stay down there and explain things to the two Hufflepuffs. Not when she didn't even know what was going on herself. A tear streamed down her cheek as she stopped to breath in an empty corridor. She was still furious, but now it wasn't just at Jenna, it was at herself. Sliding down the wall, Taylor brought her legs up and curled herself around them, her head falling and resting on her knees. She was so pathetic.

 

[Jennifer Wilkonson]

Jenn crossed her arms against her chest and just let herself bleed, waiting for Taylor to respond to that question. She wanted to hear this but then she ran away. She turned towards Sam and shrugged as if she was saying 'I told you so' before actually saying, "Just plain crazy." She turned around towards the water and she walked towards the lake. She layed down on the grass and scopped some water and padded it onto her face and dropping the green-blue water that had turned a light right back into the water before sighing as she looked at her blurred reflection. "I miss Matt," she whispered to herself before rolling onto her back lazily and linking her hands together and resting them over her stomach with a gentle sigh.

 

[Sam Prince]

Sam waited for an explanation from Taylor before seeing her flee from them. Sam turned around, watching her run from them. He felt a tinge of guilt begin to settle in his stomach before realizing that none of this was his fault. He didn't know whose fault it was that left both of his friends bleeding. Sam instinctively took a step forwards to run after Taylor but then remembered Jenn, he turned around slowly to see her shrugging casually. Letting that one slide, it was the next comment however that ticked him off, "Hey?! Don't say that about her." Sam warned in all seriousness. Taylor was one of his best friends and even though Jenn was too he wasn't going to let her talk about her that way. Sam watched as Jenn made her way down to the lake and comfortably lay down at the edge. He couldn't get over how relaxed she was about the whole thing. As if none of what he just witnessed happened. "I-" He began, his now calmer blue eyes looked up at the castle, would Taylor even want me there? he wondered. He wasn't really much of a friend to her this year but maybe now he could make up for that? "I have to go..." He said to Jenn before quickly hurrying off, back to the castle. He wasn't sure if Jenn would be mad at him for leaving her alone but in all honesty he didn't feel one bit guilty. She seemed to have gotten over the whole ordeal quite quickly, so why would she be mad at him?