Closed Snakes and Stones

[Malachi Ryu]

Malachi was sure of it now. His friends were avoiding him. For an hour or two he'd dismissed it, making up increasingly unlikely excuses for their behaviour, but now it was break time, and they were playing Wallball. Without him. They never played Wallball without him. He was the one who'd taught them how to play it.

His face burned with humiliation. It wasn't his fault his dad had gone off at them last night; they were the ones who'd filled water pistols with crimson paint and fired them all over his living room. If his parents hadn't been wizards, they'd have had to replace almost all of the furniture. That had to be what this was about. Nothing else had changed.

Taking a deep breath, he crossed the playground and stopped a few feet away from the gang. "Can I play?" he asked.

The boys stopped and turned to look at him. One of them caught the ball and tucked it under his arm.

"Um, why do you think we'd want to play with you?"

There was an appreciative snicker.

"Your dad says we're not allowed to come over any more."

Alex bounced the ball and caught it. "Yeah, and he told all of our parents about the pistol thing, so, thanks for that. I'm grounded for a week."

"You're lucky, I'm not allowed on my Xbox for a month."

"Oh," said Malachi. He'd told their parents. That explained things. "But... we are still friends? Aren't we?"

"Aw, he actually thought we were friends. That's cute."

Alex threw the ball. It caught Malachi on the chest before bouncing away and rolling to a stop against the wall. "We only came over 'cause you have a pool. We don't actually like you, dummy. God."

Malachi felt as if he was sinking through the concrete. His chest and his eyes stung simultaneously. What did they mean? Of course they were friends; they did everything together! How could they suddenly not like him after all this time? Unless they really meant it - unless they'd never liked him in the first place. It was all lies, all of it. All the games they'd played, the secrets they'd shared, the things they'd laughed at together. Meanwhile, they'd been laughing about him behind his back. Stupid Malachi. He actually thought we liked him!

He turned and ran. He ran all the way to the bottom of the playing field, where a chain-link fence separated the grass from a public footpath. Then he sat down at the foot of a tree and buried his face in his knees.

 

[Emmy Cooper]

It was weird to hear her friends discussing their schools for the following year, when Emmy wasn't going to be going with them. It was even more weird that she had to keep it a secret. It was the biggest secret ever, and even worse, she had to pretend to be sad whenever her friends mentioned the boarding school she was being shipped off to. Emmy had hoped one of her friends would mention a boarding school as well, but none of them did. So, there she sat, half listening to the conversation the girls were having on the grass when a semi commotion caught her eye. It looked like the group of boys were being mean, and overhearing (eavesdropping) the conversation, Emmy frowned, then stood up in anger when Alex threw the ball at Malachi. Malachi ran away, but before chasing after him, Emmy approached the laughing group of boys, shoving Alex hard. "Why are you SO MEAN!" Emmy shouted before running after Malachi. They weren't the best of friends, but they'd been at the same school their whole lives. She slowed as she got near him, before carefully putting her hand on his back. "Hey Malachi, are you okay? Those boys are jerks."

 

[Malachi Ryu]

Someone had followed him. Malachi looked up, startled by how close Emmy had got before he'd realised she was there. He wiped his face quickly with the cuff of his sleeve. He doubted Emmy would make fun of him, but how could he be sure of it? If his best friends could fool him, anybody could. "Get off me. I'm fine," he said, shrugging away from her hand. He didn't want her to think he was a baby. "I don't care. They don't know me. They don't know anything about me." Had he been a few years older, a few years wiser, he'd have hexed the lot of them, consequences unheeded. He liked to think he would have, anyway. In reality, he would probably still would have made a run for it. Because the truth was, he did care. He was devastated. How could they do this to him? His shoulders trembled as fresh tears surfaced. "I thought they were my friends."

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy held her hands up in a sort of surrender when Malachi told her to get off him. She moved back a little bit, to give him the room he needed, but she didn't believe that he was fine. So she wasn't going to leave him unless she was convinced otherwise. Emmy stayed silent, but still looking at Malachi with sadness before his eyes let loose some more tears and he spoke again. Emmy couldn't help herself, as she placed a hand on his shoulder again. "It's okay Malachi! I can be your new friend. Or do you want me to go and get them to come apologize?" Emmy asked, her heart feeling sore for the boy in front of her.

 

[Malachi Ryu]

This time, he didn't shrug Emmy away. Did she really mean that? Did she really want to be his friend? Or was she going to turn around and tell him she'd never really liked him, just his house? "No," he said. "I don't want to talk to them. Ever." He scrubbed a hand over his face. His cheeks were still red with humiliation. He'd been really looking forward to his last year at primary school - though admittedly the emphasis was on 'last' - and now it was shaping up to be the worst year of his life. Nobody would want to talk to him, now. Not if Alex told the whole class what his dad had done.

Malachi looked at Emmy. "Do you really want to be my friend?" he asked, doubtfully. She must have realised it was going to make her look uncool if she hung out with him. Why on earth would she do that to herself?

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy was relieved that Malachi didn't shove her off, she didn't want to make him angrier, but she knew that sometimes hugs were all people needed to make them feel better. But this was a terrible situation, and Emmy knew that a hug wouldn't help too much, but maybe just some comfort could make it a little bit better. She nodded her head when Malachi said he didn't want to talk to them ever, she was going to make sure that he didn't have to. The blonde couldn't comprehend how upset she would be if her friends threw a ball at her and said they weren't actually her friend. Emmy sat down comfortably opposite the boy, removing her hand, but nodded her head when he asked if she did want to be his friend. "Yes. You can sit next to me in class so you don't have to sit by them." Emmy wondered if he'd want to be her friend, or make new ones that would be going to the same school as him the following year. "But...I am going to a boarding school next year..." She said, giving him the option to opt out of their new friendship.

 

[Malachi Ryu]

If Emmy really meant it, then... maybe it wouldn't be such an awful year after all. He'd been meaning to try to make some new friends. Not that Alex and the gang weren't fun to hang out with, or anything, but they didn't really listen to each other's problems, or talk about things deeper than the newest Xbox game. They didn't enjoy hanging out just for the sake of it. Now Malachi knew why. Well, at least that was one mystery solved.

"Oh. Me too," he said, feeling briefly disappointed, until he remembered that he was a wizard. Anyway, maybe it wouldn't be so bad having a friend who shared the same anxieties about the future. It wasn't exactly the same, of course, but Emmy wasn't allowed to know that. "We could write to each other, like pen pals," he suggested, as if they'd been friends for years, not minutes. "Actually, no, that wouldn't work. It's in the middle of nowhere, my school. They probably don't get post." Not the regular way, anyway, he thought glumly.

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy's eyes lit up, thinking that Malachi's 'me too' meant he was going to her boarding school, but her brain quickly kicked in, reminding her that of course he wasn't going to Hogwarts. It would have been nice to have a friend to go there with, but she knew she was going to make friends anyway, and it was still exciting to go. Emmy nodded her head excitedly when he mentioned being pen pals, but he quickly shot down the idea, and Emmy felt like her emotions were on a roller coaster. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he said his school didn't get post, and she wondered about Hogwarts, and whether Hogwarts would get post, or how a non wizard could contact a wizard if they didn't have magic to send the letter. Did the postman go to the boarding school? Was he a magical postman? "Why won't your school receive letters?" She wondered if she could use his excuse for her school too. "What boarding school are you going to?" Emmy asked.

 

[Malachi Ryu]

Malachi was really, really hoping Emmy wouldn't ask for the name of his school. It was the only question he wouldn't know how to answer. Or at least, he thought it was the only question he wouldn't know how to answer. As it turned out, there were two, and Emmy asked both of them. "Um... it's just... in the middle of nowhere, like I said," he repeated. "The postman probably doesn't go that far." Did that sound plausible? Or did he sound insane? "I can't really remember the name... I think it starts with H," he added vaguely. Now he definitely sounded insane. "What about you?"

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy frowned when Malachi said that the postman wouldn't go to his school. How could she copy that excuse when it was already a not very good one? Surely postmen had vans and cars that they could drive to somewhere so far out? Did he just not want to write to her? Did he regret his decision as soon as he said it? But he continued speaking and it just sounded like he didn't want to tell her where he was going. Fair enough, they'd only been proper - secret sharing - friends for a minute, and Emmy realized she'd have to try and not tell him her school as well. A thought dawned on Emmy, and she wondered how much trouble she'd get if she was wrong in her thinking. "Is it called Hogwarts?"

 

[Malachi Ryu]

Malachi stared at Emmy in shock. She couldn't just say that!! Could she? He glanced around, but there was nobody nearby who could have overheard. Thank Merlin. "Um... yeah," he said. Now that the surprise was wearing off, a realisation was starting to dawn on him. "Are you... going to Hogwarts too?" Meeting another wizard before school changed everything. He wouldn't be on his own! It was almost too good to be true. There had to be some sort of catch, he just knew it.

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy waited, excitedly, hoping that she hadn't put her foot in it. It would be cool, unreal, if they had managed to find each other before going to Hogwarts. Of course, they went to the same Primary school, so they were bound to figure it out eventually, but maybe fate decided to have her say and let the two become friends before they went to the school. Malachi's reaction was all Emmy needed and she squealed when he said yes. When he asked if she was going too, Emmy leaned forwards and flung her arms around Malachi's neck in a weird sitting-hug. "Yes! You're a wi-" She stopped herself quickly from shouting out the words. "You're a wizard too?" Emmy asked quietly. It was good enough that she was going to have a friend at the school already, but she also wasn't going to get into trouble for telling a non wizard person about a magical school!

 

[Malachi Ryu]

Malachi hesitated for a second before hugging Emmy back, giggling. "Yes! Ow, I can't breathe," he said, pulling away. What a rollercoaster! He'd gone from humiliation to despair to shock to being hugged by a girl all in the space of a few minutes. The wound was still sore, but at least now he had something to look forward to once it healed over. "This is so weird! All this time, we never knew. Are your mum and dad wizards, too?"

 

[Emmy Cooper]

Emmy couldn't believe it! She pulled back when Malachi said he couldn't breathe, with a giggle as well. "Sorry!" Emmy exclaimed, but her face still had a huge grin on it. Fate had stepped in! She nodded her head when Malachi said it was weird, before shaking her head when he asked about her parents. "Just my dad now, and he's not - although mom wasn't either. What about you? Malachi this is so exciting! We were just meant to be friends!"