Closed Testing the Water

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer tucked himself into an alcove as soon as class ended, glad he'd been sitting close enough to the door to slip out before the bulk of his classmates. He needed a moment to recollect himself after spending what had to have been most of the lesson staring hopelessly at Estella to the point where he was starting to creep himself out now. He hadn't gotten up the guts to talk to her much since The Kiss last year (and he was thinking of it like that; "The Kiss") and it was getting to a point where it was getting ridiculous. He wanted to talk to her, or more specifically, he wanted to ask her out, but every time he tried to drum up the nerve he just thought about the look on Nikko's face and how quickly Essie had run off after and he couldn't find the words again.

But there she was now, stepping out of class, her dark hair swinging hypnotically around her face. Surely it'd been long enough though he tried to assure himself, running a slow hand down his face before giving himself a good shake. Sawyer just had to stop thinking about it. "Essie, hey!" He said, stepping into her path before she could get too far down the hallway. Great! Contact made. Only problem with not thinking is now Sawyer had no idea what to say. "Uh.. How's.. It going?" This was going to be a disaster.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

So far, Essie had done a pretty good job at avoiding both Nikko and Sawyer. She wasn't one who liked to face her problems, and all of the other distractions at Hogwarts, including classes and prefect duties, were really helping her with it. Essie sat at the front of class, focusing solely on the professor and making sure she didn't miss a thing that they were saying. It was easy for her to focus at the front of the class, even with both of the boys in the back of her mind.

As class ended, Estella planned to leave as quickly as she could, even though her next class didn't start for a while. She had to finish the sentence she was writing though, and wrote down the homework too just so she didn't forget. She immediately regretted the small delay however when she heard the sound of a familiar voice as she stepped out of the classroom. This startled her a little and she gasped, turning around to face him as a large fake smile formed on her lips. "Sawyer!" she exclaimed in her best attempt at pretending she was happy to see him and that it wasn't awkward at all. As he awkwardly asked her how it was going, Estella was quick to respond, unable to help the sudden rambling. "Oh, it's going great! Just really great, you know? I had a really good break and I'm loving the new course material in our classes. Who knew school could be so interesting? And being the editor now for the Hogwarts Monthly keeps me busy as well. Everything is just really good." It was a little sarcastic, but she still tried her best to sound convincing. "How's it going with you?"

 

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer did his best to try and actually listen to Essie as she spoke and not spend the entire time trying to think of something interesting to say. He wasn't sure if her brightly chipper attitude was reassuring or daunting, he certainly wasn't able to match her energy when she turned the question around on him, returning her smile with an equally strained one of his own. "Oh uh, that sounds good. We've both been busy aye, it's good," he said, pointedly not wanting to point out how little they'd managed to talk in the past few months. "I've been keeping up with Quidditch mostly, captain and all now right," he offered, making a vague hand motion to the badge on her robes just in case she'd not heard before deciding against, mostly succeeding in just flailing a hand between them before shoving it in his pocket before it could get any more big ideas.

"Since we're so busy though I guess.. You wouldn't be free to uh. Eat lunch. Together or something? Or-Or maybe grab a drink over Brightstone weekend? If you're not busy that is. Yeah." Sawyer didn't think he'd ever been this sweaty in his life, he just hoped Essie was paying more attention to his god awful attempt to ask her out rather than that.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Estella was relieved to hear that Sawyer had also been busy. It was a great excuse as to why they hadn't spoken in a while. "Oh yeah, captain! Congratulations!" she exclaimed, glad that she wasn't the only one with a brand new title. All of her friends had been doing very well lately and she was proud of them. She pursed her lips at Sawyer's awkward invitation to go out together, pondering whether or not it was a good idea. She figured he just wanted to catch up with her, but the idea of properly talking about what happened last semester made Essie feel a little nervous. She was barely even able to talk to Nikko about it. Eventually convincing herself that it would be fine and it would be just like old times, Essie nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Maybe lunch... sometime soon?"

 

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer tried not to puff out his chest too obviously at Essie's congratulations, waving it off before sticking a hand through his hair. That had probably been a bad move he realized belated, trying to subtly smooth it down without Essie catching on to the movement, his hand slithering awkwardly down the side of his face before he forced it to rest at his side. He could do this, he could act like a normal human around a girl he liked. Thankfully, Essie didn't leave him hanging too long, his awkward offer to hang out blessedly accepted, making him perk up even more. "Really? I mean yeah, cool great, lunch is cool," he said, taking a deep breath. He could do lunch, super casual. And maybe they'd just sit as far away from the Gryffindor table as possible... "I can uh, catch up with you in the Great Hall later?" As much as Sawyer wanted to set an actual date, he didn't want to come on too strong. He hadn't even technically made it clear if this was a date or not, but maybe the spontanety would be better for his nerves about the whole thing in the end. And give him something to look for even if he was sure Felix was going to catch him looking like a loon checking the Hufflepuff table every day at lunch.

 

[Estella Fuentes]

Essie could tell Sawyer was being even more awkward than normal, which was just making the Hufflepuff nervous. But why was she nervous? They were totally just friends, nothing more. Why was she feeling this way? If she just pretended that the kiss didn't happen, then everything would be fine, and hopefully Sawyer wasn't ever going to bring it up either. "The Great Hall... perfect!" she exclaimed, figuring it would make the whole thing seem a lot more casual. They had meals in the Great Hall together all of the time, so there was nothing weird there. "I guess I'll see you then? For now, I gotta... get to class." She ducked her head in the direction she was heading before turning around and walking that way.