Tripped Up

[Bethany Zanders]

Although Bee was rather skilled at surfing because her brothers had taught her early on, for some reason the tiny Gryffindor couldn't seem to get the hang of skateboarding quite like they did. Currently the Gryffindor was in the courtyard riding around on her brother's old skateboard but as soon as she tried to do the simplest trick her brothers had shown her, she would fall forward straight onto the pavement while her board when rocketing off in the opposite direction. Bee put her hands out to stop her fall and felt the familiar scratch of the ground against her raw palms and hissed in pain as she stood back up and saw the skin begin to tear slightly. She simply wiped her hands on her dirty, holey jeans and went in search for the skateboard that seemed to go farther on its own than when she rode it.​

 

[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier rarely went to the courtyard unless he was searching for the few spiders who chose to weave their webs between the stone arches surrounding it. He thought that properly going outside to walk in the school grounds was a more productive, less claustrophobic way to spend his time as he wasn't busy worrying about being caged in by walls. That was why his intent after leaving class that afternoon was to bypass the courtyard entirely and spend what was left of the sunny day sitting on the great lawn. It seemed like the perfect ending to a day of being cooped up inside, however as he walked past the entrance to the courtyard he was stopped by a skateboard crossing his path. He turned his head to where the skateboard came from and smiled when he saw the familiar face of a Gryffindor in his year standing up from the floor. The skateboard could only belong to her so he quickly bent to pick it up and approached the girl with a toothy grin on his face. "Hey Beth!" He exclaimed. "Picked this up for you." He stated, holding the skateboard towards her and waiting for her to accept it.​

 

[Bethany Zanders]

Bee had just turned around to look for the skateboard when she saw Xavier standing there with her board in his hands. "Hey!" she greeted him happily, not having seen him much other than classes which was not nearly as fun as running into him around the castle. "Thanks," she said, taking the skateboard from him and adding, "It keeps trying to run away from me." She laughed lightly but there was a hint of annoyance in her voice. "What have you been up to?" she asked, glad for the distraction. "Did you ever get another one of those bugs you lost last time?" she asked, referring to the first time they met and his bug had escaped, which she still felt bad about. She couldn't remember what it was called off the top of her head so she hoped he knew which one she was talking about. ​

 

[Xavier Jeffreys]

Xavier continued to smile his signature toothy grin as Beth said the skateboard always ran away from her. Having things run away from him was something Xavier knew all too well, with people, and bugs. He understood the slight annoyance in Beth's tone but didn't waste breath mentioning it, instead opting to make a joke of it. "My bugs always run away from me, too." He said, laughing. Xavier was at a loss of what to say to Beth's question of what he had been up to, as nothing notable had happened in his life recently, apart from meeting Signy and making other friends, but such things might not have been important to others. He simply shrugged and said "Just making new friends, catching bugs. I haven't caught another cicada but I've been on the look out." Cicadas were difficult to find, but Xavier knew with perseverance and hard work, he would be able to find another one. Losing the last one he caught was due to bad timing and he didn't hold it against Beth. After all he had made a friend in her when he lost the bug. "What about you? How have you been?" He asked in return, tilting his head to one side, curiously.
​