Closed What's New With You?

[Leah Thorne]

Leah had been doing her best to catch up with all of her friends as she got back into the swing of things. But she had yet to find Chase. He tended to keep to himself and it made it extra hard to find him at times. This afternoon she made sure to scan the Hufflepuff table before heading to her own usual seat just incase she spotted her friend. It seemed like she was in luck finally and spotted his dark head of hair ducked low as he at his lunch. She nearly skipped over to where he was sitting and joined him in the seat across form him. She drummed on the table with her hands to get his attention and smiled. "Hey you!" she said with a laugh. "If I didn't know better I'd think you were avoiding me." she joked before starting to serve herself something to eat. Sometimes she thought back to their first meeting and Chase's bloody nose, and had to admit it was kind of a miracle they became friends at all. "So what have you been up to? How was your break?" she asked before popping a few grapes into her mouth.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase would like to say he felt as indifferent about being back at school as he had felt in his first year. And he did, really. He just knew he couldn't fully act like it. Had to at least try and do some things outside of class so that his mom would stop worrying about him being on his own all of the time. Would he put a lot of effort in? Definitely not. The bare minimum, if he could. Still, the tiniest bit of effort would be enough to make his mom happy so he might as well put up with it. He had already signed up for a club even if he wasn't specifically keen on joining and tried out for the quidditch team. The latter had been more for himself. Not because he liked the idea of playing a teamsport but because getting the opportunity to swing a bat at things sounded like it might be fun. He had been quietly eating his lunch without giving any typically sweet hufflepuff around him the idea that he wanted to socialize when someone suddenly drummed on the table. Chase glanced up, about to glare at whoever it was but stopping himself when he realized it was Leah. "Hey." He greeted her. "Well I avoid pretty much anyone." He added, trying his best to make it sound like a bite of a joke. To be fair, Leah would be at the top of his list when it came down to people he didn't actually mean to ignore. "Not much. Spend most of my break at home because mom was working. But then she worried about me not having friends so I signed up for that brotherhood thing or whatever." He explained, wondering if Leah was in any clubs and if she was, which. She seemed like someone who might just want to try them all. "Oh, and I guess I'm on the quidditch team now." Chase added with a shrug. "What about you?"

 

[Leah Thorne]

Leah scoffed at his response to her joke. "Ha ha. Well apparently you're doing a great job." she said sarcastically as she finished chewing and started to serve herself a proper meal. She listened intently as she poured herself some pumpkin juice too and smiled when Chase mentioned his mom. From what she had heard she seemed like a nice lady and Leah was a little jealous of how close they seemed. She knew her mother loved her but sometimes she could practically feel her mother getting distracted every time she tried to talk to her about something she was excited about. "Oh brotherhood is cool. I wonder if they'll do any activities with Heta Omega. That way we can hang out together." Leah said excitedly. She had heard that was fairly common from the older girls in the club. Leah was about to take a sip of her juice when Chase mentioned the quidditch team. She nearly choked as she put it down, nearly spilling it all over the table. "You made the team?!" she asked with her jaw practically on the floor. Her mind was going a million miles an hour and she could hardly think of what she wanted to ask first. "When? What position do you play? Have you played before? I can help you practice if you'd like. Or just give you advice. When's your first game?" The questions came out in a rush and she couldn't help but feel a little hurt he hadn't mentioned it before. But that was only secondary to her excitement.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase wasn't entirely sure why Leah wanted to keep hanging out with him but he wasn't going to complain. Part of him even wondered if he should've tried harder to actually be around her more. Even more so when she didn't seem to impressed with feeling like he had been avoiding her. Perhaps he just needed to get used to the idea of having a friend. Learn how to be one himself. "Didn't mean to avoid you though." He muttered when she started filling up her plate before telling her about his break. "How was yours?" He asked, feeling like he should've done so earlier but still cramming the question into the conversation anyways. That was what friends did, right? Show interest in each others lives? Yeah, he was pretty sure of that. "That would be good. I'm not even sure if I'd like the club." Chase nodded when Leah seemed excited about the prospect of the clubs doing an activity together. He hadn't paid much attention to what the club was about other than the fact that it was just boys but the way she said it made him think the clubs hosting activities together wasn't something new. When Leah almost choked on her drink Chase couldn't help but to grin. If only just barely. Not so much because she almost spilled her drink but mainly because she seemed more excited about the situation than he was. "After try-outs, obviously." He replied in a joking matter when she started bombarding him with multiple questions all at once. Something that didn't come entirely natural to him. "Beater. No. Might take you up on that. Maybe not on that. I don't know, soon, against Slytherin." He answered her questions one by one, trying to use as little words as possible so he could actually remember what she had asked him. "I didn't actually think I'd make the team though. Just wanted to see what it was like to hit a few things."

 

[Leah Thorne]

Leah smiled and sat up a bit straighter when Chase admitted that he hadn't been avoiding her. That was nice to hear even if she didn't doubt that. She shrugged when he asked her about her own break. "It was fine. Visited family. Barely had time to stay in one place for long. My parents kept insisted in needed to be one place or another." she grumbled. She didn't say this part out loud but sometimes she thought her parents just wanted her to be with them so she wasn't with the other. It was exhausting. At least she could apparated with her parents or use a portkey. She would have hated it even more if she had to travel the way muggles do. Leah was perfectly happy to move on from her boring break and focus on quidditch. She chuckled and pushed his arm playfully when he answered one of her questions sarcastically. She couldn't help if they all weren't to the point, she was excited. But she listened to the rest of his answers. Beater suited him. She knew he had a decent arm after all. She made a face at him when he said he wouldn't need her advice. Well she would be the judge of that after she saw him play. And her smiled dropped slightly when he said the first game was against Slytherin. "Oh, that might be a hard one. How's your seeker?" she asked, thinking out loud. "Well now you know. You're starting right?"

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase frowned for a second when Leah talked about how her break had been. Even though he liked to consider her a friend he didn't know her especially well and yet he always got the feeling that she wasn't as keen on being home as he was. Perhaps that's why she was so excited about Hogwarts. "That sucks. Are they separated?" He questioned when she mentioned being in one place or another. He liked to think that kids who had both of their parents should be glad about that but he knew that was ridiculously unfair. Surely those kids could still be less happy with their home situation than he was with just his mom. "I reckon it's going to be a battlefield." Chase shrugged when they talked about Hufflepuffs game against Slytherin. "Word is their beaters are brutal." He added. If he was anything of a team player he'd feel bad about his team having to make do with him as a beater. But he wasn't much of a team player yet. Instead, he mainly just hoped he'd make it off of the pitch in one piece. "He's alright, I think. I mean I haven't paid a lot of attention to the team yet. Didn't even watch the games last year so I'm sure you'll know more about that than I do." He shrugged before nodding in confirmation of him being in a starter position.

 

[Leah Thorne]

Leah sighed and shifted slightly in her seat as she weighed her options on how to answer that question. She saw her mom either dodge the question or gracefully brush it off all summer when they went to parties and visited her friends. But Leah didn't think she needed to be that tactful. Not with Chase. "Divorced." she said matter-of-factly. "I thought that would have solved they're arguing problem but sometimes I feel like it just made them worse." she added. She didn't need too but it felt kind of nice to get it off her chest.

She nodded thoughtfully at Chase's response about the Slytherin team. Leah felt much more comfortable talking about quidditch. "Yeah. I've heard that too. I wanted to try and check out their practices but I feel like the captain my hex my face off if she caught me." she said with a sigh. It wasn't like she was on the Gryffindor team. But she also wasn't above spying. Leah groaned. "Chaseeee." she said exasperatedly when he said he hadn't even gone to any of the games last year. "You really jumped in blind." As frustrated as she felt she took a deep breath. "Well that's alright. You have me. I can give you a total run down of last season. Hufflepuff didn't have a great one." she admitted.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase could almost see Leah think about her answer, wondering what was going on in her head. It was only now that he realized his question might've been a bit of a tricky one. Perhaps if her parents were separated she didn't like talking about it. Or maybe things weren't quite that black and white. He nodded when she told him her parents were divorced. His mom had been the only parent he had ever had, ever known, and while he sometimes wished he had a dad he could talk to he knew that might not necessarily make things better. There had to be a reason his mom didn't talk about his dad right? Plus, the idea of having two parents that argued all the time like what seemed to have been going on in Leah's home didn't sound like a fun time either. "Sounds like a blast." He responded with a hint of sarcasm. "I'm sure if you'd ever want to be somewhere else during the break my mom would be cool with letting you stay over. We have a guest room." He added with a shrug.

When Leah mentioned the Slytherin captain Chase couldn't help but to snort. He hadn't been to any of the quidditch games last year but he'd be lying if he said he hadn't heard the whispers about Slytherin's beater turned captain. Rumour was she's a bit of a tyrant. Something he was sure Rene couldn't even be if he wanted to. "From what I've heard about her that wouldn't surprise me." He replied with a nod, scrunching up his face when Leah didn't seem impressed with his lack of knowledge about what was now his own team. "Like I said: I didn't actually expect to make the team." He offered in defense, frowning when she told him more about it. "Good to hear. Might as well just quit while I'm ahead then." Chase shrugged.