la vie en rose • {shelby, tomie}

She didn’t say anything about the pushups. Even here, she’d been trying to get up before Shelby and fit a little exercise in on the walkway outside their room. She knew she’d have a hard time doing all the stuff she wanted when she got home, so she was throwing herself into it at camp. “True and true,” Tomie said. “I’ve been thinking about trying out for seeker next year,” she added quietly, a confession. “It’s like you read my mind or something.” She laughed lightly.

"Kitty's mum used to play for the Harpies," she told Shelby, matter-of-fact. She wished one of her parents was a professional quidditch player. “Just in our year or out of the whole school?” she asked. Tomie thought about it seriously for a moment. JR and Benny, of course, and Tomie. That was half a team already. Who else would she pop on her dream team?

“JR and Benny as chasers,” she started confidently. That part was easy. “And me… I guess as a seeker? Though if those guys were chasing, I might wanna do that instead…” She trailed off. There were a few kids in their year with connections to professional quidditch players. Not that that meant much, of course. She had a preferred order of things and it was friends first, then whoever else liked quidditch and was good at it. “If we’re going just our year, then Kitty or I as the other chaser, then.”

“Simon as keeper, Lachie as a beater. Maybe Archie for the other beater spot?” Tomie counted on her fingers, “That’s every spot, right?” She counted again. “Yeah that’s right. And then you can be the team manager!” Tomie laughed again, feeling a lot lighter than she had been a moment ago.

“If it’s out of the whole school then I guess I’ll just take the Gryffindor team but swap two of them out for me and Benny,” she grinned in the dark.

Shelby felt her face getting hot in the darkness, but not the way it had gotten red earlier. She felt more pleasantly satisfied that she was able to read Tomie in this instance. "That would be cool, wouldn't it?" she wondered out loud. "Being able to read minds?"

"Woah, really?" Shelby needed to talk more to Kitty, it seemed. Or to, you know, people outside of her house and Tomie's group and Archie and the Hufflepuffs in general. Classes were so often split up Gryffindor and Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, that Shelby seemed not to know her own year mates so well if they weren't in blue or yellow ties. There were only like 40 of them or so - it shouldn't be too hard to get to know all of them, eventually.

She put down a finger for every name mentioned. Seemed like a fair enough team. "Archie and Lachie would be a little crazy as beaters," she offered, "but I think that's a good thing." And you can be team manager! said Tomie, and Shelby laughed, smiling to herself. "What does team manager do, anyway? Schedule practice? Do the endorsements and stuff?" She thought about it, that didn't seem absolutely crazy. "Strategy maybe not so much."

She couldn't remember the names of anyone on the Gryffindor Team, except that Pixie was on second string. "Sounds good to me," she said anyway, her eyelids growing heavy. "Tomie and the Gryffindors."

“You can organise all our events,” she said. “Nah strategy would be for the coach I guess?” She paused for a second. “Also, team captain... Which would be me,” she added unnecessarily, before laughing lightly. “And JR would be co-captain, mostly because he’d die if I made Benny co-captain.” JR was definitely the more competitive one of the two boys. And Benny could be like, the face of the group. The one that did the interviews, got all the posters...

She smiled, thinking fondly of them both. After a beat, that fondness extended to the little group she was lucky to be friends with. Then she felt a little disappointed again when she remembered that she was leaving camp like, way too soon. “Tomie and the Gryffindors,” she repeated, but there was a note of something like determination in her voice. She really needed to get on the team next year.

Tomie yawned widely, then turned onto her side to get more comfy. “I wish we were in the same house, Shelby,” she said sleepily. “Then we could just chat like this every night and annoy all the others.” She closed her eyes, half-smiling at the thought.

Shelby gave a dramatic, theatric sigh of relief. "Good, I'd be rubbish at strategy. Glad you're team captain."  This was... kind of fun. She could see a little better why Dad was into his Fantasy Quidditch League thingy at the Ministry. "Captains Vos and Hawkins," she said, affecting an old timey announcer voice, "leading their team to yet another victory!" It was fun to get invested in Tomie's dream. Shelby didn't really have one yet.

Tomie yawned widely, then turned onto her side to get more comfy. “I wish we were in the same house, Shelby,” she said sleepily. “Then we could just chat like this every night and annoy all the others.” She closed her eyes, half-smiling at the thought.

She was getting really sleepy now, the minutes feeling longer and also shorter than they ought to be, but Shelby still caught Tomie's last comment. "Mmm, would be nice," she mumbled, one arm flopping over her torso to dangle off the edge of the bed. "For us, anyway." She imagined Tomie in Ravenclaw blue, couldn't picture it. "It would be nice if we were both in Gryffindor."

Tomie smiled in the dark, reaching up one hand to brush some hair out of her face. Vos and Hawkins. Had a bit of a ring to it, didn't it? Vawkins... Hos... Whatever. "I'll try be a good one," Tomie said, taking her role as captain seriously even if it was make-believe. Her thoughts were going in weird tangenty directions now, as she got more sleepy.

“Yeah then you and Benny and I… hang out every night before bed,” she commented, the words coming out in a slow and easy stream now that her eyes were shut. “And we’re best-friend-roommates... and we could always, like, just stay up talking in our room… Wicked...” Tomie trailed off, picturing it pretty clearly, before the image morphed slowly into something far more abstract. She relaxed into the bed. It didn’t take her long until her breathing was light and even, and she was asleep.

/end

Best-friend-roommates... "Yeah," Shelby whispered into the night. There were some late night critters chirping outside their window, a rustle in the trees nearby. It was so cozy under the blankets, and the idea of Benny and Tomie getting to hang out with her all the time like this... "Wicked," she echoed. One long blink turned into another long blink turned into her eyes settling together. She was still smiling, listening to Tomie's breathing mix with the other night sounds. A familiar American lullaby.

Her dreams were full of Quidditch matches and rice bowls and adventures with a really cool familiar face.

[[out, fin]]