she showed me all the stars { shelby }

"Maybe rowing club," Tomie said, and Shelby grinned. That would be so nice - to be able to do like, sporty things with her best friend. "You'd get your arms really strong, I bet," Shelby said, trying to sell rowing club a little more. "If I can get Flitwick to approve."

Did she let herself think best friend? That was wrong, come on, Benny was Tomie's best friend. Shelby shook her head quickly, trying to shake the thought from her mind.

All dressed, Shelby pulled her own shoes on and glanced at her watch again. "One o'clock." She looked up at Tomie, nodded, and slipped out the door after her. The night air was cool on her skin, and she could hear crickets all around them. It was dim - the little candle mug light did help. Shelby pressed up against the cabin next to them - their lights were out, thank Merlin. "Let's go slowly," she whispered, inching along the cabin wall.

Tomie smiled, because she wanted to laugh, but they were supposed to be stealthy and all… But when Shelby made the arms comment, she raised her eyebrows. “True,” she said thoughtfully. Tomie chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment, really considering that she would probably need to do all kinds of arm exercises if she wanted to get strong enough to one day switch to beater.

It didn’t even occur to her that there was a chance she wouldn’t get onto the team, like, ever. At the moment, her plan was fairly simple; get onto the team as either a chaser (because there were three positions for it, so she only had to be the third-best option to get the spot) or seeker (because she was small and fast, and an extremely confident flier, and not as many people were as good at that position) and then get strong enough to one day switch to beater.

Tomie felt like a spy or something as she crept along the wall. It made her want to laugh, though, and she knew if she were with Benny right now, the pair of them would be holding back fits of giggles right now. Tomie heard a sound and froze on the spot, but then she realised it was just a snore from the window they were passing. She grinned, then glanced at Shelby and had to cover her mouth with a hand because she felt like laughing.

There was a loud weird honking noise - Shelby froze. It sputtered out after a minute, and then Shelby recognized it for what it was. Snoring. Loud snoring like her dad. Mum had charmed earplugs that let all the sound in except Dad's snores. Shelby kind of wished she had them now. Merlin, this guy was loud! Shelby's eyes met Tomie's, shining in the reflected light of their little mug candle, and snorted despite herself. It was a soft noise, but Shelby cover her nose. A moment passed, and no Teddy or Carla came stomping by.

Shelby nodded at her co-conspirator, pointing in the direction they should go. There was some shade in a little stand of trees. Shelby looked left, right, then darted for it. She wished their cabin was a little closer to the cafeteria, but this espionage stuff was fun. "Should we go around the art cabin? Or straight across?" Shelby asked Tomie in a low whisper, pointing at the two buildings.

Tomie raised her eyebrows as Shelby snorted, and she almost let a nervous giggle out, but managed to refrain. She tried to take a peek into the window the snoring was coming from, but it was way too dark inside for her to be able to see anything. Tomie crept silently alongside the cabin, then dashed to the trees.

“Straight across,” Tomie answered immediately. She wasn’t not scared, exactly – her heart was beating pretty fast, after all, and it wasn’t from the short run – but that was half the fun, wasn’t it? There was a certain type of rush that came from being like, physically scared of doing something, but then doing it anyway. Adrenaline rush, or whatever. Tomie supposed that this was quite a Gryffindory thing to think. “On three,” she said. “One… Two…”

Tomie gasped silently, grabbing Shelby’s hand and pulling her back just as the other girl was about to dart out from the trees. She tugged her unceremoniously back into the darkness, holding a finger up to her lips then pointing. There were two adultish-looking figures walking quietly along the path beside one of the buildings. Tomie’s eyes grew wide as she realised that they were holding hands, and then she quickly let go of Shelby’s hand, for no specific reason.

Was that...? Tomie mouthed the words at Shelby, frowning. Was it Teddy and Carla?? Really it could be any two adultish-looking people, but... the scandal!

Tomie said on three, and Shelby crouched, ready to run across the field as fast as she could (which was probably decently fast, given her beanpole legs were so outrageously long. One. Two. Thr- she was already launching herself out of the copse when Tomie yanked her back. She lost her balance and fell, clinging to Tomie's hand. "What?" Shelby hissed, trying not to yell OW at the top of her lungs. She wasn't even hurt, she was just being a baby.

It was disappointing when Tomie let go of her hand, but Shelby was too confused to dwell on that. She followed the line of Tomie's arm. "No," Shebly mouthed, confused still. WAS that Teddy and Carla? Hazel would be devastated. Shelby squinted - it was definitely Carla, but Teddy was too generic-looking to identify from this distance.

As the two girls watched, the adults stopped just below before the path ended. Carla swivelled around, pulled the Guy, whoever he was, into her, and -

"Ew!!" Shelby managed to keep her voice low, but she still said it out loud. She slapped a hand over her mouth. She had seen Mum and Dad kiss before, sure, but like quick pecks on the lips! This guy was, like, EATING her FACE! So gross. She couldn't stop staring.

Tomie gave Shelby a look when she spoke out loud, breaking the silence, but she glanced back quickly. Thankfully, the pair seemed too enthralled with their current activity to have heard the girls make a sound. Tomie wrinkled her nose, but she couldn’t quite look away. Maybe it was the night-energy of it all; the romance of a clandestine meeting. She didn’t think of herself as a particularly romantic sort of person – romance was more of a Wendy thing, she thought (and made a mental note to share what she was witnessing with her blonde friend as soon as she had the chance) – but she couldn’t stop staring, and she wasn’t quite as grossed out by it as Shelby seemed to be, either.

She’d seen people kiss before. But only ever people who like, knew people might see them. Maybe that was why. “It’s weird,” she breathed, turning to Shelby a bit. Weird to be kissing, though? Or weird to be watching? They couldn’t exactly run off or something; they were lucky not to have been noticed the first time they’d made noise, Tomie didn’t really want to risk it happening again. Though, she supposed, what would they do, send her home from camp? Ha! Tomie felt restless. She turned to Shelby again to whisper, very quietly, in her ear: “Merlin, do you think they’ll be here all night?”

"So weird," Shelby replied, just breathing the words and muffled by her hand on her mouth. Merlin, they just kept wiggling their faces on each other. Sure, Shelby couldn't really see what was happening in detail, but it was gross! Where was that man's hand going! Everything about this was alarming.

Would they be here all night? Shelby shuddered. How could this be that entertaining? Clearly she needed to read more of Wendy's romance books to understand it, but the idea of a boy stick his tongue down her throat seemed unappealing. It all seemed very wet, what was happening with Carla and The Man. She did not understand the appeal. The way people kissed in the books she read had always seemed so soft and tender and nobody was making whatever noise Carla just made. "Do you think they would even notice us?" Shelby whispered back, eyes wide. "Maybe we can sneak around them?" It seemed unlikely but Shelby Did Not Want To See Anymore Of This, Thank You.

Tomie wrinkled her nose a bit more, her frown deepening, too. Why were they making out outside, where anyone could see them?? Wasn’t this a camp for children?? She supposed that, being the middle of the night and all, the pair didn’t think that they were going to get caught. She wondered what the ramifications would be if they – she and Shelby – just walked out, now?

“Yeah,” Tomie breathed, but she didn’t make a move. If it was Teddy, then quite frankly, she thought Carla could do better. She’d seen Teddy on a broom – he wasn’t all that, she didn’t get the fuss. Carla herself was more talented, and funnier. Prettier too, not that that mattered… “Is it Teddy?” she whispered disapprovingly, “I can’t tell.” She couldn’t tell much of what was going on right now; the pair had sort of merged into a blurry blob in the darkness.

Shelby squinted, then shook her head. "No idea," she whispered back. Teddy looked exactly like two other counsellors at camp, though one of his look-alikes was French, apparently. They would have to get closer to them to hear the accent and actually identify this fellow. Shelby did not want to do that. Shelby just wanted to have a little adventure to steal tea with Tomie, not to bear witness to whatever nonsense this was.

Shelby crouched down again, looking for something, anything, in the ground to help remove Carla and her beau from the situation. There was a good size rock, here. Shelby wrapped her palm around it - it had a decent weight, and it would definitely make noise if it hit a wall. She tugged on Tomie's shirt, pushing the stone into the Indonesian girl's hand. "Can you?" Shelby pointed at the other side of the art cabin - it would distract them, maybe, and they could run for the cafeteria.

Tomie took the rock in her hand, weighing it up. To be honest, she wasn’t really that good at throwing. Probably better than a lot of her peers, definitely better than Shelby, but could she hit the target? She looked up, bouncing the stone in her hand a little as she psyched herself up. She really didn’t want to miss in front of Shelby.

She nodded, a determined sort of look on her face. Her thoughts turned to quidditch, thinking that if she couldn’t even hit the wall with this rock that she probably shouldn’t bother trying out for a chaser position next year. But if she couldn’t throw, then she was pretty sure the only position she’d have a chance at was seeker.

The thing about being a seeker was that it was sort of a solo sport. Not entirely, of course – a seeker needed to be aware of everything that was going on in the game; where the bludgers were, where the points were at et cetera – but most of the time you just had to look for the snitch, and then the main moment came when you had to catch it. Tomie was less interested in the idea of being a seeker; the only position that felt less appealing was being a keeper. At least if she made seeker she’d get to work out some of her new flying skills…

All of this raced through her head as she bent her arm, then pegged the rock across the clear space in between the trees where they were hiding and the building she was aiming for. Tomie smiled as the rock soared in a perfect arc towards the building, but then her mouth fell open as it hit the middle of a window and a loud, glassy smash! sounded out in the dead of night.

"Oh my god," she whispered, her eyes wide, her mouth still open but smiling now, as she heard Carla's clipped gasp, crystal clear somehow even though they weren't close enough that she should have.

CRASH.

Shelby's hands flew to cover her mouth. "Oh my god!" she whispered back. Tomie had broken a window in the art cabin! In retrospect, that was a completely logical conclusion to Shelby asking her friend to throw a rock, but she still hadn't expected it! She was hoping for just a clunk against the wall. Tomie's aim had been so good when she whacked her in the face with the shirt earlier. Shelby looked wide-eyed between Tomie and the counsellors. They had broken their embrace - finally - and walking around to assess the damage.

Well, now was their chance. "Come on!" Shelby hissed, making a break for the cafeteria. In investigating the broken glass, Carla and Maybe-Teddy had moved into the art cabin. Now was probably their only chance to get what they had come for.

Carla and The Man moved to the door side of the art building, presumably to go inside and check out what the noise had been. Tomie thought they looked a little nervous, but she was probably just projecting; it was hard to see much in this light.

She shot Shelby a grin as they ran, but she was trying not to laugh. If anyone had been around, they probably would have heard their footsteps echo off the building as they approached. Tomie, for one, wasn’t being especially stealthy at this point. The pair made it to their destination in seconds.

The Gryffindor girl was all bouncy from the adrenaline, and practically bounded to the door to test the handle. It wasn’t locked, so she opened it and peeked inside. Empty. “Wicked,” she said, then laughed. She spun around and walked inside backwards, shooting Shelby a big, crinkled-eye smile as she held the door open.

She felt like her feet were slamming against the ground as they ran. How did Carla not hear them? Still, it was a rush to reach the door of the cafeteria and realize that no one had followed them. Shelby pressed herself up against the wall again, trying to slow her breathing. "Oh my god" she whispered, mostly to herself. The candle in the mug was still lit, somehow. That felt so crazy. She raised her eyes to Tomie's and burst into a wide grin. Breaking the rules felt great.

Tomie walked into the cafeteria backwards. How very cool of her. Shelby followed her, slowly closing the door behind the two of them. The cafeteria was empty, obviously, and all the food cleared away. But the big pot of coffee and hot water was still there. Shelby walked over to it and held the back of her hand up to the device. Her hand felt warm. "Still hot!" she stage whispered, delighted in their success. Now to find some mugs and the tea bags.

There was a lot of delight and glee in the room right now, and Tomie was loving it. She hadn’t really broken the rules like this with Shelby before; it was much more of a her-and-the-boys thing to do. To be honest, she hadn’t really thought Shelby was much of a rule-breaker.

“Oooh,” Tomie said, her eyes brightening a bit as she grabbed one of the little packets of raw sugar from its container and opened it, quickly emptying the contents straight into her mouth. “Surprised that survived,” she said in between crunches, pointing at the mug in Shelby’s hands. The brunette ran her hand over the pocket of her basketball shorts, feeling for the lighter. Absentmindedly, she wondered if there were some more candles in here somewhere. She still had the sugar packet’s rubbish in her hand too, but while the image of lighting more fires was a fun one, Tomie didn’t really want to get in trouble for burning the summer camp down, so she dismissed the idea she’d had.

“Ooooh, I’m going to have a coffee,” she said Coffee tasted disgusting, but it was supposed to keep you awake, right? Tomie went hunting in the dark for a mug, and found a small stack of them that she almost toppled; she caught and steadied them quickly, though. One for her, one for Shelby. "Tea or coffee, Miss Trickett?" she asked in her poshest voice.

If this had been at Hogwarts, last year, Shelby thought that she wouldn't have dared to break rules like this. Much less cause property damage! She wasn't a goody-two-shoes, exactly, but Shelby had a healthy fear of authority, and Hogwarts was her home for the foreseeable future. But here, in another country, knowing her stay was finite, something had changed. She was proud of herself.

Tomie was rubbing off on her.

She glanced over just in time to see her friend inhale a packet of sugar. Shelby laughed, her first full-voiced laugh since they left their cabin. She kept her voice low, over course, but they had gotten away with it! Shelby felt okay using her inside voice now. "Me too," she replied, setting the mug down on the edge of the counter. The light flickered but stayed up.

"Coffee?" Shelby made a taste. That stuff was nasty, all bitterness and smoke. More power to Tomie for trying it, but Shelby wasn't brave enough for that yet. Shelby laughed at Tomie's little affect, and pushed herself onto a tabletop, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knees like some sort of prim and proper lady. "Tea, if you please, Miss Vos," she replied, struggling to get the sentence out amongst the giggles bubbling up from her throat.