[stoke newington] don't wanna take the world for granted { dingles }

MARCH 2004

“...And I guess they had a fight then? I mean, Ari didn’t tell me everything yet, I was being all back-patty and sympathetic and I built this like, blanket fort? We used to do it back when I lived at the other house, so anyway I wasn’t digging for details even though I obviously wanted to know…” Freya’s voice dipped in and out of being muffled as she rifled through countless cardboard boxes, the the odd set of glasses clinking together here and there.

“...And so I don’t know if we hate him yet or not, but isn’t that so wild? Like are we never gonna see him again?” The blonde popped up from behind a pile of boxes, a fork in one hand and two spoons in the other. “This is ridiculous,” Freya muttered, tossing her hair behind her shoulder with a jerk of her head. “Dan, can you toss me your wand? Mine’s in my room.” She swapped the spoons to her right hand and held her left out for it.

Freya caught the wand with ease. “Accio, er, a towel? And a breadknife.” She glanced at the boys, where they were sitting in what was a makeshift little nest between a set of drawers that was not-yet-assembled and another pile of mislabeled boxes with a big plant on top. “Do they cut it at Amici’s? They don’t, do they? Accio pizza cutter!” Freya ducked as the breadknife shot out of the side of a cardboard box and flew straight into the wall behind her. “Oops,” she said, catching first the towel, then the pizza cutter with ease.

She turned and tugged the knife out of the wall with some effort and a sheepish smile, then brushed a bit of chipped paint away, which only made it worse. Oh well.

“Soooo we get the movie now?" she asked, turning back to the others. "We’ve got like forty minutes before the pizza gets here and I wanna change into my pyjamas before we eat. I’ve got the money,” she added proudly, patting the pocket of her denim shorts. She was alway the go-to for money exchanges with her friends because it was easy to get money changed over at work.

"Damn, Tricky, watch where your pointing that thing," Jeremy said through a laugh as he stood back up and walked carefully away from the knife she'd just thrown at the wall beside him. He hadn't really been in the line of fire, but based on his dramatics; one might have thought she'd targetted him purposefully. The redhead let out another laugh as she managed to catch the other objects she'd summon from the boxes, and Jere wondered why they bothered to unpack at all. Eventually, they would accio everything they used, right? And then whatever was left in the boxes could disappear with the cardboard. It seemed perfectly practical to the wizard, but then again, Jere had never minded living in utter chaos, and the state of their new apartment was just that at the moment.

He navigated around the maze of half-unpacked boxes, baskets of unfolded laundry (were they clean or dirty? he would never remember), and a staggering amount of plants that he made sure weren't packed in the dark for too long. They'd managed to secure a sofa and figure out the best way to floo an order to the pizzeria, but that was about it. Oh, and Freya had claimed the best bedroom, but Jere didn't mind. The fire escape to the roof was close enough to his room, and that was all he needed for his herbology setup.

Jeremy pretended he had not been hanging on to every word Freya said about Prosper and Ari's breakup, but he had been. It wasn't as if he had ever really had a shot with Ariana, and he was with Montse now (his girlfriend, yes girlfriend), but still, Jere felt some way about it, and it showed on his face. He could never hide what he was feeling, especially not around Danny and Freya. "Yeah, sucks that we will never see him again." He said, but his smile gave away his sarcasm. "But really, is Ana okay?" Jeremy asked, still obnoxiously holding on to the nickname he used for her even though no one else did.

Frey brought up the plan, and Jere got excited again, pizza, pajamas, and a movie. This was precisely the type of thing he'd hoped for when they all moved in together. Sure they did this stuff even when Freya didn't live with them, but this time around, they didn't have Muscle's McGreg to ruin their fun when he woke up for his workout at 4 am. "Yeah, sounds good, I'm good to apparate... wait, that doesn't work." They couldn't exactly call a ZipZap to get them to the Muggle Movie Store. They needed a new plan—instead, Jeremy lit a joint he found in one of the boxes.

"So you didn't get any actual information?" Danny called out from behind a tower of boxes as he tried to route around to find the one Frey told him was labeled 'living room' to get out some of the blankets and pillows to make the movie watching more comfortable. Mostly he was just finding boxes labeled with 'Stuff' and 'Other Stuff' written in his own handwriting. Foiled by his own humor, again. He had tried to accio it directly, but had just gotten smacked in the face by the whole box. His nose still tingled with pain a bit. Sure, he felt bad that Ari was upset about the break up but Mr. Cute Frenchie was a turd so had she really expected anything different? Well, he was nice enough on the nights Ari had brought him to trivia he guessed, but it's not like he was one of the guys like Jere or Aiden or even Greg.

"I won't miss him," he said bluntly as he held up a throw pillow triumphantly and then promptly tossed it at Jere's head. "Think fast, numbnuts." A second later, another pillow was sailing through the air aimed at his best friend then he dragged a blanket out of the box and across the floor. He heard Freya calling between some boxes and peered around until he saw her familiar head of curls and tossed her his wand easily, watching with admiration as she caught it deftly and then summoned the utensils and almost catching all of them. "It's fine," he told Jere. "You could use a little off the top anyway," he added with a laugh, and just the thought of Tricky giving him an accidental hair cut made him laugh even harder.

"Forty minutes?" he repeated, complaining as he rubbed his stomach and pouted. He was starving. Meaning he hadn't had any food in about an hour and would probably wither away any moment now if their pizza didn't show up soon. He liked muggle movies and all, but honestly he was just there for the food. Well, if Freya got all snuggly like she usually did, he wouldn't complain but he was mostly there for the pizza. "How do we watch a movie anyway? Don't we need like a thing.. or something?" he said, making a vague box shape with his hands. He had watched a movie or two with a muggleborn friend a while back but he couldn't remember any of the mechanics.

He glanced at Jere as he mentioned ZipZap. "Merlin, I hope we don't get Harold again. He hates my guts," he mentioned the last ZipZap guy who nine times out of ten answered their ZZ call. Then again, they were in a different area so maybe they'd get some hot new ZipZap girl to apparate them all over the place. A guy could dream.

Freya smacked Jeremy’s arm lightly. “We don’t know if we hate him yet,” Freya said, chastising him. “But yeah, I dunno, I’m gonna see her again tomorrow and i’m gonna make hot chocolates for us or like, maybe i’ll just take Prosecco, and we can cry or trash talk him or get trashed, I dunno. Whatever she needs.” Freya nodded once, indicating her seriousness about the topic. Friendship was one of the most important things in the world to Freya, and Ari was one of her most (maybe the most? These days?) important friends.

The blonde watched Danny make a square shape with his hands as she put the pizza cutter down beside one of the plants. She frowned, following his vague gesturing. “Yeah, we have that thing,” Freya said to Danny, like he was stupid. Realising she might not be right about that, though, she turned to Jeremy. “We have the thing, don’t we? You know?” She blinked a couple of times for emphasis.

“We can go from the back of the backyard,” Freya said. “I’ll do it if you like,” she added, holding up Danny’s wand. It had never really resisted her like she’d found some other wands to do. She wasn’t sure if that was because she and Danny were really similar, or because they were good friends, or some other wand-lore reason that was far too complex for her to know off of the top of her head. Whatever the reason, though, she didn’t mind using it. “It’s near Dalston train station right?” She asked, resting her foot up on a stray chair to tie up her shoelaces.

"Guys, it's called a television set," Jeremy answered after he'd dodged Danny's pillow bombs and tossed one back at the other wizard. Jere laughed at both of them, but in reality, that was the sum of his knowledge. They were all half-bloods, born from Halfbloods, but that didn't mean any of them had spent any substantial time in the Muggle world. Honestly, they'd probably have to Owl Cordy or someone to plug the thing in, but Jere was at least sure they had one somewhere. It was small enough to fit inside one of these boxes, bulky with a small screen and a place for a VHS to slide right in, so it shouldn't have been that difficult to find. Then again, with Professor Willbond's top-notch labeling system, they would probably be looking for it until next week.

Jeremy shared Danny's dream of finding a new ZipZap person, but he wasn't creative enough to dream for a cute witch; his imagination stopped at 'doesn't smell like fish sticks. Lighting the joint in between his fingers, he took a deep breath and nodded to Freya as he exhaled, coughing slightly but recovering just as quick. He held it toward Danny and turned his head to Tricky. "No, I mean I can apparate, but should we apparate to the muggle movie store?" His coughs broke up his sentence, and he exhaled in full before finishing the thought. "Like, do you know where to go?" Had they been to this one before? Was there some alley or private space behind that they could pop in unnoticed? And most importantly, how was Jeremy the only one thinking about this logistically?

"Oh, we don't?" Danny repeated dumbly. How did we not know if we hated Prosper? Danny was pretty clear on the topic based on the information he had already. Hell, it wasn't even a hard decision. But Ari had to decide and cry about whether or not she hated Prosper and Freya had to help her?? He didn't understand girl logic at all. But he shrugged. "Well if you need me to drop off some pizza or--" what else did chicks like? Oh! "--Or rose or something, I can be your personal delivery boy," he told her puffing out his chest a bit. Then lifted his hand to his mouth and stage-whispered. "Tips are appreciated."

But honestly, he was glad Ari had someone like Frey to lean on if she was going through something. And Tricky was pretty great at making someone feel better. She always did that for him. Hell, maybe he needed to fake a few breakups just to get special treatment. He considered the idea for a moment before one of the pillow Jere fired back at him hit him square in the face with an oooff! Merlin, what was it with everything hitting him in the money maker today?

He looked back at Freya dumbly. "I know we have the thing but don't we need a separate thing to play the movie? Or is it all in one? I dunno, I'm just here to eat the pizza," he said in his defense before Jere corrected them. It was like the blind leading the blind around here. As the other two talked logistics of apparating (never Danny's strong suit), he looked around and tripped over a few more boxes looking for his shoes. He couldn't remember where he had left them.

"Trick, have you seen my-- Ah, nevermind," he said as found them, half hiding under a box. He sat down to slide them on and then stood up and patted his pants for his pocket before he realized Frey still had his wand. Good, she kept better track of it anyway. He glanced between the two of them and then nodded toward the door, not worried at all about the logistics and assuming they had sorted it out. "Let's go, I'm hungry!"

“Oh,” Freya said. That made sense. “Well the train station has that little wizard’s alley out the back, right?” she asked. “So if it’s near there, we could just apparate to Dalston and walk?” She glanced up at Jeremy, double checking nonverbally that it actually was near the train station before placing her foot back on the ground, then putting her other one up on the chair. She popped Danny’s wand in between her teeth as she tied her shoe, then straightened up.

When Danny said her name, she glanced over at him but it seemed like he’d found what he was looking for. Cool! Accio jacket, she thought, pointing her (his) wand out and holding her other hand up to catch it as the denim flew into her hand. “Lets go from out the back,” she said, stepping over a couple of cardboard boxes, one of which had broken and was half spilling out the bottom.

She held the wand in her mouth again as she reached up to tie her hair into a high pony, stepping around bits and pieces as she made her way to the back door. She left it open as she took a few steps outside, shivering a little before she could shrug the jacket on. “Ready?” she asked, bouncing impatiently as the pair appeared in the doorway.

Jeremy nodded along as Freya went over the gameplay, head for the train station, walk from there; it made sense. He took another drag from the joint no one else wanted and put it out in the ashtray, saving the rest for later. Then, he shrugged his shoulders as they put on their shoes. Was he supposed to take his off when he was in this room? Jere looked down at the beat-up sneakers still laced (tied in knots) on his feet and shrugged yet again.

If there were new rules for the new apartment, someone needed to get them laminated and up on the wall. At least then, when Jeremy forgot about them (which he would), they could point at the sign.

“No musicals, right?” Jere half asked, half insisted, as they headed out the back of the flat and toward the street. “What about something scary?” Jere said with an enthusiastic smile. Taking a few steps out ahead of them, Jere turned around to walk backward and paid absolutely no mind to the cracks in the path. “Muggles make all kinds of horror movies. I saw one last summer; it was really dumb,” Jere looked at Danny, his eyes twinkling in a way the other wizard and maybe even Freya would recognize and sent the loudest telepathic message he could manage. (“but there were boobs”) and then continued, “But dumb in a funny way.”

Danny was a couple of steps behind Tricky and bouncing down a few steps with easy grace before he paused and glanced back at Jere. "No musicals?" he whined. "But I liked the last one. You know the one--" Danny started singing a tune, off key and off beat, but he made up for it in pizzazz as he kicked his feet out one at a time as he went down each step, jazz hands and all. He tripped down the last couple of steps and only managed not to fall because he grabbed on to the railing but he pretended like nothing happened as he grinned up at his friends.

"Horror is fine too," he added easily. "Do you remember that one that--" Jere started talking too at the same time and Danny grinned, thinking of the same movie. Then his grin turned toothy as he and Jere shared a look. "Yeah, scary movies are great," he said with a snicker as he remembered that one in particular.

He led the way as they turned the corner to head to the train station, walking backward so he could face them. "What was that one movie we saw with that one guy? Uh, Johnny? Jack? Jackie Chan!" Then he started singing 'Everybody was kung fu fightingggg' loudly before he sighed and gave up because he didn't know any other lyrics. "That one was good. Maybe a comedy?"

“Grease?” Freya guessed, perplexed, her eyes flicking from Danny’s spectacular fall-save to the railing, which swayed a little under his weight. It was a bit rusty, she thought. Should probably fix it up before her birthday.

Freya noticed their little telepathic exchange of glances and she rolled her eyes, mostly at the feeling of being left out. “Chop chop,” she said, ushering them. When they were close enough, she apparated to the little wizard’s alley behind the train station. It was surprisingly clean, and someone had even left a little pot plant on a wooden crate beside one of the brick walls. “Ooh,” Freya said, pointing. Odd, but cute?

“What about a romantic comedy?” Freya asked innocently as they started walking, knowing that her idea would probably be shot down. She thought she probably could probably have gotten either of them on board if she’d talked to them without the other one there, first, but since it was a trio thing, she didn’t think she had much of a chance.

Danny seemed to get the message, or more likely, he was already thinking about the same boob scene, and Jeremy laughed a little, and then a little more as Freya told them to hurry up in her particularly Freya sort of way. He hurried up theatrically, hopping and jogging even though it was completely unnecessary. Then when Danny began to sing the Kung Fu song, Jeremy did his best karate kick and nearly fell over.

“A romantic comedy?” Jeremy said with a dramatic thumbs down, but honestly, everyone here probably knew he’d be the first to grab a pint of ice cream and settle in for a good-hearted love story. They had apparated from the flat to the alley, and Jeremy barely even felt sick from it despite being a bit high, and now they were headed round to the entrance of the shop. “Something funny is good though,” Jeremy didn’t care what they watched, as long as they watched it together. The movie was just a reason to hang out.

"No, not that one," he told Freya, trying to remember the name of the jazz hands musical he liked but then ended up getting distracted by trying to remember the Grease Lightning moves. He almost got the arm movement right and grinned at Freya, hoping for a laugh.

But he hurried along at her request, shoving his hands into his pockets, laughing as Jere almost fell over in a almost-awesome karate kick, and then squeezing his eyes shut as she apparated them and only lightly stumbling as they landed in the back alley. "What, you want another plant you can kill?" he asked with a grin, thinking of the last plant that had met its death rather quickly. Of course, whose to say it was Freya's fault when Danny half-remembered pouring warm beer into the planter one drunken night, but he was going to rib her about it either way.

At mention of a rom com, Danny groaned. "Not a rom com. I was something with action - ninjas, spies, give me something," he complained as they walked around the corner and the little movie rental place with its neon yellow sign beckoning them closer.

Jeremy followed them out of the alley as they made their way to the movie store, and a bit of summer breeze kicked through his curls as he pulled open the door. It was a good night for movie night. Although, any night was a fantastic night to avoid adult responsibilities and goof of with his friends — especially now that they were expected to pay bills and contribute to society and all. Being a grown-up was hard, which was why he never planned to commit to it fully.

While he should have taken a moment to look at the small signs hanging above each aisle denoting the genres, Jeremy made a beeline for the overpriced snack display instead. The other two could duke it out about whether they would watch something that would kick butt or kick them in the feels; meanwhile, Jeremy had the snack situation under control. He loaded up on six different boxes of chewy candies, which were all the same candy despite being different promotional colors, a big gimmicky red and white striped carton of unpopped buttery popcorn, and black licorice before taking a breath.

“Oh, hey, Danny, you want sour or sweet!?” The red-headed wizard yelled toward where he’d seen Danny last and stood on his tippy toes to see over the racks of movies available for rent. Spinning on his old sneaker heels, Jeremy hadn’t noticed that his shoelaces had come untied. Back in their magical world, the laces were charmed to tie themselves in such a scenario magically. Still, in the muggle world, the strings flopped hazardously as Jeremy took an impetuous step forward.

One reckless foot stepped on the other, and Jeremy howled as he fell and the candy flew up into the air around him. Like a hellbent sugar cyclone, the mess of snacks twirled in the air before crashing down around him, and Jeremy laughed loudly.