Cheetos in Paradise

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, the snow was all crisp and white, and half term was only days away. Yet the Prideux prefect wasn't outside enjoying the day. Carefully peeking around him from underneath the armful of candy, he glanced around him.

He didn't know what had happened. The entire day had been off. As soon as Julian had woke up, it felt like everything - and everyone - was out to get him. Plopping down on a bench, he rubbed his head where some second year had whacked him in the head with a frisbee. What had she even been doing with a frisbee with in February? If she hadn't been in Prideux.....gritting his teeth, Julian shook his head, turning towards all the chocolate beside him.

It - it was comforting to have all that food by him. He wasn't hungry at all; but God, all he wanted to do was stuff his face. Pawing through his chocolate with shaking hands, he spread it out beside him, taking a chocolate frog from the pile. Unwrapping it, he snapped it's head off, stopping its feeble attempts of escape. Popping its head into his mouth, he hummed softly as he chewed. Swallowing, he quickly polished off the rest of the frog before turning towards the rest of the pile.

And before he really knew what had happened, Julian was surrounded by chocolate wrappers, his fingers all sticky and his mouth dry. Hands no longer shaking, he stared down at all the wrappers for a moment.

"Oh, God." He finally uttered as it hit him that he'd just eaten all of that. Suddenly feeling rather nauseous, he pulled himself up, swallowing hard. Eyes widening, he turned on his heel and fled, hands over his mouth.

Staggering into the bathroom, Julian collapsed inside the first stall. Taking deep heaving breaths for a moment, he threw up all the half-digested chocolate. Sitting back as his stomach settled, he flushed the toilet, closing his eyes as he leaned against the door. He was never doing that again.

After a few minutes, Julian stood up, exiting the stall and staring at his reflection in the mirror. He didn't look like someone who'd just thrown up. Straightening out his uniform, Julian gave himself a self-conscious nod, he exited in a flurry of robes. He had a mess to clean up.

About halfway back to the bench, with his eyes glued to his feet, Julian crashed into someone. Scowling, he rubbed his head, not looking up, "Is it too much to ask for people to avoid people they see coming? What is the world coming to?"

Mel had been wandering slowly, lost in thought and with no particular purpose in mind when someone walking faster than her crashed into her back. She went flying, landing about three feet from whoever it was on her face. She turned and sat up, rubbing her cheekbone where she'd smacked it particularly hard on the ground. Glancing up at the person, Mel saw an older boy towering above her and grousing about her not looking where she was going.

"Sorry, but you crashed into me. Seeing as you walked into my back, I'm not sure how I was supposed to see you coming and get out of the way." Mel got to her feet, dusting off her clothes, then planted her hands on her hips and glared up at the older boy. "Hey, aren''t you that Rousseau boy?"

Glancing down at the little blonde in front of him, Julian rolled his eyes, his throat burning. He didn't have the patience right now to deal with the girl. Sighing softly, he brought his hand to rub his forehead before stopping. His hands were still all sticky.

Deciding to simply cross his arms, he said, "Well," he waved dismissively, "use the eyes in the back of your head." Recrossing his arms, he nodded begrudgingly, "That would be me." Pausing, he tilted his head at her, a slow smile spreading across his face, "You're Little Blanchard, aren't you?"

Mel rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Right, I'll get on that. I'll use mine when you use yours."
She looked him over before answering, weighing her words. "Yes, I am. My brother told me about you." Warned is more like it, she thought, rolling her eyes again slightly. "My grandmother calls me Amélie, friends call me Mel. I don't want to think what enemies might call me. Take your pick. Why are your hands covered in chocolate?"

"There's nothing of any importance to me going on behind me." Julian said seriously, watching the little girl without much interest. All he wanted to do was get rid of her, toss all those wrappers away and find something for his throat. But he couldn't just insult her and leave. First of all, that'd look very bad and second, he'd rather not have Blanchard furious with him.

"He has?" Julian asked curiously, his interest piqued, "What exactly has he said about me?" Funny, he barely mentioned anyone from school to his siblings. More because they never really crossed paths to begin with, but he just preferred to keep those worlds seperate.

"Enemy? Really?" Snorting, he rolled his eyes. "You don't even know me. This is the first time we've ever spoken. You shouldn't believe everything you hear, Melster. Because apparently," he dropped his voice to a whisper, leaning closer, his blue eyes widening, "people lie."

Unfased by her question, he rolled his eyes. "Because I ate chocolate? How else do you get your hands covered in chocolate?"

Mel grinned cheekily up at him. "Are you sure you want to know? In case you're curious, he told me to stay away from you, but this is your fault, so he can't blame me for it."

"People lie? No way," she deadpanned. "I wasn't calling you my enemy Julster. Just that they exist, though they're pretty few." She crossed her arms and looked him up and down. "Meh. It'd be weird to have you as an enemy. Don't ask me why, it's just what I think. Also, playing innocent is not a good look on you."

Mel raised one eyebrow. "Most people your age manage to eat chocolate without getting it all over their hands," she pointed out. "So why were you eating like either a two year old or a savage?"

"Stay away from me?" He shook his head, sounding surprised. "Now, now, I'm not as bad as everyone thinks I am." Nodding, Julian hummed softly to himself, "Just ask your fifth year prefects, they'll say great things about me."

Shaking his head again, he looked down at her, "Why does an eleven year old have enemies? I sure didn't have any when I was your age." Frowning, he tilted his head, "That makes me feel old."

Rubbing his hands together absentmindedly, Julian flicked his gaze from his hands back to her, "And what is a good look on me, then?"

Crossing his arms, he said, "Contrary to popular belief, I am human. And I do get hungry every once in a while. And sometimes, when you're really hungry, you don't care about eating etiquette."

Mel shrugged. "Just repeating what he told me," she said simply. "You may or may not be a person to avoid, but for once I bowed to Alec's experience. I guess I'll make my own judgements of you."

Mel's eyes darkened. The things she struggled with were neglect at the hands of fighting parents, the torment of reliving every fight, and the horror of watching her parents, each in their seperate rages. "My enemies are not the kind that you would expect. Of course, neither are they real people, I simply gave them personifications for the purpose of introducing myself." She gave a small half smile. "There I go, talking all academic again. I read a lot. Too much, Alec says."

Mel glanced Julian up and down again. "I would say that you would much rather be the domineering one. You like to be in charge, you like power. You like using it. I've seen you abusing Prefect power in the hallways, Julian Rousseau. That's the thing about us first years. You higher ups hardly ever notice us." She lowered her voice to a whisper, staring at him with serious eyes. "We learn things." Mel turned and walked away. She stopped about 10 feet away and turned. "Oh, and about the chocolate? You might want to wash your hands. You must be civilized enough to do that." She turned back around and skipped away, grinning. She loved talking to older students. It was always so amusing.

"Thank you," Julian smiled, inclining his head in thanks, "For giving me a chance. Because honestly?" he raised an eyebrow, "You're brother doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does."

Blinking at her, and not having the slightest idea what she'd just said, Julian simply smiled and nodded. "Keep reading. He only says that because he doesn't want you to outsmart him." he said with a laugh.

Shrugging, unable to keep the sheepish grin off his face as she pegged at least a part of his personality down, it quickly slid off as she accused him of abusing his power. Bristling, he frowned, "I don't abuse my power. It's not my fault some people think they can lie to my face and get away with it."

Rolling his eyes and letting out a little sigh of relief as she left, he continued back to his bench. Grabbing all the wrappers, he threw them away into the nearest wastebin he could find. Sighing again, he glanced down at his hands. As soon as he washed all traces of chocolate off of them, he rubbed his forehead. Never again was he going through that again.

Promising himself to never do that again, Julian went off to find something for his aching throat.