Being Twelve Sucks

Aliena stormed into the Hufflepuff Common Room and threw her coat on the ground before flinging herself onto one of the many sofas. 'I hate being twelve.' she decided, mumbling to herself.

She wanted to be older, to be at least a fourth or fifth year. Sure, being younger was ok, but everyone treated her like she was nothing more than a little girl who couldn't even fend for herself.

Especially that Savannah girl. She seemed to hate her more than anyone in the world, and Ali hadn't even done anything.

She wanted to prove herself to everyone, sure she was shy and kept to herself, but that didn't mean she wasn't tough. She thought that if she was older, then maybe people would stop picking on her...

Pulling out her wand, she stared at the cieling and started to make little bubbles appear from the end of her wand. She watched as they all took the form of different things, like dogs, cats, hearts, stars, and many other things.

Okay, she had to stop doing that. Making little bubbles appear from her wand only proved that she was a child.

Sitting up again, she stuffed her wand back into her pocket and stared out across the room, glaring at everyone.

Juliet glanced up from the book that she was reading, glancing at the girl with a mingled look of curiosity and amusement.

"You know," she attempted to state kindly, "I don't recall twelve being all that bad." Well, there had been a dip in her twelfth year of life, but it had nothing to do with her age, and everything to do with the circumstances around her. What had happened then could have happened at any age.

"Then again, perhaps I'm just being an optimist."

Aliena looked over at her fellow Hufflepuff, she was sure her name was Juliet, and sighed. "No, you're not being an optimist. I guess I'm just not having a good year so far, and I just complain a lot." she replied pulling her lips into a half smile, before frowning again.

"Sorry, I don't mean to come off as a total...well...I don't mean to come off as a negative or complaining person, I just...don't deal well with certain situations, or people." she said looking down at her small, pale hands that were folded in her lap.

Shaking her head of brown hair, she looked back up at the girl and tried to smile a little. "You're Juliet? Right?" she asked sitting up a little straighter. She didn't want to give off the impression that she was a lazy girl, even though, like everyone else, she had her days.

She shrugged her shoulders, lips slipping upwards into a grin, "Don't worry about it. We all deserve to whine once in a while - if we have more than I'd say... five whining conversations thought, I may have to stop you." There was laughter in her tone, stating that she was - as as she almost always was with such things - joking.

"Yepp, that's my name," there was surprise in her tone this time. She hadn't been aware her name had been so well known. Or perhaps the other girl was just observant. That could always be the case; it probably was the case. Besides her stint of not talking - which the girl before her was too young to have been around for - there wasn't much striking about Juliet, at least as far as she could see. "I'm afraid I'm not as up on my Hufflepuff roster as I should be. Would you be horrible offended if I had to ask what your name was?"

Her grin was softened, a slightly hesitant frame in it - there was actual worry that she was being impolite. She felt bad that someone knew who she was but she could not return the favour. If this was any evidence, Juliet felt she would not like to be famous.

It took Aliena a moment to realize that the girl was joking, but when she did, she let out a soft chuckle.

Aliena nodded when Juliet confirmed that 'Juliet' was indeed her name. She had seen her fellow Hufflepuff around the school a few times, and during her first year, she had asked another student who told her, her name. "Haha, yeah, neither am I to be honest." Ali said.

"Oh, no! I'm not offended at all, in fact I'm not surprised you don't know my name. I usually try to keep to myself, so not a lot of people know who I am." she replied as lightly as she could, trying not to sound too...depressed?

She wasn't depressed. She could never be like that, she had decided. Sure, she was shy and kept to herself a lot, but she knew it was just because she hadn't really stepped out of her shell yet.

"I use to do that," she grinned at the memory of herself, "I mean, I sort of still do that now, but first year I was so lost. I had one class that was combined with all the years, my face when I walked in and saw older students." She shook her head and laughed. There were some things that you just had to learn to laugh about. Her shy antics were one of them.

"I still have my moments, now though." She gave a little shrug, "There's never anything wrong with just keeping to yourself - other people's business is there business, right?"

Glancing at the ground behind her, the girl righted her self, straightening in her chair and levelling the girl with a look, "And to completely contradict that statement, feel like sharing what made you so.... down before?"

It was obvious something specific had bothered her. Although she had brushed it off with a joke originally, she felt compelled to offer her ear, should the girl wish for it.

Aliena laughed along with Juliet at her statement about first year at Hogwarts. "I guess you're right, I should learn to laugh about some things, but sometimes it's hard to." she said looking down at her feet.

She suddenly felt very shy, remembering the day her home was destroyed, even though it really had nothing to do with this conversation, aside from why she was so shy. She started to wonder if that accident had never happened, then maybe she'd be more open.

"I guess so, I try not to get into people's buisness TOO much. I've learned my lesson about that." she said smiling a little, trying to do what Juliet had said about laughing at some things.

"Oh, umm...well I just sort of had a run in with a girl named Savannah Lerran. I was in the library, just reading, and there were these kids who were being too loud, so I asked them to stop talking, and she stepped in and helped me." Aliena began explaining her early on conflict with the Gryffindor.

"After we introduced ourselves I went back to my book and she followed me I guess, and when she saw what I was reading, she flipped out!" she said gesturing with her arms.

"I've never been attacked like that, or judged so quickly like that. I mean I don't even know what I did wrong..."

Suddenly her thoughts went back to the library and the argument she had had with Savannah and still nothing came to mind as to why Savannah could have attacked her the way she did.

She frowned at hearing her friends name brought up. Leaning forward, she took a new interest in the situation. It was odd behaviour to say the least, but... well Juliet wouldn't be the only one to notice that it wasn't the first odd thing her friend had did.

"What were you reading?"

Worry was sinking into her again. Savannah had always been unique, ever since that first day she met her but this all seems... not just unusual, but illogical.

"Don't, don't worry about her so much," she gave a kind smile, "Savannah's a little... temperamental."

Aliena suddenly felt like she was in trouble, but she felt like Juliet wanted to help, maybe?

So, twiddling her thumbs, and taking a deep breath she said, "I was reading about...vampires. I was just interested in them, I also sort of randomly picked the book off the shelf, but it wasn't like I was reading it for any bad reasons, I was just curious." she explained feeling rather upset now.

Then it hit her...vampires. Maybe that was a sensitive subject to Savannah, but either way, it wasn't like Aliena had read the book to hurt her.

"Yeah, I got that. I mean she seems like a decent person if you got to know her... but she just sort of jumped to the idea that I was a bad person for reading that book..." she said sighing and feeling even more guilty about the whole situation in the first place.

Vampires? Last time she checked Savannah didn't have anything against....

Passion.

It all clicked into place, making sense of her now. This had to do with the girl's late mentor. It wasn't anything odd, or illogical - it was just a grieving girl taking it out on whatever she could.

"Don't worry about it," she let out a breath and smiled, "Trust me, its nothing you did. She just... sensitive about certain things. Sometimes makes her illogical."

She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, making a mental note to go talk to her friend at a later point in time, "Don't worry about it."

Aliena let out a sigh of relief that she 1) wasn't yelled at like she had been in the library and 2) because she really hadn't done anything wrong.

She smiled up at Juliet then frowned. She wondered, maybe she ought to apologize to Savannah for acting so rude around her. I mean she did yell at her back, and quite honestly Aliena felt bad about yelling at anyone.

"Do you reckon I ought to apologize to her...I mean i sort of snapped at her a few times and I feel really bad about it..." she asked thoughtfully.

Then again, maybe Savannah would never want to speak to her again after what happened, but at least if Ali tried then she would feel better and Savannah would know that she means well.

"Well, that is a good question," Juliet tilted her head slightly, a frown crossing her own features as she thought about the answer she wished to give. The thing with Savannah was she just... wasn't predictable at times. This would be one of them. Saying sorry could help the situation... or it could also make it worse by the mere fact that the other girl brought it up again.

"If it will make you feel better," she said after a moment, "Then I'd say try it. Just... if she looks slightly murderous again, try dropping my name. Might help." She shrugged her shoulders. It also might not, you never really could tell.

But hey, she couldn't send the girl out into the murky waters that were interacting with Juliet's best friend without offering some sort of floatation device.

Nodding, Aliena thought about Juliet's advice. She really wanted to apologize to Savannah, but thought that maybe if she gave it a day or two to blow over, then maybe she could go see her and just ask for a truce.

"I guess I'll think about it." Ali said slouching back into the sofa. "By the way, thanks for putting up with my...whining." she said laughing. "I'm not always like this, just sometimes."

She gave the girl an easy grin, flipping back into her lazy slouch as she did so, "I told you before - its no problem, we're all allowed to whine once in a while."

It was very true, and Juliet was perfectly happy to be the one to listen. Might as well lend a hand to people when you could, right? They might even return the favour - though that wasn't why she did it. She did it, just cause she could.

"If you ever feel the need to do it again, don't hesitate to find me."

Aliena, still smiling, nodded to the girl's response. She was glad that Juliet wasn't angry at her for whining. She was glad she knew someone who was willing to listen to her, and Aliena would listen back if needed.

"Thanks, and vice versa. I may be twelve, but I'm totally willing to listen if you need." she said smiling before standing up. "Well, I'm sorry to run off so fast, but I think I've had enough excitment for one day." she said referring to Savannah.

"I can't express enough how much you've helped." Aliena said giving Juliet a smile, before turning around and walking up to her dormitory.

She suddenly felt a whole lot better after talking to Juliet. She did feel a little bad for just dumping everything on her, but she would return the favour one day. She was sure of it.