First Evening-Dinner

"Toby? Are you done chewing yet?"

There was no response. Chewed, and chewed, and chewed.

That shrimpy little blackhead planted herself in the same exact place at her table as that morning -- that is, right beside her brother. "An-GEL!"

Angel Astor had been thoroughly absorbed in the fifth volume of The Chronicles of Narnia only seconds before. This greeting had startled him from his desert land of talking horses and almighty lions, much to his hidden dismay. "Mélenie," he sighed.

Oh no. Not Melaine here. Rachel sighed. "Mel, won't you go back to your Slytherin table! This is for us Ravenclaws only!" she snapped.

[angel is a slytherin you goose]

(That's not a reply.)

"...Mel, just leave, please. Angel or Toby doesn't want you here."

[she IS at the slytherin table]

(...Oh. I thought... nevermind.)

"How long does it take you to chew?" Rachel asked.

He shrugged, finally swallowing. "I don't know."

Kelsi skipped on in and looked around tiredly. She looked actually quite happy, but very tired. The first day ever at here was very tiring, but she felt like she learned so many things. Who knew that there were plants that actually snapped and ate human flesh?! Who knew that armor could move and paintings could talk?! Who knew that- whoah, careful. Kelsi felt enough that her head was going to explode from all this information thrown at her. And even worse- it wasn't even fake! It all was real- life was defying the laws of gravity, and realism right before her eyes. She really felt as though this was all surreal. Sitting down at the Hufflepuff table, her stomach instantly felt empty and growled angrily. She grabbed a warm bread roll which was still magically warm, and set it on the side of her plate. Then she took the plate of spaghetti and filled her plate with it, then adding the tomato sauce and poured tons of meatballs onto her plate, and drooped on yet more tomato sauce. And then, she dug in.

Mél was going on about something Angel had experienced himself about two years ago. He had refocused himself in the book, blocking out his sister's chickadee calling.

"Well, good for you, because I counted! On average it takes you thirty-eight seconds to chew on bite of spinach! So, that means it must take you a really long time. We should try timing how long it takes you to eat roast beef tomorrow night."

After an instant of deliberation, One took his plate of pasta and hastily strode out of the Great Hall.

Serenity wasn't paying attention to a thing- she was staring at Angel and Melanie, smiling dazedly and mushing some peas together with her fork absentmindedly. She had decided that nothing else was really worthy of her attention in the room, so she simply focused on her crush- her crush for a year or two, now.
See, a girl like Serenity was pretty easy to read. She liked several things, but they all fell into the same category- girly. But a while back, she had met the love of her life through her best friend. She had planned things out perfectly. She had drawn a castle, planned out weddings, and acted them out with little Disney figurines in front of the plastic castle she had gotten for her seventh birthday- herself as Sleeping Beauty and Angel as Prince Phillip. She had dropped most of the strange habits a couple of months before Hogwarts- but she still had the Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip figurines in her trunk. It was a stalker-ish obsession nobody knew about except her little sister, and she fully intended to keep most of the more weird details to herself. But nothing was weird about staring.
Also buzzing around in Serenity's mind was the vague curiosity directed towards the ceiling. It wasn't important enough for her to direct her line of vision up there, but it was still interesting. Who could not be curious in candles? And the stars were quite pretty, as well.
Regardless of what she was thinking, it was evident that she was off in her own little world.

"WAIT! COME BACK TOBY!" Rachel shouted, but it was too late. With a huff, she sat back down on the bench, and stared at the now empty plate grumpily.

Serenity, in a fight or flight reaction, made up her mind.
It wasn't bothering him if he was already being bothered.
In fact, it could be considered as saving him.
She couldn't just play with dolls all her life.
She had to at least talk to him.
So, Serenity gathered up all her courage and stood up. There was the first step taken care of. She went over to where Melenie and Angel were sitting- step two- and plopped down on the other side of Melenie.
"Hi, Angel."

A cute boy entered the hall with his bag over his shoulder. He went straight to the Slytherin table and sat down, and began to serve himself some potatoes and ate.

And, lo and behold! Angel took the occasion to place one of his slender, white fingers upon the line he had last construed and smile his very best at the pretty young blonde who had decided to join them. "Miss Rosensteel," he greeted her with a curt nod of his head.

Somewhere, a piano wire snapped in two with a sharp screech.

Meanwhile, Libby was eating peacefully at the Gryffindor table with some Gryffindor buddies she had made that day. She had fit right in--sure, she wasn't really FRIENDS with anyone yet, but she had someone to eat with at meals. That counted for something.

"Hi!" She squeaked. For a moment, she had no idea what she should say. Then it came to her. "What are you reading?" That seemed to be the most opportune question. What did she imagine saying to him? For some reason, nothing came to mind. Then, like a cannon blast, an image of a viola flashed in her head. "Do you still play the cello!?"

Between her first and second questions, Angel frankly replied: "The Horse and His Boy." Then, of course, to the second: "Yes, and it's going swimmingly! Thank you for asking."

"That's wonderful! It's just so admirable for you to be interested in music and books." Serenity was practically smothering Melenie, due to the way she was leaning over her towards Angel. "I'm so glad to be at Hogwarts. It's smwonderful. Smashing. Wonderful. It's just so exciting."

Mél was trying futilely to push Serenity off. "Hey!" she was whining, "HEY!"

Angel gave Serenity another nod before directing his eyes back to his hardcover tale. So delicate, so enamored, so naïve: this Rosensteel! However, it was none other than Shasta that commanded his attention at that time, and how exactly he planned to topple the forces of the ridiculous Rabadash and his forces of, knowing Lewis, hell. Angel knew the outcome, of course, having read it many times over the course of his short, english-speaking life. This novel was one of his favorites.

Serenity stuck her tongue out at Melenie, but leaned back to her seat. "So, how'd your classes go, Mel?" She asked.

"They were AWWWWERSOME!" she exclaimed. "First, we..." And she repeated her spiel for Serenity as well, even though she had been in one or two of Mél's classes.

"Fabulous." Serenity responded in a monotone, picking up a roll. She didn't eat the roll, though. That poor, innocent roll was to be slowly picked apart since Serenity was more enamored with Angel than she was the roll.