Climbing trees and chasing tails (Eddie)

Eddie's eyes went huge and his brain turned to mush like it had back in the forest When Ezra had played with the cricket. "Awwwwwwwww!!" Eddie stumbled over to the bed and dropped to his knees before it so that he could lay his face on the bed next to the little kitty. "Oh my Gaaaawd! She's so fluffyyyyy!"

Like he'd seen so many other people do, he pulled out the neat corners of his blankets and slipped his hand under the sheets so that he could play with the cat. he ran his hand back and forth under the covers, trying to get the cat to attack him "She's beautiful! It is a she, right? Cause she's a calico? I read somewhere once that calicoes and tortuous shells are always female." He laid his head down sideways on the bed and pouted as he watched her play with him, "What's her name?"

"I could just eat you up, fluffly widdle widdy." he cooed as he snuggled his face into her belly. "One day I'll have a cat. And I'll teach it tricks, and it will love everyone!"

He paused and played in silence for a bit before bemoaning, "I don't wanna go anywhere now! Ha! How do you get any work done with something this cute in your room all the time?" he scratched behind the little things ears and sighed, "If you ever need a baby sitter- just saying- I'd be more than happy to help you out!"

"So, are you an animal lover then?" He asked, pulling himself up onto his bed. He felt safe sitting on the clean bed in his dirty jeans mostly because he had landed forward in the mud. He would change into clean pants if he had the opportunity, but he didn't want to have to kick the girl out for something stupid like that. "I have a feeling you're not a big bug fan, but do you like pretty much all animals?"

"Ripley..." Eddie said softly, scratching the kitty. His eyes lit up at the thought of taking the kitty with them around the school. "What? Really? She puts up with that? I thought cats hated that kinda thing!" He had a recollection of watching a friend back home trying to shove his cat in a carrier. Eddie would have helped, but he figured what was the point of both of them being scratched to ribbons? One of them was going to have to be in good enough shape to drive the other to the hospital for stitches.

"If she wants to go with! the more the merrier! I'm getting hungry, so we should probably go anyways." He figured that while she was going to get the cat carrier he could slip into some fresh pants. He liked getting dirty, but hanging around in messy clothes after the fact made him anxious.


Before she left though, she made mention about leaving the cat with him sometime. The boy nearly jumped in excitement. "Really?! You hear that Kitty? You and I are gonna have a sleep over!" he leaned down over the cat and squeezed its cheeks playfully, " oh man, I am gonna fill you up on soooo much tuna, you wont be able to walk! I'm gonna be like that uncle that takes the kids and fills them with sugar, then drops them back off at your place all hyper!"

He didn't want to rush Ezra at all- he was happy enough to just spend the night in his room talking- but he pulled a fresh pair of jeans out of the trunk just to get ready for a speedy change if he got the opportunity. He was glad to hear that the girl liked animals, and bugs, though he gave a shutter when the girl mentioned the multi-leged bug. Besides centipedes and millipedes, the boy liked pretty much everything. He felt liking animals was very much a tell about someone. He found he never very trusted people who said they didn't like animals. It usually meant something was missing from their hearts.

"I love all animals." he smiled at her, " There has always been a kinda 'forbidden fruit' feel to them because my step mom didn't like pets. I used to kind buckets of snails, or toads and stuff in the back yard just to fill my need for a pet." He laughed, thinking back to the snail races they used to have at school because of him. "I have had two pets in the past before- three if you count Jeremiah." he points back the the aquarium with the bullfrog. "I have a red knee tarantula back home that was my old familiar; they wouldn't let me bring it here. And back when I was six, and living in Canada, my brother and I found a baby humming bird, and we raised." He smiles at the memory. " But yeah. I love animals. I've often considered jobs with them."

"Tuna?" He asked, his one track mind still stuck on that topic. " Yummy yummy tuna?"

As soon as his new friend left, Eddie grabbed his new pants and went about undressing. He wasted no time in slipping off his old jeans and putting the clean ones on. he wouldn't have minded really if the girl had come in on him while he was in his briefs, he liked his body enough to be okay with that, but there was a part of him that said 'it is socially unexceptionable to be half naked around girl's you hardly knew,' and that 'it would make her awkward, therefor you should be awkward aswell,' and as much as Eddie hated that little voice in his head, he was powerless to fight it.

he buckled up the belt on his new pants, and hung the dirty ones with the rest of his muddy stuff. he'd clean them all that night, when he didn't have anything better to do. After a moment of hands-in-pocket waiting, it seemed like the girl was going to take a little while, so Eddie took advantage of the situation and took the time to make sure he was healthy. he reached into the depths of his leather bag, and pulled out a small, black, plastic box and sat down on the bed with the cat. Giving her one last pet, he opened up the box and went to work laying out his devices.

He started with a pin- A sharp, plastic cased, disposable pin which he used to prick the tip of his finger without much reaction. next was a strip of paper, connected to a little muggle device the once wet with his blood, gave off a tiny beep and a set of numbers. He tossed both the strip of paper and the needle away and pulled out a journal, writing the numbers down quickly. Giving one more look at the door to make sure Ezra still wasn't coming, he pulled a syringe and a needle from the box, and went to get his medicine.

By the time Ezra had finally gotten back, Eddie had hidden his kit back in his bag, and had disposed of the used needle in the bin and covered it with a tissue so not to arouse suspicion. Eddie was ashamed of his disease; it was one of the few things he tried to keep hidden about himself. It's not like it was anything he could do about it- he had been born with it, and so had his brother. It still bothered him that even though he was trained in magic, and could perform a multitude of bad ass spells, a little bit of sugar could knock him on his ass.

"She is even cuter in that thing!" he grinned, sleeve rolled down to hide his entry wound. " She looks like a princess! Come on! Let's go feed her!" he grabbed his bag, and ushered her out into the hall way, closing the door behind them.

"I never considered that..." he pondered as the girl mentioned owls eating his tarantula, "though, I really don't think Matilda would make a good meal. She's got all these barbed hairs on her abdomen that she sheds when she's angry! They burn the eyes, and I don't suppose they'd taste too good." he laughs loudly as they exit the common room and head down the spiral stairs. "Besides, she's about as big as an owl's head! I'd like to see them try and get her!" he thought that through and quickly corrected himself, "Nononononono! I take that back! I never want to see her get attacked by a bird!"

They get down to the kitchens in no time and Eddie lets them in. There is a large cooking fire going in the hearth, and house elves bustle about, making food and cleaning up. They seem excited and skeptical at the entrance of the students, but Eddie pays them no heed. He rolls up his sleeves and rubs his hands together aggressively.

"Alright! Four course meal for the three of us! Where do we start?"

"Oh yeah!" He laughed, and greedily rubber his hands together, "Sandwiches...Muhahaha!" his foolish behaviour trickled off into happily laughs and he grabbed a butter knife off the table, "let me help you with those!" Eddie worked quickly with the girl to make a small pile of sandwiches before turning his attention to the other foods.

"Well, the tuna can be our main course," he thought out loud, looking at the other fine foods they had to choose from, "Actually, might as well take advantage of everything here!" he went about taking small portions of everything and setting them out nicely on dishes. Being around important figures growing up had given him an eye for food setting. He had been to many fancy meals before, and he was always impressed by how delicately staff could put food on plates, and how neat everything looked set on a proper table. now, of course this bouncy boy didn't have the patience needed to make such fine arrangements, but he did a damn near good job of trying!

"Sit down!" he said happily, bringing out the first plate of food for the girl. "You always start with a salad course! Ta-dah!" he put the little plate of potato salad down in front of her, and the tuna sandwich plate, with a few sliced carrots, down beside that. "Afterwards, we'll move on to a little pot pie, and then we can try and find something for dessert! Sound good?"

He hopped up on to a stool beside her and turned himself a bit so that he could almost look at her naturally as they eat- as naturally as the straight counter would let him. he almost immediately jumped back up to get them drinks, which he had forgotten. He poured her some pumpkin juice, and himself some water.NOW he was ready to sit still and eat!

"So," For someone who was so awkward and stung most of the time, Eddie's table manners were exceptional, and he only spoke after finishing what food was in his mouth and cleaning his face with a napkin. "you know, I think I only just realized what was on your sweater!" he laughed, looking the girl over, "Those are quiddatch emblems, aren't they? Are you a big fan?" He smiled, "I don't know much about the sport, it's not played much in America.

"Do you play for our house team?" he asked with interest, light from the fire glittering off his blue eyes, "What's your favourite professional team?"

"Oh yeah! I've seen it played before. It looks really cool!" he smiled, pushing his potato salad around with his fork, "A lot better than Quopot." he mumbled, silently loathing the game they made them play in America. "I'd rather take a bludger to the arm than have a quaffle explode in my face any day."

"Wait, you had mumblemumps?" the boy asked in surprise. He wondered how long ago this was. Mumblemumps wasn't one of those things you wanted to catch. He listened to the girl talk about her experiences with the disease and the try outs, though he couldn't really connect with it. he had never been interested in sports and couldn't imagine what it would be like to not make a team... though he was into music, he knew what it felt like to try out for an ensemble and not make the cut, so he figured it was probably the same kind of pain. But still... "yeah... but they are contagious..."

He laughed and finished up his salad before pushing his plate away and excitedly picking up his tuna sandwich. As much as he had whined about having tuna, it was no where near his favourite food. He just admired it because it was such It was such a handy little snack to have! Tuna was the orange of the meat world. that being said, all the talk about the food had work up his appetite for it, making each bite of the tender sandwich worth while. He smiled happily, humming little noises of pleasure as he ate. He finished a quarter of the sandwich before putting it down for a drink. with a clear mouth, he started up the conversation again.

"I support the Fitchburg Finches, mostly because of a 'national pride' type thing." he admitted, "I really don't follow it at all... I did go to school with a guy who's father was Seeker for the Montrose Magpies. So i watched them for a little bit." he nodded at the recollection, "His father had a wicked eye for that snitch! I don't understand how anyone can even see that thing in all the commotion!"

"What position do you play?"

Eddie laughed at the look on the girl's face and figured he's have to explain the game a little more to her. "Yeah. The idea of the game is that the quaffle-er... actually it's called a Quod, but it's pretty much a leather quaffle- is rigged to explode at a random amount of time, and you and your team have to get the ball to the opponent's side of the field to dunk it in a pot full of potion to stop it from exploding. You get a point for putting the quod in the pot, and you get kicked off the feild is the quod explodes on you... mostly because you have to go to the hospital." he laughed, "It's all played on foot though, so it's not as cool as quiddatch! I love all the fancy flying techniques you guys have to learn to win! It's so much more elegant and wizardy!"

"I'd love to play with you some time!" Eddie said joyously, "I love flying! I also love physical excursion, you know? I could fly and run around until I passed out! There's nothing better than that full body tired you get after a long swim, or a hike through the forest!" he finished off his sandwich and went for a piece of pie. He was famished today, though he normally ate in big quantities anyways. He was a growing boy after all.

"You're a beater?" He reiterated with a nervous smile, " I think beaters are great! You guys have one of the most important jobs in the game! A well placed bludger can make or break a game!Um... quick question though? If I was to help you practice, would you be protecting me from bludgers, or shooting them at me? Cause I'm not sure I like the second option." he laughed and finished up his pie.

"So, what next?"

A fair question. What DID they do next? Eddie put the end of his fork against his chin and tapped it as he thought, "Well... I guess if you're not too weighted down from all this food, we could have a late night fly?" He shrugged and grinned at her, "Seems right that i test you skills now that I know how good you are! What do you say? I'm sure we could find a ball to toss around as well, if you like?"