The Best Seat [Sheep]

Another rainy, dreary, depressing day. Eddie was beginning to believe that wet weather was about as British as tea and crumpets. It was constantly reoccurring, and Eddie was already bemoaning that he would 'never see the sun again,' although a part of him snarked, 'wait till winter comes'.

He shivered. his brain could be so cruel.

Eddie took another bite out of his shiny green apple and paced out away from the window as lighting began dancing through the clouds. he didn't need to see anymore. it was just going to depress him further. Britain was too cold, and too wet. He wanted sunshine! He wanted to run about and explore the lake and the crazy forest in the back of the field. He wanted freedom, not to be cooped up in this dingy tower with nothing to do.

He wiped apple spittle of the back of his hand and onto his grey-blue plaid pants and turned to look over the common room. People were starting to come back from breakfast now, but everyone who made eye contact with Eddie quickly turned away. No one was interested in wasting time with him today, and who could blame them. After the scene he had made the other day with the lost adder snake in the girls dorm, no one really wanted to take their chances with the weird kid.

Eddie shrugged, fixed his trilby hat, and skipped across the room to find something else to do. he had a superb imagination. He didn't need anyone to play with, he'd find something to do. He weaved through the groups of people, trying to find something to occupy his time with, when there it was! the perfect opportunity! Somebody had left a book unattended! Not only was this an opportunity to be a big douche, and possibly make a friend out of a strange encounter, he also got a free book!

Eddie scooped up the book without people noticing and made his way back across the room to the floor-to-ceiling window and leaned against it so that the dim light from outside glowed around him and his hot pink shirt. He pulled his grey button-up sweater up around his neck to keep him warm in the chilly tower, and opened up the book to pick up where the unknown student had left off.

"Chapter 7, the physiology of a Napwik flat toad." The boy spoke a loud, and tipped his head at the book with interest. He loved books on creatures. He checked the front of the book for the title. A World of Little Wonders, he didn't think he had read this one. Lucky him!

In one hand he held the book up high,and the other hand held the shiny apple to his lips. Munching happily, the little book thief continued reading, lazily wondering how much fuss was going into looking for the 'lost' book.

There was a squeak that caused Eddie to look up from the book an look around. There was a boy in front of him, a short thing, with eyes of similar colour to his own. He was impressed by the pitch of the noise the boy had been able to make and gave him his full attention.

"Excuse me, I think you have my book."

"I probably do." Eddie answered with a smirk, turning the book over to look at the cover again. "A World Of Little Wonders?" he asked, and handed the book back over to the guy. "it's a cool book. I was interested in what it was about." He shrugged. "Sorry if I worried you. I saw it laying there and figured I'd keep it safe till it's owner came back." He tried to prove to the kid that he wasn't a bad person.

"I'm Eddie Muler, I'm new here!" He offered his hand to the boy, " I like the world of small, magical creatures too! noticed you were on a page about toads- I've got a toad!" Eddie spoke quickly, like he always did when he was trying to bate someone into being his friend. Corner them and beat them with questions until they gave in and liked you, that was his usual tactic." Well, he's more of a bull frog, and I'm not sure how you tell the sex of a frog, so I just call it a him."

"His name's Jeremiah." he pointed a finger up towards the boys dorms and added, "Wanna see?"

Eddie listened to the boy ramble as he did about the differences between frogs and toads and had to stop himself from making a face. of course he had known the differences between frogs and toads, he was just lazy and often clumped the two into the same category, exchanging the names as he felt like it. He did the same for Unicorns and Pegasi and it annoyed his Care of Magical Creature' teacher to no end. It's not that he was ignorant and didn't know the difference, he just didn't care to let others know he knew the difference.

"Oh yeah, I know all about frogs and stuff." he waved the conversation aside, " So yeah, he's Pelophylax Ridibundus, or the common Marsh Frog, With the bowed legs and webbed feet and everything." He smiles at the boy and his lust for knowledge, " And yeah, he's not really a Bullfrog... but they're not common this north in Europe, and I love that Three Dog Night song, so I couldn't help myself."

"Come on! I'll show you!" he waved the boy to follow and lead him past the book shelves in the common room and down the hall to his room. Past the heavy mahogany door, the room was divided into four sections, and one section, with it's lush terrarium and a beat up acoustic guitar sitting in the corner, was the cleanest and more organized of them all. This room was warmer than the rest of the castle, Eddie made sure of that. He wasn't from England, and the damp, cold air really messed with him. So, to keep him healthy and happy, he had charmed the room to be dry and warm.

"This is him!" Eddie called, removing his sweater and hanging it nicely over the chair at his desk, leaving him in his hot pink t-shirt with black band logo. He carefully took the top off the terrarium that sat on top of his chest of drawers and reached in to pull out the muddy frog. Jeremiah was lime green, with black spots and three pale lines running down his back. He was nearly six and a half inches long and rather fat.

"I love animals." he said with a mindless, happy smile, "You seem to know a lot about amphibians though-" he caught himself before he said toads, "- If you new how to sex Jeremiah here, that would be groovy. I really want to know if he's a boy or not."

"Vocal sacks, eh?" Eddie looked the large frog over with interest. It took him a moment to figure out what the boy was talking about, but once he did, he almost immediately wished he hadn't asked. "Oh no! Jeremiah is a Geraldine!" The boy laughed and groaned playfully as his nativity was crushed with the recent discovery. "We're not gonna tell anyone that, okay? you'll always be Jeremiah to me."

"Wanna hold her?" He asked, passing the large frog over to the boy who seemed kind enough not to hurt her. "I found her this year in that big old forest out back! i wanted to bring my tarantula, but the school wouldn't let me. I couldn't stand spending the year without a pet, so I just went out and took her." Which seemed mean now that he knew she was a female. What if she had a family that was worry about her. He laughed at himself, "I'm going to let her go when I go back to America after this year... you could always keep her though if you wanted to."

"Or..." he smiled, "I could take you out to where I found her and we could catch you one of your own? Maybe a boy frog? And then they can lay eggs and we can raise tadpoles!" Eddie got excited about that kind of thing. He loved animals. He had once spent a summer raising a baby humming bird that he had found when he was living in Canada. Watching things grow, then releasing them out into the wild, was so rewarding. "Too bad it was raining, or I would take you out right now!"

"Oh well, I guess we'll have to find something else to do." he muttered, collapsing on his bed and looking around his room for something to occupy them. "I've got board games... or cards..." He shrugged once he realized he was possibly monopolizing this guy's time and perhaps he had something better to do. "I mean, we don't have to hang out, but that means you gotta give the frog back, and you look waaaaay to attached to leave yet!"

"Why don't you tell me something about yourself and we can start a fast track to friendship, eh?"

"Wizards chess? Uuuhhh..." Eddie looked around the room. He wasn't one for the tactical games. His intelligence might have been high, but his logic and strategy skills where horrible. He detested chess, but he knew one of his room mates had a board somewhere. he was sure they wouldn't mind if he borrowed it. Correction: he was sure they wouldn't know if he borrowed it. he found the board on one of the younger student's desks and went to go get it.

He laughed as the boy started to rhyme of facts about himself. "Dude! Calm down! You sound like a robot! We'll get to your life story eventually, but for right now, I just wanna know about who you are. Right?" he pulled the game off his roommate's desk and starting hunting all the pieces down. the other boys in this room weren't nearly as neat as Eddie. he didn't mind, but when it came to games, he always felt it was good to keep all the pieces in one place, but maybe that was just him.

"Hey, were you serious about shgowing me where you got Jeremiah?"

"Of course I was!" Eddie responded, having failed to grasp the fact that the forest was in fact a very dangerous place for kids their age to be playing. It had been safe every time he'd been in there before, but then again, the boy was full of dumb luck. "You come and find me one day when it isn't so wet- before everything freezes over- and we'll go frog catching. I'll show you were the biggest one's hide."

Eddie's heart did a flip-flop when the boy pointed out his guitar. He paused, game board in hand, and began to smile wildly, "You've got to be shitting be- you play BASS?!" he flung the board back onto his neighbours desk and leaped onto his bed with the kid, bouncing them both a little on the tight springs. He grabbed up his guitar quickly and began to pick out fun notes. "I freakin' love music! I've been playing for years and I'm finally started to get good at it!" He laughed and shook his head at the boy, his curls bouncing around his face, "No! Don't say that! It DOES matter! I wanna hear about your music! I want-"

The boy gasped suddenly and his eyes went wide. He reached out and grabbed Benji's arm firmly and grinned. "I wanna hear you play! Go get your bass! We'll jam!" He continued to bounce on the bed as he shooed the kid.

"Go! go get it! Now!"

Eddie worked happily with his guitar as the boy was gone, tuning the thing and cleaning out the little bit of dust that had settled in between the bridge and the strings. It took the kid longer than he thought to go and get his instrument, but Eddie reminded himself that not everyone was as high stung as him, and, in most cases, people didn't move as fast as he did. Eventually the boy came back though, and Eddie smiled at him as he came in.

"Here she is" Benji announced as he approached Eddie's bunk. Eddie leaned over the guitar case as it was opened, unable to contain his curiosity, "It is a Hofner Violin Bass"

"Like the one Paul McCartney plays..." Eddie whispered in wow with the boy as he showed of the gorgeous instrument. Eddie had always wanted a name-brand guitar, something beautiful, but his family didn't have the money for that kind of thing. Instead, he was stuck with an old Harmony guitar his father had bought him out of the sears magazine seven years ago. it worked well, but it was nothing snazzy, like all the other instruments around the school.

"That is one fine Dame." Eddie breathed in awe. "You'll have to play her for me! I bet you she sings something sweet.... I've always wanted wanted a Gibson Les Paul... a cherry burst..." he smiled at the boy, and obvious Beatles fan himself, "Just like Paul's."

"What songs do you know?" he asked, finally sitting back away from the boy and his beautiful guitar. He skipped his fingers around the neck for a moment before settling on a song he figured they both would know. One with a solo Eddie knew hands down. He started playing the slow, sad melody, taking his time to hit each note with immaculate perfection. And then once he was ready, he took up the tune with his own voice.

"I look at you all, see the looover that's sleeping... While my guitar gently weeps...."

"What!?" Eddie laughed over the sound of their music, "There are German lyrics to I Wanna Hold Your hand?!" he laughed loudly, but continued nailing the guitar licks, "Man, you are just full of crazy knowledge, aren't you?! i like that!"

Eddie played the song in it's entirety, only messing up on the lyrics now and then, and eventually stopping singing when it got to the weird 'Oooh's and 'Aaaah's at the end of the song which were just too sexual for Eddie to do without blushing. Eddie was a fan of sexy stuff, don't get him wrong! he was a man, and men had needs. But when it came to him being sexy, it just felt too weird for him. He was such an awkward boy, and awkward did not mix well with sexy.

As soon as the song was over, Eddie reached out towards his desk, not moving from the bed, and fumbled to grab his wand. "Hey! how did you do that amplify thing with your bass?!" he asked, enthusiastically, "You think you could get my acoustic to sound like an electric? It just makes everything sound better!" He fiddled around with a few chords while he waited for the boy to try, "if you can't that's okay, no big deal!" he found the chord he was looking for and started into the quick happy song for the boy.

"I wanna hear those German lyrics you were bragging about!" he laughed, looping the first bit of the song until the boy was ready to start singing for him. "Any time now. I have allllllll day...."