Serena

I slumped even further into my seat from boredom. It was the period after lunch. Rachelle and I were in English while the others had various other classes. Rachelle had volunteered at the beginning of class to help me because I was new. Madame Laurent, being the softie that she was, had said, "Why yes dear, sit with Rachelle, such a sweet little girl. Now would you like a brownie? I was so stuffed with the wonderful lunch (Greek) I had that I couldn't quite make room for dessert." I graciously accepted the brownie and split it with Rachelle.

Although nice, Madame Laurent was just plain boring. She gave us the easiest tasks which were even easier since I already knew English. She thought almost everything was too hard for us so her students barely learned anything from her. Luckily, Beauxbatons only chose select girls so everyone was willing to learn English on their own with the help of the text book. During class though, we had to live bored.

Rachelle smacked her gum again. It had such a strong smell of watermelon that I could smell it from where I was sitting. Rachelle had already given me a short explanation of the classes. This class had grown since last year because everyone wanted to go to the Tri-Wizard Tournament to either cheer on or try out for the tournament. Since the tournament was going to be in England, everyone wanted to learn the language. Rachelle took out her quill and bent down over my "Anglais Level 1" notebook and wrote in light blue ink.

Rachelle was here

I rolled my eyes at her childish behavior and decided I would make it interesting for the next person who got my book. I dipped my quill in my new rainbow changing ink and wrote in neat bold letters.

Serena was here first!

We kept writing random things back and forth until Madame Laurent headed toward us. I turned my notebook to my "notes" page, but Madame Laurent took no notice of me. "Rachelle darling what are you chewing?" Madame Laurent looked at Rachelle expectantly.

Before Rachelle could open her mouth to speak, Madame Laurent spoke again. "Is it parchment? Could you please throw it away? It isn’t good to chew parchment. Horrible chemicals in them these days…"

Rachelle got up in the direction of the trashcan.

"The recycling bin is over there." Madame Laurent pointed to the blue bin in the corner of the room. Everyone in the class snickered.

"It's not parchment. It's gum."

Madame Laurent's eyes got wide and looked around the classroom to see if anyone had heard which of course they had. "Shh! Don't say that! You could get demerits for that."

Rachelle thought quickly. "It was to clean my teeth."

"Oh ok!" Madame Laurent looked a lot less worried and bounced to the front of the classroom, her bleached blonde hair bouncing.

I was fighting laughter. Like the rest of the class. "I can't believe she believed you." I mouthed to Rachelle.

She just snorted, eyes dancing.

"Dears, is anything funny?" Madame Laurent looked expectantly at the class.

"No Madame! We were just having fun with learning English", exclaimed one smiling girl wearing a vivid magenta chapeau.

"Lillian! You do know that chapeaus, that are not your dorm color or Beauxbatons blue, are against the dress code! Although I am very happy with everyone loving English! It is such a delightful and useful language, is it not?"

"Oh yes, Madame Laurent! English is my favorite class so far!" Lillian said. They continued talking and it ended up that Madame Laurent forgave Lillian for wearing a magenta chapeau because it was the first day of classes.

I looked at the clock, 3:00. YES! Dance practice was next. That meant that we were going to learn the dance that would get us into visiting Hogwarts!

"Sashay turn, sashay turn, outside right double pirouette land in 5th position, back arabesque, front arabesque, changer, double tuck jump, and gracefully land like a swan right hand up, left hand to your side. Remember to be grace… GIRLS! STOP TALKING!!!"

Madame Hamilton (or Hammy as dearly called by her students) swiveled around and faced Gisele, who immediately stopped chuckling about Elsa Semillon's feeble attempts to dance. Her face looked anything but the graceful face that was teaching them the ballet audition dance. It looked angry that she was interrupted and worried she wouldn't be able to teach the audition dance in time for the auditions.

"If you think you can do the routine, do it! Go on! Teach it." She glared at Gisele.

Gisele didn't dare say a word.

"THAT is what I thought!" The short gray haired woman pivoted herself back to the front of the class.

"ATTITUDE GIRLS! Put some attitude into it!!!"

Elsa stumbled across the floor. I couldn't help suppress a giggle. She was so horrible at dancing. Her curly black hair bounced as she was helped up by her friend.

Madame Hammy sighed in exasperation. "Ok tumblers try to learn your routine while the dancers get water and rehearse theirs. Tumblers are with Mademoiselle Lorena."

Marie left her spot by the mirrors and gave Gabby, Gisele, and me a smile before heading toward the dance floors. We headed toward the white studio to practice as Marie began to stretch.

"That is a hard routine!" Gisele complained.

"Well it's not hard to do, just to remember." Gabby said.

To which I replied, "Ok let's rehearse."

"Which one? The Jazz, lyrical, Hip hop, ballet, or tap part?" Gabby asked.

"Lets do the jazz first, it’s the hardest and we need to review it." I said.

"NOOOO!! Ballet's the hardest. I have no idea how to get the double pirouette right," Gisele said, eyes wide.

Gabby, who had been reviewing over tap, said, "Let's just do the whole combination until we have a problem."

"Better start soon! We're gonna run outta time!" I said.

We were all sweaty after finally remembering all of the combination. Dancing straight for 45 minutes without a break, plus the 1 hour before that when we learned the dance made us absolutely exhausted. I tiredly sashayed over to the mini fridge and spun down and around while picking up a kiwi strawberry Propel. The fridge conveniently had separated the drinks and their flavors. I was practicing the audition routine and quenching my thirst at the same time.

"Pro *pant* pel?" I asked my friends, Gabby leaning against the mirror, and Gisele sprawled across the floor.

To which Gabby replied, "Meh" meaning me.

Gisele replied in a very determined pant, "Gatorade." I was, somehow, the least tired of us and I once again swooped down and got two more drinks. I threw a lemon propel to Gabby and a red Gatorade to Gisele, which they both caught with ease. I took a long gulp from my Propel, flopped over to Gabby and Gisele, and waited for my head to stop banging.

Just as I got comfortable, I realized I forgot to turn on the fan. I nestled my Propel against my forehead and sighed for relief of the cold feeling. I glanced up at the clock, it was 5:15. We started learning the routine at 3:15, started practicing at 4:15 and were told we'd have one hour to practice.

That meant Madame Hammy should be yelling for us to get back in there any minute now… "DANCERS, WHO STILL WANT TO AUDITION, COME GET ONE
OF THESE FORMS AND WE WILL GO OVER THE DANCE ONCE MORE!!!"

I put my thumb on the pad next to our fuzzy pink door, glad our dorm was right next to the dance studios. When we walked in, Marie looked up from the magazine she was reading. "How'd the auditions go?"

I flopped on a pink armchair and said, "Auditions are next week. We just LEARNED the routine"

Chloe, who had also set aside her book when we walked in, looked bemused. "Then why did it take so long?"

Gabby and Marie said at the same time, "Madame Hammy." Chloe rolled her eyes.

"You know Madame Hammy. She obviously made the hardest routine she could think of!" Gisele told her. "But for now, I'm taking a shower!" Gisele announced to the crowd.

"Me too," Gabby agreed.

"I'm not!" I said, surprising everyone.

"What?!?" Gabby asked.

I smiled and ran towards the left staircase. Halfway up, I replied happily, "I'm taking a tropical scented bubble bath!!!"

I ran up to the bedroom I shared with Marie, Gabrielle, and Cecile, another fourth year. After our dorms were chosen, our parents had asked how much they would pay for our rooms, our room being the most expensive. Our room was a mini suite because our parents paid more for our comfort.

We had all chosen pink as our favorite color so we got a pink room and were placed in the same room. We had a hot pink fridge, a hot pink sink, white marble counter, and a metallic hot pink microwave in the kitchen part with baby pink and white tile. Our beds were all white sheets with light pink comforters.

On the beds were assorted pillows from Gabby's collection. Gabby had seriously brought one suitcase full of pillows and had her owl bring the rest from home. We each had about 5 pillows each to arrange on our beds and 4 on the 2 armchairs and 1 couch. The beds all fit into the wall during the day and at night or when we wanted to lie on our bed, they came out with a flick of our wand. For example, if I flicked my wand then my bed came out, but if Cecile flicked her wand, her bed would come out. With out the bed, we could practice a routine or spread out on the floor doing homework or something.

The mini veranda had a little white garden table with four chairs. On the far left of the veranda was a small light pink broom shack where we could keep our brooms. On the right was a sturdy white mini house where our owls lived when not sending or retrieving letters.

The house was cleaned daily by our personal house elves who took turns doing the chores of cleaning our suite. We were responsible for our own suites so we all brought at least one of our house elves from home. If one girl was on scholarship and too poor to own a house elf, then one of her room mates would lend her one of hers. The owl house's water and food was changed everyday by the personal house elves too. On the other side of the owl house was a little owl door that could only let an owl through. It looked like a window but let an owl through if the owl flew through it. If any other creature, like a bat or other bird tried it, it would run into glass. One was connected to our room from the outside and another from the owl house.

As soon as I walked into our suite, I went straight to the walk in closet. I went to my part of the closet and I picked out a white tee shirt I made on my old best friends 7th birthday with magic changing ink. My friend's mom thought it would be best if we used too big white tee shirts so it would be less likely to stain her new white lace table cloth. The shirt was still too big and instead of changing colors became stuck on pink ink after the years. I also chose some grey capri stretch pants. I picked up a pair of fluffy pink socks that I had been wearing earlier and threw it down the laundry chute that said "Serena." I grabbed some underwear and teleported my whole self and the handful into the bathroom.

I locked the door and turned on the water. Even though it wasn't warm yet, I let the larger than usual bathtub fill up. When it was full I concentrated and used my powers to heat the water to the temperature I like. Since I normally don't heat that much water, my head hurt slightly after I did, but got better after I let myself sink in the water. The water was just enough to cover my head and one and a half the length of my body.

I reached out my hand to turn on the bubbles but decided not to. I hadn't used my magic in so long that I might as well take advantage of the opportunity. I had been getting better at wizard magic but hadn't used the siren or mermaid magic at all. I hadn't told my friends about my heritage yet because it was still too dangerous. Even if they were my friends if they told their families, then gossip could spread.

I hardened the water behind me and leaned back like a chair. I used my power over water to make a bubble of water which I floated over my head and popped. I shook the water off. I then brought my hands up to make a little whirlpool, which I slightly raised out of the water. I continued to raise it slowly until the water was twirling in mid air. I smiled and felt very pleased with my magic.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. I was so surprised, the whirlpool dropped straight back into the bath with a splash.

"Serena? Are you ok? You've been in there for 30 minutes."

"I'm fine, just getting out" I went to the mirror where I had laid my clothes. I teleported the water on me, to the currently draining bathtub. I put on my clothes and looked at the mirror, brushing my hair. I dropped the brush in surprise.

In stead of my usual eye color, the brown was swirled with another brighter color. I blinked a few times in confusion and they returned to its normal brown. I accepted that I was simply seeing things and continued to brush my hair.

I came back in the room and glanced up at the pink clock. I was startled. It was already 5 minutes to 6:00. Gabby was the only one waiting. "We have to go to dinner! The others all left!!! I said I'd wait for you. Hurry up!"

I started following Gabby who was walking out the door. "Where are they?"

"Waterfall room," Gabby replied. We rushed along until we reached the room. I felt comforted by the sound of the rushing water. We were under the only real waterfall on campus. The waterfall room's floor was made of glass so you could see the water under your feet and fish. Under the floor was a separate aquarium where the school kept a ton of tropical fish. The whole room screamed tropical.

An invisible dome kept us protected from the waterfall but we could still feel it if we jumped out of the dome. Of course none of us did that too often because we would get soaked and floated down the river. There were two paths to get into the dome where you didn't get wet. Except for the pathways, the room was surrounded by water from the waterfall. The room was perfect and everybody loved it. If you looked outside the room and away from the water, you were surrounded by the tropical forest.

We looked around and saw them sitting at a white garden table with a glass top, made so you could see the fish below. Rachelle, Gisele, Cecile, Marie, and Chloe called us over. We came and stole two chairs from a nearby table so we could sit down.

"I MADE THE TEAM!!!" Rachelle said animatedly.

"Great!" Gabby replied.

"What team?" I replied.

Rachelle rolled her eyes. "Duh! The high flying team!"

"Oooooh," I said, "cool!"

"So what exactly is high flying?" Cecile said.

"it's basically a gymnastics/dance routine on brooms." Rachelle replied.

"oh" Cecile said, now inspecting her nails.

"What time is it?" Marie asked.

"6 o' clock! Dinner time." Gabby said.

"Yay! The menus appeared." I exclaimed, glancing down at the menu.

"OMG TODAY'S SUSHI AND SASHIMI!!!!!" I shouted happily. Obviously, I liked sushi and sashimi. What do you think the merpeople eat? Seaweed? Of course we eat that too but you can't get proper nutrition off of just underwater plants. Yes, I know, I'm not a mermaid, but I'm part!

"Someone's happy…," Gisele mumbled.

"You don't like sashimi?" I asked, my eyes wide.

"Nope and I so agree." Rachelle said.

Cecile, daughter of the 2nd cousin of the wife of the minister of magic, said,

"Sushi is yummy and is the food for people with class."

Chloe, who had been reading a book, looked up sharply, "are you saying we don't have class?"

Cecile rolled her eyes, "no, just that people who like sushi have class."

"If I'd known it would start an argument, I'd have just picked the jungle room. I heard they're having a five course French cuisine." Marie interrupted. It had been her turn to pick the room to eat in.

"It's fine. We'll go to the jungle room and the people who like eating raw fish can stay here." Rachelle said solving the problem.

Meanwhile Chloe was reciting her whole ancestry and all the important people she was related to, proving she had class, to Cecile.

"Oh no, here she goes again." Gabby said.

"Ok who's staying?" Gisele asked.

"Me, Cecile, Marie, and… Gabby are you staying?"

"I love fish!" she replied.

"Ok, Rachelle, let's drag Chloe outta here." They both took one of Chloe's arm and dragged her to the door.

She protested and ran back finishing the rest in one quick breath. "There, Cecile, I DO have class." She then turned on heel and marched out the door with Rachelle and Gisele at her side.

"I heard the fish was apperated straight from Japan!" Marie said.

"Ok I think we should get the sashimi dinner for 2 and the sushi dinner for 2 and split it." I said.

"Agreed. I want to eat a variety of fish!" Gabby said.

"Yum!" Marie said.

"sure," said Cecile, still put back by Chloe's fiery response.

"I'll order!" Marie said, picking up a pen and writing their order on the paper provided. She then dropped the paper in the hole in the table. It was enchanted so as soon as it was dropped in the hole, it appeared in the kitchen.

A few seconds later, our chopsticks and dishes to put soy sauce in appeared in front of us. Just a few seconds after that, our salad arrived. It had a mix of fish in it as well as some seaweed, bean sprouts, and lettuce. It had sesame soy sauce vinaigrette on it.

I took a bite and loved it. We all ate the salad and when we were all done, we each slid a piece of paper down the slot that said next. This was because the plates magically refilled themselves so it couldn't be all eaten. We were all careful not to eat too much so the sashimi would still fit in our stomachs.

As soon as we slid it down, the sashimi and sushi came. I ate so much I felt as if my stomach would burst. My favorites, magulo and ikura, kept refilling because I kept eating. That would be tuna and salmon roe in English.

After everyone was patting their stomachs we decided to get dessert. I ordered the mango dessert set, Gabby ordered the fruit framboise, Marie ordered chocolate milphie with ice cream on the side, and Cecile ordered the green tea ice cream.

When the dessert came, we were all astounded. My mango set came with a full cut mango, mango pudding, mango custard, and mango juice. Gabby's came with, obviously, fruit framboise with a great deal of fruit on top, raspberry smoothie, and a bowl of fruit on the side. Marie's came with fluffy chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream in the middle, chocolate sauce, a bar of chocolate, and mocha with whip cream and chocolate syrup. Cecile's came with green tea ice cream, sweet beans (anko), and green tea. We ate our desserts with pleasure and decided everyone simply MUST try all the desserts. We took a bite out of each of the other girl's desserts and decided they were all equally delicious.