Foreseeing Queen Bees

Kayla half-paid attention to Professor Lemiux as she kept on a straight face. A few people were stifling giggles as she lectured about "future relationships". She didn't need to be told who she would be with in the future. Greg was her boyfriend. Sure, she was no fool, and she knew it might not last, but frankly if she was with someone else in the future, she didn't want to know who. Kayla tapped her feet impatiently as she watched the swirling crystal ball. It never ceased to fascinate her.

Professor Lemiux had seated Isobel across from Kayla at their two-person table. At first, Kayla was annoyed as she figured everyone would flock over to chatter with Isobel while she was trying to work. She hadn't expected people to talk to her. It was mostly about Quidditch and hanging out in Cheval and even music. She knew she was popular. She didn't know she was popular enough to possibly rival Isobel.

Kayla tapped her quill against the parchment. After Professor Lemiux stopped talking, Kayla blinked and tried to see something in the crystal. "I see...Greg," she blurted out. The blob looked kind of like him. "We just started dating." Isobel probably already knew anyway. The news traveled around fast.

Kayla noticed some people sneaking brief glances at her and Isobel. She was loath to admit it but it made her feel good. "So, what do you see in yours? Everyone's dying to know. I don't know how you handle all this." She meant the scrutiny that came with immense popularity. Something Kayla was just learning.

Isobel was mildly annoyed by the attention that Kayla was receiving. But she was more annoyed that Kayla was too nice to just buzz them off.

"Gee, Kayla. That's some surprising news!" Isobel joked, sounding more condescending than she'd originally planned. She wasn't going to correct herself, though. She had been trying to hook Greg and Kayla up for a while, with no actual success. "I've been seeing that for months. You just didn't believe me."

Isobel had honestly intentionally been seeking the future of relationships. She prety much knew that Kayla and Greg were going to be the first couple of her friends to get married. She knew that Kayla was going to get put in the year she was supposed to be in over the summer and other things that were a little too scandalous to share. Isobel was honestly growing out of telling everybody people's secrets. She'd just stick with telling Sophie, the only friend she felt like she had in the universe.

Isobel saw some rough patches in Cameron's life, including finding out what happened to his parents and Anna. She saw no sense in worrying about it, as it was inevitable at this point. And he wanted to know anyway, so she just had to support him and act surprised.

"How do I handle this?" Isobel repeated. "I don't know. I just always have. And I don't see anything of particular interest. Except that you finally get to play against Greg this season."

It wasn't exactly a lie. And there was no way in hell Isobel would be telling Kayla what she actually saw. It was classified.

Kayla laughed easily. "I don't like getting my hopes up with those things." Relationships were never her strong suit. She didn't feel she had total control over them. "I just said "we'll see."

Kayla peered closer to her crystal ball. She was scared of seeing the future sometimes. It could disappoint her or make her feel less hopeful. Yet the excitement of the future outweighed her fears. She had gotten used to it, slowly. Whenever she saw something shocking, she did something to take her mind off it. Kayla had long learned to be vague with the secrets she spilled. It was fun being teasingly mysterious. Sort of like a real Seer.

"I hope so." Kayla didn't press further. Isobel could be secretive. "Do you happen to see who wins?" she joked. Her face brightened. "I see Greg and me together for a while." Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Hopefully not.

She swallowed. She saw some bad signs in her crystal ball, unrelated to her relationship with Greg. She fell into a deep thinking mode.

"Psh," Isobel said waving her hand, dismissing Kayla's pessimism. "You just don't want me to be right eighty percent of the time." It wasn't even a lie.

"C'mon, Kayla. That would ruin the fun of the game, don't you think?" Isobel asked rhetorically. "And my fun of keeping it a secret. Can't you be happy about beating me? Or at least pretend?"

Isobel rolled her eyes. "Duh. That's what you wanted, right? Also, I wouldn't recommend you tell him that. He told me he'd rather not know any of my visions. And that it freaks him out that they are so accurate."

Kayla laughed a little. "Please. I'm right 81 percent of the time, all the time." She joked, waving her hand in the air nonchalantly.

Kayla fake pouted. "Pretty please with chocolate frogs on top? No? Alrighty then, Seer Green."

She laughed as she stared intently at the mist in her crystal ball. "Trust me, I won't have to pretend." Kayla wondered how Isobel was so casual about it. If she knew she was destined to lose, she'd be devastated. "I'll be yelling 'Yeah! I beat that sneaky MVC! Most Valuable Chaser," she explained.

"I won't. I've freaked him out enough with mundane things," Kayla promised absentmindedly as she interpreted her crystal.

"I wish we could do something with all the creeps trying to sneak into the locker rooms. Like, get the hell out. Find some other girls who are more desperate. I'll smack the next one I see with my broom," Kayla swore. She and Isobel were particularly victim of this, although it applied to multiple female Quidditch player. She smiled a little at the thought of her boyfriend standing up for her.

Isobel ignored the gloating. It wasn't like she and Kayla were actually competing for anything anymore. She was not as central to the game as a seeker was. So Isobel no longer felt the need to compete. If she was worried about anything, it would be that Kayla's new Chaser had the advantage of being a quicker flyer than her. That and that the sun guy (whatever his name was) had longer arms than Isobel. She knew that it could be the reason why Montagnard wasn't taking the cup home this season. But it couldn't be helped at this point.

Isobel smirked. Every year she had managed to piss off Professor Bowen for a different reason. And this year's reason was using the changing rooms for make out purposes. Then again, Cameron was hardly a creep. And it wasn't like he did it to all the girls on her team. There were only three and the other ones were kind of "meh" in the looks department. And in the personality department as well. And Cam wouldn't behave like that.

"I think you can smack the creeps. I'm pretty sure that's what Bowen would do," Isobel pointed out, stifling a giggle. She didn't want Lemiux to look over at the two girls. "Or just tell Greg. I've seen him defend you. There's genuine hurt on his face when he tells someone off. It's great."