We could awkwardly ignore each other, or make the most of it

Serah was content to ride in the carriage by herself. It would give her time to sleep or think. She also didn't mind riding with any of the first years. If she could ease someone's anxiety, it would be a good day.

Serah should have known that she'd get the short end of the stick.

She heard two very distinct voices. Voices, that just a few months before, had been shouting at her.

Oh please don't sit here, Serah thought as she tucked her knees into her chest.

Serah was highly embarassed of the things she had said to Ryan and Harley. She had no reason to yell at them and call them names during detention, but she did. If she had just minded her own business, things would have been fine.

But of course, Ryan and Harley climbed into the carriage in the seat across from her, and she couldn't hide from them.

It was another year of school and Ryan was looking forward to visiting the Village now that he was a third year. He would have even more fun with his best friend, so he talked about making plans with her. He had heard so many stories from his brother about how awesome visiting the Village was. He just had to tell Harley about some of them. But first, they needed to sit down. So, he took a seat in front of the girl who he didn't agree with at detention.

Why did she have to be there? He left out a sigh and turned towards Harley. "My brother was telling me about how cool the Village was. They have their own graveyard and everything!" He wanted to check out all the shops around there then check out the graveyard.Then maybe get some ice cream. "We totally need to go there together and hang out."

The year at Beauxbatons had been fairly prosperous, and Harley enjoyed life there more than anything. More specifically, she enjoyed spending time with her friends. Especially Ryan. He was cool. They had even made plan to visit the Village together once they were third years, and as soon as the year came around, they hopped on the first carriage to the Village.

Of course, they didn't expect the ride there to be so painfully awkward. The girl that Harley had yelled at in the past was sitting across from her, and she didn't know whether to feel bad or not for doing so. She figured that the girl had her reasons, but Harley had hers too and wasn't planning on apologizing any time soon. That didn't mean that she would be blatantly disrespectful to the underclassman, though, and after a tension filled minute, she greeted the girl with a quiet "Hello."

Harley then focused her attention to Ryan and what he was saying. "I hear that there's a ghost in the graveyard, and if the rumors are true I would like to meet him. I really want to visit the playground, though. It's childish, I know, but I never really had a childhood anyways." She had also heard of the ice-cream parlour there and that it was to die for. "Sounds like a plan."

"Hi Harley. Hi, Ryan," She greeted before opening the notebook on her lap.

She pulled a pen out of her backpack, which she had by her feet. She didn't know what she was going to do since she found it next to impossible to ignore Ryan and Harley's conversation. But she decided that drawing was probably the best option.

So Serah started drawing the inside of the carriage and before long, she had drawn Harley and Ryan together, laughing and smiling at each other.

That's when the carriage hit a bump and Serah lost the grip on her notebook. All of the things that were tucked into her notebook slipped out of the covers and it landed with the picture she had drawn face up.

Serah didn't really care as much about the picture as she did about the pieces of her journal scattered across the floor of the carriage. Her notes from last year, her other drawings of students and teachers, her writings, everything that was important to her, was displayed for all to see. She sighed and bent down to pick them all up.

Ryan didn't really care much that they had to share a carriage with the younger girl, he was just going to ignore her anyways. He was too excited about the Village to think about anything else, so she was the least of his worries. "There's ghosts in the castle," Ryan confirmed. "I heard that one likes to take things and hide things." He could have sworn he brought his favorite sweater with him last year, but it was gone when it was time to pack up and leave. "There was an old teacher who died, she still roams the halls." A smirk played on his face as he looked from Harley to Serah. "She searches for someone," he said in a low, croaky, creepy voice.

Ryan unsuccessfully held back a snicker when the younger girl dropped her things. He picked up the first paper he could get his hands on and snatched it away. He held it up so he could get a better view of the drawing. "Who said you were allowed to draw me?" He had picked up the drawing of him and Harley. "You didn't ask for permission! What if I didn't want you to draw me?" He smirked and snatched up a couple of more papers and stuffed them into his bag. "You won't be missing those, will you? I hope not 'cause you're not getting them back."

Serah didn't say anything. What would she say? 'Give that back or else?'

She knew a couple of cool jinxes and charms that would probably knock Ryan down a few levels, but he just wanted a reaction.

Her secrets were on those pages. Her history was written in ink. She'd cried and screamed and studied with her notebook. Ryan would know all of that.

But why would he even care? It was important to her, but hardly important to anyone else. Her story. So what?

Sera sighed and looked at the papers she did have: A half sheet of paper she had written a spell on, a doodle she had made of Marie-Laure, her first detention slip, a note from Milan, and a piece of cloth she had saved of her old uniform.

Serah let one tear fall from her eye, but that was all she was allowing. Mourning over her notebook would have to wait.

Harley knew what the younger girl was drawing; she could see the strokes she was making on her paper and make a mental image of it. She didn't mind, though, but if something were to happen she knew Ryan would. As the carriage hit a rather large bump in the road, Harley watched as the notebook flew out of her hands and onto the floor. Harley tried to lunge for the drifting paper, but she kept grabbing the wrong paper amidst the flurry of white. As they settled on the floor, she had no idea which one it was. Before she could find the right one, it was picked up by Ryan.

Harley let out a small curse and eyed the nervous girl in front of her. She gathered as many papers she could while Ryan taunted the girl ruthlessly. She may have been his best friend, but there were times when she fully disapproved of the way he handled things. The way the younger girl was looking at her for help made Harley only feel worse. "Ryan, calm down. She just needed something to draw."

She looked at the younger girl, handed back her papers, and muttered, "Just apologize."

"I will apologize, but he might as well look at the rest of them. Go ahead Ryan," Serah said nodding.

"Learn everything about me. It's a fascinating story," Serah said, half-sarcastically, half-honestly.

She had taken inventory and she knew which inserts were missing. The first three were doodles of Ryan. One depicted Serah chucking a rock at his head. Another was of Ryan playing his guitar and the last one was him eating lunch alone in one of the stairwells.

But those were only the inserts. Serah already felt the ache of loss. Her journal was part of her. "I only want to apologize once," she clarified.

Ryan rolled his eyes at both girls. "I think she was talking to me, stupid." He rolled his eyes again before pulling the papers out of his bag. "I don't care about 'how interesting' your life is." He ruffled through the papers, looking at each drawing. "I'll give these back only because I don't like when people cry." He was a little flattered by the drawing of him, but he wouldn't admit it. "I have one question though. Why are you drawing me?" He wasn't so upset anymore, he was just curious.

He held out the crumpled papers for the second year to take. "Most people don't get the chin right," he commented. "You did a pretty good job." He was impressed with all of them, but he was a fan of the guitar one. "I named that guitar in your picture. I'm pretty proud of her name actually. Wanna know what it is? Or do you already know?" If she did draw pictures of him playing Lady. She was named after an artist that he liked, he learned to play some of her song

"No. I don't know her name. Mind reading is something that I haven't perfected," Serah joked, as she took her papers back.

"Sorry that I drew you without your permission. I'd say that I won't do it again, but lying is bad for the soul, or something."

"And really, my life is painfully boring. I don't blame you," Serah said laughing. "And it's all in Russian, so you wouldn't be able to read it anyway."

Serah mouthed, 'sorry' at Harley, knowing that she wouldn't forgive her. But Serah would do anything to ease her guilt. She had to deal with her demons all summer. She didn't want them anymore. She tucked the drawings into her backpack and pushed her hair out of her face.

"I know who she's talking to, idiot," Harley backfired. She was used to Ryan's insensitive comments, and she was positive the only reason he befriended her was because she also knew to to respond to them. She didn't shy away from a challenge. She also knew that Ryan was a softie on the inside, and he really didn't like seeing people cry. He probably felt a little guilty too, but he would never admit that around other people.

"Her name is Lady," she giggled softly. "Mind reading is a delicate topic. Work on it for a while and you'll get it."

She knew that once Ryan got his apology, he would be fine and everything would be rainbows and butterflies from there on out. It was how things went. He got his attention, maybe an apology if he really wanted it, an he was fine. She, thankfully, didn't require much from people who wronged her. She would just steal something from them and be on her merry way.

"Lying may be bad for the soul, but so is tons of other things. If lying got me this far in life, I'm cool with it. I read Russian, give me the papers," she said, reaching her hand out for the papers.

"Um...Okay," Serah responded. "But it's not all Russian. It's a mix of Tartu, Estonian and Latvian as well. They're all similar in writing style, though. And in pronunciation."

She started to tear pages out of her notebook. Mostly drawings, some of the schematics for pranks that Milan and Serah had pulled last year, her journal entry from after the detention they had all shared, and some pictures of her family.

She handed them to Harley. Serah knew that she'd probably just throw them away, but it didn't matter anyway. If Harley forgave her, it was worth it.

"Lady is a good name for a guitar," Serah complimented. "My mom used to play for me when I was younger. It's something I could never figure out how to do. How long have you been playing?"

Ryan was hardly listening at this point, the conversation was already stale to him. He didn't care much about the diary anymore and rather focus on him instead. "Lady is a beauty," he commented on his guitar. "My mom got me her as a gift for being accepted into Beauxbatons." He was always receiving gifts for something and he couldn't complain. It was nice to get recognized for being totally awesome.

He lied all the time. Like the time he had told some girl that he loved her shirt and that she looked great in it. She was now under his finger and he'd use her whenever she wanted. "Have I ever said how much I liked your hair," he lied to Serah. A sly grin spread across his face as he reached out his hand to touch a piece of her hair. "So pretty." It was time to have someone else under his fingers, someone that he could use to get what he wanted.

Harley lazily watched the conversation between them, responding when she needed to. It was beginning to become boring, but she was too nice now to admit that. She flipped through the pages, stopping whens he reached the diary entry about their group detention. She directed her gaze to Serah once she read the page. "I knew it wasn't a translation error. You called me a dumb bitch in Estonian that day, didn't you?"

She wished that people had the decency to at least insult her properly instead of in a language they though she wouldn't know. Harley sighed and continued scanning the pages before handing the journal back. She was tired due to the vibrations coming from the carriage moving against the dirt road. Leaning against Ryan's shoulder, she looked out the window. Suddenly, he leaned forward, which nearly caused her to fall over, so she shot up and looked at what had caused his movement. He was toying with Serah, trying to wrap her around his finger so he could have her as his minion. Ryan had tried to do the same thing to her, but she blatantly refused it. Once he leaned back, she whispered softly, "Don't toy with the girl, Ryan. What could you possibly want from her?"

"I don't speak Estonian in hopes that people won't understand it," Serah said. "I speak it because, sometimes, I can't not speak it. My French isn't perfect but my Estonian and Russian and Tartar are pretty damn close."

"And roughly translated, yes," Serah answered sheepishly. The shame face was all there.

Serah knew a lie when she heard it. She didn't want to call Ryan out on it, though. It was kind of stupid to lie about liking someone's hair, so if that's how he wanted to play, Serah was all game.

"Thanks, Ryan. I'm sure that my-y hair concerns you so much," Serah responded sarcastically and innocently at the same time. She shrugged.

She tugged at the end of the nearest strand. She examined it closely, noting that she had a coulple split ends.

Ryan rolled his eyes at the younger girl, obviously she didn't know a compliment when she heard one. "What? I was just trying to be nice. But if you don't like compliments then that's your fault." He was starting to get bored again, the carriage ride needed to hurry up. School seemed way better than being stuck in this carriage.

"Nothing now," he whispered back to Harley. "She's useless anyways." He wrapped his arm around his friend before looking out the window. "This conversation has gone stale and I don't feel like being apart of it any longer. Unless you come up with an interesting topic, don't talk to me," he said to the second year.

"Nope," Serah said shaking her head. "Compliments are for the insecure."

Serah was getting anxious. Why couldn't she just be at the school already? She was eager to start her second year. It was bound to be full of excitment.

Serah knew that Ryan and Harley were whispering about her, but she just decided that she didn't give a fuck. She had planted herself in their thoughts. And she knew they'd both be thinking about her.

"I agree," Serah said. "I'm bored. But I don't have to be the entertaining one, you know."

Serah shrugged and sat back against her seat. If they responded, whatever. If they didn't, whatever. She was too tired to be pissed off.

Harley snuggled into Ryan's warmth, trying to focus on the scenery flying by the window. It was beginning to become boring but she knew how to make things a bit more exciting. "How 'bout we play 20 Questions? You know, you ask a question, and everybody had to answer, including yourself. It'll help us learn a bit about each other."

She turned back to Ryan and muttered softly, "Just don't screw with her too much. We do need at least a couple second years to trust us. She may be useless now, but I'd say you have her twisted around your finger." It was hard not to notice the awkward tension between her best friend and Serah. She only hoped that nothing horrible happened that would drive a huge rift between the two years.

Serah didn't like the way Ryan and Harley were talking about her. It was obvious now. They weren't even trying to cover it up anymore. Stay strong, Palmer, she thought.

Serah fought back the urge to snort. Why would she want to know anything about Harley or Ryan? They didn't like her. They were just trying to get her to spill secrets; to make her vunerable. She knew one thing for sure: She'd never be able to trust them completely.

"Okay. 20 questions. Someone else start. I don't have any ideas for questions yet," Serah replied.

Watch them ask the most embarrassing questions, she thought. There'd be no way Serah could lie if she was blushing.