Stranger in Strange Land

What was a girl to expect? Though Marcy had been in pubs before to eat lunch, usually as a third wheel on Agatha's dates, she had never been in one that classified as a 'wizards' pub. Perhaps she should've accepted Agatha's offer to come with her, but Agatha always believed in giving her her space as much as Marceline believed in taking as much space as she needed. However, she craved her guardian's company as she entered the pub full of strangers and didn't have a clue where to go.

Her money, she found, was not accepted there as a currency. The bartender told her, as she tried to order herself some soup, that it was called 'muggle money' in this world, and she would have to go to the bank and get it exchanged before she planned on purchasing anything on that day. Heaving a sigh, she took a seat alone at a table and watched those around her. Her eyes widened as a waitress waved a stick of wood and suddenly the chairs at the table she was clearing rose up. Then she made dirty glasses disappear. "This is the real deal, huh?" She noted aloud to herself. Everything was so mind boggling, she didn't even know where to start with her shopping.

Ruby was now a second year and she could now go around all on her own. Stepping into the pub brought her back to her first year, she was a bit older now and she was more confident coming back to the familiar pub. She had begged her parents to let her go by herself and all the begging had payed off. She breathed in the familiar smells and instantly craved a butterbeer, a sweet drink she had tried for the first time with her friend Noah. She had to have one soon or she might explode.

With a butterbeer in her hands, she looked for a place to sit. There were tons of people there and seats were taken up. Maybe she should just ask someone if she could sit with them, that had worked last year. She took a sip of her butterbeer before she set off to find a seat and a willing person to let her sit there. She picked a table closest to her and walked over. "Why hello there, mind if I sit down?" It was rude not to ask before placing your butt into a chair.

Her eyes had been averted and it wasn't until a voice spoke up that she turned and faced that side of the table once more. She was met with a girl with rather bright hair and she didn't look like she could be too much older than herself. Marcy stared at her for a moment, addressed the situation, than decided there was no harm in letting a stranger join her, especially if they were also just a little girl.

Marceline nodded stiffly and eyed the girl's drink. It smelled oddly sweet and sweets weren't exactly her thing. She wondered if it was some sort of witch's brew that gave extra powers. It might've, for all she knew.

"You're hair is like really bright," Marceline noted to the girl, ruffling her own, boy-cut hair. "Is it some sort of magic?" She had already seen so much magic within the minutes she had been within the pub that she felt it safe to assume that using magic was just as much of a habit as most muggles used their cellphones.

Ruby sat down and smiled at the girl before taking another sip of her butterbeer. She set the drink down then ran a hand through her now red hair. "Magic? I wish, this took forever to dye. Mama and Papa had a cow about it but finally agreed that I could dye my hair." She thought it made her stand out and standing out wasn't all too bad. Everyone at Beauxbatons wore the same powder blue uniform so Ruby made sure that she looked as different as possible, she didn't want to be a clone. "I believe strongly in the word 'different'. Everyone is different, my hair is different." She touched her hair again to prove her point. "Your hair is different, very pretty."

"Oh and I'm Ruby by the way." She hoped she could get the girl's name without actually asking for it, it was a fun little game she played with herself from time to time. She also liked to guess peoples' names and their stories, everyone had a story. "Do you believe that everyone has a story? I do, I like to guess people's stories. It's a fun way to pass the time." She was never mean about her little made up stories, always looking at the brighter side of things.

Marceline was a bit disappointed in the hair being nothing but the product of plain hair dye. It would've been fun if should could change her hair to a different color for one day and have it back to normal the next. That way, she could experiment with all sorts of colors. However, with her hair as dark as it was, the bleaching alone would take too much effort.

The girl was certainly odd and whereas Marceline thought majority of the girls at her private muggle school were boring, she wasn't entirely sure whether or not the girl's eccentric personality was something she liked or not. "Sure, different is a word," She replied, not exactly sure whether or not the girl was completely mental. She touched her hair self-consciously as it was mentioned. "Actually I just like it like this because its low maintenance" She confessed.

"Marceline," She introduced herself and offered her hand to shake. That was just how things went when one person told another their name. You were expected to do the same and there wasn't much reason to do otherwise. "Your name matches your hair." She had a hunch it was the girl's favorite color as well. How odd for things to turn out that way. "Of course everyone has their own story. You wouldn't be alive if you didn't. And everyone is the hero in their own story, and that means you might be the villain in someone else's story," Marceline relayed. It made perfect sense to her and that's usually what she told herself when someone at school called her a weirdo, that she was just the villain in that particular girl's story.

Rosalie was new to the initial place and was finding it hard to make friends, but it wasn't going to stop her from trying. She proceeded to look around the pub and try to find someone who she could talk to when she spotted two girls chatting at the bar. They both looked around her age, and they both looked like they'd be fun to talk to. One of the girls had fiery red hair, whilst the other had simple black hair. Well as far as hair went it seemed they all had extraordinary hair, considering hers was very long, almost down to butt. She smiled and approached the two.

"Um....Hello.." She said kind of shyly. "I'm Rosalie...do you mind if I sit here?" She asked the girls and motioned to the seat next to Marceline,hoping that they would allow her to do so. She didn't want to intrude on their conversation, and yet she didn't want to be alone in that fact. Looking around the bar pub for a moment and then focusing her attention back on the girls she smiled a shy smile.

There was a saying that went; Birds of a feather stick together, and in that moment Marceline found it true. Let a few young girls on their own in a pub and they all ended up coming together. Though Marceline wasn't big on large company, she was at least thankful that she was surrounded with people in the same general boat as her.

"Seems like everyone else is, so why not?" Marceline replied to the new girl who claimed she was called Rosalie. What was one more person? And if she was lucky enough, maybe Rosalie and Ruby would really kick it off and Marceline could just sneak away? Oh she did wish she knew where the bloody door out of there was. She desperately wanted to find the bank so she could get money that she could use.

Rosalie sat down and smiled slightly, she felt the slight coldness from Marceline's response which she immediately returned with a "Oh...I'm sorry...I didn't mean to intrude." She had a habit of apologizing for everything she did if she thought that she had upset, or hurt someone else's feelings. She bit her lip and ordered a butterbeer and smiled over to the girls. Seeing Marceline empty handed she immediately wanted her to share one with her and Ruby. "Would you like one?" She offered with a smile.

Realizing she hadn't introduced herself to the other girl yet she smiled brightly and shook her hand. "Your hair is just lovely!" She said sweetly. She loved to compliment people and make them feel like they were the best they possibly could be. She had trouble with that sort of thing, she pick out the smallest of imperfections in herself and try to fix them, she had to fix them. She took a quick sip of the drink and smiled again. "Yum! Delicious!" She said to the bartender and plopped a tip in the tip jar. "So what are your names, then?" She finally asked.

She immediately became interested when the girl started to talk about everyone having stories and their stories had villains and such. "I like your theory, I never thought about it like that." The last time she had played her little game was with her friend, maybe was her and Noah's special game. But it was always good to play a game to break the ice between strangers. "I have this game-" She started but she was interrupted by a girl coming up to the table.

Ruby stayed silent as the girl talked and when she finally turned to Ruby, she smiled. "Hello," she said softly. "I'm Ruby and thank you very much. I dyed it over the summer." Without thinking she touched her hair and rolled the ends between her fingers. "I already have a drink," she motioned to her butterbeer., "But thanks anyways." She was never used to having to talk to more than one person, besides the club she had joined. She only had one person to call her friend and was always awkward around people. "I guess I could explain my game later," she said to the black haired girl. Two people to talk to were too much for her.

Rosalie suddenly felt a pang of awkwardness between her and the two. It seemed like they had been having a grand conversation until she had barged in, and for that she felt bad. "Oh...it's alright...I'll just take my drink and find another spot..." She gave a half smile and cleared her head. 'Just leave them alone. They weren't looking for another person to come in.' her conscious told her, "It was nice meeting you both....have fun shopping!" She said with her signature smile and started away. She felt bad for entering their A - B conversation without much warning. With her first attempt at making friends being a bust...she found that it was a lot harder than it looked.

With the thought of the game put on hold, Marceline addressed the new girl at the table just by looking her over. She wasn't particularly a girl of many words and perhaps that caused her to come across as unfriendly.

"Marceline Bones," He replied and attempted a smile. Her blue eyes glanced at the drink in the girl's hand. It was the same as Ruby's, apparently a popular pick. "If you don't mind me asking, but what exactly is it that you are drinking?" Marcy asked. She didn't even know what it was called, let alone how it tasted.

"Leaving so soon? But Ruby was about to explain a game," Marcy turned the conversation back over to Ruby's game. Maybe her game included information about this school she was going to go to, for Marcy hadn't a clue about anything.

"Oh yes, my game. You have to listen to the rules, my dear sweet Rosie. It's okay that I call you that, right?" She wasted no time and gave the girl no chance to respond to her question. "My game is very simple, it's just making up stories about someone just by looking at them. But you always have to be nice about it and no one is wrong because you never ask the person about themselves. It's fun! I played it with my best friend, Noah. How about we play a round? Guessing things about each other, it's a nice ice breaker. But if you don't wanna do that then we can just guess things about the people around us."

She wasn't sure if either girl would open up to her, but Ruby was pretty much an open book. She loved to talk and talk and talk, she had no mute button. There was no silencing Ruby, it just wasn't possible. She looked at both of them, looking back and forth. "So, what do you guys say? Sound fun?" She said with a hopeful smile.

"It's nice to meet you." She said to Marcy with a smile. "It's butterbeer...it's delicious...are you sure you don't want one?" She asked Marcy again.

Looking up at the other girl she smiled. "Yes...that's fine, you can call me Rosie..or Rose." As she started to explain the game, Rosalie found herself being more and more interested in what Ruby was saying. The idea was really interesting, creating a story about a person just based upon appearance was almost magical. Rosalie loved to close her eyes and make up stories regardless...she loved to imagine what she'd be like if she was a princess or something else..but no...she had never imagine someone else's life through her eyes.

Smiling at Ruby she nodded her head eagerly at Ruby, "Yeah that does sound fun." She said moving a long of her brown waist long hair behind her ear. "Okay, you start." She said to Ruby and took a sip of her butterbeer again.

She looked from both girls then looked around the pub. She wondered if she should guess something about them or make up a story for someone in the pub. "I'll start off with someone in the pub if that's okay. If you want, you can guess my story after I'm finished." She looked around the pub once again, looking for someone to make a story about.

Her eyes fell upon a woman that was sitting alone at a booth but had multiple drinks in front of her. She looked as if she were waiting for someone, only two drinks were touched and the others were still full. "Okay, that woman over there." She pointed so they knew where to look. "She's obviously waiting for someone, maybe a date? By her clothes, it's casual. Could be a date but I'm thinking she's meeting an old friend or a family member. Two drinks have been touched, the other two haven't. Maybe she's meeting two people instead of one or maybe the person she's meeting will drink those two drinks." She studied the woman some more, wanting to add more to her story.

"No makeup, no nail polish. I think she's meeting a friend," she concluded. "Anyone else wanna say anything about her?"

Rosalie found it amazing how Ruby was able to decipher the story behind the one person just by their appearance. Rosalie figured she wouldn't be especially good at the game, and she didn't want to depict her wrong. "Wow...that's so cool!" She exclaimed to the girl with a bright smile. "The way you were able to deduct why she wasn't drinking the other two drinks and everything...it was so cool!" She laughed, "Well, I'm not so good at guessing...why don't you try to guess my story?" She asked looking to Marcy and Ruby...She wasn't trying to be rube...she just didn't want to look like a fool in front of her new potential friends.

Ruby took a sip of her drink then put it back down, she studied the girl. She couldn't say anything that might offend the girl, so she needed to choose her words carefully. Not that she would try to offend someone, but sometimes if you got their personality wrong they get kind of upset."You...' Ruby started, she wasn't sure what to say. "Well, maybe you're shy. You seem shy, maybe you haven't been around a lot of people in your life. Or you haven't stayed in one spot for too long. That could also cause someone to feel shy."

She looked at the other girl then back at Rosalie. "Maybe the both of you haven't been around people much." She turned to the other girl, Marceline. "I think you're not a people person, but it's always nice to have a friend." She looked from the both of them. "I'm a great friend so I'm the best candidate to become friends with."

Rosalie felt her her face falling as Ruby spoke more and more...she unveiled her life and her secrets...but Rosalie wasn't mad..she could never be mad at anyone, she had asked Ruby to deduct her life. Smiling at the girl, she nodded. "Yes...that's right...when we're living in Italy I traveled a lot for my mod-" she cut off and sighed. "Uh... I mean for my mother's health.." She said recovering from he slip up. It wasn't that she was ashamed, but she just didn't want the other's to know about her past..it was just full of expectations, flashing lights, glitz and glamour... Just the kind of life any girl would want..what they didn't realize..is that it wasn't as perfect as it seemed.