Broken Mechanics

After having jumped around from table to table for the past hour and a half, butting into multiple conversations and drinking butterbeer after butterbeer, Alexandre was now sitting at a table by himself. The pub had thinned out considerably in the early afternoon, as everyone was now shopping for their school supplies. Alex, however, was incessantly poking at his wristwatch, which now laid flat upon the wooden table in front of him. Frowning worriedly, he pulled and pressed it, but the hands weren't moving at all.

Perhaps it was because he had spilled butterbeer all over it only fifteen minutes earlier. Stamping his feet several times on the floor beneath the table, he shook his head and held up the wristwatch gingerly between his forefinger and thumb like it was some testing subject. Golden liquid dripped from it and landed in a collecting puddle on the table. "My dad's gonna kill me," He said sadly, shaking his head. "I wish I knew some magic already." He added, before quite literally flinging the wristwatch to the side.

Osmund's stomach rumbled. After a day of trying shopping with Helena and seemingly endless walking and waiting, the boy had finally finished it. All his school supplies lied packaged in bags, some in Osmund's arms, some in Helena's. In one hand grasped was perhaps one of Osmund's favourite purchases of the day, however he would note admit it out loud. In the crate that he carried scurried the two-coloured eyed kitten; his first real pet. The boy smiled to himself that the kitten had chosen him. Though the feline had been oddly forward, the boy didn't mind so much for it meant that he was wanted...even if it was by an animal.

After a hard day's work, it felt nice to sit down, even if he was back where he started in the pub that he had spent so much time waiting in before. However, resting Pellinore's cage on the table and putting his feet up, the eleven year old felt the stress literally pouring from his body and walking out the door. He was comfortable now that the place had cleared up more and Merlin's trousers, he was hungry too. He ordered some fancy-named sandwich, which turned out to be ham and cheese, and another cup of tea to munch on, feeling better than he had before. He even sat down at a table with Helena and half-listened as the woman spoke to him.

He chowed down on his food, absently looking around the room and only slightly taking note of a boy sitting at a table near him. It wasn't until something metallic took to flight and landed on Osmund's table, hitting Pellinore's cage, that the boy's head snapped towards the stranger. "What was that for!? You scared my cat!" Pellinore hissed from inside his restraints, swatting a white paw through the bars. Osmund picked up the piece of metal that had been thrown, looking at it's shiny surface. It was a watch, but the hands weren't moving. "Useless," Osmund noted, then placed it on the boy's table and pushed it back towards him, noticing then another quality of the watch, which he audibly noted as well. "And sticky?"

Annaliese had been sitting minding her own business when she heard someone lash out of someone. She turned to see what had happened, then she recognized him. The boy from the store. She sighed. 'Don't do it..don't do it...don't do it...' she kept thinking to herself, debating whether to get up or not. 'do it.' her mind told her. She gently stood and walked over to him. "Um...Hello again." she said to him, knowing he'd still be sour from the last time, but she wasn't completely heartless as to leave someone who was being hassled, alone.

His eyes only lingered on the other boy for a brief moment before his attention was requested elsewhere. He hadnt an idea what sort of person thought it was okay to throw a watch at a kitten, broken or not, and would be surprised to see if anyone disagreed with him on that.

A noise of disgust escaped his lips as he met the intruder's eyes. "Oh. It's you. That lost girl from before," he noted, nonchalantly, showing no immediate hostility, but yet not completely letting his guard down. If she wanted to continue what happened before, Oz would be ready to defend himself, and Pellinore, for that matter. "What is it now?"

Annaliese sighed. "I wanted to apologize from before..I didn't mean to intrude...like I'm doing now." She looked down and then back up. "Is your cat alright?" She asked looking down at the cage.

An eyebrow raised and hide behind the curtain of his long black hair. She was apologizing? "Naturally," he replied, trying not to sound so surprised. It wasnt often that Osmund Hollow was apologized to. Probably because he was the complicated person he was. Though, by his father's standard's, it would only be right for others to apologize to him. After all, he was a Hollow and Hollow's were pure and that made him better, right? From his few years in school so far, Osmund determined that he wasnt so sure anymore.

He had seemingly lost place of what had happened before the girl from before apologized, so that when she hinted at his cat not being alright, Osmund immediately assumed that she meant his eye coloration, not that he had just been struck with a watch.

"My cat is perfectly well and functional! What you see is heterochromia and it is just a genetic mutation that makes his eyes two different colors!" Osmund defended. He wasnt going to accept someone saying his cat was half rate! But then it hit him. "Oh, you mean from the watch," he added, this time more calmly. He looked from his hands to his cat to the girl before answering, "yeah, he was just startled. The dumb brat," he remarked, in the direction of the boy with the watch.

Annaliese cracked a smile. "Well, good. I'm glad he is okay, and I like his eye colors." She paused thoughtfully. "It makes him... unique." She smiled then it suddenly hit her she didn't even know this boys name. "Oh! I didn't formally introduce myself before. I'm Annaliese Montoya, Anna for short." She smiled and moved a blonde strand that had fallen in her face.

The fighting fire he felt before was starting to simmer down and suddenly Oz's scowling face eased. He was nearly almost sure she wasnt here to fight, though would still keep a watch, just in case.

"Right, unique. I never asked for him. He came to me," Osmund found himself saying. He had just wanted a pet and hadnt been looking at the time for something unique. Pellinore had nearly insisted that Osmund take him with him, and after realizing he wouldn't be able to leave the store with the cat following him behind, Osmund had accepted the fate. He wouldn't admit it, but that was his favourite thing about Pellinore; that Pellinore wanted him.

He nodded and offered his hand to shake like the proper gentleman his father raised him to be. "Pleasure. They call me Osmund Hollow. Or Oz or Ozzy or whatever. I stopped caring a year ago," he replied, the corner of his mouth pulling into the slightest smile.

Anna smiled and took his hand. "I like Oz." She laughed. "I love cats, but my aunt never permitted me to have one. Well, at least in the house....I kept a cat in secret once...his name was nightmare...he was black cat...but my aunt caught me with him one day and sent him to the pound.." She sighed at the bad memory. "She told me studying was more important."

Just because Oz had learned the girl's name and finally managed to speak with her for a few moments without completely snapping at her didn't mean that he was okay with sharing casual conversation with her. With a slight sigh, Osmund hadnt bothered to tell her to shut up. At least they werent fighting.

"Same with my mother. It took me forever to convince Helena to allow me to get Pellinore here. Before him, I just had a fish." He rolled his eyes. Helena had insisted that their new house would be too small for a cat, but as time proved it wrong, Pellinore seemed perfectly content wandering roofs and coming home after each adventure. She probably refrained from allowing him to get a real pet just to spite him. She seemed to like to do that a lot, but then again, maybe she'd be less strict on him if Oz actually behaved.

"Tell her that having a pet teaches responsibility," Osmund offered, with a shrug. He didn't see how pets possibly got in the way of studying, being that he owned Pellinore for two years now and managed to stay at the top of marks, but he supposed there could be a decent lesson in owning a pet.

Anna had been listening intensively. She nodded as he said it taught responsibility. "I tried to tell my aunt that...but she wouldn't budge. Like I said, I've been stuck studying since the accident..." She trailed off. "So...um" She rubbed her arm. "What house are you?"

"Montagnard," he replied stiffly. "But it doesn't matter what the name of the house you end up in is as long as you can stand the people," Osmund noted. He seemed to get along with the Cherisiers as much as he did with the Montagnards so it appeared that even that didn't play as much of an important factor as he had claimed.

"You won't get as lost as you did today, by the way. The school may be big, but you'll get used to it quickly. I just get annoyed with people who aren't supposed to be here in the first place asking for directions," Osmund continued, his tone souring the longer he spoke. It was a reference from before when they had initially met. He hadnt been mad at her, at first. Not really. It was Fergus that made Osmund angry.

"Oh! I'm in that house as well." She smiled. As he continued though Annaliese nodded in an understanding way, "It wasn't right of me to inconvenience you like that. It wasn't your problem, I'm sorry." She apologized. "I'm found my way around though, so I won't get lost." she smiled sweetly.