Summer
Not even a week later Jane, Christine, Shannon, and Penelope showed up on Wisteria's doorstep to spend a week or so at the Evans household. The moment they arrived Petunia mumbled something about going to their cousins for a while and was gone within the hour.
Wisteria was a little disheartened at her sister's resentment of her friends, and even herself, but didn't let it bother her too long. She showed the girls where they would be sleeping. With Petunia now gone and Lily spending the week at Alice's house, there were two free beds for them to choose from. Shannon and Christine called Lily's room, Wisteria and Jane called Wisteria's room, and Penelope was happy to have Petunia's room all to herself.
"Our curfew here is midnight and my parents don't really care where all we go as long as we're careful and safe." Wisteria tells the girls as they sit in the living room planning out their activities for their stay. "That means that we can essentially do anything. There are parks and malls within walking distance. We could go to London, but that's a bit far so we would have to get my parents to drive us."
"I like the idea of going to a mall." Christine says. "It's been a while since I've been to one."
"I want a lazy day every other day." Penelope tells them.
"I second that." Agrees Jane. "My favorite days are ones when I have no plans."
"Okay, but first and foremost will be Christy's pity party. That will be tomorrow and then the next day will be a lazy day, then we can go to the mall, then another lazy day, then-"
"I want to go to a book store." Shannon says. "I've never been to a muggle book store. I could probably spend all day in one if it was big enough."
"Book store it is then. After that it would be another lazy day and the we could spend the next day outside. We wouldn't even have to do anything. It's nice outside if you pick the right day and most days around here in the summer are really nice."
"Ooh! We could have a picnic!" Penelope exclaims
"I like that idea." Christine agrees.
"Great! So, lazy day, mall, lazy day, book store, lazy day, picnic, lazy day, and by then it will be time to get our stuff together and get to Jane's house."
"Yay, we did it." Penelope says in a monotone voice. "I'm going to bed."
Wisteria scrunches up her face in confusion and looks at the clock to find the time to be 11:30 pm. "Oh, I guess it is late. Okay, tomorrow, be prepared to make pancakes."
Christine and Shannon laugh as they walk into Lily's room, Penelope collapses onto Petunia's bed, not even bothering to close the door, and Jane and Wisteria crawl into bed as well. Jane falls asleep in almost no time at all, but it takes Wisteria a while longer, her inner night owl telling her to stay awake and see the world at night as it's lit up by stars, but her more sensible voice reminding her that she has guests and can't stay up all night and sleep all day like she typically does when she's at home.
As usual, Wisteria is the last person awake. She groans as the sun wakes her and stumbles out of bed and down the hallway into the kitchen. By the time she gets there all the girls are already flipping pancakes and seeing what weird shapes they can get them into. Penelope slides her a plate with a pile of things that resembled pancakes.
"You're the last one awake, we decided that that meant you get the deformed ones." Mrs. Evans explains.
"Gee, thanks mom."
"Hey, they're still pancakes."
"I suppose so."
"How are you sleepy head?" Mr. Evans asks as he leaves the kitchen with a cup of tea in his hand.
"Tired." Wisteria grumbles in response.
"We gathered that much." Christine says, rolling her eyes. "How did you sleep?"
"I didn't."
"Yeah, I could tell." Jane says. "You were tossing and turning all night. It kept waking me up."
"Sorry. If I had the choice I would be nocturnal. Unfortunately that's not an option for any functional human being."
"Who said you had to be functional?" Jane asks.
"Society."
"Screw society." Penelope says in an unusually cheerful voice.
"Screw you." Wisteria mumbles. "Pass me the syrup."
"Geez. I thought it was just school that made you grumpy in the morning, but you're still like that,"
"Always has been." Mrs. Evans call from the dining room. "And probably always will be."
"Well, good for you that we decided to make today a lazy day." Shannon says as she flips another pancake.
"Your welcome." Penelope calls sweetly.
Wisteria rolls her eyes as a smile comes to her face and shoves a forkful of syrup drenched pancakes in her mouth.
They spent the rest of the day sitting in the living room. They started off talking to Christy about Sirius and slowly shifted the conversation elsewhere. They listened to some of her favorite songs and let her choose what they did all day. By the end of it the girls could mention Sirius' name without getting too bad of a reaction from Christine and their job was done.
The next week went by really quickly. They got to the mall as soon as it opened and barely left before closing time. They went into nearly every shop and spent at least half of the money they brought and came back with bags of everything from trinkets to clothes.
They spent their second free day evaluating what they had bought the previous day. They tried on clothes again, held their own makeshift fashion show using each other as models, and then made a fun game out of finding random objects in the house and coming up with ridiculous sales pitches for them.
After that, Wisteria did as promised and took them to the biggest book store around and Shannon wasn't lying about being able to spend all day in there. She seemed to want to look at every book in the entire store. That was were they spent most of there remaining money and wound up spending the next day in almost complete silence as all five of them read through their new collection of books.
Finally they had their day in the park. They went swimming in a public pool, tried to one-up each others tricks on the bars, and sat around eating little sandwiches they had made early that morning.
The next day was yet another lazy day. They mostly lounged around in different places throughout the house. Shannon and Christine were still reading, Penelope was taking a nap, and Jane was listening to different records. Wisteria used this time to sit down and write to Michael, she hadn't talked to him since summer began. As she sat down to write she took a moment to think about what to say before putting her pen to the paper.
Dear Michael,
Sorry I haven't written you sooner, but I've actually had quite a bit going on. The girls are here right now, they are all off doing their own things so I figured now was the best time to write to you. How has your summer been so far? Mine's been pretty good. I got a few new books and they're really good. I've only been able to finish two of them so far, but I'm confident I'll have the rest finished before school starts back up again.
It feels kinda weird writing to you. It's like, talking to you feels so natural, but when I can't actually hear your voice... I guess it just makes me miss you. If you ever get the opportunity to meet up with me I would love to see you. It already feels like I haven't seen you in ages.
My mom tried to make some weird type of tea yesterday and the reactions from the girls were priceless! Granted, whatever she did it tasted awful, but it worth it to see their reactions. Christy looked like she was going to throw up, Shay managed to swallow it, but she looked like she regretted it immediately, Jane smelled it first and then refused to drink it, and Penelope just flat out spit it out of her mouth. They were horrified that my mom would be offended at first, but my mom's really cool about that stuff.
You would like my mom.You should come over sometime. My sister Petunia probably wouldn't like you, but she doesn't like most people.
Anyway, I hope to hear back from you soon. I'll be going to Jane's house soon, so you can send your reply there.
-Wisteria Evans