Among the Stars

    The first weeks of school seemed to fly by in no time at all, leaving Wisteria scrambling to find a birthday present for Michael. He was still refusing to talk to her, but she hadn’t given up hope yet. He is still taking classes meant for kids a year or two older and he doesn’t eat with the rest of the school anymore, so Wisteria hardly ever sees him. On one of the first days of school she went to the kitchens to talk to Deedee and asked her,

    “Does he come down here to eat?”

    “Sometimes, but he says he’s busy Wisty. He often forgets to eat all together.”

    “Can you do me a huge favor Deede?”

    “Of course Wisty! Deedee would do anything for Wisty!”

    “I want you to make sure that he eats at least once a day alright? So if he doesn’t come down here for food, please bring some up to his room at the end of the day. I worry that he’s going to accidentally starve himself.”

    Deedee nods her head vigorously. “Deedee will make sure he eats, Deedee promises!”

    “Thank you Deedee.”

    Now, nearly two months later and only days away from Michael’s birthday, Wisteria is pacing around the kitchen, ranting to Christine and Penelope.

    “I don’t know what I did wrong! Why isn’t he talking to me still? Did I mess up so horribly that I scared him off entirely? I don’t remember saying anything too forward. What if he can read minds or something? Not that I was thinking anything that might have scared him off… But if he could read minds then he would know that now I don’t feel like that about him anymore. Unless when he read my mind before it scared him so much he hasn’t tried it since then…”

    “I’m pretty sure he can’t read minds Wist.” Christine says.

    “You never know Christy! He is so good at everything, what if he is secretly an expert with legilimency?”

    “I just don’t understand why you only started panicking about this now. It’s been a year, why are you suddenly so bothered by it?” Penelope asks.

    “I’ve always been bothered by it it’s just that now it’s been a whole year and I don’t even see him in the hallway or during meals and I have no idea if he’s eating or sleeping or doing anything humans need to do in order to stay healthy and sane and it’s not that I like him now, because I will admit I did before, its just that now I see him as a brother that’s locked himself away in his room and wont come out! I’m worried about him and I want to make sure that he’s okay and I want him back as a friend, but I don’t know how to do that when I no longer know anything about him! And now I have a chance to maybe change his mind about talking to me since his birthday is coming up, but I have no idea what to get him and if the gift isn’t absolutely positively perfect he could hate me forever and never talk to me again and I would never know what I did wrong!”

    “Ohhh!” Christy exclaims. “I get it now, it’s not that you’re just now upset about him not talking to you, it’s that now you’re worried that you’ll never know why he stopped to begin with. You hate it when people are upset with you and the fact that he is so obviously upset with you and you have absolutely no idea why is driving you insane!”

    Wisteria sighs. “Thank you for summing that up so bluntly Christy.”

    “Honestly darling I still don’t see what the big deal is. So one person doesn’t like you, why does that matter?” Penelope asks.

    “It’s not that one person doesn’t like me, plenty of people don’t like me.”

    “Oh really? Because everyone that I’ve seen think that you are the cutest thing since Pigmy Puffs. Who doesn’t like you?” Christine asks.

    “Mercury and his gang for starters.”

    “I don’t think they count. They had previous prejudices against something about you that you can’t help.” Penelope says. “I’m sure that if they didn’t have those they would have loved you. I mean, even while hating you Lucius still stares at you with a lusty look in his eye all the time.”

    “Don’t remind me about Lucius. He almost cornered me in the hallway the other day, I barely managed to get away. Anyway, like I said, it’s not the fact that someone doesn’t like me that bothers me. It’s the fact that one of my friends suddenly doesn’t like and I don’t know why.”

    “Then let’s take baby steps and start with this birthday present. How long do you have to figure it out?” Christine asks.

    “His birthday is on Sunday.”

     “And you are just now worrying about this? In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s already Friday night!” Christine exclaimes.

    “You think I don’t know that? I’ve been wracking my brain for weeks and I have no ideas at all!”

    “Well it’s not as if we know him very well, so we can’t really help you, but when it comes to gifts I always say when in doubt, write a heartfelt note.” Penelope suggests.

    “I send him letters all the time though, that wouldn’t be anything special.”

    “Well what are his interests?” Christine asks.

    “I don’t know! He never liked to talk about himself! The only thing I know for sure that he likes is cheesecake! And even then I’m not sure if he still likes it!”

    “Just make one for him and send him a letter saying that you hope he still enjoys it or something.” Penelope says.

    “I suppose I could do that…”

    “Of course you can! You are an amazing cook. Just ask Deedee if you could help her bake the cake Sunday. I’m sure she’d be thrilled to have you bake something with her.” Christine tells her.

    “Hey Deedee.”

“Yes Wisty?”

    “You wouldn’t mind if I helped you bake a cake for Michael on Sunday would you? And then you could deliver it to his room after dinner that night along with a note from me? It’s his birthday and I want to do something for him.”

    Deedee smiles widely. “Of course Wisty! Deedee will definitely help Wisty cook for Master Alderton!”

    “Thank you so much Deedee. I really appreciate it.”

    “No Wisty, Deedee really appreciates it! Deedee has never had a witch ask to help her before. This truly is an exciting day for Deedee!”

    A couple days later Michael is sitting on his bed working hard on his Arithmancy homework when Deedee pops into his room, same as she’s been doing for a few months now.

    “Hello Deedee.” He says politely as he waits to hear the pop that would mean that she had left. Instead he hears her little voice say,

    “Today is an exciting day Master Alderton.”

    “And why is that Deedee?” He asks, only half paying attention to her.

    “Today Wisty helped Deedee bake a cake!”

    Michael freezes at her name and glances at Deedee to find her carrying a large cheesecake in her arms. He reaches out and takes it from her while asking, “And why would she do that?”

    “Because Master Alderton, it’s your birthday!”

    “No it’s not.”

    Deedee looks confused. “But Wisty says it is. Did Wisty get it wrong?”

    “I’m glad you had a nice night with Wisty, Deedee. Get some rest okay? Goodnight.”

    Deedee frowns, but leaves with a popping sound. As Michael continues to study the cake he notices a letter sitting next to it. He tells himself to ignore it, to throw it away, but somewhere inside him he knows it’s from Wisty and he doesn’t want to just throw away something she wrote for him. With a sigh, he opens the letter and smiles down at her familiar handwriting.

Dear Michael,

    I know we haven’t talked in a while, but I hope you are still doing okay. I trust your new classes are going fine? You always were incredibly smart, I’m not even surprised to hear that your already working on stuff a few years above the rest of us. I remember you telling me once that you liked Cheesecake with a passion, so I made you some, I hope you like it. I miss you, you know? I miss talking to you and being your friend. I don’t know why you stopped talking to me, but I hope that this doesn’t continue on for much longer.

    Anyway, I want to make sure to remind you that you need to eat and sleep properly. Just because you have a lot of homework doesn’t mean that the best option is to stay awake until you pass out from sleep exhaustion. Lily and I were in the infirmary the other day (don’t worry, we’re both fine, we were visiting a sick friend) and we decided that we wanted to take a few basic healing lessons from Madame Pomfrey. She graciously allowed it and Lily have been meeting her on the weekends for a couple weeks now and so far I’ve learned a lot. Like how important sleep and food are for humans and animals alike. I know you like to say that you can take it, but please just don’t take it too far. I wouldn’t want you to get hurt. Which is why I told Deedee to make sure you at least had food sitting in your room for you to eat when you decide you need it.

    Sorry for the long letter and I hope you’ve had a great day. Happy Birthday Michael

                                        -From, your friend Wisty

    After finishing the letter, Michael closes his eyes and whispers a small “Thank you.” Before throwing the letter on top of all the others sitting in the corner of his room.

    Nearly a week later all the students are in the Great Hall waiting for their Halloween feast. Wisteria sits down in between Jane and Penelope and across from Christine and Shannon as the five of them discuss the decorations around the room.

    “I don’t see why you all are so excited by them. They do this every year.” Penelope points out.

    “Yeah, but it’s my favorite time of year! I can’t help, but to get excited!” Wisteria says excitedly.

    “Oh, I totally forgot to ask how it went with Michael.” Christine says.

    “Michael?” Asks Shannon. “I thought he was still giving you the cold shoulder.”

    “He is. I sent him a birthday present is all. And actually I have no idea. Deedee delivered the gift for me, so I didn’t actually get to talk to him, but he never responded so…”

    “Honestly I think he’s kind of a jerk.” Jane says. “I mean what guy would just ditch you like that?”

    “What guy ditched who?” Fabian asks as he stands behind Wisteria.

    “We’re talking about Michael still not talking to Wisty.” Penelope tells him.

    “Oh. Do you still like him?”

    “Well, of course I do. I’ll always consider him my friend, even if he isn’t talking to me.”

    “No, I meant…”

    “Oh, you meant if I have a crush on him. Well, no. I suppose it’s hard to like someone like that when you haven’t spoken to them in a year.”

    “That’s good.”

    “What’s good?”

    “That you don’t like him like that anymore.”

    “And why is that a good thing?” Wisteria asks, ignoring her friends as they smile knowing smiles at her and Fabian.

    “Well, because I was wondering… I mean, we’re third years now, so… It’s just that this year we can finally go to Hogsmeade.”

    “Yes, I know.”

    “And because of that I was just… I wa-wanted to… to know if… i-if you would possibly, maybe, considering going to Hogsmeade with me next weekend. Like-like as a… date. With you being my date, or girlfriend or… something.”

    In her head Wisteria had always imagined that when someone asked her out she would be cool and flirty. But, just like last time, this time around her face flushes a deep red color and her heart hammers so hard she can’t hear anything else and she can’t seem to breath enough to do anything more than whisper, “Sure.”

    Fabians eyes widen and he smiles that true goofy smile of his. “Really? You’ll go on a date with me?”

    “Yes.” Wisteria squeaks, giggling nervously.

    “Wonderful! I’ll see you in class later then! Bye!”

    As soon as he’s gone Wisteria sucks in a huge breath and her hands begin to shake. She presses one hand to hear chest and blocks out the excited, squealing voices of her friends as she focuses on getting her heart rate back down and her face less flushed. Once she accomplishes that she moves to pick up a piece of food to find her hands still shaking.

    “I think I’m going to go to bed.”

    “Why?” Christine asks looking confused.

    “What’s wrong?” Shannon asks with a look of concern on her face.

    “Did you panic and accidentally say yes when you really meant to say no so now you’re panicking because you don’t know what to do so you’re going to bed in hopes that this has all just been some crazy nightmare?” Jane asks all in one breath.

    Wisteria laughs. “No, nothing like that Jane. I just… I don’t want to say that I’ve lost my appetite because that makes it sound bad, but I’m not hungry anymore. I’m in shock I guess. I didn’t really expect him to ask me out. Anyway, I’ll see you guys later.