American Beauty

Chapter 51: Valentine

Valentine's Day was approaching fast and many people had been receiving chocolates and heart shaped balloons and teddy bears. The dining hall was a forest of the Pukwudgie's prank balloons that sprayed the person who received them with high velocity glitter.

Closer to Valentine's Day my bald eagle was just flitting around me all day with a package but it wouldn't let me look at it. It was so frustrating. I would get so close to grabbing the package and it would fly out of reach.

I finally gave up and just allowed my eagle to fly around me and ignore it. I had been hanging out with some new people including a Wampus named Jasper. He was actually really nice even though everyone hated him.

Valentine's Day rolled around and my eagle finally let me receive the chocolates from Draco that it had been carrying around for days. I felt a little lonely like a tree in the middle of a clearing. So close yet so far. The person I loved was across an ocean.

I was walking down the hall later in the afternoon, eating my chocolates, when I found my brother kissing a Horned Serpent. When I got closer I noticed it was Scarlett. I pulled out my phone and called Lottie directly.

"Guess what?" I said when she finally picked up.

"What?"

"My brother has a girlfriend!" I yelled incredulously.

"Oh," she said. "Ok. Talk to you soon." Then she hung up on me.

I walked the halls wondering why Lottie would hang up on me. Did I do anything wrong? Then I remembered.

"Ummm..." she started. "Well.....it may or may not be......ummm.....well.......your brother?"

Oh my god. Lottie liked my brother and now he was dating someone else. I sighed and sat down on a bench. They would have to work that out. I was not getting involved in that kind of drama.

Jasper sat down next to me shortly after I had finished consuming the chocolate and incinerated the box to practice making fire.

"Laila will you come eat dinner at my table today?" he asked.

"Sure," I answered. I wanted to give Daniel and Alyssa some time because I knew they liked each other. Jasper walked away and I left the cold, stone bench and went back to the Thunderbird common room.

._________.

That evening I sat down next to Jasper at his table and looked across to see my brother. He had his arm wrapped around Scarlett but every time she looked away he would sigh and look in emotional pain. He clearly didn't like her like that so I didn't know why he was dating her.

Not my problem. I turned my head back to Jasper who was waving his hands around and telling a story about the one time he accidentally shot a spell at his brother and it made his butt grow super huge.

No drama this year, I promised myself. No drama at all.