Thorns and roses

3. "Ryan stop standing there and go get your car." ~Ashley

Ryan was dancing, really dancing, not the weird "swaying and bopping your head to the beat" type of dancing. He was doing an actual dance; the one that required backflips and head spins. The kind of dance which people could clap along to and watch in amazement as he did moves that most people wouldn't think possible. Ryan was really dancing and he was enjoying it too. He didn't usually do this, dance in front of people that is, so it felt ten times better doing it now.

After an accident, which involved wetting himself on stage when he was ten, Ryan had decided that he didn't want to do anymore competitions and he didn't want to dance in front of people. Now almost seven years later he found that he could finally dance in front of an audience without embarrassing himself really badly. It felt nice to perform in front of a crowd it was both exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. Feeling the crowd cheer him on, shouting his name out and clapping in tune to the song all but set his nerves on fire and sent his adrenaline pumping.

"Ryan, Ryan, Ryan," he could hear them yelling his name, encouraging him to do more awesome and spectacular moves. He did do more and more and more moves till he felt like he would drop and just as he was about to take a break he heard Ashley calling his name.

"Perfect timing," he mumbled under his breath and sighed in relief. He could feel a cloud of exhaustion settling over him but despite that he managed to get off the floor and walk towards Ashley who was wide-eyed and panicky.

"What's wrong?" He asked her. Ashley was the laid back, sarcastic kind of person. Okay if he was being truthful she was the kind of person who'd be smiling and calm one moment then be an emotional wreck the next. However, Ashely rarely ever showed signs of true panic like she was showing now. She didn't have enough problems in her life to get panicked over so Ryan guessed that something must be seriously wrong.

"I need you to come with me right now," she said and before Ryan could even utter a response she had grabbed his hand and started dragging him through the throng of people.

"Hey Lee, where are we going?" Ryan yelled over the music as Ashley wound her way, expertly, through the crowd and out onto the field.

"Just shut up and follow me," she responded curtly. Ryan just shrugged in response and let her drag him to what ever destination she was planning to take him to and by the looks of it, it seemed like they were going to the gazebo or at least the area around it.

"Okay Ryan, I just want to say: don't freak out."
They had stopped walking now and were standing in front of the gazebo. Ryan was getting worried, this was weird even for Ashley.

"Okay," he said hesitantly. She nodded at him and then guided him to the back of the gazebo, where a lot of bushes resided and in the middle of one of those bushes was a girl with a sparkly wand next to her and she wasn't awake.

Initially Ryan felt shocked and then that shock turned to confusion and then that turned into fear. He didn't know if she was alive or unconscious and it worried him but the scariest part of it all was that Ashley was more nervous over something else than this. Here he was internally panicking and she was just standing there with her hand on her hip, gnawing on her lip. She looked a little nervous but not as nervous as she should be, plus she wasn't even looking at the girl. Ryan followed her line of sight and realized that she was instead focusing on the wand lying next to her.

"Okay Ryan, I'm going to show you something and it's going to be weird, really weird," she said slowly as if she was speaking to a frightened animal. Gently and gracefully, which was very strange as Ashley was as graceful as a beginner in ice skating, she picked up the wand.

"Sure, why not? It's not like this situation could get any weirder," he said while throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation.  

"Shut up, Ryan," Ashley said  sharply while giving him the look.

"Okay whatever you say it's not like there's a body lying in the bushes!" He yelled. Ryan instantly clamped a hand over his mouth. He looked around wildly to see if anyone had heard him but luckily there was no one to hear him. The couple that had come for a romantic walk had left while Ryan was having a mini panic attack and Ashley was turning into the queen of calm.

"Would you just shut up! You're not the only one panicking here," she hissed at him. She dragged her hands over her face in tired matter and shook her head as if trying to shake away the worry.

"Okay, okay," Ryan said. He held his hands up in a suggestion of peace, he could see her getting worked up and when Ashley got worked up stupid and bad things happened.

"Be prepared Ryan, I am going to blow your mind," she said then he watched as she pointed the wand up into the sky.

His jaw dropped as he saw bright red sparks fly out of the wand into the sky. Said sparks let out a gigantic bang as they exploded into a heart that had written in the middle of it," I love you" with a little exclamation mark at the end.

For a moment Ryan couldn't say anything but after getting over his initial shock and then his second hand shock he finally managed to sputter out," last time I checked, Lee, you got your Hogwarts letter at twelve not seventeen."

"I don't think it's me who's the wizard," Ashley said while chuckling nervously.

Ryan immediately looked at the unconscious girl who was lying in the bush and suddenly it was like a light had been turned on. The wand belonged to the girl so she must be able to do magic, if this was even that.

"What are we going to do?" He turned to Ashley and asked.

"I don't know," she responded," but I was hoping you would." At her words Ryan started nodding his head slowly. A plan was already starting to form in his head.

"I'll get my car we'll dump her in the back, then we'll go to my place and wait for her to wake up," he said. Ashley nodded at him and he nodded back at her. Ryan could still see she looked nervous.

"What if she wakes up before hand? What if someone sees us? What if she wakes up and start using her magic on us? What if-"

Ryan cut her off before she could say anything else.

"No what if's we're getting out of this place and going to my place to interrogate a potential witch."

Ryan paused, sighed and then added," I never thought I would ever say that sentence."

Ashley nodded in agreement and the two of them stood there together in front of the unconscious girl in silence. The atmosphere was starting to turn awkward and Ashley was looking at him expectantly. After a couple of minutes of standing there Ashley eventually sighed and broke the silence.

"Ryan, stop standing there and go get your car," she snapped at him.

"Oh right," he said before running off in the direction of the school parking lot.