sunshine ! saleb

four | such gossip.

annie leblanc and hayden summerall begin dating the third week of september. it's big gossip — sparks even more interest than his fall — but somehow, caleb finds himself hearing the first of the news from luke herz.

"dude, what is this?" luke exclaims. it's noon, and caleb's very much still half asleep. he yawns at his friend as he practically falls onto the dining bench to his right. caleb's not sure what exactly "this" is, and now he's not sure he really wants to know, because suddenly sydney and katie are running up to him with some sort of expression of awe imprinted on their faces.

"what are you talking about?" he asks, finally, just as sydney exclaims, "since when is slytherin's beater all over your sister?"

the girls sit across from them — the gryffindor table as recently been filled by just about everyone but gryffindors, it seems — as he sputters stupidly.
"annie?"

"yes, duh, annie. why would summerall be all over an eleven year old?" luke mutters something else under his breath, but silences himself as to not miss caleb's explanation. like he has one.

after a beat, "i still have no clue what you're talking about."

sydney furrows her eyebrows, looks over to where annie usual spot at the dining table, a few seats down from them. it's empty.

katie laughs humorlessly at both the sight and his ignorance. "no way you haven't. they were kissing on the quidditch field."

caleb pales and shakes his head. "how did that even...?"

"she was watching practice and, i don't know, but it was gross."

he meets sydney's eyes across the table and crosses his arms over his torso. she gives him a look like "why are you shocked", and "yeah, i don't understand either" all at once. he can't believe annie didn't tell him about this.

"how did you know?" he asks her.

"i was there." she answers, shrugs her shoulders. her hands are fiddling with the ends of her sweater.

after a moment of silence, "caleb?"

"yeah?" he pouts.

"this is gonna end badly, isn't it?"

"yup," luke answers for him, biting into an apple. caleb groans.

——

oh, so that misunderstanding about slytherin. that worked out just as well as you would assume.

katie laughed at him for a solid hour, like caleb knew she would, and then again the entirety of the awkward conversation she somehow convinced luke to take part in.

it's fine now, really— he spends very much of his time with sydney, luke, and katie. annie, too, up until hayden summerall happened. but that's not his problem, it's annie's, until suddenly it is.

see, when you're pureblood and school really isn't a thing until hogwarts, there's only a certain group of kids you're able to know: other purebloods.

the orlando's, the summerall's, the butler's, the leblanc's. they all grew up together, or the closest you can get while only seeing each other four times a year.
so caleb knows hayden, knows it probably isn't a good thing that he's decided to mess with annie. and he also knows johnny, knows it probably isn't a good thing that he's decided hayden is suddenly his new best friend.

he doesn't notice this change until they're preparing for sleep one night, and caleb asks what his plans are for the next hogsmeade weekend.

"i think hayden's gonna try to sneak into the shrieking shack, so probably that."

"oh," caleb turns his back as he throws on his pajama shirt, so johnny can't see the roll of his eyes.

"and there's this girl, kenzie— she's hufflepuff. syd might know her?"

caleb turns back around. "i'll ask her— why?" he knows this isn't going to end well, either.

johnny shrugs, falls back into his bed. a faint tint of red blooms to his cheeks. "she'll be there, too."

caleb sighs.

really really short filler chapter. next few chapters will be longer and more eventful :))