Love, Lexi Jade

Chapter 1: That was Cedric Diggory...

"C'mon Lexi Jade, it's only gonna take a second!" my mother says, holding up a muggle camera.

"Cheese!" Cat exclaimes. I give a half hearted smile as my mother snaps a picture of Cat and I.

"Okay ready to go?" I ask, turning to my little sister. She runs back into the house, holding up a finger as if to say 'one second'.

"Wow, first year and sixth year, can hardly believe it," my mother sighs, putting a hand over her heart. "Okay, be safe, write me a letter when you get there. I'm going to miss you both so much!"

"We'll miss you too mom!" I engulf my mother in a huge hug as Cat runs out holding a helmet. "Very funny," I raised an eyebrow at her. I knew I was a rough driver, but I wasn't that bad.

"Very necessary," she replies right before being swallowed in a hug from my mom.

Cat had disappeared in a compartment with some of her friends while I looked around trying to find an empty one. I see Jace sitting in a compartment with his Slytherin friend when I give him a quick wave. Our eye contact breaks as my body slams into another.

"Ow! Excuse you!"

"Oh my gosh, Tiff. I'm so sorry I wasn't paying attention."

"Oh, it's you." Tiff. Tiffany. We used to be best friends, but post-third year, for reasons having to do with her popularity and my lack thereof, we are now decidedly not.

"Cute hair. Are you looking for the next toy store?" She says with a fake sweet tone, referring to my half up half down pigtails.

"It's trendy, I saw it in a muggle magazine," I replied bluntly.

"And it's amazing! Not everyone can pull them off, Lexi Jade can rock 'em! But for you, cuz, well, let's just say it's probably a good thing you're playing it safe with your bleach blonde hair." Alexandra. Alex... Tiff's cousin, my best friend. My only friend really.

"Know what, Xandra? Screw you because you know it compliments my skin tone," she says as a boy wraps his arms around her.

"Hey, love," he says.

"Oh, hiiii" she replies, dragging out the 'i'.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm good, how are you?" They look at each other with flirty eyes.

"Good." Remember Cedric, the second non-recipient of one of my love letters? That's this Cedric. Tiff's Cedric. Second year, my first real boy/girl party. Everyone knew that Cedric and Tiff, who at the time was still my BFF, only wanted to kiss each other.

"Lexi Jade, it's your turn." A Gryffindor boy points out, passing me the bottle. I spin the bottle and it lands on the one and only: Cedric Diggory. I wasn't going to lie to myself, Cedric Diggory is attractive. But him and Tiff liked each other, but I still have to kiss him. It's just a game, right? As I start to move from my seat, Tiff gives me a look.

"I can spin it again," I say right away.

"You can't cheat the bottle," Cedric replies. He leans forward and I give him a quick, awkward peck on the lips. After he pulls away, I turn to meet Tiff's mortified face.

"So I was just complimenting Lexi Jade on her toddler hairstyle," I bite my lip to prevent myself from replying to Tiff's comment. "Come on, I see someone we need to say hi to. Byee!"

"Huh?" Cedric says as Tiff drops his arms and walks away from him. "She just stopped drinking caffeine for some diet, I think she's just in withdrawal. So..." Cedric starts fiddling with his fingers awkwardly.

"Are you sure she just doesn't have a chemical imbalance?" I try and joke, referring to potions.

Cedric gives me and Alex a weird look before walking away. "Right..."

"You really think my hair is amazing?" I ask, turning to face my Gryffindor bestie.

"If you ask, it ruins the whole vibe. Plus you think I'd let cousin talk trash about you?" She replies as we find an empty compartment.

To my surprise, Cat got sorted into Ravenclaw. I expected her to be a Hufflepuff or possibly a Gryffindor like Alex but I guess growing up in the same house gives us the same traits. Soon enough lunch came around and Alex had to meet Mcgonagall about a schedule change, so I was left by myself. After attempting to hang out in the library, to only be kicked out for eating, I opted on heading towards the quidditch stands. As I turn the corner, my eyes meet Jace's, he's sitting there by himself with a book in his hands.

"Um, is this seat taken?" I ask awkwardly, fiddling with a piece of my hair.

"Yea... Well, by you" He replies. I sit down a decent distance from him, I can feel the tension in the air. "I gotta ask... did she tell you she was gonna do it?" There it is. "Because I just figured you guys talk about everything."

"She didn't tell me about this," I say softly. I have to admit, it was awkward talking about my sister and one of my best friend's deceased relationship so soon. There was a prominent silence before Jace spoke again.

"But we're still cool, right? We can still talk and... you know, kick it?" I tried to hold in my giggle but I couldn't help it.

"Ew..." I say shaking my head and laughing. "Don't say 'kick it.' But yes, we are cool." I give Jace a small smile, he returns it.

"Wanna read?" He says holding up his book. I nod and scoot in closer to him to peer over his shoulder. "New book."

I know what you're thinking, but we really were cool. However I felt about Jace, I would never do that to Magret.

"The Great Hall is ginormous. Diana wanted to sit next to me at lunch, but so did Allie and so did Mads. So I ended up rotating so everyone had time to sit next to me, you know?" Cat rambles as we walk to the library.

"Yeah," I sigh, grabbing some books off the shelf. "I can totally relate." Fat lie. After checking out my books, Cat rushed us out to the common room. Before I knew it, my body met another abruptly, causing me to drop all my books on the ground. So embarrassing.

"Woah, woah" A voice says as I quickly bend down to try to pick up my books as fast as possible. I snap back up, not even checking if I had grabbed them all. Low and behold, I bumped into the one and only, Cedric Diggory.

"You know people usually look up when they're walking to avoid bumping into people, it's a thing we do." He says picking up the last book I missed and handing it to me.

"Yeah, uh sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going," again.

"Yeah, clearly," He mutters as my eyes dart around, trying to look for something, anything to look at to avoid eye contact. "Think you're gonna be able to make it to your common room?" He asks with a smirk.

"Yeah. We're fine," I breathe. "Really, seriously." None of us move. "Um, so you should just... go, seriously." I nod my head to the side, gesturing for him to move out of the way.

"Sure, whatever you say, Abbey. Hey," Cedric points to Cat, "you're in charge." He walks away from us as I exhale a breath I didn't even realize I was holding. As soon as he's out of earshot, Cat starts giggling.

"Who was that?" She asks, still giggling.

I smack my lips and reply bluntly, "That was Cedric Diggory..."