Andrea yawned before placing her chin back into her hands. "And we're watching this why?"
"Because," Zoya said, puffing out her chest and tut-tutting her, "it is very important for you to learn British culture. Starting with—"
"She has a crush on Steven," Aisling said, grinning at their now squirming friend. Andrea watched someone pass the ball back to the defender for the fourth time in the last two minutes, and groaned.
"Girl," Andrea said, "I love you, truly. But he can't be all that to make you suffer through all of this."
The boys had taken to spending their Saturday evenings running up and down the field, kicking a ball for ninety whole minutes just for the score to end 2—1 or, Lord forbid, 0—0. They then would shake hands and laugh like they had accomplished something before going off to shower and hangout somewhere else. Andrea loved that for them, admittedly. Boys deserve to hangout every once in awhile, bonding and shit, but she hated having to sit here and watch it happen.
"Even I have to admit," Valerie said, her tone made Andrea raise an eyebrow. "But if you've ever seen Steven Ngolo, you'd understand that this is entirely worth it for her."
Zoya pulled at her hijab in embarrassment. "Cut all that talk. I simply like to watch some football, bruv. Don't know why youse got to go and make it—"
"Is that him?" Andrea pointed at the best-looking boy there, a Black teen that was currently playing for the Skins side, and thank you, God, that he is!
Aisling laughed and bumped Zoya's shoulder with her own. "Can't you tell, Andy? Whenever he comes this way, Zoya is on the verge of exploding."
Andrea slowly nodded her head. "As a woman, I one hundred percent get why you'd waste my time on this. But as your friend, bruh, take it from me. It never ends well doing this fan girl shit. Learn from Sakura."
Zoya frowned and looked at Andrea like she had grown two heads. "I grew up with two brothers, yeah, so unfortunately, I know what you're yapping on about. But why the hell do you know anything about Naruto?"
She sighed and stared up into the heavens in shame. "My best friend, from the… human world? Anyway, her name is Kayla. Love her to bits, but the bitch damn near goes feral over a cute boy at least once a year. She fell hard for some guy who was into some nerdy shit, and made me watch Naruto with her over Thanksgiving so they'd have something to talk about when school resumed."
Aisling raised an eyebrow and asked, "Well, did she end up with the guy?"
Andrea frowned in response to that. "Kayla or Sakura?"
Zoya rolled her eyes, like she didn't have them out here wasting their Saturday watching people kick a ball at one another, the audacity of this pick-me. "Kayla, obviously."
She shook her head. "Nope, she got over it by the end of Thanksgiving. A thanksgiving break I wasted watching a stupid cartoon, where a girl lost her mind for a boy who would've one hundred percent had a manifesto hidden in his locker, if he had been born in America."
Seriously, though, fuck Sasuke…
"I can't believe you got me agreeing with Andrea, of all people," Valerie sighed. "Hell's gone and frozen over for sure."
"Oh no," Andrea pouted. "Your momma and them must be shivering."
Aisling and Zoya laughed, and even Valerie snorted and rolled her eyes. "Fuck off, you twat."
Zoya sighed after the laughter had died down. "Okay, okay. I get your point. Let's go—"
Just then, Steven ran with the ball, swinging his legs around the ball as it moved, like an idiot, before kicking it into the top corner of the goalposts. Zoya got up and clapped her hands feverishly as he retreated to high-fived and slapped the teammate who had passed him the ball, on the ass.
Andrea caught Valerie's eye and raised an eyebrow. Valerie rolled her eyes and nodded her head. Oh lord, this poor girl…
"Uhmm, Z," Andrea said, but she was cut off by Valerie.
"Don't bother," she said, getting up and stretching. "She's a lost cause. I say we catch a cabbage before its too late, and go get something to eat in town."
Andrea could not agree more and got up herself; hell must be at absolute fucking zero…
"There's a place I've been meaning to check out," Zoya said, following after them. "A place that sells some knick-knacks for dead cheap."
Valerie cringed at the idea. "Yeah, I've had just about my fill of you normies. We hunting for magical objects, like this is Harry Potter or something?"
Andrea frowned. "I always wondered, but is his real name Henry or something?"
Aisling laughed. "I never thought of that."
She watched Aisling and Zoya argue about which movie was their favourite, and it gave her time to look over toward Valerie and say, 'So…'"
Valerie sighed. "What?"
"She doesn't have much of a gaydar, does she?"
She shrugged as they made for the gate Julian had led her to, almost an entire month past.
"She grew up very sheltered from such things," Valerie said, almost shaking her head. "So it don't matter what sort of gaydar you give her. It could come from the United States Army itself, and she'd still be lost."
She thought over what she wanted to say, but hesitated. It was enough for Valerie to notice it. "Ask."
Andrea frowned. "What?"
She sighed before looking up at her, eyes intense. "I know what you're going to say, so you might as well say it. Ask."
Andrea continued to frown as she looked away from her and focused on her sneakers. "Does she know about you?"
"No," Valerie replied immediately, but she thankfully did not seem angry. "I don't think it'll impact our friendship much, but still…"
"Even a small chance is still a chance," Andrea muttered, and Valerie nodded her head. "You said it."
They exited the gates and caught up to the two of them, still arguing over an overrated book that got turned into a bunch of less-overrated movies.
"So," Andrea interrupted. "Where are we going to get some juju?"
"Madame Motifs," Zoya replied, a large smile forming between her chubby cheeks. "I heard she got some talking goat's head, yeah. I've been dying to see what a talking goat even looks like."
"But when Andrea does it," Valerie said, "you hardly bat an eye."
An annoyed Andrea turned to Aisling. "I was going to say that! She beat me by two seconds, I swear."
Valerie stuck her tongue out at her as they walked past the apartments that Andrea had once seen, but she now knew belonged to the third years, before they arrived at the stop.
She waved at the operator, an old lady with the kindest smile, before swiping her card and sitting down next to Aisling.
"Now, didn't I tell you to stop being friendly with Mad Maddie?" Aisling warned, but Andrea waved her words away. "How come y'all call her Mad Maddie?"
Aisling snorted. "Because she was born half mad, duh."
"And only got worse." Valerie laughed. "Heard she signed up to the war and is the reason the Germans got their hands on some chemical stuff."
Zoya gasped and pointed at the old lady who was happily talking to herself. "You're joking, bruv. That woman over there is the reason for mustard gas?"
Aisling shrugged. "That's what me Nan says. Mad Maddie's a bastard from the magical line of the Royal Family. The Archduke went and got himself shot, and before long, she found her way to the continent to fiddle around some and whoops, mustard gas."
Andrea frowned. She found that hard to believe, "Why the hell would some English lady from the royal family go off to help the Germans?"
Aisling and Zoya laughed at her as Valerie rolled her eyes and said, "You Americans… is your education system really this bad, or are you just particularly daft?"
Her frown only deepened. "Didn't they cut y'all's education funding for like, the thirteenth time? So stop with the bitchness and put me on."
"The Royal Family is German, Andy," Aisling said, as she spat out the cabbage car.
Andrea cringed and had to fight to refrain from smacking her. "Bruh, the fuck? What the hell did the Germans do to you?"
"Oh, nothing." Aisling laughed. "Love 'em to bits, actually. They mind their business and go about their day like good honest people. A quarter of them are Protestant, unfortunately, but no people are without fault."
"Except for that time the moustache fellow crashed out over his finger paintings." Zoya laughed. "That man definitely did not mind his business."
"So why we spitting?" she asked, refusing to focus on anything other than that.
"Because she hates the royal family for being the royal family," Valerie said. "Not for being German."
Andrea raised an eyebrow and Aisling rolled her eyes again. "My, you're as thick as a plank. That's it, the rest of us are getting magical doodads. You're getting yourself an actual history book."
She rolled her eyes back and said, "I swear to God, Aisling, if this has something to do with the famine—"
"Ding-ding-ding," Zoya clapped her hands together. "Five points to Andrea."
"Now, I'll have no words said about the Great Famine," Aisling said, wagging her little finger at Andrea. "I'll have you know that my family suffered a great deal of trauma from that event. My grandfather's best friend's kid died during that time."
Andrea thought it was a little bit of a reach, but sympathized all the same. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, Aisling. Must not have been easy watching a child starve to death, the poor thing."
Aisling looked at Andrea like she had two heads. "Starved? He fell into a lake and drowned."
"Bruh! Why the fuck'd you make it seem like the boy starved to death?"
"I said that it'd happened around the same time," Aisling huffed, her arms folded. "Whenever the famine would be brought up, me Grandpa would think of the boy, and get a little sad."
When they arrived, Andrea waved a little less enthusiastically at the—admittedly still cute—war criminal, before they walked down the road to a little dark and spooky shop between a café and a restaurant.
"Only in this fucking town can you find a quaint little magic shop slapped in between a place to get coffee and a place to get food," Andrea muttered before she was led by hand into the shop.
They entered and, to the surprise of no one, the shop was a lot bigger inside than she had been expecting. It was filled with tables and shelves that were dotted and weighed down by all sorts of magical items. From some animal's paw, to a collection of massive teeth made into a necklace, to an assortment of dried and small heads arranged next to each other, all of them had their eyes and mouths sewn shut. All along the dark walls were paintings that moved like GIFs, and by the entrance were two gargoyles as tall as her who had eyes that followed their every move. I guess that shoplifting is a big no-no here…
"Welcome," a woman said in a French accent. "How may I help you?"
She was a Black woman of average height, but shaped like one of the hourglass figures that sat on the shelves behind her and her counter. She wore a beautiful black lace and silk dress that would have had Morticia Addams fawning over it, and braided dark brown hair that was decorated with beads, like ornaments on a Christmas tree.
Her dark lips parted in a smile as they entered. "Ah, four beautiful young women walk into my humble store. It must be my lucky day," she said, pulling out a necklace to show off. "Well of course, that was no instance of happenstance."
Andrea almost rolled her eyes; my snake oil salesman senses are ticking…
But then again, for all Andrea knew, that necklace actually did bring—
"And I'm willing to part with it," she said, her smile growing. "For twenty pounds."
Andrea did roll her eyes this time.
"Thank you, Madame," Aisling said, in a tone that was a lot kinder than Andrea might have. "But we're just here to look around is all."
"Oh," the woman said, her French accent now a thing of the past. "Break anything and I'll sue. Steal anything and I'll eat your soul. See anything that you think used to be yours, well, you didn't. It's just your mind playing tricks on you."
They were put on the back foot with the accent change, but they soldiered on into the store to look at all the strange, and probably stolen, things Madame had to offer.
"Look at this," Aisling exclaimed, picking up a wand that was beautifully carved out of some dark wood, and pointing it at Andrea. "Expelliarmus!"
Andrea's eyebrows furrowed as she pouted. "Which spell is that again?"
Aisling sighed and put the wand back down. "You're no fun."
"Check this out," Zoya gasped, pointing at the wall of several animal heads that were all in conversation with one another.
"I'd say that this looks like a Williams family reunion." Andrea laughed. "But their teeth aren't nearly as fucked up."
Aisling and Zoya laughed as Valerie gritted her teeth and said nothing until Aisling nudged her shoulder. "What is it? You sour?"
Valerie sighed and looked away. "By two-fucking seconds, I swear…"