Killing Time, Really...

Jack stepped into the cafe and veered for the nearest seat, feeling in a strange outgoing mood. Usually she was one to be almost brooding towards the rest of humanity, but she also had those quirks in her personality that prevented her from being the same everyday. One day she was everyone's therapist. The next day, the only advice she had was "Back off before I shove my wand up your-"

She put up a hand and said "Could I get something with caffeine? Thanks."

Ah, the joys of caffeine. Without it, her very existence would very likely cease. How she would get up in the morning or survive the days without it...? It was strange. She was always one of those people full of groggy energy. How it worked, even she did not know, but that was the only way to describe it. Perhaps her mind was always moving and her body just did not want to keep up...Or maybe, it was the other way?

She cracked her neck, sore from Beating practice. She had been out for quite awhile, and ever since she was really feeling it in her arms and the various places she had been pushed around. She really didn't mind it. As a tomboy and an avid prankster, pain had stopped being an issue for her.

Her issue now was boredom.

Mornings were terrible if you spent all night staring at a vibrant computer screen until your eyes felt like all the goo inside them had dried up completely. Now, it wasn’t that Calvin hadn’t been able to sleep, it was just that he didn’t know when to close that laptop of his and say, “yup, it’s time to close those eyes and sleep for a little bit”. Nope. Instead he just got closer, and closer, and closer to that screen until his nose was practically touching it. So really, it was his fault he felt like a zombie as he walked around Diagon Alley, dragging his sneakers against the bricks that made up the road until he was sure that he could feel heat in the soles of his shoes.

The man was so strange. Even when feeling as though he could pass out at any moment, there was still that awkward, lopsided grin on his face- as if it was clued there and it never came off. The only other expressions Calvin ever showed on that face of his were fear and embarrassment- fear, embarrassment, and happiness- such completely different emotions, and yet, it was as if he had been programmed only to feel those three emotions- well, at least, not to express the others he felt.

Calvin pushed open the door to a restaurant he spent a lot of his time at; it wasn’t too expensive there, and not having much money of his own, it was the best place for him to grab a quality coffee- because nobody likes expensive, burnt coffee. The young man took a seat at a table in the back after asking for a coffee, tapping his feet together underneath the table as he hummed to himself, looking around at all the other people who filled the place. His eyes stopped on a young female sitting not to far away from him, and being Calvin Ransom, he just had to wave at her; with Calvin, it was free hugs and random greetings for everyone! Yeah, he did seem like a creeper because of it sometimes, but that thought never crossed his mind.

Jack had been more or less hoping for some company on a day like this, and it came in the appearance of a young man walking into the cafe, looking as though he were sleepwalking, yet dreaming about something nice...Like cats, or peppermint fudge...Whatever the matter, he had quite an interesting look on his face and Jack's eyes could not help but follow him on his slow trek to a table.

Jack was not one that liked normalcy in the least. She wasn't crazy in the quiet, Lovegood way, but crazy in the loud/obnoxious category. Drawing attention to herself came by nature and was just a byproduct of her existence. Even if she tried not to be bold and spontaneous, sh would still end up being the oddball she was.

The problem about being different was that everyone else was the same, and they feared things that meandered from the beaten trail. One of those things, was Jack's loud personality, which was sure to get peculiar attention from even the zaniest of characters. To see another strange individual always perked her interest in friendship. The problem was, many people had learned soon on that she was not one to be encouraged.

This poor man had not yet learned that lesson. He waved at her and she raised her eyebrows. Only a table away, she clambered under her own table, hopped the divider between hers and his, and plopped down in the seat directly across from him. She dropped her arms heavily onto the table and looked up at him, before saying, "Who are you?"

Calvin’s coffee was set down in front of him only a few moments later. He didn’t pick it up though, instead, he moved his face so that it was hovering a few inches above the steaming cup, inhaling the heavenly scent that danced with the steam that floated up from the liquid’s surface. He smiled a bit wider, though he was never able to fully even out his grin, as if it were permanently aske. He dipped one of his fingers into the coffee to test its temperature- only to burn himself and pull his hand to his chest, cradling his finger as if a piranha had taken a bite at it.

He looked up, surprised to see that the girl he had waved at had joined him at the small table. His eyes widened, but in a welcoming way- if that was possible- expressing both his surprise and his joy in seeing that someone had chosen to join him. “Howdy!” he spoke, the western greeting sounding extremely odd when paired with his odd, eternally amused voice.

“I’m Calvin Secundus Ransom, I’m a pureblood- but I’m not rude like most purebloods, I dont even know why I brought up my bloodstasus, Darn it! I like Muggles, you see, because they are the most fascinating beings you’ll ever meet- I have a collection too, of things they have created, its brilliant if I might say so. Hi,” he rambled, his words being spoken unnaturally fast to a point that they were almost impossible to understand; it was just one of the many awkward things that made Calvin… Calvin, when it came to meeting new people, or simply talking to anyone at all, Calvin always found some way to make himself seem like the strangest person on earth. Or, at least, in London.

He never meant to, of course, but it always happened anyway.

Jack stared at the boy and his unusual greeting, calmly raising her eyebrows in a slightly amused way that asked the question 'Really?' She openly stared at him for a moment, not moving when her caffeine, in the form of coffee, was brought to her by a disgruntled waitress. They sure hated when people switched tables.

Jack took a sip from her coffee without testing it and found it actually quite hot, but she finished her drink and set it down onto the table, still looking at Calvin. She knew that people found her a little intense and sort of intimidating, but Jack did not know any other way to be. What else would you do?

She knew what every other girl her own age would do. They would burst into their life story, telling everyone around everything they needed to know about her tragic and/or perfect life, and somehow end in tears, because everyone at Hogwarts seemed to be just a tad overdramatic about everything.

Jack was not dramatic. She was theatrical. She could be flashy. Not when it came to her own personality of course; she just did whatever the hell she wanted. But when it came to her beloved pranks, she understood the fact that the presentation of it all, far outweighed the results. A large, well done prank always beat a small, perfect one.

She blinked a few more times and then thrust out a hand for him to shake, bumping into her coffee which tottered for a few seconds before settling. "I'm Jack Dyllan. Muggleborn since you brought it up. You're pretty weird, huh." The last bit could have been taken as a question, but Jack did not ask people about what she thought of them. She just let them know.

Calvin didn’t pay much attention to the young female as she stared, instead, he took a drink of his coffee, and like his finger, his tongue was burned by the scalding liquid. He opened his mouth, his tongue stuck out over his bottom lip, “Ouch…” he mumbled, waving his hand frantically about his face as if he had caught it on fire. “That happens a lot to me,” Calvin stated, his voice sounding rather strange with his tongue still hanging out like that.

As soon as she offered him her hand to shake, Calvin covered her hand in both of his and shook her hand, grinning, “Jack is a boy name…” he said with a laugh, which he tried to suppress, but failed at doing so. Only a second after shaking the girl’s hand his eyes went wide with surprise; “You’re the daughter of muggles?”- Calvin jumped out of his seat and bowed low to the ground, laughing as he did so, receiving many odd looks from the strangers around him. “I’m honored to meet you,” he said through his laughter.

The young man straightened out and held up one of his fingers, “one sec,” he said before walking over to the waitress- who was already busy serving another table. He tapped her shoulder to get her attention, but he ended up scaring her by accident, causing her to drop one of the mugs she had been holding. Calvin jumped back to avoid one of the glass shards that had shot out in his direction when it had collided with the hardwood floor. “Oh, good luck cleaning that up, I dropped a plate in my apartment once and it took weeks to find all the pieces,” he said in an amused tone of voice before he was interrupted by the waitress, who looked extremely put off, “Look, is there something you wanted, sir, or are you just trying to get me fired?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Calvin’s eyes went wide at her accusation, “I-I just needed a-an ice cube… in some water… I burned my tongue,” he mumbled and turned around slowly, heading back over to his table.

“She’s getting me a water…” he stated with a nod of his head, resting his chin in his palm, his cheeks a light shade of red.

Jack took the comment about her name in stride. She did not mind that the name she had taken on and she did not mind that people found it sort of amusing. She hated her real name. Jaquellene, Jackie, all the variants just seemed to piss her off for some reason. Her parents refused to call her Jack, and that bred a bit of contempt. If someone could just accept her name, they were already in her good books. So she just smiled.

He really did seem to be a muggle enthusiast, seeing as he bowed to her once he heard about her nonmagical roots. She laughed and began to open her mouth to explain how unimpressive it was when it came to her own muggle parents, when suddenly he stood and walked over to a waitress.

Jack laughed to herself amusedly. He was quirky in own awkward way, and he was shy in a weird sort of way. It amused Jack.

He seemed to have the same rotten luck Jack had in her day to day life because he made the waitress drop a mug when he surprised her. Jack began laughing clutching her stomach when she saw the look on the waitress face and the mumbled part of the conversation coming from Calvin.

He returned, looking a little embarrassed and abashed by his less than graceful handling over the burnt-tongue situation. Jack chuckled appreciatively. "Good stuff. It happens to all of us, don't sweat it." She sipped her own coffee, which was cooling down now and then raised an eyebrow. "So you like muggles?" she asked, half-jokingly. She could safely bet that the answer was yes.

“Oh of course! They don’t need all this”- Calvin looked down at his hooded jacket as he dug around in its pockets in search of his wand- “magical stuff”- he held his wand up high and waved it around a bit- “to do magnificent things! I cant believe that half of the people in our little ‘world’ don’t know of all the brilliant things muggles have created,” he replied enthusiastically; even if he was exhausted, Calvin always came off as a very hyper person, and that was without caffeine.

Careful not to burn himself yet again, Calvin brought his mug to his lips and swallowed some of the drink, smiling when he felt it run down his system without burning him that time around, “The trick is, you’ve gotta outsmart the stuff,” he stated jokingly, tapping his head as if he were the cleverest man in the world.

“What is it like living with them?” he asked abruptly, speaking of Jack’s muggle parents, curious to hear her opinion on the matter.

Jack watched him talk excitedly about muggles and she could not help but smirk amusedly. He acted as though he were talking about some wondrous fairytale land where everyone was able to overcome their obstacles. She could understand his excitement, but seeing how easier it was after finding out she could use magic, she appreciated muggle technology less and less.

He asked her what it was like living with muggle parents and she thought about the question, long and hard. How best to answer the question. She really did not spend time with her parents. They were ignorant bigots and she really could not stand their hoity-toity attitude towards everyone.

But that did not have anything to do with their being muggles, and that was what Calvin wanted to hear more of, not of her own personal problems or of her family's moral inadequacies. She thought back to before her letter from Hogwarts, biting her lip and then shrugging.

"Throughly unexceptional. My parents are big on normalcy and orthodoxy, so the fact that I was a witch did not impress them much. They were freaked out. They don't really like to talk about it and they are always trying to convince me not to go. I almost wasn't able to come to Hogwarts because they refused to give me money and I didn't have any of my own."

She shrugged, deciding that she better at least give muggles some credit. They were not all as terrible as her parents. "They're not all bad though. My Uncle Chip is obsessed with learning about magic, so he pays for my magical needs and whatnot. And my brother Riley is okay with wizards. He is awesome, just an all around good guy." She shrugged, not sure what he wanted to know about muggles.

It took Calvin a few seconds to think of his response; he was rather oblivious most of the time, but he wasn’t insensitive, and it was for that reason that it took him a little while to answer. He tapped his temple slowly as he spoke, “Well, I suppose magical or nonmagical, there will always be prats wandering about,” he said, fallowed by a cautious laugh; he really wasn’t good at being a part of such conversations, and his sudden nervousness was clear in his voice.

Calvin leaned back in his seat a bit, only to get frightened when he nearly fell over backwards and slowly lower the front legs of the chair back down to the ground. It was just as he was about to wondering aloud, where the waitress was, when she came over with his drink in her hand. “Oh, thank you very much ms.”- but she didn’t respond, instead, she slammed the cup down on the table and walked away in a huff. Calvin sat there, opening and closing his mouth like a fish, without actually speaking in a way that any human could understand. He looked back over a Jack and exhaled, clearly frazzled by the waitress’ anger towards him.

The young man pushed his black-rimmed spectacles further up the bride of his nose when they slipped down slightly and dug the small ice cube out of his water, bringing it to his tongue which he let hang out of his mouth strangely. The cool ice relieved the burning he was feeling for a moment, much to his relief, though he was sure at least half of his taste buds had been burned off his tongue completely. He had read somewhere that they grew back relatively quick, but the idea of not being able to taste his favorite foods made him shiver noticeably.

After the ice cue had melted completely, Calvin turned his attention back to the teenager sitting before him. He suddenly wondered how much younger the female was than him; perhaps his niece, Nerissa had crossed paths with her while at Hogwarts. Nerissa… thinking about the young girl made Calvin’s heart slow; he wondered what had happened to her after he had left her with Ne’Os in Egypt- he hoped the man had proved her with some sort of medical treatment after her encounter with those vicious bugs… He tilted his hand, resting it in his palm once more. It wasn’t the time for those thoughts; it was rather early in the day and if he started thinking about such things his day would be ruined for sure.

“Either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw,” Calvin stated abruptly, “I know my Hogwarts houses, and you’re either a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw- I’m sure of it,” he told her with a dorky grin.