save it (open)

Tiernan didn't want to wait to get to the castle before showing off his Firebolt Elite Series E-15, which he had egotistically christened 'Excalibur', and had got it out of his trunk as soon as he'd claimed a compartment. After giving it a light polishing (there were a few marks along its handle), he took it out onto the train corridor and swung his leg over. There were a lot of students in that corridor, but far from seeing them as hazards or potential hospital patients, he merely embraced them as obstacles.

He was off like a light.

"Wooooo!" he roared, scaling over the heads of second-years and weaving between a fifth-year crowd. Most of them shouted at him, but he thought they were cheering him.

He was going to do a length of this train and back again for everyone's viewing pleasure, whether they liked it or not (they definitely liked it though, come on).

Sailing through the fifth carriage, his eyes were diverted like a moth to flame when he noticed there were girls changing in one of the compartments. He definitely saw knickers. And that's all it took to make him lose all direction, careen off the wall and slam, white-cheeked, into a window. There was an incredibly loud BONK from impact, and Tiernan and Excalibur dropped to the floor like a couple of zapped flies.

He was now crumpled in a heap, limbs bent up and over in every possible direction, looking as shamed as he felt.

As it was becoming clearer and clearer that Bel wasn't sitting with her on the train this year, Jeneva was walking through the cars trying to find Cecelia. In typical fashion, she was checking and admiring her reflection in her compact mirror instead of checking her surroundings for any hazards that could potentially mess up her outfit, face, or hair.

Her foot, donned in a 4-inch heel, made contact with the floor, and she fell, quite comically, on her rear. She shrieked loudly as she saw McLaggen and gagged.

"Ewwwwww, are you dead?! Yuck dead guy! I tripped on a dead guy's broom!"

Then came another shriek.

@Tiernan McLaggen

He was just about to secure his dignity by flipping over and pumping up on his biceps to his feet, but something else collided with his heap and brought him back down to the floor.

He groaned into a carpet.

"I'm not bloody dead," came his muffled voice, and he managed to peel his head from the floor. Who was this girl again? Fan or foe? "Are you okay?" he asked, definitely trying to win her favour by acting the hero. It was a bit hard when you're crumpled on the floor, but at least he could try getting up now.

Just pump off his biceps as though he was doing press-ups all along...

@Jeneva Avery

Ew, was he one of those Gryffindors? What a disgusting, gross loser! He should be taking the train to Loserwarts instead.

Rolling her eyes, Jeneva got up from the floor although her heels made it difficult to perfectly regain her balance. "I was fine until you made me fall, weirdo!"{/b]

Jeneva brushed off her miniskirt irritably as she watched that pathetic display of athleticism. [b]"Get out of my way!"

@Tiernan McLaggen

It was like taking an ice spike right through his gut. Weirdo? He was a weirdo?! No - he definitely wasn't! He was looking up at her perfectly smooth pins covered barely by a bit of material, but that was because he was male. Not because he was a weirdo. Plus, he had a girlfriend now.

Didn't make it any less of an ego bruise. Girls like her were supposed to be into him!

He was up like a shot. "This doesn't normally happen," he began insisting, "I'm on the Quidditch team and Junior League! I just need to zero in the new broom a bit more when it comes to restricted space, that's all! Excalibur is a--"

He froze, looking down at his broom. Was that a scuff?! From impact, or from this dozy girl's wretched heels?!

Inside he was screaming as he looked down at his baby.

@Jeneva Avery

"You named your broom Excalibur?"

Jeneva began cracking up but moving her mouth and face as little as possible to prevent wrinkles. She hid her mouth behind her compact mirror.

He wasn't like Bruce or pretty like Macmillan. Even weirdo creep Selwyn was better than this lion! "Can you say nerd?!"

Wasn't his mother a blood traitor too? Ugh, gross!

@Tiernan McLaggen

Tiernan took his broom up, carefully, gingerly, as though it were his child, and started inspecting the blemish. When she was laughing at him, he turned ever so slightly pink.

"Listen, all good Qudditch players name their brooms," he grunted defensively, "No - no - not a nerd. If I was a nerd I would have named it Matilda or Freya or some other girl's name. Excalibur is a good, trusty name! There's nothing bloody wrong with it!"

She must have been a Slytherin, he thought. Typical. Except Mackenzie, he remembered, was Slytherin too. Perhaps all those Gryffindor colours she wore warped his brain into thinking she was Gryffindor.

"Are your heels scuffed at all?" he asked out of the blue, wanting to know if she was the culprit. Or perhaps he just wanted her to be the culprit.

@Jeneva Avery

"My heels are perfect!"

Jeneva refused to look at whatever damage they might have taken; she did not need that kind of potential breakdown to start the new term with! "I could've broken my ankles because of Exx-cal-luh-burr, you corpse weirdo!"

She glanced deeply at her reflection making sure that not a single hair on her head was out of place.

"Ugh, have you seen Cece Burke anywhere?"

@Tiernan McLaggen

"You could've broken my sword-- my broom, I mean!" he snapped back, absolutely hating being called a weirdo. Or a nerd. Or - urgh - a loser?!

He wasn't. He wasn't. She was just one of those fanatics. She was the one with the attitude problem!

"Why would I know where the bloody Burkes are?" he grunted, annoyed, "Having their arses wiped by their elves before they get here? I don't know."

@Jeneva Avery

"I was just asking a question!"

Ugh! She was so going to complain to somebody about McLosergen! And to think one of the Riddles was going out with him too. Urgh, nobody here had standards.

Putting her mirror away, Jeneva crossed her arms and rolled her eyes again.

"I'm trying to find my friend, weirdo! Have you seen her? Her hair's probably blue because, urgh, she keeps going to hair appointments WITHOUT me!"

@Tiernan McLaggen

"Oh no, really? That's so sad!"

It was that girl in the crowd who looked good but sounded like a complete idiot once you stripped away all the hours of personal attention and layers of make-up. At least he was learning some important lessons today: some girls could go from pretty to pretty ugly the moment they opened their mouths.

He leant on his broom handle to accentuate his muscles for a group of girls passing them.

"Has anyone ever told you that your nose is upturned like a pig's?" he asked very casually.

@Jeneva Avery

Jeneva gasped loudly as she pulled her compact mirror back out to examine her nose. When she remembered that there was absolutely nothing pig-like about her nose, she furrowed her eyebrows and removed her purse from the loop of her arm to hit him.

"I do not look like a pig, weirdo!!!"

She absolutely couldn't look like a pig; she knew she definitely didn't trust him to be truthful about her appearance!

If she looked like a pig, that'd mean she was close to looking more like the fat Burke or Grayson. Yikes!

@Tiernan McLaggen

He laughed as she smacked him with a purse.

"What was that, Miss Piggy Wiggy?" he taunted, pushing his nose up with his index finger. "Oink oink?"

@Jeneva Avery

"Shut up! You look like you never heard of deodorant!"

She tried to aim for his head with her very unpractically small purse.

@Tiernan McLaggen