Empêchement

The First day

"Yo, Ena!"

I was jarred awake by Indigo bouncing on my bed. I must've fallen asleep sometime between receiving my bags and now because my head was fuzzy from sleep.

She's going to regret this. I thought as I planned on how to get her off. Luckily, she was jumping dangerously close to the edge of the bed, so I groaned again and rolled over, forcing her to fall off my bed and right onto her rump onto the floor.

A satisfying oof escaped her lips. "You're a bitch in the morning, Marbles." She said very pointedly as she stood up. "You could have just told me that you were up and asked me to get off."

I pulled my covers back over my head and rolled back into a comfortable spot in bed.

"Anyway," she continued, "It's ten a.m. and they're serving pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Figured you want to know."

I perked up, popping my head out from under the covers. "Do I have to get dressed?" I asked.

"Alice didn't, and no one has sent her back yet, so I assume you don't."

I was suddenly really, really happy. Nothing makes me want to get out of bed more than knowing that I don't have to get dressed and that there's a great meal waiting for me that I don't have to clean up after. 'Alright, I'm up." I slipped my feet into my Hogwarts slippers and slid out the door with Indigo seconds later.

Indigo and I walked out of the common room, then out the main door.

It was a lot busier in the main hallway than it was yesterday. There were people everywhere, laughing and messing around. I wondered what our schedule would look like, and what was expected of us. This was like the first day of school all over again. I began to get nervous.

Indigo got closer while we were walking. "It's like the first day of high school, isn't it? Everyone already knows everyone but you." She whispered as if she were reading my thoughts.

I nodded.

We turned the final right corner into the cafeteria. Like a cafeteria in a public school, it was loud and there were people everywhere. Unlike a cafeteria at a public school, it was clean and it smelled amazing.

I spotted Alice in the crowd sitting at a table with people I recognized as other members of the third generation. She was talking and making exaggerated body movements as she told a story, and everyone around her was smiling and laughing.

It was going to be an interesting experience finding a place to sit over there. I cued up in the line to get food around the little buffet bar thing with Indigo.

Walking into the line, I very much expected the food to be like the stuff they served at school. Wrapped in plastic packages and thrown onto the table, but it wasn't.

Everything was obviously prepared that morning. There were stacks of pancakes and rows of bacon. The juices came in plastic bottles instead of cardboard boxes. There were real trays instead of Styrofoam. Fruit, cottage cheese, and hard-boiled eggs filled bowls and a toaster sat on the counter ready to toast the bread and English muffins that were provided.

When I was finally able to fill my plate, I grabbed two pancakes, a pad of butter and some syrup. I finished with a couple of strips of bacon, a small side of fruit and a bottle of orange juice.

I slowed down for Indigo. There was no way that I was going to go try and sit over there with Alice and all those people by myself.

Indigo pointed at her food. "Dude, this is great!"