So Morana pretty much introduced me and what this chapter was about. Except she didn't share what the surprise that I'm referring to in the chapter title is.
I think we'll start with it.
Maxwell and I were walking around Hogwarts, talking about the task yesterday.
"And the way she made that dragon sleepy!" I said, talking about Fleur. "Damn. She's one bad ass lady. I wish I could be that bad ass."
"Who says you aren't?" Maxwell asked.
"W-well... I guess I am... But not like Fleur. Plus she's so beautiful! I've heard rumors that she's even part veela!"
"Part veela or not she is definitely not the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."
"Well, whoever that most beautiful girl you've seen is must be very lucky."
"W -?"
"You know. Like a girlfriend or crush or something."
"Oh. Oh, yeah."
We were silent for a minute, about to walk up some stairs when Maxwell spoke.
"Xenia?"
I looked up at him. "Max?"
"Will you go out with me?"
WAIT, HOLD THE F**KING PHONE.
"Wh-what?" I asked. Great goin' there, Fairchild!
"I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me. Now," he added, "you don't have to answer right now, and you don't have to say yes. I was just wondering."
I smiled up at Maxwell. "I would love to."
Max smiled back at me. "Great! Tomorrow? Meet me on the Hogwarts grounds near Hagrid's Hut...say noon?"
"Does twelve thirty work?"
"Yeah, of course!"
"So, I, uh, I gotta go," I said, trying not to smile. "I've, uh...got some studying to do."
"Yeah, yeah, of course." Max smiled. "See ya."
"Bye," I said with a huge smile. I then left, going to tell Aura and Tess what had just happened.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE QUICK SURPRISE~~~~~~~~~~
"Aura! Tess!" I practically shrieked as I ran into the girls' bathroom that they were in with Morana. My shrieking made them all jump.
"What?! What?!" Aura and Tess yelled back.
"Guess who just asked me out!"
"Uhhhh," Tess said.
"I-I can't think of anyone," Morana said with a frown.
"Yeah, me neither," Aura agreed.
"Guys!" I said, surprised that they couldn't tell.
"Just kidding!" Aura said with a smile.
"Was it Maxwell?!" Tess asked.
"YES!" I answered. Aura, Tess, and I all squealed and did the jump-y-sort-of-hug-y thing. Morana just kinda smirked.
"I'm happy for ya, Mudblood," Morana said once the squealing, jumping, and hugging were done. "I know how you're feeling. And it's pretty amazing. Congrats for getting that feeling again."
"Uh, thanks," I said with a smile.
Morana nodded, then started looking around the room like nothing happened.
"Soo?" Tess asked. "When's the date?"
"Tomorrow," I said with a smile. The three of us did the jump/squeal/hug thing again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE QUICK SURPRISE~~~~~~~~~~
The next day.
I had decided to get a little dressed up for the date. I wore a black tank top and a blue baggy shirt that hung over my shoulder. I also wore dark blue skinny jeans, and black sneakers. I decided to paint my nails blue, put red lipstick on, and put black eyeliner on. Then I put on blue hoop earrings to tie it all together. I then decided that my long hair down covered up most of my outfit and my earrings, so I put it up in a semi-high ponytail.
12:30. I made sure that that was the exact time that I was on the Hogwarts grounds.
I went on the grounds and looked around for Maxwell.
"Hey!" he yelled from a bit down the hill and to my left. "Over here!"
I turned and smiled when I saw him. I ran down to where he was, and I almost trampled into him.
"Sorry!" I said.
"Nah, it's okay." Max smiled.
I then noticed the picnic blanket at his feet. On the blanket was a basket with food, and a couple plates and cups out.
"It's nice!" I smiled. "A nice...first date."
"Yeah. It is."
We both sat down on the picnic blanket across from each other. We then both reached to go inside the picnic basket.
"You go ahead," I said, putting my hand in my lap. "I don't know what you packed anyway."
Maxwell grabbed stuff out of his basket, which I was pretty sure was made by the Time Lords from Doctor Who. I mean, he pulled out a ton of stuff. He pulled out chicken, turkey, beef, ham, apples (yellow, red, and green), strawberries, grapes, oranges, bananas, celery, broccoli, carrots, water, orange juice, lemonade, iced tea and hot tea. And the list just went on! It's almost like he brought the Great Hall onto our little picnic!
"Sorry about all the food," Max said with a little awkward smile. "I wasn't sure what you liked and what you didn't, so I just...brought a bit of everything."
"Nah. It's okay. I'm starving! I could probably eat this whole thing by myself!"
"Save some for me!"
We then started eating. I started off with my favorite things of the bunch: chicken, apples (except the yellow ones), and carrots along with some English Breakfast tea with some sugar.
And we had a nice little date. We talked about ourselves:
"So," Max had started to ask me, "what, uh...what's your favorite animal?"
"A snow tiger," I answered. "Which is pretty much just a bigger version of my cat, Smith!"
"Really?"
"Yeah. He's white with black spots and yellow eyes." I said 'yellow eyes' in a weird, almost raspy voice, which made Maxwell laugh. "Yeah." I smiled down at my tea. "And he tries to attack things a lot, too, which helps if it's unwanted rats. It doesn't help when it's my friend's owl, my friend's cat, or my toes. So what's your favorite animal?"
"Hm, probably an elephant. I find them really adorable! They have great memories, and the babies are so adorable!"
We joked around a little bit:
"Seriously," I said with a mouthful of ham, "your basket is almost Doctor Who-y."
"Yeah, I know," Maxwell said with a half-smile after he swallowed his beef. "It's got that Time Lord 'bigger on the inside' technology."
I smiled, laughing slightly.
"No, but actually there's a spell to do that."
"Hm, cool!" I said. "Can't wait to learn it!"
"I bet you're gonna be one of the first ones to get it perfectly!"
I ruffled his hair, and then he stole some of my food while I wrestled for it back:
"No!" I said, reaching forward as I leaned over the food towards his hand. "Give me back my apple!"
I grabbed my apple, but then Maxwell turned to try to get away from me, and he dragged me with him, which made me drop some of the strawberries and grapes.
"Aah!" I sort of screamed.
We wrestled for the apple, and eventually we started rolling a little bit. We stopped when Maxell was on top of me, and he still had the apple. I then flipped him over so he was on his back, and I grabbed the red apple from his hand.
"Ha!" I said a I held it up so he couldn't reach it. "I win!" I said with a smile.
"Yeah, yeah," he said with a smile as he rolled his eyes. I got off of him, and then we went back to our picnic.
After a while we packed up the leftover food and the blanket. We stood up, Maxwell carrying the basket.
I smiled up at him, my hands in my back pockets. "I had a really great time. And I'd love to do this again sometime."
"Yeah. Me, too." Max also smiled. Max looked like he was about to grab my face gently with his hand then leaned forward and kiss me, but after lifting his hand he flinched, then put his hand back down.
"I-I'm sorry," he said, looking down at his feet. "It's just that...I got out of a relationship the end of last school year, and I'm used to kissing after dates." He looked back up at me. "I'm so sorry."
"Hey," I said softly. "If the next few dates go well you'll be going back to that old routine."
Maxwell smiled at me.
We hugged, then he backed his head up a little, and kissed my cheek.
I really loved that first date. And I hoped for many more to come.