The Kendrick Household

[Isabella Kendrick]

Bella was glued to the television set when Rena joined her, so she also didn't realize at first that she even had company. After all, she had expected Bianca and her stupid little friend to go somewhere else... it wasn't a secret that they found Bella to be annoying. Instead, she was intently watching as the ball was making a rapid sprint for the Manchester goalkeeper. She was rooting for Chelsea, but at the same time, she wanted to see a game, not an annihilation. The score was already two to zero, to Chelsea, and just as she was hoping Chelsea wouldn't score another goal already, her wish came true. The Manchester keeper made a spectacular save, diving through the air and catching the ball just before slamming into the ground.

"What are you talking about," she replied, finally realizing that Rena was sitting with her and watching the game. "Chelsea and Man U are pretty even. They're just having an off day I- GOAL!"

Despite her previous desire for Chelsea to stop making goals until Manchester could catch up, she leaped off the couch as they scored, her arms above her head in victory.

"Take that, you bleeding prats!"

The goalkeeper was now writhing on the ground, clutching his knee. It seemed that he may have injured himself while trying to block the goal. Ah, well, he'd either get over it or they'd switch in another player.

Bella's attention was momentarily distracted from the game as well when the conversation wandered over to Toby. She knew that Rena had a thing for him, given the way she always acted when his name popped up. She didn't know when she'd met their brother exactly, but Rena didn't seem the type to fawn over a guy she didn't even know, so she just assumed that Bianca had introduced them at some point. She cast the other girl a very sly, knowing smirk but, for once, said nothing as the game commenced.

[Bianca Kendrick]

Bianca rolled her eyes at the pair watching sports. She had never been interested in watching sweaty men kick a ball around. It was so pointless! There were so many other productive things one could do with their time, like clean, study, or go shopping.

"Bella! Pipe down!" she yelled as her sister started screaming at the top of her lungs. "The neighbors will have a fit!"

The neighbors, however, seemed to be on the same page as Isabella. The very muffled sounds of screaming were coming through the walls, though it was impossible to tell if they were cheers or boos. Everyone couldn't be a Chelsea fan, could they?

Football was very popular in Muggle Britain.

Bianca wasn't looking at the others, busy as she was with cleaning up the kitchen (what better thing did she have to do when her guest was hanging out with her sister?), so she didn't see the look that Bella gave Rena when Toby was mentioned. She was hopelessly oblivious to her best friend fancying their oldest brother.

"What on earth are you on about?" she asked, perplexed. "Why would Toby get a job in animal rights? That makes no sense at all, Rena. He's coming to celebrate his new job as a journalist. Really, you need to pay more attention to what you say."

Her words may have come out in a haughty manner, but Bianca didn't mean it that way. She just didn't know why Rena would think that Toby celebrating a new job had anything to do with animal rights. She knew that he was a writer. He had told her during the dinner he had been invited to when he had dropped Bianca off at her house once.

"Now, we have about two hours before dinner will be ready, and an hour and a half before Toby will be here."

Almost as if her words had jogged her memory, her eyes went straight to the blankets in front of where Bella and Rena were sitting. She was just going to be a hindrance where she was, so it was time to move mother to her own bedroom. Rolling up her sleeves, Bianca strode over to where they were, hastily shooed them from the sofa, and took the blankets off of her mother to set them back on the couch. Eva was wearing nothing but a white slip and a gaudy red lace bra.

"Oh, heavens, at least your mother didn't see her like this!" she said exasperatedly to Rena.

She grabbed her mother under the arms and stood there, hunched over, waiting.

"Isabella, grab her feet! I can't carry her by myself!"

[Isabella Kendrick]

Bella leaped over the back of the sofa as she was forced to evacuate the premises. Bianca could be such a bossy git sometimes, as almost everyone who had ever met her could vouch. She stood there, arms crossed, as she waited for Bianca to get their mother out of the way so she could go back to enjoying the game.

"Oh, hell," she said, rolling her eyes as she went over and grabbed their mother by the ankles. The two girls lifted the woman up and carried her to the stairs. Bella went up first, making her way backwards up the stairs with little difficulty. Their mother wasn't all that heavy, after all; Bianca got her scrawniness from her. Up the stairs, they took her to the end of the hall to the half-open door that was Eva's room. Bella kicked it open, and it hit the wall with a loud bang. Their mother grunted in her stupor but didn't wake up, so they carried her to her bed. Bella dropped her ungraciously on her mattress.

"There, now that the cow's out of the living room..."

She went back downstairs and parked herself on the couch once more.

"Finally, Man U scored."

[Rena 'Hitomi' Holmes]

Rena stared over at Bella a moment, eyes narrowed angrily, but said nothing in return, afraid of what reaction that would incur. Clearly Bella was not all that worried about her sister's best friend having a thing for her eldest brother, though it was pretty obvious that the moment it became advantageous to tell Bianca, the girl would probably use it as fast as Bianca used quill ink on notes.

She merely cringed at the sight of Manchester scoring a goal, but again, said nothing... at least, she did not say anything until Bianca brought up the thought of her writing literate brother having a job in some magical creatures rights corporation. It was then she sighed.

"Bianca, I didn't mean that. I meant, what are you up to. Don't change the subject back to your brother... especially if you want to talk about centaurs..."

She cringed once again, though her thoughts were on the Forbidden Forest and ways she was not going to go in there this year...

No matter what Bianca said.

"You need to pay more attention to the meaning behind my words," she replied, before staring at the game, ignoring the thoughts of the girls' mother needing to be dragged from one end of the apartment to pretty much the next.

She shook her head when Bella came back.

"Man U may have scored, but Chelsea's always got those ringers on them..." she said, before glancing back at the stairs, hoping to find Bianca, "... Seriously though... good to know he's coming... any of the others coming to visit too, or just Toby?"

She said it with a slightly goofy grin on her face, despite herself.

"... Oh, another thing... would Akira be able to slip out some tonight? He's got to carry a mail order to the Triple W's before I get to school."

She apparently forgot to stock up on her Weasley goods.

"I would have done it a few nights ago, but my mum was much more concerned about how many pairs of pants I packed."

[Isabella Kendrick]

Bella snickered when Bianca didn't understand what Rena was trying to say. Given how smart the girl thought she was, some things just went right over her head. Like boys. And her best friend having a crush on their brother.

"If she doesn't give us meat every so often, we'll all gang up on her like ravenous dogs," she replied, answering the question for her clueless sister. "She decided it was easier to appease us rather than argue. Besides, pineapple does not belong on a pizza, I don't care what anyone says. It should be smothered in meat and cheese."

She was once more interrupted from the terribly one-sided game with yet another inquiry.

"Just chuck him out a window any old time," she said uncaringly. "I do it all the time. The Muggles either don't notice, or they think we're some weird voodoo family with some messed up rituals. Bianca might get a little high-pitched about it if you send him before dark, but I just ignore her. She screams herself out after a while."

High-pitched meaning angry. Whenever Bella's sister got upset, her voice got steadily more hysterical. It was amusing to watch, especially when there were canines around. They went a bit mad with the supersonic noise.

As Bianca came trudging down the stairs, no doubt having tucked mum into bed or some such nonsense that she was prone to doing, Bella called over to her, "Oi, is it just Toby for dinner or are Braeden and Gavin coming too?"

[Bianca Kendrick]

"You know perfectly well that Toby is the only one who can stand to be around mum, conscious or not," Bianca replied as she reached the bottom of the steps. Just as Bella had thought, she had been wrapping her mother up in blankets to keep her warm while she slept. It had just taken a while to find the blankets since the woman never kept her bed made. "I extended the invitation to them, but Gavin had a prior engagement, and Braeden flat out refused. So it'll just be Toby, us, and the little ones."

Clearly Xander wasn't within hearing distance at the moment or he would have had a fit at being called "little." Bianca was so insensitive at times.

"So are you planning on watching football with my sister all day, or would you like to do something else? I propose anything but sports while we wait for my brother to get here. Football is so barbaric."

Clearly she had never watched a game of American football before. Or even hockey. Real football was very tame compared to those games. But she wouldn't know that. Bianca had never been a sports kind of person. She would much rather watch romantic comedies or crime shows during the small amount of time she spent watching the telly. She was more of a book person.

As she spoke, she grabbed the parchment that her OWL scores had been posted on and, taking the role of her own mother if she had been a good one, she stuck it to the refrigerator, using a Jesus magnet that simply didn't belong anywhere near the Kendrick residence. It was not unlike Bianca to display her achievements in such a manner, without an intention to boast... it was merely a way that she patted herself on the back.

[Rena 'Hitomi' Holmes]

Rena shrugged.

"Let the Muggles think what they want," she mumbled, "It's only their fault if they're lookin' out the windows."

Clearly she lived way too far away from Muggles to care much herself, and she stared at the game a few more moments, before giving Bianca a strange look.

"Football is not barbaric. Go watch some rugby sometime. This is a child's ballet class compared to rugby..."

Her eyes stared at the screen once more, as if awaiting for Chelsea to do something incredibly awesome, as they usually did. However, she sighed and shook her head after a moment or so, and turned her head towards Bianca's general direction.

"What did you have in mind? I mean, we can't practice anything until we turn seventeen, especially not here..."

Not that Rena had not gotten her practice in; her mother saw to that. At least, out in the middle of nowhere, they were not going to be freaking out any witless Muggles who happened to walk by... not that any of them did...

"Did you get the latest Daily Oracle though? Didn't know if you did or not... brought a copy with me... Professor Cadamus died over the holiday, and Professor McGonagall retired while we weren't looking."

She held the paper out to Bianca.

"Looks like Rosenthorn's got the position of Headmistress. Wonder what's gonna happen to Potions and DADA..."

[Bianca Kendrick]

Bianca was used to spending her time cleaning, cooking, reading, and doing other solitary things, so she had no clue how to entertain her guest. She had always visited Rena at her house and hadn't needed to worry about it. No one usually brought friends to the Kendrick residence out of embarrassment of their mother so Bianca had no practice with playing hostess. Luckily enough, Rena changed the subject, at least temporarily.

"Yes, I've had a subscription to the Prophet since my first year at school," she replied. "I don't like not knowing what's going on while I'm out of touch with everyone. And, yes, I heard and was completely shocked. Professor Cadamus was the kindest soul. I can't imagine who would want to hurt him! And I can't believe Professor McGonagall left Professor Rosenthorn as her successor. I mean, the woman has good intentions, but she's always seemed a little clueless and disorganized to me. It was a shock when she was promoted to Deputy Headmistress, but I didn't think Professor McGonagall would actually do anything that would leave her in charge. But I suppose we shouldn't question Professor McGonagall's decision."

No matter how much Bianca objected to it. She just hoped that their former Potions professor proved up to the challenge of running a school.

"And I'm sure we'll just get new professors for Potions and Defense. It shouldn't prove to be too difficult."

Clearly, Bianca had never gone through the process of hiring new teachers before. She had the tendency to oversimplify things that she didn't fully understand.

[Rena 'Hitomi' Holmes]

"I'm pretty sure we've got one for Potions," Rena pointed out, unfolding another paper that was deep in her pockets, "Name's Cardozo it says. Book list is here and everything... I thought you got those owls..."

She held it out for Bianca to read, just in case the girl did not believe Rena. Of course, Rena's school schedule was slightly different from her friend's, but the teacher name would have remained the same.

"Looks like we have no named teacher for DADA though," Rena continued, "And we're with Hufflepuffs this year. Shouldn't be as bad as the Slytherins last year... I swear, McGonagall did that just to see us squirm..."

She shrugged.

"I'm less concerned with that and more concerned with the team though. Half of them graduated last year and I can't find hide or hair of anymore Gryffindors who want to play. Especially seekers. If I find them, they fall off their brooms, and when I don't find them it's 'cause they can't equate to the Legendary 'Harry Potter.' I know he saved us from Voldemort and all, but that does not mean his position as Seeker on the Gryffindor team is something that people can glorify. You can't have a team without all players..."

She was clearly miffed by this; and rightly so. Owls had flooded in throughout the summer as to how Rena was going to replace the last Seeker. Some did not even think the last Seeker was good enough. Clearly Harry Potter was the best to all of them.

They needed a reality check.

"If they don't watch it, I'll stick myself on that speedy broom and start Seeking myself. Merlin knows I'd be better than half those halfwits out there..."

[Bianca Kendrick]

"Well, see, there you have it. One down, one more to go."

While shopping for supplies, Bianca hadn't paid attention to who had ordered the books, only what the titles were and how much they cost. It really should have occurred to her that potions books on the list meant they had a professor, but she hadn't been all that worried about it when she had made her visit to Diagon Alley.

Her opinion on Hufflepuffs versus Slytherins, however, differed slightly from Rena's. Having Defense with the Hufflepuffs meant that she would have to deal with her sister's childish antics.

"Oh, lovely," she said sarcastically, clearly not as relieved as Rena expected her to be. Slytherins she could deal with any day, but Bella... she was another matter altogether.

When she started ranting about her Quidditch team, Bianca listened politely, trying to pay attention but failing miserably. She cared very little for the school's sports teams and rarely even attended the events, unless Rena bugged her to no end until she agreed. Then she would traipse out to the Quidditch pitch and waste part of an afternoon that could have otherwise been used for more productive activities, such as studying or reading. Bianca had many books that she simply hadn't had time yet to read, so most of her spare time was devoted to catching up on her collection.

"Why don't you do that, then?" she suggested. "If you'd be better than them, wouldn't that be best for the team overall?" She almost commented that the Seeker was the most important player, but held her tongue just in time to save herself. Rena clearly felt very passionately about how all the players were important, and besides... Bianca didn't know squat about the mechanics of Quidditch anyways. It was best to leave all that up to the captains.

That, and her issue with Harry Potter was definitely not Quidditch-related. Honestly, who defeated dark wizards with Expelliarmus? It was kind of pathetic. (Effective, she had to admit, since they were now free of You-Know-Who, but still pathetic.)