Sticky Beginnings (Open)

Basil had just come back from his first ever trip to the Alley and his eyes were still shining and wide from awe. There had been so much just to take in it was impossible to do in just one trip even though he had tried. The boy had gone from shop to shop just looking since he didn't know what half the things on display were and the other half.. well he had no idea they actually existed. Like the dragons in the bank or their spleens on sail at the apothecary. Just wait until he told his baby sister when she was older! Girls liked unicorns and things didn't they? He could tell her about seeing an honest to goodness real unicorn horn! And some older kid he'd talked to in the apothecary had told him that a herd of them actually lived in the forest at school.

There was also only so much he could carry by himself, so the boy had to make more than one trip. Basil didn't feel like visiting the bank again more than once if he could avoid it. Nothing against the goblins but there was only so much standing in line he could do without something to keep him occupied and busy. Pestering the other people in line lost its appeal shortly after he first started since most of them were grown ups or the kids there tried to act like grown ups. That had been rather depressing and Basil hoped that he never acted like that!

Plunking his purchases down on the floor near his stool, he took a seat at the bar which seemed the only place that wasn't as crowded. The place was packed with children of all ages as well as adults clumping together in groups. There were a few singles, but not many. Rapping his knuckles on the counter and placing his money down he stated, "Oi, how 'bout sommat to drink?"

Just as he was getting his drink and given that look that said his rude behavior was only being tolerated because it was so busy, Basil just grinned unsympathetically back. Taking his drink and gulping some of it down, the blond smiled at the sickly sweet taste. This was fast becoming his favourite drink. Sliding down off his stool he forgot his packages where there and ended up tripping over them. Trying to save himself from embarrassment going into a somersault, he still crashed into a few empty stools and he let out a pained, "Ow..."

Sitting up he was happy someone had caught the glass he'd been drinking from or he'd have a broken glass near him as well. Although he still ended up all sticky from the spilled beverage. Wiping some of his sodden bangs off his forehead he gave the person a sheepish smile. "T'anks, you saved me."

"Yeah, you should be more careful, really." Really, Basil WAS lucky that Trysta hadn't climbed up on one of the stools he'd just crashed into. The rat on the black hair girl's shoulder lazily squeeked at Basil, sniffing for a few moments then settling back down again to wrap his tail around Trysta's neck. The girl grinned and put the glass back on the bar. "You don't wanna break somma those liquid potion ingredients open, that'd be a mess."

She righted a few of the stools and climbed up on one, sitting cross legged. "You by yourself shopping for school supplies? That's really weird, most parents come with their kids. Or a nanny or something if they're those stuck up fullblood rich people."

Trysta nodded a bit, though of course she was by herself. Her Aunty Michelle's shop was boring today because Michelle was sleeping and most of the mess had been cleaned up, so if Trysta tried to put together any clocks from what was laying around she'd be caught. On top of her dad being in meetings and most of her cousins all still being on holiday until the school term let in, there really wasn't too many places for her to go. Since Diagon was so close to where Michelle's shop was, Trysta figured it might be a good idea to take her pocket change and wander that way. She needed to visit Gambol and Japes SOMETIME before she got to school. She did, after all, have her father's reputation for trouble to live up to.

"So, HI! I'm Trysta. This guy here is Giger." She pointed at the rat. "Who'er you?"

Jessie was carrying a small bag of supplies. He had just gone shopping by himself since he had nothing better to do at home. His parents were out working so he decided to do some of his school shopping by himself. He was a little hesitant and nervous at first, but it was for sure better than being stuck at home sitting around doing nothing. He made his way to the bar, intending to take an open seat. Just as he started heading towards it he saw a male about his age maybe, knock over a bunch of stools and nearly spill the contents of his drink. Luckily someone caught it though. Jessie looked away, quietly laughing to himself a bit and waited for the stools to be set back up before he slipped over towards them, taking a seat a fair bit of distance away. He waited patiently to be served his drink and just watched the people in the room. He nervously ran his fingers through is black hair. Crowded places like this always made him nervous because he was so shy and self conscious, but he wasn’t about to go home just yet. He sipped on is drink and decided to look through a few of the books he had picked up.

Basil's face paled as he realized what she'd meant. Some of that stuff was nasty and reeked something awful! Standing, the boy attempted to wipe his sticky hands on his pants but only succeeded in making even more sticky patches on the partially clothing. Gathering his things as listened to the girl he was relieved to see that his things hadn't gotten that much splashed on them. Only a few drops and spots were on the brown paper wrappings. The blond was happy that there were extra barriers between the liquid and his things or he'd be in trouble. Try explaining to your professor why your book had yellowish stains on the pages!

"Girls sure talk 'lot," Basil stated without really thinking but quickly spun to face the girl and held up his hands in surrender. "No' like tha's a bad fing!"

Gulping nervously he decided that he better answer her questions as his eyes went to the rat on the girl's shoulder, brown eyes widening slightly. Most girls didn't like rats so this was a change. That only made him more nervous since girls who weren't afraid of rats weren't afraid to take on boys. "M'name's Basil. Mum's busy wiff my lit'l sister. 'M old 'nuff to shop on my own."

Pouting after eyes going wide at Tom magicking the puddle Basil had caused to disappear but refusing to give the boy a wet rag to use for his hands. Not caring if he was whining he gave the bartender his best puppy dog eyes that worked with his mum....most of the time. Didn't stop her from grounding him that time his bangers went off and one of them accidentally ended up going in one of their open windows.

"C'mon, Tom! Please gimme a wet rag!" Seeing another boy sitting at the bar he gestured stating, "'elp me out, bruv!"

Jessie was absorbed in his drink. He didn’t expect anyone to really take notice of him, having gone out of his way to make himself less noticeable. He ran his hand through his black hair and sighed, just watching the crowd. He particularly noticed this blonde boy continuing to make a mess. He tried not to be rude and stare, but was taking a certain pleasure in his predicament. People watching is always entertaining this way. After a few moments he turned back to his drink and took a sip, but notice someone was talking to him. It was the boy and he seemed to want his help, but Jessie was a little hesitant. He wasn’t really sure if he was talking to him or a person in his direction. Most people looked past him and to someone in his direction, so he glanced around. There wasn’t any one that close to him, so he decided that he was being talked to.

“Oh? Do you need a napkin?” Jessie reached over and grabbed a handful, giving them to the boy, having not really caught his name. As he handed the boy the napkins he noticed the girl that was nearby.

"Oh you have such a cute rat. I always wanted one." Jessie just loved animals, but never had a pet before.

"Ah. Nice to meet cha, Basil," she replied. She eyed the conversation with the tender and Basil, then asked, very polietly, for a butter beer and a glass of water. The glass of water she pushed towards Basil innocently as Jessie handed him napkins. "There you go. That should help you get cleaned up a bit."

She looked to Jessie as he mentioned the rat. She rubbed Giger's nose a bit with a grin. The rat gave a lazy squeek. "Oi, you mean Giger? He's the world's laziest rat. I got two, actually, but the girl likes to bite folks. She's also got a habit of taking sweets from places so I don't bring her out. ...Wanna hold him?"

Jessie smiled, “Sure.” He held his hands out for the rat, a bit hesitant at first because he didn’t want to do anything to hurt Trysta’s pet. He was amazingly cute. If he had a choice of pets, he’d have a rat, a cat, a dog, almost anything. He loved anything cute and furry. He remembered she had two and so he inquired about the other one. “What’s the girl’s name? She seems very feisty from what you’ve said. Do they know any tricks?”

Trysta dislodged Giger from her shoulder, who gave a squeak of protest but did nothing else as Trysta placed him gently into Jessie's waiting hands. The rat sniffed his hands a bit, then tried to scuttle up Jessie's arm to perch on his shoulder.

"Nah, Giger doesn't, no, but he's nice enough that he can hang out anywhere I go, except for school before now cause teachers don't like it when rats come to class, you know? The girl though, Charity? She steals me sweets from the kitchen when my dad grounds me. ...Like he's probably going to do when he finds out I'm here and not at my auntie's place."

Trysta grinned, taking a drink of her butter beer.

Taking the napkins with a thankful smile, Basil eyed the water Trysta pushed toward him suspiciously. When she didn't do anything further and began talking with the other boy, the blond wasted no time dipping the napkins in the water and wiping what he could off himself. Listening to them talk he was glad that it was these two that he was sitting by. Knowing some other people they would have just let him suffer, like Tom!

Locking his feet around his stool Basil curiously wondered why Rats weren't allowed to class. The animals, pets, whatever were familiars right? So didn't that mean they had to go everywhere with the students? Or maybe he'd been watching too much television. Were they supposed to get pets? Because the blond wasn't so sure they had room in their flat and he didn't trust Marcus anymore than he could throw him, which wasn't at all. After all the older boy had stolen Basil's bangers from the shoebox at the back of his closet. In retaliation, the blond had stolen and 'misplaced' Marcus' game controller.

"Wot's th' fun wiffout a lit'l danger?" Basil grinned. "S'his fault anyway. He left ya alone, yeah? So 'ow could it be your fault? He's shoulda known bet'er."

Jessie smiled and held the rat. he watched and laughed as he made his way up to his shoulder. When the rat Giger settle d\down he began to pet him as he talked to Trysta.

"I take it you get grounded often?" He smiled and continued to pet the rat, enjoying the company of the two people he just met. He was glad he got out of the house and decided to do his school shopping, if he had not, he would have been at home with nothing to do. Jessie considered getting himself a pet a few times, but they required time and work and he didn't think he was dedicated enough to give anything his time and attention. He tended to give up, or get distracted too easily at times so he didn't want to get a pet and get bored with it and neglect it or anything bad like that.

"Exactly! And that's what I tell my dad and he does know that too. I mean, my Aunty Michelle's told me all sort of stories about things he did!" She rubs her chin. "Well, technically he didn't tell me that I COULDN'T go out..."

Giger seems to enjoy the petting very much. Trysta looked back to Jessie. "Yeah, I do. But most of the time it's TOTALLY worth it." She nods. "Don't think I'll get away with as much at school, though. I have a couple of cousins who are going to school too--I have like two of them in Ravenclaw... one more going this year. But we got a bettin pool going to see who can get away with the most before getting caught."

Jessie smiled. A bet eh? this was going to be interesting. Trysta seemed to be very mischievous and that made things more interesting. Jessie continued to pet Giger and looked from Basil to Trysta.

"Well school would be boring without a little fun. Somehow I think you'll be the won to win the bet. Me? I don't get in to trouble... I can't even recall a time I was grounded. That also makes things a little boring." He smiled and took sip from his drink.

"No, see, I get extra if I win. My dad's onna the professors. Charms, I think. He's... well, he's also the head of Gryffindor." she rubs her chin. "That makes it extra hard for all of us, but the other three I think are all gonna be in Ravenclaw. Unless my worthless mum--my dad's words, not mine--was like, a Slytherin or Hufflepuff or something, I'm probably gonna end up in Gryffindor."

Giger continued to enjoy the attention, though he shifted into standing on his hind legs to sniff Jessie's hair.

"Wha? What do you MEAN you never get into trouble!?" Trysta appeared to be a cross between amused and shocked. "Oh, we're going to have to fix that right off."

Jessie nodded, "Somehow I think you're going to win." He chuckled and continued to give Giger attention. He didn't mind when his hair was sniffed and laughed a little because it tickled. He looked from Trysta to basil, hoping he would help him out.

"What do you mean FIX that? FIX what?" He again looked from Trysta to Basil. "What's wrong with being good? Rules were meant to be follow...Right?" He smiled sheepishly and watched them, wondering just what they had in store for him. Somehow it seems as if school was going to be interesting to say the least. He had a feeling that he was going to get in to detention quite a bit with his new found friends.

"fix the fact that you've never been in trouble of course!" Trysta replied with a grin. "My dad says if you don't break the rules than you never really learn ANYTHING about life and stuff. ...Of course then he grounded me for putting those frogs in my teacher's desk... BUT! No more frogs. Unless they're chocolate frogs, because most teachers won't mind them so much I think."

Trysta paused long enough to think, then said, "ANYWAY! Giger really likes you. You have pets?"

This is, of course, as Giger tries to scale Jessie's head and explore a bit.

Jessie let Giger climb and explore him. He got to have all the joys of a pet, with out actually having one. He wanted one but he never felt he had the patience or the time to care for it. He laughed as Giger made his way up his head. His feet kind of tickled.

"No I don't. I doubt I have the time or patience to take care of one. I wouldn't know where to star to get one..." He trailed off as he thought about it. What kind of pet would he like? "A rat seems like it would be kind of hard to take care of. They're so small... I'd probably lose or squish one... Cats are too independent and moody... A dog would require training..."

"No, rats are great," Trysta said as Giger made his way to look down at Jessie's face, suprisingly well balanced. "If you buy one from someone here in Diagon usually they live longer than the ones at the petshop. Plus they're smart and you can teach them tricks and stuff. Like I taught Charity to go get me sweets from the kitchen when I'm grounded but I'm hungry. It's like having a really small dog that's way more awesome and rides around on your shoulder all of the time. Boy rats are a lot more chill, and girl rats run around like they're crazy or something. All you have to do is make sure that they don't run around when an owl is around because then, well, owls like to eat rats."

Jessie nodded. He would have to do some thinking before he decided if he wanted a pet. He really didn't know if he was ready or if he even wanted a pet of any kind. While he loved animals, taking on one was a huge commitment, at least to him it was and he just wasn't sure.

"Rat's sound like they would make a nice pet. They don't seem to take up much space and they seem really friendly." He found reached up and picked up Giger, and started petting him again. He turned to Basil and looked at him, "you have any pets?