it's been a summer; {reserved}

[mike]

Mike wandered down to the lake from his dorms. He was rather sick and tired of the people there already - don't get him wrong, he liked his roommates just fine, but after a while, they got irritating - and he needed some air. He had just come off of a bad run-in with his brother, and he really wasn't in the mood for anyone to be telling him anything else. The Lake, at such a time in the day, seemed like the perfect place to go if you didn't want to have to meet people. As he trekked down, he glanced about furtively, ready to abandon his mission if he saw anyone. He got to the water's edge, and just sat down, glancing behind him again. Then, he finally relaxed.

[Regina Curry]

Regina finished reading one book that she figured that she needed to know information from for class. Looking out the window in the common room, she noticed that it was a pretty nice day to go outside. Closing her book, she left it on the table and headed down the stairs. While she was walking slow, luck was on her side. She didn't trip over anything, so feeling her confidence rise as she walked outside, Regina picked up her slow pace a little. Her walk wasn't too fast, nor too slow. It felt like a good pace to go at.

As usual, Regina wasn't paying attention to the other people outside. She had gotten used to not paying any attention, because once her focus moved from her walking to something else, she would usually turn back into her clumsy self.

A nice breeze passed as she neared the lake as she looked up, she tripped over her own foot. Her body hit the ground as she gave an 'oof' sound.

[mike]

Mike glanced up yet again, just in time to see a girl wandering down to the Lake. He groaned, inwardly, and hurriedly stood up, brushing off his pants and shirt. All he had wanted was some alone time, and what he got was a random girl walking down to the lake. It wasn't in his nature to be irritable all of the time, but right now, he couldn't feel anything but irritated. He usually only felt this way when Mark decided that it was time to use him as a verbal punching bag and a dummy on which to test his new spells. He hated how his brother was in Slytherin, and when he told people that, they automatically assumed that he was bad.

But all of Mike's irritation disappeared when the girl went sprawling on the ground. He winced, then hurried over to her, dropping to his knees beside her. "Are you okay?" he asked, his eyes searching her face. She didn't appear to have broken anything, or hurt herself that badly - as far as he could tell. Then again, he wasn't trained in the field of deciding whether people were hurt or not, so what did he know? "Can you sit up?" Up close, the girl was rather pretty. From far away, she just looked like every other girl that he had seen at Hogwarts so far, barring Rayne.

[Regina Curry]

Regina knew that her cheeks went pink. She didn't realize that there was someone else by the lake, until now. "Y-yes, I'm okay," she replied in a shy tone. She put her hands on the ground so that she could push herself up to sit on the ground. Why did this always happen? It seemed like she was one of those that couldn't walk and think about something else if she wasn't walking slow enough. This was embarrassing. One would think that as many times as it had happened, she would have already gotten used to the fact that she was clumsy.

"Thanks for asking. Most people just look and laugh," Regina said moving the hair from her eyes.

[mike]

Mike grinned at the girl as she sat up, his hand on her back to make sure that she didn't fall over again and hit her head. "Well, that's good. I was worried you were knocked out or something for a moment." he said, teasingly. Once he was sure that she wasn't about to black out on him, he pulled his hand away and ran it through his hair. He missed having long hair; he could do so much with it. Yet he had cut it just before he came to the school. Ah, well. "I don't like it when people do it to me, so why would I do it to you?" he asked, rather quizzically. Perhaps he wasn't the only klutz around the school after all.

[Regina Curry]

Regina laughed. "That's happened maybe," she counted on her fingers, "three times since I've been here. Me being knocked out that is. Of course all accidents. Although I found out that I can't really ride a broom in one of those three times." She blushed again when he moved his hand off her back. No one had bothered to make sure she was alright after tripped, excluding Hallie. Hallie was probably about her only good friend.

"That's a good point. And thanks again. This falling and tripping, it happens all the time. I might need to just slow down when I walk," she said smiling.

[mike]

Mike looked rather...horrified, might have been a good word. He'd probably only been knocked out twice in his whole life, both times due to Mark, and this girl had been knocked out three times since she arrived at the school? "Wow...that must...suck..." he said, hesitantly, not exactly sure what to say to that. "Really? You can't? I love Quidditch. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't ride a broomstick." he said, more to himself than anything else. He smiled at her, shaking his head. "That's probably true. I wouldn't want to see you tripping and falling into the lake or anything."

[Regina Curry]

"I like to watch Quidditch, but I'm just not coordinated enough to play." That was true. Once before, Regina tried out for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, but as soon as she got off the ground, she some how lost her balance and fell off. Ever since, she hadn't touched a broom.

"Oh, that's happened before, but luckily it was warmer weather and it sort of seemed like I meant for it to happen, according to my friend Hallie. So, I guess that's partially a good thing." Regina gave a slight shrug. "I'm Regina Curry by the way."

[mike]

Mike shook his head slowly. Well, someone not coordinated enough to play was unacceptable to him. "I'm teaching you how to fly a broomstick. Just tell me when and where, and I'm so teaching you." he told her, seriously. He hated when people thought that they couldn't do something, when they really just needed a little bit of practice. Heck, he hadn't been able to fly a broomstick until his uncle had taught him. He hadn't gotten off of it for hours, until his mother had to spell him off of it. He paused, then stared at her. "Well...okay, then. Wish I could have been around to see it." He was only ribbing her, of course. He didn't actually want her to fall into the lake. "Mike Shay. Nice to meet you."

[Regina Curry]

Regina raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure you want to do that? My balance is not the best in the world, obviously." No one had told her straight out that they were going to teach her to ride a broom. The only time she really was taught to ride a broom was in flying class. Even then she wasn't good and could barely stay on. Maybe books were more her thing.

She laughed again. "I bet you wish you could have," she added playfully. "Nice to meet you too."

[mike]

Mike shrugged, then grinned at her. "I'll make sure to wear a lot of padding so that you don't hurt me if you fall off of the broomstick. How does that sound? And I'm sure your balance is fine, you've just got to have more faith in yourself." Here he was, the King of Klutz, telling another person that they had just fine balance. As if he knew anything about that. She wanted smooth, she should probably talk to his brother, who was smoother than an oil slick. "Oh, but I do. I would have gotten out a camera and taken pictures and everything." he said, with a laugh, before grinning at her. "It is rather nice, isn't it? Seeing as how amazing I am and all?" Of course, he was just joking. He didn't have an ego that big.

[Regina Curry]

She pictured him in a bunch of padding. The image she had was of him practically waddling towards the Quidditch Pitch in the padding. Regina let out a small laugh. "I think that would be an interesting sight to see you in a lot of padding. Plus, I'm pretty sure that I'm more of a danger to myself rather than others, unless of course I accidentally bump into you and make you fall too." She knew that she would always be clumsy, no matter how hard she tried not to be. She always was a klutz and would stay that way. Graceful was not a word in her body's vocabulary.

At his next comment, Regina laughed. "Ah yes. I guess you would have to be amazing in order to basically command that you are going to teach the biggest klutz in probably both the wizarding and muggle worlds how to keep her balance on a broom."

[mike]

Mike crossed his arms, giving Regina a small smile. She was definitely someone he would want to get to know more of - she seemed so real and down to earth, and modest. "Can't you see me waddling like a penguin? Of course, then I'd end up tripping over nothing and falling myself. Wow. I know you for ten minutes, and you're already putting my life in danger." He joked around with her easily, like he'd known her all of his life. Things like that were strange, weren't they? You could know someone for years, and not really know them. Then, you could meet someone for the first time and feel like you'd known them forever. "Hey, I'm only repeating what the girls of Hogwarts tell me." His ego wasn't that big; he was just ribbing her.

[Regina Curry]

"Of course I could see you waddling like a penguin! Then of course, something would happen, and then you would be like a turtle on it's back," Regina said in a joking manner. She flashed him a grin to let him know that she was only kidding. "I'm really sorry about being a danger. Maybe I should just live my life in a bubble. But then again, I'd probably go rolling away!" She started laughing, but covered her mouth so that she could hide any quiet snorts that threatened to come out.

Raising her eyebrow she looked at him quizzically. "Oh really? Well then. You really must be amazing then," she added on teasingly. Mike was really the only guy she had ever talked to without stuttering over herself. This of course was a relief, and for once, she was happy she had tripped.

"Although, around me, you may loose your amazingness, considering I am a danger hazard. And, you may loose your coolness factor with anyone if you hang around me too long," she said jokingly.

[mike]

Mike shook his head, a slight smile on his lips. "You sound like you'd like to see that, Reg. Would you like to see me fall over, helpless and utterly stupid looking?" He raised an eyebrow at her, crossing his arms over his chest and attempting to look somewhat imposing. He failed at it, though, and uncrossed his arms. Mark was always so much better at the whole 'I'm going to intimidate you now' thing. He usually just ended up looking like a kid who had had his Chocolate Frog taken away and now he was pouting over it. Like that was going to cause anyone to wet themselves out of fear.

"...you know what? You probably would. Go rolling away in a bubble, I mean. What if we put you up on some cinder blocks or something? Would you roll away then?" Mike asked, looking as though he were deep in though over this whole thing. Then, he relaxed again and grinned. "Damn straight I'm amazing. And don't you forget it. In fact, you should probably wear a shirt whenever I'm around. 'I'm With Amazing' and a big arrow pointing towards me, you see?" He would love it if there actually was a shirt like that - heck, he'd probably make every single one of his friends a copy, and make them wear it when they were around him.

He fixed her with a menacing stare (Or rather, his wimpy version of one) and coolly said "Regina, one does not lose their amazingness. It is something that one is born with, and something that one will always have. It's just their decision on whether they utilize it or not." He raised his eyebrow again, giving her his signature 'What are you, crazy?' look that he so often gave Mark. "Ah, forget my coolness factor. Who cares who I hang around with?"

[Regina Curry]

"No, I wouldn't like to see you fall over in something like that, but you have to admit something like that would be pretty funny, although I'd help you up no problem." Regina grinned.

"And more than likely I would still roll away with a cinder block on my bubble. With me, just about anything and everything is possible." She gave a laugh. That was true. Some how she could manage to trip over nothing at all.

At the next thing, Regina had to laugh as he attempted to glare at her. "Evidently I wasn't born with amazingness, unlike you Mr. I'm-so-cool." She couldn't help but pick with him. "And don't look at me like that. I'm not loony." Regina gave him a shrug. "I don't know. I don't care who you hang out with. I'm glad that some people have that opinion. Even some people don't like me because I can trip over nothing at all, and of course the Slytherins sort of despise everyone but then again who's trying to impress them."