No one should like reading that much. (Zoe)

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin felt bad for her but he wasn't quite sure what to say. "If you are doing it for yourself then that's fine but only do it for yourself," he said with a thinking expression on his face. "But you are special in your own way, everyone is. So if studying all the time isn't what you want to do then put yourself into your passion. If you find what makes you happy then you will be amazing at it and that will make you special," he said with a grin. "Because you will be happy, and happy people always stand out," he said with a smile.

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe wasn't sure what it meant to be happy. She'd never had a normal life. Her childhood hadn't been filled with games or parties or pony rides. Her whole life had been about books and learning. She could speak three languages by the time she was 7 years old. She could do algebra equations at age 8, and had moved on to calculus by age 10. She still studied these things sometimes, just because. But now her life was filled with spells and runes and arithmancy.

"I'm not happy," she whispered.

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin watched her thinking he saw her looking around and then suddenly look down. When she said she wasn't happy he frowned a little. "You don't seem it," he said looking at her. "What kind of life is that," he asked and looked at her in a sympathetic way. "But hey...it's never to late to start," he said with a small grin.

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe hesitated another moment, staring down at the desktop and tracing the wood pattern with her finger. She had started going out with Dean when they'd worked on a project together. He had known her, had teased her and joked with her and got her to laugh. With him, for the first time ever, she had felt like a whole person instead of just a brain. When he'd broken up with her, she let all that progress slip away and allowed herself to become an empty shell. But there was a person inside that shell; she just locked it up inside and tried to pretend it didn't exist. Maybe it was time to let her out again.

She still loved Dean. But did she? Maybe it wasn't even entirely him, but the idea of him that she loved. The idea of him coming in and saving her from herself... helping her to be her true self. And maybe it was time to try again, with someone else. Dean didn't love her anymore. He loved Jackie.

Looking up at last, she gave a shy smile. "OK. I'll go to the ball with you."

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin watched her expression change over and over. 'She seemed to always think things through before she spoke' he thought. She finally agreed, Gryffin's grin spread all the way across his face and he leaned forward. "It will be fun," he said nodding "don't worry."

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe smiled slightly. "I'm not exactly the most fun person in the world," she said. "I just... need to shut my brain off for a while. I'm not particularly good at that."

She looked a little embarrassed. "I'm also not much of a dancer. Dean... er, my ex-boyfriend... he tried to teach me, but I'm not really very good. I hope that's OK, but I'd understand if you changed your mind."

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin let out a little chuckle. "You'll be fine," he said not particularly worried about the outcome. "Plus dancing is all in the leading, and I can dance quite well. So honestly there is nothing to worry about," he said looking at her. "It will be fine, promise. Plus its just a dance," he said shrugging. "The whole point it to have fun," he said with a grin and a nod. Gryffin was slightly amused at her responses and just smiled to himself.

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe's smile wavered slightly. "I'm... not all that good at that, either," she said. "But I'll try. It really was very nice of you to ask me."

She still couldn't imagine why he had done it. She was pretty, but she still didn't have many boys flocking to pay attention to her. It was like she had "high maintenance" tattooed on her forehead. Or maybe it was a big, blinking neon light over her head. Most boys avoided her like the plague. But then, a lot of guys didn't really like girls who were smarter than they were.

"Well, you know all about my sad story," she said. "But I don't actually know anything about you. Tell me about yourself."

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin smiled at her and thought for a minute. "Well I am a pure blood, so I grew up having fun with flying and my parents always encouraged me to keep up with it," he said with a smirk. "I have a little brother, and he is my best friend. We hang out pretty much all the time," he said with a nod and a smile.

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe wistfully listened to him talk about his family. He'd had so many things that she'd never had growing up, and it made her feel kind of jealous. Her first toys had been blocks with algebra equations on them and foreign language tapes. She'd never thought of it that way, but she suddenly realized that her childhood hadn't exactly been a happy one.

"I'm an only child," she said. "And I'm rubbish at flying. My parents didn't think it was important for me to learn."

[Gryffin Edwin]

"Your parents didn't let you fly?" he asked sounding a little shocked. "Well I will be teaching you, lessons start next week," he said in a matter of fact tone with a grin. "I'm sorry about you being an only child though, I mean parents are fun but sometimes you just need a buddy around," he said with a nod.

[Zoe Stratford]

Zoe shook her head sadly. "No, they insisted that I should be allowed to take another class at that time. They convinced the Headmaster that I should start taking Ancient Runes--as a first year!" She let out a wry laugh. "I still got an O for the year. Maybe I should have tried to fail, maybe they would have let up on me."

She looked at him, feeling almost shy under his gaze. A part of her still thought he just pitied her, and the thought bothered her a little. She didn't really want to be pitied, she just wanted someone to understand. And she wanted to figure out just who she was supposed to be.

"You'd really teach me to fly?"

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin acted a little shocked when she said her parents wouldn't let her take flying when it was a class at school, that was just a little extreme. Why were they so focused on work he wondered to himself. "You probably should have," he said with a laugh when she said she shouldn't have tried so hard on Ancient Runes.

"Of course I would," when she asked about the flying. "Pick a time," he said with a grin "I usually try to avoid homework." He said this with an extra laugh just at the irony of the situation.

[Zoe Stratford]

Of course, Zoe never avoided homework. She was the girl who finished her homework right away and asked for more as extra credit, even though her grades were already so high that she never actually needed extra credit. But maybe it was time to start having a life outside of the books. As it was, she already had the highest grades in her class for most subjects. What more could she hope to achieve?

"How about Tuesday? I have a free period around 4:00, and I usually use it for studying."

[Gryffin Edwin]

Gryffin jumped at the opportunity. "Yeah sounds great, you deserve a break at some point," he said with a large grin on his face. "Four O'clock, you better show up, be at the quittage field. I'll be ready for you," he said quickly getting up winking at her and walking away before she had the chance to change her mind.