Carefully Planned; Carelessly Handled ((Adrina))

[Kael Adams H6]

He was nervous. It was stupid, utterly ridiculous in fact, but that didn’t change the fact that he really was so very nervous about what was to happen in less than an hour. Why had he gotten ready so early again? His eyes scanned his dorm room in jittery boredom, looking for anything, anything at all to amuse him, and fell on Lynnette’s sweater. Ah, of course. His sisters fault, naturally. She had been worse than him, if such a thing was possible. She treated him like her personal doll to dress up, even going so far as to style his hair for him. The spiked hair did suit him though, as Lynnette had proved on various occasions. His twin had had plans of her own for the Hogsmeade visit that had been planned and so had insisted on starting to get him ready five hours before the actual date. He’d been forced to suffer through torture at his sisters hands and he could only hope that Adrina appreciated the end result. If she didn’t then, whether he liked her or not, Kael swore that he would never speak to her again.

What had his sister done in four hours of work, you might ask. There had been six changes of Kael’s hairstyle – including her using magic to streak his hair with different colours before deciding that she had better take notice of Kael’s death glare and return his hair to its normal dark brown – before she had settled on the spikes. Then there had been the picking of the clothes. It had been bad enough for his sister to be rifling through his trunk and throwing his clothes on the floor in disgust but Lynne didn’t just stop there. When had she ever stopped before embarrassing him completely? She just had to send an owl to Vic in the middle of the decision, complete with photographs of him unwillingly modelling various outfits , and wait two hours for her response. During those two long hours, he’d had to threaten Lynnette with ruining her next date just to keep her and her nail polish away from his hands. Kael didn’t care how clear the nail polish was – he didn’t want it on his fingernails!

It had been halfway through the second hour of waiting for Vic’s reply that Kael’s patience toward his sisters antic had really started to decrease rapidly. Her exuberance had been annoying him for hours and his temper finally snapped. He had pushed her out of the common room forcefully, ignoring a few interested looks from his housemates, and left in the corridors, only to return to his dorm room and discover that she had left her yellow sweater behind and an owl was waiting at the window for him. Taking Vic’s personal choice of clothing – if there was one thing that woman knew, it was how to dress Kael up nicely (and no, he didn’t want to share the story behind how he knew that for certain) – Kael was now wearing a pair of blue jeans and a white button up shirt, pulling a black jacket on over the shirt so that he wouldn’t get too cold. His shoes were his usual pair of converse, but with the scuff marks cleaned off. Well, he had told Adrina to dress smart-casual so he figured he should follow the same dress code.

It was finally time. Kael felt like falling to his knees and thanking whoever was out there wouldn’t have been enough to express his gratitude. It was time to go and he hadn’t even starting pacing out of worried boredom yet. Realising that he had just wasted five minutes practically smirking about the fact that he hadn’t yet started to pace, Kael cursed and headed for the water fountains at a run, only stopping for a detour to the kitchen to pick up a few items that he had arranged to be ready for him. He wasn’t sure if it was a good sign that Adrina hadn’t arrived yet and he didn’t really care so long as she showed up.

[Adrina De Luca G6]

“Hey baby.” Adrina smiled as she lifted her daughter into her arms. Every now and then Adrina received permission to go to Hogsmeade to look after her baby. Gia was always well taken care of in the hands of Aria, but Aria had been ill that day. Her CF had been affecting her more than usual lately and Adrina decided to take Gia away from her for a few hours. Aunt Kat would be watching after Gia for the next few days, but Adrina wanted some time with her before Aunt Kat picked her up and took the baby to Belfast. Gia giggled in her mother’s arms as she had only seen her mum a few times since school had started back. Adrina smiled as she bounced the baby lightly in her arms. It was crazy to think that Gia was almost ten months old. It wouldn’t be much longer until she was a year old. The worst part of school for Adrina was being without Gia. But, lately Adrina had, had things to make her feel less sad for leaving her baby.

Adrina had a few hours until her date with Kael. Date? Yes, that was the word. It was just weird to think about it that way. This was probably because Adrina hadn’t been on a date since Danny. Even then, the two had known each other since they were four. They had actually gone on dates even though their connection was obvious from the beginning. But as Adrina would later find out that connection wasn’t good enough. It was simply a child crush. Adrina smiled for a second. She was excited about her date with Kael to say the least. After Danny left the bookstore that day, Adrina never would have imagined that this date was possible. But, that was before she kissed him. Adrina had been known over her life to do things on an impulse, but this time, her craziness had ended in a good way. Adrina looked to Gia. “You like him right Gia? He’s cute and he adores you.” Gia giggled some more. Yep, maybe this could work out. Maybe.

Adrina stood in front of her cottage in Hogsmeade. The cottage held more of her clothes than her trunk at school. Gia sat in her play pen right next to the closet. “What do you think kiddo?” Gia didn’t respond of course. Nope, she just drooled a bit. Adrina laughed. Usually, she didn’t put much thought into her clothes. After all, she was a mom. She had to wear something that could handle Gia. But, this was different. For once, Adrina had to look cute for a boy. This was something that she hadn’t done since Danny. Even then, he had seen her in boy pants since she was a kid so he didn’t care what she wore. Adrina sighed and sifted through her clothes. Aria had bought her a few dresses, but it was too chilly outdoors to wear any of them. It was then that Gia lifted her little arm. It was almost as if she was pointing at something. Adrina looked to what Gia seemed to be pointing at this. “This, baby?” Gia giggled. Adrina laughed. “It’s perfect.”

Adrina made her way to the Courtyard as she walked through the castle. Aunt Kat had picked up Gia half an hour before so Adrina had time to rush back to school. It was hard juggling being a mom and schoolwork and Kael. But, Adrina managed. Adrina smiled to herself. She was actually looking forward to this even though she had no idea what to expect. After the craziness at the bookstore, Adrina just hoped that it wouldn’t be that crazy ever again even though she doubted that. Adrina tugged at her eggplant colored sweater as she walked. She wore her dark jeans with it and black boots that were barely seen past her jeans. Adrina looked great in the sweater. She adored purple. She loved every shad of it and it always looked good on her. Adrina sighed. Hopefully she was dressed appropriately. Whatever. She smiled as she walked out to the courtyard and spotted Kael. “Hey. Gia says hi.” She paused. “Actually, she just drooled, but that’s not important.” She smiled. “So, what exactly will we be doing this evening?” She asked not sure if Kael could tell her or not. She didn’t care. Adrina just wanted to have fun with Kael. Was that too much to ask?

[Kael Adams H6]

She was nearly late. Kael bit his lip nervously, chewing at it distractedly. Was he actually being stood up by her? That was it, wasn’t it? Adrina just wasn’t going to show up and he’d be left, standing there for hours like an idiot, until he came to terms with the fact that she really wasn’t going to show up. Oh, that would be awful. Kael shook his head, disgusted with himself. When had he ever been concerned about a girl being late for a date? “Maybe I should go and check on everything,” Kael decided, bending to pick up the basket and making his way to the spot he had chosen for their date. It had taken him days to plan everything to perfection and he had enlisted Lynne’s help in more than his appearance. Together, the twins had covered everything that could possibly go wrong and made sure that it wouldn’t. It was funny to see Lynne so flustered over a date that wasn’t even hers. It had never happened before, and Kael wished he had taken pictures of the occurrence.

“Perfect.” Kael felt his lips turn upwards into a self-satisfied smile. He had turned a select area of the courtyard into a small restaurant for the night. There was only one small table with two chairs – well, anything more would be unnecessary – and Lynne had placed a vase of flowers in the middle of the round table, which made him grin wryly. Hadn’t he explicitly told her not to do that? A CD player, courtesy of Aurora, provided soft background music. It had taken him a short time to persuade Aurora to give it to him and a lot longer to make himself ask for it. Deftly, Kael placed the basket of food on a chair and started to move the dishes of food from the basket to the table. Lynne had – hopefully discreetly – kept an eye on Adrina during mealtimes and made a note of all of her favourite foods so that some of them could be served for the date. A quick heating charm, hide the basket behind a bush and it was time to head back to the meeting point just in time to meet Adrina.

“And I say hi back to the adorable one, even though you look absolutely adorable yourself,” Kael grinned, offering the crook of his arm to Adrina. “Well,” Kael began, steering them toward the clearing and timing his words so she heard his explanation at the moment she saw what he had arranged. “Tonight, we will be eating at the most exclusive restaurant in Scotland. Very few people ever get an invite to this restaurant so you should feel so very honoured. And Lynne says that when we have a date during the summer, she’ll cook for us. Which is actually even rarer, even though she actually is quite a good cook.” Kael rolled his eyes, realising how off track he had become. “Anyway, this restaurant – which desperately needs a name, by the way – only serves the favourite foods of its favourite customer; Adrina De Luca.” Kael added, pulling out her chair for her before sitting down himself.