Impatient (Open)

Kirsten had been with her family now for approximately twenty two hours, thirty-six minutes, and she was already sick to death of her mother and sister's company. Of course, her father had been unable to pick her up from the train station, but even two other Dahls were awful enough. Summer was supposed to be a nice break from the stress and hard work of school, but Kirsten would choose classes and exams over this anytime. The plan was to pick up her school supplies while they were in London anyway, before returning to Swansea for the rest of the holiday. She had no idea how she was going to deal with weeks and weeks of this - the past five minutes had been a struggle.

Eventually, she managed to get away from them when Ciara decided to get herself some new stationery or something. Kristen was quick to convince her mother it would probably be simplest for her to go off by herself to get the last few things. Maybe she'd only have half an hour of freedom, when she could actually hear herself think, but even that was much valued on days like this where she otherwise would slowly be going mad from the torture of Ciara and mother's company. The worst part was that up until now she'd had to be completely polite and amicable, convincing mother that she was the perfect ladylike pureblood young woman. Kirsten just wanted to curl up somewhere with a book and a cup of tea and nobody nagging her.

Nonetheless, her joy at getting away was apparent in the huge grin spread across her features as she wandered down the street towards Flourish and Blotts' to get schoolbooks. After this, it was just a new cauldron and then she was finished. Perhaps she would even find the time to fit in a trip to the ice-cream parlour. She was rather impartial to a scoop of that nice acid pop ice-cream. Humming softly under her breath, she sped up her walking, eager to get the shopping done quickly so she could get to her actual free time. And for her, free time was time being free from the awful metaphorical chains she wore when with her mother.

The shop was fairly busy when she walked in, and the sight of the queue awaiting her was discouraging, but Kirsten glanced down at her supplies list and headed to find the books for school. It was easy enough - most of them were in the same place - so she was finished quickly and in the queue for the counter before she knew it. The time spent waiting there, though, seemed to be passing far less quickly. Queuing was horrible. Idly passing the time as she stood there, Kirsten looked around the shops, frowning every time she saw a book slightly out of place, which was unfortunately often. She didn't know whether her good mood had suddenly plummeted, or whether she was just being observant, but everything seemed to be making her feel more anxious and stressed out. Tapping her foot on the floor, she glanced forward to see the queue didn't look as though it had moved at all.

With her fifteen birthday, more freedom came along. Bella was allowed to pick up her school supplies for the new year all by herself. After all, travelling via Floo powder wasn't as dangerous to her. Truthfully, her mother didn't really care who she traveled to Diagon Alley as long as Bella got her supplies. Her mother was busy tending to Ivan's fever, so it was the perfect opportunity to show her she could be responsible enough to do all of this by herself. She had gotten most of the required supplies, except her textbooks since they were heavy and she would have to put them in her bag. Her father had put an enchantment on the bag, the one that makes the bag hold more on the inside than it looks like it could actually hold, because Bella was always collecting rocks whenever she went to see him and his other kids in St. Petersburg.

It was a purple bag, with a lily embroider on the front. Bella loved it simply because her stepsister Skylar had given it to her. As she walked into the book store, Bella noticed the line already formed - it was huge. Too many people crowded into a small shop seemed like a terrible idea, especially when there were also quite a lot of younger kids around. She didn't mind them, they just had a tendency to run around screaming for their mother. Bella knew this because she herself had been one of those kids. Smiling as she saw the first set of kids, twins, run around and screaming for their mother that one had injured the other, Bella headed for the section she always did. Her books were almost always in the same aisle simply because they were separated by school year.

Her potions textbook seemed interesting, she would have to show Skylar when she got ahold of her. The Care of Magical Creatures ones was boring, as it was every year. Putting the two textbooks aside, Bella headed for the rest of them, ending up holding all the five textbooks in her arms. With a little difficulty, she made her way to the long line of people, standing behind a blonde girl about her age. Everything was smoothly, until the girl in front of her began to tapp her foot on the floor quite annoyingly. The place was crowded but Bella wasn't deaf. She also didn't want to be rude, but she would really appreciate it if the girl stopped. It was distracting, to say the least.

Before long, Bella reached out to tap the girl on the shoulder. "Anxious?" She asked, her face almost hidden behind the pile of books. Bella figured that the best way to get her to stop was to be nice to her, to be friendly, to approach her in an honest manner. "Don't worry, I am too. New year, new experiences, right? At least we've got something to look forward to." Bella wasn't completely sure the girl was a student, because there were so many people at Hogwarts that she often forgot the faces of the students. If she was, however, she wasn't in Gryffindor. Bella knew everyone - or almost everyone - in her House and this blonde girl wasn't in it. "I'm Isabella Krupp. Everyone calls me Bella, though." She offered the girl a smile. "I'm guessing you go to Hogwarts?"

Kirsten wasn't always sure what it as making her feel nervous. In this case, it could be the noise, or the large number of people all crowded into one room, or even something entirely unrelated, just her own thoughts about various things. Her main worry was going to Sweden in a couple of weeks time, but the blonde found getting herself stressed and worked up about something completely trivial and silly wasn't hard at all. It was unfortunate, this feeling that every little thing she did seemed to be a cause of tremendous stress and worry. It was even worse in circumstances like these where the surroundings only added anxiety. She just wanted to buy these books and leave as quickly as possible. Maybe she didn't need that ice-cream; perhaps it would be sensible to just find her family and go home.

Feeling someone tap her on the shoulder all of a sudden made her jump - metaphorically - in shock. Literally, she froze in place, paused a moment, realised once again it was nothing to stress over, and turned around to see whoever it was that had scared her. Unintentionally, she hoped. Because she didn't take unwelcome crap like that from strangers. The girl behind her wasn't exactly what Kirsten had expected, but she didn't know what she had been expecting, really. She raised an eyebrow, looking closely at the girl - or at the pile of books which seemed to be far taller.

Her gaze moved from the girl to the other side of the room when Kirsten heard what she had to say. "Not at all," she responded, her voice even. But her head was reeling. Was she really so easy to read? It wasn't good if it was so simple to tell when she was anxious - if she wanted to get a good job, and have important contacts, and generally just do well in life, people shouldn't be able to read her so easily. It would give the utterly wrong impression. Biting down gently on the inside of her lip, she looked back to the girl, holding back a frown. New year, new experiences? Going back to school definitely wasn't what was bothering her - she was more stressed about being at home, and she'd only just got back. So unsure of how to respond to that, she kept her mouth shut.

"Kirsten Dahl," she replied. Did she say her surname strangely, or was that just her? It might be a slightly Swedish accent, or maybe it was that unavoidable, unintentional pride one felt being a Dahl. "Nice to meet you ... Bella." It wasn't, particularly, but Kirsten's etiquette lessons, how to be a proper lady, drilled into her from about age three, were not easily forgotten in any situation. "Yes. Slytherin, going into sixth year." Kirsten couldn't decide whether Isabella Krupp looked familiar, just vaguely from somewhere, or whether she was imagining it. It didn't matter. If the girl was of any significance, she would remember her. She was probably just in another house or whatever.

Well, the girl certainly wasn't as friendly as Bella had hoped. She was very friendly, much to the point were people often thought she was weird upon first meeting her, and maybe that's why she always expected everyone else to be as open as she was. Turning a bit so she could see the blonde better, Bella felt guilty of trying to act as if she knew this girl. "Oh." She said, clearly thrown back by the girl's denial. "Well, I just thought were because you were tapping your foot. My brother does that when he's nervous." Shrugging, she figured it was not important.

Okay, Bella wasn't crazy. That girl had something on her mind, something that was making her really anxious. However, given the denial she got the first time, Bella kept quiet. For all she knew, a stressed-out girl could be a little demon, and whatever Bella loved about her life would be gone forever because girls were insane. She was one, she knew how girls worked. Instead, Bella focused on the girl's name. "Oh, pretty!" She complimented, a smile forming on her lips. Noticing the hesitation in the girl's voice, Bella wasn't sure she even wanted to continue the attempt at small talk.

"Ah, Slytherin." She said, "I have a friend from Slytherin. He's in your year, I think. He's the only Slytherin I know. Until now, of course." She gave the girl a small smile. Well, technically Bella didn't know Kirsten. They only knew each other's names, so maybe Bella had used the wrong words in her last comment. But it was too late to change them now. "I'm in Gryffindor, going into Fifth Year." she beamed, proud of her house the same way she was proud of her family. Of course, Bella didn't know or hadn't heard of the Dahls, and she was sure that Kirsten had never heard of the Krupps. Russia was a long distance from England, so Bella had gotten used to people not knowing of her family line.