Crime, crime, fine sensimilla

It’d been a long week, and it wasn’t over.

Quidditch practices were ramping up. Her team was finally meeting her at her level of commitment, which was good, but it also meant they were taking her up fully on the extra training days, so her exhaustion was not just physical, but social. She often wondered whether or not she really was a good leader, she felt like on paper she didn’t have the qualifications, but maybe sheer force of will and expression of passion was enough to do the trick.

Then Professor Masters had pulled her aside, letting her know her grades needed to be steadier. His pointed mention that even Quidditch recruiters sometimes checked grades to see if their players could maintain a work-life balance was not lost on her either. She was pretty sure the Falcons didn’t care so much, they were notoriously whatever-it-takes-to-win, but who was she to shirk the advice of a former player? She’d need to do a better job of trying in class.

Ugh, she hated trying.

Care of Magical Creatures was her final class of the day. She snuck a peek at her Comm and sent Matt a quick message, “puff greenhouses in 15?” He’d get it.

The class, a mix of Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, finally wrapped and the students began to grab their stuff. One of Jack’s dormmates, the only one she really had any sort of casual rapport with, asked if she was going straight to dinner. “Nah, I’ll catch up. Going to take a ‘break’ behind the Greenhouses.”

The other Gryffindor rolled her eyes. “Tell your lungs it was nice knowing them.”

Jack laughed and split off from the rest of the group.

The poisonous greenhouse was a great hiding spot. People tended to avoid it because of the creeping vines that sometimes burrowed through the cracks, but there were a few old stumps just behind it perfect for sitting at, and they were relatively shielded from wandering eyes.

She plopped onto a log and lit up, before leaning back, letting her head fall backwards as she blew smoke straight up into the air. As the last of it left her lungs, she heard footsteps approaching. “About time,” she drawled.

Chase was packing up her things after class, dirt smudged on her nose, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail, and nursing a small cut on her arm after a fun encounter with a Snargaluff Pod. She'd gotten a bit too close to a hungry one, and the vines had come out, wrapped themselves around her arm, and nearly pulled her in. That was the fun she enjoyed in the greenhouses, though, and she was tired but happy. Chase had just started packing up when she saw a Gryffindor split off from the group and head back around toward the poisonous plant's greenhouse. She frowned, standing on her tip-toes to look over the crowd and see where she'd gone.

It was Jacquellene Dyllan. She'd met her briefly and remembered her previous encounter quite vividly. In Hogsmeade having Butterbeer with Ducky, the girl had made a comment about letting her have a puff if she could get her some good notes for class. Chase spun on a friend of hers she knew was excellent at History of Magic. "Hey, give me your notes for History." She demanded. The girl looked confused, but Chase was adamant. "Please, I need them. I promise I'll give them back, actually! I've been practicing this spell, watch." She pulled out her wand as the girl pulled out the notes. She tapped the paper and then a spare bit of parchment she'd taken from her bag. The notes transferred almost perfectly, though the handwriting seemed a bit slanted, and a few words were misspelled. "Hm... close enough." She muttered, taking the copied notes and waving to her friends.

"I'll see you later!" She grinned and bounced off behind the greenhouse. She knew immediately that something was off. She'd spent a fair amount of time in this greenhouse, but now a strange, nasty smell was coming from nearby. She put her hand up to her nose and plugged it as she walked forward, looking left and right, before finally seeing Jack sitting on a stump. "Hey! There you are!" She grinned and bounced over, proudly displaying the paper in front of her. "I got this for you!" She grinned, her voice slightly muffled from holding her nose against the smell of Jack's weed.

That wasn’t Matt’s voice.

Jack straightened up immediately, the hand holding the spliff immediately dropping to her side, and she wheeled around to come face-to-face with the unexpected intruder. The face she found was familiar, another seventh year, and one she’d recently accidentally made a promise too.

Promise was a strong word. But by the looks on Chase Moor’s face, that’s exactly how she was taking it.

Speaking of the look, Jack couldn’t help but take offense to the overt disgust. She’d demanded better stuff from Baker this time, it smelled sweet and aromatic! And besides, she’d barely started. If this was too much for Chase already, she was in for a rough time.

“Hey,” Jack said, still holding in her last drag deep in her chest. Ah shit, this was going to hit hard. A look of confusion crossed her features as the other redhead offered her a piece of parchment. She took them and started to read.

Holy shit, she’d actually brought her notes.

Her lung capacity had been reached, and she expelled a stream of smoke, turning her head away from Chase as she did. She turned the parchment over, marvelling at the legitimacy. “I cannot believe,” Jack said, looking back up at Chase, “that you actually did this.”

Chase grinned at her, glancing down at the notes momentarily. "Well, to be honest, I suck at History of Magic, but there is a girl I'm friends with who's great at it. It's like her top subject, so I copied her notes. Hopefully, there aren't too many misspellings, but the information all looked to be correct."

She beamed and Jack and watched the smoke drift away from the girl. It was... strong, to say the least. She suddenly realized that she had smelt this sort of thing before, but it was always far away and had a curious smell. She hadn't known what it actually was that made the smell, though.

She waved a hand in front of her nose and leaned back a little bit, and then grinned at her. "I mean, you said you needed History of Magic notes, right?" she looked a little bit worried that maybe she'd thought of the wrong class. "I can always get different ones if you need them." She looked a bit concerned before her eyes fell on the spliff in Jack's hands.

"So that's what you do? I didn't even think of the fact that you smoke it like that... I've never smoked before." She looked thoughtful, completely oblivious to the fact that she was standing pretty much out in the open and wasn't even attempting to be hidden behind the greenhouse.

He couldn't quite figure out how to respond to Jack's message - he had never gotten the hang of the communicator device or whatever she had given him. He wasn't much for being social and she was probably the only one he'd ever try to contact with it. It reminded him of a muggle pager, that's probably all it was going to be demoted to for him anyway. But, he did understand what greenhouses meant and he was down to the last of his stash and had one roll left. He had been without for a week, saving his last joint for whenever Jack decided she was ready to spark up.

He had, however, spent longer than he intended speaking with Professor Masters about his Transfiguration exam in the hallway and realized he was going to be late. As soon as he was finished with the professor he walked quickly until he turned the corner and then run the rest of the way to the greenhouses. He huffed and he puffed down to the grounds and the rest of the way to the greenhouses - he could already smell that she had started without him. He saw her sitting through one of the greenhouse windows and turned from around one of the exterior walls.

"You know, Dyllan, if you're gonna start without me I just might not share my good stu-" he freezed, joint in lips.

She wasn't alone.

"Uuuuuuuh, hey Chase." he said dumbfounded.

He stared at them for a few moments, they stared back. "Is this a thing or do I need to do some heavy damage control?" he asked, more to Jack than Chase.

Not only had she actually taken Jack’s flippant comment about trading a smoke for some notes, Chase had even found a notes donor. Imagine having enough friends that you could on a whim request their work and be able to get it.

Jack pointed at Chase’s hand, waving away the fumes, and smirked. “If you think that’s strong, you’ll be in trouble.”

“No, no, chances are I probably did not take notes in any class, I’ll take them,” she said, beginning to fold them up. As Jack took another deep toke, Chase asked how to smoke but before she could respond..

Well, it was a party now.

There was a pause, eyes darting to each person.

Matt turned to her and asked if it meant trouble. She released the stream of smoke, coughing once before saying, “Nah, we’re cool. She’s lending me some notes. I don’t think she’ll narc.”

Chase turned at the sound of a voice, and her face lit up when she saw who it was. "Oh hey! It's so great to see you again!" She grinned happily and bounced over to him. "How are you doing? It's been a while." She couldn't stop smiling at him and then turned to Jack. "I had no idea you guys were friends!" She beamed, suddenly radiating cheer. It seemed clear Chase had no idea about any rumors or any sort of relationship between the two in front of her. She considered Matt a friend at this point, even though they'd really only met once. They had bonded, and Chase was pleased about that in itself. Plus, he'd seemed so lonely. She was just so happy to see him again.

The exchange had her pause for a moment, a bit confused. "Narc? Oh.. you mean tell a teacher or something? I wouldn't do that! Especially since Jack said, she'd let me try." She turned to Jack with a wide grin. "Don't think I forgot about that." she looked smug and then waved her hand in front of her face again, still a bit baffled by the smell. "That is.. quite an interesting odor, though. I can't imagine it tastes very nice, does it?" She tilted her head to the side, standing on her toes a little and looking rather bird-like as she did.