little miss perfect

the golden ball

Jaycee's POV:

The first few days of the summer holidays consisted of sleeping in, eating bucket loads of gelato, relaxing by the pool and doing nothing else. In my opinion, I was absolutely crushing life.

The rest of my family however, were not doing so well...

My father had been working from early morning to late night nearly everyday, meaning that I wasn't even able to spend time with him. Apparently the ministry had been swarming him with work. I'd never seen him this stressed over his job before...

Dylan had spent most of the week locked up in his room doing who knows what in there. He only came out to eat, which was completely uncharacteristic of him because we usually spent the summer holidays doing all sorts crazy things together. My prediction was that he was still upset about Astoria apparently 'rejecting' him. I still wasn't sure what had even gone down between the two of them. Every time I tried to talk to Dylan he'd whine and tell me to leave him alone...

So much for quality family time.

After one week of his depressive behaviour I was so fed up with him that I marched into his room one morning and demanded him to get out of bed.

"Bloody hell Jay, leave me alone it's like five o'clock in the morning." He whined.

"It's 10 o'clock you goose."

"Same thing." he grumbled angrily under his breath.

I rolled my eyes. "Time to stop being a little man bitch over a girl and start enjoying your summer holidays."

"H-hey I am not a man bitch...and who said I was upset over a girl..." Dylan complained.

"Oh please," I scoffed, "You have not been the same ever since the last day of the school term. I know something went down between you and Astoria."

Dylan groaned and scrambled back under his sheets. "I'm not sad about Astoria...I'm just hungover."

I let out a laugh and shook my head mockingly. "Teenage boy gets drunk once and pretends to be hungover for a week, how mature of you Dylan, really."

He didn't seem to have an answer for that one, so I dragged him out of his bed. "This is ridiculous Dylan. It's summer holidays—you should be enjoying yourself."

"But I don't want to do anything—" Dylan whinged.

I sighed. "At least come sit by the pool with me. I promise we don't have to talk about Astoria."

"Fine..." he groaned.

"Yay!" I said excitedly, chucking a pair of board shorts that hit him square in the face.

Over the next few days, Dylan's mood lightened considerably. He had not completely transferred back to his normal self, however he no longer spent the days cooped up in his bedroom. Instead we ventured outside the mansion, practicing Quidditch (our skills had increased considerably over the school year), going for swims in the lake, and exploring the forest. Doing these things reminded me of the times before Hogwarts, when life had been so simple and I didn't have to worry about keeping any secrets, bullies at school or boys...

There was a light knock on the door that tore me away from my thoughts. "Come in."

My door opened to reveal my favourite house elf and I smiled. "Hey Twyla."

She gave me a shy grin. "Miss, dinner is ready. Mr Hilliker is already downstairs."

"Oh okay—Thankyou." I nodded, dismissing the kind House elf. I was surprised my father was home this early from work for once.