periphery, chapter 9 preview
We were the last to arrive. The group stood carelessly in the middle of the corridor, despite the fact that they were clearly dressed for an evening out. As we neared them James, in a tweed jacket, called, “About time, ladies!” A polished wooden pipe was clamped between his teeth.
“Come off it, we’re not that late,” Marlene said. “We couldn’t find a way to sneak out of Hufflepuff.”
“Well, we all aren’t Ravenclaws for a reason,” conceded Mary.
Lily stood beside her, nervously touching the place where her Head Girl badge would have been, had she not been instead wearing a fashionable dress. My face must have betrayed my thoughts because she suddenly wailed, “I know, I’m a terrible Head Girl, leave it be!”
“I didn’t say that.” Then I realized that Peter, in a vastly oversized jacket, was staring at me as if moonstruck. He seemed to have put a great deal of effort into smoothing out his unruly tufts of hair, and not at all succeeded. It was suddenly apparent that everyone was watching us.
Peter garbled, “Chloe, you, erm.”
The silence stretched painfully, ending only with the slap of James’s hand on Peter’s back. “Well said, mate. Brilliant work.”