Whenever you may be in search of Ms. Alice Anabelle Longbottom, you can find her here, in the library. Most of the time she's behind a stack of books, papers, and miscellaneous objects, all relevant to her homework. On this particular day, Belle had a smaller stack of books next to her - her mind in none of them. In fact, her mind was on a boy. A boy she was good friends with and had feelings for. Feelings that she was too shy to act on, again.

The thought of the boy would will remain nameless, was clouding her concentration. Silently, Belle scolded herself. She needed to focus on the here and now, not the now and then. Shaking her head at herself, Belle pulled off a book from her stack of six. Belle was working on a Herbology paper. Who assigns a paper for Herbology? Her father of course. Even though Belle knew that he tried to treat like all the others, she knew there was a certain expectation there. Well, Belle was a really smart girl and of course, wanted to do her work right. Like every essay she wrote - she was doing her research before she started. That meant severals here - in the library.

The thought now occurred to Belle that her routine was very predictable. There were only three or four places she could be found during her free time. Belle was always doing the same things - school work, reading, or something else that she considered useful. She pondered on her own predictability and wondered how people could be so unpredictable. This realization had left her essay thoughts behind. The book she had picked, stayed in her hand, unopened. Belle was staring at it but, not really seeing it. She was daze at the realization that she must be awfully boring. In this daze, a blurry figure appeared, and she reconnected herself back to the here and now to see if there really was someone there.

Belle snapped herself out of her daze. The figure she thought she saw, really was a person. It was her friend, Reilly Cooper. From the looks the looks of it, Poor Rye wasn't having the best of days. "Having a bad day?" Belle asked, setting down her quill. She hadn't even realized she had been holding it until now.

Alice held in a small giggle. Reilly looked to be a total mess. Her hair seemed to be tussled and apparently someone was mean enough to throw at it. Belle could only guess that Reilly had tripped and fallen down some stairs or something. "Calm down, it'll come out easy enough with a little magic," she said quite calmly to her distressed friend in an small attempt to cheer her up.

Belle nodded. Things could always be worse then they really were. At least Reilly could disregard things like this, and be perfectly fine a little while later. Belle couldn't really do that as well. She tried but, sometimes failed. That was one of the things Belle admired about her friend.

"No one threw gum in your hair, if they did they aren't a very nice person. First or second years probably throw their gum on the floor," she commented. She really couldn't think of a good, legitimate reason why someone would throw gum at another person, and in their hair to boot.

"Maybe they threw off a balcony and unfortunately ended in your hair. Or maybe they meant to hit someone else and missed," Belle added. She always pushed for the good side of everything. She hated seeing and bad faults in anyone - although she knew everyone has their faults. Belle just always said nice things about everyone, until there was a reason to not do so.

Belle let out a soft chuckle, Sure, let me..just find my wand." Being lost in deep thought had made her forget what she with it. She looked around her books and paper. Two seconds later, she realized it was in the pocket of her robes. With a silent sigh, she took out out. Muttering a small charm Belle waved her wand and out came a wad of gum. A garbage pail was near them and Belle sent it to there, where it belonged. "There, you're now gum-free."

Belle laughed lightly, but made no comment. Times like these it was sometimes best to just let Reilly carry on. Belle really couldn't make a comment about Reese since she really didn't know her as well. Actually out of the Cooper girls, Belle liked Reilly the best. She found it funny how the sisters were all different though. It kind of made Belle wish she had a sister, instead of a brother. However, Belle loved her brother, even if he was annoying at times.

"I don't think anyone would throw their gum at you intentionally," Belle added. Still, it was ridiculous. It showed how good the floors are kept clean.

"Thank Merlin? I don't see him around," Belle joked lightly. Everyone used the 'Thank Merlin' phrase a bit often. She wasn't the best to crack a sarcastic joke or any joke at all. It wasn't that she was bad at it, she just didn't do it - often. What's the point of saying something the opposite of what you mean? Even though a lot of her friends cracked jokes, she knew a one when she heard one.

Belle sighed, what was she doing the library? Well, for the whole hour she had been here - nothing. Nothing she had intended to get done, like that essay. She had spent the past hour thinking on the pointless subject of boys and herself. "Oh, just working on this essay that my father assigned. I think I've only been here for an hour or so." It was pretty clear that she hadn't been working on that essay. Before her sat an open book, a few closed books, and a blank piece of parchment. If Belle really would have been working like her normal self, she would have had all those books open to pages and probably a few pages of notes. Yes, Belle is a terrible liar. She can't do it to save her life, so she was sure Rye would immediately want to know what it was she was doing exactly.

Belle half ignored Rye's comment. She hadn't exactly heard it anyway. Her mind was flip-flopping subjects. It was all between her friend, and that boy. He was her friend too but, he meant more than a friend to her. Of course, she wouldn't say anything to anyone - except a few of her closest friends.

"Well, I suppose. Then again, there are some wizards who believe in the whole, 'God' thing. It's just depends on how you grew up." Belle said, sounding a bit philosophical. She sounded like that most of the time when voicing her opinion. It was better to sound like you believed in what you were talking about, instead of randomly putting words together without meaning.

Belle let out a small chuckle. "I only know plants because he always said, 'Plants are safe." While Belle was growing up, her father taught as much as he could about plants. He continually said that plants were safer than quidditch, or something else. Belle believed that her father, just wanted to protect her, and keep from experiencing the same evils he did when he was at Hogwarts. Times were different now, so she felt no need to worry about it.

"I have to confess," Belle said after a pause, "I haven't been working entirely for the hour, more like ten minutes and then .... my thoughts wandered off. Thoughts that I thought I was done thinking about. It's been done and over with and I thought I was OK with out things turned out. I'm not, I'm complete mess because I'm confused and don't know what to do because I'm confused and I'm never confused." She rambled on a bit but, more under her breath than directly to Reilly. Belle had the habit of rambling when she was nervous or confused about something. Since she wasn't confused or nervous often, generally her friends could tell when she was. Belle looked at Reilly with a nervous smile, and then realized that she would probably want to talk about it. It would help Belle maybe, the whole situation was distressing for her.

Belle had to laugh with Reilly. Some plant really weren't all too safe. She could rememeber a few times when a plant nearly ate someone. "I think Dad thinks plants are safer than other things," she added. Her father was just being protective, he was like that all the time. Since he is a professor at Hogwarts, it made it just a little bit worse. During Belle's first year, she felt like her father constantly followed her around, making sure she was OK. It was sweet and everything but, halfway through the year it got rather annoying. Now that she's older, he stopped following her around at least.

Belle sighed, "He's the matter. Somehow, I just have to get over my silly crush on my closest friend in the entire world." She only wished it was a silly crush. It was one of those, constantly thinking about him, head-over-heels, crushes. Quite frankly, it annoyed Belle. She had much better things to do with her time than think on a person for hours. It was very confusing, since she was such good friends with the boy.