School Preparations

It was the day before school started, and James was lying, face-up, on his bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thought. He had all of his school shopping done, and his stuff was all packed and ready to go. James heaved a sigh as he thought.
Phase two of Sirius's, Remus's and his plan was already done with, and it was up to him to start and finish the next phase. The only problem was, he had no idea how he was supposed to pull it off. That day he and his other two friends had given Lily a ride had been the first phase, because that was the day when they had all planned out the next phases for their plan in the ice cream shop. Sirius had had the easiest part. All he had to do was ask Bekki out, and had already finished. James's chest heaved another great sigh. He hadn't wanted Sirius to start phase two so soon. They had all agreed in the ice cream shop that a week after phase two was carried out, James would finish phase three, which was dumping Melanie and picking up Lily, two days after he dumped Mel. The day before James was supposed to ask Lily out; Remus would jump in and ask Melanie out. That would give her time to recover from being dumped, and, hopefully, she wouldn't be jealous of Lily because she would be too busy with Remus. James wasn't sue how well that part would work out, though. It would be so much easier if he hadn't taken that stupid dare from Sirius last year after the first Quidditch match.
James relived that day in his head.

It was the night after the Gryffindor team's first Quidditch match (which they won) and James, Sirius, and Remus were sitting in a dark corner of the common room, playing truth or dare. It was Sirius's turn, and he asked James, "Truth or dare?"
James had been feeling arrogant because of the Quidditch victory against Ravenclaw, and so he said, "Dare."
Sirius smirked. "I dare to stand up, spin around in a circle with you eyes closed, then stop and ask out the first girl you see."
James remembered looking over at Lily's table in the common room, then recalled closing his eyes and starting to spin. He stopped spinning, opened them, and there was Melanie, standing in front of him, asking, "James! What in the world are you doing?"

Jerking back to reality, James stood up and walked over to the telephone. As he dialed Remus's number, he wondered if that whole truth or dare game had been staged. Remus picked up the phone.
"Hey, Moony, how are things on your side of the tracks?" James asked.
"Okay, I guess," was his bored reply. "What's up?"
"Sirius is out on a date with Bekki, and I needed somebody to talk to," James said.
"I'm here," Remus absently.
"Well..." James trailed off, then picked up where he had left off. "How the heck am I supposed to dump Melanie? She's gonna want some kind of an excuse, and what's she gonna think when I don't have one?"
"No idea," Remus said, then chuckled. "I can just see it now. James walking up to Melanie saying, 'Hey Mel, we're through. Ok? Bye, then.'"
"That's not funny," James said, although he was laughing too.
"What I want to know is how in the world am I going to get Melanie to go out with me?" Remus said when their laughter subsided. "I mean, I'm nothing compared to you! You're on the Quidditch team, you're gonna be Head Boy, although she doesn't know that yet. Does she?"
"No," James replied.
"Well, she's going to, and what's she gonna think when some scrawny little loser asks her out?" Remus said miserably.
"Listen, Remus," James said. "We've made up our minds to do this, and we can't turn back now. Are you with me?"
"I guess so," Remus said.
"Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come on over here and we could find something to do to make Sirius jealous," James said, trying to change the subject.
"Sure, I'll be right over," Remus said.

Lily lay sprawled out on the floor of her room, staring blankly up at the ceiling, lost in thought. She was thinking about school, which started tomorrow, and what she would be doing in Herbology, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures, which were her favorite classes. She wondered who she would be sitting by in Charms, which was her best class, and she hoped it wouldn't be Melanie or Peter Pettigrew. They both had a way of either burning up the table, themselves, and those around them, and making messes of the simplest spells. The Gryffindors also had Charms class with Slytherin, and Lily thought that maybe sitting by Severus Snape wouldn't be so bad. He was good at Charms too, although Potions was his best subject. Lily also wouldn’t mind sitting next to James, but that was another story altogether.
Lily was suddenly wrenched unpleasantly back to Earth when she heard a loud tapping sound coming from outside her closed window. She stood up quickly and opened it to let in a cool breeze from the outside, along with her owl, Emerald, who was carrying a parcel.
Lily untied the package and let Emerald perch on her shoulder as she opened it.

It was from her mother, surprisingly. Lily felt one of her eyebrows lift as she wondered why her mother had bothered to make Emerald carry it to her, instead of just giving it to her in person.
Lily broke the seal on the letter and read in the tidy scrawl of her mother's hand,

Dear Lily,
I know you're wondering why I sent this with your sweet little owl, so I'll tell you. It really was just to make it more exotic, and besides, he was just sitting in the kitchen, sort of waiting for me to give him something to do. He still managed to get out of the kitchen with a bite of my pie in his belly, but I won't hold it against him, since he's such a cutie.
Anyway, I was going to send this to you when you got to school, but I decided not to, as you can see.
Inside this box is, well, a number of things, and what better way to tell you than to have you open it up and see what's inside! Go ahead and open it, sweetheart.

Love,
Mum

Lily, wondering what could possibly be inside the package, set aside the letter and picked up the box. She tore off the paper and reached inside the parcel and took out a bottle of sparkling green ink, some green quills, and found a smaller box in the corner.
As she pulled it out, she admired the green quills, which were her favorite color, and the green ink, which was supposed to sparkle when you used it. She opened the tiny box and found a lovely silver necklace with a glittering emerald on it, with matching earrings. Lily was thrilled. There was a note inside, and Lily opened it up and read,

Lily,
I saw these on sale a couple months ago and thought that they'd be perfect for you. I just thought that you might be able to use them on special occasions, which may be coming up soon in your life. Not saying any more.
Love,
Mum

Lily smiled and wondered what she could possibly use them for in the near future as she carefully slid them back inside the tiny box and packed it safely away in her trunk, just in case. You never could tell when things like this would come in handy.