#15 Running Late

Christmas had been a delight. Toby’s parents had made sure he as an outsider felt welcome and included and Joe was very thankful for that.

Eventhough he had been woken way too early he had still managed to get up with a grin, remembering how he had dubbed himself ‚Joe Twigs‘ after he had had his fly in with the hedge the other day.

Unfortunately however Joe had been under the impression that, being woken so early, meant that he had more time to finish packing and thus he was now in quite the hurry.
In another unfortunate turn of events Joe’s stressed packing did not earn any favours with Fogaell and had to try three times - the last time actually taking the time to calm himself and tend to her - to get her back into the travel cage.

This however meant that his trunk was still unzipped and he was piling in everything that was his. For some reason his trunk appeared to be much smaller than before, possibly the juggling pins making it difficult to fit everything in.

As Joe thought he had everything inside in a manner that wouldn’t harm any of his presents, he shut it and threw himself on top of it so that the two straps could fit together.

“Help!“, he called out when he couldn’t properly close the straps from where he was sitting.

“Ryan can you close that for me? Toby?“

Oh no. Was Joe going to be the reason they were running late?

[ooc: mention of pet behavior as allowed by admin]

Still not used to his unfamiliar surroundings, Ryan was once again awake before Toby -- and probably Joe, but he couldn't quite see his face from where he lay. Luckily, it was soon after he'd worked out where he was that Toby's mum was doing the rounds of waking everyone else.

Ryan had done the smart thing of having carefully packed his trunk the night before. So he only had to quickly change, store away his pajamas, then he was all set to go. Breakfast was the hard part, as he tried to eat yet was mostly nervous about the day ahead and running to-do lists through his mind in fear of forgetting anything. He managed to eat some of his eggs, at least.

He was then the first out the door. Ryan stood shyly by Toby's mum, his trunk propped up beside him while he hugged Hopper's cage for dear life -- having almost forgotten him during all the chaos of getting up. He bit his lip, muttering apologies to his treasured toad while trying not to cry. The thought of leaving him behind was horrible and he felt so guilty.

A part of him was relieved to be so organised that he only had to wait for everyone else. He'd have gone to help Joe when he called out, but figured at least Toby would. Ryan glanced at Toby's dad, wondering if he should go over there and waited, but the man seemed rather focused on his letter so he didn't want to intrude. What if he made the man mad? No, they'd been so nice to him all holidays -- Ryan didn't want to ruin it now.

He remained quiet, just waiting until it was time to go.

It wasn’t one of his friends to come to his aid but Toby’s sister. Joe went quiet when she put her own weight onto his trunk but he could move around close it now, much to his relief.

Once finished he beamed at her.
“Thanks Em- errr - Amy?“, he corrected himself as he now was almost certain he had misheard her name the first time.

Not having anything else to do and not wanting to accidentally get in the way he glanced at Toby and his sister and said: “Err.. race you to the door!“

And off he went, trunk in his right hand trailing behind, Fogaell’s cage in the other held in front if him and trying not to shake her too much as to not unleash her feathery wrath upon himself.

Once he reached the door he came to a halt next to Ryan who was holding his rad toad and apparently in conversation with Martha.
Was it the lighting or did Ryan look upset?
While he didn’t want to intrude he also felt like it would be rude not to say anything. Plus he wanted to, Ryan shouldn’t look upset in any light, not today anyway.

Joe laid down his trunk and put his now free arm around Ryan’s shoulders. While Ryan wasn’t as tall as Toby Joe still had to stretch to do so as he leaned in to say in a hushed voice so only Ryan and Martha would hear: “Man. I really need to get more like you guys. You’re amazing, being organised like that.“

He chuckled with a slight shake of his head about his messiness before he relaxed his one-armed-side-hug on Ryan and just sort of leaned against his friend while checking whether Fogaell was still alright in her cage.
If he was being honest he had only wanted to tell Ryan that he was doing amazing but it would be rude excluding Martha now.

“This was a nice Christmas,“ he was reminiscing about the fun holidays and smiling as he was thinking about the delicious biscuits he still had left to eat.

Tobias knew that he should've packed his trunk the night before as his mother had instructed, but his parents should've anticipated that he wouldn't listen to that recommendation. Since when did Toby plan ahead to make his life easier? Never. That was the answer.

So that morning after breakfast, he'd scrambled to stuff everything into his trunk. Not taking care to fold his clothes as he knew he should've, as a rule he was satisfied as long as he could close the lid- he could organize everything better once he was back at school (not that he would).

"I don't need help!" he announced to the room when Amy burst into his room looking to offer someone help with the gargantuan task of getting ready on time. It was true in his mind, even as he threw himself atop his trunk and fastened it shut. Sure, it probably would've been easier if he had put everything inside the trunk neatly, but that was a problem for future Tobias to solve.

"OI! NO FAIR!" He bellowed after Joe as his friend bolted out of the door before Toby had even had the chance to fully recover from wrestling with his trunk. Quickly grabbing his Christmas sweater, he tied it around his waist and then ran for the door, pulling his trunk behind him (which was a struggle considering it surely weighed as much as he did).

Once arriving at the door, quite out of breath (for once), Toby collapsed on top of his trunk while he waited for his parents to indicate that it was time to leave for the station.

"I can't wait to get back to school!" it was fun being home, and he did wish that the Christmas holidays were a little longer but at least when they were at Hogwarts, he and his friends could go back to adventuring. AND Hogwarts had Quidditch, he couldn't wait to see Ravenclaw absolutely destroy Slytherin in the next match and if that Amara Seabrook hurt Joe then Toby would just have to show her not to mess with his friends ever again.

He nudged Ryan upon seeing that his friend seemed a little subdued "maybe tomorrow we can go see if Hagrid wants some company?" the friendly gamekeeper was sure to put a smile on anyone's faces, and Ryan seemed like he could definitely use some cheering up. That would only become more evident when classes resumed.