"Hadley, it looks fine, it's totally cute, now let's go, my favorite bouncer only works until seven thirty!" Roxanne whined, looking at her watch; seven already. "We have to walk halfway across London, don't wear heels that tall!" Roxie wanted Owen to be there when she and Hadley got to the velvet robe of the Chameleon Cantina so they could cut the line.

"I'm going without you!" Roxie hated being late a little more than she hated her hair in the morning. Roxanne swung the door open and strutted down the hall in her sneakers, her black leather bag hanging from her wrist holding her wallet and wand, just in case. She checked her reflection in the mirror as she walked by. Perfect, she tightened her jacket around her and turned around "Hadley!" She shouted down the hall, waiting her her flatmate to come barreling down the grey carpet.

This wasn't okay with Hadley. The dress was all wrong. It didn't have enough material, there just wasn't enough. "Roxie! Y'all can see more than half of my legs!" She was whining, but she had a perfectly good reason. Roxanne was dragging her out to party all night long and she wasn't sure if she would be very comfortable in this scrap of fabric at the moment. With a sigh, she looked at her only other option, and in realizing it had slightly more coverage, she changed quickly into it.

She ran out as Roxie started yelling at her. "My Dad would kill me if he saw me wearing this. I'm missin' a sleeve here." She said, checking again to make sure her heels were stable and such. Like Roxie, she had her wand and wallet stowed away in a small purse that magically fit both things. "You're crazy. I don't even know how I can live with you. Jane ain't so hard, but you missy, you drive me up the wall."

"Please, Jane is more dramatic than I am, you have to admit." Roxanne started down the stairs and her rubber soles squeaked on the final landing at the bottom of the staircase. "You're father also isn't here, he's back in Georgia, remember?" Roxie smiled and bit her lip, waving at the person behind the desk by the front door, and pushed her way through the thick wooden doors and into Diagon Alley.

She turned back to Hadley, "You love me anyways Had, even if I am a little crazy, we're all writers, and all writers are crazy." Roxanne leaned down to itch her leg, she hadn't bothered with tights since she'd shaved earlier that day. Her hair was pulled into a neat ponytail with bobby-pins keeping frizzy winter hair in it's place.

"A pretty southern bell like you can't be stuck inside a hospital all day with no gorgeous beaus to look at'cha! This'll be fun, I promise." Roxie crossed her heart with a painted fingernail.

"I'll admit that, fine." Hadley said, dragging out her words, and ending with a punctual 'fine'. She scrunched up her nose as she pushed a curl out of her face. "'Course I remember, how can I not?" She scoffed, following Roxie, who apparently needed to run to the club she wanted to go to.

"Keep tellin' yourself that, Roxanne." She sighed, trying to pull down the skirt of her dress to see if it would stay a bit longer. It wouldn't, and it annoyed her. Hadley had been in a good mood all day, but this whole idea of drinking and partying all night long? Yeah, no. It wasn't settling well.

"Hey!" She snapped at Roxie, "Who says I want people looking at me? They won't even be lookin' at my face!" She protested; she didn't think of herself as pretty, as someone who would be looked at. She was mistaken, because sometimes people did look at her. But she didn't think so. And right now, she was a little concerned about where people would be looking. "I don't get you, Roxanne. I never will."

"Just accept the sexiness, sexy is confident, confident is beautiful and beautiful gets positive attention, don't sweat it." Roxanne kept walking. "You don't have to get me, you just have to accept me." Roxie said with a cheeky smile. They walked for another twenty minutes through alleyways until they got to the Chameleon Cantina. The black lights in the club were balanced by the disco ball and strobe lights.

Roxie walked past the white velvet robe and up to the front, a few angry glares coming from people along with looks of longing and annoyance as the red-headed beauty strolled up to Own, who donned a white T-shirt and a clip board was clamped in his hands. "Roxie! Ba-by!" Owen smiled and unclipped the rope. Roxanne kissed his cheek. "Lovely to see you as usual O, can my friend and I head in?" Owen looked at his list, making a show of looking through the pages. "Very Important Ginger, coming through."

"Thanks Babe." Rox patted his cheek and grabbed Hadley's hand. "Come on," They walked through the beaded entrance and into the Club, a few dozen people were dancing on the dance floor. "The bar is mostly empty, I want you to try something." Roxanne was a regular at the club and normally got her first drink on the house' tonight was no exception. "Hey Miles." Roxie sat down at the counter, smiling at the bartender. "Hey Roxie, what can I do for you and your gorgeous friend tonight?" The young barkeep winked at the blonde witch.

"Two Eel cocktails please," she went to pull out her wallet. "Don't bother with that Peach, first round's on the house." Miles mixed together tonic water and a few other fruity ingredients and held it under the blacklight hanging over the bar, it glowed bright pink. "Two Eels." He placed the two glasses down on the counter. "Best place to get cocktails this side of the London Eye." Roxanne said, raising her glass to Hadley, taking a small sip.

"Whatever you say, darlin'." Hadley said, throwing a pointed glare at the back of Roxie's head. Secretly, she was wondering how she could get out of this, and not look like a total wuss doing it. The alleyways they walked through didn't sit right with Hadley.  She liked open spaces, cornfields, men in loose cotton t-shirts and blue jeans. Not tight pants, like she felt like they were going to find at the club. And the abundance of woman in too-short, very revealing dresses? Well, Hadley's dress was short too. She couldn't properly insult them behind their back's without feeling like a hypocrite.

She allowed Roxie to grab her by the hand and drag her into the club, Hadley staring in awe at what had just happened. There was a line, and they just cut? What made them more important? The thought of being able to get in ahead of the rest of the crowd was baffling to the healer-in-training.

"Try what? Listen, if this is anything like what put you through that drywall one time, I'll smack you so hard you won't remember your name, ya' hear me?" She sat down next to Roxanne, giving 'Miles' a half-smile when he winked at her. That was awkward.

"Eel cocktail? What in the hell, that sounds like it'll kill me!" Hadley protested under her breath, "If there are actual eels in it, I might throw up." She warned Roxie, earning a hearty laugh from the bartender. She accepted the toxic-looking drink and took a sip, a big sip, not a little sip like Roxie. Hadley didn't do cocktails. For her twenty-first birthday, she'd been in Georgia with her father. They had a bonfire with a bunch of friends and drank beer, which was more fun than liquor; at least Hadley thought so. It was more laid back. You could drink it in jeans and a t-shirt.

But cocktails were a different story. Especially when you were in a club, surrounded by black lights, and people dancing on the dance floor with no care for personal space bubbles. You needed a 'sexy' dress for cocktails, well, for ones that glowed like they had been poisoned with radioactive toxins or something.

To Hadley's surprise, it wasn't half bad. But the fruitiness wasn't her style. She managed a grateful smile, but it was sort of obvious that she wasn't happy with the drink in her hand.

"It's called an Eel, because it glows, like an electric eel, they're the best seller here, aren't they Miles?" The barkeep nodded.  "I ran through the wall at a different place back in Flixton, they let me back in after a month and after I paid to get the wall repaired, it was no big deal. I also won a shot tournament that night, so I won't be doing that ever again." Roxie laughed, but then she saw the fake smile on Hadley's face and her smile disappeared. "What? You don't like it? I'll get you something else if you don't." She wanted Had to have fun, push out of her comfort zone for this one night.

Roxanne slid four ten pound notes across the counter. "Keep that on my tab for drinks and food, and give me the change at the end of the night, like usual?" Miles took the notes and nodded. "You wanna dance and socialize first, or eat? They have a really nice pizza bagel here, the fried cheese sticks are good too, I could honestly go for the bacon burger." Roxanne had a meat craving right then and there, only when she came here did she really pig out, she mostly stuck to  wheatgrass smoothies and salads, but when she was at the Chameleon, no rules applied.

"No it's fine, it's just..." Hadley turned to Miles. "Do you have anything lest cocktail-ish and more, I dunno, comes in a chilled bottle." The barkeep gave her a look that plainly said no. And it disappointed Hadley just a little bit.

"We don't have bottle's on hand, but I've got a few things on tap that might interest you more than our famous Eel cocktails?" Miles offered.

Hadley smiled, genuinely. "That would be wonderful, thank you." She said politely, watching Miles run off to fill up a glass with something less glowy. She glanced at Roxie, "Don't worry, I've got this under control. It's just, if I'm gonna' get buzzed, it will be off of something more heavy than your cute little cocktail. I'm not Jane if you haven't noticed." She teased.

Miles returned with her beer and she took it gratefully, "You're wonderful, really. Thank you." She started drinking it when Roxanne started asking about dancing or eating. "I'm good for now, but if you're hungry go ahead. I need to drink something before I go out there and dance like that." She said, pointing at the crowd.

Sure, Hadley had danced before with no care for personal space. But she'd done it in jeans and bathing suit tops, or cut-offs and tank-tops. And in sensible shoes. Hadley was growing to like the heels, but she ached to go to a party where it was socially acceptable to wear cowboy boots. This was Roxie's scene at the club, and Hadley felt like a fish out of water.

Roxanne watched, impressed as Hadley cooly ordered something else. "Please, Jane can get drunk on the wiff of rubbing alcohol, I have a bit more of an iron liver." Roxie laughed, she turned to Miles. "I'll have a bacon cheddar slider please." No one ever saw Rox gorge herself like this, except her friends, because she ate like a ravenous wolf. A few minutes after Roxie ordered and half a cocktail later, her burger arrived and was chomped and ripped and torn through and was gone in less than five minutes.

"That'll keep me full for a bit." Roxanne took a large mouthful of her drink. "I know you're not used to this stuff, but, just, try to have fun, okay? I'll be right beside you the entire time." Roxie grabbed Hadley's arm and pulled her towards a group of guys, with one handsome lad in a letterman's jacket. "Jinx!" Roxanne pushed her way through the wall of dude and gave the guy a small squeeze.

"Hey, Roxanne, I haven't seen you around, 'where ya been?"

Roxanne her hair over her shoulder and began to play with it, biting her lip a little, "Oh, just, around. I want you to meet someone." She dragged Jinx out of the circle. "Hadley, this is Christopher "Jinx" Silver. Jinx, this is Hadley, my flatmate." Jinx gently took Hadley's hand and kissed the back.

 "Nice to meet you." He said. "You really are a hand-full, aren't you?" Roxie gave the jock a playful push.

"Hey Baxter, some over here!" Jinx called over his shoulder. A dirty blonde haired guy with a flannel shirt with suede elbow patches came over.

"What's up?" He said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets. "You remember Roxie, right?"

"How could I forget a face like that?" He said rhetorically.

"This is her flatmate, Hadley." Jinx, pushed the lad towards Severide jokingly. "Hadley, this is Kevin Baxter."

Kevin smiled with his white teeth. "Hiya, would you like to dance?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

Hadley smiled as Roxie poked fun at Jane's expense. It was true, most likely; Hadley wasn't even sure she'd ever seen Jane drink. And Roxanne Gunter, wow, the girl could eat. Hadley resisted asking where Roxie was putting all the food, mainly because it was rude, but it was odd to watch her devour the burger in under five minutes. By the time she was done, Hadley had finished her first drink and was feeling just a little more buzzed than before, but she didn't normally feel like that after one beer. She looked at Miles, convinced he had done something to it. The sheepish grin he gave her confirmed it. "Hey!" He said, "You just asked for a beer, never said I couldn't have fun with it."

Hadley laughed, "It's alright, thank you." She said, before turning to Roxie who grabbed her arm and pulled her towards a bunch of guys. Oh dear lord, Hadley thought. This wasn't going to end well. Boys were Jane's area of expertise. And this boy in a letterman jacket? Was he American? Or did they do them in Europe as well?

"Nice to meet you as well," she said, wondering briefly if she should feel weird about the fact that he just kissed the back of her hand? But Roxie was obviously joking around with the guy, so Hadley smiled at the two of them.

Hadley took a step back after Jinx called Baxter over and pushed him towards her jokingly. He asked her to dance, and there was just no polite way to say no at the moment, so Hadley accepted the outstretched hand and was pulled her away from Roxie who had promised to stay by her side. If Roxie was paying attention, she might have noticed the, 'oh no, what do I do' look of panic on Hadley's face before she was pulled away. But maybe not.

Baxter didn't pull Hadley that far away from her friend, just onto the edge of the dance floor where it looked normal for them to be dancing, instead of in the middle of the crowd where people were drinking and talking. "Do you come here often?" Kevin said, a flirty on-the-prowl sort of smile on his face.

"Never been here before, to be honest." Hadley replied, her heart racing because apparently Kevin was one of those boys who didn't have a personal space bubble either. "Roxie wanted to go," she said. She glanced over her shoulder at Roxie, clearly giving her a look that said 'I'm-going-to-kill-you-later.' She was hoping Roxie would come over and dance too. She didn't want to be all alone out there.

"It's nice to see you Roxanne." Jinx said, pulling her closer to him and planting a kiss on top of her head. Roxie blushed, but it was hard to see that in the dark. "You wanna dance or what?" Roxanne nodded. "I just have to tell the DJ something" Rox shuffled between dancing couples and came up to the DJ. "Hey Cam, Can you play something Country, with a little bit of a bounce?" The disk jockey, scrolled through his audio files. "Sure, anything for you Roxie." He set the song to play next. "Thanks Cam!"

She confidently strode back to Christopher. "Uh-oh, she's giving me a death stare, better get on the floor." Rox led Jinx onto the floor and they began to dance conservatively until the song Roxanne requested came on. The red head leaned over to the blonde, "You're welcome." She giggled and clasped hands with Jinx and they swayed and her skirt twirled.

"You assimilating new partiers to your clubbing cult again?" Chris asked as she spun around, her hair flicking him in the face a bit. "No, just showing a friend a good time." Jinx smiled. "That's nice"

"I know"

"I love this song!" Hadley said excitedly, slapping Roxie playfully on the arm, her smile brighter than it had been all night long. She knew what song it was purely from the opening chords, and just because she knew how to play it on her guitar. It was one of the first real songs that she had learned that weren't one of her father's.

Across from her, Kevin smiled. "You do? Really? Tim McGraw is really good, you listen to his songs?"

Hadley raised an eyebrow, "Sweetheart, did you not hear the accent?" She drawled for emphasis. And Kevin laughed, spinning her around energetically as they bounced to the beat of the catchy chorus. "Course I listen to his songs!" At some point after the song ended and the bass-shaking club noise started back up, Hadley had another drink, and was looking much more comfortable in the party's energetic atmosphere.

She bounced up from behind Roxie, clamping her small hands on the ginger's shoulders. "Roxie!" She shouted with a giggle and a slight stumble to the left. "How's it going? Isn't this so much fun!"

Roxanne and Jinx separated after the dance, as Chris went back to his possy of guys and Hadley pounced on her from the back. "Eep!" Roxie laughed and turned around, "It's going great. It appears you're having quite a bit of fun yourself with that piece of boy candy over there, I told you this was fun! Maybe you should listen to me more often, you might learn a thing or two!"

So the two girls danced and drank a little more and danced and drank some more, Jinx and Roxanne snogged for a bit and as the evening wound down, so did the music. The amount of people had tripled and Roxanne had her head on Jinx's shoulder as he held her hand. "I better find Hadley, I don't want her to lost." Jinx put his head lightly on top of hers. "Let's just finish this one song, 'kay?"Roxanne smiled, "Okay."

After the song was over, Roxie looked over the crowd of people and spotted the only natural blonde in the room and headed towards her, almost ready to head home.