Winston was feeling every bit like a turtle who'd had his shell completely ripped off and his body made into soup right in front of his eyes as he made his way through the Gardens. Except he didn't know what that was like at all but it probably sucked and Winston felt like he sucked. He'd only even gone into the Gardens to try to soak up some sun but he was probably just going to get sunburned because his skin was stupid.
He was headed back inside when an older girl nearly ran into him. She was smiling, which Winston thought made sense because of course he'd run into someone who was happy.
"Sorry," he blurted out, because his stupid brain wouldn't let him go a moment without blurting when he got anxious. "That was my turtle's fault. I mean I'm a turtle. No, I mean that was my fault. I'm sorry."
And then Winston wished he actually was soup instead of just awkward.
22Winston RandallIt's where winter goes to die. 152705
That's a cheery way of looking at it
by Zara Jackson
Zara lived with Bertie, so her bars for ‘weird’ and ‘awkward’ were pretty high. As far as she was concerned, the small human she’d come across was just behaving like most little kids did. She was a big scary sixth year, and was aware she was probably ‘intimidating’ though hopefully the fact that she was a Tepp and prefect helped. He seemed more apologetic than Bertie was. ‘Sorry’ wasn’t a word that came out of her brother’s mouth very often. “I don’t think you need to apologise for anything,” she assured Turtle Boy. “I’m Zara,” she added, as given the age and house gap it was entirely possible he didn’t know this. She had no idea who he was.
13Zara JacksonThat's a cheery way of looking at it144405
"I am Winston," he replied. "I am not a turtle." Just in case that wasn't clear by this point.
He wasn't sure what to say about not apologizing, or what to do about now bring in the girl's - Zara's - way, so he just shifted his weight a little and blinked at her.
"You're a perfect?" he confirmed, eyeing her shiny badge.
22Winston RandallI am full of it. Cheer, I mean.152705
“Good to know,” Zara nodded at the possibility of turtlehood as if it had been a perfectly natural thing to say. People used animal comparisons sometimes, so it wasn’t like it was totally devoid of meaning. “Turtles can be cool though. Gus Reed-Fischer did a story about them in our school play the other year,” she added. It was very, very unlikely that he was gonna go up to Gus and start a conversation about that, but a nudge towards someone more his own age couldn’t hurt.
“I am,” she confirmed her prefect status. “Need help with anything?” she said, with just the right amount of smile that it could be laughed off if he didn’t, but not so much that he couldn’t take it as a serious offer if he needed to.