Clueless {Scorose}

Chapter 72: Eighteen

*A/N: I'm so stupid I thought Rose was nineteen but she's eighteen so I'm re-publishing this chapter.*

When I got back to the castle, into my room and left to my thoughts, it seemed like everything came crashing in on me all at once. All this pressure about the next couple of months.

I don't know how I'm supposed to deal with the N.E.W.Ts coming up on top of everything else. So I get out my books and start studying, it's never too early for that, right?

Lily comes into the room just a few minutes later, seeing me sitting through the open door of the study. "You doing homework already?" She says from the room. "We just got back."

"The N.E.W.T's are almost a month away. I have to know literally everything that I can while I have time to study."

"I'm going to fail my O.W.L's, I already know it," I hear her say.

"What," I get up now, meeting her in the room. "Why do you say that?"

"Oh, come on Rose, I can barely even get myself to go to class every morning," she explains. "It's so hard to pay attention when this is all I can think about." She nods down toward her stomach.

"I can tutor you," I offer. "It will be the perfect review for me, and also help you! Win-win!"

She thinks about it for a second. "Okay, fine, but just promise me you won't get all..."

"All what?"

"All mom/teacher mode on me."

"I won't. I promise."

"Good." She says before changing the subject, "Hey so what do you want for your birthday?"

I sigh. I almost forgot about my birthday. "I don't need anything," I say. "I'll probably just study the whole day anyway."

The next day was Monday and back to class and the usual swing of things. It was different though. For some reason, when everyone got to Potions this morning, we were all abuzz. Everyone seemed, without speaking about it, to be more aware of the fact that this is our last semester ever.

You could tell throughout the whole week actually when everyone was more awake and present in class than ever before. Everyone would raise their hands and contribute to the class. We would also start conversations with our teachers about other things, anything really, just to keep the energy up.

To me, it suddenly felt like I hadn't learned nearly enough about my teachers in all these seven years. I wanted to talk to them about literally anything because I'll miss them just as much as anything else about Hogwarts.

Al, Scorpius, Jenny and I were sitting at dinner one evening while I also had a book open in front of me.

"Rose, are you studying during dinner?" Al asks me.

I shrug. "Sort of."

"You can take a twenty-minute break," Scorpius says, as he reaches over to shut my book.

"Hey!"

"You have plenty of time to study, now its time to eat."

"Have you guys been thinking about applying for jobs yet?" Jenny asks. My heart sinks into my stomach when she says that. Jobs? I totally forgot that we're supposed to be adults soon. "My aunt mentioned it might be good to start looking now, you know when there isn't much competition."

"That's crazy," Al says. "I still don't know what I wanna do."

"I know, but I think she just meant to think about it, you know?"