Roxy giggled at the right times, peering over Dirk's shoulder to re-read the letter along with him. She felt Dirk freeze before she heard Jake's whining down the hallway; although it figured. Dirk was a lot more in-tune with his surroundings than she was (being a Strider and all) and not to mention he was already on-edge. Roxy looked up just in time to see tall, manly Jake being thrown into the compartment by similarly tall, manly, Jane. Not like it was much of a surprise. Jane was strong as fuck and - worried?



For one of the very few times of her life Roxy actually paid complete attention to her friends around her, even going so far as to close her mouth entirely. It's not like she normally didn't pay any attention, but she wasn't too good with figuring out that times were tense, or that she should watch what she said, or even that it's better to be quiet at times. Roxy was pretty good at advice, of course, but it was often between her and one other person, and her advice was normally the most straightforward option. Which worked out better for Dirk and Jane, who could see the meaning behind what she said and put some logic into the advice she gave and plan it out into a more reasonable option. Jake, on the other hand, took her words to heart when he was feeling courageous and barreled full-force into whatever she advised him into doing. Not to say that it didn't work out occasionally, but it was still a bit more reckless than anyone in their right mind should be.



Roxy glanced between Dirk and Jake, biting her lip. She leaned her shoulder against Dirk's when she felt him move slightly closer, and gave a nod to Jake, showing that she understood the look on his face and that they could meet up later. Roxy firmly planted herself in the middle of these two boys, trying to show both of them that she's not taking sides or choosing one over the other. Both were dumb, and both needed to figure out their shit with each other. She would help out both, being in the middle, but she would not move to one side for too long, because she was the median.



At Jane's story, she felt herself being pulled a third way. It was as if Dirk was on her right, Jake was on her left, and Jane was in front of her and she needed to make sure she helped them stay together. Roxy was not going to let anything happen to Jane. Or to any of them, physical or dangerous or silly fights. She would let nothing short of complete chaos and/or loss stop them from being friends, and Roxy was going to make sure of it. She took a deep breath, nodding at Jane and opening up her trunk with her foot. It took only a second for her to pull out a black box, and put it on the table in from of them. This brought up the question as to why she didn't place the letter from Droog into the box, but the answer was simply that Roxy didn't think things entirely through. She leaned in to whisper a word to the lock, and sitting back up when it snapped open and revealing her potions storage. The box was a bit bigger on the inside, going a little deeper than expected. Potions lined the inside, top, and bottom of the velvet-covered box, strapped in with velcro. It took her a few years to save up the money for it, and it was one of Roxy's favorite possessions. She unlatched and pulled out 3 round, yellow vials; a small, square-shaped black one, and two clear tubes with red liquid inside. All of the vials were full. Roxy passed them across the table, closing and latching her box and putting it back into her trunk. "Yellow is 'nvisibility. Black turns you - someone else? 'nto a mouse form. You keep your consciousness but now you're tiny an' mouse. Red is a very simple healin' potion. It will quicken whatever healin' your body norm'ly has. Blood loss, clottin', scar tissue, etc." Roxy trusted her potions, and she would give them to her friends in a heartbeat. Her last sentence, though, was a warning, "Both yellow an' black last 'bout an hour. Red lasts until your bod doesn't think it's needed anymore, but it'll draw upon your body's natural - an' some magical - energy. Eat an' sleep a lot after you drink the red, 'though how much more you gotta do depends on how hurt you got." She gives Jane a small smile, pushing the potions even closer to her friend, "I love you lots, Janey, an' don't tell me no on these because I wanna help t'make sure you're safe. If you use these, or want me t'make more, or even want somethin' different, I will tot'ly help you out here." Roxy was completely 100% serious.



Jane did ask someone else to go next, and Roxy wasn't going to let her friend dwell upon bad shit if she didn't want to dwell upon it. Not to mention they were going to school and there's no reason for Jane to freak out if school was close. Hogwarts was one of the safest places for her to go, and Janey should be as worried-free as possible during school. Unless she wanted to worry about schoolwork, that was allowed. "An' since Miss Crocker said for someone t'go next, an' since ''Ladies First!'' is always still a thing, I will jus' tell you guys that after we graduate I have been asked - an' accepted - to be Droog's teacher's aid. I'll be comin' back here an' workin' kinda as a teacher. But it's still on the DL right now so sharin' this would be so not cool. Another thing to keep in this cabin, right?" She didn't need to ask. It was pratically understood, but between the three of them like that, thinking of a future where she fails herself and they aren't a group anymore, Roxy needed to remind them - and her - of how many things they shared between the four of them in this very space.



Roxy wasn't going to allow them to break apart. She couldn't. She felt like she was standing in the middle, with any one of them ready to turn away, and if they did the other two would, too. And she wouldn't let go and she would be split in three and she was not going to allow them to split. She couldn't let them split. She wouldn't know how to handle herself if they split. What would she do?