"Get up! Come on Raven, I'm not sorting out the stage up on my own!" The voice the girl awoke too was one she knew all too well. It was the voice that belonged to someone close to her heart. The one who was the cause of both tears and laughter. It was her best friend's voice.

She opened her murky, chocolate-brown eyes to find Mercury Dixon jumping up and down on her bed. His jet black hair was tousled and his blue eyes sparkled.

She raised her messy head of dark hair from one of the many pillows that covered her bed, groaned at him and face-planted the pillow closest to her.

"Raven! Wake up!" Mercury drawled, shaking the girl's shoulder. She hit his arm with one of her long fingers, the nails painted several different shades of pink.  

"OY!" he yelled, sounding very offended, "that's no way to treat your best friend!" He whacked her over the head with a pillow and flopped down into a sitting position next to her.

"Go away Mer." she groaned again, opening her eyes once more, she was met with his captivatingly blue eyes (many members of the public's own words) giving her an extremely disapproving look. Mercury's eyes were often marvelled at by many people he met, but both he and Raven didn't get the public's obsession with eyes. 

"No!" he declared, he let out a scream as she pushed him off the bed. She wanted to get back to her slumber, despite how meaningless her dreams were. She let out a scream that matched his, as she was pulled from her bed and onto the floor.  She glared at the boy who was stood in front of her, she attempted to push her hair out of her eyes and ended up getting her hand caught in a tangle of her jet black hair. The colour was often regarded as raven black and she occasionally gave thought to that being the basis of her name, but dismissed it deciding that her parents were weird. She groaned. 

"I hate my life." she murmured, before going back to glaring at Mercury, the boy shrugged and then flashed her a knowing grin. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up from he floor. She mumbled obscenities at him.

"Are you awake now?" he asked innocently. She deepened her glare to the appropriately named death glare, as she was seriously considering killing him at that moment in time, a thing he was well aware of, how could he not be, he knew her almost too well, but decided to wind her up further..

"YES! Yes I am thank you!" she snapped, he returned the intense glare she was giving him, by patting her cheek and pulling her up off of the floor. She glared at him and slapped him on the arm. She didn't hit him hard, but he knew that she was extremely angry at him.

"I deserved that." He murmured, trying to calm his best friend. She nodded and he grinned at her once more, before hugging her and then taking hold of her hand.

"Now, let's go eat! We have a stage to clean!" he was about to pull her out of the room when she stopped him.

"Not looking like this!" she told him. He sighed, but agreed to wait for her to get ready. To him, she looked amazing, but to her, she looked like she hadn't brushed her hair for three years.

^^^

"I should have stayed in bed!" Mercury groaned, flopping down onto the now polished stage, after three hours of laborious cleaning. He earned yet another angered look from Raven and smiled sheepishly.

"You should have stayed in bed!" she shrieked, sounding suspiciously like a banshee. "at least you had that option!" she flopped onto the ground next to him, sighing dramatically. She stared up at the beams that held the ceiling up and groaned at the sight of all the cobwebs. knowing the four adults that ran the place, also known as the two's parents, they would have to find a way to rid the stage of cobwebs.

"stop being such a drama queen!" he grumbled at her, she slapped him on the arm once again, looking offended, he found it cute, but didn't speak his thoughts, because if he did she would only become more offended.

"How dare you!" she yelled. He just laughed at her. 

"And you wonder why she prefers us?" a familiar voice questioned, instantly putting a smile onto the girl's face and a glare onto Mercury's face.

"Georgus!" she yelled, pulling the boy into a hug hug. The red-haired boy laughed and wrapped his arms around her, returning the gesture as he saw one of his closest friends for the first time that summer. He saw Mercury's glare and quickly pretended he hadn't seen him.

"hey murder!" he greeted her. A loud cough sounded from behind the girl. She disentangled herself from George's arms and ran over to the other red-haired boy.

"Fredulous!" she grinned, hugging George's twin. He laughed at the nicknames she had started calling them the previous year, a clever play on the words 'fabulous' and 'gorgeous'.

"well hello there little crow." he said, using the nickname he had come up with for her, in the previous year.

"awe I missed you guys!" she said, they ruffled her hair, earning their first glare of the holidays and one of many to come, they often found it entertaining to count how many times she glared at them in a day, and whoever got the most glares would win the small competition between the twins.

"Do you know how long it took me to do my hair this morning!" she shrieked. They merely laughed at her, she rolled her eyes at them, but couldn't stop the smile from creeping back onto her face.

"Hey Fred, hey George." Mercury spoke coldly, he was angry that he had been left forgotten when the two had appeared. He hated the twins, he hated how much she loved to see them, how happy she was when they came, a reaction he never got. He hated how she almost forgot about him when they arrived.

"Hey Mercury, you alright?" Fred asked pleasantly. He didn't like Mercury, and Mercury didn't like him. But for Raven, the Twins were civil towards him.

"I'm fine." he answered stonily. Fred scratched his neck awkwardly, unsure of what to do, so he did the only thing he could think of despite the fact that it wouldn't really help diffuse the tension. 

"OK then..." Fred said awkwardly, turning to Raven and resting his elbow on her shoulder, causing her to push him, almost causing him to fall. 

"you ready?" George asked her, she thought for a moment, before nodding and looking back at Mercury.

"Yeah, give me a minute." she said. They nodded and walked into the wings, giving her privacy so she could talk to Mercury, who was still glowering in the corner.

"I'll see you next holidays then?" she asked him. He looked at her with a hurt expression in his eyes, she looked away guiltily.

"why didn't you tell me you were going today?" he asked. She shrugged, flashing him a sheepish grin. 

"I forgot." she answered, hoping he would believe her untruth.

"Raven, you and I both know that's not true." he said quietly. 

"I know." she hugged him, he hugged her back, not allowing her to move for a few minutes.

"You know you will see me again, it's not like I'm going to die." She rolled the eyes that he loves so much and headed towards the wings, throwing a simple, 'bye!' over her shoulder. 

He watched her disappear, many emotions flashing across his face. And then he turned, waited for a moment as though waiting for something to happen, maybe hoping she would come back, and then he walked into the wings. He had a lot to think about, but the thing he was feeling, the thing he was focused on.

Was regret.