At the Lake (James and Ari)

Ari was sat up the tree that she had grown accustomed to climbing up once again, book open on her lap. She loved a book, and Bridget Jones's Diary was definitely one of those. She heard a rustling from down beneath her, and peered to see what was the cause of the noise, when she lost her footing and fell straight from it's branches.

"Moony, I'm not finished yet!" James exclaimed as his owl already flew away, and he still had the package in his hand that belonged with the letter. He knew his owl hated delivering packages, so it fled as fast as it could. He ran after it, trying to get it back, but with no success. He stopped at a tree, slightly panting and he kicked against the branch in annoyance.

He was about to walk away when he heard something screech, he was just in time to look up and see a girl falling down, right to where he was standing. "Oof!" he said, as she fell on top of him and sent them both to the ground. All the breath was knocked out of his lungs and he gasped loudly.

"Hello to you too," he said as he got some of his breath back, before adding; "Are you alright?"

"Oh, Merlin, I'm sorry!" Ari exclaimed, horrified. She scrambled off of him and backed away. "Uh, I'm so clumsy!"
She shook her head. "I'm fine, but are you? I mean, I'm not a piano or anything, but I'm not a feather either..."
She then began to laugh at the awkwardness of the situation.

"I'm fine," James said with a smile, since he was, just a little bruised on his stomach. He seemed to have a lot of girls falling on him lately, he remembered Melanie McKinnon and smiled, before turning back to the girl. He hauled himself of the ground, groaning a little as his stomach hurt a little.

"Let me help you up," he said, holding out his hand. "James is the name," he grinned.

"How chivalrous," she laughed cheerfully, accepting his hand and pulling herself to her feet with his aid. "I'm Ari. Well, Ariadne. Well, Sinead if you want to get technical." She grinned. "I'm sorry for landing on you. In future I'll aim better."

James laughed as the girl introduced herself, though he didn't quite get what she was saying, deciding to ignore it he commented her next statement. "Actually, for you, you aimed perfectly, I am definitely better to land on than the ground," James said with a smirk.

"That's the first time my aim's ever been complimented," she grinned. "Normally I can't throw or catch anything. My sister thinks I'm dyspraxic. But thank you, I guess, even if it did resort in you almost getting crushed." She smiled at him.

James chuckled again, he shot a glance at the lake. He hadn't swum since he left home and he had missed it. The water always calmed him down, he wondered if he could swim in the lake here. He looked around and noticed there weren't very many people outside. Probably because it was rather cold.

"Care to join me for a swim?" he asked Ari with a smirk, nodding towards the lake.

"Are you mental?" she said, grinning at James. "It'll be like an ice bath in there... but... oh, sure, why not?"
She shrugged her cardigan off. She wanted at least one garment to keep her warm when they got out. "But if I drown, then I expect you to save me, comprende?"

"Mental? No. Weird? Yes, but no worries, if you drown, I'll save you," James said with a grin. He kicked off his shoes and shrugged out of his shirt, keeping his jeans on.

He dipped his toe in the water and shrugged, it wasn't that cold. At least, not to him. Without hesitation, he dived in, letting the familiar feeling of water around him calm him down. He didn't come up again, simply because there was no reason to. He kind of forgot about Ariadne.

She sighed, and waded into the water. She hadn't been swimming in quite a while, and she knew jeans weighed you down, but she refused to take them off. It was freezing in the lake.
She gasped at it's cold, but knew that the only way to warm up was to plunge herself into the water. She took a deep breath in and plunged her head under the water, throwing herself into a handstand.

James saw Ari's feet appear in the water and if a person could smirk under water, he was doing it. He shot up, even though he didn't really need to breath, he was faster if he had fresh breath in his lungs and shot down again, speeding towards Ari. When he arrived, he grasped her ankles and pulled on them.

Ari felt a hand close around her ankle before she was pulled even further under. She was taken a bit by surprise and water shot up her nose.
Ari tried to kick her foot free, grinning all the time.