Hoping for a better year on Teppenpaw Commons

Captain Kirstenna Melcher

November 06, 2011 1:46 AM

Teppenpaw Sign-ups by Captain Kirstenna Melcher

Last year Teppenpaw had not really done that well in Quidditch, because they had lost to Crotalus. It wasn't the end of the world for Kirstenna, and it was much safer for them to play Crotalus than Aladren and the Teppenpaw would feel a lot worse about beating Sam then a bunch of people under Imperius.

Of course, on the other hand, Kirstenna would really enjoy beating Renee Errant, who, as far as she was concerned was far worse than the Aladrens. The Aladrens were a bunch of humans imperiused by the Imposter to be violent little monsters (or, in Edmond Carey's case, a rather large monster) whereas Renee was a dark inhuman creature. A real monster who was never human to begin with.

Also, Kirstenna didn't quite get why the Imposter had not fixed the outcome of the Crotalus-Teppenpaw game for Teppenpaw to win. That way Tepp could have been the ones to play Aladren in the finals and risk their lives.

But maybe the Imposter had a gambling problem, and had bet money on Crotalus winning. But as she (or he) fixed the outcomes of most games, she (or he) would know who won and could have just as easily bet on Teppenpaw beforehand and fixed it so they won and then went on to risk their lives against Aladren.

Or perhaps the Imposter had had a bet with the Beetle Lady (which, incidentally, Quentin had told Kirstenna was an inaccurate nickname, because that would suggest that Professor Crosby was, in fact, part beetle rather than someone with a beetle fetish) on which of their houses would win the Quidditch game last year and being that the Imposter fixed all the games fixed it so that she (or he) would win the bet.

In any event, Kirstenna was captain and had to put up the sign up sheets and, in a move that designed to cut corners and save time, she had used a spell to erase the names off last year's sign-up sheet so she could just use it again rather than making an all new one. Which was very green of her. Which was a phrase her cousin had not understood, given that Teppenpaw's colors, and thus the sign-up sheet, were yellow and maroon.

TEPPENPAW QUIDDITCH SIGN UPS

Please place your name, year and preferred position on the list if you wish to join the Quidditch Team.
Preferences will be given to returning players. Time and date TBA

Below it, she had left her own name on the list from last year, only erasing and changing the year.

Captain Kirstenna Melcher, Year 5, Keeper

11 Captain Kirstenna Melcher Teppenpaw Sign-ups 161 Captain Kirstenna Melcher 1 5

Kirstenna

November 06, 2011 1:52 AM

I mean Quidditch Sign-ups, that is. (nm) by Kirstenna

11 Kirstenna I mean Quidditch Sign-ups, that is. (nm) 161 Kirstenna 0 5

Laurie Stratford

November 06, 2011 4:41 PM

First one in! by Laurie Stratford

There wasn’t an obstacle in the world that would come between Lawrence Roman Stratford and the Teppepaw Quidditch team. There really wasn’t. Last year his team hadn’t done as well as he liked, and Preston’s team had won the cup, again. In his very humble opinion Aladren shouldn’t have won. It wasn’t fair, Preston didn’t even love Quidditch! He was just doing it to have a better curriculum once he applied to for college. He had said so himself. Laurie had wanted to punch him to make him understand that Quidditch was about passion and love. There were few things that made Laurie mad and that had been one of them. It was true what people said: you learned something new every day.

The now second-year came down to the common room to search for something interesting to do, his green-eyes scanned every inch of the room, but it was futile, no one was down here. Plus, he was sure people wouldn’t want to have him around. It didn’t matter, he had Kitty. During the summer he had lots of friends that wanted to play with him, but at Sonora he just had Kitty. The redhead was beginning to think that the kids he played with during the summer just did it because of his last name and nothing else. It was sad to think such things, but maybe it was true.

Laurie sighed and sat down on a couch. He rested his face on his hands and began coming up with a new strategy plan - okay, it was a way of fighting the boredom -, and then he saw it. Captain Melcher had put up the signing sheets! Excellent. He jumped up from his seat and ran towards the bulletin board, a big smile on his face. He read it over and was about to sign his name when he realized he didn’t have a quill with him. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance and began looking for a quill. There had to be one laying about! He finally found on underneath a couch and it had some ink. PERFECT!

He happily returned to the bullentin board and wrote down his name

Lawrence “Laurie” Stratford. Second year, Beater or Chaser.

He grinned and left the common room to find something exciting to do.

0 Laurie Stratford First one in! 0 Laurie Stratford 0 5

Andrew Duell

November 06, 2011 5:18 PM

Second! by Andrew Duell

Andrew strolled around the common room, had he really been living here for six years now? This would be his last year to inhabit this area. After this... well, he had plans, but no specifics yet. Anyway, he was looking for something specific at the moment. There it was, tacked to the board just like it should, the Quidditch team sign-ups. He dug out his quill and was about to sign his name when he noticed something a little odd. Was this the sheet from last year? It didn't look new. He shrugged to himself, it didn't really matter, Kirstenna saved paper by reusing it. It just seemed a little strange, keeping it the entire year. Oh well.

He signed his name under Laurie's as he did every year. He could almost make out the indentations left from last year to trace over.

Andrew Duell, Year 7, Any

2 Andrew Duell Second! 145 Andrew Duell 0 5

Kate Bauer

November 07, 2011 6:45 PM

Third! by Kate Bauer

Over the summer, Kate had thought about Quidditch a lot, because she had been fighting with her mother and stepfather about it as continually as usual, if not more than usual. Rachel hadn’t told on her, but they knew that she’d become Assistant Captain, and the closer Kirstenna got to seventh year, the worse they were going to get about it, she knew. It was just completely and utterly inevitable.

Well, that was their business, she guessed. She wasn’t going to quit. This was her thing. Rachel had the pretty, ambitious eldest thing, Alicia had being the adorable baby, and Kate had this. What was the worst they could do, send her to live with Dad? That was what she would have preferred from the day her parents got divorced anyway, and the longer she was stuck with Rachel worrying herself sick about it and listening to Momma try to find a way to talk about the big lie of it all without sounding like a blood purist and fighting with everyone, the more appealing it started sounding.

As usual, she wasn’t the first person to reach the list once Kirstenna, but she got there third and was smiling as she signed it. This was going to be a great year for them, she just knew it. They were at least going to make it to the finals this time around, no matter what Arnold or Marissa or Amira had to say about it.

AC Kate Bauer, Fourth Year, Seeker.

16 Kate Bauer Third! 170 Kate Bauer 0 5

Derry Four

November 07, 2011 9:33 PM

Fourth! by Derry Four

It was a walk-by signing.

Derry 4 - Yr 3 - Beater

The letters were down on the parchment without Derry even stopping in front of the the board. The D was a little deformed and the rest of his first name kind of ran together. Had there been a Demy or a Danny in Teppenpaw, there could have been confusion. The 'Yr' was more of a Y with a small scribble after it, and the listed position could have as easily been interpreted as Beatles since the last few letters sort of trailed illegibly, but it wouldn't be confused for any of the other options for the column.

There were at least two live people and one dead one at home who would have chastened him very severely had they seen it. He would have received one lecture on being in a hurry; even Mom told him to slow down on a frequent basis. Another lecture would have been on the penmanship. Hamlet would have gone on for ages. Father would have surely frowned upon the form of his name that he'd chosen to identify himself.

Derry, however, was more concerned about getting breakfast before class, and if he'd taken any longer at the sign-up he might have been late for that and surely everyone would have disapproved of that even more. Not signing up at the first opportunity hadn't even crossed his mind. He'd carried the readied quill down from his room without even knowing that the Sign-up Sheet was up yet.

He wasn't sure how much legibility mattered anyway. Surely, if Kirstenna wasn't sure, she'd just ask him if that was him - there weren't many people with the number 4 in their names in Teppenpaw - and he'd tell her it was, and that would be the end of it.

In the meantime, there would be pancakes!

1 Derry Four Fourth! 189 Derry Four 0 5

Solomon Asa Davies

November 09, 2011 3:44 PM

About as helpful as I was last year by Solomon Asa Davies

Keeper was a wonderfully passive position. There was something so irresistibly appealing about being sent to wait for the entire game for something to happen to one. Solomon couldn’t not sign up again. The only thing better than being Keeper was being Reserve Keeper. Spending the entire season on his back, sprawled either on the field during practice until Kirstenna wanted him to do something, or peacefully dozing in the stands during a game, simply waiting to go onto the field, into the air to again wait for something to happen to him. While everyone else sweated it out, constantly moving, there would be one glorious space of air and earth and tall metal that was just for Solomon alone.

Solomon A. Davies
Second Year
Reserve Keeper

Who won didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Who played, who didn’t play. Solomon was simply addicted to the feeling of waiting for something incredible to happen. There was no pressure on him, nothing to stress him out. Eternity was captured at Sonora; Kirstenna would be Keeper forever, and he’d always be behind her. Waiting. Done signing up, Solomon strolled away, back up the stairs to his dorm room, back to his bed. He’d gotten so much done today. Signing up really took a lot out of a guy. Curling up beneath the sheets, he snuggled happily into his pillow and within seconds fell out.

0 Solomon Asa Davies About as helpful as I was last year 0 Solomon Asa Davies 0 5

Arista Thornton

November 14, 2011 9:06 PM

Hoping for a better year by Arista Thornton

Arista was angry at herself for the year before. A lot had happened which made her skills on the Pitch worse than she had hoped and she vowed that this year she would change that for Kirstenna and their team. That game against Crotalus had been for a short while the end of the world for her. Even Amira had tried to soothe her over it.

Not even her little sister could get rid of the thoughts in her mind that she’d been the one to ruin the game for them. Sure nobody else may think that, but she did. And that was what mattered most. She’d practiced and practiced over the summer around appointments with the triplets and watching the younger kids and she thought that she’d gotten some tricks that would work this year. She only hoped that Kirstenna didn’t take it personally that she’d helped ruin her chances at winning the game!

If she had, there was a chance that Kirstenna wouldn’t let her on the team at all!

This year, due to all the practicing and dealing with the triplets and the littler Thornton kids Arista’s wrist was no better than it had been the year before. In fact, it was much worse to the point that her doctor had given her a shot of cortizone which honestly wasn’t all that bad at the start, but then hours later it was awful! It still hurt days later, but the pain was definitely better. It wasn’t so sharp anymore. Though the doctor had told her that she needed not to use it and that she needed to wear a stupid brace to stop her thumb from moving she still was not going to miss out on Quidditch if Kirstenna even let her on the team!

She promised her mother that she’d wear her brace and she wouldn’t break her promise, unless there’s a game to play or practice for the team anyway.

On the other hand, before she’d left home she’d noticed her mother gaining weight again, which was odd, since she’d only just started really losing it from the triplets. However, the oldest of 15 children, hoped both that there would be another sibling and that she wouldn’t have any others at the same time. She remembered what it was like to hold a little one and she missed it terribly. In all actuality the fourth year couldn’t wait to have her own little ones one day!

Little birdies had told her that the sign up sheets went up for Quidditch, so to the Common Room she went to sign her name under the hopefuls.

She took off her brace, pulled out her pen and wrote:

Arista Rose Thornton, Year 4, Chaser

“Right.” she said as she put the brace back on and walked back up to her room.

0 Arista Thornton Hoping for a better year 0 Arista Thornton 0 5

Ben Holland

November 28, 2011 6:14 PM

Year Three of This. by Ben Holland

Ben trotted down the steps from his dorm, whistling happily. He carried his hat, which was starting to show signs of wear, and wore a pair of worn jeans and a white polo under his school robes. He had plenty of time to get downstairs for breakfast, so he stopped to look at the bulletin board. When he caught sight of the Quidditch sign ups, he realized that he had yet to sign his name. He reached in to the large pocket of his robes, and after a moment of grabbing at lint he retrieved a blue ink pen.

Quidditch had turned out to be far more fun than he had expected it to be. He loved playing before he got to school, of course, but there was nothing like flying with his team. He didn't even have to think about signing up for Quidditch last year, and this year was the same. He loved playing Beater with Four, and, though usually against violence, he loved the feeling of a bat in his hand as he flew over the pitch. He felt like he and Four, and which ever other Beaters were playing with them, held the power over a lot of the game. They definitely controlled the violence level of the game, and to a certain extent, the intensity of it. That was his absolute favorite part of it all, the control. In any other circumstance, he was just another Teppenpaw in the halls of Sonora, but not when he was playing. When he played, Benjamin Holland was important. He had to protect his team, and bring the other team down to the best of his ability.

With a pleased grin on his face, he scrawled his name down, year, and position down.

Ben Holland, 3rd Year, Beater

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