Here's two for the price of one on Aladren Commons

David Wilkes

April 01, 2012 4:37 PM

Aladren Quidditch Sign-Ups by David Wilkes

Somehow, David had never really thought about how the Quidditch sign-up sheet came to be on the bulletin board at the beginning of each year. That it did was simply a fact of school nature; for all he knew, the thing materialized, despite the captain’s signature which usually accompanied it, from the cork board itself, rather how he never saw anyone fooling around at the bulletin board but it acquired nicks and initials over the course of the years anyway. Therefore, though he had thought about being Quidditch captain now a few times during the Feast, the Aladren sign-up sheet did not go up the same night he arrived, despite his desire to impress from the start, because he just didn’t think of it.

During a break the next day, though, he was digging through debris left in the bottom of his bookbag from the previous year, taking advantage of his still comparatively homework-less state to indulge a whim toward organization for the new year, and he came across the coach’s letter announcing both that Arnold was going to be the new Assistant Captain and that David would have such-and-such duties. Forgetting about the Transfiguration papers slowly dissolving into paste at the bottom of the canvas container of his portable library for the moment, he had dashed back up to the Aladren common room, gotten out a blue ink pen and a sheet of college-ruled notebook paper because he couldn’t for the life of him remember where in his trunk his parchment was right now, and written out, as neatly as he could with an eye on the time, what he thought the sheet should look like.

He finished it, despite being pretty sure he had misspelled ‘renowned’, with five minutes until his next class, which he then wasted most of trying to figure out how to get push pins to put the thing up with before he remembered that he could just use a Sticking Charm. Feeling like an idiot, he used one, then dashed for class, sliding in three minutes late.

So far, he thought, the year was off to a great start. And last night he had been so hopeful that the fourth years would be so busy dismembering the new guy that they wouldn’t have any time left over for him, too. That would, he guessed, teach him about the dangers of optimism.

Aladren Quidditch Team Sign-Ups

Sign up for the word-renouned Aladren Quidditch team here with your name and what year you’re in and what position(s) you want to try out for. The tryout time will be announced soon. Good luck everybody,

David Wilkes, Capt.

Beneath this, he had written out his own sign-up - David Wilkes, 5th, Keeper – and beside it written (Sign-ups should look like this) with a quickly-drawn arrow helpfully pointing to what he meant by ‘this.’ Then he had scrawled the header ‘Aladren Quidditch Team Sign-Ups’ in big letters across the blank space at the top, drawn an only slightly crooked line under that for emphasis, and hoped for the best.

Subthreads:

Signing up by Thaddeus Pierce II

We’ll take back number 1!!! by Kitty McLevy

Here's two for the price of one by Arnold and Arthur Carey

Putting my name in... by Andri Thornton

Back for more by Preston Stratford

On again, off again... by Samantha Hamilton

Better late than never. by Russell Layne

16 David Wilkes Aladren Quidditch Sign-Ups 169 David Wilkes 1 5

Thaddeus Pierce II

April 01, 2012 7:07 PM

Signing up by Thaddeus Pierce II

Thaddeus was more than a little bit amazed by the quality of the paper and the thin blue lines upon which this year's Quidditch Sign-up Sheet was written. He had never seen such thin, white, and uniform parchment. The blue lines were both perfectly straight and perfectly parallel. He wondered what spell David could have used to achieve them, and made a note to ask if he got the opportunity.

They were supremely useful in keeping his letters straight and even as he added his name beneath the captains' and Thaddeus thought the spell would be terribly useful for keeping all sign-up sheets neat and organized. It was quite genius really. He was, in point of fact, impressed enough that he didn't even entirely register the fact that the word 'renowned' was spelled incorrectly, a mistake which would normally have bothered him quite terribly.

Thaddeus Pierce, 2nd Year, Reserve or As Needed

He stepped back from the sign-up sheet, admiring how his handwriting fit so finely between the little blue lines. He hadn't felt so pleased by his own penmanship since his father had first taken away the guidelines on the more normal type of parchment his family used. It was good to see his letters were still perfectly aligned even after years of line-less freedom.

As for his lack of a chosen position, he knew the only truly empty position would probably be Beater this year, after Edmond's graduation. While he had practiced Beater with Derry on several occasions, it was not his favorite, and he was not sure he really wanted to go head-to-head with his disinherited cousin on the pitch, to say nothing of Ms. Demelza Eagle. Still, if that was what Mr. Wilkes needed him to do, he would not shirk the responsibility of being the person most qualified - being last year's only reserve player meant he had trained in all of the positions - to take over the former Captain Carey's position. Pierces were not cowards and would not shy from anything a Carey had already excelled at.

Nevermind that Thaddeus was rather significantly smaller than Edmond had been. He was not particularly diminutive, for his age anyway, but he was only twelve and not a particularly large twelve year old, either. He was firmly on average ground as far as height, weight, and strength were concerned.

1 Thaddeus Pierce II Signing up 213 Thaddeus Pierce II 0 5

Kitty McLevy

April 01, 2012 7:21 PM

We’ll take back number 1!!! by Kitty McLevy

The feast had been as amazing as it always was, and even after a summer of fun Kitty was a bundle of excitement. Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch, Quidditch the call had been growing in her heart all summer and now she was practically vibrating with the desperate need to fly, to feel that adrenalin rush of a just missed bludger, of the stunning glory of making the shot…and the burning determination to snatch back the title of number 1. It’s ours, and we won’t lose it a second time. Kitty thought resolutely as she marched down to add her name to the signup sheet for the third year in a row.

The short girl pouted at the empty bulletin board. With a huff she went to breakfast, and ate a delicious mound of chocolate chip pancakes. After breakfast, instead of going straight to class like she usually would, Kitty ran all the way back to the commons room to check the board again. It probably didn’t matter if she waited until lunch, but Kitty couldn’t stand the thought of the sign ups being posted and her name not on them.

Kitty cried out happily as she saw the sheet of paper, it wasn’t as fancy as it usually as, just a sheet of regular paper but to Kitty that didn’t matter a bit. All that mattered was her loopy scrawl signing her name under Thad’s.

Kitty McLevy – 3rd year – Chaser

All sighed up Kitty realized that she was about to be late for class so she turned and ran out of the room, her heart lighter and her feet flying as she day dreamed about tryouts and the awesome year ahead.

0 Kitty McLevy We’ll take back number 1!!! 0 Kitty McLevy 0 5

Arnold and Arthur Carey

April 02, 2012 2:10 PM

Here's two for the price of one by Arnold and Arthur Carey

For a moment, Arnold just looked at his brother, wondering if he was missing the punch line of some big joke of the universe.

“You want to do what?” he asked.

“Go sign back up for Quidditch,” Arthur repeated himself, his tone combining perfectly with the slight expression he manipulated his face into to imply that Arnold was both hard of hearing and bright as a snail. “Mr. Wilkes finally put the sheet up sometime today, and Thaddeus and Katrina have already beaten us to it.” He frowned slightly and added, in what was for him a more normal tone, “It’s on the most peculiar kind of parchment, too, Arnold. And the line of the quill was remarkably steady. I wish I could ask him about it.”

Arnold shook his head, wondering, not for the first time, what exactly Arthur’s problem with David was. It couldn’t just be that he had a badge and Arthur did not, because Arthur had seemed happy enough when Arnold got to be the Assistant Captain at the end of last year, but he had known about it, anyway, since almost the time David had become the AC for Edmond. “I’m sure it’s somewhere in the library,” he said, a little sarcastically, but Arthur nodded.

“Yes, that’s a good idea. Thank you, Arnold.” He came up with a quill. “Here, you go first, since you’re the Assistant Captain now.”

Arnold obediently lead the way down to the common room and signed up on the Quidditch list, deciding after thinking about it for a second not to include that he was the assistant captain because that was something that the coach had just given to him instead of something he needed to sign up for, before handing the quill back to his brother and watching Arthur write down his information, still not able to shake the feeling that something was a little off about Arthur in this. For as long as they had been in school, it had always been Arnold who saw the sheet first and bugged Arthur about signing up, but now, Arthur seemed, for him, genuinely enthusiastic about it.

Of course, honestly, he’d been doing that a lot lately. It was a little unsettling. First there had been all summer, when he’d been acting strange – unusually cheerful, seemingly less secretive than usual, but Arnold kept noticing that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be at strange times, and that he was always sending and receiving letters; he had thought it was a girl at first, and been appropriately stunned by the idea of a girl who’d not only inspire such ardor in Arthur but also actually go so far as to date Arthur, but then he’d stolen one of the letters just long enough to see that Arthur’s penfriend was apparently Jane, of all people, and they were writing about weird stuff which went entirely over Arnold’s head – and now there was this. He hadn’t been as sick as much lately, either, and seemed to just generally have more energy than he’d had in – Merlin – years, definitely, maybe in their whole lives, outside of short bursts associated with what Arthur deemed to be a particularly interesting academic topic. Definitely he couldn’t remember seeing his brother look this well for this long before.

Not that he was sorry about that. Any time his brother was well was a time Arnold could find something good in, anyway. It worried him when Arthur had one of his headaches, or his arm bothered him again; he didn’t like it. He guessed it was revenge for all the times he ended up needing to be put back together after something didn’t go quite the way he planned it, but still. He just wished that he didn’t have the feeling that Arthur seeming well right now was because of something more than slightly weird.

Arnold Carey, 4th, Seeker

Arthur Carey, Fourth Year, Chaser

0 Arnold and Arthur Carey Here's two for the price of one 181 Arnold and Arthur Carey 0 5

Andri Thornton

April 03, 2012 3:12 PM

Putting my name in... by Andri Thornton

Andri had been hearing about Quidditch for as long as she could remember. Her first year there at Sonora she hadn’t tried out for the Aladren team. She’d wanted to spend her time in her learning and teaching herself Sign Language as well as Braille. Sure, she’d gotten pretty far with the Sign, but Braille seemed to be much harder. She’d gotten frustrated not too far into the semester with Braille and kinda gave up on it. Sign, however, she became pretty good at and now spoke as much as she know in sign while she spoke her words. Some people may have been confused with what she was doing, but she didn’t care, nor ask.

Either way, over the summer she found out that Audi and Ashling had teachers who came to the house to teach them to communicate. That didn’t change her desire to learn, but it slowed it down a little bit. She also had spent the end of the term and part of the summer with Kitty. Kitty, as well as Arista and Amira, spent a lot of time talking about Quidditch.

Now that it was a new year, she knew that the teams would be starting up again and Andri wanted nothing more than to play with Kitty on Aladren’s team. She would be okay even if she was only a reserve, but it would be cool if she got to play. Sure, she wasn’t as good as Arista with all her practice of her five years on the team or as Amira’s seeking, but she’d try her best and that was what mattered.

Andri knew that Kitty was watching for the signups that David would put up, and she’d seen the pout on her friends’ face for a little while until a sheet of notebook paper written on with blue ink appeared on the board. It wasn’t until after breakfast one morning that she’d seen it and Kitty’s name was near the top of the list. Doesn’t surprise me. she thought to herself as she pulled out a pen with purple ink to write:

ANDRINA THORNTON, second year, anything

She hadn’t told anyone but Kitty that she wanted to try out so she really hadn’t asked for any advice on what to try out for so she hoped that by putting anything would show that she was interested in everything. She hoped David wouldn’t think she just couldn’t make up her mind, but that she was willing to try for anything!

0 Andri Thornton Putting my name in... 0 Andri Thornton 0 5

Preston Stratford

April 04, 2012 9:15 PM

Back for more by Preston Stratford

Preston had a girlfriend. He woke up with a grin on his face not fully believing that Sara had sad yes, but she had. It was a rather weird feeling to be so happy because of someone else, though a greater part of him was enjoying it. After their first date as a couple had ended he had written back home with the news. His father had answered that particular letter with a lot of encouraging words and a package with of a set of books about South American cultures he had wanted. His relationship with Sara definitely had his father quite happy. His mother, on the other hand, had sent him a separate letter with a lot of dating advice and how to treat a girlfriend. The redhead had been a tad bit more excited about his mother’s letter for the little fact that he had no idea what he was doing. He now had an assortment of dating “weapons”, and he felt more secure about the whole.

After a few minutes of staying in bed after waking up and mulling things over, he got up to start his day. He showered, got dressed, flattened his hair and was ready to go. The redhead grabbed his school bag and left the room to start his day with a big, nice breakfast. He yawned on his way down to the common room, which almost made him miss that the Quidditch sign-ups had been posted. The now fourth-year rummaged through his school bag and found the self-inking quill.

The moment the quill touched the parchment; Preston smiled and began making a practice schedule in mind. This year they would reclaim the cup as theirs. However, the fact that Arnold had been made Assistant Captain marred his current elation.

He wrote his name down

Preston Stratford, Beater, Fourth-year

The redhead safely put his quill back where it belonged and made his way towards the Cascade Hall and his girlfriend.

0 Preston Stratford Back for more 0 Preston Stratford 0 5

Samantha Hamilton

April 11, 2012 5:45 AM

On again, off again... by Samantha Hamilton

Despite having spent the past two years out of the Quidditch scene, Samantha felt inexplicably drawn to the sign up sheet once it arrived this year. She supposed it was an easy year for her, comparitively; she had no big exams at the end of it, and she'd gotten sufficiently used to her prefect duties last year to be able to easily factor them into her routines without even noticing they existed most of the time. She would still help out at the library, if Miss Diaz would still be offering such positions, so it was anyone's guess, really, whether Quidditch practises would take up too much of her time, or just the right amount.

A second commendable suggestion for her desire to add her name to the list was the lack of exercise she'd gotten over the summer, thanks to a day-dreaming driver and her restriction to Muggle medicenes over the school break. She didn't think she was in danger of being called fat, but there was definitely more of her now than there had been at the start of the summer. Admittedly, there were a couple of perks to having a little extra body weight where she wasn't used to it, but then on the other hand her short dresses and mini skirts weren't going to fit her again unless she toned her leg muscles back into submission. She had already begun gently jogging, testing out the stiffness in her back and neck, and reminding her leg muscles how they were supposed to function, but the sixth year knew that regular broomstick flying with the determination of the Aladren team behind her was going to be far more successful in helping her to shape back up in time for midterm.

It wasn't even as if the team really needed her, either, and as samantha scanned the names already on the list she did wonder whether she'd be more of a hindrance than a help. From what she could recall, she'd been a much better Keeper than David, but then she hadn't played for a while and the captain could hardly take himself off the team. So, after a further minute's contemplation, Samantha decided on an ambiguous sign-up:

Samantha Hamilton, sixth year, Keeper/reserve.

Let David interpret that as he desired; she doubted she'd make a very good Seeker, but if a reserve player was needed then surely an inept Seeker would be better than none at all.

0 Samantha Hamilton On again, off again... 159 Samantha Hamilton 0 5

Russell Layne

April 12, 2012 6:00 PM

Better late than never. by Russell Layne

This year, so far, had seemed very fast-paced and more than a little strange to Russell. Last year, time had gone by easily enough and without surprises, without even adjusting to all of the intermediate classes really causing much trouble, but so far this year, they had gotten back, one of them was new, one of them had gotten a badge, and one of them had gotten a girl.

Of those things, Russell thought that last one was the strangest. Getting back was, of course, inevitable, and he’d assumed, without even realizing he assumed it until it was announced, that Arnold would become Assistant Captain sooner or later from the time David came off the bench over any of the four of them. That, to him, had meant the coach was picking a short-term solution, and since Arthur and Preston wouldn’t listen to him and were too…intense, about everything, that had left Arnold. Arnold could bee too intense about Quidditch while he was playing it, but he was almost a normal guy at other times, and he got along well enough with just about everyone, so he was a good compromise candidate. The new guy, Joshua, had come as a surprise, but he wasn’t that obtrusive as far as Russell could see, though it was hard to tell yet if he was just reluctant to interact with others or if he just didn’t feel particularly comfortable in the situation; he was trying to be friendly in the meantime. Preston dating Sara, though….

…Well, it worked, obviously, at least well enough to not be visibly completely dysfunctional to anyone within a hundred feet of either one of them, but it was just weird to him to think of one of the guys doing that, at least here at school. At home was one thing, they could do whatever they liked at home and no one at school except those from the same places or sometimes social circles would ever know or care, but here at school, they all did such a good job of being perfect scholar-athletes, no distractions.

…Yeah, right, but it was a good act, anyway – convincing enough that, as he scanned the Quidditch list, Russell felt distinctly uncomfortable when he saw that Preston and both twins had beaten him to it. It was like he hadn’t measured up somehow. It could have been worse, the new guy and the twins’ cousin could have been ahead of him, too, but still. He should have done better.

As he signed up, he wondered why the new guy in particular hadn’t, at least not yet. If he’d been a new guy rooming with half the team, Russell thought he wouldn’t have wanted to stick out a hair more than he could help, but then, maybe the new guy didn’t see it that way. Some Aladrens got in mostly on independence, he guessed, just like others might only be problem-solvers or determined or something. Or who knew what. He guessed they’d just have to wait and see about that one.

Russell Layne, Fourth, Chaser

16 Russell Layne Better late than never. 183 Russell Layne 0 5