Cry me a river. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Joella Curtis ft. Alistair Johnson

March 06, 2016 4:13 PM

Cry me a river. by Joella Curtis ft. Alistair Johnson

The cancellation of Quidditch matches at Sonora this year had not stopped Joella from continuing to spend her free time training her little heart out. She turned up to team practice fully motivated and keen like nothing had changed, aside from the awesome fact that she had been appointed Assistant Captain and therefore had some extra Quidditch responsibilities that were no burden to her at all. Not only did she think Liliana was a great Captain and inspiration but she was also super fun to hang out with off the pitch and Joella was pleased to be able to call her a good friend.

As much as she loved training with her team, for a girl who had always wanted to play professionally when she graduated it just wasn’t enough. She could therefore often be found working out and training in the sports room in MARS, keeping up her high fitness levels and constantly working to improve her technique. There were other students who did a similiar thing, sometimes Quidditch players and sometimes not, so she either had to accommodate for other people or got the benefit of having a practice partner.

As it turned out, today Joella didn’t require much of the sports room in terms of services. What she needed was a good lot of space, which the room could grant but so could the Quidditch Pitch just as easily (only she hadn’t known what she needed before she’d entered the room as there was no reason to change training location since it was empty anyway). She’d decided to work on her manoeuvres and tricks, which a lot of players liked to do just because they were showy idiots but which also had their uses when pulled off correctly and at an appropriate point in a game. As much as she hated to admit it in light of fairly recent events, this kind of thing was one of Ali’s strengths and she would have benefitted from having him with her. But that obviously wasn’t going to happen so she determinedly focused herself, trying to maintain a positive attitude even when she messed up.

A few triumphs and a few painful broom-to-the-face incidents later, Joella was starting to feel rather frustrated with the whole training session. Who needed to pull fancy stunts anyway? She was a perfectly good player without them… Ali?

Joella blinked in doubt, wondering if those whacks to the face had been harder than she’d thought and were causing her to start seeing things. But no, there he was… Alistair Johnson was standing at the door, watching her with an unreadable expression.

The poker face quickly transformed into a scowl when Alistair realised he had been spotted. He wasn’t sure what had come over him that made him stick around to watch the show when he probably should have slipped out as quickly and quietly as he’d entered to avoid the awkward encounter he was potentially now faced with. Ali put it down the teacher in him (which he’d discovered existed ever since being given the responsibility of Quidditch Captain in his first year at Sonora), rather than any personal interest in Joella. He knew both the manoeuvre and the girl well enough to see where and why mistakes were being made and could read the frustration in her body language to know she needed verbal encouragement, to be told she was getting there. Perhaps under different circumstances he would have laughed at her errors and been all smug when he was able to tell Joella how to do something on a broom but things weren’t like that anymore and maybe it was for the best.

“Did you-” Joella wasn’t sure what she wanted to say, if she wanted to say anything even. She no longer knew how she felt about the whole Ali situation and wasn’t sure whether it was too early to make it water under the bridge. She flew lower so she was closer to her intruder’s level but as almost afraid to go so far as touching the ground. “Did you want something?”

Ali frowned at the question. “Want something?”

“Not from me,” Joella felt her cheeks flare up as she realised how she might have sounded, glad that they were already flushed from exercise so her embarrassment would hopefully not be so noticeable. “I meant from the room. Did you need it changing?” She of all people was well aware how truly over hers and Ali’s relationship was and she didn’t want him thinking she was still holding on to it, still hoping he’d come running back to her. Or perhaps he hadn’t thought that’s what she’d meant and she’s just made even more of a fool of herself… Bottom line was, Ali had just made Joella feel flustered and she hated to think he could destroy her composure so easily.

Alistair shook his head. “I can see that it’s occupied,” he said testily, in a manner that suggested his was being polite through gritted teeth and would rather not reply to her at all. He strode over to the store cupboard that provided a number of Quidditch supplies in case Joella needed them for any reason.

Now it was Joella’s turn to frown. Alistair seemed to need something but complained about the fact that she was using the room. Did that mean he was trying to kick her out? “We can both use the room,” she offered, thinking in the back of her mind that that probably wouldn’t be a good idea but also trying to be the bigger person and prove that she’d moved on from the whole argument and that he should too.

Ali didn’t respond to this, instead disappearing into the store cupboard and rummaging around for a moment. He emerged shortly, carrying what appeared to be a bright blue crash mat.

“What are you doing?” Joella couldn’t help being inquisitive. “Are you sure you don’t want the room altering?”

“I’m not joining you,” Ali snapped suddenly, as though Joella were annoying him. She’d never heard him use such a spiteful tone with a girl before, not even a muggleborn, and it stung.

“I don’t mind if you do,” Joella wasn’t sure why she bothered continuing to try and be nice but she was never the ‘think before you speak’ kind so why start now? “There’s plenty of space - I’ll keep out of your way.” She thought she should probably be clear that she wasn’t expecting him to join her directly, just offering the use of the same room since she knew that he wouldn’t have hesitated to do so had she been anyone else. And why would he have bothered getting the mat out of the storeroom if he hadn’t wanted to use it?

Alistair threw the blue mat down and pulled out his wand, obviously using an enlarging charm as it suddenly expanded to fill most of the room, flooding beneath Joella where she sat suspended on her broom. “I think you must have me confused with some other guy.” He turned and walked back to the door, stopping briefly to collect his broom on the way out.

“Wait!” Joella called hurriedly. “What’s the mat for?”

For a moment she thought Ali wasn’t going to respond. He paused at the door for a moment before turning round with a snide look on his face. “It looked like you might need it,” he said and with that he exited.

Joella didn’t know what to think. What had just happened? It was the first time she’d spoken to Alistair for ages and somehow he’d made her look like a total fool. All she’d been trying to do was forgive and forget and he’d blown off every single attempt made. The fourth year returned to the ground (or rather, the crash mat that seemed to be Ali’s rather elaborated attempt at a mean joke) and lay there, staring up at the ceiling with her broom cast aside. And then the tears started, slowly at first as her eyes welled up and the warm droplets trickled out of the corners and then they kept coming. It was funny how suddenly hollow one could feel, although she didn’t find anything funny about the situation at all. If anything it was completely ridiculous. He was Alistair Johnson; a handsome boy, a childhood friend, but certainly nothing worth crying about. Or at least that’s what Joella wished she could believe but right now the brain didn’t want to cooperate properly, it just wanted to be sad and weak and trivial. What had she been thinking? That it would last forever? It was so obvious that Ali would have grown tired of her sooner or later, or at least realised that she wasn’t Ginger or whoever it was he fancied, but being the one to lose interest first and not realising it at the time seemed for some reason so much harder. It made her the bad person and that wasn’t something she wanted to be.

To anyone who entered the room she might look like a girl who had fallen off her broom but right now that was not a top concern of hers.

OOC: This post is open for replies to Joella. Alistair is continued in the Crotalus common room.

8 Joella Curtis ft. Alistair Johnson Cry me a river. 295 Joella Curtis ft. Alistair Johnson 1 5

Jake Manger

March 07, 2016 2:39 PM

Please don't cry! by Jake Manger

By all objective measures, Jake was not a great athlete. Riding the bench for the Teppalus Quidditch team was a decent testament of that fact, but lately, even on the ground he was gawky and uncoordinated. A portion of that was puberty-based; while still on the smaller side for boys, Jake had gained a lot of lanky height in the last few years. He himself had only noticed as he approached his brother, who, while not a particularly tall fellow either, used to tower over him. And, with his growth more extreme at the moment, Jake seemed to grow up, away from Ginger, who was a good deal smaller than him. That made him sad.

Beyond his own physical awkwardness, Jake really didn’t have the disposition for most athletic events. He was horribly non-competitive, noting with equal importance how hard every team must be working and hus considering everyone deserving of victory. To him, it was a shame that not everyone could win these things. Perhaps that drive to win came from passion, another thing which the Teppenpaw lacked; he enjoyed Quidditch and things of that nature well enough, but he had never been passionate about them. Some people spent their whole lives focused on it, going from humble eleven year old to team captain, sometimes even to professional athlete as an adult. That would never happen for him. He didn’t feel compelled to play forever.

He did, however, want to do his team proud. While there were no matches or, really, even complete formal teams this year, the dark-haired boy wanted to keep himself in decent shape so that if he was needed on the Pitch instead of just on the bench, he could be there for them. And that was whoever “them” was, either Teppenpaw or maybe Teppalus, whichever things way things ended up. He usually practiced on the Pitch, but today he thought he might try out the MARS room. It seemed a waste to have such a nice facility available and never use it.

Since he didn’t come here often, Jake had no idea if there was any sort of schedule on which he was supposed to have signed up for the room, or if there was an unofficial, customary schedule established by its usual occupants. He was hoping it was available, but if not, he was prepared to either share the space or just leave. The fifth year passed Alistair Johnson along the way to the door, so he assumed maybe he had been using it and now it was free, which raised his hopes, but the moment he entered, he discovered he was wrong.

There was a girl in here, laying on a mat with her broom not far away. And she was crying. Jake hurried over to her, realizing as he got closer that it was Joella Curtis, who played for Pecari and shared a room with his good friend Diana. She was very talented, so he was a bit surprised that she had evidently fallen off her broom. She must have been doing something really hard or extreme. “Joella? Hey, are you okay? Did you fall?” he asked, kneeling down beside her. It felt like a stupid question, because of course she fell; why else would she be laying her crying? “Is there anything I can do for you? I could get the Medic or something?”

12 Jake Manger Please don't cry! 280 Jake Manger 0 5

Joella Curtis

March 11, 2016 4:16 PM

I'm trying to stop, honest. by Joella Curtis

Joella was typically the kind of person to bottle up whatever was bothering her and then when, eventually, trying to ignore such negative feelings would become too much she’d just have to allow herself a good cry, which she was never very good at doing. Joella was used to being outwardly happy, tending to ignore any problems for the benefit of herself as much as others, but crying just wasn’t her thing. Of course, no one enjoyed crying but it was often a good way to release strong feelings about something. The fourth year Pecari couldn’t quite see it that way, however - it just made her feel feeble.

One thing she hadn’t anticipated was the possibility of someone entering the room and finding her in such a vulnerable state. There was no way that Alistair himself would return so she was safe in that sense but when the door opened and footsteps approached her, Joella silently cursed herself for her carelessness and lack of self-control that had prevented her from going somewhere private before allowing her feelings to get the better of her.

It was Jake Manger, someone she wasn’t overly familiar with but at least someone nice. He was a Teppenpaw and Joella thought she could trust him to keep the encounter a secret. She forced herself to sit up on the mat when he started showing concern, a great deal of embarrassment creeping up on her and trying to dominate her sadness.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Joella began, speaking almost in shuddering breaths as she tried to bring her sobbing to an end. The words ‘I’m fine’ were clearly not all that accurate given the tears rolling down her cheeks but as far as Joella was concerned, if she wasn’t physically hurt then she couldn't really be hurt no matter how horrible she might be feeling inside. Perhaps she was just tired and emotions were therefore running high, although she knew deep down that that wasn’t just it. “I didn’t fall.”

She wasn’t quite sure what to say to Jake about the cause of her apparent upset but thought she should give him something so that he would believe her and not think she had actually fallen off her broom and was just trying to put on a brave face. “I’ve just been having… relationship troubles,” Joella explained as she wiped her face of the self-replenishing tears, knowing it could be perceived as a bit of an odd thing for a fourteen year old to say. As far as she was concerned, most people in her year at Sonora hadn’t ever been in a relationship yet. “But thank you for your concern, Jake.”

Under different circumstances the fourth year might have been mildly offended at the suggestion that she had fallen off her broom, despite the fact that it was something that could happen even to the best players in the world. She would have, of course, known that Jake meant nothing by it in regards to her flying ability and only have assumed what looked like the blindingly obvious. Had she been in a better mood she might have teased him for the accidental potential insinuation but she was definitely in no frame of mind for such banter.

Joella gave a small smile, although it felt somewhat constrained, hoping to inspire reassurance so that Jake wouldn’t fear the idea of having a wailing heartbroken teenager on his hands who was about to unload all her boy problems on him. Joella loved to gossip and talk about boys but not in this way, not when it was about her. There was a part of her that wanted to give further details, as unlike her as it sounded, but she held back because she doubted Jake would care (even if he was polite enough to listen).

“Sorry,” Joella bit her lip suddenly. “I suppose you came here to get some practice done. I’m finished here if you want the room changing.” She was certainly in no emotional state to go back to her own training so thought it best to call it a day. She did not, however, want to walk through the school looking like she did now. It was bad enough Jake finding her in this way, let alone the rest of the student body. Crying had the ability to make even some of the prettiest people look kind of gross and Joella doubted she was any different, not that this was her main reason for wanting to stick around in MARS for a little longer but it did add to the issues she now faced.

Hopefully Jake wouldn’t mind if she stayed and watched him for a bit whilst she tried to regain composure. She hadn’t quite gotten all the crying out of her system and was at a loss with what to do with herself.

8 Joella Curtis I'm trying to stop, honest. 295 Joella Curtis 0 5