Aladren Quidditch Practice on Quidditch Pitch

Captain Anne Wright

August 11, 2005 9:35 PM

Aladren Quidditch Practice by Captain Anne Wright

Anne's left hand went instinctively to where the ends of her hair should have been as she walked into the locker room, but her fingers met only air. Her hair was in the braided knot she used for playing Quidditch, safely out of the way. Her other nervous habit of playing with her wand was prevented by the fact that she had left her wand locked in her trunk so she wouldn't have to deal with the temptation to use it that had been growing steadily since the Alumni Banquet. She was able to keep a grip on her broomstick with her right hand, but she had to force the left back down to her side. It wouldn't do to let people know that she was nervous.

She had never lead anything in her life. Loners didn't go in for that sort of thing, and she was a group-drift loner, one who could converse with most anyone without belonging to any faction. Hardly the sort likely to make a good leader. She had yet to work out what in the world had caused the higher-ups to give her this job in the first place. She was delighted and flattered by it, but there was no denying to herself that the idea of being responsible for an entire team of Quidditch players scared her. Responsibility was heavier than boulders, in some ways.

She looked around at the small group of assembled Aladrens, dark eyes appearing to miss nothing. In reality, she couldn't even count them. She glanced down at the list in her hand with its six names: the six Aladrens who had signed up for Quidditch. Aladren was hardly a House noted for athleticism. The list was all she had to work with as she tried to give these people the start-of-team speech, her one lifeline. It was showtime.

"Hey,y'all," she said, as bracingly as she could. "For anyone who doesn't know me, I'm Anne Wright, don't care which you call me, and I'm the captain of the Aladren Quidditch team. If you're not an Aladren, leave now." She paused to allow any undercover Crotali, Pecaris, or Teppenpaws to evacuate, looking around at everyone again to make sure she had seen them around the common room before. Anne was as paranoid on the pitch as she was off it, if not more so.

"All right, we have six people signed up for the team at this point, three Chasers, a Keeper, a Seeker, and one Beater. I'm one of the Chasers and Rachel Tibbs and Zoey Welsh are the other two, Chris Dupree's our Keeper, Ben Stafford's our Seeker, and Bella Santoro's our one Beater. We still need another one, which is why I posted a sign in the common room the other day inviting anyone down. I know not everyone can play Beater, so I'll try to work something out with anyone who's come and can't play that position. It'll be good to get everything out of the way now so we can get in some preliminary flying this afternoon and then get to work at our next practice."

She hadn't done too badly. Things seemed to be going rather well, as a matter of fact. "Questions, comments, concerns?" she asked, sending another quick look around the room. She had been told or read somewhere or the other that looking around was important. "Volunteers who haven't signed up on the list posted by Coach Cooper, introduce yourselves and tell what positions you're interested in when we're done with questions so we can get this show on the road." She couldn't hide a faint note of excitement at the prospect of the challenge looming in the upcoming Quidditch season.

OOC: have fun with this, guys. I'll move it along inside the next week unless it needs to last longer and answer any posts within a day/two days of them coming up. \n\n

0 Captain Anne Wright Aladren Quidditch Practice 0 Captain Anne Wright 1 5

Zack Dill

August 15, 2005 12:02 PM

spectating by Zack Dill

Zack Dill was not a sporty person. He was twelve years old and stood four feet and five inches tall. He was skinny. He lacked the strength to throw a basketball high enough to reach the net, nevermind the hoop. Last time he played goalie in gym, he'd been knocked backwards into the goal with the ball.

Consequently, it never once occurred to him that people might want to see his name on the list of players. Zoe was his friend, though, and he spoken with Anne shortly before he heard rumors that she'd been appointed captain. So he had decided that, just this once, he could come down to the pitch and watch the first practice. He could cheer them on or something. He wasn't really up on spectator conventions either. Most of the stuff he watched involved special effects, not live players.

When Anne finished speaking, he breifly debated giving her a round of applause, but nobody else was and it seemed a little weird to do so after a request for questions, comments or concerns. Lacking any of those, he instead opted for just sitting quietly. Well, less quietly and more restlessly. He felt out of place without notebook, pen, or even applause to make him feel like he was contributing something to the practice. It was an uncomfortable feeling and he kept shifting in place.\n\n

1 Zack Dill spectating 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Ben Stafford

August 15, 2005 1:27 PM

We have a spectator? by Ben Stafford

As Anne finished up her little speech, Ben gave her a warm smile. It definately couldn't be easy giving a speech in front of her classmates, and not mention giving it infront of the 2nd years that were on the team. He took an apprasing look about the area, noting each of the players who were seated about, and then his eyes fell upon a boy who looked a bit out of place. He didn't remember hearing his name called out, or even hearing his name at all, for that matter. Ben decided he was better off just not saying anything, while waiting for someone else to say something.

Once it appeared that no one else wanted to say anything, he raised his hand, and without really waiting for a response, he blurt out, "Aladren's team rocks!" Okay, so not the most mature of lines, but team spirit and all didn't seem to be his house's forte, so anything to boost that seemed appropriate. Most of the Aladrens were book wormy and, well, not athletic, as Anne had pointed out to him earlier in the commonroom. \n\n

0 Ben Stafford We have a spectator? 58 Ben Stafford 0 5

Anne

August 18, 2005 9:34 PM

Apparently so... by Anne

Anne returned Ben's smile with a slightly strained one of her own. The silence of the team was beginning to get to her, little by little. She wished with sudden fervor that she was anywhere but here, including with an annoyed Grandmother St.Martin. No doubt about it, she'd just made a complete fool out of herself and everyone was either trying to figure out something to say without making this obvious or trying to think of something really catty to say to make it really obvious.

Her train of thought was cut off by a sudden exclamation from Ben Stafford. For the second time in one week, he managed to catch her off-guard. It took her a second to be able to do more than stare blankly, as if he had begun rambling in German. Once she recovered her composure, she grinned at the team with sudden enthusiasm.

"I don't know about all of you, but I agree with Stafford here," she said. "Thanks, Ben. That's the basis of it. We gotta believe we can win, else we've lost before we're even in the air." She was in grand speech mode. This was the Anne that surfaced when she had to make presentations and such. Presentations were one of the few things about Muggle school that she missed. "Heck, guys, our House emblem is the Hawk. We might as well live up to it, or try our best to." She noticed a face she recognized but hadn't expected to see here: Zack Dill. Without seeming to miss a beat or realizing the oddity of this abrupt topic change, she waved to him.

"Hey, Zack," she said. "I didn't know you played Quidditch. You ain't here about the Beater position, are you?" She considered telling him that she wouldn't advise it, but decided that might not be the best move. Short people were often extremely touchy about it, especially boys. "You're not on the list, either," she added. "I did say for anyone who wanted to to come down, though, so welcome aboard." It never crossed her mind that he might not be at the pitch because he wanted a spot on the team. \n\n

16 Anne Apparently so... 59 Anne 0 5

Zack Dill

August 18, 2005 10:05 PM

Huh, what? by Zack Dill

Zack blinked. It was the only thing his brain was capable of sending electrical impulses to the correct part of his anatomy to accomplish successfully. Anything else would be too complicated and he didn't have enough synapses to spare for it. Anne had just put his name and 'beater' in the same sentence. He was in something that resembled shock. It wasn't exactly shock, though, so he felt it was all right to forgo the infirmary unless his symptoms worsened. In the meantime, he blinked.

A few more brain cells rubbed together, and he managed an eloquent "Huh, what?" where the last word rose up in pitch until it cracked. "No!" he denied before she could take his dumbfounded baffement as assent to take the position. "Are you crazy? I'd be killed!" While, for most people, that statement would probably be hyperbole, Zack was quite certain that, in his case, it was downright literal.

His cerebrum once again in full working order, he continued, "I watch sports, I don't play them! And the one time I had to play Quidditch or fail a class, I played Seeker cuz that doesn't throw anything, block anything, or hit anything." Feeling a little calmer now that he'd presented his case clearly yet passionately, he concluded firmly with, "My best position in any sport is spectator." Thankfully, his brother wasn't at Sonora or else there might have been a comment here about mascots, benchwarmers, or possibly even the ball, but Nick was safely in Detroit which was a good distance for him. Though Cape Horn would have been even better.\n\n

1 Zack Dill Huh, what? 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Zoey

September 25, 2005 12:17 AM

Heh, finally posting by Zoey

Zoey had walked down to the Quidditch pitch alone. Her brother was in Teppenpaw, so he was unwilling to go with her, and she hadn't any friends on the team. Well, she didn't really have any friends to begin with, but it was her fault for that.

She looked around the small group before her and slumped down as low as she could get. Being 5'7 made that quite difficult though. She was the only 2nd year here. The only 2nd year. That brought her spirits down even lower and she vaguely wondered why she was even here to begin with. She had only played Quidditch once and had only flown enough to feel comfortable on a broom. So, really, it wasn't like she was that special or into it enough to stay...she could even sneak off really, say it was a prank or something that she had completely lost her marbles by signing up.

And then the voice of her brother, Ryan, filled her ears. He was excited to hear about a magical sport and excited by the idea that Dill and Zoe would be apart of that. That thought made her sulk and she grumply crossed her arms around her chest. It figures the one thing her brother say as a positive in her would be the one thing she wasn't entirely sure was the best thing for her.

So, Zoey sat there amongst the 'Team' listening to her 'Coach' talk about something when she noticed that it had turned to someone else in the crowd, Zack. The sight of him brought up Zoey's spirits and she smiled and waved to him. Was he on the team? Was she not alone anymore? Did she have a companian afterall?

"My best position in any sport is spectator."

"Oh." Zoey said audibly. A frown formed on her freckled face and her head lowered so that she could stare at the ground. She had hoped and had been wrong. Oh well, hopefully she'd at least make one friend on this team.\n\n

6 Zoey Heh, finally posting 39 Zoey 0 5

Anne

October 08, 2005 12:54 PM

I return at last by Anne

Anne's good mood was diminished somewhat by Zack's adamant insistence that he was a spectator rather than a player. She had to admit that it was probably in the best interests of the guy's health and agreed with the assessment that him going one-on-one with a Bludger was every kind of a bad idea, but those facts left her right back where she started: six players where she needed seven. She was seriously considering seeking out some higher-up to ask if she could just play two positions herself. It wouldn't have been the first time, as she was accustomed to playing four-on-four at the most and two-on-two at the least, but something told her that the system wouldn't quite work in any game more formal than that of two families of bored incognito South Carolinians meeting up in the marshes.

"That's cool," she said aloud. "Moral support's as important as anything else." Maybe I should try recruiting Professor Kijewski, she thought dryly. Anyone with the guts to deal with a subject as potentially life-threatening as Care of Magical Creatures would have no problems with Bludgers, from Anne's point of view. Of course, the rules probably didn't allow a Head of House to play for their team, which didn't get her any further away from square one.

Her train of thought was broken by someone, a tall redhead Anne didn't know, saying 'oh'. Since Anne was reasonably sure that Chris Dupree was a guy, that made the redhead Zoey Welsh. One thing she noticed immediately was that the other girl was taller than her, considerably so. She resisted the impulse to stand on her toes to attempt to make up for it, as it would be ineffective and make her look slightly childish. That was the last thing she wanted or needed.

"Something wrong?" she asked, perhaps a bit more bluntly than she had meant to. Anne was not naturally diplomatic by temperament, and was only learning the art of diplomacy slowly and reluctantly. She thought the other girl was a second year based on the separated classes, and that was enough to put her on her guard. None of the very few older students she had met so far had gone out of their way to make trouble for her, but she liked to look at things on a case-by-case basis, at least for things like this. \n\n

16 Anne I return at last 59 Anne 0 5

Zoey

October 14, 2005 1:07 AM

Good for you by Zoey

Zoey was still disappointed that Zack wasn't going to be apart of the team, but she wasn't so sure why she had been so surprised by this news. He hadn't seemed all that keen on joining the practice the previous year. Still though, he had been her only hope in having a companion on the team.

"Something wrong?"

Zoey looked up to find that it was her her 'Captain' was addressing. Zoey's mouth hung open a bit from surprise by the rather rude way the question had been asked. Had Zoey said something snarky to get such a reaction? Had she said anything at all? Or was it her lack of response that had caused it? Either way, Zoey felt humiliated and a small blush rose into her freckled cheeks.

"What? No." Zoey started, trying to calm her beating heart. She absolutely hated being the center of anything and, at that moment, she felt as though all eyes were on her. "I just was hoping Zack would be on the team..." Zoey mumbled, looking back down at the ground and trying to make herself as small as possible. She shouldn't have joined the team.\n\n

6 Zoey Good for you 39 Zoey 0 5