Reporting for duty on Quidditch Pitch

Jennifer Zucchero

September 15, 2007 8:51 PM

Crotalus try-outs by Jennifer Zucchero

Jennifer had no delusional over-confidence in her team this year, even though they had won the cup the previous one. First off, the first years weren’t allowed to be on the teams any more. Not that she didn’t love her team as it was, or, rather, had been, since at least one person seemed to be off of it now, and she wouldn’t want to trade any of them for a first year, but…the lack of new blood meant a fairly likely chance of a lack of alternates this year, and that concerned her more than a bit.

Secondly, of course, was the fact that things could, and did, change so rapidly among the house teams. After all, there had yet to be a back-to-back champion, and while Pecari had managed to stay in the final match at least all three years, Teppenpaw hadn’t managed to follow suit after it’s victory two years ago, and there was no reason to think her team wouldn’t be more like the latter than former.

Still, of course, that was no reason to be pessimistic. After all, just from the sign-up sheet she already had a full team, and there was no telling who would spontaneously decide to show up (she really wasn’t expecting much from that venue, but it never hurt to hope). Plus, she actually had an assistant now, which should be most excellent. Another mind to pick, and everything. She actually hadn’t forced him to sit with her and go over ideas for plays and such, but she was planning to soon.

The weather was fairly nice for the tryouts/first practice if no one not on the sheet showed up. It was sunny, but not incessantly hot, and there were a few clouds out, enough to provide a little shade at least. After changing, Jennifer had gone to the shed to drag out the box of the quidditch balls, and by the time she’d gotten back it appeared that most everyone had shown up. So she went straight into things.

“Hey, everyone, and welcome back.” She didn’t bother introducing herself, since there were no first years there (she hoped. She didn’t want to have to deal with any rogue firsties, even if sneaking to the try-outs was more of a Pecari-ish thing to do.). Still, there were other introductory aspects that had to be put out there. “For those of you who haven’t heard, Geoffrey has been appointed assistant captain, so be sure to offer congratulations, or condolences, I suppose, whichever you feel more appropriate.

“Today’s going to just be a basic practice, unless we have multiple walk-ons for the same position, in which case actual tryouts will occur. So, for any of you here who didn’t sign up on the list, come see me in a sec, give me position, and such, and we’ll get going.” She glanced around at her team. “Now, things may get a bit more intense this year, just because we finally have a reputation we want to uphold, but nothing as insane as the Pecaris reportedly had for their tryouts, I promise.” Lizzie had told her all about the all-day practice. Jennifer had thought it a bit mad, but she supposed the Cravens were entitled to their own opinions about captaining.

“Now, Geoffrey, you take Oliver and Helena to the far goals, and you three can figure out how much you collectively remember from last year.” She passed him the qauffle. “Earl, you go with them as well. Gwen and Lily, I’ll let the bludgers out in a second, so you two can devise plans and stuff among yourselves. So go knock yourself out, guys.”

Subthreads:

Fuming by Earl Valentine with Oliver Abbott, Geoffrey Spindler, Earl, Helena Layne, Lutece Anthony

Reporting for duty by Gwen Carey with Lily Collins

0 Jennifer Zucchero Crotalus try-outs 48 Jennifer Zucchero 1 5

Earl Valentine

September 16, 2007 3:58 AM

Fuming by Earl Valentine

Earl woke up the morning of the try-outs in great spirits. It was his first day back on the pitch and he was looking forward to a nice hard practice. Or at least, a nice long ride around the pitch while Jenny did the try-outs. He wouldn't have to try out. Being a member of the team since his first year, he was pretty much guaranteed a spot on the team unless he accidentally killed someone or something like that.

Instead of walking from his room to the pitch, he hopped on his broom and zoomed out the window. It was something he'd been wanting to try since he got his broom last year and thought that he would be doing it from now on. It was really fun.

Earl reached the pitch in just enough time to see Jenny walking up to a group of people with the trunk of Quidditch balls. He landed a bit roughly, but steadied himself quickly. He was going to only pretend to listen to Jenny's speech, but her first bit of news made that idea fly right out the window.

Geoffrey was the assistant captain? Earl's jaw dropped. this wasn't fair. That kid was a year younger than Earl! Earl had been on the team longer than anyone...except for Jenny, of course...and Lily, he admitted to himself.

Why would Layne be chosen over Earl? It wasn't fair. But Jenny didn't elaborate on why Geoff was chosen or why anyone else wasn't chosen and she assigned tasks before he could demand some answers.

Begrudgingly, Earl followed his assistant captain, refusing to take this lying down.

0 Earl Valentine Fuming 67 Earl Valentine 0 5

Oliver Abbott

September 16, 2007 3:55 PM

Flying by Oliver Abbott

Today was the day of the Quidditch tryouts. Oliver was quite excited by the prospect. All summer his brother had played his Muggle sports with his Muggle friends, only letting Oliver join in to help make up numbers. He’d also been in a load of swimming competitions over the past year, adding to his already large collection of trophies. Julian had always over shadowed Oliver when it came to sports, but not when it came to Quidditch. That was one thing that was just Oliver’s. Not at Sonora, obviously, but at home he was the only one who could play, and that made him the best.

With his trusty Bluebottle slung over his shoulder, Oliver made his way down to the Quidditch pitch, fully decked out in green joggers and a red long-sleeved t-shirt, and his floppy green sun hat. Looking skywards, Oliver was relieved that there was at least some cloud. He supposed he was unique in his desire to play Quidditch in bad weather as a preference over sunshine. He saw that an older student had flown over to practise. That was cool – maybe Oliver would try that next time.

At the start of the tryouts, Jennifer introduced Geoffrey as the newly appointed assistant captain. Oliver didn’t know the older boy very well, so he muttered congratulations and left it at that, wondering vaguely why Jen had said ‘or condolences’. He soon forgot it, however, when the captains sent them off to their separate tasks. Mounting his broom, Oliver took off after the new assistant captain to the end of the pitch.

0 Oliver Abbott Flying 99 Oliver Abbott 0 5

Geoffrey Spindler

September 18, 2007 9:25 AM

If it had been an Aladren I'd sympathise more, Valentine by Geoffrey Spindler

"Ok, Captain," Geoffrey said, with a salute he'd learned from Stephen over the break. His slightly longer curls bobbed a little with the movement, and he smiled at her slightly, both unsure and oddly pleased at the same time. He hadn't missed Valentine's response to the first public announcement about his promotion within the team and while he felt like cringing or apologising he knew it wouldn't do any good. He'd been over all this with Jennifer already - he'd been selected by Coach Fox and well, that was that. Even if he wasn't certain that he should be next in line for the Captaincy with older students active members of the team. There had to be a reason of sorts, and Jennifer hadn't let him just say 'no' so this what how it was going to be. And Valentine would have to deal with that.

Tucking the Quaffle under his arm, he hopped on his broom and started to head over. Earl and Oliver - it was hard to mistake the white boy - were quick to follow (even if Earl didn't look pleased to be doing so) and Geoffrey called out to Helena, calling her after them. On arriving near their goal he looked about a bit, thinking. He hadn't quite expected to be asked to take an active role in running the "tryouts" so he hadn't prepared anything in advance, but his summer had stood him in good stead, and after a moment he smiled widely.

"Spread out a little, you two," he instructed Helena and Oliver. "Earl, want to move into the middle? We'll get our arms and your eye in with a little piggy-in-the-middle." He tossed the ball to one of his fellow Chasers, starting things off.
\r\n\r\n

39 Geoffrey Spindler If it had been an Aladren I'd sympathise more, Valentine 79 Geoffrey Spindler 0 5

Earl

September 19, 2007 12:35 AM

I don't need sympathy by Earl

Earl followed Geoff and the other two chasers to one of the unoccupied goals. Earl was about to head towards said goals when Geoff told him and the chasers where to go. When everyone had gotten into position, it looked like the chasers had formed a triangle with Earl in the middle. Earl was wondering if this was some weird formation to trick an opposing team when Geoff said that they were going to practice by play piggy-in-the-middle.

Earl cocked an eyebrow. This was weird. This was stupid. he was about to tell Geoff off for playing games during a serious practice, but the more he thought about it, the better the idea seemed.

Frowning because this younger guy actually had a good idea, he watched the ball like a hawk as Geoff tossed it to one of the other chasers. He'll just wait until they feel secure before he goes in for the steal.

0 Earl I don't need sympathy 0 Earl 0 5

Helena Layne

September 19, 2007 5:50 PM

Will you take correction, then? by Helena Layne

Helena couldn't honestly say she was too surprised to find the Crotalus Quidditch team so small. She'd expected it to be at least one person larger, but the lack of first years was probably translating into lowered numbers for all four House teams. Though she hadn't seen her to be sure, Helena knew Anne well enough to be reasonably sure that the older girl was having fits over it. Jennifer didn't seem unhappy with her turnout, but attempts at hypothesizing were close to useless. She didn't know her own captain very well, and Jennifer's objectivity might have been a bit skewed by the previous year's Championship win.

Her shoe came untied just before she drew level with the others for the tryout-practice and was left for later as the captain began to speak. The only bit that was really much varied from earlier years was Jennifer telling them about Geoffrey's promotion. She smiled and nodded to him politely before the speech moved on. At least one of her teammates wasn't pleased, but so it went. Somebody would always get their feathers ruffled, no matter what was in the works. It was just Earl's luck that he was in a year with very easily-ruffled feathers.

She tied her shoe as quickly as she could once the speech was over, but still fell behind the others in the Quaffle group. Jerking the laces just as Geoffrey called for her, she quickly mounted her broom and flew to join the boys - it was a bit odd to not see Chrissy, but she'd get over it soon enough - trying not to look too embarrassed. "Sorry," she said, smiling quickly in greeting at Oliver.

Helena moved further away from Oliver when told to do so, not quite sure what the eldest Chaser was describing with the phrase 'piggy-in-the-middle'. Quite apart from Earl's lack of resemblance to one, there was no point to putting pigs in the middle of things, as they were almost sure to try to break the circle. Maybe that was the point? Helena had never seen a Keeper attacking Chasers before...

Before she could ask - Merlin, she was behind on everything today - Geoffrey threw the Quaffle at her. She caught it by reflex, then almost immediately passed it to Oliver. If she was doing the wrong thing, she expected she'd hear about it directly. It did, however, make sense based on the comments about what the exercise was supposed to be testing...in her head, anyway. She wasn't known for employing unconventional logic like Anne was, but that could have very well had more to do with her ability to keep her mouth shut than any real sensibility.

16 Helena Layne Will you take correction, then? 88 Helena Layne 0 5

Oliver

September 22, 2007 1:47 PM

I'll take whatever I can get by Oliver

Geoff, assistant captain, was apparently in charge of the Chasers and Keeper for the tryout. Or was it a practise? Oliver had noticed earlier that Lutece wasn’t there for the tryout. She hadn’t signed up on the sheet in the commons, either. Then again, she hadn’t been to many of the practises at the end of last year, either. Perhaps she’d changed her mind about Quidditch? At least it would mean one more place Oliver was safe from her company, which couldn’t be bad news. However, it wasn’t until the four of them were in the air that Oliver noticed Chrissy wasn’t around, either. In fact, there was just the right amount of people to make up one team, with no reserves. Did that mean that Oliver had made the team? He couldn’t be sure – perhaps Chrissy just couldn’t make it to the tryouts? Do his best not to let himself get too excited by the prospect of no longer being a reserve, Oliver turned his attention back to the task at hand.

He caught the Quaffle from Helena with a grin. The sports coaches at his last school had sometimes made them all play piggy-in-the-middle as a warm up for basketball, so Oliver was no stranger to the game. He wondered whether it would be harder played on a broomstick, because you had to worry about staying in the air too, or easier because the broom could move you around faster than your legs.

Oliver considered feigning a pass, but decided instead to play it straight for the beginning of the game, and passed straight back to Helena. Maybe he’d try out some more unusual moves later on.

0 Oliver I'll take whatever I can get 0 Oliver 0 5

Lutece Anthony

September 23, 2007 8:48 AM

Speak of the devil! by Lutece Anthony

OOC: I have permission to write briefly for Jen.

BIC:

After a rather hectic, slightly boring, and all around useless summer, Lutece was rather glad she had decided to come back to Sonora. None of her friends in the real world were interested in talking to her much anymore. And she sort of had friends here, right? Oliver wasn't that bad, for a slightly geeky boy. He might even be cute in a few years. If he got rid of the glasses and 'potions' obsession. There was also Talitha, her slightly weird roommate who had been too busy to come over during the summer. Her mother would have flipped out, anyway. That had been kind of the point though. It was a bit disappointing when her revenge on her mother was taken by Talitha's schedule--but she supposed she could forgive the girl. Maybe.

It was a sad thing when Lutece was happy to come back to freak school after returning to the real world for an entire summer. Given her parents' obnoxious behaviours, though, it was potentially understandable. Her mother had actually gone through her diary over the summer! Her diary! Obviously she had never heard of the word 'private'. At least her annoying father had come to good use. He appreciated her adolescent need for privacy. But the whole diary affair had escalated into the first of many full-fledged fights between her parents. The yelling got to be so entirely annoying that Lutece had actually gone to some of Grace's swim meets, just to get away from it. She would have gone over to a friend's house or hung out with someone, but there was no one to hang out with. She had been stuck, like a loser, on the sidelines of a stupid swim meet.

Who watched swim meets?!

After a lot of back and forth about whether or not to sign up for Quidditch, Lutece had decided not to. The day of tryouts, of course, she had changed her mind. After last year, she was kind of afraid of Jen--who had unequivocally informed her that sports did not turn people into lesbians, period, end of discussion. Lutece had appeared late to tryouts, hesitantly approaching Jen. The captain had smiled and welcomed her back to the team, however, and sent her off to work with Earl and the Chasers. Huh.

Mounting her broom, Lutece flew up behind Earl, pausing until he wasn't busy. Then she tapped him on the shoulder. "Earl? Jen said to come work with you; what are we doing?"

0 Lutece Anthony Speak of the devil! 100 Lutece Anthony 0 5

Earl

September 27, 2007 4:18 PM

I hope I'm not this Devil you speak of by Earl

Earl's complete attention was focused on the red quaffle bring passed around him from chaser to chaser. Then he saw his opportunity. The pale boy - Oliver, he remembered his name to be - was passing it to the quiet girl - Helena - and was going to go in for the kill, when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Earl turned his head around, noticing the ball whiz through the air behind him.

"Yeah?" he said, slightly irritated that his quaffle stalking had been interrupted. He listened to her and sighed.

"Yeah, okay. We're playing piggy-in-the-middle. Or Keeper-in-the-middle, if wanna say it like that. Just try to go for the ball when the chasers pass it." He gave one last look to his alternate, before turning his attention back to the quaffle, waiting for another chance at stealing it.

0 Earl I hope I'm not this Devil you speak of 0 Earl 0 5

Gwen Carey

September 28, 2007 11:41 PM

Reporting for duty by Gwen Carey

Despite her doubts about the wisdom of returning, Gwen was in a much better mood on her way to the Pitch than she had been since the year had started and the entire school had, as far as she could tell, gone crazy. She didn't know many details of the younger years, but if everyone she knew was suddenly not acting right, the only logical conclusion was that it was part of some larger trend. Since the Quidditch team had always been a bit crazy - she thought it might be a fundamental quality of Quidditch teams - it was a relief to be around it. Her roommates were not supposed to resemble normal people. Ever.

Most of the rest of the team, noticeably smaller this year, was already assembled by the time she reached the Pitch and abducted a broom from the shed. The new rule about firsties had come as a surprise, but, as alternates were rarely used anyway, Gwen didn't expect it to matter much unless all the Beater teams got better at aiming and all the Chasing teams got worse at dodging. She wondered how the other teams were doing with recruitment. Pecari never had any problems - the Pecari temperament was inclined towards sports, it seemed - but Teppenpaw and Aladren were another story. She put aside her speculation to listen to Jennifer's speech as it began.

The announcement of the Assistant Captain came as a bit of a surprise. Gwen could see why she hadn't been picked - it would take several kinds of idiocy to trust her moods with anything important - but if she had known someone would be put in that position beforehand, she would have thought it would be Earl. Maybe they figured Lily would murder him if he got a promotion. She considered actually offering Geoff condolences after Jennifer said it, but quickly decided it wasn't a good idea. The fourth year might not realize that it was a joke, coming from her.

Orders were handed out as usual. The four boys and Helena, who looked distinctly out of place, went off to work under Geoffrey's instruction, and she and Lily were told to work out a strategy. Gwen ran a hand over her hair to make sure it was still up and out of her way, then offered the sixth year Beater a dry smile. Lily could be a little...intense, and Merlin knew she wasn't subtle, but Gwen liked her well enough. "I need to work on aim," she drawled, her accent a little thicker than usual from the summer. "Strategically, I don't really have any suggestions. You?"

0 Gwen Carey Reporting for duty 63 Gwen Carey 0 5

Lily Collins

September 29, 2007 2:44 AM

Er...me too.. by Lily Collins

Lily was really pleased to be back at Quidditch. She never in her life thought she'd actually enjoy a sport. Not because she was fundamentally bad at them, being on a sports team just went against anything Lily stood for. She had this belief that school athletes (such as in the muggle world) thought they were the greatest people on earth and were jerks about it.

On the other hand, she just plain really enjoyed hurting the other team, period. The win last year had really felt good,plus Lily had broken Saul's broom and Lizzie's wrist. Not that she was completely cruel, it was just that it was the way the game was, it was what Beaters did.

She listened as Jennifer gave her instructions and announced Geoff would be an assistant captain. Lily could see her arch-nemesis Earl didn't look too happy about it. She smirked and decided to pour a little salt in the wounds. "Way to go, Geoff!" Lily really was happy for the kid too. She also trusted him far more than she would Earl. Earl hadn't even been able to remember his own position , how could he ever be trusted to organize a whole team?

Gwen spoke to her then. "I need to work on aim,Strategically, I don't really have any suggestions. You?"

Lily smiled. "Well I like the current strategy of trying to knock the other team out of the game. No firsties means fewer alternates, thus leading to well, not having replacements, making it difficult for them to continue properly. However, we can work on your aim." Her eyes instinctively went to the other group where Earl was but she thought better of trying to hurt him as it would probably anger Jen. Granted the rest of the team really did need practice dodging bludgers sent by the other teams. "Er....maybe there's some objects we should try enchanting and making fly so you can try to hit them." Lily's eyes lit up as she came up with an idea "Or we could like find volunteers, to fly around while we try to hit them. Only we won't tell them what we're up to, because nobody would want to then" She grinned mischieviously. It seemed to her the younger years were full of Quidditch-obsesssed jocks itching for any chance for involvement in the game. "Unfortunately we can't do that now, though. Maybe we can just start by you hitting bludgers at stationary objects."

11 Lily Collins Er...me too.. 45 Lily Collins 0 5