Coach Amelia Pierce
January 24, 2011 1:22 PM
Flying Lessons for First Years by Coach Amelia Pierce
As Sonora's Coach, Amelia Pierce only taught one class: Flying Lessons, which was given only to first years (though older students could attend if they wanted to and signed up in advance). It was more than enough for her and she did not envy the full professors their workload.It was generally a popular class among the kids because there were no homework nor tests, and half the class was allowed to play broom tag or a pick-up game of quidditch for most of it while the true beginners were given basic lessons. The rest were only expected to participate to the best of their ability.
As long as everyone spent the entire period sitting on a broom in the air and at least attempting to do as instructed, they passed. It was not a difficult class by any stretch of the imagination. The final exam was flying from one end of the pitch to the other and back without crashing. That got an A. If they could do in under ten minutes it was an E. Under five earned an O. Most kids earned Es and Os in her class.
"Hello," she greeted her new class of first years once they seemed to have stopped trickling in. She allowed for 'getting lost time' the first week, but she'd dock points for poor punctuality later. She was Head of Crotalus; it was practically in her job discription to be a stickler for rules. "My name is Coach Pierce. I will be your flying instructor this year."
"Now, I know most of you will not view this as a 'real' class, but I do have the authority to take House Points and assign detention, and I will if I have any problems. I expect you to show up on time. I expect you to behave and show each other respect. I will not tolerate insults or taunting of any form. I expect everyone to try, including the girls. No exceptions. I assure you, no matter how much they support WAIL, your parents will not disown you for hovering on a broom and flying across the pitch."
She took a breath, and used the short pause to look around the group to make sure they were still listening. "That said, I am aware some of you already know how to fly. I offer those students the priviledge of forgoing the basic lessons and doing whatever you like so long as you are on your broom and flying for the duration of the lesson. I have Quaffles and other muggle varieties of balls available for your use. Later, once I know I can trust you, I'll allow bludgers and Snitches if you like. If you need anything else, let me know and I'll see what I can do."
She waited a moment to let them try to imagine what other equipment they might need for more creative flying games, then added, "Just remember, this is a priviledge and if I have any problems with you fighting amongst yourself or interferring with my lessons, you will all be down here hovering five feet over the ground with the beginners."
With that threat levied, she expected not to have any problems with the experienced kids. "Now I'm going to call role, and then anyone who feels they do not need basic instruction may go play. Please raise your hand and say 'here' when I call your name. Adair, Alice." She went through the list, marking attendance, and then put away her clipboard. She had taken note of her cousin's presence, as she had everyone else, but made no attempt to single him out. She would not show that kind of bias. "Okay, that's it. If I didn't call your name, let me know. Experienced fliers, you may take to the air. School brooms are over there, if you don't have your own."
She gave a few seconds for unnamed students to make themselves known and for the fliers to get out of the way. "Everyone else, line up here." Her wand flicked out and a white line appeared in the grass. "If you have your own broom put it down beside you. To your right if you're right-handed, to your left if you're left-handed."
Once they did that, Amelia started handing out brooms to those who didn't have one yet. "Put it to your right if you're right-handed, to the left if you're left-handed," she repeated as she moved down the line. Once they all had brooms beside them, she instructed, "Now hold your wand hand out over your broom, like this," she stepped over her own broom, lying in the grass, so that it was to her right. She held out her right hand over it. "Palm down. Now, in a firm voice, like if you're ordering a dog to sit, tell it to come to your hand by saying 'up' - Up!" she said, louder, in demonstration, and her broom leapt up directly into her hand.
"I'd like you all to try that. You may need to try it a couple of times to get it to work. Once it's in your hand, just swing one leg over it like this," she demonstrated climbing onto the broom, "and just hover there for a bit. Try to keep steady and not drift too much. Raise your hand if you have a question or a problem. Barring too many of those, I'll show you how to manuever once everybody gets into a hover."
OOC: Hello and welcome to Sonora. Your character earns points for their House by participating in classes, so be sure to follow the posting rules. Long quality posts earn the most points. Have fun!
Subthreads: Advanced Students Play Here (nm) by Coach Pierce with Derwent Pierce IV, Josephine Owen
Beginner Students Lesson Here (nm) by Coach Pierce with Ayita Bly of Pecari House, Fae Sinclair (Crotalus), Regina Parker (Teppenpaw)
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Coach Amelia Pierce
Flying Lessons for First Years
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Coach Amelia Pierce
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Ben Holland
January 26, 2011 5:21 PM
That's a bit far fetched. by Ben Holland
Ben had been waiting for flying lessons forever. He had been able to fly since he was four, but never with so many people his own age. He was curious where his skills were compared to his fellow first years. He gripped his Lightning Streak 380 as he ran down to the pitch. He couldn't wait to break in his new broom. Cy had only told him the password the day term started, so he couldn't use it until he reached school.Ben was beyond excited when the teacher told them that fliers could pretty much goof off the entire time. He was shocked when Four grabbed him and whisper something about a Dark Witch impostor and a dead Amelia Pierce. Ben shook his head, finding it a bit odd, "How do you know?" he whispered back, "You weren't alive twelve years ago. Who says that there's something you don't know?"
He took off, hovering next to Four in the air. He didn't want to tick him off already, but he didn't believe in putting complete faith in something that couldn't be proved. Maybe he was wrong, but that didn't mean that he couldn't ask a question and be skeptic. He looked at his fellow Teppenpaw, "Sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. I just like to see a different view."
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Ben Holland
That's a bit far fetched.
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Ben Holland
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Jessica Applerose
January 26, 2011 6:26 PM
I don't understand... by Jessica Applerose
Jessica looked at her timecard and smiled. Flying lessons? She'd been flying since she could walk! Well, maybe not that long, but long enough to be good at it.Her father had just gotten her an Aero 2010 for her birthday, and she was excited to try it out. It was supposed to be fast, and she liked speed very much.
She recongized Derry and Ben in her class, and she tried to make her way over to them, when she heard Derry tell Ben something. Something about a dark witch and their professor? She would ask him about it once they were in the air.
In a few short moments, they were dismissed, so Jess rushed over to where they were. They'd already flown up into the air, so Jessica mounted and flew up to join them. The broom rose magnificently, and Jess was pleased. Her dad had made a good investment in it.
"Hey guys," she greeted them. "Our instructor is a dark witch?" she asked, making sure the others couldn't hear her. Maybe it was a secret? She was pretty confused. Then she smiled. "Hey, our instructor's name is Pierce. Are you related to her, Derry?"
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Jessica Applerose
I don't understand...
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Jessica Applerose
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Derry Four
January 26, 2011 7:31 PM
Twelve Years Ago by Derry Four
"Father said," Derry told Ben when his roommate questioned the veracity of his claim, but taking off and flying up to an altitude sufficiently over the ground gave him time to remember Hamlet's warning: Father isn't always right. Derry hadn't known what to make of the comment at the time, but surely it wasn't about this, was it? Father would know how his own son died and who died with him.Jessica soon joined them, and Derry hovered between his two new friends, frowning at her question as he tried to figure out what he should tell them about it. They were flying on their brooms and not fighting, so he figured they were meeting all the requirements the Impostor had given for participating in her class. Even if they were conspiring against her a little bit.
"She's trying to make people think she's my cousin, Amelia Pierce, Thad's sister," he tried to explain. "But there was an accident, twelve years ago. Everyone was at gramma's for a reunion and a potion some of them were making blew up. Amelia and her brother Arnold, my brother Derry Three, the twins' oldest sister Belinda, and great-grandfather Derwent the First were all killed in the blast." He shuddered a little and hoped none of the potions that the professor here would teach them were dangerous enough to kill everyone in the room.
"That witch," he nodded down at the Coach, not quite daring to point blatantly, "is trying to convince people she survived and that she is my lost cousin. Father says she's an impostor, but she looks just like the old pictures, so she has to be a dark witch or she wouldn't look so much like us, would she?"
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Derry Four
Twelve Years Ago
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Derry Four
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Ben
January 26, 2011 10:58 PM
Are you positive? by Ben
When Four declared he knew because "Father said", Ben had to keep from rolling his eyes. Some people put too much trust in their father. When he explained the situation further, Ben felt that something was missing. Why would she want to impersonate Thad's sister? What kind of potion incident killed everyone in the room?He greeted Jessica with a slight smile. Then he turned to Four, looking at him with doubt. Maybe it was just him, but he felt like something was missing. "Why would she pretend to be your cousin? And I mean, you never know, Four. Maybe she managed to escape, and now her family won't even believe it's really her. I mean, I'm all for avoiding her if you're right, but if you're wrong, I feel sorry for her."
He knew he was probably stepping out of line, but he couldn't help it. What if they were all wrong and Coach Pierce was being rejected by her family, instead of being celebrated. Unless they had solid proof that the real Amelia was dead, then nothing was completely true. "I hope I didn't cross the line, I've just read to many novels." He turned to Jessica, "What's your opinion on all this, Jess?" He realized that he had never been invited to shorten her name, and immediately added, "-ica. Sorry."
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Ben
Are you positive?
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Ben
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Jessica
January 27, 2011 6:15 PM
That's unfortunate. by Jessica
Jessica listened to Derry's story and nodded. It was beginning to make sense. Potion accidents were serious, she knew. Her father, as an apothecary, had been in several. It was easy to mess up on a potion, or accidentally drop in one too many of an ingredient, or accidentally add a fatal ingredient.Ben was very skeptical about the whole ordeal, and she understand that as well, though she could believe Derry's story. She felt sad that some of Derry's family members had been killed in such a tragic way. She couldn't imagine what she would do if her parents were killed in a potions accident. Then she'd be all alone.
The fear that gripped her at that thought made her hands clutch her broom a little tighter. She quickly banished the thought. Whenever she imagined being all alone, she became anxious and had panic attacks. She never wanted to be alone.
Ben asked for her opinion, and she came back to. "You can call me Jess," she said. "I can understand. You're rich, so anyone could want to impersonate your cousin to get money and land and power or whatever else you have." She grew solemn. "And I'm sorry that some of your family was killed in a potions accident," she said. "That's tragic. My dad's been in a lot of potion's accidents, being an apothecary and all, so I know that it's easy to mess up potions. Making them explode is even easier."
Jess quickly turned to Ben. "Not to ignore your point of view," she said. She didn't want to upset one of her new friends. "I can also see why you'd be skeptical." To her, there were always two stories. It seemed like a mystery novel she'd read. "It'd be interesting to get to the bottom of this," she said.
Jessica looked down at the ground far below them at the instructor. "Does she look exactly like your cousin?" she asked.
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Jessica
That's unfortunate.
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Jessica
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Derry Four
January 27, 2011 7:05 PM
It's the truth as I know it by Derry Four
Derry scratched his head as Ben offered a theory that seemed far-fetched to him. But then, he'd grown up with the knowledge that Amelia was dead. It wasn't until Father started giving him Advice About Sonora that anybody even mentioned the impostor. Ben came from it backwards. He'd known about the impostor first and then found out Amelia was dead. It probably didn't seem as much like a fact to him.After all, Ben didn't exist because a potions explosion killed off half the family's heirs and they'd needed to make new ones.
For that same reason, he wasn't entirely sure how to take Jessica's offer of sympathy. While it was sad that Derry Three and the others had died, Derry Four had never known any of them and wouldn't even be alive if they hadn't. But it was polite to say "Thank you," so he did, even if she ought to be saying it to Mom instead of him. He decided he'd pass it along to the rightful recipient in his next letter home.
"No," he assured Ben, "It's okay to ask. But I'm pretty sure the family's got good reason to believe Amelia and Arnold are both really and truly dead, or Aunt Katrina and Uncle Thesius wouldn't have had needed to have Thaddeus when Uncle Thesius was over sixty and Aunt Katrina was over forty. Amelia and Arnold had both been grown-ups already."
He nodded in agreement to Jessica's assessment as to why someone might try to impersonate Amelia. "Yeah, as Thad's sister, if Amelia were still alive, she'd be given a spending allowance and she'd be allowed to live at Thad's house, which is a really nice place - not as nice as the Heir's House, of course, but Thad's father was the second son, so it's next best. Obviously, she'd only have those until she got married, but she'd have a good sized dowery, and Pierces are a respectable pureblood family, so she'd be in a position to maybe marry someone even richer than us."
He looked down at the Coach again and tried to remember the old pictures as well as he could. "I mean, she's older - Amelia was twenty-one when she died - so they're not exactly the same, but enough that I don't think she could look that much like her without using some kind of magic. Thad's sister used to coach at Durmstrang so maybe somebody there got some of her hair or something."
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Derry Four
It's the truth as I know it
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Derry Four
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