Doing the thing, no big deal... on Cascade Hall

The Coach

December 23, 2023 1:17 PM

Quidditch Sign Ups by The Coach

Sonora’s Quidditch team was, as ever, doing alright. The team was like the tide, going back and forth. When people left, they were always at their biggest and strongest or fastest and sharpest or whatever the requisite qualities were for their position—they were at their best, and then they graduated, leaving you wondering how the exceptionally small looking players they’d left behind could ever fill their shoes. Sometimes it was more pronounced than others. Sometimes, in fact, people were tripping over each other for years, especially over Seeker, so that you had a good run of them, the tail end of whom only got a year each. This year wasn’t too bad. They had lost both their senior Beaters but at least one of the junior beaters wasn’t that much their junior. Both the junior Beaters, if their other one rejoined, which wasn’t seeming as unlikely as it had this time last year.

The coach rarely pinned the sign up sheet to the notice board with anything except a sense of optimism—if things were good, then long may then continue, and if they were bad, well, it must be time for it to get better—but this year felt like it could be a good one.

Quidditch Signs Ups.

Please sign up below if you are interested in joining our Quidditch Program. Both new and experienced players welcome.

List your name, pronouns, house and preferred position.

Subthreads:

Beating down the doors (not literally) by Cole Pierce

Seeking glory by Alexander Pierce

Keeping to traditions by Hansel Hexenmeister

Chasing a good time by Xarryn Bavol

Easy decision by Fortune Ardovini

Doing the thing, no big deal... by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Back on the board by Leo Lyons

Let's go! by Donovan Peters

13 The Coach Quidditch Sign Ups 0 The Coach 1 5

Cole Pierce

December 23, 2023 4:22 PM

Beating down the doors (not literally) by Cole Pierce

Cole was eager to return to Quidditch this year. He was going to miss Oz and Billy, but their graduation meant Cole was finally going to make first string and be able to play in real games. Also, there was a fair chance Yaniel might be up to rejoining the team this year, which would be great especially now that they were the senior beaters.

He also figured it was pretty much between him and Fortune to get Quidditch Captain, and he was eager to find out which of them it would be. He was trying to keep his expectations reasonable, reminding himself that Fortune had been first string and senior Chaser for a few years already, and Fortune was running the dueling club now, but it would be really cool if Cole could get captain like Dad and prefect like Mom in the same year.

Since he and Fortune were already both prefects though, he didn’t think it would be a huge disappointment for either not to get it, but he was still really hoping for it as he put his name on the sign up sheet (and smiling when he saw pronouns were now part of the information being requested):

Cole Pierce, He/Him, Teppenpaw, Beater

1 Cole Pierce Beating down the doors (not literally) 1546 0 5

Alexander Pierce

December 23, 2023 5:28 PM

Seeking glory by Alexander Pierce

Alexander watched for the Quidditch sign-up sheet to go up, making a walk past the bulletin board a normal part of his routine every time he went to eat. He was soon rewarded with a parchment eliciting the names of those interested in joining the team.

An unusually high percentage of his class had joined in previous years and they were third years now, which meant they should be able to field a first string that was all intermediate or older, which hopefully would also lead into a higher winning percentage.

Alexander himself had been one of the beginners bringing down the average age of the first string, but he’d been practicing hard both during formal training sessions with the rest of the team, and over the summer, and he was eager to prove his improving skills. He’d been lucky not to have any older students competing for his spot, but he liked to think he was good enough to be the team seeker even if there had been.

If any of the new kids coming in had designs of his position, he hoped to prove he was the better player, but he was also kind of excited about the idea of taking a young protégé under his wing so the team wouldn’t suffer when he did eventually graduate and move on.

At only thirteen years of age, though, he planned for his name to adorn the list for quite some time to come.

Alexander Pierce, He/Him, Crotalus, Seeker

1 Alexander Pierce Seeking glory 1566 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

December 23, 2023 7:57 PM

Keeping to traditions by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel wandered by the bulletin board and happened to see the Quidditch sign-up sheet. He’d had an up and down relationship with the Quidditch team over the past six years. As a beginner, he’d joined because Hilda was there. He’d quit after she graduated because it had always felt like her thing and not his, but he’d been an on-again, off-again attendee the past few years, playing mostly in intra-school games to round out team numbers.

Last year though, he’d been the oldest non-beater to turn up to try-outs and this year he was straight-up the only seventh year who played at all, so it seemed increasingly weird to just play as a reserve. This year, he decided he’d finish his Sonora career as he’d started it, and just sign up like a normal player and see what happened.

In first year, he’d started playing as a Chaser like his brother had been, but more recently he’d been playing as a Keeper, partly because there weren’t as many people who wanted to play that position, and partly because he didn’t want to step on Fortune’s toes, as he seemed to have the Chasers well in hand without Hansel.

So this year, he decided to follow his existing trend and added his name to the bottom of the list:

Hansel Hexenmeister, He/Him, Teppenpaw, Keeper

1 Hansel Hexenmeister Keeping to traditions 1524 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

December 23, 2023 9:02 PM

Chasing a good time by Xarryn Bavol

Xarryn had heard the Quidditch sign-up sheet got posted, so he headed over to the bulletin board to add his name. He liked playing Chaser. It was like piracy, but stealing a ball instead of bullion, and using brooms instead of swords. They played with a good crew and they were even led by a captain. And instead of cannons, they had beaters shooting off bludgers.

Xarryn maybe wasn’t the best player on the team, but he had a lot of fun on the pitch, and he was getting better. Now a fourth year, he was in the middle age group, and the largest group to join the team was the year group following his, so he had a small experience advantage there, plus a complete lack of fear when it came to heights.

He put his name on the list.

Xarryn Bavol, Yeer 4, Pecari, Chazer

He walked away, eager to get back up into the air, but for now he was hungry so he headed over to the Pecari table, idly looking for Fortune to sit with because the slightly older boy was his friend and they had a lok of common interests and activities. Ah! There he was! “Hey, Fortune! Did you sign up for Quidditch yet?”

1 Xarryn Bavol Chasing a good time 1560 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

December 23, 2023 9:49 PM

Easy decision by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune looked at the Quidditch sign-up sheet. This was one of his favorite things at the school. Learning and things were fine and all, the clubs were fun, but Quidditch was the best part of school. So there was no question about whether or not he was going to sign up. Plus there was the chance he might be appointed Quidditch Captain. It would be a little awkward if he didn't participate. Even with that aside, the chasers still needed him. He wondered if he'd have any new ones to train. That could be fun.

As he looked over the sheet, he noticed a slight change in the normal sign-up instructions. Now they were doing pronouns as well? Well, okay. That was easy enough, but why the change? Oh well, he'd probably find out soon enough. It didn't really make any difference to him. Fortune pulled his quill out and wrote his information on the sheet.

Fortune Ardovini, He/Him, Pecari, Chaser

With that done he tucked the writing implement away and started trying to figure out what his schedule might end up looking like this year. This wasn't anything new to think about, but it was more official. He had prefecting, Qudditch, gaming club, and... oh yeah, classes.

2 Fortune Ardovini Easy decision 1549 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

December 24, 2023 4:34 AM

Doing the thing, no big deal... by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Yaniel was Yaniel. He just was. He wished he could just be.

He had crossed the terrifying line of Making This a Thing. He had told his parents and was refusing to back down on that. But the thing that had felt for so long like the finishing line—being able to say ‘this is who I am’—had turned out to be only the beginning. Because now he had said it, he had to live it.

He wished he could just beam the information into everyone’s heads at once. He didn’t want to go around announcing and explaining. If it could be beamed back to him what they all thought of that and who was okay to still hang out, that would be very helpful too, but he wasn’t greedy. He just would settle for just… existing. Which seemed like a very small wish, when everyone else got to just do it by default.

The prefect ceremony had been the final push he needed to have a conversation with both Professor Skies and the Coach. He’d been meaning to anyway, but hearing the wrong name called out in front of the whole school had pushed him. If he had just spoken up before that, his wish would have sort of been granted. Everyone would have been just… told. Though he would have then had to walk up in front of all them while they whispered and yeah… Short of a magical miracle, maybe there was no good way to do that. But he didn’t want to be called that again in front of people, and although a lot of teachers knew them well enough to not do a roll call, there was still the possibility and—and he just wanted to move forward.

Each conversation had been a can of worms about what he did want, where a lot of the time he didn’t know. But he knew he wanted to be addressed correctly. He wished he didn’t have to come out in order to do it, but it was the lesser of two evils. Professor Skies and the Coach had both been supportive of that. Quidditch being a mixed sport made it easier, other than changing room issues, and he wasn’t anywhere close to starting any medical treatments so that wasn’t even something that needed discussing he just—he just wanted to be called the right thing. And the coach had promised that he would be, and that anyone who didn’t do that would be reminded, and that if reminding didn’t work, would get a private talking to about how we respect our teammates. All of which made him want to go and shut himself alone in his room instead of actually signing up.

Only… not really.

So he made his way to the hall, smiling when he saw the sign up sheet, and how the coach had—as promised—made it easier to be clear about things with people. And they’d (almost) all responded in kind, so he wasn’t even going to be the only one. It was going to just… be a thing that they did. The only one who hadn’t was Xarryn, and Yaniel was pretty sure that was more a reading issue than a not wanting to issue.

He wrote his name. He’d done it many times, starting long before he even really knew why he wanted to write it. But always in the margins and in secret. This was the first time he’d ever written it in a public place.

Yaniel Ayala Velez, he/him, Crotalus 5th year, Beater.

He stood looking at it for a moment, a smile on his face.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Doing the thing, no big deal... 1554 0 5

Leo Lyons

January 22, 2024 8:57 PM

Back on the board by Leo Lyons

Leo had had a somewhat uneventful summer, filled with farm chores and Quidditch practice with Donovan. He was learning enough magic now that it felt strange not to do any at home. It wasn't that he was learning anything terribly useful as a Beginner, but he always felt a little rusty when he came back to school and got back into classes.

Quidditch was better, though. The back fields were far enough from prying eyes that he and Don could practice in peace, and his dad had obtained the correct permits to put up muggle repellant wards to make sure. Leo came back to school tanned, his muscles filling out his slight shoulders. He felt stronger, older, and with the way his voice was constantly cracking, he knew he wasn't wrong, that his body was changing and growing. That didn't make the whole puberty thing less awkward- smacking his head on things he was previously able to walk under and flinging too-long arms into walls and tables and whatever else was in the way had left him with a multitude of bruises.

He was glad to be back at Sonora, gladder still to be back in Quidditch.

Leo Lyons, he/him, Teppenpaw, Chaser.

64 Leo Lyons Back on the board 1568 0 5

Donovan Peters

January 22, 2024 10:00 PM

Let's go! by Donovan Peters

Donovan eagerly watched the message board for the Quidditch signup list. He'd kept busy over the summer, helping with the cows and running drills with Leo. He'd thought about writing to Misty, but didn't know what to write about, and writing was such a tedious thing anyway. It would be a lot easier if he could just call her on the phone.

Sonora was beginning to feel more like home than home did, with spending most of his year there. He couldn't help but feel slightly out of sync back in Iowa, not quite the part of the group he used to be, not actively shut out. And harboring this huge secret. If he didn't have Leo to talk to, it would be actual torture.

That being said, he wasn't really interested in the classes here, aside from the 'learning new spells' aspect. A lot of the professors used a lot of words to get things across, and Donovan sometimes found himself zoning out on lecture day.

What he was interested in, was Quidditch. The wind in his hair, the sound of the ground whizzing beneath his feet, the way the game changed moment by moment, with new decisions and strategies around every turn. After all of the practice, he and Leo were able to snag a Quaffle with just a nod between them. Donovan was looking forward to this year, hoping they could work with the other Chasers to have that level of understanding between them, no matter who was playing. They could be unbeatable!

Rummaging through his satchel, and finally just borrowing a quill off of Leo, Donovan put his name down.

Donovan Peters, he/him, Pecari, Chaser

64 Donovan Peters Let's go! 1569 0 5