Okay, this is a little awkward on Quidditch Pitch

Liliana Bannister

April 24, 2015 4:23 AM

In the stands (tag: Ginger Pierce after the game) by Liliana Bannister

Liliana really wanted to see Teppalus win. And it had nothing to do with the fact that Aladren had beaten Pecari every chance they got save for her first year, really. However, that did help her allegiance to the underdog team. It also had nothing to do with the fact that if Teppalus won, and Pecari had beat Teppalus then she could feel as if she had technically beat Aladren (though that thought had crossed her mind a couple times.) No, Liliana wanted to see Teppalus win because she wanted to see little Ginger Pierce win. None of this she said to Atlas since she got the niggling feeling that he would make fun of her for it, so that morning she put on the marigold jumper from her first year that her mother had enlarged to fit her now fourteen year old body, and tied her hair back in a ponytail with a matching ribbon. Marigold was Teppalus-esque, and the jumper was quite comfortable so after a quick once over in the mirror, she slipped on her sneakers, slipped out the door into the Gardens, and jogged over to the field.

Luckily, it was a sunny day and she found an uncrowded spot in the stands so that she could be along with her thoughts. In the right pocket of her jumper sat a letter, written on her best stationary and sealed in a nice envelope with wax and addressed to Pierce. Three years ago, Liliana never would have written something to a non-pureblood girl. And three years ago she also never would have come specifically to support said girl. In fact, three years ago she had been bullying a half blood on this very pitch! Liliana blushed to think of how spoiled and bratty she had once been and self-consciously reached into her pocket to finger the letter once more.

Her mind went over the contents, which since she had written she had read over to herself more than twenty times before sealing it shut and then proceeded to go through four envelopes as she unsealed, read, re-read, resealed and repeated the process all over again. By now, she had memorized the letter’s content and though nervous to give it to Pierce since she barely knew the first year, felt as though it was the right thing to do. Would Pierce be offended? Liliana wasn’t sure. She had tried to write the letter as nicely as she could but since she didn’t know the young Teppenpaw well she also didn’t know how she would react. Liliana also didn’t know how the other members of her team would react, offering to give pointers to a non-Pecari player. She didn’t know how any of the teams would react, for that matter. But then again, she didn’t really care. Liliana was used to getting her way and what she wanted to do was give Ginger Pierce the letter and so that was exactly what she was going to do.

Newly determined, Liliana sat with her back straight, cheering for Pierce and the other Teppali for the remainder of the game. When it finished, she stretched and walked down to the end of the bleachers in order to catch Pierce before she left the Pitch. “Hey,” she called with enthusiasm, when she saw the younger girl. “Pierce, over here!” She waved the envelope at the Teppalus Keeper. “I have something for you!”

OOC: Obviously since this was written before the game ends, I don’t know who won. However, please assume that Liliana either offered her congratulations or condolences in the appropriate situation when Ginger gets to her. Also, since she is excited to give the letter to Ginger, even if Teppalus lost she would still be waving her over enthusiastically.

The Letter:
Dear Pierce,

From one girl keeper to another, I think you’re doing really awesome out there! When I first started as a first year, I was a keeper too and trust me, it can be a trying position. But it’s completely worth it in the end because being a part of the Pecari team is something that has challenged me to be a better person and I wouldn’t be quite as happy as I am today if I hadn’t done it.

Anyway, I just wanted to say ‘don’t take the loss too hard because there are always more games.’ I know this letter is way late, I meant to send it earlier but I ended up rewriting it about seventy times. I also wanted to offer to practice with you and give you some pointers if you wanted. It’s completely okay if you don’t, but I did want to place the offer on the table. Let me know, you can find me in the intermediate classes or Cascade Hall. Otherwise, just send me an owl.

Best wishes,
L. Bannister

Subthreads:

Okay, this is a little awkward by Ginger with Liliana Bannister

Possibly tagging Anthony? by Effie Arbon with Anthony Carey

10 Liliana Bannister In the stands (tag: Ginger Pierce after the game) 274 Liliana Bannister 1 5

Ginger

April 29, 2015 11:11 AM

Okay, this is a little awkward by Ginger

Ginger felt horrible about it, but when she heard the whistle and saw Clark Dill had caught the snitch, the first emotion she felt was relief. Relief that her team had done well enough to keep the Quaffle far enough from her that Aladren had only taken one shot at the goals. Relief that, while she had failed to save that one shot, it hadn't been a hopeless and impossible thing that she hadn't stood a chance against. She'd lost, yes, but this time, she felt she'd lost fairly.

She couldn't say Shinohara would feel the same way with her second loss, but Ginger preferred thinking she'd been up against achievable odds that she just hadn't reached instead of being overrun in a total unsalvageable rout.

Then she felt bad that she was relieved it was over with another shut-out loss for her team. Still, she consoled herself with the undeniable reassurance that, no matter how you looked at it, with the game ending when it did, the Teppalus team had done much better against Aladren than they had in their first game. And since Aladren was the reigning Quidditch Champion, that meant their skills must have improved dramatically.

So it wasn't a total loss, right?

Ginger landed her broom on the grass and started walking off the Pitch, still reciting all the ways this had been a victory. Only one goal had scored, not two. The Teppalus chasers had held control of the Quaffle for a greater percentage of the time. Teppulas players weren't the only ones to walk away with bludger hits. The Seeker had remained uninjured.

Ginger almost didn't hear someone calling her name. It didn't help that they were calling her by her last name, and there were two other Pierces in the school who were probably better known than her. Eventually, though, the word broke through her thoughts and she looked to see who might be calling her.

When she saw the Pecari Keeper she almost kept walking, just because the chances of the older Pecari addressing her were so low that the girl must be calling for one of the Anns, but then she remembered the Anns wouldn't be on the Pitch today anymore than Lilliana would and she was clearly trying to get the attention of someone on the field. Still, Ginger looked behind her anyway to make sure there wasn't an Aladren Pierce she didn't know about somewhere, but nobody nearby had the name Pierce or anything close to Pierce. So Ginger went over to the Pecari girl. "Me?"

Apparently her. "Thanks," she responded to the condolences on their loss and accepted the offered letter with mild confusion and uncertainty. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Was she supposed to read it now, or just take it and read it at her leisure later?

She decided the safest bet was to just ask. "Um, do you want me to read it right now?" She had come to a stop, out of the way of the other players, so she wasn't blocking traffic and she had nothing else planned for the afternoon so she had the time to read a note and chat before heading in. But she was kind of sweaty and smelly and in need of a shower, and she wasn't sure if maybe Jemima and Lauren would be waiting in their room to make sure she was okay this time.

1 Ginger Okay, this is a little awkward 302 Ginger 0 5

Liliana Bannister

May 02, 2015 7:55 PM

Yeah, I realise that now... by Liliana Bannister

Liliana took in Pierce’s odd face and for a brief moment worried that perhaps she had stepped out of bounds. But the younger girl’s question quickly cleared up the issue. Liliana blushed lightly—she hadn’t really thought about how weird it was to give someone a letter in person, especially in a crowd, and doubly especially when it was someone one had never really talked to before.

“Oh, right,” she said laughing. “I meant to send that to you before today, actually, but I just never got a chance.” Not a total lie. She really had meant to send it, but she’d had several chances. She’d just rewritten it enough times that it felt much timelier to see the Teppenpaw in person. “I can just tell you what’s inside it if you like.”

She paused for a moment in which the younger girl could either nod or shake her head but, regardless of the outcome, she barrelled on. She’d made things awkward enough already and she was determined that her purpose of coming out there today would be accomplished otherwise…well, she didn’t know what would happen otherwise but her feet weren’t allowing her to leave the area and her mouth was talking faster than her brain could manage to keep up with it and her brain was divided half in half, one half (likely the right half) insisting that she was bothering little Pierce and to shut up and let her shower, the other half (likely the left half) insisting that she wanted to offer advice so offer advice she would do.

“I don’t mean to keep you long,” Liliana replied as she leaned against the stands, the cool metal pressed against her bare arms causing goose bumps. She shivered involuntarily and resisted the urge to smooth out her skin. “I’ll just tell you briefly what’s in the letter and you can be on your way, I know you must want to shower—showering and getting a cup of tea are really the only two things on my mind after a game. But anyway, I was just thinking it might be fun to practice together, if you wanted?” She shrugged and shaded her eyes from the sun while she waited for Pierce’s response.

10 Liliana Bannister Yeah, I realise that now... 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Ginger

May 06, 2015 1:48 PM

Things are looking better now! by Ginger

Ginger smiled gratefully and tucked the letter into her Quidditch Robe's pocket as Lillianna offered to summarize the contents. "Thanks." She'd read the letter properly later and, if needed, send an owl with further thoughts on the contents, but for right now she didn't have to worry about it and she could safely tuck it away without being rude.

As the older girl cut to the chase, Ginger's eyes widened briefly in surprise. "Oh!" she said, "Wow." Of all the things she thought an older Pecari - and one of the purebloods, too, unless she was totally off base - wanted to talk to her about, that hadn't been even close to the top. "Yeah! That would be awesome!" Training with someone who actually played Keeper - Alistair seemed to know some things about the position, but she was pretty sure he was a Chaser first and foremost, and mostly just gave her advice he'd probably read in a book somewhere - would be totally helpful and might even be enough to boost her confidence enough to even stay on the team next year.

Plus, well, anyone who offered to practice Quidditch with an obviously inexperienced younger player from another House was sure to turn out to be a really interesting person and Ginger wouldn't mind getting to know her better, and their age and House differences wouldn't give them many other such opportunities to spend time together.

1 Ginger Things are looking better now! 302 Ginger 0 5

Effie Arbon

May 07, 2015 8:43 AM

Possibly tagging Anthony? by Effie Arbon

Effie was quite sure which way the match would go but she had still turned out to cheer on her chosen side regardless. She took her seat, sporting a pale green sun-dress. She had chosen it to compliment the ribbon at the end of her braid, which was a pretty blue. She might be considered a traitor but frankly, in her seventh and final year, she couldn’t care less. Her best friend was an Aladren, though one who cared little for her house’s Quidditch fortunes. More importantly, Anthony was captain of the Aladren team. She felt much more affiliation with her own yearmates than she did a rag-tag bunch of lower-classmen, only two of whom were from her own house anyway.

The Aladren team got off to a good start, though she was acutely aware that it could all come down to the Snitch, and that common boy doing his job better than the nicely bred girl. Never, in all her days, would she have predicted herself to have been rooting for the former party in that situation. Miss Shinohara was also the closest thing she had to a connection, a reason to cheer on Teppalus, seeing as she was her sister’s room-mate. Still, that was a tenuous connection, weakened further by the fact that Araceli didn’t seem fond of the girl. She was not, she reconciled her conscious, cheering for Clark over Miss Shinohara - she was cheering for Anthony’s team. The fact that that involved some sort of tangential endorsement of a Muggleborn besting someone of Pureblood was an unfortunate by-product but easily glossed over.

She let out a cheer as the Snitch was seized. A broad smile on her face, she made her way out of the stands to wait by the players’ exit, with the idea of congratulating the captain. She pictured the perfect moment, of him striding out of the exit, catching sight of her, getting carried away in his happiness perhaps he’d do something wonderfully inappropriate like sweep her up in his arms and she would congratulate him and they would kiss… She had seen it in her imagination dozens of times over. But of course when Anthony stepped out, the picture was instantly changed... He was accompanied by his team. Effie held back, feeling suddenly foolish. Of course he would be with them, probably want to celebrate with them too…. She hesitated, not sure she should even call out and draw attention to herself, though she did make sure to flick her brain forward, over her shoulder, just in case any of the Aladrens caught sight of her and doubted whose side she’d been on.

13 Effie Arbon Possibly tagging Anthony? 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Anthony Carey

May 11, 2015 12:30 AM

At your service by Anthony Carey

When he realized Clark had the Snitch, Anthony’s first reaction was relief. He had warned his team against being too confident in his opening speech, but he had not expected the Teppalus team to put up this much of a fight, and since Clark was not their strongest player on the team to begin with and from the looks of it, Leonidas had had to leave him for a while to bail John out….

If they had had another game to play this year, Anthony actually would have reprimanded Leonidas for that – he was not supposed to leave Clark until things were well on their way to being so bad that their opponents could win by points even if Clark did catch the Snitch – but since his tenure as captain was basically over already, he decided to leave it alone. It could have ruined everything, but it hadn’t, so there was no reason to cause a fuss. It would be better to just enjoy the victory as much as they could when he doubted he was the only one a little dazed by just how much effort it had taken and when they had a player injured. Neither was enough to ruin the occasion, he thought, but he didn’t expect the most ecstatic party the Aladren team had ever had, either, and their team was not really known for wild partying anyway.

“Well done, everyone,” he told the team. He was sure the Wolseithcraftes sort of wanted to object to the ‘everyone’ right now, but he hoped they understood his position well enough to keep it to themselves until he was somewhere else. “Everyone get cleaned up and patched up and we’ll go celebrate….”

Outside the Pitch, thinking about how he could present this to Arnold and Jay so it didn’t sound like it had been as close as it really had to his brother and cousin, he was surprised to glance to one side and see Effie. His first thought was that she must have come to congratulate him, and he had already turned toward her before it occurred to him that that was a pretty vain assumption to make. He was pretty sure she liked him the way he liked her off the Pitch, but this was Quidditch and they were in opposing Houses today. He had already started, though, and she had a blue ribbon in her hair….

“Excuse me for a moment,” he said to the nearest team member, doing his best to deafen himself to any snickering from the team’s direction as he detached himself from it. “Hello,” he said to Effie, smiling but putting a little effort into not smiling too enthusiastically in case he was wrong about why she was here. It was hard. “Your House – and its friends – did very well,” he said, just in case she was actually here to…he didn’t even know. Comfort or congratulate Douglas and Johnson? She was their prefect, so that really wasn’t out of the question…. “I’m not sure what they’ll think of that, though,” he added, indicating her hair ribbon with just a hint of a question about that in his tone.

0 Anthony Carey At your service 0 Anthony Carey 0 5

Effie Arbon

May 11, 2015 5:48 AM

Um... well... I suppose what I was wanting was.... by Effie Arbon

“Hello,” she smiled back, trying not to look too enthusiastic, in case he was coming to ask what she was doing here, or she somehow embarrassed him in front of his team-mates. She vaguely understood that the relationship between team-mates seemed to involve trying to humiliate each other “in a nice way” and that she may have just made fuel for that sort of thing by showing up. Anthony didn’t seem to want her to go though, engaging her in small talk, though some which slightly put her on the wrong side of the stands.

“That’s very gallant of you to say,” she said, feeling a little awkward accepting the compliment on behalf of people she really was not here to represent, and did not want Anthony to think she had sided with. ‘How to politely accept a compliment for a Quidditch team whose house half matches your own when they have just been defeated by, and the compliment is offered by, a boy whose affections you wish to win and who you wish to assure of your personal loyalty’ had not come up in her etiquette lessons, oddly enough. Sometimes she felt they had woefully under-prepared her for real life, or at least the strange, Sonora version of it. The place needed a book to itself. Perhaps she could occupy herself with writing it after school.

“But I can’t say I identify much with them, technically ‘my house’ or not,” she fingered the ribbon in response to his not-quite-question. “What they don’t see won’t hurt them. And I’m sure they’re about as fussed about having my support as I am about giving it to them - a girl six years older than them and, to most of them, in a different house? I’m sure they’re more concerned about their friends cheering them on. And I’d rather be cheering on…” the obvious echo of the first half of the sentence was ‘my friends.’ She was friendly with Anthony, and she liked him very much as more than a friend, which made it dreadfully confusing to feel that using the word ‘friend’ might not be appropriate here. “...the people who are important to me,” she finished quietly, feeling like that said a little more than ‘friends’ did and not quite sure what he’d think. “Congratulations, Captain Carey,” she smiled shyly.

13 Effie Arbon Um... well... I suppose what I was wanting was.... 238 Effie Arbon 0 5

Anthony

May 15, 2015 12:26 AM

I think I see by Anthony

The age gap between Effie and her housemates affecting her position on the game was not something which had really occurred to Anthony, though it did make sense. Since she didn’t play Quidditch or lead a club or anything, she wouldn’t have the younger Crotali under her feet very often. He couldn’t help envying her just a little for that. He had had hopes for Jack Spencer even as he worried that he was a spy, but it seemed Clark was as close to a star as they were going to get in the younger years. Jack didn’t give him as many headaches as Clark and John did, but Anthony would still have rather had some of their older players back.

...Though maybe not at the moment. Jay and Arnold would have had far too much fun even though only Arnold, having already endured his fair share of being mocked about women and the only one of them Anthony was sure had had a relationship with one, really had the right, and Arthur would have stored up every detail to bring up at the worst possible moment to throw Anthony off balance in conversation ages after this. It was far better for him that his cousin and brothers were not witnessing this.

He could feel his face warming as Effie finished her speech. He hoped she didn’t notice. He didn’t think he was going to get his wish. He would have to inherit Mother’s pale coloring. Hopefully, then, she would just think it was leftover from the game.

“Thank you,” he said.

He was sure he meant to say something completely inconsequential, if maybe witty, after that, but what came out when he opened his mouth was, “Ah - would you like to have dinner with me later? Maybe go for a walk after?”

Oh, yes. He was definitely glad Jay and the twins weren’t here. Putting up with years one through three was more than worth them not hearing that. He willed himself not to overreact before she even reacted, knowing there was still a chance he could at least save face if she declined.

0 Anthony I think I see 0 Anthony 0 5

Effie Arbon

May 22, 2015 11:42 PM

Oh good by Effie Arbon

Anthony was going a little red, and Effie wondered whether she had mispoken and embarrassed him in front of his team, which she most certainly had not intended to do. Still, he thanked her for her words and she hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking that it sounded genuine and heartfelt rather than like he was just obliging a social necessity. Maybe he was just hot from playing, and she was worrying unnecessarily. His next words definitely supported that theory, as he asked to spend further time with her that evening.

“That would be lovely,” she replied to his invitation, after only a beat in which she had to convince herself she had just heard what she thought she had. She couldn’t stop the large, excited smile that spread across her face. She wasn’t sure that qualified as ‘ladylike composure at all times’ but she felt too happy to hold it back. She might be mistaken, she supposed, but what Anthony was proposing sounded very much like a date.

“I should let you get back to your team,” she suggested, in a tone that didn’t entirely suggest that she was in a hurry for that to happen. “And see you later.”

OOC - hi, Jay has a letter on wts. I appreciate you might be tight for time at the moment. If you could just let me know what he would have done, that’d be great :-)

13 Effie Arbon Oh good 238 Effie Arbon 0 5