Getting to know you [Tag: First Year Boys] on Teppenpaw Commons

Gabe Valenti

February 25, 2016 12:36 AM

Getting to know you [Tag: First Year Boys] by Gabe Valenti

Life was good. Gabe entered the first years’ dorm room, cheeks still red from the wind whipping against his face on the Pitch. It was amazing - he’d really been pushing himself all semester, but he was sure he’d flown faster than ever before after class today. He would have to tell Nat all about it later at dinner tonight.

For now, well, he was just happy to have some downtime in his room. Carefully, he set his broom in its stand next to his bed. It was a new Starsweeper XXI that he’d received from his parents just this Christmas, and not a bristle was out of place. Quidditch tryouts were next fall, and Gabe wanted his broom in perfect condition when he finally got his shot at joining the team. Exhausted, he sat on the edge of his bed, lifting his white ski goggles off his head. His dark hair was a sweaty mess atop his head, so he ran his hands through his hair a couple of times to pat it down. Ma and Dad might not be here to watch over him at Sonora, but he could still hear them in his head. Gabe and his older siblings had always played sports, and they had always managed to look decent for dinner. It was just how things were done.

Unstrapping charcoal gray flying gloves and setting them on the nightstand, Gabe flexed his fingers. He had a routine here too. Class was going better this semester, he’d gone a full week without blowing anything up. Still no dragons in Care of Magical Creatures, but the pudgy first year was willing to wait for it. There was flying of course - something he never thought he could do less than a year ago - now a regular class and part of his daily life. And he was starting to get good at it. Best of all, he didn’t feel so alone anymore, so separate from anything his family experienced. He had people to share things with at Sonora, he had friends.

There was Nat, of course, who had pretty much been his best friend since the Opening Feast, and new friends like Laila, who he’d worked with in Potions. Louis had been cool, even though flobberworms were definitely not, and Gabe was still convinced that that kid Cassius had the most awesome flying moves in their year. Even his Challenge Team was chill, despite Gabe feeling pretty much useless most of the time.

The one thing that could make life even more awesome would be getting to know his roommies more. This was partially his own fault, when he wasn’t in classes he was most likely practicing on the Pitch, playing sports in MARS, or eating dinner or snack or second dinner in Cascade Hall. Joe and Arthur seemed like good guys though, he really ought to make more of an effort.

“Heya,” he kicked off his sneakers and folded his legs beneath him as he sat on his bed, facing towards his roommates, “How’s it going?”

0 Gabe Valenti Getting to know you [Tag: First Year Boys] 330 Gabe Valenti 1 5

Joe Umland

February 29, 2016 5:06 PM

Sounds like a plan! by Joe Umland

The bottom parts of the puzzle his older brother Steve had gotten Joe for his birthday had been attached to the wall beside Joe’s bed easily enough – it showed a dock and a series of boats, all colors that appeared nowhere else in the picture, a scene not unlike the view in the mountains they spent a holiday in every summer, on the front of the box – but once he had assembled them, Joe had run into difficulties. The lake the boats and dock were situated in showed a mirror image of the mountains and skies above it, and while there were distinct shades of blue and green and brown and white to differentiate the two, they were often close enough to trick him into spending a lot of time trying to fit a piece into the wrong half of the picture, especially when he worked in the evenings and only had the ever-unreliable light of candles to go by. Between that problem, the problem of the long hours classes took up (he still couldn’t believe they found that much to do in a day with only five subjects; at home, his mom had had him doing more and it had taken far less time to get it all done) and amounts of outside work they required, and the problem of worrying that his roommates found his hobby unspeakably weird, he had made slow progress, working on it in fits and starts.

He was just fitting in a mirror-image (and thus, upside-down-looking – yet another thing which made this puzzle a tricky one) mountain peak into the foreground when he heard the door open behind him and looked up to see Gabe coming in. “Oh, hey, Gabe,” he said as he picked up the next piece in the pile he had tentatively decided went with this part of the puzzle.

Gabe looked as though he had just been on the Pitch, which wasn’t surprising – Joe knew Gabe spent a lot of time there. He’d tried to talk himself into offering to come along more than once, or even just ‘accidentally’ happening upon his roommate there, only to lose his nerve each time. Gabe might agree just to be nice, after all, when he really did not want to, and Joe was afraid he might not pick up on the nuances hinting that he wasn’t really welcome until it was too late. There were, it turned out, definite downsides to the person he’d always been closest to being a person who would bluntly tell him to go away if John didn’t want or have time to deal with him at that moment for whatever reason, just as there were downsides to having gone out of his way not to do things one-on-one with anyone outside his own family for eleven years. He had done most of his flying outside of class in MARS with John, usually playing the hapless Seeker his brother was trying to either defend or mutilate, though John had agreed to pretend to be a Seeker himself a few times and let Joe aim Bludgers at him instead.

“Just working on my resentment of the mirroring abilities of still lakes,” said Joe, gesturing toward his incomplete puzzle so he didn’t sound like he was babbling completely nonsense, when Gabe asked how things were going for him and Arthur. “How’re you?”

16 Joe Umland Sounds like a plan! 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Gabe

March 15, 2016 3:32 AM

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama by Gabe

Gabe had to hand it to his roommate, Joe had a lot of focus. They had a couple of puzzles back at home, still in their boxes on shelves in the basement somewhere. Valenti children were like hummingbirds, never still for a moment. Between tournaments and practices, each of the three siblings with their own sports and ambitions, it was amazing to Gabe how Mom and Dad kept anything straight. Home could be chaotic too. Dad cooking, Mom trying to herd all the siblings towards their homework, the occasional spontaneous family nerf gun fight - he smiled to himself.

He wondered sometimes, if it made things easier, with him being gone. It evened the parent-to-kid ratio, at least one parent could be with Matt and Emma at all times, give them advice, attend their games. Gabe missed getting to see them play - Mattie had made varsity football as a freshman this year, and Dad said Ems had gained some serious control over her curveball. He hoped that one day, when he and Nat made the Quidditch team, his family would be allowed to visit and see him play.

Sports he understood, but the way his roommate talked, well, that was unusual. The first generation wizard didn’t know many eleven or twelve year-olds who talked like that,. It was like out of a book or something. Ems was clever too, she always did well in school, and all the Valenti kids had always been strong in math. But his sister spoke like he did, New York accent and all. He bet Joe was pretty smart, and didn’t he have older siblings or something around, too? It must be nice, to have family here to help you out. Luckily Gabe had plenty of friends around, if he couldn’t have family.

“There’s gotta be a spell for that,” he offered, helpfully, “Some sort of organizing charm, or somethin’.If you find it,” he added, a joking smile on his face, “Let me know, and maybe I can find my Transfig notes. Or explode them.” His issues with his over-powered wand was no secret in class. While he’d managed to get things a bit more under control this semester, it was still a weekly occurrence.

Grabbing a pillow, he place it under his chest and leaned forward, facing the foot of the bed as he observed his roommate with the puzzle. Flying was a lot like skiing, it didn’t seem like you were moving a lot, but your muscles were holding position and doing lots of small things. He was sore all over, and so hungry, he couldn’t wait for dinner.

0 Gabe A man, a plan, a canal, Panama 330 Gabe 0 5

Joe

March 15, 2016 6:33 PM

But do geese see God? by Joe

Joe smiled sympathetically at Gabe’s joke about his Transfiguration notes. “My mom knows a spell to find things, but I’d just blow things up, too, if I tried it,” he said. “Too advanced. My sister knows one that pairs socks for her – “ he stifled a giggle as he remembered walking into the living room over the summer and straight into a whole row of paired socks hovering in midair; Julian had proceeded to chase him around the front of the house with them until he’d grabbed a rolling pin in the kitchen and started knocking them out of the air and then Mom had come in from the garden and told them to settle down – “but it wouldn’t be any fun if it paired up puzzle pieces, too.”

Joe shrugged. “At least, for me,” he amended quickly. “It’s annoying sometimes, but it’s fun when you finally get it right. Or part of it right.”

Finally fitting in a piece he’d been searching for, getting more and more frustrated, could be almost as much of a thrill as winning a game. Plus, he’d had a set of map ones - dirt cheap, the pieces even of the ones that hadn’t been that way when he picked them up had all bent out of shape eventually, but they still fit together well enough to get the job done - at home, and they had made learning history and geography a lot pleasanter for him. The stuff he’d taken notes over had stuck a lot better once he not only had visual references, but ones he had spent a lot of time putting together. His favorite part of his social studies during his time as a part-time only child had been the culinary experiments he and Mom had been free to make in the absence of his four siblings (though he did wonder now what Dad had thought when it occasionally spilled over into supper….), but that had been fun, too.

“I guess it’s kind of like learning a new move on a broom,” he offered. “It takes a while, but then it’s fun. Have any luck today?”

16 Joe But do geese see God? 329 Joe 0 5

Gabe

March 18, 2016 9:51 PM

Um... racecar? by Gabe

Gabe nodded at Joe's explanation, given in terms the former definitely understood. He never backed down from a challenge, he didn't even want to think about the kind of grief his older siblings would give him if he admitted to being afraid of anything. Maybe puzzles were for Joe what practicing spiral dives were for Gabe. Maybe. Gabe still thought speeding downward through the air was more exciting.

Dark eyes lit up when he was asked to speak on the subject, "For sure! Getting comfortable flying faster, I think I really nailed my spiral dive," he grinned proudly, "hey, do you fly at all? Outside of class, I mean." Gabe was going to miss having Flying as a regular class next year. Along with Care of Magical Creatures, it was his best class.

On the other hand, hopefully he would be on the Teppenpaw team by next year. The first year practiced flying almost every day after school, and the basic flying class was getting a little basic for him. But on the team, he'd have plenty of older teammates to show him even cooler tricks. For now, he had Nat to practice with him. But maybe it would be good to get some new blood in the mix, if Joe was up to it. Since his roommate had older siblings who were wizards, maybe he would have good pointers for Nat and him, who came from normal families. The idea that someone could grow up with the opportunity to go flying and not take it every chance they got did not even cross his mind.

0 Gabe Um... racecar? 330 Gabe 0 5