Meeting with Jose Hernandez on Pecari Commons

Amelia Pierce

March 16, 2010 3:55 PM

Meeting with Jose Hernandez by Amelia Pierce

Pecari was the real trouble House for next year, and it had nothing to do with their penchant for rambunctious pranking. Instead, the problem was that two people were graduating, the former assistant captain had quit the team, the oldest returning player had only been an alternate this year and didn't seem particularly committed to the sport, and the next oldest after him was a second year.

The decision on whether to instate the soon to be sixth year, Raoul, or the soon to be third year, Jose, had been a tough and tricky one that was only complicated by the fact that the Quidditch Coach shared genes with the younger of the two. She didn't want to seem biased toward her distant cousin, but she didn't want to promote another student who may not be as reliable a choice in his stead, just because she was afraid somebody might think Jose was benefiting from nepotism.

She almost wished she didn't know they were related - it would make the decision much easier. It wasn't like they'd ever met before he'd shown up to her Flying Lessons, or that they were even in the same branch of the family, and Jose didn't even have the Pierce surname. If the Californians weren't such a cult that they kept the female lines as well as the male lines tightly in the fold, Amelia would have never even suspected Jose Hernandez was descended from her great-grandfather.

On the other hand, as distantly related as they were, it was probably far less of an issue than if the kid had been, well, Derry Four or Thaddeus or one of the twins that would be descending upon Sonora in a couple of years. In her mind, the 'California' part of Jose's family branch meant she could regard him as little bias as she currently showed to any of her Crotali.

But that was more than Raoul had, and therein lay the problem.

After four weeks of tossing the question over in her mind, and two weeks after meeting with next year's other two new captains about their duties next year, she finally reached a decision on what to do about Pecari.

She was going to appoint her cousin and thumb her nose at anybody who thought that was unfair. It wasn't like anyone was going to be surprised by it. If people were inclined to think she was appointing family because they were family and not because of their own personal merits, there wasn't anything she could do about it, and the Pierce reputation would hardly be hurt by the appearances of nepotism. Heck, Druscella might even be pleased.

But the truth of the matter was that their family connection had made it harder for Jose to get the position, not easier. Oh, his relation to Saul Pierce, the previous captain before Elly Eriksson, that helped him - it helped him a lot - but his relation to Amelia herself was a drawback. But Saul was in Jose's branch and Amelia was not, so the former outweighed the later. Jose had probably already seen a lot of what needed to be done as a Captain through his cousin's experience.

Also, despite their difference in ages, Amelia judged by their respective interactions on the pitch that Jose was closer than Raoul was to the current captain as well. For that matter, Jose seemed closer to the whole team than Raoul did. It just made more sense to her that she should appoint Jose, so that was what she was going to do.

That was barely thirteen was immaterial. Pierces had been named Quidditch captains younger than that. She was sure he could handle it. Though that certainty might, perhaps, have been influenced by their shared genetics. She still felt she had more than sufficient logical and unbiased reasons to support her choice though, so she wasn't going to worry about it.

Now she just had to tell him.

He arrived in the common room at the time of the appointed meeting. Unlike with the similar meetings with Thomas and Oliver, however, Jose was not currently an assistant captain and probably had no idea what this was going to be about.

"Jose," she greeted, making sure to smile and be friendly so he didn't think he was in any kind of trouble. "Glad you could meet with me. I'm here to talk to you about next year's Pecari Quidditch team." She paused for a second. "I'd like you to be captain."

1 Amelia Pierce Meeting with Jose Hernandez 20 Amelia Pierce 1 5

Jose

March 16, 2010 4:39 PM

You sure you have the right guy? by Jose

Jose had been nervous since he got the letter. It was kind of late in the year to kick him out of flying lessons (in case she'd figured out he was a second year and second years weren't actually allowed to take the class again or something) and it was definitely too late to kick him off the team since the final game was over and all (and he couldn't think of a good reason why she would want to kick him off anyway), but he couldn't figure out what else might be the reason.

Well, maybe the assistant captaincy, but he didn't want to get his hopes up too high there. He was still younger than Saul had been when he'd been made assistant, and Jose was not inclined to think he'd beat Saul on that front. Not with only one year of playing experience behind him and only a recent victory over his fear of heights.

So he tried to figure out why the Quidditch Coach wanted to keep him off the team next year so he could come up with good reasons why she shouldn't. Or, no. No, that wasn't it. She wanted to make sure he didn't try to join Flying Lessons again. Yeah. That had to be it. She'd let him finish off this year since he had made tremendous progress since the beginning of the year, but next year he'd be too good for a class meant for inexperienced first years.

When he sat down on the coach across from her and heard what she really wanted he was stunned. He blinked a few times and eventually managed to pick his jaw up off the ground. "Really?" he asked, hardly daring to believe he'd heard correctly. "You want me to be captain?" And then it occurred to him that she might try to take it back if he didn't answer quickly enough, he nodded repeatedly and burst out - too loudly - with the words, "Yes! Absolutely! Whoo!"

And he jumped up and he might have maybe danced around the common room a little bit for maybe a few minutes. He wasn't quite sure, honestly. When his excitement tapered down a little and he came back to himself, he was standing on a coffee table, on one foot, with both arms held out to either side and he had the vague impression that he'd just been doing the New York New York line kick. He couldn't swear that he hadn't been singing either.

He flushed bright red, hopped down off the table and slouched in embarrassment down onto the couch he'd recently (he hoped it was recently) vacated. "Sorry," he apologized in somewhat mortified tone of voice. "Got a little carried away there. So, yeah. I'll be the captain."

0 Jose You sure you have the right guy? 0 Jose 0 5

Amelia

March 16, 2010 4:56 PM

Less sure than I was a minute ago, but yeah by Amelia

Amelia watched in something like shock as the boy started dancing first around the couches they'd been sitting on, and then jumping onto a coffee table and singing a variation of 'New York New York' that replaced the city's name with his new title and was accompanied by high Broadway kicks.

She became suddenly and acutely aware of exactly why it was that the New Hampshire Pierces liked to pretend that the California ones did not exist.

After a short while, Jose seemed to realize he was making a spectacle of himself and returned meekly to his seat for his formal acceptance of his new captaincy.

"Right then," Amelia said, shaking her head and trying to pretend the whole scene from a minute ago hadn't occurred. "Now we need to talk about your assistant. Do you have anyone in mind right away, or do you want to think on it? I know I kind of sprung this on you unexpectedly."

0 Amelia Less sure than I was a minute ago, but yeah 0 Amelia 0 5

Jose

March 16, 2010 11:25 PM

I guess that's fair by Jose

"Mel," Jose answered immediately and without any hesitation on the question of who to ask for his assistant. "Demelza Eagle, I mean." Of the first years on the team, she was just . . . Jose wasn't sure what it was about Mel, but he liked it, and thought it would work well as an assistant captain.

Besides, it wasn't as though Delilah or Starbuck had any more experience than her, and Raoul was older than Jose was, and therefore not much good as a successor, not that he consciously considered these factors. His answer had been instinctive and lacked any rational deliberation. These thoughts came after he'd already made his choice.

As quickly as he'd made it though, he didn't think time would do a thing to change the decision. He had little reason to distrust his gut assessment, and in the seconds it took for the Coach to affirm his choice, he felt no doubts creep in to cloud his opinion. Demelza would make a great assistant and nothing anybody said would convince him otherwise.

0 Jose I guess that's fair 0 Jose 0 5

Amelia

March 16, 2010 11:30 PM

Then it's decided. by Amelia

Amelia was a little surprised at how quickly Jose came up with a name. It was more than obvious that he hadn't been thinking that he'd be named captain, so he couldn't have put much prior thought into who to appoint as his assistant, but his answer was instantaneous.

Still, if that was who he wanted, the Pecari line-up was sparse enough that she couldn't really object to the selection of a first year given that Jose himself was only in his second year.

"Very well. I'll let you give Demelza the good news unless you want me to do so. Beyond that, you're responsible for putting up sign-ups in September, running try-outs and practices, and getting me your team roster within three weeks of school starting. Just swing by my office or send me an owl to let me know when you want to reserve the Pitch for Pecari, and I'm sure Elly would be happy to advise you on anything you want to know before she graduates. But for now, is there anything you'd like to ask me while I'm here?"

0 Amelia Then it's decided. 0 Amelia 0 5