Joella Curtis
October 09, 2016 2:58 PM
A message for Sammy... by Joella Curtis
Joella was finally captain, a position she had long dreamt of attaining. Only now, before the term had really kicked off, something about her beloved game had gone stale. Quidditch was no less her passion, her everything, but something had changed about it at Sonora. With great power came great responsibility; that was how the saying went. And already the sixth year was beginning to experience difficulty with the decisions she had to make. Did she follow her gut and do what was best for the team, or did she just surrender her arms and avoid dispute by going with what the team thought they wanted? It undermined her authority for sure and for the first time Joella realised that maybe being captain didn’t give her a great deal of power because at the end of the day she was just a regular student who took orders from those employed by the school.Being a prefect seemed to have more honour and worth than being a captain, as much as she personally valued the latter over the former, and she found herself questioning her own worth for that reason. Joella had been so proud when she had been selected as assistant captain and even more so when the grand role of being Pecari’s captain was handed over to her, but now she realised that all of this pride may have been ill placed and she’d been misled all along. It hurt to think that all this time she had been dreaming of achieving something that she had been guaranteed anyway, that it wasn’t based on talent or qualities or skills but merely based upon time given and an unchallenged system of tradition. How could she not be disappointed by the realisation that captaincy was something simply inherited by the next longest serving player?
Joella did consider that she had the opportunity to challenge this unrewarding system and she had fully planned on doing so for quite some time until she eventually had to accept that it just wasn’t worth the fallout. People would start talking because they just wouldn’t understand. It would create tensions and infighting and drama that would only distract the team from what was really important and that was winning. Joella was well aware that not everyone took school Quidditch games as seriously as she did and were just in it for some fun, but competitions were about winning and if her team weren’t reaping the results then she would have no chance of standing out to the scouts.
As much as she hated to admit it, and she’d internally denying it throughout last term, Joella was beginning to outgrow the school games. The older, more experienced and all round more skilled she grew, the younger and more low level everyone else became and it was hard to be so competitive against a bunch of eleven year old muggleborns when she was getting closer and closer to the professional level she was aiming for.
A large part of the newly crowned captain wanted to stay in school forever but at the same time she longed for a higher standard of competition that would further challenge her abilities and someone to coach her who actually knew what they were talking about. She supposed that leading the Pecari team this year would keep her occupied and present her with new challenges and prevent her from getting bored. Joella definitely planned to give her all to the Pecari team and work as hard as she could to be the best captain they’d ever seen but, as proud as she was to believe that she did possess many of the qualities of a good captain, she was born to play and not to teach. She knew she wasn’t like Alistair, who had so smoothly developed into a really strong captain and coach for his team, but she was still going to try. Perhaps he’d give her some tips… Joella knew she shouldn’t go there, even if they were friends again, but she just couldn’t help the idea springing to mind.
Joella woke early the morning of her first full day back at Sonora as a sixth year. She had another of those very important captain duties to fulfil and she wanted to get it done as quickly as possible so she didn’t leave her assistant captain waiting in suspense.
Dear Sammy,
Congratulations! As a result of your clear commitment to the team over the years, you have been selected to be the new Assistant Captain for the Pecari Quidditch team! I hope that you are pleased with this promotion.
This is a very important role that will help you develop useful leadership skills. You will be required to help me organise the try-outs and team practises. You will be working alongside me and also closely with all Pecari players, with the aim of winning the Quidditch Cup again this year so your full dedication to this position is vital. If, for any reason, you do not feel capable of fulfilling your duties as Assistant Quidditch Captain please let me know as soon as possible.
I have high expectations of you and look forward to working together.
Your friend,
Captain Joella Curtis
Joella knew she should probably have informed Sammy in person, especially since they were friends off the pitch, but since she took so many attempts to write a letter it was probably just as well that she didn’t. It would be a total disaster if she botched the conversation and Sammy picked up that she had some reservations. They weren’t personal but Sammy would probably take it personally, as anyone would understandably do, because she didn’t know the reasons why Joella felt so conflicted about the situation and the captain didn’t know if she could do a good job of explaining it.
She sent the letter off with her owl and hoped that Sammy would get the message before she left for breakfast, so that if Joella did bump into her she would already know the news. If that was the case, it would probably be quite obvious so she wouldn’t have to awkwardly try and figure out whether the fifth year had already read the note or not.
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Joella Curtis
A message for Sammy...
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Sammy Meeks
October 10, 2016 4:32 PM
*Incoherent screaming* for Joella by Sammy Meeks
Though primarily still asleep, Sammy’s brain detected the slight sounds of feathers beating. Somebody must have a letter, she concluded with what level of conscious thought she could muster. But when she heard the letter drop and, from the sound of it, on the desk closest to her bed, the brunette bolted upright. I must have a letter! And, with a family of Muggles at home and no other connection to the magical world except, like, maybe Gia’s mom, there was only one type of letter that could possibly come her way.She half-tripped out of bed, letting out a squeak that she hoped didn’t wake either of her roommates (although whether Gia or Sutton were even here at the moment she didn’t know, as she hadn’t looked around and Sammy happened to generally sleep a bit late), but eventually she made it to her desk in one piece. And sure as the sun was yellow, there it was. The fifth year hungrily ripped open the envelope, tearing the corner of the letter in the process but only rendering it to say ear Sammy but otherwise remaining completely legible.
This was it! The letter she’d been hoping and praying to receive for a long time now! A part of her couldn’t help wondering why her friend didn’t just speak to her in person, but Sammy wrote it off as a matter of tradition to do the announcement by post. Assistant Captain! Holy crap!
She dug around her already messy desk to find a clean, empty parchment and something with which (haha, which/witch--magical puns) to write her response.
O Captain, My Captain, she began cheerily, fully awake now, rocked to her core by the happy news.
Thank you so much for this opportunity! I won’t let you down! I can’t wait to get started! We’re going to have a great year!
Your friend,
Assistant Captain Sammy Meeks
“Here,” she said, practically shoving the envelop into Joella’s owl’s claws. Sammy’s brown eyes darted around the room quickly, looking for a reward for the patient little bird, but she didn’t have any because she didn’t own an owl, and she didn’t want to get into either Gia or Sutton’s belongings to check. “Uh, here!” she said, grabbing a hair barrette and clipping it gently into the bird’s feathers. “I don’t have a snack, but at least you look adorable! Now fly, darling! Fly!” She half doubted the barrette would even survive the flight down the hall (and beyond, she imagined), but she supposed if she found it on the floor somewhere she would just retrieve it. Who cared? She was Assistant Captain!
This was gonna be a great year.
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Sammy Meeks
*Incoherent screaming* for Joella
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