Back and better than ever on Crotalus Commons

Earl Valentine

November 24, 2005 2:46 PM

Back and better than ever by Earl Valentine

Earl collapsed onto the nearest couch, tossing aside the crutches he still had to use. Luckily his left leg that had been broken in three places and the dull throbbing in his head courtasy of the concussion, were the only reminders of what had happened. Earl had spent a good part of the break in the hospital, only to go to his aunt's house for the last few days.

However hard it was on him, Earl knew, it was just as hard on Eavan, who had been looking forward to this vacation since Earl had left for the first semester. But Eavan visited so much that he felt like he was at home and told her that every time he saw her.

But now he was back at school with an incredibly sore leg and having to take three potions a day and his family was still a thousand miles away enjoying a sunny, warm January day. The trunk that had been serenly floating behind him all the way to the Crotalus commonroom landed with a 'thunk' somewher nearby. He was so glad he knew magic or else getting that trunk all the way to his room would have been disaterous.

He sighed and stared at his wand.

"Locomotor trunk!" he said without inthusiasm, intending to send the trunk up to his vacant room. The spell only got it part way up the stairs before falling on the ground with another dull 'thud'. The trunk knew Earl wasn't concentrating.

He leaned back and suddenly realized how quiet it was. Where was everyone? He was just about to pull himself off the couch to look around when he heard the entrance to the commonroom open.

"Finally someone's here," he said relieved to have someone to fill the silence with.\n\n

0 Earl Valentine Back and better than ever 67 Earl Valentine 1 5

Jennifer Zucchero

November 27, 2005 10:58 AM

Kyrie Eleison by Jennifer Zucchero

Jennifer had been surprised by how decent her holiday had been. The worst members of her family had been tolerable the entire time, and she had actually had a lot of fun with her more likable cousins. On the plane ride back, she had concluded that a lot of her problems with her family were caused by her slightly bratty behavior towards them.

Well, perhaps bratty wasn't the proper word, but she was always slightly resentful whenever she had to give up spending time with her father, and so the one or two times that she had been forced to spend a week or two with her mother's family before she turned ten and spent an entire year with them she had inadvertently decided to be miserable because she wasn't with her dad.

Now, that wasn't to say that her mother wasn't a shrew. Her reaction to Gary's bringing her and Lizzie to England by Muggle transportation was testimony to that. Gary had nearly gotten disowned for that little thing, for merely trying to give his youngest cousin and her friend a new experience. Thankfully, Uncle Erik, Gary's father, managed to calm his older sister down, and so Jennifer and Lizzie were allowed to go back with Gary the same way. It had certainly been an experience, and one that Jennifer had enjoyed immensely. She had a feeling Lizzie had to, even though Lizzie had spent much of the holiday in a bit of a huff.

That was probably the fault of Jennifer's cousins, who were by no means angels themselves, no matter how temperamental Jennifer was. Paul had been his usual holier-than-thou self, but Jennifer was able to avoid him outside of big family gatherings. The true bee up Lizzie's bonnet, though, was probably Will.

Jennifer laughed to herself as she walked up to the rather disturbing portrait hole and muttered the password, carrying her trunk in one hand and the carrier holding the kitten that Will and Tony had gotten her for Christmas in the other. Will had done his best to annoy the two Americans, along with his friend Tony. Jennifer had been used to them, and knew they didn't mean it, so their constant teasing and prank-pulling hadn’t bugged her all that much.

They were like her brothers, and so the pranking was counteracted by the nice things they did, like giving her Star, knowing that her mother hated animals, and how badly Jennifer wanted a pet. Lizzie, though, didn't understand that everything they did was for fun, had nearly gone through the roof. Perhaps the two boys had been a bit much, particularly Will, but Jennifer loved them anyway. Lizzie had been a bit sensitive this entire trip, though, so perhaps that was the cause of her irritation with Will. On the other hand, Will did seem like he was trying to annoy her in particular, so maybe the irritation was completely deserved. Jennifer truly had no idea.

Jennifer was pulled out of her reminiscing when she heard someone exclaim that someone was finally there. She looked up, and saw a small brunette boy sitting on a couch. She eyed the crutches that were lying haphazardly on the ground, trying desperately to place him. Finally, she remembered what she heard about the couple of students that had been in the infirmary when the mud storm had struck. She knew one of them had been TJ, who obviously wasn’t this boy, and the second had been a girl. Therefore, unless this was someone who had hurt himself over break, this had to be the final one.

“Earl, I assume?” she said, sitting down on a couch opposite the boy’s. She let her trunk fall, and opened her carrier to let her pure-white kitten out. Star wandered out slowly, yawning, and then settled down in Jennifer's lap to be stroked as Jennifer continued. “I don’t think we’ve met, but I take it you were one of the ones in the Hospital Wing during the storm.” She nodded towards the crutches. “I’m Jennifer Zucchero.” She leaned back, and smiled at first year. “So, did you do anything exciting for the break?” She knew nothing of this boy, besides the fact that he was a first year, but figured she might as well make small talk. The poor dear looked starved for company, and Jennifer truly had nothing she needed to do, so it probably couldn’t be a bad idea to just talk to someone for a while.
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0 Jennifer Zucchero Kyrie Eleison 48 Jennifer Zucchero 0 5

Earl Valentine

November 27, 2005 1:47 PM

Who? by Earl Valentine

Earl turned toward the entrance. "Yeah, I'm Earl, and I know who you are, Jennifer. You're captain of the Quidditch team. I'm on the team too," said Earl quickly. "And yeah, I was in the Hospital Wing during the storm. I'd rather not talk about that, though," he sad in a slightly softer voice.

He looked down at the heap of crutches near the couch. They were a dight for sore eyes and he couldn't wait to get them away from him.

"So, how was your vacation?" he asked lamely, trying to make conversation.\n\n

0 Earl Valentine Who? 67 Earl Valentine 0 5

Jennifer

December 04, 2005 1:48 PM

It's a Latin phrase by Jennifer

Jennifer blushed rapidly after Earl reminded her that he was on the Quidditch team. It was times like these where she felt like such an awful captain. Honestly, because of everything that had gone on recently, she had done absolutely nothing with the team, not even so much as to schedule a first practice. Of course, it wasn't just her who had stopped paying attention to Quidditch. With the hysteria that had been around on occasion, it just didn't seem that important.

"I'm sorry, I really am," she apologized quickly. "I do know who you are, and that you're on the team. It just slipped my mind. And my holiday was very nice. I went and spent it with my family in England. How about you?" She respected his request not to talk about the storm. She didn't blame him at all. If she'd been through something like that, she would have prefered it if she didn't have to discuss it.

Deciding that Quidditch was probably one of the safest topics, she continued, "So, have you thought about what position you might like to try? If I recall properly, you wrote that you would take whatever you could get. That, by the way, was probably one of the best attitudes there was. Some of us, myself included, get set in our ways if we've been playing for a while, and get really defensive or, on a few very memorable occasions, violent, if we have to play something besides what we want.

“Now, there are several options of what we can do with you. Because we have more than seven people signed up on the team, all positions are currently held by someone who has played the position before, and so probably has more experience than you.” Expecting a possible outburst, she held up a hand to stop any exclamations, and continued. “This is merely from my assumption that you haven’t played as much, since you don’t know what position you prefer. It does not mean that you are not going to be playing this year, or that the others automatically get the position merely because they’ve been playing longer. It just makes it a bit tricky.

“Now, if you’ve figured out a position that you like during Quidditch class, or something, than I’ll see what I can do. If not, than we could possibly have you watching for the first few practices, to see what looks good, or you can try playing them all and figure out what goes with your personality. I’d be happy to help outside of practices, if you want it.”

She grinned at him, and leaned back comfortably. Star seemed to find the entire common room fascinating, so had left her perch of Jennifer's lap to explore some more. Every few minutes a fluffy white tail would poke up behind the furniture, and the crash that accompanied her cat pouncing on something would follow a few seconds later. All in all, it was a very comfortable atmosphere, the one that made Jennifer feel more at home here at school than she did with her family.
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0 Jennifer It's a Latin phrase 0 Jennifer 0 5

Earl

December 06, 2005 11:11 PM

I know pig latin... by Earl

Earl stared at Jennifer. For some reasom her blushing and apologizing was freaking him out a little. Maybe it was because the only girls he ever huing out with never really did that. It was different. He absently shook his head to get his thoughts back on track as he listened to his captain talk. England, he thought. Much better than how I spent my Christmas. A small frown marred his usually upturned mouth.

Jeniifer changed the subject and Earl sighed. No matter how crazy his life was, there was always Quidditch to brighten his day. Luckily his Healer said that he'd be back on a broom in no time.

He grinned at Jennifer's joke, but frowned once again when she said that he wasn't as "experienced" as other kids. The words stuck in his throat when she held up her hand, so he settled for crossing his arms and furrowing his brows together in what he hoped was an angry expression. Eavan always told him, he always looked more constipated than angry.

He listened, trying to form words that would get his point across without making his Quidditch captain burst into tears. He hated when girls cried.

"Look," he said through gritted teeth. "I've been playing longer than some of the older students have known magic." Suddenly his tone changed to alomst pleading. "I just wrote that I would be anything because I wanted to be on the team and my cousins always made me play every position they didn't want to, so I know all of them."

He stopped, not knowing what else to say. Earl was staring intently into her greyish-blue eyes, listening to the muffled crashes the white furball was making around the common room. She looked relaxed, not really the mood Earl was in.

"If you really wanna know," he started slowly. "I prefer to be Seeker, but it's hard as hell to get that position, so I figured I would sign up for all of them in the hopes of getting one." He chose tyhis moment to tear his eyes away from Jennifer and settle them on the cat, which somehow seemed to relfect Jennifer's mood. He sighed and turned back to Jennifer.

"So, there you go. The truth, the whole truth, and nothin' but the truth, so help me God."\n\n

0 Earl I know pig latin... 0 Earl 0 5

Jennifer

December 07, 2005 4:59 PM

Probably a more useful language by Jennifer

OOC- Hey, Earl, no offense, but your story's kinda confusing right now. I looked at your bio before my last post, and it said your mom was a squib and your dad was a Muggle, and you didn't know you had magical abilities until you were nine. And it could be just me, but magical cousins probably wouldn't teach their muggle one quidditch. Terribly sorry if I seem rude, I don’t mean to, but I really am confused. BIC-

Jennifer immediately came out of her nice, relaxed mode. Trust her to stick her foot in her mouth so constantly. Earl looked very uncomfortable, even slightly angry, with the entire situation, and she probably was beginning to echo the former sentiment in her posture. It was exceptionally awkward, to say the least. She had a feeling that her relaxation had been annihilated for the time being.

“Oh,” she said after a few minutes of awkward silence. “Well, you must think I’m a bit of an idiot now, talking about how to teach you when you already know. I hope you’ll forgive me. I did say that was my assumption, since a lot of the first years I’ve talked to, even pure bloods, who were potentially signing up didn’t know the slightest thing about positions. But if your cousins taught you, then it’s fine.

She really did feel rather idiotic now. This was the reason that she believed Coach Cooper had to have been a bit out of it when Jennifer had been named captain. She obviously hadn’t inherited as much of her father’s diplomatic talents as she had thought, and was probably going to get into many more awkward situations before this was over.

Like the one she was in right now about the positions. He probably didn’t know that she was a seeker herself yet, but that didn’t make it any less problematic. How was she supposed to tell him that? I’m sorry, but since I’m captain and have to play, and I’m seeker, then you’re just out of luck?

“And as for playing seeker,” she said slowly, stalling for time, “Well, I have to agree with you about how hard it generally is to get that position. I’ve been a seeker since I was five or six, and there have been some times when there were far too many of us, since it’s the position that most people who are relatively small can do perfectly, and is one of the easiest.” She stalled again, and then decided she’d have to just bluntly say it.

“So I don’t think it’s possible for you to be a seeker, at least not this year. I know you’re probably really ticked off by that, I would be too, in your position. I know it’s not really all that fair, since from what you’ve told me, you sound like a very good player.

“Since you’ve said that you’ve played all the positions at some time or other, what would you say your next favorite is? It may have to come out to tryouts, but I am trying to take everyone’s preferences into consideration, even though with you it might be a bit difficult.” She smiled at him, although it wasn’t a very happy smile. She felt completely horrible about all this. She wished half-heartedly that the coach had picked someone else, but it was too late, so she would just have to do the best she could for the time being.
\n\n

0 Jennifer Probably a more useful language 0 Jennifer 0 5

Earl

December 07, 2005 6:33 PM

It certainly is... by Earl

OOC: Sorry aboutthe confusion. I guess it sounded better in my head. What happened is that Earl knew about magic and that he had magical relatives, but he didn't know he was able to perform magi...il he was nine. The Quidditch thing is under the assumption that you don't need to perform magic to fly on a broom. And the cousins actually didn't teach him Quidditch; his mother did. Even though she couldn't do magic, she knew all about the game and tried to teach her children before she died. The cousins did more of a practice session thing. If you're still confused just tell me and I'll try to explain better.

BIC:

Earl bit his tongue to avoid saying anything else that might upset Jennifer. After a moment, he regained his composure and let out a deep sigh.

"You not an idiot," he started. "Abd theres nothing you really need to aplogize over." Earl stopped, surprized at how calm he seemed. Eavan must have rubbed off on him more than he had realized.

He stared at his hands as he listened to her reasons why he couldn't be seeker. He had somehow known this was going to happen, but he had forgotten that Jennifer was the person who stole his position.

"Jenny," he said, using a nickname. Jennifer was so long. "you don't have to be so nice. I know that all the spaces are filled up already. But if you insist..." he continued, hoping against hope that there was still a chance, "my next choice would have to be Keeper. Then Chaser, then Beater."

He stopped for a moment. This sounded like begging and Earl Valentine was NOT going to beg, no matter how badly he wanted something. So he added:

"And don't give me a position just because you feel sorry for me."\n\n

0 Earl It certainly is... 0 Earl 0 5

Jennifer

December 07, 2005 6:51 PM

But it's a bit too simple by Jennifer

OOC- Thanks. I got it now BIC-

"I wouldn't," Jennifer said simply in response to Earl's last comment. "Believe me. I'm attempting to find the best people out there, and generally people do well at positions they enjoy. It's common sense, really."

She didn't add that there was one or two people who had signed up that she wasn't too sure about. She couldn't not let them sign up, or try out, naturally. She did want to give everyone a fair chance. But she also wanted to win.

It shocked most people, the almost ridiculous amount of competitveness from such a small and generally meek girl. Standing only about five feet and an inch, and being much shorter when she had first begun to play, there were a few people who still talked about how shocking it was to see her both in the air during a game and on the ground. According to them, it was like watching to different people. And to Jennifer, it felt like she was.

She almost rolled her eyes at Earl and his belief that she was doing this all to be nice, and at his whole self-sacrificing attitude. If he was like her about the sport, than he was probably hoping desperately that she would give him a spot. And, in all fairness, she should.

"And, when you think about it, Earl, it doesn't matter that there were more than enough people that signed up for the team. After all, if I remember the list properly, you were the second person to sign up. The only reason I said anythign about it was because I thought you hadn't played before, which, obviously, you have.

"So, you'll want to try out for keeper, and then potentially chaser?" She repeated, grinning now. The awkwardness had faded somewhat, at least on her part, which was always good. "Anything else? If not, then what did you do for your holiday, since you never said?" \n\n

0 Jennifer But it's a bit too simple 0 Jennifer 0 5

Earl

December 08, 2005 6:16 PM

ootay implesay? onsencenay! by Earl

At Jennifer's words, Earl entire face lit up. He would have jumped around the common room if he had been physically able to. He still had a chance to play. And a good one at that.

Instead, he settled himself with a wide grin. Um - well, yeah!" he managed to choke out. "That'd be great! Oh, and I spent most of my vacation in the hospital."

Suddenly, the smile vanished. His leg. The Healer said it would be fine, but when? Earl was silent for a moment.

"My leg," he said sadly, gesturing to bandadged bit of leg that was peeking from underneath his freshly washed robes.

"Im not sure when I'll be able to play. I will someday soon, but I don't know exactly when..."he trailed off and looked at floor. This sucked.\n\n

0 Earl ootay implesay? onsencenay! 0 Earl 0 5