Notice: Aladren Quidditch Tryouts Approaching on Aladren Commons

Anne Wright

February 05, 2006 7:52 PM

Notice: Aladren Quidditch Tryouts Approaching by Anne Wright

Anne silently cursed her luck as she made her way across the common room towards the notice board. The snotty-little-rich-girl selection of hand-me-down clothing she had been presented with as a sign of Aunt Sarah's unlimited generosity did not suggest any inclination towards sports, and she was paranoidly certain that everyone was going to start laughing at her when they realized the second year claiming to be captain and the second year in the pureblood equivalent of Ralph Lauren skirts were one and the same. She could always take her father's advice and throw the first punch, but following his advice somehow seemed like betraying her mother, illogical as that was. That left standing by and taking it with the best grace she could muster. The only thing that would make her feel even slightly better about doing that would be knowing that Sarah had a perfectly miserable year.

It doesn't matter, she told herself firmly. Let the stupid idiots think what they want about how you're being forced to dress. They'll start thinking different when they see you on the Pitch. That was when she knew she was getting irrational about the whole being seen in girly attire thing. She had never held with having an excess of faith in one's own abilities, because it was a surefire way to relax one's discipline, become overconfident, and lose. She hated losing, no matter what the reason, and overconfidence was not a good reason. Promising herself she wouldn't think about it again, she continued her march across the room to the notice board and stuck to it the piece of paper that was the result of an hour and a half, a few distractions, quite a few drafts, and constant anxiety about whether or not she had time to do this and finish her Transfiguration homework.

Aladren Quidditch Trials

For all those interested, Quidditch tryouts will be held on the Pitch this Friday directly after classes. If you're going to try out, put your name and preferred position on the lines. If we end up with too many of a certain position, we'll work it out at tryouts.

Anne

Beneath the message, she had drawn a series of more-or-less straight lines and had written an example of a sign-up on the first one:

1. Anne Wright, Chaser-Captain

She saw flaws in it almost before it was on the wall. She had used 'trials' in the title and 'tryouts' in the body, and signing it with a simple 'Anne' probably wasn't the brightest move she had ever made. She wasn't going to take it down to correct, though, because the invariable consequence would be spending another quarter-hour at least worrying that it sounded too authoritative and brusque and would scare all the recruits away. Giving her notice one last glare for good measure, she hurried back towards the dorm. If she skipped supper, she might get done with Transfiguration by eight. \n\n

16 Anne Wright Notice: Aladren Quidditch Tryouts Approaching 59 Anne Wright 1 5

Zoey Welsh

February 07, 2006 2:52 AM

Uncertainties by Zoey Welsh

Zoey stood infront of the notice for nearly five full minutes. She was biting down on her thumb nail as she reread the sign for the umpteenth time. Why was she so nervous about writing her name down? It wasn't like she couldn't just quit or perhaps she wouldn't even be picked for the team. Of course, that would simply lead to her humiliation and that was what was preventing her from lifting up her right hand and scribbling down her name.

Zoey Welsh was confident in Basketball. She had the height for it. She stood at 5'8 for crying out loud! Basketball was what she loved to do. And she hated Sonora for not having a basketball team. No, they had this Quidditch stuff. It was bad enough that it was on a broom, but the whole thing went against every sport she had ever known.

Still though...she had learned how to ride a broom. Granted, she wasn't perfect, but she still learned. And her and Dillon and even done some practices when they were off in Vermont in their secluded yard where no one could see them. She had finally learned what it was all about and, perhaps, even understood why it was so enjoyable in the magical world.

So why couldn't see sign up her own darn name?!?! This was suppose to be a good thing! This would get her socializing. This would get her friends. Not that she didn't had friends, because she did. She had...Zack. Okay, so Zack was strange with his whole, 'This kids is an alien with a Ford ring' bit, but he was a nice guy and the only person who seemed to be able to stand Zoey long enough to hold a conversation with her.

Quidditch was definitely a good thing. Okay, she could do this. It was only try-outs, it meant nothing. Except that she may get beat out by a bunch of first years and then she'd never be able to show her face around the common room ever again!

Oh why wasn't she friends with her roommates? Zoey sighed and finally let her thumb drop away from her mouth, her nail bitten down to the bed. With a look of absolute remorse, Zoey lifted her right hand and wrote down her name.

2. Zoey Welsh, Chaser\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

6 Zoey Welsh Uncertainties 39 Zoey Welsh 0 5

Zack Dill

February 13, 2006 4:25 PM

Dude, this sheet is more empty than last year's by Zack Dill

Zack Dill didn't know if he'd inadvertantly gotten on the team last year or not. The House needed seven to form a team, and only six had signed up. He'd made the mistake of going to watch the try-outs and had been mistaken for an applicant. Of course, the unclaimed position had been Beater, a spot for which Zack was uniquely unqualified with a severe lack of mass, strength, aim, and courage. If a bludger came at him he was as likely to run in terror as try to do anything with it.

Even if he did try to do something, he'd either miss it entirely (possibly due to dropping or being unable to lift the bat), get knocked off his broom by the bludger's momentum and have the bat wrenched from his grip that way, or accidently hit it with his ribcage or something equally fragile and die. So Beater was not his thing.

Keeper was just as ludicrious. If someone threw the quaffle hard enough and even if he miraculously did get in its way, he'd just get shoved backwards through the goal with the stupid ball. While admittedly, he'd grown and gained some mass since last year, he didn't think two inches and four pounds were really going to make that big of a difference.

Chaser was also out. That reminded him too much of basketball and he sucked at basketball. He couldn't throw for beans. He'd be lucky if the Quaffle cleared the end of his own broom.

Which left Seeker. He actually kind of liked Seeker, almost. Being tiny was considered a good thing. He didn't have to hit, throw, or really interact with any of the other players except to run away from bludgers. If any sporting team position had ever been made with him in mind, it was Seeker. And his vision was the one single stereotype he failed to meet as a complete nerd. He had perfect eyesight. This had always bothered him before, but it would help out if he did decide to brave forth into the uncharted territory of althleticism.

He hesitated, looking at the sheet, uncertain. Putting his name on that piece of paper completely went against everything he believed about himself. Except. This wasn't just a sporting event, like the varsity or JV teams at his normal school. If that was what this was about, he wouldn't be having this dilemna. This, this was for the glory of Alderaan. He could do this. For Princess Leia.

He read the second name on the sheet and that further strengthened his resolve. For Princess Leia and Zoey.

Besides, if he was going to be drafted to the team, he wanted to make sure he was going to the right spot.

3. Zack Dill - Seeker\n\n

1 Zack Dill Dude, this sheet is more empty than last year's 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Bella Santoro

February 18, 2006 8:51 PM

Oh right, I should sign up for this... by Bella Santoro

Bella yawned tiredly as she scrambled down the last few stairs until she reached the common room floor. She had stayed up extra late so that she could finish her assignment and be able to hand it in a few days early so that the Professor can have a look over it to make sure she had done it all correctly.

Of course, since she had stayed up so late, she hadn't nearly enough sleep as her body was used to and now she was overly tired and in a semi-miserable state of being. How she normally loved morning, she wished that it was still evening so that she could go back to sleep.

Bella was just crossing the entrance when a notice caught her attention. She had seen it all week and had been meaning to stop to jot her name down, but hadn't had the time or energy to do so. Well, she might as well do it now otherwise she'd forget entirely. Besides, she could always make room for Quidditch.

She frowned when she saw that there were only three names down and one of those happened to be the Captains. Bella knew that Aladrens weren't known for their athleticism, but this was ridiculous...

Izabella (Bella) Santoro - Chaser\n\n

0 Bella Santoro Oh right, I should sign up for this... 0 Bella Santoro 0 5

Ben Stafford

February 19, 2006 1:49 PM

I should as well... by Ben Stafford

Ben was tired that morning when he woke up, but that was probably because he had spent his night up reading up on some new quidditch expansion teams that were popping up in the American NQL. Some of them had shown promise, and until midnight, he was in his bed reading about them. So the next morning as he was walking downstairs from his dorm to get to breakfast, he was pleasantly surprised to see something he hadnt' noticed before. A quidditch team sign up.

Immediately, Ben pulled out a quill from his bookbag, and scrawled his name across the bottom of the list. Someone had already signed up for seeker, which was his prefered position, but chaser was still and option, so in neat script, he signed.

Ben Stafford, Second Year, Chaser
\n\n

0 Ben Stafford I should as well... 58 Ben Stafford 0 5

Geoffrey Layne

February 20, 2006 11:27 AM

Fulfilling my, uh, "fraternal" obligations. by Geoffrey Layne

Geoffrey had known there was going to be a problem from the day he found out Anne had, be it through self-seeking manipulation or sheer dumb luck, managed to land herself a position as one of Sonora's four team captains. That alone had been enough to make him seriously consider talking his parents into sending him somewhere else. Hogwarts, his mother's first choice, had been sounding better and better since he came to terms with being in Anne's House. He hadn't seen much of her since that disasterous welcoming speech where Kijewski, like most normal humans, most likely failed to understand Anne's completely not-normal system of classifications, but he hadn't managed to forget that even if he didn't play on the team, an idea anathema enough all by itself, he was still necessarily subordinate to Wright by year thanks to his birthday and position thanks to her windfall.

In a few days shy of twelve years, he'd never been subordinate to Anne. Never. Oh, there had been those first few years of public school before he skipped a grade, but his marks had been higher than hers, which evened things out. He hated being subordinate to anyone, but especially Anne. Not that he was at all jealous of her good fortune, but she wasn't cut out for the job. She got too passionate about things to see them in their proper lights and get the job done. Her personality was too difficult to draw people to her. She was just...just...too much of too much, that was all. Of course he wasn't jealous. That was such a teenage-girly emotion, and she was his best mate besides. His best mate who was a long way from prime leadership material, despite someone in authority's confidence that she could lead or lack of other resources.

Still, though - Quidditch. It was what he was good at. It was what he enjoyed doing, at least partially because he was good at it. Less to the point, Mum and Grandfather would have a pretty few words to say if he let something as trivial as Anne's job keep him on the sidelines, and his sisters would never let him live it down. More to the point, Anne would all-but-literally murder him if he let her down by leaving her in the lurch for the second year running. It was things like this that reminded him that, in her way, Anne had as much of a hold over him as he had over her.

"I am going to regret this, aren't I?" he muttered under his breath, then scribbled his name under that of some other boy. He wanted to finish it with something along the lines of 'you're dumber than I thought if you don't know what I play by now', but that sort of jibe-bantering didn't work in this scenario of her being his superior. A lot of things with him and Anne didn't seem to work the way they always had since Miz Mary died, actually. He didn't like it. Raised eyebrows at the fact they had four Chasers turned into a grimace as he wrote his position down. Knowing his luck, Anne would end up appointing herself as one of the Beaters. Typical.

In a hand composed of thin lines and sharp-angled loops, the decidedly unstraight line below Ben Stafford's name now read Geoffrey Layne, Beater. \n\n

16 Geoffrey Layne Fulfilling my, uh, "fraternal" obligations. 72 Geoffrey Layne 0 5

Chris and Devian Dupree

February 20, 2006 10:38 PM

Late as always by Chris and Devian Dupree

Chris ran a slender hand through his mass of dark, thick hair. He studied the parchment of Quidditch signups and gave a sigh of relief. No one else has signed up for the position of Keeper...yet. He knew someone else still might. There was still time. In a way, he almost welcomed a competition, to know if he was actually better or not. If one day, he had an actual shot with the Pros, but one thing at a time. He had to sign his name first. After a few minutes of rifling through his bag, he found what he was looking for - his trusty quill.

Quickly, in his harder to read than a Mediwizard's writing, Chris signed his name to the bottom of the sheet.

Chris Dupree - Keeper

With a smile of satisfaction to see it written, he wandered off to his room to grab his broom. He wanted to try out some moves, he had read about over the summer.

Devian watched his cousin's interest in a particular peace of parchment. Careful not to reveal himself until Chris was out of few view. He crept over to the board. It took only a few seconds to determine what the interest was. His dearer than dearest cousin was signing up for Quidditch. Devian gave a snort at the thought. Chris was anything, but dear. He was lower than low in his eyes. The way he stared at that mudblood. He wanted to wash his mind out from the mere though of the filth. Yet, this gave him an idea, the wheels of his mind racing. Yes, yes, if all went according to plan...

Quickly, he grabbed a quill off of the nearest table.

Devian Dupree - Beater

Oh, the mere thought of it all! He grinned with sheer madness.\n\n

0 Chris and Devian Dupree Late as always 0 Chris and Devian Dupree 0 5