Archery Club Meet and Greet. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Aiden O'Neil

February 23, 2016 2:24 PM

Archery Club Meet and Greet. by Aiden O'Neil

Aiden had to reconfigure the room at least four times until he finally had the closest look to what Keme used to have that Aiden remembered. It was like an indoor Quidditch field with random targets placed near the goals. It wasn’t set up exactly as Aiden remembered, but Aiden had always had a hard time paying attention to the details. Lena might have been the better partner to put the room together before the meeting, but he had been so excited about starting up the club again that he had taken it upon himself to do it.

He’ll have to ask Lena to do it next time. He was sure she would be better at it than him.

They had created flyers and posters and hung those up around the school the week before to alert everyone that the Archery Club was back on and to meet in the Sports Room Sunday afternoon at three. With Quidditch on hold, Aiden didn’t have to worry too much about conflicting schedules, but he had checked the boards just in case and found that the time was cleared. He really hoped that some people did come to the club meetings. Aiden was not Keme, who was totally a professional Archer, but he did want to have fun and Archery was a cool sport. Lena seemed to agree since she also wanted to keep it going.

So, he was here now and some people were actually coming to the meeting. This both excited him and made him want to throw up. Aiden was not anything special. He certainly didn’t have the same sort of looks that his peers had. He had finally lost all the extra pounds thanks to his becoming more active and this summer he would finally be getting his teeth fixed, but he didn’t think he’d ever really be someone others would find handsome or charming. He always tried to be nice to people, but he was pretty sure anyone outside of Teppenpaw and Pecari didn’t really care much for him. He was saddened by that because he wanted to make friends, but he didn’t really know how. He hoped this club would open up some doors for him though and for Lena too. Despite is normally outgoing nature, Aiden had never really had to speak up in front of a crowd and now that he had too, he felt sick.

“Hi everyone!” He greeted cheerfully. “Thank you all for coming to the Archery Club! I’m Aiden O’Neil and this is Lena Westley. We both took the Archery Club lessons in the past that were held by Keme RunningBear. He graduated last year and he wanted to keep it going.” Aiden explained. “Neither of us are really experts, so we don’t plan on necessarily teaching anyone anything except for the very basics. Mr. Xavier has graciously agreed to be our Advisor, so if anyone has any concerns, you are more than welcomed to speak with him.” He hoped no one had concerns, but sometimes things did come up. “We mainly wanted to start the club out of fun. We enjoyed it in the past and wanted to keep that momentum going. But, if anyone does have experience with Archery, we encourage you to speak up and possibly help out the rest of us with our skills.”

Aiden paused and took a breath. He didn’t think he was making much sense, but he wanted to be honest with everyone. He was here to give a space for others who wanted to enjoy the sport of it, but he was not there to teach techniques because he didn’t have that knowledge. “There are beginner bows next to each target and a line in the grass for where to stand. If everyone is okay with it, I figured we can try out a few practice shots?”

OOC: Permission was given by Lena’s author

Subthreads:

My day is made! by Abigail De La Garza with Lena Westley

Passing the time. by The Umland Brothers

6 Aiden O'Neil Archery Club Meet and Greet. 287 Aiden O'Neil 1 5

Abigail De La Garza

February 24, 2016 3:23 PM

My day is made! by Abigail De La Garza

Abigail was suitably thrilled when she first spotted the posters and flyers that suddenly appeared around the school after midterm, glad that someone had finally gone and done what she wasn’t brave enough to do. Archery Club was back and Abby was most certainly going! Of course, she was aware that there would be no more Keme Runningbear but at least they had something and she felt very grateful toward the organisers for providing that.

She wasn’t entirely sure what to expect when she entered the sports room in MARS at the designated time on the designated day she had keenly remembered from the posters. The room didn’t look too far off how Keme used to set it up but even if it had been, she didn’t think it mattered all that much. Abby was just eager to get back into full swing, doing her hobby as part of a whole group of students who also enjoyed it. Practising with Chuck had been fun but he couldn’t join her all the time (or she felt rude to ask given the frequency and spontaneity of her sessions) and she thought it unlikely that he would want to. Abby was naturally a sociable person so to be able to combine friend-making, or simply socialising, with archery was fantastic and added to the fun.

The second year listened politely as Aiden O’Neil took centre stage (figuratively speaking) and re-introduced the club to those that had turned up. Abby did feel some mild disappointment that Aiden and Lena wouldn’t likely be able to teach her anything, since she’d already got the hang of the basics, but she hadn’t really expected they could to begin with. Perhaps if they thought her good enough, she might be allowed to help teaching first years as well… although that might also depend on how confident she felt in her own abilities in archery and leadership. There was a side to Abby that rather envied Aiden’s ability to stand up and talk in front of the group and also to take charge of the entire club and thought it good that he had Lena Westley to give a helping hand so responsibilities were shared. If she were ever to get involved in the organisation of a school club when she was older, Abby thought it might be nice to have a partner to share the load with.

Before doing as instructed and getting herself a bow and standing in line, Abby approached Aiden and Lena. “Hi, I’m Abigail De La Garza,” she introduced herself first. “I was also in this club last year and I really loved it so I’ve rather missed it this year. It’s great that you guys are continuing it - I just wanted to say thank you for doing this really.”

8 Abigail De La Garza My day is made! 315 Abigail De La Garza 0 5

Lena Westley

February 25, 2016 5:23 PM

Entertained by Lena Westley

When Lena came entered the room she was greeted by a familiar sight- Aiden had done a remarkable job of setting up the field. The targets were spaced a little differently and the field wasn’t quite the same shape or size but neither was important to have precise. Excited, Lena came up to Aiden and placed a hand on his shoulder. “It looks great, Aiden. Good job.” Smiling she left him to straighten up the bows, quivers, and to start placing arrows in the latter. When students started to arrive at the appropriate time, she walked back over to Aiden and waited for the first new archery club meeting to start.

After Aiden had introduced himself and informed everyone of the general guidelines and idea of the club, everyone had proceeded to line up near the equipment except for one younger, plumpish witch who came over to introduce herself. Lena didn’t recognize the girl at all, but this could be because Lena one, had not been in the archery club until the second half of last year, and two, she didn’t have a head for faces. She was much better with names, and ‘Abigail’ had a name that left quite an impression. “Nice to meet you” she replied, extending her hand to shake the cheerful second year’s hand. She didn’t fel comfortable being thanked for starting the club up again, for one because it wasn’t her idea alone but secondly because she felt clubs, and especially this club in particular, were for everybody and the organizers were only slightly more involved. This wasn’t completely true, she knew, Aiden and she had done a fair amount of prep work to get this going but nothing she felt that warranted a formal thank you.

As a pure blood witch, Lena should’ve been used to formality but her family was quaint. They had decided to send Olivier and Lena to Sonora to get away from bloodline prejudice, it being rampant in Britain. She was the most sheltered PB witch, but not in the usual way. She was sheltered from “society” and human interaction. Thankful she wasn’t the president, she let Aiden talk to the girl and after some chit chat wandered over to the other members who were waiting patiently or still figuring out how to get their quivers on.

She helped a couple of witches and wizards get set up and led them over to a spot on the field not too far away from a target. After having them practice feathering their bows and adjusting their elbows, she let them loose a couple arrows one at a time. Teaching, she learned, required constant attention. Archery club was a great idea.

7 Lena Westley Entertained 279 Lena Westley 0 5

The Umland Brothers

March 03, 2016 5:44 PM

Passing the time. by The Umland Brothers

Maybe he would get used to it in time, but for now, Joe was still amazed every time he went into one of the MARS rooms and found it different than it had been the time before. He had always known that magic could do incredible things, but he had seldom seen any of them before he came here. Magic at home was small, secretive, and, with the exception of a few illusions on holidays and such, almost entirely practical. Magic here hardly seemed to have any limits at all. Large chambers would bend to the will of first years, just ‘cause. It was incredible enough that he didn’t always necessarily trust the floor under him while he was inside, and that was before he walked into the sport room, where he had spent a fair bit of time with John, and found it completely different from how he’d seen it ever before.

“Whoa,” he said quietly.

His brother looked around the room. “Looks about the same as it used to, I think," said John. "Aiden and Lena are decent. I didn’t really see either of them starting – or re-starting, I guess – a club, though. Good for them.”

Joe didn’t know Aiden or Lena and so couldn’t comment on that, though he was a little proud when the one who started talking was the one from his House. He didn’t, after half a year here, think the other Houses took Teppenpaw seriously enough. He thought being diplomatic was a good thing, especially for the head of something like a club. Maybe caring too much could be a problem, but Joe honestly didn’t think he’d met any Teppenpaws yet who were just too nice. Even his sister – Julian was sweet, but she had an impressive ‘I am very disappointed in you and never want to see such behavior ever again’ glare when she chose to use it. Joe had seen her make John shut up with a look and without convincing him she was right first. It didn’t always work and he didn’t always stay quiet for very long when it did, but it had happened. He didn’t expect there were many people in Aladren who could say as much.

Aiden’s speech wasn’t the best Joe had ever heard, but it wasn’t the worst, either. After it, Joe followed his brother to the targets. John picked up one of the bows and looked it over.

“These look like ones in stories,” said Joe.

“Hm? Yes,” said John. “From what I read at home, though, they fit in better here – in Arizona, I mean – than in the stories. You’d want longbows in wet climates – at least with wood. They do things with plastics these days, out there, but these look pretty traditional.” He was lecturing – more exactly, rattling off some facts even though he didn’t know enough to properly lecture; he didn’t sound enthusiastic enough to launch into a proper lecture – but Joe didn’t mind much. John seemed to measure the bow against his own height. “These are short enough to have a pretty good draw weight, so be careful, but I don’t know if they’re short enough for mounted shooting.” John grinned suddenly. “Traditionally from horses, but brooms would probably do, don’t you think?”

Joe inclined his head instead of rolling his eyes. John made a big show of being a modern man of science, but it seemed some things never changed. Joe had a horrible feeling that the only reason John hadn’t set off on a quest to break through the enchantments around the school and save their sister with only seven-year-old Joe and a toy sword for help a few years ago was that his brother hadn’t been able to figure out how to get out of their mother’s sight long enough to figure out how to get into the desert. John was one of those people who probably should have been brought up on stories about puppets trying to be good neighbors to each other instead of on tales of great deeds. Even when he tried to make Quidditch sound like the sort of intellectually deep game a modern man of science could appreciate, he compared his own position to that of a Knight in chess.

“Probably would,” he agreed. At least these were (assuming they were, well, wholly real anythings) not cheap toys specifically designed to be as useless as possible for the real version's purpose without being a completely different shape entirely. That made the prospect of John planning an air force in the event of another Problem at least a little more practical than his plan for storming the castle to save Julian had been. Hopefully, though, Julian would just save them all the trouble and not get trapped anywhere she couldn’t get out of again. If she did and John insisted on trying to be a hero and Mom couldn’t stop him, Joe would have to try to help him, even though he was knew now that realistically, if a problem was that big, the two of them trying to be heroes would probably only make things worse. “Plus you wouldn’t have to worry about accidentally shooting your horse, or my horse, in the head quite so much. How do I hold this thing without breaking my arm or shooting myself in the hand?”

16 The Umland Brothers Passing the time. 0 The Umland Brothers 0 5