Anne Wright
September 16, 2006 9:24 PM
Aladren Quidditch Practice by Anne Wright
Tugging on the end of her braid, neat for once thanks to Helena's point-blank refusal to let her assume an authority position looking like a ragbag, Anne smiled at Zack and Ben and nodded to Grail Markner. Since Geoffrey was too far away to kick, she decided to ignore him and the look of pronounced mistrust he was giving Tarwater. This year's speech should distract him, or at least make him look at her instead of at the other Beater. She'd have a word with him after practice, to remind him that they were working with all they had and it was therefore a good idea to be nice to the recruits. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she pulled out the roster and walked off the metaphorical start-of-the-season cliff."All right, then," she said, the process of looking around as if to make eye contact with everyone almost automatic, now, "Welcome to this year's Aladren Quidditch team. If you're not an Aladren, leave." Her annual line uttered and the necessary few seconds after it observed, she moved on. "Most of you know me, but for the newbies, I'm Anne Wright, team captain and Chaser. Our other Chasers are Ben Stafford and Zoey Welsh, the blond guy and the redheaded girl. Geoffrey Layne - raising his hand, see him? - is our returning Beater, and Zack Dill is our Seeker. For the rest of you, our new Beater is Paul Tarwater, and our new Keeper is Grail Markner, though I think she might like it better if you just call her Gray." Anne couldn't think of any other reason why the younger girl had put the nickname on the list in all caps, anyway.
"If you've got a problem with somebody, you bring it to me and I'll handle it. We have to be able to cooperate if we're going to win, and I don't think any of you are here to lose. We're all smart, I know for a fact that last year's people are good, and I'm pretty darn sure that you new people are going to be just as good as the rest of us. We've got your backs." She didn't know about Tarwater, but if the impression she'd gotten of Markner from that conversation over the holidays was at all accurate, the kid was probably going to need some encouragement.
Encouragement, speech-giving, and the related disciplines, however, still weren't too high on Anne's skills list, so she couldn't help hoping that Grail's nerves had steadied a bit and that she wouldn't prove too emotionally needy. Post-speech anxiety indicating she might have just made an idiot out of herself in front of firsties, Welsh, and three of her friends tried to set in, but she ignored it, giving the group as a whole a short smile. "If nobody's got any questions, we'll get to work. Grail, you'll work with me and the other Chasers. Layne, you work with Paul, show him anything he needs to know, and try not to hit the rest of us. Zack, you do whatever you think you need to. Anybody got anything they need to ask or say before we start up?" \n\n
Subthreads: Here by Paul Tarwater and Grail Markner with Geoffrey Layne, Paul Tarwater
snake in the grass by Zack Dill
Better late than never by Zoey Welsh with Anne
16
Anne Wright
Aladren Quidditch Practice
59
Anne Wright
1
5
Paul Tarwater and Grail Markner
September 17, 2006 11:47 AM
Here by Paul Tarwater and Grail Markner
Of course he'd made it. Paul grinned slightly. Of course. No Tarwater could ever fail at Quidditch, it was one of the things they were good at. Despite his hand-me-down CLeepsweep 60 broom, and a Beater's bat from probably last the end of last century, Paul came to the Pitch with a smile on his face. Of course, it was a smile of pureblood superiority. He'd even combed back his wavy black hair and you could see the superiority shining in his normally icy gaze.He leaned back and took in the people there. Other than the blonde girl with the funny name, Paul was the youngest there. And he and the girl were probably also the only new ones. The one other boy was giving Paul a dirty look, so he gave the boy a cheeky smile and then turned back to the Captian to listen to her.
Grail had also come, after putting in her navy cintacts, borrowing a broom from one of her roommates, and pullilng her dirty blonde hair into a messy bun. She made a note to get her own broom next term, if she made a good impression. She gave Anne a little smile, then made her way into the small group of people. She had already knew some of the people there just thanks to the description Anne had given her over break. She named a few people in her head and smiled at her ability to remember.
"Oo... looks intimidating here. Doesn't it?" Chali giggled, coming back into her head after a while.
Yes, she was was a little intimidated. But she tried to keep a strong face through Anne's speech. Despite her head going crazy on her again. She grinned at Anne when she mentioned Gray's nickname, the one taht made her feel less stupid about her name. Sighing and nodding, she mmoved after Anne, Ben, and Zoey. Hoping to make a good impression.
Paul also made a nod, and a motion to the boy Anne had Layne. The one that had given him a look. Paul gave him his grin again and mounted his broom.
"Ready when you are Layne," he said "sweetly."\n\n
0
Paul Tarwater and Grail Markner
Here
0
Paul Tarwater and Grail Markner
0
5
Geoffrey Layne
September 22, 2006 9:08 PM
And now we're four. by Geoffrey Layne
Geoffrey hated the St. Martin family, and only partially because they were power hogs who'd sooner kiss Muggleborns than acknowledge that his family and those like them existed. They had one crime that was greater even than that, and it was only partially that they had turned his best friend into a mess in about three months flat. The bulk of the problem lay in that while the St. Martins had busy screwing Anne up even more than she already had been, they had also given her a more impartial spine and taught her quite a few dirty tricks. One of these commonly went by the nominative 'blackmail', and was the reason he had finally, several days earlier, given up on griping, complaining, and arguing about having to play alongside one Paul Tarwater, a first year.Normally, Geoffrey had no objection to first years - his sister was a first year. He didn't even really have a problem with them playing Quidditch - though he'd never thought of himself as one, he had technically come in as a first year, and Anne had been a firstie when she was named Aladren's captain. He did, however, object to and have a problem with playing his position alongside one. He didn't want someone else to babysit, he didn't want someone to train, and a first year seemed highly likely to require both babysitting and training. What he had seen of the first year in question - one Paul Tarwater - had not raised his level of resignation to the sad fact of the matter very far, especially since the look on the younger boy's face as he walked onto the Pitch had been added to the evidence against him.
He only realized that he had continued his distrustful survey of the other Beater when Tarwater gave him a smile that, to Geoffrey, had 'smart aleck' written all over it. Geoff raised his eyebrows incredulously, but was prevented from doing anything about it by Anne as she began the speech. She had looked like utter hell when he'd come back from Christmas, which was why he had just handed over her presents without commenting about her staying at school for the holidays, but there wasn't much hint of it now. Geoffrey shook his head, annoyed. He'd been seeing things that weren't there, obviously; that wasn't an uncommon side affect of spending a good deal of time with Dinah and Helena for two weeks.
The speech started off the same as the one from Geoff's first year, but deviated from there. A faint frown at the oddity turned into the beginnings of a smirk as he wondered who the talk-out-problems call was meant for, him or Welsh. Geoff didn't know the hows or whys of it - it was some kind of girl thing he doubted even they'd be able to understand - but there had always been some kind of tension between Anne and Zoey, at least according to the former. As for Geoffrey, he didn't like how closely Anne had to work with Stafford, he didn't like how dependent Anne's personal happiness was on Dill, and he was now convinced that Tarwater was going to be a thorn in his side, unintentionally or otherwise. He didn't know or care about what issues the others had, and dismissed the matter as he picked up his broom and trooped on out with the others.
As she retrieved the Quaffle from the box, Anne gave him a warning look. He gave her his best innocent grin, then spoiled the illusion by winking. The serious expression broke as she rolled her eyes heavenward and moved away, leaving him and Tarwater with the Bludgers. Any hint of good humor left his face as the first year, who he was relieved to see had at least enough sense to have procured a broom and a bat, opened his mouth. Geoffrey decided it wasn't overly cruel or breaking the give-over-or-you're-fired agreement between himself and Anne to try sticking a needle in the other's arrogance balloon.
"Wright!" he shouted across the Pitch rather than answering Tarwater. "I'm gonna turn out one of the Bludgers, all right?" He thought her head moved - probably making sure Dill and What's-her-name, Markner, were out of the way - and then Anne waved energetically at him. Geoffrey decided to take that for assent. "All right," he said, looking directly at Tarwater for the first time. "Here's how things are going to work. We stay over here unless the Bludger gets away from us. In a game, your top priority is to keep the Seeker, the Captain, and the Keeper safe. In that order. Your second priority is to take out the other team's Seeker, Captain, and Keeper, again in that order. If the opportunity comes up to knock someone else out, then take it, but those come first. I'm going to release a Bludger. You're going to do whatever you think you ought to do with it until I get into the air." \n\n
16
Geoffrey Layne
And now we're four.
72
Geoffrey Layne
0
5
Paul Tarwater
September 26, 2006 6:15 PM
Oh joyful days by Paul Tarwater
Paul watched as the others moved away to work on their own things. Chasing... Seeking... Keeping, leaving Paul and the Layne guy (who Paul clearly didn't like already) to do their Beating. Haha... beating. That sounded like fun. He needed to hit something, since he was too afraid to hit his sister anyway. He shivered at the thought of him hitting her, knowing that she would near kill him. But this Layne guy couldn't do anything if a Bludger accidentally hit him in the face right? And if he tried to, all Paul had to do was play the innocent first year. Which he could never do with Cissy. He grinned at the thought.He smiled on hearing they were working with the bludeger. That was good for his anger, probably bad for Layne though...
Playing the "good firstie" he nodded to what Layne was saying, wide eyed and like he truley cared. Ha! As if! He knew the rules to Quidditch. He knew what a Beater did. His father never let him forget it. Why would he care to hear the same speech for the millionth time. And from a guy he already didn't like too. Not that he liked anyone in this stupid place either ways. But either way, he nodded like a good boy, mutting "okay"s like he had no idea before.
When the guy was done "informing" Paul mounted his broom, and felt himself smile a sort of secretive smile. Oh, he would play the lost firstie, such fun. Then when Layne got mad at his unability to do anything (he seemed like the guy to do that) he could really show Layne how good he was. He liked doing that, making other people feel stupid they didn't know something about him. That they judged him too fast. It was honestly fun for him. Especially after being bullied by his little sister all Christmas.
He kicked off and rose about five feet into the air. Should he play-act now? Sugarcoat something? No, not yet. Just a simple answer now. "Ready when you are Layne," he said, sort of spitting the guy's last name out. Hm? He wondered if spitting someone's name out blew your innocence points. Probably not, he shrugged.\n\n
0
Paul Tarwater
Oh joyful days
0
Paul Tarwater
0
5
Zack Dill
September 27, 2006 3:30 PM
snake in the grass by Zack Dill
Zack Dill was present and accounted for with the WarpSpeed school broom he'd named Enterprise the year before. He smiled and nodded back to Anne when she non-verbally greeted his arrival, then looked around at the rest of the group. He moved to stand next to Zoey for the duration of the introductory speech, despite still feeling a bit guilty for getting her in trouble during the infamous gnome tossing lesson. She was, after all, his closest friend on the team and he didn't feel like standing by himself.Anne started talking before he could say much more than 'hi' which he didn't really mind too much because if one more person asked him how his Christmas went, he was seriously going to scream. He'd gone back to Detroit to pick up his D&D books. Detroit. In December. How do you suppose his Christmas went? He froze. It was wonderful being back in Arizona in a place with weather charms to sheild against the worst of the winter chill. When he grew up, he was so moving to the equator. Or charming his house to be a constant 80 degrees year round, at the very least.
He looked down at his bare hands holding his broom, and marvelled that they were only mildly chilly. He looked up suddenly when he heard Anne say his name, startled by being singled out and flashing back unpleasantly to that CoMC lesson until he realized she was introducing people. He tuned in just in time to catch the new kids' names. Paul was the Beater, Grail (whose nickname was Gray, though Zack thought Grail was a much cooler name and decided that she'd be Grail to him) was the new Keeper. He wished he'd been paying attention earlier because it really bugged him that he couldn't remember Stafford's first name. (Anne and Layne, easily two of the more vocal people on the team, always called everyone by their surnames - it had taken months before Zack learned not to look around for his brother when someone shouted 'Dill' - in the neighborhood, Nick had been 'Dill' while Zack had been 'Pickle'. Zack hated Detroit.)
Come to that, he'd probably forget Paul's by the end of practice. Grail, though, he'd remember. It's not every day you meet someone named after the Knight's famous quest.
Anne went on, and Zack made himself pay attention even though most of what she was saying didn't apply to him. He made no attempt to commit what the Keeper, Chasers, and Beaters were going to be doing to memory, but he did let the words flow in one ear, get processed by his brain, and slide on out the other side. It wasn't until the very end of her spiel that he was mention again, and that was just to tell him to do his own thing.
He loved his position.
Wishing Zoey luck, he walked over to the box that still containing the snitch and bludgers. He stood back and flinched away as Layne released the bludgers, instinctively lifting up Enterprise in a sheilding gesture. Fortunately, the malevolent balls had no interest in the short grounded human and launched up into the sky. Watching them and the Beaters take off, Zack wondered idly if the Bludgers were aliens like the snitch was. If they were, they were probably from the same planet as the snitches, possibly either barely domesticated beasts or barely intelligent barbarians. Either way, they were dancing to the snitches' orders.
Zack took out the snitch, and sat down on the field to commune with the alien life form. It was a mind reader, so there was no point in trying to hide the fact that he had figured out their true nature. He could only hope that it didn't feel threatened by him and use its mind control powers to make him jump off his broom from a lethal height. From what he'd been able to deduce about their species, though, he doubted they were that violent. They were more observers and tricksters than overtly hostile.
Still, he made sure his foremost thought was "I come in peace." Even his deeper motive would surely only amuse the creature because after the awe of meeting a real alien, his next most promenent thought was 'Maybe I can make friends with it, and then it'll let me catch it during the game instead of the other Seeker.'
For a long time, he just sat there on the grass, holding the snitch in both hands, and keeping his mind clear so that he'd be able to hear any questions or advice the alien might wish to impart to him. Stray thoughts drifted to the surface of his mind, and he wondered why the alien wanted to know what he'd had for breakfast or how to speak friend so you could enter Moria. He surpressed his questions, and continued letting the snitch probe his mind and get to know him.
It occurred to him that he must look strange, just sitting there on the field holding a snitch, but he wasn't sure if that was his own thought or the alien's subtle way of telling him he could start flying now. He'd wait for one more sign, just to be sure.\n\n
1
Zack Dill
snake in the grass
40
Zack Dill
0
5
Geoffrey Layne
September 29, 2006 11:59 PM
And the real fun begins... by Geoffrey Layne
Anita owes me more than one for putting up with this. He couldn't point out exactly what it was about Tarwater that rubbed him the wrong way, but there was something. Shrugging irritably, Geoffrey tried to ignore it. If Anne could deal with thinking that Zoey Welsh was out to one-up her well enough to get the job done, he could deal with this, whatever it was. He certainly wasn't going to let himself be bested by a girl. At least the younger boy had wiped that insufferably smug look off his face.He gave the first year a considering look as he floated in midair, as if he hadn't picked up on the tone his surname had been uttered in, then smiled disarmingly. "Glad to hear it, Paul," he said, as pleasantly as possible. "We might just work well together." He turned away, then, before the first year could see him laughing. Reverse psychology, or something related to it. Whatever it was called, it could seriously mess with people. Anne generally snapped at him about having better things to do than split hairs with an idiot before storming off when he did it to her, which usually meant he could guilt-trip her for at least a few hours afterwards.
The amusement died as another thought occurred to him. Paul had looked all curious, eager-to-listen innocence a moment earlier save for the overt hostility, which made a minimum of sense and near a maximum of potential irritation, but it didn't square well with the original arrogance. He was no Crotalus, to see plots inside plots or whatever it was Crotali did for fun, but there was something not right about that...maybe the firstie was just full of himself, so pleased to be on the team that he overlooked that it had been by default and conveniently forgot that being on the team meant having to do something. Maybe. Shrugging yet again, he turned his attention back to the Bludgers.
"Watch yourself, now," he said. "Anne'll have my head if anyone gets too bruised up during practices." Angling himself so that the chances of the Bludger turning his face into ground round were minimized, he gingerly loosened the straps restraining the thing and immediately jumped back. He wasn't a Crotalus, but a little caution was necessary for everyone who wanted to life a long, in-one-piece life, as anyone around Bludgers or Geoff's music teacher for very long at a time knew. Hurrying to collect his own broom and kick off into the air, he kept at least a quarter of his attention on what the other Beater was doing all the while. \n\n
16
Geoffrey Layne
And the real fun begins...
72
Geoffrey Layne
0
5
Paul
September 30, 2006 2:49 AM
You won't know that until it hits you by Paul
"We might just work well together."Oh funny! Did he seriously just say that. It took a lot for Paul to bite back the cocky laugh he so desperately wanted to let out, he even doubled over on his broom to hold to back, resulting in a close call of a devestating fall. He clutched closely at the handle of the broom. No way would Paul work well with this guy. He didn't like him already. To Paul, all this guy was good for was for smacking Bludgers at during practice to get back at Cissy, and then claim to complete innocence. Oh yeah, they'd work real well togathr. Certainly. Right.
"Watch yourself now," he mocked softly under his breath. Did Layne even know who he was talking to? Paul knew better than to get bruised. His father taught him how to play, despite the lack of money to get good gear. Paul wasn't some Mudblood idiot who didn't know a thing about the game. But then again, seeing the Captain scream at Layne just make make up for a small bruise and slight embarrassment. Hm... it was a thought. Back to innocent first year, he would decide this later.
"Of course. Wouldn't want that Layne," he smiled. Dang, for some reason he couldn't bring himself to say Layne's name nicely. But that didn't mean his nice act wouldn't work he hoped. He so wanted to make a fool of the boy, it would make him feel better. Strange, Paul wasn't the one to normally pull out a victim, but when he just got out of Cissy's torments he did. He could always blame it one her. But no, no one believed him anyway. The younger you were, the more you were believed. Apparantly.
When he saw the Bludger take off Paul smailed. He had to be sure to hit it nicely the first few times. Then, when least expected, have a misdirection while hitting and hit this guy. Never enough to seriously hurt but enough to at least cause pain. He watched Layne kick off, and the Bludger come near. His time to shine. Or "fall," either way he would get some amusment. His bat smacked the murdurous ball hard and it flung back quickly. Then he smiled.
"Good enough...?" he refrained from saying the boy's name. That would ruin the innocence act.\n\n
0
Paul
You won't know that until it hits you
0
Paul
0
5
Zoey Welsh
September 30, 2006 3:49 PM
Better late than never by Zoey Welsh
Zoey made her way down to the pitch for the usual Aladren Quidditch Practice. This year, like all years, they had to train some new recruits. Not that Zoey minded. Once upon a time she didn't even know Quidditch existed. Still, she often wondered what it was about them that made people decide not to come back.And then sometimes Zoey wondered if Anne wanted Zoey gone from the team as well. Zoey wouldn't actually go out and ask because if Anne said yes, Zoey would only then feel obligated to quit the team. But Dillon kept insisting that she say something about Anne's cold shouldered ways or else Zoey would never feel truly comfortable on the team. And that was never good either.
Introductions were underway and Zoey smiled and gave a small wave when introduced to the new team members. First years. Well, it could have been worse. Zoey bid farewell to Zack and made off for the other Chasers and Gray. Taking her broom with her, Zoey waited patiently near Anne until she was ready to give her orders.\n\n
6
Zoey Welsh
Better late than never
39
Zoey Welsh
0
5
Geoffrey Layne
October 01, 2006 4:23 PM
Hmmm...is is just me, or was there a pun in that? by Geoffrey Layne
Once he was in the air, Geoffrey no longer had time to watch the first year as closely as he would have liked to. If Anne herself got hurt, she'd curse at him a bit, maybe punch him once she was back in one piece if the injury was something relatively serious, like broken ribs or a cracked skull, and then go about business as usual. If one of the others did...well...Maybe it was some girl thing that only came out around thirteen or fourteen, but he couldn't always tell how Anne was going to react to a given situation anymore. She might take things in stride, or she might pitch a fit to beat an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, and there wasn't much telling which it was going to be.Tarwater sat his broom well enough, Geoffrey supposed, and he was holding the bat correctly. Though Fox's lessons could, theoretically, be given credit for turning out someone good - she had been a professional, once - Geoffrey suspected that his new position-mate had come in with some idea of what he was doing. That would, in a way, be a relief - Geoff's year wasn't exactly noted for the patience of its members, and he figured he was in the top six Worst Potential Teachers - but there was always the chance that Paul knew exactly enough about what he was doing to think he knew more. Geoffrey nodded in approval as Tarwater managed to hit the Bludger.
"Not bad," he said, then hurried in its general direction. He didn't know how Anne would react to any accidents, and he didn't want to find out, either. The affects on the team overall would be pretty bad if Anne really flipped out over something; Geoffrey doubted any of them had ever seen her in a real temper. She might control herself for the benefit of the masses, but then, she might not, either. Hitting the Bludger back in Tarwater's direction, he swang himself around to the side, out of the way again. \n\n
16
Geoffrey Layne
Hmmm...is is just me, or was there a pun in that?
72
Geoffrey Layne
0
5
Anne
October 01, 2006 8:13 PM
Good motto. by Anne
Anne was chewing on her bottom lip and pulling on her hair by the time she rejoined the other Chasers and Grail near the left goal posts with the Quaffle. Two newbies to train, with her and Geoff largely in charge of them. Not the ideal combination, and none of her attempts at soothing thoughts about how it was all going to be fine made much of an impression on the knot of anxiety forming in the bottom of her stomach. Reaching the others, she forced another smile for Ben and Grail, then made herself offer it to Zoey as well. She couldn't antagonize Zoey any further than she already had; there was no time to find and train a replacement if the older girl got so miffed that she quit."Okay," she said, tossing the Quaffle up in the air a little and catching it, just to have something to do with her hands, but got no further as Geoffrey yelled for her from across the Pitch. There was no doubt in her mind that he was going to do something stupid. She'd already explained three times now that they had to work with what they had, and the first thing he did was try to assassinate the other Beater. There was nothing she could do about it without looking stupid, though, except hope that Paul had good reflexes. Saying a brief prayer for the first year and checking that Zack, the only other person not with her, was out of the way, she waved in his direction instead of yelling back.
"Sorry about that," she said, turning back to the group around her. "As I was saying before Geoff interrupted, the first thing we've gotta work out is how far along Gray is." She turned to the youngest of them. "You told me you'd been practicing, so that's a good start. We'll do some basic shots from a few different distances to see what you're up for today, sounds good?" She glanced quickly around the Pitch while she waited for an answer, and saw Geoffrey do what looked an awful lot like trying to play Bludger Tennis with Paul while Zack meditated or something similar. It took a moment for her to realize that the reason her head hurt was because she had started pulling her hair again.
Tossing it back over her shoulder once more, Anne forced her attention to rest solely on the group she was working with. She couldn't be in three places at once. "Ben, Zoey, is there anything either of you want to go over?" \n\n
16
Anne
Good motto.
59
Anne
0
5
Paul
October 03, 2006 7:57 PM
Oh, it is so just you *coughs* by Paul
Paul gave out a small sigh of relief when Layne seemed to forget his earlier rudeness and prided him. Wow, Paul thought he'd blown his cover of innocence. Of course, Layne probably wasn't the smartest guy in the world, or person for that matter since Cissy would have seen right through his "innocence." But of course, that was why Paul was taking out his anger out on Layne, instead of who it was really directed to. Since Cissy would kill and/or maim him if he tried.He gave Layne a cheesy smile as the Bludger was hit back. He watched as the death-ball came zooming towards him and smiled for real this time. Now, how would he ever release true anger if he wasn't a Beater? He was so glad he chose it. And again, how would he release his anger if he didn't have an annoying older student to release it on? He flipped the bat show-offantly in his hand and slammed it down on the Bludger. Key-word being down, not across. He found his smile disappear as the Bludger pulled itself back up and he was forced to dodge it again and hit it.
It flew towards Layne this time, but he knew it wouldn't hit the boy just yet. Layne was paying attention, and Paul knew he probably wasn't stupid enough to not dodge a raging Bludger coming straight for him. He knew he'd have to hit the boy when his back was turned. Then Layne wouldn't see the grin on his face when it hit him. Just hear the apology Paul would give, thinking of how happy he was to release the anger and hate he had for Cissy. To Paul, hurting people when he was angry was the best thing he could do.
But it could be worse. He could be like Cissy. He could torture things out of pure pleasure or boredom as well.\n\n
0
Paul
Oh, it is so just you *coughs*
0
Paul
0
5
Geoffrey L.
October 05, 2006 6:30 PM
And of course that last was allergies. by Geoffrey L.
Geoffrey allowed himself a smirk of satisfaction as Tarwater turned nice upon being praised. That one didn't work on Helena - she'd give him one of those long, level looks of hers, then go right back to fighting once he felt thoroughly idiotic - but with most other people...he'd seen the strategy work on Anne, even, if he was careful about the nature of the compliment. She could be touchy, sometimes, and Geoffrey pitied the man who tried to get on her good side with a comment about her beautiful eyes.Not that she didn't have nice eyes, because she did. Her cousins were, on average, nicer to look at in other respects, but Anne had the best eyes of the lot, even when she was taking someone's head off...
Of its own accord, the train of thought cut off. Anne would react as badly to him making comments like that as she would to anyone else doing it, and the man who told her she wasn't as hot as her cousins was one with a death wish. It was paradoxical, but Anne was being conventional, for once, by adhering to the rule that said all girls were bound to get weirder as they got older. He thought it was a one-upwomanship thing, but the theory wasn't much more than a suspicion. He had other things to think about at the moment, anyway; the Bludger was heading back in his direction.
"Watch for it," he called, raising his voice a bit for the benefit of any random black-haired, sharp-tempered witches who happened to be listening in for proof of his good behavior. He considered trying something bordering on fancy, but decided against it for fear of messing it up in front of the first year, who, despite his apparent Seeing of the Light, still put him on edge, somehow. Contrary to what Anne and Lena claimed others thought, he did have some concept of the limits to his skills. Pulling his bat back, he hit the Bludger as hard as he could back towards Tarwater.
It wouldn't be this orderly in a real game. He still didn't like Tarwater, but he liked the idea of losing against one of the other teams because Tarwater lost his head under pressure even less. Maybe they could draw one of the other teams into a scrimmage without showing how weak their team was because of the firsties...but then, maybe they could make it snow on the Sun, too. Anne was the youngest of the five team captains, and so the one without the advantage of friendly contacts with the others. Having her make friends with one of the others - maybe Crotalus, they both had relatives on Zucchero's team - might be something to think about, if they all survived each other through regular practices. \n\n
16
Geoffrey L.
And of course that last was allergies.
72
Geoffrey L.
0
5
Paul
October 07, 2006 10:47 AM
Oh, of course. by Paul
Oh, this was getting better and better. Paul had the feeling Layne actually believed Paul was an innocent. He had to praise himself. He had to be the best actor at Sonora yet. This gave him the little surge of pride Paul needed to forget his anger towards Cissy. But it wasn't for so long, because he found himself mentally begging the boy to turn away from Paul again. For... obvious... reasons. For a second, his wrist pressured, but Paul ignored it, knowing far worse pain than a throbbing wrist. In a second, Paul had forgotten all about it, and went back to his mental begging of Layne to turn.Paul decided on flying in a little closer so to be more effective in hitting. It's what his sister always did. She'd move in close, slowly, and when it was the right time she'd hit whatever she had at you. And it wored. It hurt worse. And she was always able to make it look accidental. Always. Paul may be a great fibber now, but Cissy was better. She would see right through Paul, mainly because she didn't trust much of anyone.
Paul remembered him and Sierra always being compared to each other. Both had the black hair and blue eyes of their family, as well as a darker skin tone. They'd always said Paul and Cissy looked so similar, but Paul knew better. Cissy was crueler than Paul, who was mearly a little cold to people. Cissy would start calling them names, threatening people just because she was bored and needed something to do. And she never had an empty threat. He knew his sister would try to get on whatever house's team she was in next year. And if they didn't allow her to play, the Captian would honestly have to sleep with one eye open.
Cissy didn't take well to rejection. Another reason Paul was frightened of her, and wanted to take anger out on some cocky guy on his team. Rather than her.
Speaking of, the Bludger was just coming back. He looked up to see if Layne had turned around yet, and felt his face fall a little when he saw the boy was still facing Paul. He hit the Bludger back correctly and moved closer again. He knew he needed to be, at least, around two yards away. He wasn't even close to that yet. And now he was back to the mental begging of "turn around, Layne." Paul was glad he was fairly patient.\n\n
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Paul
Oh, of course.
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Paul
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Geoffrey L.
October 08, 2006 10:54 PM
Shall we carry on, then? by Geoffrey L.
Geoffrey kept one eye on the Bludger and the other on Tarwater. Bludgers were charmed to attack whatever was closest, and he was the closest thing to the Bludger in any direction once Tarwater successfully hit it back at him. Why he was still watching the first year wasn't as easy to work out, but he didn't care enough to try, not with the first issue still unresolved. He didn't want to get his head cracked open - he wasn't much into pain, or humiliation - and the Bludger was now back in range. When Tarwater started moving forward, Geoffrey moved back automatically, then hit the Bludger to the side, out of everyone's way."You're good enough on straight lines," he said shortly, bat half-raised in case the Bludger found its way back to them before he finished speaking. "Now I'm going to see how you do from different directions." It could have been his mind playing tricks on him, but the first year looked too close to him. Trying his best to be subtle about it, he backed off a bit. Close-range hits weren't against any rules he could remember, but they were dangerous for the person on the wrong end of the bat and sometimes for the one on the right end, too. Geoff had no plans to let some idiot first year use him for a practice dummy.
Belatedly, it occurred to him that Anne might well kill him for this. If Tarwater took it in his head to go the wrong way, or didn't catch the Bludger quickly enough...No, he wasn't going to take it back. He'd already said it, and it would make him look like an idiot cowering in fear of a girl, which he wasn't prepared to countenance. This was his province, not Anne's, and she'd told him he could do what he thought appropriate. Sort of. The Bludger came back, and he hit it towards and to the left of Tarwater. "Go on, then."
He still didn't like playing professor, but there was some satisfaction to be gotten out of it. It wasn't often that he got to tell someone else what to do and really expect them to do it, and whatever Tarwater's opinion of him, he had yet to refuse to do anything. Geoffrey decided not to think about the fact that the Bludger and their proximity to it hadn't left Paul with much choice in the matter if he wanted to keep all his bones intact.\n\n
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Geoffrey L.
Shall we carry on, then?
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Geoffrey L.
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