Conflicted. on Quidditch Pitch

Fae Sinclair

August 04, 2013 10:34 PM

Being Supportive by Fae Sinclair

Fae had realized her true feelings for Arnold a little while ago. Her honest feelings for him. They had been dating now for two years and she had crushed heavily on him for a year longer, it was only natural for her to feel the way she did for him. She would not say it to him. Not really. She supposed by now he must have known. Even so, she would not say it. Fae was worried that if she let those words slip, Arnold would become too freaked to be around her. They were stuck together due to the betrothal, but she didn’t want it to be any more awkward between them than it had to be.

So Fae kept quiet about her feelings and maintained her supportive girlfriend role by coming to the Aladren match. She had gone to the Crotalus match because she needed to support her house and her friend, Topher. If one could call him that. She wasn’t really sure what his thoughts were on it. But they had maintained a friendly camaraderie with one another and it felt okay to show support of his Captaincy by going to the game. Besides, by going to all the games, she was certain Arnold wouldn’t mind her showing interest in the sport that he loved so dearly.

Her only hope was that he would not get terribly injured. Fae had a hard time watching when the bludgers found their way to him. She knew it was just part of the sport and he would be healed the moment he landed, but she hated seeing people get hurt over something trivial. It seemed so brutal and unnecessary. Obviously, it was all for entertainment, but it made her feel a little sick to her stomach. Especially with the injuries where one could tell the bones were broken. She did not understand how a person could play through that torture. If she ever broke a bone, she was certain she would faint from the pain of it. She wanted to cry whenever she got a paper-cut, there was no way she could handle a bludger.

Wearing a cloak with heating charms to keep her warm, hat, scarf, and gloves, Fae sat in the stands and watched out at the Aladren players. Being from Connecticut, the cold here at school wasn’t nearly as bad as back home, so everything she was wearing was due to the length of time they would be in the cold rather than the cold itself. Frostbite was something dangerous her mother had always warned her about. She would rather be cautious than stupid.

It was easy to spot the twins, but she hoped that Arthur was helping Arnold and not controlling him. Sometimes, Fae thought he controlled his whole family, like a puppeteer. She didn’t always understand the dynamics of the family and really that could simply be the role that they were all fulfilling, but it made her worry about what things would be like outside of Sonora. Without Arthur around telling him what to do, how would Arnold really be? How would he function? Would she have to step up and do that? Fae didn’t like the idea of telling Arnold what to do, she was hoping they just went with things, but if that’s how Arnold did things, it might be what he was expecting. Or he was hoping that Arthur would live with them and it would be like Fae was there as the third wheel in her own future marriage.

It was exhausting to think about and her mind was already too full with RATS things. She still had a year and a half to worry about that and maybe by then the twins would figure out themselves. Right now, she just had to concentrate on the game and only the game. It was always difficult for her to follow everything in the beginning; so far, she couldn’t even tell who had the quaffle. “Do you see where the quaffle is?” Fae asked the person sitting beside her. By now, no one ought to think it strange that she was at the game. She was dating the captain of the Aladren team, after all.

Subthreads:

In the Pecari stands by Waverly Canterbury with Aubrielle Thornton

Conflicted. by Virginia Bellrose with Malcolm Carey, Ginny Bellrose, Mal Carey

Being enthusiastic. by Alicia Bauer with Fae

6 Fae Sinclair Being Supportive 194 Fae Sinclair 1 5

Waverly Canterbury

August 05, 2013 11:45 PM

In the Pecari stands by Waverly Canterbury

OOC: I didn't want to start a whole new thread, but Waverly is in the Pecari stands.

For every year past Waverly had been at the Pecari Quidditch games decked out in house colors that only became bolder with each term. This year she she new brown Chucks with "Pecari" written on them in bold black Sharpie. Her warm robes were brown as well just for her house and she had a yellow hat and yellow gloves she had purchased just for her house and it was lucky that Pecari was playing in the winter this time around so she could wear them. It still struck her as incredibly odd that it was this cold and snowed in her home state. Until she had come to Sonora, she had never experienced a snowy winter. It had been cold sometimes at night, but never anything like this. It was kind of cool because it was so different from what she was used to.

Waverly made sure to cast a heating charm on herself so she wouldn't freeze during the match and made her way into the Pecari stands. She had joined the team once and had sworn to never do anything like that again. She had enough to juggle right now with Prefect duties, clubs, and classes. She sometimes wondered if Jorge thought she was half crazy and she guessed he most likely did. She could totally see why too and, well, it was a pretty correct assessment.

She had lots of work to do, but she could not miss the match today. Waverly had arrived right before the whistle blew and when it did, she kept her eyes on the brown-clad players. She cupped her gloved hands around her mouth and shouted, "Go Pecari!" even though she doubted anyone on the pitch could hear her. Her brown hair flew into her face and she moved it away and tried tucking it behind her ears which were under her hat. It took a little longer and was a little more complicated than it should have been, but it was done and Adam had passed the quaffle. She held her breath, hoping to see at least one goal scored against Aladren. "Come on Jade!" she yelled.

19 Waverly Canterbury In the Pecari stands 218 Waverly Canterbury 0 5

Virginia Bellrose

August 06, 2013 10:30 PM

Conflicted. by Virginia Bellrose

Ginny didn’t know much about Quidditch. Being an only child and a girl, there wasn’t much of a chance for her to really learn anything about it. Her mother thought the sport was too aggressive and masculine for her daughter to even bother with it anyway. And her father agreed that it was too violent of a sport for his precious daughter to witness. But, they couldn’t prevent her from going to the games while at school.

Last year, Quidditch had been cancelled due to the challenges, but Ginny hadn’t thought much of it. At the time, she had felt bad because Percival had wanted to play and felt that he would not be able to. But this year the games were back on and Ginny had discovered that not only was Percival on the Crotalus team, but Adam and Francesca had joined their respected house teams. She wasn’t necessarily surprised by Adam, but she was taken aback by Francesca. She hadn’t really thought that her friend was a sports player. Ginny didn’t have an issue with her playing, she just found it strange that she was. Her mother said that girls didn’t typically play sports, especially violent ones, when they came from good homes.

Ginny did not mention any of this though out of worry of upsetting her friend. But when the time came for the two of them to play against one another, Ginny was conflicted. What side of the field did she sit with? She wanted to support both of her friends equally, but she was afraid that if she chose the wrong side, she might hurt one of their feelings. Unless they didn’t see her.

Wearing a hat, scarf, and gloves along with a cloak that she had asked an older student to charm to keep warm, Ginny covered most of her face. She didn’t think they would even notice her even if she didn’t cover herself because they would be preoccupied with the game, but she didn’t want to take the chance. Not knowing where she was sitting or what side she was on and wearing completely neutral colors, Ginny took a seat in the stands and watched her two friends play.

Except, she didn’t quite understand what was going on. Her father never explained the game to her before and Ginny had never seen one, so it was just a confusing mess of bodies in the air. At one point, Ginny thought Adam had the quaffle, but it was too hard to tell from her seat. Still, she cheered them both on as loudly as she could. “Yay Francesca! Come one, Adam!!” She shouted, unconcerned by anyone around her who might be confused. “You guys can do it!”

6 Virginia Bellrose Conflicted. 0 Virginia Bellrose 0 5

Malcolm Carey

August 07, 2013 1:03 AM

I prefer to think of it as being well-balanced by Malcolm Carey

Sometimes, Mal almost regretted that he had taken one look at the Pecari Quidditch team and flatly refused to become Arthur’s inside man on it when the try-outs had been going on in the fall. The reasons he had done so – bad weather, crazy people, the chance that he would be crippled for life by said crazy people, Mother being far more of a long-term problem for him than Arthur, and so forth – had never come to seem invalid, but he could have been a double agent. That would have been the most interesting thing he’d ever done.

Today, however, he felt no regrets. It was cold outside, and he did not think for a moment that the Aladrens would have spared him out of gratitude for services rendered, especially since he was pretty sure that most of them would have never known about his heroic service in their cause. All around, it would have been an awful day, and instead, he got to sit in the stands, snug and warm in his new cloak and sweater and gloves and watch everyone else make fools of themselves and get hurt. Taking a seat, enjoying the fact that he could not properly support either side, he adjusted his hat and tightened the scarf around his neck and squinted at the captains, trying to see if they were trying to break each other’s hands during the handshake.

He couldn’t tell. Settling back, he watched his roommate take the Quaffle, the Beaters and other Chasers making their moves, and allowed his eyes to dart up twice to where, above it all, the Seekers were starting the only part of the game that mattered.

The Snitch, he thought, was an even better reason for not playing Quidditch than avoiding the wrath of his mother was. It rendered every other position pointless. Of course, there were freak accidents and upsets, that happened, but normally, one team could completely dominate, only to have the other’s Seeker prevail and render it all pointless. The Chasers, Keepers, and to some extent Beaters, they were just there to dance around a bit, like trained animals for the rest of the school’s entertainment. Mal liked to think he had a sense of humor, but he wasn’t sure he could have stomached being looked at the way he’d look at potion-fed rats playing skip-a-rope with each other’s tails.

The very bundled up person next to him – perhaps someone from Florida? – began to cheer, and exactly what she was saying caught his attention, making him raise an eyebrow. He hadn’t known of any connection between Adam and Francesca, other than that they were both in the same year and that he knew both of them and they did not seem overly disposed to hit him. This did not seem like a very good reason to cheer for both of them.

“I see I’m not the only person here with divided loyalties,” he remarked, disliking that he had to raise his voice a little. "Shall we draw for sides and make it simpler for everyone?"

0 Malcolm Carey I prefer to think of it as being well-balanced 256 Malcolm Carey 0 5

Alicia Bauer

August 09, 2013 4:49 PM

Being enthusiastic. by Alicia Bauer

Her mother extolled the virtues of optimism, and Alicia sometimes wondered if that recommendation alone wasn’t enough to prove that her ability to find a bright side to almost anything was really a character flaw. At the moment, though, it was a very convenient one, so she guessed she could put off self-improvement until tomorrow. Today was going to be much too full of cheering and celebrating to work on refining her worldview.

When Crotalus had lost, again, she had felt badly for Cepheus personally, but had been unable to keep herself from noticing how well it made things work out for her. Crotalus losing in the first round meant they would probably not play Aladren, which meant she could approach Aladren’s games in the second half of the year as enthusiastically as she wished, and since Aladren was the only involuntary organization she belonged to which she actually liked and this was important to one of her friends anyway, that was quite enthusiastically.

Accordingly, she had been up by six and in the Cascade Hall, her make-up perfect and monochrome dress pretty blatantly declaring her loyalties, as soon as it opened. She hadn’t eaten much, though, instead only gulping down a muffin and piece of toast with jelly and two cups of tea in pauses between bright, cheery conversations, trying to encourage enthusiasm in her Housemates and persuade such outsiders as she saw to come over to their side for the day rather than going over to Pecari’s. By the time she finished up that and threw on a black sweater, black coat, and black hat over her blue dress and made it to the stands and a seat, her feet were killing her and she doubted she’d done so much smiling at one time since the grand networking opportunity of the beginning-of-the-year pool party.

Aching feet and constant very high cheer, though, were as much as the two occasions had in common for her. This time, as she finally sat down, she was still smiling, and felt genuinely excited instead of tired and cranky. The air was sharp and cold against her face, but she was warm and comfortable inside her charmed clothes, and it seemed like nothing could go wrong today. She was confident enough that it was going to be a happy day to have spent some time last night (around making sure she could throw an impromptu victory party if no one else saw to it) reviewing Patronii again, since the day she had pictured in her head sounded like the perfect prelude to trying the spell again. She couldn’t even imagine another failure, another time when the happiest thoughts she could pull up weren’t enough to call forth more than a wisp of smoke equivalent to what she’d seen third years manage. Today was the start of a brilliant half-year, and at the end of it, she’d have a corporeal patronus during her Defense CATS.

Crossing her legs at the ankle as the Coach spoke, she lifted a pair of enchanted magnifying glasses (really for the opera, but deselecting some of the options made them work well enough for this) to her eyes to get a clearer look at the team below, smiling when she found Thad. He looked, she couldn’t help thinking, good in the team uniform, and something about the situation – maybe that this was one of the few places in the world where anyone, provided they convinced a captain to give them a bat, could hit anyone else, blood or no blood, and there be virtually no consequences for it – made her not even feel bad about noticing. She wanted a boy above her station, and he might well break other girls’ bones, perhaps even his own cousins’, before the day was out, but it was all all right, because the normal rules didn’t apply here.

She was beaming, almost giddy, when the whistle blew and she exclaimed and clapped her gloved hands as hard as she could, though she didn’t imagine it did much good; her gloves were soft and well-lined, a New Year’s gift from her step-grandmother. Giving it up, she put up her hand to push a small piece of dark hair which must have come out of her bun when she put her hat on and turned toward a female voice asking her something.

“I think….” She squinted, then frowned. “One of the Pecaris, it looks like,” she said, her tone disapproving. The Chasers were falling down on the job already. She double-checked that the other girl was, in fact, Fae Sinclair then said, “But there goes Arnold - oh, that was a good miss – you must be very proud of him.” Possibly sympathetic to Alicia's views on the Teppenpaw-Crotalus game, too, but Alicia wasn’t going to mention that to someone she only knew by sight just out of nowhere. There was, after all, always the chance that she wasn't.

16 Alicia Bauer Being enthusiastic. 210 Alicia Bauer 0 5

Ginny Bellrose

August 09, 2013 10:12 PM

Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to by Ginny Bellrose

Ginny was busy watching the game and not paying attention to the people around her. She supposed she probably could have sought someone out that she was relatively friendly with and spent the entirety of the game with them enjoying it together. But that hadn’t crossed her mind before she took her seat. Ginny tended to only find herself with Adam and Francesca during social situations, so she hadn’t even thought about other people until the boy next to her spoke.

A blush rose into her cheeks when it appeared someone noticed that she was cheering for both sides. She knew that it was probably strange for a person to cheer on both teams playing in the same game, but Adam and Francesca were her friends and it wasn’t her house playing, so she say no loyalty to the houses playing, just for the two players.

Turning, her green eyes landed on Malcolm Carey, Adam’s roommate. If she recalled correctly, there were Careys on the Aladren team. She didn’t know the team members by heart, not even on the Crotalus team, but she was fairly certain Francesca’s team had a handful of Careys on it. It made sense now that she realized it why he was also in the same predicament that she was. Ginny pulled her scarf down enough for her mouth to be seen and gave him a smile. “That’s alright, if I cheer for the both of them then I wouldn’t be lying by saying so.” Ginny commented, although she was sure that Malcolm was probably just being funny. Sometimes it was difficult for her to figure out if someone was trying to make a joke or be serious. Ginny tended to think everyone was lighthearted though and often just laughed anyway.

Ginny did not know Malcolm at all. She knew his name and his face from classes, but that was about all. She wasn’t even sure if she had spoken to him before. She might have… which meant if she had, she must not have enjoyed it so much, but she’ll give her memory some faith and believe they just hadn’t spoken before now. “It’s better that you didn’t join Quidditch with Adam otherwise, you’d be playing against your family. That would probably be a difficult thing to do, right?” Ginny asked him. Her extended family was in Canada and she did not know them terribly well. The last time they had gone to visit, it had been before her eighth birthday. That was the downside of being the one branch of family that moved to the United States.

“I do not know anything about the game though. My parents wouldn’t let me see any of the games or read about it.” Ginny confessed, feeling a little silly. So far, she only knew that the ball was being passed from player to player. If it was like most games, the hoops would be for scoring, but that was the extend of her understanding. “So far, I’ve been able to keep up though.”

6 Ginny Bellrose Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to 0 Ginny Bellrose 0 5

Fae

August 09, 2013 10:57 PM

Is that new for you? by Fae

Fae couldn’t really help it. Her eyes always went upward towards Arnold after a moment or two of paying attention to the game. He was a magnet for bludgers and she always worried he was going to get severely hurt during one of these games. It wasn’t like she wanted to see him hurt, but she wanted to be present in case, for whatever reason, she was needed. She doubted she would be the one that Arnold called for. There was no question that his first choice would always be his twin brother, but a part of her hoped eventually, she would come first to mind. It was selfish of her to think that way. Arnold and Arthur had a special bond and she could never compete with that.

Her eyes shifted back down to the play down below the seekers and discovered by the comment the person beside her gave that Pecari was in possession of the quaffle. Fae never really cared for what happened during the game. Most of the time, the score never went high enough for it to matter anyway. Her interest was in that of the seekers and how quickly they could pull off catching the snitch. Of course, she wanted Arnold to win, she remembered how upset he had been for his one and only loss of his entire quidditch career, but if the game ended quickly with Pecari winning and Arnold still in one piece, she’d take that.

Fae tried to recall the girl’s name beside her. She vaguely remembered her from when she was intermediates. She was certain she was one of those ambitious Aladrens who seemed to start things. Henny’s roommate. What was her name? She was a Bauer… It would come to Fae at some point. Fae gave a smile, it was soft and sweet at the mention of Arnold. It was a lucky miss, but Arnold was getting better about avoiding those bludgers. She felt he did it more for her and his family than he did because he thought that he should. Fae had a feeling Arnold liked getting hit by those nasty metal buggers. But, she never said anything. She appreciated the fact that he didn’t want to concern her too much when he played. She also knew that if he went professionally, she’d either have to get over her anxiety of it or just never go to his games.

“I am proud, but watching him during the games isn’t always the most fun.” Fae commented, her eyes having returned once again to the chasers flying around below her betrothed. “Hopefully, Aladren take possession soon enough. I’d hate to have Arnold’s last game be smudged again.” She meant that lightly, but Aladrens knew they were too uptight about their desires, so, Bauer might take it to heart. “Here to support your house as a whole or a particular person?” Fae asked. She thought the girl was dating Cepheus, who was on the Crotalus team but then she heard that he was betrothed to a Brownbriar and was linked to Arnold’s cousin in some fashion. Fae never kept up with rumors, so she had no idea what was true and what wasn’t.

6 Fae Is that new for you? 0 Fae 0 5

Mal Carey

August 10, 2013 1:17 PM

It's all starches to me by Mal Carey

Either Virginia Bellrose – he thought, when she lowered the scarf some, that was who it was – was a bad liar, or else she genuinely just didn’t want to lie at all. Mal didn’t really get it, but added it to the list of things he knew about his classmates. He wasn’t organized or dedicated enough to really pay that much attention to them, but he noticed things every now and then, if they seemed interesting enough at the time. If it still seemed interesting another time, he might remember it long enough to say he knew it.

“I suppose,” he said when she commented on playing against his family being difficult. “I could have learned, of course, but James and Arthur would have no doubt enjoyed knocking me off my broom until I did – second sons, you know.”

Technically, this was not true of James, who was only a second child, but from all Mal had heard, his sister was such a poor excuse for a girl that she might as well have been a son. Anthony had told him once that they, the South Carolina cousins, had all actually been confused when Theresa stopped stealing James’ clothes and going into the woods with their father to shoot at things with crossbows or something like that which had gone out of fashion for actually using for everyone but vampire hunters generations ago. His own sister was hardly the frailest person Mal had ever met, she rode horses taller than either of them at home, that took more strength than he had, anyway, he was sure, and both he and Theresa of South Carolina were more daintily-built than she, but he couldn’t imagine Lu in trousers, or running around in trousers while carrying weapons. She almost looked apologetic just holding her wand, and that wasn’t an inherently violent position.

Interesting things that implied about the Crotalus Seeker, now that he thought about it…Before he could think too much about it, though, he realized there could have been another meaning to what Ginny had said.

“We’re not really close enough family for it to bother us emotionally,” he added belatedly. “We’re different branches. It would feel a bit disloyal, though, to clap too hard for them to lose, we’re all Careys, right?”

He looked at the tangle of movement on the Pitch as the rats danced. “I’ve ever only read about it myself,” he said. “Lucky for us that it’s color-coded, right? And the Seekers are all that matters.” He pointed toward them. “The Aladren one’s one of my relatives, somehow or another, it involves people’s great-great-grandfathers’ aunts and second cousins or something like that. They say he never loses.” A good enough reason to have joined that side definitively, actually, if not for the disturbing intensity of some members of both Houses. The construction of a “just here for the spectacle” set of stands, he thought, would be a great improvement to the game in general, at least for schools. "As far as Chasers go, though, I'd say Adam's doing better than Francesca," he added.

0 Mal Carey It's all starches to me 0 Mal Carey 0 5

Alicia

August 13, 2013 12:39 AM

I'm usually more of a grim determination type, yeah. by Alicia

Fae probably was, Alicia thought as she peered at the action again, a lucky girl. She didn’t know Arnold Carey, but from what she had seen, he seemed like good husband material – rich, social, marketable talent which would keep him away from home more often than not and make a lot of money in the process if it worked out for him, family which probably had the influence to make it do so whether it really needed to or not. Not bad-looking, which was a perk. If he had been a little closer to her age, she might….

Well, at one point she might have considered giving it a shot herself. Now, though, she wouldn’t, not really – for one thing, the Careys were bad news in general and she was no longer quite as suicidally overconfident as she’d been in first year about her ability to hide her background from absolutely everyone she came into contact with ever, and for another, now she had the additional complication of actually caring about some people. It made thinking about some things she had once taken for granted a lot harder, a lot more distasteful, than it had been when she’d come to Sonora with a plan for her whole life which she had pretty much thrown completely out the window by the end of second or third year. Still, every now and then, she couldn’t help but notice, at least for a second or two. It was what she had been raised to.

“I’m sure that won’t happen,” she said brightly, regarding the Chasers. “Though, even if Pecari keeps the Quaffle, no one will remember it if we win the game.”

Unless Andri missed a truly atrocious number of shots, anyway, but she didn’t say that. It was not in keeping with the role she was playing today, and besides, she was above making petty comments about someone she didn’t like in contexts where it was of no use whatsoever except to enjoy the nasty little thrill of putting someone else down and might actually harm her agenda. She liked to think she was above that in general except when with Cepheus, actually, and even then it was all usually comparatively mild compared to what she really thought about saying….

“Both,” she said when asked about her reasons for coming. “I’d support the House anyway, of course, but I’m particularly friends with Thad Pierce.” Her militantly cheerful expression softened for a moment before she caught herself. “He wanted Keeper this year, so I guess I can understand it being less fun to watch if he didn’t have a bat…I like him having a bat better.”

She smiled briefly, acknowledging a weakness. Truly, she thought she would be all right either way – she had seen Cepheus hit before and hadn’t liked it, but had stayed enough in the spectacle, secure in the knowledge that permanent damage was exceedingly unlikely, to move on, deciding instead to pay attention to how if nothing else, at least people were unlikely to think she befriended physical cowards - but...well, she liked it this way better anyway.

"I suppose you're braver than I am," she threw in, with another self-deprecating smile, to keep that from sounding too much as though she were gloating over her good fortune as opposed to Fae's, or else implying that Thad was less competent or courageous than Arnold somehow. Neither was at all what she had in mind.

16 Alicia I'm usually more of a grim determination type, yeah. 210 Alicia 0 5

Ginny

August 15, 2013 12:48 AM

But so delicious. by Ginny

Ginny honestly had no idea what Malcolm was talking about. Her father was the first son of his parents, but not of the important Heir branch and he had two older sisters. Ginny did not have any brothers and did not know her extended family enough to understand the reference of second sons. She could only assume that whoever Jay and Arthur were, happened to be second sons, but she did not understand why that would make them want to throw Malcolm from his broom or why they would enjoy doing such a thing to begin with. Do second sons typically enjoy throwing people from brooms? Or did they typically enjoy seeing another struggle due to something they could control? Maybe this was something more in reference to his own family and didn’t necessarily relate to everyone else. That was the only thing that Ginny could think of.

Before she could dwell on it any further, Malcolm continued to explain why playing against his family would really not be so terribly difficult for him. Ginny had assumed that Malcolm and his family were close since they were all going to the same school, but that did not seem to be the case. It wasn’t right for Ginny to have assumed something like that though. Since she was not close to her family and none of them were planning on attending Sonora any time soon, she just believed that everyone else was close. But, perhaps she ought to view it as they are all separate and only happened to go to the same school. At least until she was otherwise proven.

“Oh, I’m sorry. It was wrong of me to assume that of our family.” Ginny stated, looking at him. “I do not know my extended family very well either. My father is the only Bellrose to cross the border into America. The rest of them remain in Canada.” Ginny stated, although, she wasn’t entirely sure why that had been necessary. “Since this school is small, I figured any family that attended would be close family. I should have known that the size of the Careys would make it difficult for everyone to have significant relationships with one another.” Served her right, she supposed. Of course, the only person she had really spoken too with a large number of relatives that she knew of off the top of her head was Adam and he did seem semi-close to them.

Ginny nodded in agreement. She was quite happy that they wore house colors. It would be an absolute craze for her if they all had on the same thing. She wouldn’t know what to do then. But, that wouldn’t make much sense. Other than maybe a handful of sports, teams always wore different uniforms. Otherwise, how would even the team know under pressure who was who? “Oh really? That would be some record.” Ginny commented. “I have never been in a competition of any kind, but I would think my parents would be quite proud of I never lost at anything.”

She kept her eyes on the game, but frowned at his comment. She did not like to pick apart her friends or suggest one was doing better than the other. “Well, we can’t say for sure what the strategies are. I think Francesca is doing a fantastic job too. I didn’t even know she could play, but she managed to make first string! I could hardly stay on my broom last year for lessons. I’m still in awe over having managed to make it around the pitch and pass. She’s great. Adam’s great too.”

6 Ginny But so delicious. 0 Ginny 0 5

Mal

August 17, 2013 1:29 AM

When properly seasoned by Mal

Mal shrugged good-naturedly at the comment on his family’s size. “Well, they try,” he said. “But you’re right, it really is impossible for everyone to know even everyone close to their own age.”

Though he wasn’t that far removed from the Careys in the game, really. True, he had been born to North Carolina and was the ward of Georgia’s acting matriarch, but his mother had once been friends with the twins’ mother, he had known Anthony since he was eight and had gotten to know Arthur well enough during the challenges last year, and James’ sister was one of the friends Lucille had made at a Reunion. And so it went in the whole family. Whole branches might not get along that well, but there were almost always lines of contact between them because people bonded over common interests at age ten during a Reunion, or over being an heir, or something. Explaining all that, though, didn’t really seem like the thing to do during a Quidditch game, and he didn’t feel like it anyway.

He laughed over Arnold. “I don’t know about them, but his brother – that’s Anthony, he’s in third year, I do know him – thinks pretty highly of him.”

Mother wouldn’t allow him to compete in anything if she could help it, either, though she assured him he’d be the best if he did. Personally, Mal doubted it – rather as he doubted that Arnold was really all Anthony thought he was. With both of them, though, he just kept his mouth shut. There were some people he had to do that with still, and Anthony probably always would be one. That was the family, too.

“Good point,” he admitted when Ginny reminded him they didn’t know what the strategies are. “She taught me to fly, actually. Could be she’s planning something.”

Such as not getting hit by the Bludgers. Mal could see clearly that whoever had the ball was just asking for a Bludger, so he assumed Francesca was smart enough to have had the same revelation at some point. The difference was that he’d also assumed she didn’t care, since she was apparently playing the game of her own free will, after all. He had thought not caring about Bludgers was a prerequisite, but he guessed there was no real reason Quidditch players couldn’t have brains.

“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes,” he concluded. "I'm sure just knowing how well they're doing for second years should help their self-esteem some anyway." The lady who'd been hired to perform Analysis on him one time, after Stepmother overheard him telling Lu that they should run away and commit every filthy immoral act Mother had ever mentioned together as soon as they were old enough, had talked a lot about self-esteem and the need for assuring role models; apparently, these were important to proper development. Maybe he could do a good deed today just by being incompetent at something people he knew were good at.

He bit the nail of his smallest finger, thinking about things he'd rather do. It wouldn't, he decided, earn him enough points in the Book, if there was one, to balance it out if Mother was even half-right, so...nah.

0 Mal When properly seasoned 0 Mal 0 5

Aubrielle Thornton

August 17, 2013 1:41 PM

Turning green by Aubrielle Thornton

Aubrielle had been watching the game from many different parts of the stand. Firstly, she didn’t want to seem as if she was taking sides. She did have one sister on each side and a cousin/best friend on one of the two. But the Teppenpaw roamed until she spotted her best friend sitting by the Pecari side. Waverly was all decked out in brown, Bri assumed for her house colors. Brielle herself was wearing a mixture of blues and browns for both sides as to not be for one side more than the other. Either way she’d be there for the winners and the losers (though Bri didn’t think that anyone lost as long as they had fun!). She just hoped they all knew that!

The game started and Adam started with the Quaffle. “Atta boy!” she called out through cupped hands. She didn’t think he’d been able to hear her, but at least she’d said it! Adam passed the Quaffle and she made her way to Waverly. “Hey bestie!” she said with a smile, sitting down beside her as the game really got up and running around them. “Did I miss anything?” Bri asked as she saw the Quaffle almost disappear. “Wait… Where’d it go?” she asked, confused that the ball would have gone all elusive like that. Francesca ran right at one of the Anns and Bri held her mouth open wide, watching. Mir shot a Bludger, Lucian shot one, Rup shot one towards Arnold, Lucian went right at Mira. “What in the world?” Bri watched the game, but she wanted to cover her eyes.

“Is this what a game against Aladren is like? I may not survive the Finals if Aladren wins today…” Bri added, getting quieter by the word. Amira became a block for a Bludger and Bri saw the look on her sister’s face. “Mi-“ she started to call out to her sister, knowing better and stopping before anything was even chanced to be heard. That had hurt and she knew it. But Amira was tough, unlike any other girl the fourth year had ever met. (Though she had to admit she came pretty close in the last game, catching the Snitch even though she’d fractured and dislocated her foot from that Bludger!) The small butterflies in the Teppenpaw’s stomach became bigger and pestier and she sort of felt like she was turning a little bit green in the mix of all her colors. And as good as blue, brown and green go together, she wasn’t interested in adding another color to her wardrobe that day.

Amira went right for Lucian, but batted the Bludger towards his Chasers and turned on a dime so she didn’t actually hit him (the same as he had done to her). Then Bri saw the Quaffle again, heading towards Clara. “Oh no…” she said as Francesca made her way into the area to make the shot. She pushed her eyes open with her hands watching what happened next. Clara had caught the Quaffle, stopped it from going in, but slammed what looked like her shoulder and her head against the hoop.

“CLARA!” Bri called out in alarm. As she was on the Pecari side right then she was sort of behind her and she saw that it looked like Clara was bleeding… Sure, Amira had been hurt too, but Mir knew what her limits in Quidditch were, Clara was probably bleeding… Bri turned to Waverly, panic rising into her eyes and breathing quickening.

Seconds later, her glance turned back to Clara and saw her falling, Quaffle first, off her broom. “WAVERLY!” she exclaimed, only able to point as her stomach and heart fell through the stands as her cousin fell through the air.

0 Aubrielle Thornton Turning green 0 Aubrielle Thornton 0 5