Do YOU have an owl?

Chapter 14: the tryouts

Ch. 14

The tryouts

~*~*~*~

I ran upstairs to the gryffindor common rooms, knowing that James would be there. I also knew that wherever James was, his prized Nimbus 5000 was never more than 20 feet away from him.

I walked through the portrait hole, and sure enough, James was sitting with some of his friends playing some sort of card game, where things exploded quite often.

"Hey, Jamesey! Em, can I borrow your broom please?" I asked sweetly. He put a hold on his game long enough to say,"No." Then he went back to his cards.

"Pleaseohpleaseohplease James! I need it to try out for seeker! I'm not allowed to have my own broom, and you made me promise I would try, and the school brooms are crappy, so pleeeease?" I babbled, desperate to convince him. I had to be outside soon...

He thought for a moment that seemed to last for an eternity finally he mumbled,"I did make you promise... Oh, fine. Accio Nimbus." He looked extremely gloomy as his broom zoomed into his hand. He looked at it longingly when he gave it to me.

As I walked away, he mumbled,"If you're using my broom, you had better get the damn spot..."

I laughed as I made my way to the quidditch stadium, where tryouts were about to start.

~*~*~*~

I ran onto the field at the last second, just as the captain of the team (some 5th year named Aiden) was about to start talking. I stood at the end of a line with about 10 other gryffindors in it... Wow, I wasn't liking my odds... Aiden was a little surprised to see me coming in so late, but he went back into work mode pretty quickly.

"Hello everyone, I'm Aiden, the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team, and today, we're going to test each one of you individually. My assistant, Kelly, who is also on the team, will be testing all of the beater hopefuls, while I'll take the seekers."

I was relieved to see most of the students walk over to Kelly, leaving me next to only 2 other maybe- seekers. Phew.

"All right all of you, names and years, please." Aiden said, stepping in front of us, holding a clipboard. "Marleigh Winters, 4th year." said a skinny blonde girl who was holding a rather expensive- looking firebolt. "Okay... Next." Aiden said, scribbling on his clipboard. "Peter Smith, 9th year." Said a smiling, shaggy- haired boy. Aiden looked up and grinned. "Okay, Logan Cairen, 5th year." Uh- oh. Logan and Aiden were friends... My chances weren't looking that good...

"And you, little girl." he said, looking down at me. I scowled and said clearly,"Bailey Spencer, 1st year." "Sure, whatever." he mumbled, not even bothering to write my name down. "Aren't you not allowed to have a broom?" he asked. "It's James's." I said hotly. He just shrugged and continued talking.

"Marleigh, you first. Kick off and fly up 50 feet in the air, then dive down like you're chasing a snitch, and don't pull up until the last possible second." Aiden instructed, ignoring the death glares that I was shooting at him.

Obedient Marleigh immediately hopped on to her broom and did what she was told, executing a fairly good dive, and pulling up about 15 feet from the ground. "Good, good." mumbled Aiden, who was taking notes. "Logan, you're up."

I could see why Logan applied for the position, he was obviously a spectacular flier. He shot up into the air, clutching his broom, before plummeting downwards, and pulling up about 10 feet from the ground.

"Excellent, good job Logan! Now, eh, other girl, go." He said, not even looking at me. Fuming, I mounted James's broom and kicked off, shooting up in record time. That caught Aiden's attention.

I then zipped downward, faster than I thought a broom could go. I remembered the day I was flying with James, chasing my falling wand, and tried to repeat my perfect technique. I was 20... 10... 5 ... about 3 feet from the ground before I pulled up. Epic. No one has swag like a modern monster American tween at a magical school.

I stepped off of my- ahem, James's- broom and actually laughed at Aiden's gaping expression. "Hon, you keep your mouth open any longer, you're gonna catch flies." I said smartly, smiling at using the words I had used on James on Aiden. He snapped his mouth shut. "All right, that's not all you have to do." He said, angrily writing my name down under everyone else's.

He showed us that we had to catch a snitch, the seeker's ball. It was about the size of a golf ball, but it was Tatyana- gold, and it had- drumroll, please- wings. Oh goodie.

He had Marleigh close her eyes, then he sent it flying, and Marleigh had find it, then catch it. After about a minute, she came close, but missed it, before she finally caught it in her fist. She looked like she had a hard time holding on to it; the wings tickled her fingers.

Logan's turn. He spotted it immediately, but had a hard time catching up to it. It kept swerving away from him. He took a bit longer than Marleigh had. Oh shoot, I really wasn't liking my odds.

Again, I was last. Aiden luckily paid attention this time. He smiled suspiciously as I closed my eyes so he could again release the snitch.

When I opened my eyes, I gasped. Suddenly, there was a whole quidditch match going on around me! I saw Martinez on a broom, and I gasped again. He was on the opposite team as me... And he was looking for the snitch. I saw it the same time that he did, and we narrowed our eyes at each other before we shot down towards the snitch, hoping to win the game for our team.

We were back and forth, I was in front, then he was. Finally, I sped up, way in front of him, and caught the snitch. All of the players dissolved around me, and I realized that the game had been an illusion. In a daze, I landed on the grass and shoved the snitch back into Aiden's hand. If I thought he was gaping before, now his mouth was open so wide that his chin was hitting the ground. "Six seconds." he croaked,"All of that in six seconds." Marleigh looked like she wanted to cry, and Logan was fuming. "Sorry guys," Aiden said, turning to them,"That's enough for today, I have to discuss this with Kelly before I confirm that Bailey got the part."