"Blasted dirty cheating scumbags! We should have WON this game! WON!" Her fingers dug into her hips as she paced the room. They had just finished playing against the Brazillian Basilisks, another reserve team in their division, and had lost by only ten points. The final score had been 170 Basilisks, 160 Scorchers, and what a horribly thick game it had been. Even now, the rage of each unfair call by the referee boiled up her throat, the pure hatred of the dirty tactics the opposing team had used.
Audra threw herself backwards onto the Inn's dusty bed, letting her arms and hair flop around where they wanted. Her chest heaved up and down in slowing rhythm as she lay with her eyes closed, her mind focusing on nicer things to calm her down. She thought of her favorite candies, sitting on a sun-soaked shore, her favorite stuffed animal, and her cozy apartment which waited for her.
It took several minutes, but calm was eventually restored. Her eyes opened to stare at the ceiling, her thoughts floating to tonight's dinner. The team would arrive dejectedly to the table; indeed it would be more like the feast at a funeral. Custorde would make his usual smart-ass remarks about their flying capabilities and how they needed to train more; Jurmard would of course pass everything off with jokes... Just another dinner to celebrate how bad their team was. Why had she chosen to join it? They were losers, all of them. Not one contained enough fighting spirit or belief that they could win to actually win. Always close, but once they took the lead or tied or came close to the opponent's score, they began with their mistakes.
Why had she joined? She had been young, full of spirit; she had believed she could change the team's attitude. The Scorchers had not won for a hundred and fourteen years. This would be the hundred and fifteenth that they hadn't won a single game. She felt the anger rise up in her stomach; this time, however, it was directed at her own teammates. Why must they take losing so seriously? Always blaming it on a curse or on luck. What a bunch of hippocrite losers! Always saying they're trying their best, keeping their minds and hearts in the right places... And then they lose and blame it on a curse because it's the easy way out! She was fed up; there would be no more taking the easy way out. She would speak to Aidan Matthews, the owner of their team. She would be the new captain if she had anything to say about it.
Just then the bell for dinner sounded, bringing her back to the present. She hadn't realized how long she had spent brewing. After quickly changing into clean, comfortable robes and spritzing on some of her favorite scent, she sprinted down to the diningroom.
Already things were in an uproar. Custorde, the current team captain, had seemingly gone completely mad. His face was the color of a fresh apple, his mouth opening and closing wildly as he shouted obscenities at the rest of his teammates gathered at the table. She had just tried to sneak back around the corner, out of sight, when he rounded on her.
"YOU! WHY didn't you hit those bludgers at the other team like I told you to?! You are the WORST beater I've ever-"
"Wrong! WRONG, WRONG WRONG!" Her fists were balled at her sides, nails digging into palms. Her feet set themselves shoulder-width apart, and she stood as though ready for war. "MAYBE if you'd stop blaming the rest of your teammates you'd see that you were JUST AS MUCH AT FAULT!" Custorde's mouth opened and closed silently; she had never yelled at him before. She didn't quite care about his shock, at the moment, and pressed on, "This ENTIRE TEAM needs to shape up! I could have joined practically ANY FUCKING team I wanted to, but I joined YOU! Why? WHY! I KEEP WONDERING!"
She raged forward and pointed a stiff, accusing finger at each player in turn. "CUSTORDE! You are the lousiest chaser I have EVER SEEN. You refuse to take hints and help, instead choosing to listen to your own inexperienced childish ass! JURMARD! You have excellent potential but instead of learning, you choose to let THIS ASSHOLE," the finger flicked towards Custorde, "tell you what to do! HE IS NOT A BEATER NOR DOES HE KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT!"
She glared next at a short, chubby oaf named Jeremiah. "BOWES! You don't even do your JOB, for Merlin's sake! You're the SEEKER. You're supposed to SEEK. Instead you dart around watching the match like a special audience, wondering about when we're going to eat next!" The cookie in his hand immediately dropped to the floor.
"AND YOU CHASERS!" She reared lastly at the huddled wizards and witch against the wall. "REDMAR! JONSE! MUNKE! You couldn't play with the team in slow-mode! I SWEAR!"
She stepped back until her back was against the opposite wall, and took them in all at once. They all stood with their mouths open wide, expressions of pure shock and disbelief painted all over their now-pale skin. She debated for less than a second, and decided to finish them off, "There is NO curse, we do NOT have bad luck. We simply have a team of people who INSIST on losing and then blaming it on evil magic! STOP TAKING THE EASY WAY OUT AND GROW SOME BACKBONE!"
She strode out the door feeling a hundred times better, though she didn't let a smirk touch her lips until she was outside and under a nearby tree. It was sunset, and a glorious one at that. Brilliant shades of orange, yellow and pink tinged and faded into lilac, violet, indigo, and then deep bluish black punctuated by sparkling sky-diamonds. That's what her father had always called them, stars: sky-diamonds. He used to tell her he'd gotten some for her mother on the night before their wedding. The thought of her mother brought tears to her eyes; it'd been four years since she passed away, but Audra still missed her terribly. Her father seemed to be holding up well, but Audra knew otherwise.
"Quite a scene in there. I think the most silent dinner ever in the history of dinners is taking place right in that diningroom."
Audra felt a pang in her stomach; she didn't know from Aidan's tone whether her actions were good or bad. She swallowed heavily and winced as she peered around at him. He was wearing a half-serious smirk, like he didn't know whether to laugh at her or kill her. She preferred the former.
"Aidan... I-"
"They needed that, I think."
"Then you aren't-"
"No, of course not. You're the best beater anyone's ever seen. I still wonder why you joined the Scorchers. You could have been on the reserve team for Ireland or Bulgaria. I just thought I got lucky, that you'd find out you made a terrible mistake... " He cleared his throat, staring at the ground, "You know, you can-"
"I don't want to. I'd rather become captain."
He stared at her as if she'd turned purple and glowed green. "What?"
"I want to become captain of the team," she said more forcefully. "This team has oodles of potential. They are just much too dense to realize it. Give me two months with them. Two months. If I can't change them around, I'll give Custorde his old job back."
He eyed her suspiciously, "And then you'll leave?"
"I'll stay until the end of the season."
"How do I know you're capable?"
"Come on, you dolt. I'm more capable than any of them in there."
He slowly nodded, "Alright... You start tomorrow."