Chapter Eight
Crystal had to literally bite down on her tongue to prevent from swearing at her team. There were children in her presence, and she didn't want to corrupt them so early in their lives, but then again, the team was doing absolutely horrible! She had heard stories of how terrible the first practice was for the coach, but she thought that was just because the coaches were simply horrid people who hadn't the slightest idea of how to lead.
She now stood corrected.
It was if her team had never touched a quaffle before, with the exception of Seaver. Though the young captain had only played for the Cannons for two years, she had demonstrated a unique sense of leadership and had a thourough understanding for not only the game, but for human behavior as well.
"Run it again, or you'll be out here for another three hours," Crystal growled, making certain that her voice was clear for her team to hear. "And Richard, drop the quaffle again, and I'll be seeing to it that you are a reserve chaser rather than a starter!" She heaved a small sigh, knowing that Richard Harting was probably cursing her entire family for the threat, but her verbal warning did get the job done.
Crystal glanced at the triplets, two of which were absolutely enthralled with the happenings of a real professional Quidditch practice. The third, a girl, though Crystal couldn't tell which, was more focused on a solitary player. To a bit more exact, her gaze was trained onto Oliver, who was slowly getting back into the the rhythm of his game.
"Anything else you wantin' us to do, Crys?" Seaver's New Zealand accent reached the ears of the Chuddley Cannons coach. For a moment Crystal was silent, watching as her team went on with whatever excercise they were taking part in. Richard Harting was an old legend. This would be his thirty-ninth year in playing Quidditch. He had made his way onto the Quidditch scene through not only paying off as many people as he could, but going through the most unusual training techniques known to witches and wizards.
Her gaze then drifted over to Dimitrius Polgerelskia and Vladamir Shostakovich, the Russian beaters that spoke terrible english, but had so much untapped talent. If they would stop placing bets on how many girls they could pick up in a single afternoon, they would realize exactly how much talent they had.
Then there was her seeker, Tevin O'Reily. It was his Irish pride that made him an insufferable member of the team, but at the same time, it was that same Irish pride that gave him the power and courage to keep going, even when it seemed that their defeat was inevitable.
"No," Crystal finally said, gently closing her eyes and releasing a long sigh. "We're done for the day."
With a small nod, Seaver flew off to the rest of the team, informing them of their release for the day. Crystal sat back on a bench that overlooked the pitch and crossed her arms over her chest. Now that she had the players she wanted, for the most part, she would have to actually turn them into the team that she wanted, which would take a great deal of work on her part.
Crystal's gaze fell onto the triplets, part of the reason she didn't say everything she had wanted to throughout the entirety of the practive. They were cute red headed little runts, and they almost made Crystal want to have kids of her own.
"Auntie Katie!" One of the girls called out. "You might wanna hurry! I think Malcolm might have peed his pants!"
The other girl turned to her brother, "Aren't you a little old for that." The boy, Malcolm, didn't answer, instead he was beat red and trying to hide from view.
Then again, Crystal thought, rolling her eyes, kids might be a tad bit overrated.
"Gwenivier, now she was quite a pretty number," Alexander Duke said, dealing a set of cards to the three men he was seated with, which included Oliver Wood, Stewart Ackerly and Chris Knowels. "Her parents hated me--"
"Every woman's parents hate you, Alex," Stewart said with a small grin, looking over his hand with a careful gaze. "Especially my cousin, Jaquelynn's parents." He looked across the table to the man with a genuine grin. "They thought you were a bit of a brown noser when they first met you."
Oliver shook his head and laughed, accepting his own cards and looking over his hand. Alex feigned outraged, "What? They didn't like me? But your aunt said that I was one of the more gentle lads Jaquelynn had brought home."
"Yeah," Stewart interjected tartly, putting down his own hand. Oliver and Chris followed suit. "She was talking about your actual gentleness. You were the first man ever to walk into the den without breaking one her prized vases."
The four men laughed and resumed playing cards. Alex lost miserably, but it wasn't as if his continuous losses put a dramatic dent within his finances. They began yet another round of cards, Chris now being the dealer of the cards. As he dealt with skilled hands, he continued on with their conversation, "So, Alex. You say this Gewnivier of your's was quite a number." He finished with his dealing and placed the remaining cards in the center of the table and pickde up his own hand. "How so?"
Alex was silent for a moment as he thought, then finally he grinned brightly, "I would describe her the same way Wood, here, described that Beverly girl of his."
Chris glanced at Oliver at the mention of Beverly, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. "What ever happened to Beverly, Wood? Haven't seen her around lately." Oliver rolled his eyes and shook his head, trying his hardest to become invisible to avoid the turn of conversation. "You two didn't have a spat, did you?" Chris asked.
Stewart leaned back in his chair, "You mean to tell me that you don't know, Chris?"
"You know boys," Oliver began, pushing his chair back as he stood to his full height. "I think I'll be heading off. It's getting rather late, and I've an early practice tomorrow."
"Again!" Alex groaned loudly. "Really, mate, your getting onto a team is making me miserable! You always cut our games short and run off, crying about Quidditch practice." He pouted in a childlike manner, "You've become quite the bore, Wood."
Oliver rolled his eyes, pulling his cloak over his slim, muscular frame, "I'm afraid I can't sit on my lazy bum all day and pull money from it at the same time, as you so often do, Alex. "He rolled his eyes, preparing to take his leave"I'll see you lads later, then?"
As soon as Oliver departed, Stewart began, in poor detail, to tell the man what had become of Oliver's precious Beverly. At the appropriate moment, he gasped in shock, while Alex simply laughed. "She was married. Wow, she must have certainly needed a break from that marraige."
"Just another typical gold digger, I see," Chris said silently, shaking his head.
Stewart nodded, "But she was actually nice. Got along with us, didn't she?"
"Any woman would be nice to you, Stewie," Alex said, raising his voice a couple of octaves and batting his eyelashed, as if taking up the part of a woman. "You have sooo much to offer a girl."
"Alex," Stewart warned in a growl, " I told you never to call me that."
The man simply waved his hand at his friend and turned to Chris, "I'm actually quite suprised that the papers haven't picked up on this story. They're just putting out that he and she were just to remain friends or some sort of rubbish like that." He paused thoughtfully, then spoke once more,"Crystal's protecting him."
"I wouldn't put it past her," Chris said nodding a bit.
There was a moment of silent before Alex swore loudly. "Bloody hell! How are we to play cards with only three players?"
Katie ran her fingers over the orange material that made up her uniform for the Chuddley Cannons. The material was rather rough, and terribly thick, but luckily they would be playing in the cool night air.
A small smile touched the blonde's lips as her fingers delicately traced over the bold black letters that identified her as a player for the team. They read: K. Bell. Nothing too fancy, but at the same time, it filled her with such joy and excitement to have finally reached her dream. A dream that hadn't been her's originally.
"This game is for you, Angelina," Katie whispered silently, finally romoving her Quidditch robes from its hanger and preparing to change into her athletic attire.
Seaver hurried into the locker room that had been designated for the two lady members of the team, already dressed, and tossed orange ribbon in Katie's direction. "Here ya go, Kate. I always encourage everyone to have a bit of team spirit beyond the robes." This, Katie had little trouble in believing seeing the various shades of orange coursing throughout the dark skinned woman's hair. "I won't dye your hair," she smirked at Katie, "this time around. So I'll let ya pass with some ribbon."
Katie laughed, but accepted the ribbon, and tied it neatly into her hair, "Thank you, Seaver. I guess."
Once the ladies were decently dressed in their uniforms, they strode out of their private lockers to join their male counter parts. There were a few excahnge of words between the seven teammates, but they were all curious as to what their coach would be saying to them.
Perhaps she would mention all the weaknesses they had exposed during their number of practices, picking out each flaw until each player was reduced to a blobby mass, incapable of stepping out onto the pitch. Maybe she would get rid of them all for their lack of unity as a team and pick out seven strangers from the stands. She might even--
"Alright everyone," Crystal began silently. "We've got to get this over with sooner or later, right?"
Not exactly what the team had been expecting from their coach. Being that it was her first match as a coach, they knew as well as she did, the entire world would be watching her for any flaws she showed in her team. She was supposed to be an absolute nervous wreck, virtually unprepared to face the other third side of Quidditch, but it seemed that Crystal was not going to let anything get her down. "The world is expecting you guys to lose tonight. They're expecting me to tossed from the stadium within two minutes of the match's start. Oliver, five minutes and Seaver, twenty."
Seaver grinned impishly, "They're bein' too generous, I think."
"Actually," Oliver countered silently, scratching his chin thoughfully, "I think they're over estimating us a bit. They really think I'll get thrown out infive minutes, Crys?"
Their coach nodded, a few grins of relief gracing the features of the Chudley Cannons, and she said, "They think you've lost your fighting edge, actually. The Quidditch Pro Magazine even wrote a little article about us, saying that the foolish American can't possibly create a real team out of several has-beens and a supposedly good player from the minor leagues." At this, Crystal glanced at Katie.
"Then I guess," Katie began slowly, picking up her broomstick and slinging it over her shoulder, "that we're just going to have to prove the entire world wrong tonight." She grinned and exchanged a high five with Tevin, the seeker.
Crystal grinned, crossing her arms over her chest as she silently observed the team. They didn't really need a pep talk to be riled up for a match. On the contrarty, they just needed a bit of a good laugh, but she would soon be seeing if their minds were truly focused on the game or not. Win or lose, the Chuddley Cannons were already a better, stronger more talented team, that would certainly be taking the world by storm. If not this season, then it would definitely would be the following one.
"Are you guys ready to play your game?" Crystal asked cooly, now looking toward the doors that would begin her team's start to victory. "You all ready to go down in history?"
"YEAH!"
As the team celebrated their pre-grame victory, Katie caught herself gazing at Oliver's form. Although he was older and his keeper's build was more evident than during their years at Hogwarts, he was still very much the same as he had always been all those years ago.
As she continued her study of him, the power of her gaze drew his own to her. For a split second, niether athlete was able to turn away. Oliver broke their gaze first, grinning in the most charming manner and jerking his head to the door.
"Come on guys," he yelled out, so all could hear him clearly, "let's go get ourselves a win."
fussyrussy - I know this wasn't exactly what one would call hurrying up, but I tried, and lately things have been a little hectic for me, but OH WELL! I UPDATED! YaY!
Funstuff05 - Percy is such a total prick and I just felt as if I had to absolutely one hundred percently play on that fact, and I might actually write a fic about that too but first! Thank you for the review hope you continue to enjoy, and I haven't even read it three times.. Heh.. Wow..
TooSweet4Words - I dunno if this would qualify as interesting or not, but I certainly... uhm... I dunno what I was going to say, but oh well, thanks a bunch glad you're liking it and I hope you continue to like!
lala - Hahahahaha! The mother isn't home right now so I'm taking this opportunity to do as I please and take a break from scholarship hunting. Hehe.. I love your insane reviews, they make me laugh. A lot. Thank you for your review and continuous support! And hopefully there will be more stuff in store. wink
Good news everyone!
RICHI'S GOING TO COLLEGE! W00t W00t!
Alrighty then.. I'm outtie!
Later Days
-Richi Sama-
