Chapter 7: I Do Some Rookie Flying
Disclaimer: I do not own anything
I was in a pretty foul mood. Harry had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team and tryouts hadn't even happened yet. Hell, first years weren't even allowed on the team. Such bullshit. I pretended to be happy for Harry, but I just couldn't. I was jealous of him. However my mood did improve later in the day because it turns out, there were Quidditch tryouts tomorrow. The only position that they needed was Chaser because their captain, Nigel Blackburn, had graduated last year. And I was glad that I had decided that I wanted to play Chaser, because I got a chance to show off my talents.
So the next day, I had breakfast and headed down to the pitch with my broom in hand.
"Name and year?" the new captain Oliver Wood asked.
"Percy Jackson. Second year."
"Go to that group of people. We'll start in a few minutes." I walked over to the group of people and saw that there weren't that many people that were there. I liked my odds pretty good.
"Alright everyone, I am going to time you individually to go around the track 7 times. The slowest time you can get is 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Anything lower and you will get the lowest possible marks for this section of the tryout. The average mark for this is 5 minutes and 30 seconds. The fastest ever is 4 minutes and 41.22 seconds. We'll go oldest to youngest." Wood said. So that meant I was going last. I didn't prefer to go last, but I had no choice.
After 45 minutes of flying, it was finally my turn. The fastest flyer was 5 minutes flat. The slowest was actually pretty close with 5:35, so I had pretty stiff competition. They of course didn't tell us the times, but I had brought a watch and had timed the laps with my watch. As they called my name, I got to my broom, and flew to the starting point.
You had a minute to get ready, so I started to hype myself up. "Okay, here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One winner, fifteen losers. I eat losers for breakfast. Breakfast? I probably should have had more to eat. Brekkie could be good for me. No, no, no, focus. Speed. Faster than fast. Quicker than quick. I am lightning." And with that, Wood blew the whistle, and I was absolutely flying. The breeze in my hair felt amazing. My thick black hair was usually untamable, and now it definitely was untamable. The lack of oxygen in my lungs made it a thrilling experience. And pretty soon, my laps were done. As I got down to the ground, I noticed how shocked everyone was.
"What happened? What did I do wrong?"
"Well Jackson, you uh…" Wood trailed off.
"Spit it out." "You took 4 minutes and 20 seconds. You absolutely shattered the record. It's the fastest ever recorded at Hogwarts."
I shrugged it off. "Speed doesn't matter if you don't have any skill."
The rest of the tryouts went amazing. I made all 15 shots that I shot and survived conditioning with ease. After conditioning, we did a little 15-minute scrimmage. At the end of all of this, everyone was gassed, including me, so we were all sent to the showers and were allowed to leave. As I was walking away I heard a "Jackson".
I turned around and saw Wood looking at me. "I don't even need to think about it. What you showed me was impressive. You're still very raw, I'll say. But other than that, you really impressed me. Your conditioning is even better than mine, and I work out literally every day. Your passes are clean and quick. And my god, your shots are fast. They travel at least 120 km/h. And-"
"I have no idea how fast 120 km/h is." I said interrupting him. "Sorry."
He looked confused. "Where are you from?"
"America." He shrugged and said, "Makes sense. It's about 74 mph. Anyways, you're incredibly quick on your broom, regardless of your broom. I saw guys flying with 2000s and they weren't even close to your speed. How long have you been playing Quidditch?"
I shrugged. "Not that long. I only started playing last year. I've been watching it for a while though."
Wood looked dumbfounded. "That's crazy. You're that good and you've been playing for such a short amount of time? Wow. I can't imagine what you'll look like once you graduate. I've never seen anyone so talented before. And your processing speed is off the charts. Your processing speed is faster than some of the best Chasers in the world. Like I said, if you continue to practice and workout every day, I have a feeling you'll be the greatest player of all time. That is, if you choose to play Quidditch after you graduate."
"I mean, I never really thought about it, but I guess being famous would be alright. A lot of unwanted attention, but a lot of wanted money, so I guess that's a plus."
"Like I said, it's all up to you if you wanna go pro." Wood told me. "
So, do I got a spot?"
He laughed and said, "Go take a shower. You smell like shit." And with that, he walked away. As I walked into the showers, I wondered what Harry, Ron, and Grover were doing. They were probably causing mayhem in the school, so I should probably join them once I was out of the shower.
…
"Yo Perce," I heard Grover call out to me. "How'd it go?"
"If you call making the team and being called a potential future GOAT good, I guess it went well." I said to him while I was walking up to him. His eyes widened so much that they looked like he was a cartoon character. It was honestly quite funny.
"That's great man! I didn't even know that you were that good. No offense."
"None taken. Neither did I. Anyways, I'm gonna go get some lunch, because I'm fucking starving." And with that, I bid Grover adieu, and headed to the Great Hall.
…
Nothing else really happened for the rest of the day. All I was in the common room and do my homework because I had a lot of it. And that pissed me off not gonna lie. The fact that they give you homework on weekends is a crime. You have us slave away for 5 days a week and 8 hours a day and still have the nerve to give us homework on weekends. It was absurd. After six hours of doing homework, I checked my watch and saw that it said 7. "Shit." I was late for dinner, so basically ran to the Great Hall.
I saw Grover chowing down on his food and sitting next to Harry and Ron, who were picking at their food.
I slid next to them on the bench and said, "Yo."
"Hey Percy," Harry said tiredly.
"You guys not get any sleep or anything?" I asked them, because truthfully, they looked like shit. They looked like me after Gabe had beat me and I was studying for a test all night. They had really deep purple bruises under their eyes that made them look like they had been in a fist fight and lost.
"You could say that" Ron mumbled.
"What the hell even happened?" I asked, curious to why they were acting like this.
Harry and Ron looked at each other and harry said, "We have something to tell you."
Ok sorry for not updating for like two weeks…I was busy. School is kicking my ass and I got home from the airport at like 2 am on my first day of school and woke up sick for like a week so I had no time for writing, so I apologize for that. Also, I'm gonna try and dabble in the wonderful world of oneshots, so that's cool I guess. Signing out, INeedADamSnack