When Jory heard the whistle low again, he headed over to where the Professor was and listened to the instructions. "Hoops,'' he thought. "Should be... fun.''

When it was his turn to have a go at the hoops, he rose up and hovered in front of them, studying them. He went over the order of which he had to pass through in his head. "Right, got it.'' The boy leaned forward and headed for the first hoop- red. As he neared it, he realised it had began to move and was heading for the right. Quickly angling his broom to the left, he made it through.

The next one- orange was leveled at the same height with which he was currently flying. He kept a keen eye on it knowing it would move, but to the Puff's surprise as he got nearer it didn't and he cleared it with no problem.

Ethan started to grin as he saw Minerva look past him to the poles. As she seemed to contemplate his offer, the sixth year glanced over as Professor James spoke. Oh a new activity.. he looked over at the hoops. That might be interesting as well, but for now they could race the poles and he grinned widely when Minerva agreed.

Ethan flew next to her and readied himself at the start in line opposite Minerva. He nodded. "That sounds like a good idea.. I could use a little more practice too, I think. I have tryouts this week too.." he said, thinking about that owl he got from Milton this morning. He tried not to show it, but he was pretty nervous about tryouts even with the little bit of practice he had over the summer. How could he not benefit from some extra practice?

When it was their turn, he nodded to her and said, "On the count of three? One.. Two.. Three.." And Ethan took off, beginning to weave through the poles. Knowing how well Min could fly, he wasn't about to go easy on her.. and he was sure she wouldn't want him to anyway. The boy leaned forward to gain some speed and flew increasingly faster as he maneuvered through the poles. Just two more till the end and he made the mistake of turning his head to see where Minerva was in her course. Apparently not a good idea to look away at this speed as he crashed into the last pole. Shaking his head a bit and laughing at himself, Ethan veered away from the course of poles.

Okay, second turn up. Ella took a breath and leaned forwards on her broom, ready to increase her speed as she weaved in and out of the poles. She could totally do this quickly! Mhm. And as long as she was mindful she should have no collisions with the poles, yeah? ...Yeah. Cause hitting one would not look good. Nope. Anyway, time to fly.

Zooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom!

Ella shot forwards and darted in and out of the poles, eyes focused on the next one to come. She couldn't help but smile as the wind whipped her hair out behind her because this was fun, lots of fun. She felt good being up here like this. Yup. Oh! And she was doing really well too! She was nearly there.

As the last pole came up, Ella misjudged the turn and the tail-end of her broom smacked it, causing her to wiggle a bit. The blonde FROWNED and regained control of her broom, sighing inwardly. This was lameeee. She'd almost made it through without any mishaps! Oh well, at least she had another turn to try. She'd get it this time, no doubt.

Lottie was FAST.

Incredibly fast.

Alec watched her, his eyebrows slightly raised. This was... impressive, actually. Especially if this was her first time flying. ... WAS it her first time flying? He made a mental note to ask her about that later. AND to ask her whether she was trying out for the team or not. She had to, right? Yeah. Especially with the way she was flying right now.

... Captain LochNessie would be really proud, right? GRIN.

The fourth year flew over to her, grinning, slightly. "Erm... fly with me on this next one?" he asked. Because... they were in the same house and if she was trying out -- which he still needed to ask her about -- they might as well work together on the last swerve of the poles, yeah?

As Belle was getting the hang of turning on the poles. She was still having trouble turning left. It required a little more force. Belle had no idea how that was going to help her in this lesson but she could at least try.



More Poles! Wooo.....Belle was getting sick of it but this was practice after all. Belle then decided at turning left and it still kept drifting towards the right. She went down to the broom cupboard to change her broom. Belle decided it was needed to be done. After she put her broom and called, "UP!" it was better understanding. It flew up to her hand. She then got on it, kicked up again and it flew just right.



Belle was then facing the poles again. "Hello poles we meet again..." Belle said to them. This time she was not taking no for an answer. She tested to see if her turning was right. It seemed right to her. She then was turning right and left swiftly and easily. YES! It was working...so far that is....

"Onto the next hoop, then,'' Jory thought as the yellow one came in sight. This one was lower than both the Red and orange hoops so he gently pushed the handle downwards while keeping his eye on the target. As he approached, the hoop dropped even lower. The boy did the same and shot through it. Another one down!

As he neared the green hoop, he studied it. This one was changing directions, moving left to right constantly. "This one's gonna be tricky,'' he thought as he slowed a bit. He was close to it and it was currently in the right direction. The good thing about it was it wasn't moving too fast. Knowing it would head to the left at any minute, Jory took that direction. And it payed off! The hoop turned back to the left and Jory shot through it with no problem.

She was wasting time. Other students were waiting patiently for their turn and she was hovering there like she'd lost something in that last hoop. It was time to move on. Facing forward again she gave herself a quick reminder that these things were moving and therefore not to be taken lightly.

Right.

Onto the next hoop.

Lex whooooshed through the air, not slowing down even as she rose higher to get through the second hoop. This time she didn't needed to swerve nearly as sharply to clear it and there was a grin of satisfaction. She KNEW she could do this. It was just going to take a bit more concentration than the poles.

Once she got the hang of it the second year could be seen zipping through hoop after hoop, swerving, ducking and occasionally twisting until she was upside down.

She gave a thrilled shout as she got through the last hoop.

What a rush! GRIN.

There were PEOPLE in her way. People keeping her from the yellow hoop, the next obstacle in her path. Couldn't they hurry up? She had flying to do. Alice tried to wait as nicely as possible for her turn, but she wasn't exactly in possesion of patience. But she made it to the yellow soon enough. It was much higher than she had thought would be, moving a little more quickly than the first two. Still, it couldn't stump HER, nope. She found pulling the broom handle up and soaring through the yellow hoop rather simple, actually.

AND NO TWIG TAIL ISSUES THIS TIME. HA.

Alice shot toward the green hoop, but stopped when she was close enough to see it. It.. it kept shifting, from left to right, and then back again. It was moving to quickly to shoot through, and it was lower than the rest, too. Finally, it seemed to slow down as it approached the right, and she trailed it, ready to fly downwards into it when the hoop came close enough. Just as she was about to pass through it, though, it moved AGAIN. With a frustrated sigh, the lioness flew back up.

She watched it for a little longer, trying to make sense of its pattern. After a while, the lioness made her broom go left when the hoop was to the right, and it shifted again, Alice managed to get through. Beaming, she pumped a victorious fist in the air.

Four down, two to go.

Red and orange were done. What's next on the rainbow list? Yellow and green. Slytherin and Puffers. Right. Kat looked around for the green hoop where she found somewhere on the right. Well... Uhm, not that far...

Right?

Kat flew to the green hoop which was.... Ok, she had approximating heights but it seemed higher than the red one. Meh, if Professor James did say the heights that meant Kat didn't listen. Silly her. She ducked as she went through the yellow hoop. HAH. And then turned to the other side where the green (HAH. Slytherin) hoop was and when through it, missing a near bump. Wiiiiiw!

So....

R.O.Y.G.B.V.

Alright...time to go through these poles. She hoped the new broom would be better. She was confident in turning and everything. She went through the first pole no problem, then the second one she was leaning forward and accelerating.

Belle felt the wind in her hair, she turned the broom right and it felt right to her touch. She dodged the first pole. Then she tried left...Left was fine. She did not require too much work for it. She dodged the pole left and now this was getting easier. Belle could tell.

Then she starting going...Left...right...left...right! Then changed it's direction. Right...left..right...left! This was getting so much easier. Belle never realized how much she missed flying. She was so confident now she was going to start the next activity.

This was it, Ella was totally going to get it this time. She was extra motivated too because she hated failing at things, especially when flying was one of the few things she felt she was really good at. She just needed to...concentrate a bit more? Oh and not worry so much. The over-thinking is what killed her every time, and not just on the Quidditch pitch. Closing her eyes for a moment, the blonde took a deep breath and then...

Ziiiiigggggggg...Zaaaaaagggggg....Ziiiggggg.....Za aaaaggggggg


In and out and in and out she went, flying fast as she dared. She was focused too, avoiding contact with the poles as best she could. All she had to do was get past a few more and she'd be out. BEAM! She could totally do this. And Captain Nessie would be proud of her, yeah? Ella sure hoped so.

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

And then she was done, past the last pole without mishaps. The blonde GRINNED to herself, feeling quite accomplished. She'd gone pretty fast too which was awesome. Ella's green eyes took a moment to look back before glancing over at the other end of the pitch. She'd need to work on height now, yeah? She could totally do that.

Text Cut: Hehe.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hermionesclone

Lottie was FAST.

Incredibly fast.

Alec watched her, his eyebrows slightly raised. This was... impressive, actually. Especially if this was her first time flying. ... WAS it her first time flying? He made a mental note to ask her about that later. AND to ask her whether she was trying out for the team or not. She had to, right? Yeah. Especially with the way she was flying right now.

... Captain LochNessie would be really proud, right? GRIN.

The fourth year flew over to her, grinning, slightly. "Erm... fly with me on this next one?" he asked. Because... they were in the same house and if she was trying out -- which he still needed to ask her about -- they might as well work together on the last swerve of the poles, yeah?

BEAM!

Now that was an interesting question. Didn't Alec hear her answer the Professor's question earlier in class? About not flying close to one another? However, she paid little attention to that too, considering she gave him one nod. "Sure!" Because now the boy had some manners and was asking her to join him, instead of simply claiming her as a partner in Flying, yeah?

Lottie tried her best to keep up with him, but he ended up being faster than her. No surprise there. Which was fairly obvious since he played Seeker and was far more experienced.

One. Two. Three...however many poles they were, they went through them all. The weaving was rather difficult to accomplish, especially since they were so close. But no one was injured Professor James, aren't you proud?

"Moving hoops next?" SMIRK. Because that actually sounded like fun.

Sheepishly Alice looked around. She knew Lex wouldn't approve of her being by herself and avoiding the other students in her attempts to not "bother" them. So with a deep breath out, Alice climbed up in height and watched as the other student flew around, still from afar but close enough for her to actually be seen.

"Wow. That's so cool!" she cheered, mouth slightly agape in awe

Taking in the picture perfect sight before her, students just spending the day in the skies having a world of fun just made her feel happy inside. Or maybe that was the nausea from being airborne for so long. No, it had to be that sense of pride each student feels when... when... what what she thinking about now?

A race? YEAH. West was down 'cept now there were HOOPS to go through, which would be fun right? He lined up, wanting to try it out a few times before he agreed to racing his captain, not because he was WORRIED just because it would be fun. And it was totally DYLAN that need to worry. Or not worry, since wouldn't it tecnically be a good thing to have him be fast since he was on Dyl's team? Or would be again really soon anyways.

Where was he... oh yeah. HOOPS!

West didn't start right away, not with the queue being pretty full, but he did watch the hoops for a bit, to get an idea of how fast they were moving and the relative distances and things.

Just because he felt like it, West took his hands off the handle and folded his arms while he waited for his turn. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple? He was still eyeing up the hoops. They really weren't moving that fast, it'd be way easy right?

In fact he was totally down to race now.

"Hey Dylan, wann race the hoops?"

After that last fly the sugar was now rushing through her! That was the only explanation she could offer for feeling so hyper all of a sudden. Moving objects were much more fun than the ones that sat around waiting for you to come at them.

If there was enough time left in class she would ask the Professor to let the next course be one that shoots things at you.

Now THAT would've gotten her pumped.

She cruised at a casual pace all the way to the back of the line. This time the wait was worth it! Also, was it just her or did the wait not seem so long this time around? Before she knew it she was at the front again and beaming at the thought of getting another go at it.

Lex bolted toward the course, her favourite part was the sometimes sharp turns she had to make in order to avoid hitting the hoops. When she came to the end of it again she did a little flip...and another...aaaand another. Gosh this was fun.

The next challenge would be to do the hoops. Belle flew over to the hoops activity. Then she waited in line patiently with the other students. After the student went in front of her it was her turn.

"Alright Belle you can do this...." Belle took a deep breath and told herself. Then she kicked her leg over the broom, got into her position and kicked off. Now this was the time to test her skills.

She saw all the hoops. Red, Purple, Yellow and so on. She was going to have to go through all of them. Seemed easy enough for now.

ZOOMMMMM....

Belle swerved through the first hoop. Then the second hoop was fine. They were all in her range of vision. Then she reached the third one and BUMPED into it. Awww mannn!! This was annoying. Belle shrugged it off and went back to the end of the line, determined to beat through all the hoops.

... Oh?

"Awesome!" he said, grinning at the girl. Because... if she had said no, that would be a little embarrassing, right? Right. Yeah. So he just... grinned before flying off after her.

Zoooooooooooooooom. Sweeeeeeeeeeerve. Zooooooooooooooooooooom.

And on and on the two flew with Alec flying a little ahead. But... he did try and slow down a little. Because... it was only nice, right? And if he flew any faster, he would probably end up spiralling out of control or... or crashing into one of the hoops. Then Lottie could get hurt. He definitely didn't want anything like that to happen. None of it. Nope.

Zooooooooooom. Sweeeeeeeeeerve. Zoooooooooooooooooooooom.

When they did reach the end, Alec pulled to a stop, grinning widely at the second year. "That was awesome!" And Lottie was good, yeah? YEAH. "Oh! Yeah! It sounds like fun!" ... That made no sense, Summers. Shaking his head, Alec swivelled around on his broom and flew over towards the hoops...

Melody paused when she heard the whistle. She flew over to where the professor was at to listen to her this time around. Cool, another activity. First she decided that she was going to practice on the polls. Once the professor was done talking Melody flew over to the polls to weave in and out.

Listening to the Professor, Dylan wanted to make one more pass through these poles before moving on...IF that was okay...and Professor James seemed to be cool with that. So, yea.

Waiting his turn, the Slytherin hovered. Everyone seemed to have difficulty on these brooms. Everyone BUT West. Could the Captain just take a moment to be proud?...Because he was.

When it became his turn, he blinked. Last pass...Not that he was worried, scared, or anything ridiculous like that. He was a Captain. Captains don't get worried or scared on brooms. It was illogical.

Darting forward with some speed, he worked the school-issued through the white poles. He was careful not to brush them or anything...Just continued with his zigzagging motions...like he was lacing himself through them. It seemed legit enough.

Why hadn't he been able to bring his own, again?

Reaching the opposite side, Dylan skidded around, not that it had been hard. Less speed made it easier to turn...With both hands on the handle, the Slytherin flattened himself against it, trying to be faster going back to towards the starting line...

It hadn't helped much...but he'd made it.

MEH...

Hoops. It was time for hoops.

Following Odessa over to the hoop-queue, the Captain nudged his younger player's broom. "I'm down. Just give the word." Racing on school-issued brooms. This was going to be interesting.

Hoops. They were meant to be flying through colorful moving hoops. Ella smiled a little thinking about how Sophie would really appreciate the colorful bit. This was going to be tricky though, adjusting for height and also making sure you timed your entry through the hoop just right. Ella eyed the things for a while as she moved up in line, trying to think of a good strategy. One thing was for sure, she wasn't going to speed through this. She didn't want to have to start all over again.

When it was her turn, the blonde gripped her broom and leaned forward slightly, her sights set on the giant red hoop. She could do this, be a human quaffle. She just needed to be careful that she was towards the center of the hoop, that way if it moved she'd still have space. ZOOOOOOOOM. She hesitated only for a moment, having to swerve a bit right before she entered because of the swaying circle. She did it though, made it through without touching any red. Score one for Hufflepuff. BEAM.

The next hoop was orange and it was a bit higher than the first so Ells headed upwards and to the left. She slowed down a bit as she came closer to the hoop, adjusting her direction so she was in alignment with the center. ZOOOOOOM. And she was through another one. Meep! Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all?

And here was Dylan.

West grinned at him and like a true Slytherin he took off towards the first hoop, looking back over his shoulder and hollering, "WORD."

The first hoop was the red one, only ten feet up so nice and easy. West took it at a slight angle, already lined up for the orange one, though he had to fly higher to get to it. For reals the hoops needed to go like.... twice as fast, and not so predictable, that would be better. He didn't bother to look and see where Dylan was, since that'd slow him up, but after all West was fairly comfortable on a school broom even if they were comparatively lame and all. He zoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooomed through the orange hoop and banked right, having to double his height to get to the yellow one. That meant acceleration, something the school brooms were far more..... steady on.

Steady was boring, but it was still manageable if you knew how. NEARLY THEREEeeeeeeeeeee............ and yes! HE slipped neatly through the yellow hoop and started his descent, aiming for the green.

Belle was determined to get through the hoops. Belle had to keep her concentration on the hoops. Not on her thoughts. Belle kicked off on her broom and then was ready to go and conquer them all.

Belle tried the red hoops. These were the easiest ones and she was zig zagging and staying on the ground and familiarizing herself with the grounds. She had not been on the field for so long. Belle was zooming through the red ones. Now onto the orange ones...Belle used them as a tool. She even did a twist and turn through them. She felt so much rush and adrenaline. She loved it!

Belle then did the yellow and green ones. Belle was zooming faster and going up and down. She actually bumped into one of the green hoops. AGH! she was so close....Belle just had to go up a little higher but then again she was on a school broom.

Belle checked off the hoops she had been on....(R.O.Y.G.B.V)

They were ACTUALLY going to fly now? Well, that was refreshing. Honestly, as much as she enjoyed the whole HOVERING thing she would have much rather have flown around the Pitch. She liked flying, obviously, and really adored the fact that she got to fly AND earn points at the same time. It was like some sort of magic. No pun intended of course.

Kicking off of the ground, Selina started her way up into the air. There was very little she could do except fly forwards and up on a very crowded Pitch with inexperienced flyers. The last thing she needed to do was get all fancy and then get knocked from her broom at the last minute if a KID was not paying attention. Or even worse, if they were. It was always fun to see an older student fall from their broom. Demon ickles LOVED that.

Once she was up in the air though, she eyed the goal posts and considered the whole flying toward them thing. This was a pretty standard skill for those who had been flying long enough, but she could distinctly remember the first time she had learned to fly and the first time she had learned to turn. It had been a mess. A very broken mess.

But she leaned forward on her broom and started to jet forward a little toward the goal posts. All she had to do was speed up a little and then gently glide her broom one way to turn once she got there. WHICH was exactly what she did. Once she reached the end of the Pitch, she turned the handle of her broom and avoided the goal post all together. And with that, she started to fly down to the other end of the Pitch. Fun.

...WHERE WERE THE BLUDGERS AT?

Peyton stared at the poles from behind one of her classmates. How could the broom touch one of the poles when she was doing such a great job at avoiding them? Ohhh, wait. Peyton realized this wasn't her broom she was using.

Right. She'll have to get a feel of the broom first and get used to the difference of it from hers. Maybe what her daddy told her wasn't as easy as she thought it'd be. Peyton patted the broom when she realized it was her turn. Okay, broom, lets do this, she thought. She zoomed off, still as excited as in the beginning.

The Slytherin leaned forward, gaining speed and leant from side to side, maneuvering the broom to move where she wanted. Peyton was slowly learning the broom. How it moved, the speed, her own movements on it, all in all, she was bonding with it.

Peyton wove through the poles until she had finished the lap. Hoorah! The girl turned and headed back to the line, already planning on going faster. Hehe.

Next up on the hoop trail was yellow and Ella smiled a little as she continued on slowly. She ascended towards the large object, watching as it moved. This one was higher than the previous two so she took this into account as she moved higher and closer to the opening. Zooooooooom. And then she bit her lip as the hoop swayed, quickly maneuvering to the left and picking up speed so she'd make it through cleanly without touching the sides. Meeeep! That was a close one. This was definitely a lot harder than she thought it would be.

And then there was green. BEAM. Ella's favorite color was green! The blonde noted how much closer to the ground this hoop was and began her steady descent, angling herself so she would be able to make it through the opening. She mimicked the movement of the swaying as she got closer and closer, wanting her timing to be right. And then...just a bit closer and...GRIN! She made it through another hoop.

Now for blue.