"Well that I guess it's best that you two broke up then. You should always have something in common with those you date." Carter said agreeing with her. "If you're really worried about it... I could talk to him if you wanted." he offered.

Klaudette nodded. She understood. Becoming friends again was a hard thing and took time and did not need random people budding in. "That would be great so then all three of us can hang out sometime," she commented with a smile. "I love making friends," she said with a happy sigh, "There are so many people I need to meet here," she added. "The one I want to meet most is this giant squid in the Lake I've heard so much about. You should come too," she encouraged.

She should meet everyone that was walking by her and Arlie too, but she didn't want to interrupt the good conversation she was having now.

She heard her question the aliens theory and then give some long reasonable explanation on why there really wasn't any their age. "I prefer the aliens one. Takes less to say and how cool would it be to say I got abducted by beams and aliens." she stated with enthusiasm while doing eerie hand motions. She wondered if this girl was always practical with everything. Klaudette had never seen that side of life. She was always trying to be out there. Ba! That was an alien pun. Maybe she had been abducted.

"Thanks, but I think I'll just try and talk to him. So anyway how do you plan on asking Marie out?" she replied.

Oblivious to the movement, Jimbo thought of a couple questions to ask her. "Well, first off, what's you favourite colour? That's a very important question." Taking the last bited of his cookie, he thought up another question.

"What's your favourite food? And how do you spend your free time?" he added the last bit, because he figured that's important too.

"Okay. My favorite colore is blue. My favorite food is spaghetti..And I spend my free time with my friends. Now you?"

Hm. Good choices. Spaghetti was quite good. Smiling, he answered her.

"Well, my favorite colour is green, although pink is a close second. I don't think I have a favorite food, it's ALL really good. Maybe cupcakes though. Pastries. They're good. you know, cookies, lemon meringue. That type of stuff. I'm about dessert."

He grinned at her again and continued, "I like to spend my free time with Pebbles or wandering the castle in search of secret places." Or pranking. When he wasn't eating, being a good pet owner or wandering the wonderous castle, he was pranking.

After picking his plant up from the sidelines, JD stumbles down the pathways toward the castle. He knew the plant was getting too big to carry, but it was comforting to have with him. He had spent a lot of time with it, and he figured it should find out why.

Nearly dropping the plant when pain seared through his side again, he gasps. Stopping to take a breath before moving on, he stands there taking a few deep breaths.

"I'm not sure yet. I was thinking over dinner or something." Carter said. "What do you think? Do you have any suggestions?"

Nia had gone to put the equipment back away, and wasn't sure how to spend the rest of her day. Now she was all wrapped up in scarf and gloves, she could quite fancy a walk. As she glanced around, Nia saw a familiar, slow moving third year and plant.

Running to catch up with him, Nia began to look worried. "JD?" she asked with a slight frown. He was taking big deep breaths. "That bludger did real damage, right?" She grimaced. Only the second tryout as Captain, and she had to deal with an injury. "Bad...broken?"

Wincing, JD replies "I'm not sure...might be." Looking down at his side, he doesn't want to look, especially after how it had looked during the last match.

"It isn't really much of a difference then when I got here...or when I left last term, I guess." Sighing, he looks at his new captain, or hoped to be his new captain. "I am guessing this time, I probably should see the nurse..."

Okay, now she was worried. It looked worse than your average school bludger, even if it was fairly forceably hit. And then it clicked that the bludger had got him right in the same area as he was injured last term. His next words confirmed he hadn't ever gotten that last one checked out.

"No probabilities about it," Nia said, both managing to be assertative as a Captain and showing genuine concern. She considered all her teammates as friend, and cared for them as such - even if she was going to be strict with them on the pitch to get the Cup back. "You're going to the Healer. And I'm taking you, and your plant, right now. Okay?" Not that she was going to let him be not okay about it...but you know, just to give hime some sort of say.

Nodding, he agrees, he knew he should have gone after the last match, but he felt too humiliated and pretty much hid from all his fellow housemates view for the rest of the term. Jake was tough to beat, even for Nia.

Injuries, might keep him off the team this year, he thought happily. Maybe...

Then he looked up at Nia before commenting, he was positive, she would NOT be happy hearing that. Taking a deep breath, he starts with her toward the castle.

"That sounds cute." she replied. "But I'm probably not the one to give suggestions, Marie and I aren't the best of friends, and I've been in and out of relationships since I was seven, and none were more than three months."

Nia raised an eyebrow at that nod. She could tell there was something else behind it. A thought process. Was it about her, as captain? About his side? Left over memories of last term. He was just being, well, too quiet. He wasn't even complaining of the pain.

She picked up the plant, getting a face full of leaves, and tried to see round it. It was like a purpose built portable place for hiding. She raised an eyebrow. Why exactly had JD brought this to tryouts? Good luck? If it was, it hadn't exactly worked. Nia bit her lip. She wanted to keep him distracted from the pain. She always found it helped.

"Come on then," she said after a few steps... "Spill..." It was an open invitation for him to say anything on his mind really. That she was an awful Captain for letting him play on injured...that she was also an incredibly rubbish Seeker and didn't deserve to be Captain after last term's dismal performance...thank you for carrying his plant. Whatever he fancied...

Carter shrugged. "Perhaps." he said. But all girls liked the same things, right? Like flowers and jewelry and stuffed animals. "Do you happen to know what her favorite color is by chance?" he asked.

"Seriously?" he asks her questionably. "Well, you certainly won't be pleased..." Avoiding her eyes, he pours out his concerns, "I...I honestly don't know how the last two captains could even consider putting me on the team."

Looking up at her, "You remember the first time I played seeker...I couldn't do more then catch the one snitch, and even that was an accident." Stepping over a branch that had fallen, he mumbles quietly. "I just want to fly upside down..."

"I'm not sure, maybe green." she replied, shrugging. "Maybe you could get her a diamond necklace with crystals!" she suggested.

Ellie walked through the paths in the grounds. She saw her quidditch captain... Nia...was it? Yeah. And another kid that was at tryouts. Wait. The kid she hit at tryouts. The kid she hit hard at tryouts.

She immediately ran up to them.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything..." she said, and waited for a nod or something of that nature before she continued. Otherwise she'd leave them alone for now and try again later.

"I got my last girlfriend a necklace. I don't really want to do the same things..." Carter said. "What about a bracelet?" he suggested.

Arlie just stared at Klaudette. Squids didn't make good friends. That just wasn't logical. Squids ate mammals and fish. People were mammals. Man-eating squids plus Arlie generally were not a good combination. "I'll pass," Arlie said simply.

The eleven-year-old blinked at the other girl and frowned slightly. How could this girl prefer the obviously less realistic option? That was like saying that you preferred bananas to oranges because bananas were more round. Which made no sense at all. "Riiight," was all Arlie trusted herself to say without sounding incredibly condescending. "Have you been to the library yet? I bet it's ginormous!"

Looking up he sees one of the others who had tried out that afternoon. "Hi!" he replies with a smile and a wince. "No, not at all...we're ummm, just heading up to the hos...I mean castle."

Remembering she had been the one to hit him with the bludger, he didn't want to upset the young girl. "Nice shot though...earlier in tryouts!"

Nia nodded. "Seriously. I want to know what my players are feeling. It helps me plan the most effective approaches - and a team needs to be on the same mental level as physical." She gave him an encouraging smile, though was partly glad it was covered by the plant at his next words. Great, he was disappointed in her performance last term. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

And then, as he spilt, Nia really felt for the guy. "They put you on the team because you're good at what you do," she said softly. "You're talented, and a hardworker...and the team needed you." She would have given him a hug, but she was still holding the plant and she wouldn't wnat to risk making his ribs any worse than they already were.

"As for seeker, you've got a better record than me!" She laughed. She'd felt a whole lot better about it in reflection after talking to Mariel after the feast. "I think you'll find I've never caught a snitch...crash landed Prof V into a load of mud, and knocked myself out and snapped my broom in half." She shrugged. "Accident or not, you were still considered the best to be doing that job. You can't dwell in the past...only try to improve for the future."

Okay, so now she was sounding a bit like a philosophical captain. Was that a good thing? She just about heard his mumble. "Fly upside down? I'm sure we could sort that one out." She looked thoughtful. "Could even be a new style tactic..."

Ellie blushed.

"I just wanted to say that I'm really, really sorry about that." she said eyeing where the bludger collided. "Are you alright?.. There..?" she motioned to his side.

She bit her lip. She hated seeing people hurt. That's why she could never be a healer. No matter how many people told her she'd be good at it.

Looking up at her surprised, he really hadn't realized that. "Being a good flyer is the most important thing, and well I can fly...but my hand eye coordination is another thing. Snitches...are just too small!"

Giggling, he remembers Vindictus in the mud. Wincing at the pain from the laughing, he continues anyway. "Not often can you say you put a professor into a mud puddle."

"New style tactic?" he asks. A smile beaming on his face, he nods "I think that would be awesome!"

"I'm fine...or will be fine. Don't worry, it happens." he replies kindly. Laughter flooding his eyes, he nods to Nia, "Nia, could even tell you about last term when she put the professor in the mud."

Ellie smiled, feeling better about what happened. She hoped he was going to the hospital wing. She was sure the nurse would help him and he'd be feeling better in a matter of seconds.

Then she turned her attention to Nia, who was walking next to JD (Ellie was walking backwards). "You did what?" she asked, excited.