Picture this.
It was a beautiful sunny day, the Memorial Union (MU) was lively with the chatter of newcomers, and the Hayden Library was almost done with its construction. Although, they’ve been saying that for a few semesters now.
James could see The Gammage (built by Frank Lloyd Wright) come into view as he made his way down Forest, picking up his best friend Sirius, before heading to their game at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex Intramural Fields. Yea, quite a mouthful.
Except it wasn’t a beautiful fucking sunny day. It’s Arizona in August. A.k.a. Satan’s Asshole. Like, come on. It’s almost 6 pm and it’s still 105? WHO decided that Arizona was habitable? HM? That’s besides the point though.
He came up on the gate that was definitely meant to be closed, before kicking the rock to the side and walking through. His friend lived in Best Hall C, which was in the back, and the smallest of the Best Hall dorms. The complex consisted of Hayden Hall and Best Hall, and had literally every single underclass art major that was at the school. Because, you know, no one gives a shit about the art majors. Fun fact, these were the only dorms left on the campus that still had community bathrooms. Sirius constantly complained about them. James tended to just shut up anytime Sirius went on these rants, knowing full well that the funds that were saved to upgrade the art dorms were put towards James’ fancy new Engineer dorms, Tooker House.
“Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, get your ass right down here this heat is more than I can bear!” He yelled, picking up a pebble and throwing it at a window, hoping it was the right one. It wasn’t, as he heard Sirius’ voice behind him, coming out of the communal studio spaces on the lowest floor.
“Not bad,” Sirius replied.
“Thanks babe, thought you’d like that one because, like, drama major and whatever.”
“‘Drama major and whatever.’ Cool, thanks for making me feel special.”
“Anytime.”
…
The crowd roared their names. Potter! Potter! Potter! Black! Black! Black!
He raced around the field, feeling the blistering wind through his hair, the field lights like the heavens lighting up his stardom. He knew that one day, he was gonna be someone. He was going to be on billboards, the greatest quidditch player in a century! They’d say. His name would be on the backs of jerseys, his face on every girl's wall.
The coach’s whistle snapped him out of his daydream, as he saw Sirius throw the quaffle towards him, in which he snatched and tucked underneath his arm, beginning to run towards the goal. See, it didn’t look like it, but it really was quite difficult to hold a short broom between your legs as you ran across a grassy field, trying to score for your team. Sure, quidditch might seem like a joke sport, but to James? To Sirius? This was their life .
He ran his way up the field, quaffle still tucked in his arm, before grabbing it and making an overhead toss, watching as it soared through one of the gold hoops that stood at the end. James cheered, throwing his arms up and going to tackle Sirius, who was cheering just as loudly, maybe even louder. Well, him and… the 3 people in the stands that is. One of them was Sirius’ boyfriend, Remus, which could hardly count. The others were Peter, James’ friend, and Lily, the girl he was most definitely not in love with. As this was a practice, the snitch had no need to be released, but James had every intention of doing everything in his power to make sure his team was the one to get it at their game this weekend.
The practice began to wrap up as the rest of the team removed and stored their gear, and gathered the rest of their belongings, none of them being nearly as sweaty as the two boys.
Peter began to walk towards them, Remus and Lily a few steps behind. “James you have gotta wash that headband, that’s probably the reason why your forehead is breaking out like a lava bank.”
“Mm. Always a pleasure, Pete.” He said, removing said headband and wringing out the sweat before using it again to hold back his unruly curls. “Heh, hi Lily,” he blushed, as the other two figures joined their gathering. She just nodded in return, but he swore she saw the hint of a smile.
“Pete, you ready to head back?” They both lived at Manzanita, the dorm for the liberal arts and sciences. Lily herself was a biology major, and Peter was a geology major, with a minor in ceramics. “Mmmm like rocks.” He said once, about two black cherry white claws deep, but President Crow, you didn’t hear that (ASU is supposed to be a “dry campus”).
“Yea sure, see you on Saturday, James.” He called out with a wave, before the two turned around and began heading towards the opposite side of campus.
“Uh Ah Lily! Wait! Will you be there Saturday?”
“Not if I can help it,” her voice rang across the field, but this time he knew he saw a smile as she turned around again and disappeared in the oasis-like fog that settled on the turf. If you looked closely, you could see the ghost of two cowboys strutting towards each other in the midst of a duel.
“Oh James, you don’t stand a chance,” Remus chuckled. James just stayed there, smiling to himself in his own bubble of delusion. They began walking down Lemon, towards Barrett College, where Remus and his smart-ass self lived. Barrett was for the elite students, the ones better than all the rest, the ones who actually tried in their Freshman year. People like Remus, who knew from actual birth that he was meant to be an English Professor. Built like a beanpole, that one.
Barrett wasn’t a far walk from the field, but they made it there in even better than record timing, pleading to get out of the heat. Remus scanned them in, before the two followed him back to the dining hall. The man was quickly running out of guest passes, that was certain, with how many times James and Sirius requested they dine here instead. It definitely had the best food options, and people who argue that the MU was better have literally never experienced the fine dining of Barrett. Even the dining hall was gorgeous, with that ivy league dark brown stain, long cathedral length tables and benches, and walls adorned with tapestries that looked straight out of a storybook. It got James thinking that it really did look like it was from a storybook, maybe one with witches and wizards, and sports where the broom actually flew and all that… but that’s silly.
Once the three finished eating, James rose from the table before grabbing his belongings. He stood there waiting for Sirius to do the same, before noticing he hadn’t moved at all.
“Sirius, you coming?”
“Uh…” He looked nervously between James and his boyfriend. “I was actually just planning to stay here?” His voice grew mousy as he finished his sentence.
“Oh… oh. Yea, uhm, alright then,” He saluted. “Be safe, wear protection, and uh… don’t add to the already growing reputation of our school.”
(#1 in Innovation? More like #1 in STD rates. Right, guys? Right…?)
The two boys wrinkled up in their seats, Sirius turned beat red at the call out. James continued his way out the building, unfortunately back in the sweltering heat, which at 9pm had finally leveled out to a nice 100 degrees. Ultimate bliss.
He made his way back down Lemon, before turning to walk down Palm Walk. He swore nothing was better than Palm Walk, there was nothing like it in the world (there was), as he passed the bookstore and crossed over Orange Mall and then eventually Tyler Mall. He then came upon the largest intersection, University, which had probably one of the best Engineering highlights of the entire campus (Author’s note: it’s not. It’s actually awful and the worst thing on that campus), built by his forefathers. It was this ginormous ergonomic bridge that connected the main campus to the north campus, with stairs on one half going up, and a slope on the other. It is said that the angles and height used were best for spinal alignment, or so he heard. But the best part was the view you got of the campus, getting to see the entire skyline and ‘A’ Mountain with its shining gold painted symbol, once again representing that ASU was ON. TOP. Fuck you UofA… losers.
It was a historical event when the freshmen would gather in the wee hours of the morning to hike up ‘A’ Mountain and assert their dominance over their opponents in the South. James remembered his time fondly.
Finally, he made it to his dorm. It was a large modern rectangular building, with the Desert Financial Arena only a stone’s throw away, with large windows and a multitude of community spaces. The best part about it all? It was only Engineering students, so you were never short of buddies who wanted to test a certain model, or team up for a project that was definitely meant to be done solo. The dorm itself was small, with 4 students per room, two beds on each side and a shared bathroom in the middle. James made do, of course, with plans of moving into one of the Upper Division housing blocks next year.
It reached about 10 o'clock when James decided to make the bright decision of settling in for a few hours of gaming before he ultimately passed out and slept through the alarm he had set for the next day.
…
It. Was. Game Day.
Finally, James was able to show the student culture what he was made of. And theydies and letlemen?? IT WAS FULL ON SCHOOL GODDAMN SPIRIT!!
He looked at his reflection in the mirror, nostrils flared from anticipation. He had two stripes on his cheeks, maroon and gold to mirror the school’s colors, matching with Sirius.
At last, James heard the whistle notifying the game was about to start. The teams got into their positions, brooms tucked in-between their thighs. James looked up at the stands (now filled with at least 10 fans) at the last moment, cheeks going red when his eyes landed on Lily.
The whistle blew, and the stadium (in James’ head) roared with the fevered chants of thousands , each breathless moment adding to the electric tension in the air. The two teams, locked in a fierce battle, pushed their limits in a display of pure athleticism and determination. Sweat poured down their faces, glistening in the harsh light as they sprinted across the field, muscles straining with every explosive movement. POW! Take that, and THAT! Quaffle to the FACE! (Author’s Note: Don’t throw quaffles at people’s faces).
The crowd’s collective gasp echoed through the air as James launched the quaffle through the air, missing the opponent’s bat by millimeters. It was neck and neck, with the clock winding down and each play became more and more critical. Any second now, the snitch would be released, and James knew they would have it in the bag. Bodies collided with bone-jarring force, yet no one faltered, the Devil’s Quidditch Team driven by that unyielding will to win.
It was the final seconds, both scores still tied and seemingly having no plan to change, that the coach blew the whistle to signify the release of the snitch. The field lights blinded him as James looked around, desperately trying to see where the snitch might have gone. He heard it, whiiishhh , as it flew past his ear, but all he wanted was to just get a glimpse of its shining gold sparkle.
Then, as if the gods answered him, their star player, the one who made all the difference, came out to the clearing. The seeker. Players moved out of her way like she was some other worldly being, demanding her peasants to bow down to her power. Then, dressed in gold from head to toe, the snitch (who was just one of the teammates volunteering) started to dart between the players, the sock tucked into the back of their pants with a tennis ball at the bottom flapping with every move. The kid was as fast as lighting, but not as fast as that star player, as she made the dive to end all dives. Her hand grazed the tennis-ball-sock-thing before her hand wrapped around it and tugged, pulling it out of the waist of the snitch’s shorts. The crowd erupted in an explosion of sound, the victorious team collapsing in a heap of elation and exhaustion, knowing they had given everything in a game for the ages.
They would have trophies lining the halls in his name, in the seeker’s name. Stadiums would be named after them from this point on. The elation James felt was nothing he had ever felt before.
After this was only the party that James and Sirius held (at Remus’ place, he had the best dorm) after every game. Everyone was there. The seeker, being passed around like a trophy because of her genius on the field; Sirius fluttering around the room and making sure everyone’s drinks were full; Remus and Lily making sure no one out ranked them in Mario Kart. Everyone was there, except for one.
See, what is about to happen next was a result of a dare after one too many late-night bagels (with sCHmearrrrr) from Einstein’s between the two boys. If it wasn’t obvious, James was well beyond infatuated with one Lily Evans, and for a while he had been trying to figure out a way to impress her. This is where the plan comes into play. In between James spreading his garden veggie shmear onto his asiago bagel, he let slip the location of one very infamous uniform. See, James may be a lowly quidditch player, but he has friends. And some of those friends may be on the Football team, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, as he was spreading the last of his shmear, Sirius’ eyes lit up with the greatest idea of the century.
Which brings us to now.
The crowd was just starting to ask where James could possibly have gone off to, even Lily, which is exactly what James was after. When suddenly there was a loud knock at the door. Sirius jumped up from where he was, looking around in false enthusiasm. Remus just proceeded to look disappointed, letting his head fall into his hands with a ginormous sigh. He looked towards Lily with a pitiful glance, not knowing exactly what was about to go down, but knew it was nothing good.
Sirius headed towards the door, continuing to look at anyone who would look back, a permanent shocked expression glued to his face. There was another loud knock right before he reached the door, in which he heard a quiet “Pads, it’s hot as balls in here, hurry the fuck up.”
He opened the door, and there in front of him, as tall as a giant… Sparky.
The Mascot of ASU, Sparky the Sun Devil stood in all of its felted glory, with his rather humanistic body clothed with a Sun Devils Football Uniform, and a maroon and gold pitchfork lying on his shoulders. Then of course there was the head, with a comically large gold smile and maroon devilish eyebrows, topped off with maroon horns.
The Sparky, showing up at their small little gathering. Who would have thought.
Sirius moved out of the doorway, letting Ja- Sparky through. The room was quiet, seemingly deciding whether or not this was horrid or hilarious.
Then, like an angel calling from the heavens, one laugh broke out through the ether. It was one that James fuck I mean, Sparky, would recognize from anywhere. The laugh of one Lily Evans.
“Ok, James,” she said between breaths. “I swear to god if you don’t take that ridiculous thing off your head right now, then I will never go out with you.”
And by all above that was holy, James ripped the mascot’s head off his own, letting his curls fall back into his face once again. They might as well start planning their wedding (at Old Main of course), with the way she looked back at him.
With the stale air outside reading a nice and cool 99 degrees at 10 pm, everything was as it should be.
~ The End ~