Summer
The summer was nearly halfway over by the time they made it to Christine's. Wisteria and Michael wrote to each other as often as they could and the girls could see the excitement practically radiating off of her when a new letter showed up from him. She fed a treat to the owl and then took the letter from it, reading the short note written on it.
Wisteria,
Sorry about everything. Don't write again.
-Michael Alderton
Wisteria reads over the short note a few times before setting it down and writing a response. Penelope, who seems to be able to sense when something is wrong, comes over and picks up the note.
"He says he doesn't want another letter." She states.
"Well too bad, he's getting one." Wisteria sighs. "I just want to know what happened." Wisteria sounds sure of herself, but she doesn't have any clue if it will work or not. She hopes that he gets the letter and actually responds.
After handing the letter off to his owl and watching him fly away Wisteria sits there for a moment biting her lip.
"Nope." Penelope says. "We're not doing this."
Wisteria looks up at her, confused. "Doing what?"
"Moping around because of some guy. We already got Christy over it. I'm not about to go through that with you. And you guys weren't even dating! So no, you're not going to mope. You are going to get some practice in."
"Practice?"
"Christy!" Penelope yells.
"Yeah?"
"Where does your brother keep his Quidditch gear?"
"In the shed in the back. Are we gonna play?"
"Yup."
"Yes! We wont have enough equipment for a full team, but we can play two v. two."
"Sounds perfect." Penelope says, turning to the other girls. "Well, come on. Let's go play some Quidditch.
A few minutes later all five girls are stood outside with brooms in their hands.
"Okay girls." Christine says. "Two people per team, one chaser, one keeper. Shay you'll be the Seeker. Game is over when she catches the snitch, but her catching the snitch doesn't get anyone any points. We'll be playing with one quaffle and no bludgers since we've only got one chaser per team and no beaters. Now, who wants to be a chaser?"
Penelope raises her hand and Christy smiles. "Great. Pen and Wisty, you're a team and Jane and I will be the other team with myself as the chaser. We'll switch the teams up after each game."
Wisteria walks over to Penelope who gives her a rough slap on the back. "Come on teammate. You better not get distracted up there or I'll have to beat you for making me lose."
There was not one doubt in Wisteria's mind that Penelope would do just that. She smiles and nods as the five friends take flight. Wisteria flies over to the makeshift goal posts stuck into the ground on one side of the pitch and Penelope takes her place to guard her. Christine waits for everyone to get settled before releasing the snitch and taking the first swing at the quaffle.
Penelope snatches the quaffle from the air and races towards Christine and Jane. The ball flies back and forth a few times before making it past Penelope and coming straight for Wisteria. With some incredible stroke of luck she manages to stay on her broom.
Wisteria throws the ball back into the fray and blocks two more shots before one makes it through.
"Come on Pen!" She yells at her teammate. "I can't be a perfect Keeper all the time, you've gotta do your part too you know!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm working on it." Penelope yells back.
An hour later, Christine has gotten another three shots past Wisteria and Jane hasn't been able to block any of the, admittedly few, shots that Penelope has managed. Finally Shannon finds and captures the snitch and with the final score being 50-40 and Penelope and Wisteria coming out on top, all of the girls too tired to even consider a rematch. They tiredly stumble back inside and Christine mumbles something about a shower before wandering off as the others flop down on the chairs in the living room.
"I didn't think catching that snitch would be so hard." Shannon says. "I'm gonna have to practice if I want to be the Seeker next year."
"After that terrible performance, there's no way I'm trying out." Jane says.
"Same here." Penelope agrees. "I'm not much of a sports person anyway.
"Wisty, you and Christy were amazing though!" Jane praises.
Wisteria feels a blush rising to her already flushed cheeks. "I wasn't that great. And even if I was, the captain of our team is a Keeper, I wouldn't be able to play."
"Yeah, but you could always try out another year, after he graduates." Penelope points out.
"I suppose that's true." Wisteria stretches herself out more on the couch and groans loudly. "I feel terrible. I call getting in the shower after Christy."
"I will fight you for a shower." Penelope says.
"Bring it on. Is it possible that you have equal skills in hand to hand combat as you do in Quidditch? Because if so then I have nothing to worry about."
Wisteria sees Shannon roll her eyes and can feel Penelope's cold hard glare on the back of her head as she laughs to show that she was just joking. Behind her, Penelope smiles and considers her goal accomplished, Wisteria is happy and Michael is momentarily forgotten about.