Open Missed Goals

Ivy was disappointed in herself. sure, Gryffindor has won the house quidditch tournament, and she had played well in the international game. However she was disappointed that she had not managed to score a single goal all year. She was a chaser it shouldn't be that hard to throw a ball through a hoop. Maybe sometimes it was. but the only career she had ever dreamed of was playing professionally, to follow in her mum's footsteps and wear the red, blue and yellow of the macaws or the red and black of the warriors which was her favourite team. or even join Bigonville like Basil. but she was fairly sure no team would want her if she couldn't even score a single goal. it was early one morning the winter sun just peaking above the horizon. Which admittedly wasn't as early as it could have been, but she didn't much fancy playing in the dark. She had taken one of the quaffles from the shed and started running shooting drills for herself, hoping that maybe she would have some success getting the ball in the hoop.

Teddy wasn’t always the best at recognising how others felt, especially when riding on the win of being school champions. Admittedly Teddy wasn't quite as cheerful about the win because Veronica has been the one to catch the snitch and claim the glory, and Veronica just happened to also hate his guts.

Teddy's level was lower than it usually was after a win, and maybe that was why he'd not slept as well either. Perhaps that's also why he noticed that Ivy had been a bit off lately herself. Whatever it was, he took time out to check in on his teammate down at the Quidditch pitch early in the morning. He didn’t announce himself right away but when he did he called out, "Hey you need someone in goal?" He offered kindly.

The cold air was certainly cooling off the heat of Ivy's emotions. As she practiced flying and shooting, she was starting to cool off and focus on what she was doing. She didn't even notice anyone else joining her until she heard a voice behind her. "I'm not getting anything in, so you won't have much of a job", she said, hoping that the dryness of her comment would mask how she actually felt. "but you are welcome to join. company would be nice." She said passing him the ball as a welcome and joining in the pass, though when she thought about it, she was not sure what he would do with it; he was a keeper. people didn't usually pass to him.

Teddy liked to think he was a good captain, maybe even the best since Gryffindor had won every game since him and Fraser had taken over from Rāwhiti. It was quite the turnaround from last season and his team should celebrate being winners. His dad would tell him that being a good captain wasn't about the winning and although the team had won, looking at Ivy, she did not look like she felt much of a winner.

If Teddy was the best captain then he had to remember he had a team to look after and Ivy was very much a member of that team. Teddy caught the ball and twirled it once in his hands before tossing it back to her. "Well lucky for you, I'm great company." He said cheerfully, "Is your score card what's got you down?" He asked, wondering if there was anything else going on or if Ivy even wanted to talk to him about it.

Ivy Liked Teddy. in many ways he reminded her of her brother. and while she had just about got past accidently calling him lin. she still looked up to him in a similar way. like a step in older sibling while she was at school. She smiled weakly at his comment. "yeah. you are" she said. if she had to pick someone at the school to find her out here he would be one of her top two pics, the other would be her aunt. she caught the ball as teddy threw it to her and passed it around her body glad that her arms were getting longer and she could manage that. when asked if it was her scoring that was getting her down she nodded. She didnt realise how upset she was by it but she couldnt ge the words out which meant she was probably more upset than she thought. "i have played so hard all year and not get a single hoop in in any of the games or trainng matches" she said. before passing the ball back to him.

Teddy watched Ivy pass the quaffle around herself then pass it back. When he had the ball, he tucked it under one arm while he listened. He looked at her sympathetically, "Yeah, that sucks," he admitted, because it did, he couldn't say otherwise. He wasn't sure what Ivy was struggling with exactly, but he had a suspicion. "You do well when when we run drills though, you definitely have it in you. Maybe you're just overthinking it? Maybe like anticipating a miss so then you miss you know like, what do they call it?" He thought of the expression, "Oh yeah, a self-fulffiling prophecy." he untucked the quaffle and tossed it back, nodding toward the hoops. "Try again, just aiming the quaffle through the hoop without thinking about it too much." He told her and staying off to the side rather than Keeping, "No pressure, the worst that can happen is you miss and we go again."

Ivy flew alongside teddy as he caughtthe ball. it was somewhat easier to talk when flying. and defiantly easier without the rest of the team around distracting at best or judging at worst. she listened to his suggestion. was she overthinkng. she knew she thought hard about it some times but other times she had almost given up and just lobbed the ball and it still didn't go in. "Maybe that's it" she said catching the ball as teddy passed it to her. She flew towards the hoops. not really thinking too hard about aiming before she threw the ball. and it sailed right past the middle hoop. "See" she said as she started to fly after it