Open kickflip

[Flynn North-McGowan]

While it was still greatly annoying, Flynn had come to find that there was very little space to properly get out his skateboard. While Ajax had told him to skate in the corridors, it was sometimes hard to weave around all the students. And while the courtyard wasn't much better in that regard, it was large and open enough that he could practice a couple of tricks without getting in the way of anyone else. He had decided to forgo the helmet this time as he climbed on his board, slowly pushing off with one foot before attempting his first kickflip of the day. Unfortunately for him it didn't work too well and his feet landed back down on the upside-down board on the ground. "Bugger! Almost had it that time."

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette had been enjoying her time at Hogwarts for the most part, even if she stayed away from most of her classmates. After Grace had told everyone she was her sister in their first flying lesson, Violette had felt like her classmates looked at her differently. She couldn't quite decide if that was real or something she was making up, but it made her feel anxious either way. The girl also hadn't been doing as well in her classes as she knew her parents would want her to, and she was expecting an angry letter about that any moment now. With all this going on, Violette often found her escape in story books. Today was no exception. With summer approaching, Violette had taken her latest book out into the courtyard. She was trying to find a good spot to sit, when a boy startled her by jumping off some sort of board, and cursing as he apparently didn't do what he had wanted. Violette gasped and stumbled back, holding her book. She blinked at the strange thing the boy was standing on, and spoke without thinking. "What is that?" She asked him, before her cheeks turned pink as she realized she probably should have just kept walking.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

He was not usually the type of boy to give up on something, so he was quick to kick his board around back on the wheels and get on again, once again attempting the kickflip. Though the second attempt didn't go any better than the first, an annoyed sounding grumble coming from his mouth as he almost tripped over, straightening up and watching his skateboard roll off a little distance before coming to a stop. The eleven year old was about to go and fetch it again to make another attempt, but paused as he hared a question, frowning as he turned around to look the girl up and down for just a moment. "My skateboard?" He did have to wonder, curiously tilting his head at the girl, "You don't know what a skateboard is?"

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette was honestly not sure what had possessed her to talk to the boy, and she almost hoped he would just ignore her so she could leave without an awkward conversation. But clearly, that wasn’t going to be the case. As he questioned if she didn’t know what a skateboard was, it was clear he thought it was strange that she didn’t know. It felt like he was judging her, and she really wished she had just kept her mouth shut. She glanced at where it had rolled off to, then back at the boy with an anxious look on her face. “I… don’t.” She admitted, knowing that there was no point in pretending otherwise now. “Is it a muggle thing? I don’t know a lot. About that. I mean.” She stammered out. “Sorry.” She added, not even sure what she was apologizing for.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

It completely baffled him that there were people out there who didn't know what a skateboard was. He would have thought at least everyone would know one when they saw one. But, apparently, he had been very wrong about that assumption. And it was taking his brain just a moment to actually process that information, blinking as he stared at the strange girl for just a moment longer. "So, let me get this straight," he took a deep breath, thinking about what he wanted to say. But that only lasted a second before he blurted out the question all the same, "You don't know what a skateboard is? You've never even seen one before? What rock have you been living under since you were born?" Because that was the only explanation he could come up with, she didn't know what one was because she had been brought up under some rock in the middle of nowhere away from all civilization.

 

[Violette Holland]

This wasn't the first time Violette wished the ground would open up and swallow her, but she really wished for it now. The boy seemed unwilling to accept she had never seen anything like his stupid board, and it was starting to frustrate her. "I have never seen one." She re-confirmed, her French accent slightly more pronounced as she felt a bit agitated. "I haven't been living under a rock." She added, a little defensively. "I'm from France, but I am not the only person at Hogwarts who wouldn't know your board." She told him, somewhat emboldened by her annoyance, though her voice stayed quiet. "Wizards have brooms, not... wheeled things." She told him , gesturing to it. Though truthfully, she hadn't seen many brooms either growing up. Her father hadn't been very keen on them after Grace ditched his plans for her to play Quidditch and later teach flying. "I didn't grow up near muggles." She added. Was it really that hard to believe? She almost wanted to apologize again, but bit her tongue. It wasn't her fault, she told herself.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

"So, basically from a under a rock then," he just offered with a rather uncaring shrug of his shoulder when the girl mentioned she was from France. Flynn had never been anywhere near Europe, but he was pretty sure it wasn't in the least bit interesting. And they did weird things. He was pretty sure that he heard somewhere that French people ate snails. Now that was not only gross, but it was straight-up creepy as well. "And yeah, a lot of people do know what a skateboard is. I've already met two other people who like skating at Hogwarts as well," and he was quite sure there were other people around who enjoyed the activity as well. Or at least knew what a skateboard was. This girl was just weird. "But it just means you've never had fun then," he simply continued, "Which doesn't surprise me. You look like the sort who doesn't even know what the word fun means."

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette blinked as the boy said she was basically from under a rock because she was from France, then her cheeks turned pink. That was... mean. The entire conversation had been uncomfortable, but it hadn't been mean until now. "That's not very nice." She said weakly, playing more nervously with her hair. "I'm sure a lot of people know what it is, I just... don't." She said softly, shrugging a little. She didn't understand why it bothered the boy so much that she didn't know something. It wasn't like she was attacking him for knowing something. She frowned when he said it meant she had never had fun. "I've had fun. I have fun." She insisted, starting to feel frustrated. "Your... skateboard doesn't even look that fun." She added, gesturing at it. It wasn't a great comeback, but VIolette really didn't think it looked all that special. A board on four wheels, it just looked dangerous. "Flying is more fun than that." She told him, though she didn't have a particular fondness for flying. But she was decent at it, if for no other reason than Grace insisting she learned as well as she could.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn was aware that what he just said probably wasn't very nice, but the boy found that he didn't care very much. He never had when it came to what words came out of his mouth and he simply shrugged his shoulder in a rather uncaring manner. Insulting people and then proceeding to not care about it in the slightest was just a bad habit of his and not one he was very likely to stop anytime soon. And when the girl went on to say she had fun, Flynn did snigger ever so slightly, "Don't look like it." She looked like the sort who spent most of their time reading and not doing much else. But when she had the audacity to say that his board didn't even look very fun, Flynn did have to look quite offended about it. "Sure, might not be as fun as flying, but trust me, this is about as much fun as you can have on four wheels."

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette's cheeks heated up when the boy laughed at her, he was making fun of her. She clenched her fists, but then realized there was nothing she could really do about it. She half wished one of her older cousins would come by. Maybe Alice, she was a prefect, and she would help her. But even as she glanced around hopefully, she knew it was unlikely. She shrugged instead, unable to find the words. The boy started defending his board, and Violette frowned at him. "Why would I want to have fun on four wheels?" She asked him eventually in her quiet voice. "It just looks like it would be dangerous- I mean, boring." She only added the boring as an afterthought, realizing that calling it dangerous would only make her seem more like someone who couldn't have fun.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

People who couldn't appreciate how cool and fun a skateboard could be were never going to be alright in his books. They just needed to be enlightened to how much fun it could be, and if no one else was going to do it, then it was just going to have to be him Though, he supposed this soft talking girl didn't really look like the sort who was going to enjoy skateboarding, but that didn't mean she could just call it boring if she had never even tried it before. "It's no more dangerous than Quidditch is," he pointed out, "If not, safer And, I mean, why wouldn't you want to have fun on four wheels? Don't call something boring if you've never even tried it becuase you don't know."

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette had no real argument about Quidditch not being dangerous, it was, and she didn't like it because of it. "I said flying, not Quidditch." She said weakly, though in truth both were plenty dangerous in her eyes. She decided to say something she hadn't wanted to say, just in case it made the boy feel less confident making fun of her, or maybe think she wasn't boring. "My sister teaches flying here." She said. "She used to play Quidditch professionally, too." She added, though that had little to do with the matter at hand. Violette just wanted to prove she wasn't just boring, even if these things about her sister said little to nothing about her. "I don't want to try it." She said, looking at it in apprehension. "What stops you from falling off?" She asked him.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn shrugged, flapping a hand somewhat, "Eh. Flying. Quidditch. Same thing. They're both no more dangerous than skateboarding is. I could probably argue that flying is even more dangerous." If you fell off your broom you could fall several feet before hitting the ground, when you fell off your skateboard there was a lot less distance to go. Sure, there were still some major injuries, especially when you got to pulling off tricks and going off big ramps at high speed, but it was still no more dangerous than flying. At least skateboarders wore a helmet and elbow and knee pads. "Okay..." he was a little unsure as to why she was bringing her sister up in this conversation as it did seem rather out of place. "So what? Even if you don't want to doesn't mean you can judge it 'cus you know nothing about it," that was like him judging something she really liked without even trying it for himself (which he would do anyway, but that was beside the point). "What stops you from falling off a broom?"

 

[Violette Holland]

Violette knew she was digging herself into a hole, and she couldn't really backtrack now. She couldn't argue with the boy for saying Flying was dangerous. It was, and it wasn't like she really liked it herself. Violette wished she had never spoken to the boy. She should have known better, and now she found herself in a silly argument she didn't even care about. "I ... I didn't mean to judge." She said after a moment. "But you judged me for not knowing what it was." At his question, she shrugged a little. "You can hold onto it." She said quietly. It seemed safer to her to fly on a broom you at least held onto than to balance on something on four wheels. She couldn't imagine not immediately falling on her face if she tried it herself.

 

[Flynn North-McGowan]

Flynn liked to think that he was easily winning this argument. Not that it was really a competition, but he did tend to turn everything into one eventually. "Judging you for not knowing something and judging something else without even trying it are different things," he of course had to shoot back rather quickly. Because lord forbid he actually let her have one correct point about anything. Though it did seem that this girl still had no interest in actually learning how to skate, not that Flynn supposed he cared much about that. Though he did almost want to see her try just once so he could get a good laugh when she did fall on her face. That would be an amusing sight, no doubt. "You still fall off a broom if you lose your balance. It's just the same with a skateboard. Holding on doesn't mean anything."