Open Just Like Riding A Bike

[Aine Thompson]

Aine had made a list of personal goals for the year, in order to help with her training. Maybe, she thought, if she became more of a complete human being in her final year of school, she'd be able to control her mind a little better, and she'd be entirely ready for adulthood. She was legally an adult in the wizarding world, and soon would be back home as well. Whether any of this would actually help or not was a different matter entirely, but all she could do was try and put her hesitation and self-doubt to one side and tick things off one by one.

Easier said than done, apparently, as Aine was already doubting herself looking at the first item on her list. Fly on a broom. She had learned, technically, in first year, but it had been a dismal failure and was the one bad mark on her record. Sitting on a broom made her nervous enough (how was she supposed to stay upright properly?) and then without anything solid underneath her, she would panic. She'd never had problems with planes, funnily enough, but something like a broom, or even a shaky ladder? Absolutely terrible. She was going to fall, she knew it. It was just like riding a bike, except Aine couldn't even do that.

But she wasn't going to give up so quickly, as stubborn as she could be. Borrowing one of the larger brooms - appropriately sized for a seventh year, not a first year - she'd found a spot on the Quidditch Pitch where she wasn't directly obvious to a passerby, and awkwardly swung a leg over the broom. She closed her eyes, screwing up her face, and slowly tried to raise herself off the ground.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase couldn't shake the feeling that he really needed to step up his game this year when it came to quidditch. With René gone and now Felix too he felt like he needed to be better. To train more, becoming a stronger playing. No more relying on others to get the job done. He hadn't expected it but quidditch had become more to him than just an excuse to hit things. He actually grown to care about the sport itself. About the team.

Having slung his broom over his shoulder Chase made his way towards the pitch. He figured he'd start the year out by trying to become faster. The better his pace the quicker he would be able to catch up with the bludgers and getting to the bludgers quicker meant creating more opportunities to hit something. At least in his head it did, he wasn't sure if it'd make much sense if he explained it to anyone else. Chase wasn't surprised to see other students at the pitch, it was a rare occurence to be the only one there. He was, however, surprised to see one of the prefects look as if something terrible was happening when she was barely getting off the ground. "You good?" He questioned stoically when he was close enough for her to hear.

 

[Aine Thompson]

The colour drained from Aine's face as one of the younger students - Chase, if she remembered correctly - noticed her. Or perhaps the colour had already drained as she tried to hover a little further off the ground. Heights, or more so falling, was definitely up there on her list of fears. Aine wondered how a boggart would even channel such a thing, it wasn't something that you could depict and have it work. Seeing someone else on a broom didn't make her anxious, but trying to ride one herself...well. "Oh. Just wonderful," she said, dryly - and then cut herself off with a small yelp as she wobbled, hastily getting back on the ground and dropping the broom.

"Do people actually enjoy this? It's awful." she asked, arms folding across her chest to hide the fact that her breathing was a little more shallow than normal. Aine sighed, slumping down a little on the spot before turning to look at the younger boy with a raised eyebrow. "Go on, laugh or whatever, seventh year who can't fly a bloody broom, har-de-har." It seemed it was affecting her worse than she even realized.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase wasn't sure if Aine would even respond to him calling out. Granted, he didn't know the girl but still. She might've very well just ignored him. He grimaced when her broom wobbling caused her to yelp, even when she still wasn't too far up in the air. Falling from a height like that would likely only leave a couple of bruises, ego possibly included.

He squinted when she dropped the broom and crossed her arms. Even for someone who didn't know her it seemed pretty clear that she did not like flying one bit. Not that it was a difficult thing to figure out, she quite literally admitted it. Chase was about to respond when Aine slumped down before looking at him. "Don't think it's very funny." He shrugged in response, slinging his broom from his one shoulder to the other so his arm wouldn't get tired. "I mean you clearly suck at it, yeah, but you also don't sound like you even enjoy it so why keep trying in first place?" He questioned sceptically. It seemed like a generous waste of time if you asked him.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine deflated a little more, her cheeks reddening slightly at the response. She was, however, quite relieved Chase didn't laugh. As much as she'd basically asked for it, she didn't know how she would have dealt with the actuality. It did sound silly that she was doing this when it was said out loud. "Because," she started, sounding a little petulant as she paused to think of the best explanation that was honest enough without going into quite the level of detail behind her thinking. That also didn't make her sound like a madwoman. Which was harder than she thought it would be. "What kinda witch can't fly? I just wanna manage one lap around the pitch before I graduate."

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase never understood people who tried too hard, did things because they were supposed to be able to do them for one reason or another. Aine hopping on a broom just because she felt like that was something she should be able to do sounded dumb and yet somehow something stopped him from just turning around and walking away. "You, apparently." He responded stoically before letting out a bit of an annoyed sigh. His annoyence wasn't as much towards Aine but more towards himself though. Why did he care? Why couldn't he just say 'that sucks' and move on? He didn't know the girl, didn't think he had ever spoken to her before and yet he felt something towards her in that moment. It felt like.. pity. Yeah, that's it. Pity. Definitely not an emotion that he dealt with on a regular basis. "So what's holding you back? Fear of heights? Terrible balance?" Chase asked, mentally slapping himself for how it sounded like he was about to offer his help.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine sighed, feeling very sorry for herself. But she had to play it off, of course. Otherwise this would all just look so much worse. "I mean, hey, I'm muggleborn, you ask the right people and I'll never be a proper witch anyhow." She raised an eyebrow, bending down to pick up the broom and holding it as though it were about to transfigure into a snake and bite her. But her attention turned back to the younger boy, a little surprised he hadn't just said 'good luck with that' or something much ruder (more likely) and moved on. "Little of column A, little of column B. It's not the heights. It's the falling." That was perfectly reasonable, she thought. Sure, maybe it was foolish to be afraid of things like that, but of all the irrational fears, that one was at least justifiable. "Like, are there additional enchantments to keep everything steady so you can swing a bat without issue or are you just kind of completely fearless?"

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase was a little taken aback by Aine's remark about being a Muggleborn, although he knew there were people who actually thought like that and it might very well be that she had run into one or two of them here at school. "Neither are they if that's how they think." He replied. People who spend their time worrying about what was in someone else's blood really seemed like they had nothing going on in their life. If he cared enough he'd almost say it was sad. Chase gave a curt nod of understanding when Aine mentioned it being the falling. Personally, he had never thought about it long enough to actually get worried. "Don't know if there are, I reckon those would be against the rules in quidditch." He shrugged. "I've just never found it that difficult, I guess. It's mainly about keeping steady so if your balance on the ground is terrible to begin with you're pretty much doomed when it comes to quidditch."

 

[Aine Thompson]

"God," Aine groaned, shaking her head as she looked at the broom once again. "Wizards are insane." She realized how absurd it looked saying that, considering she was a witch herself (allegedly). She wanted to rant about how magic gave them so many opportunities and yet their entertainment was so violent and aggressive, though that wouldn't have been fair to the younger boy, nor would he care about it. At least she knew she'd probably end up overseeing the class action lawsuit for all the concussions caused at the school if she went into magical law.

"Always found it weird they banned magic carpets but brooms are okay. I'd rather the carpet. Eh, probably Ministry racism." She placed the broom down, sighed, held her hand over it and brought it up to her hand once more. Now she just wanted to succeed due to having an audience, even if her brain would repeatedly tell her that she was destined to fail. She swung her leg over it, squeezed her eyes shut, and attempted to hover, already wobbling as she did. Her knuckles were white from gripping the broom. Somehow, though, she was still airborne - even if only half a metre off the ground. "Ugh."

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase debated if he could actually still walk away from the situation. Tell her good luck and just move on. If he did, that meant he would've come out to the pitch for nothing though so that wasn't going to happen. He came here to practice and he would. Even if that meant a different kind of practice. If he found it in him to help her out he guessed that could count as captain practice in a way. And he could definitely use more practice in that area. He simply shrugged when Aine mentioned something about flying carpets, not really interested in why they were banned anyways. Chase squinted when she got back on her broom, shaking his head at the mere sight of her knuckles turning white. "Well your problem's pretty clear." He stated matter-of-factly as he observed Aine on the broom for a second. "You overthink the risks and get too stressed. You gotta relax." He added, hopping onto his own broom. "How do you expect to move smoothly on a broom if you're gripping it so tight? I reckon that's only increasing your chances of falling."

 

[Aine Thompson]

All Aine could do at that comment was stare blankly at Chase for a few moments, blinking a few times, before giving a small 'ha' of laughter. A couple of muffled giggles turned into a full laugh, one hand still gripping the broom tightly while the other covered her mouth. "God, I'm sorry, it's just..." she spluttered out, shaking a little on the spot but still somehow keeping upright and continuing to hover. All the fears were still there in the back of her mind, it was just that the front of her mind was very much distracted. "If overthinking was an Olympic sport, I reckon I could get a podium finish." She leaned back a bit, which caused the broom to wobble and bring her back to her nerves again. She touched back down, sighing. "But that's a whole other world of problems that are very much not yours."

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase raised his eyebrows at Aine's response, almost feeling the need to just whip his broom around and walk away. Either he had struck a nerve, said something oblivious or she was just insanse. One of those had to be it. Noticing her let go off the broom with one hand when her mind was clearly preoccupied with something else made him refrain from leaving though. "Hey at least you're good at something." Chase shrugged stoically before following her lead and touching back down. She was right, it was absolutely not her problem and one he reckoned he'd ever have either. There were only a few things he cared about enough to even make him able of overthinking and those he much preferred to shut out. "You did just stay on your broom while you held it with one hand though. So maybe that's the solution. Just overthink about something else, anything that'll keep your mind preoccupied. Shouldn't be too difficult in your case." Chase finished perhaps a bit bluntly. If he could just get her to fly a lap at least it would maybe feel like he had achieved something as well.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine raised an eyebrow at the comment, but couldn't help but smirk. "Thanks for the encouragement," she joked, having to stop herself from insisting that 'I'm actually not good at anything' or other such comments that came to mind. Which was very difficult, but the fact that she was balancing precariously on a broom was something of a distraction.

"Oh yeah, like that's something I can just..." she started, before pausing, thinking, and having her eyes go wide with realization. "No wait, that's it!" Why had she been trying to deliberately shut things down or focus so much on one thing, when clearly distraction and overthinking the minor details was much more in her wheelhouse? Of course, Chase wouldn't have known exactly why Aine was having the breakthrough, but this was something she'd take to Professor Styx later. "Alright, quick, tell me something about Quidditch tryouts, or something stupid that happened in class, anything."

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase shrugged at Aine's remark. Encouragement clearly wasn't his strong suit, there were no surprises there. And if he didn't find some way to step up he was sure his team would very much agree with that statement by the end of the year. Or even after their first game. How was he supposed to motivate them when he'd much rather keep his mouth shut? Pushing the thoughts back into a corner of his mind Chase raised his eyebrows when Aine suddenly seemed to having some sort of revelation. "What, why do I have to come up with something? Isn't overthinking usually like.. about your own problems?" He asked. Or perhaps that was just the form he was used to. "Fine." He sighed a couple of seconds later, focussing on the fact that they might actually be getting somewhere. "Sh*t, I don't know, can't you just think about your head girl speech or whatever? Or, uh, ideas on how to lead a group of people when your social skills suck?" Chase offered the first ideas that came to mind, the latter hitting far closer to home.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine rolled her eyes, as though her line of thinking was obvious and she didn't get why Chase didn't keep up. Which of course was not the case, but sometimes it was hard when her brain jumped from Point A to Point Q and she had to hurriedly justify her thought process. "Because, you see, it's distraction." Without really realizing it, she had lifted off the ground and was now hovering in the air. She wasn't thinking about it, but her body was still clearly unstable on the broom and her arms were trembling all the while. "Ugh, the speech. Thinking of just giving everyone the middle finger, saying good riddance and doing a flip off the stage, except, you know, the whole fear of falling thing." Aine smirked, somehow ignoring that all the colour had drained from her face. "Invisibility cloak is still on the table, though. Have you tried ordering a round of butterbeers for the team?" She started moving forward, slowly and unsteadily but surely. "It's why I'm planning a Christmas lunch for the prefects. Then they'll think I'm a great leader because I provided them pizza or something." It was quite rude of her to assume he was also talking about himself when mentioning leading a group of people, but she couldn't help it.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase watched in amusement while Aine started hovering and quickly hopped onto his own broom. If she was actually going to end up flying a lap he might as well make sure she doesn't accidentally fall of. Even when she was trying not to think of it she did not look steady on her broom whatsoever. And he definitely didn't want to be the one that had to drag the head girl into the hospital wing. "I'm sure everyone would highly appreciate that." He nodded when Aine talked about her head girl speech. Being a prefect sounded dreadful on its own, being named head boy or girl sounded even worse. So many tasks and responsibilities and for what? A shiny badge? At least he still got to do something fun whilst struggling with his position. "I'm not going to pretend to be their friend. Trying to be their captain is more than enough." Chase scoffed at Aine's idea while they slowly moved forward. "Right. They'll definitely think you're such a great leader because you got them food. How could anyone ever top that?" He responded in a tone that could not sound more sarcastic if he tried. And he tried. "Maybe you should get them ice cream too, I'm sure after that they'll put you right up on a pedestal."

 

[Aine Thompson]

Aine's brain was ticking over on the matter of how to be a good leader. In all honesty, it wasn't one she really knew the answer to. She gave an awkward nervous laugh as she slowly flew around. If anything, it was like someone trying to ice skate for the first time, only she didn't have a rail to cling to. "I mean, yeah, that's how muggle businesses work," she explained, in something of a deadpan. "Signs of discomfort? Bring in a cake. That's how you keep everyone from rebellion." She turned her head to smirk at Chase, trying to make it clear she wasn't being serious. Which, given how sarcastic he was in turn, she felt he should be able to pick up. One could never be sure. "Do too much and you're micromanaging. Don't do enough and you're a terrible leader. Token gestures, though, and they'll have a net positive view of you. I've been trying to tell my friend that, since I fear he might not even reach the bare minimum of actually attending to his staff." She was rambling, but she needed to else she might think about the fact she was flying and fall off her broom.

 

[Chase Campbell]

It had been a long time since Chase had seen anyone as unstable on a broom as Aine was. Probably five years ago, during flying class. Then again, anyone who didn't like flying usually just stayed away from it as much as they could. Either that or he just wasn't around people who were bad at flying that often. Being on the team usually meant that he was around students who did know how to fly. "So basically having a leadership position just.. sucks." Chase shrugged once Aine stopped rambling, losing the plot of what she was saying halfway through. He was convinced that Felix had just offered him the captain position by lack of better options. Or students that were old enough, really. It definitely wasn't because he had thought Chase'd be a good captain, there was no way anyone would've thought that. "On the other hand, I guess some positions come with privileges as well? Don't you guys have like your own office or something?" He tried to switch the topic away from his own misery but still focussed on something that gave Aine plenty of things to think about so she didn't go back to realising she was actually well on her way to flying an actual lap around the pitch.

 

[Aine Thompson]

"Course it does. But it's better than going unacknowledged, I guess." Aine wasn't sure if that was exactly helpful to say, since it likely wasn't leaving a good impression. But then she thought about the bad impression she was making with her flying, wobbled a bit more, and then turned her attention back to Chase's comment about the office. "Yep, private office. I feel like a bloody CEO now," she said, although quickly winced at her wording. "Uh, excuse my language. Just means I can procrastinate in private. Can sit there agonizing over the best way to say good riddance at graduation." She shrugged, vaguely aware of the fact that she was well over halfway around the pitch by now. "You're in fifth year, right? They made you feel like if you fail your OWLs you'll die yet?"

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase wasn't so sure if he agreed with Aine's remark about going unacknowledged. Personally, he had always been quite alright with staying in the background. He didn't need the attention, strongly disliked the fact that it now felt the team was depending on him in some way. Especially since it felt like the odds of him letting people down were so much greater. "Sounds like the only good thing about being head girl." He simply replied. Having a room in the castle that was accessible to anyone except one other student sounded like a dream. Such an easy way to get away from everyone. "Only all of the time." Chase nodded when Aine mentioned OWLs. "Point is I don't really care, so most of those words go in one ear and come out the other." He shrugged, almost forgetting they were flying for a reason and not just conversing. To his own surprise, talking to Aine wasn't dreadful.

 

[Aine Thompson]

Admittedly, Aine herself would have been fine not having this level of spotlight, but if she were to go about her days in the background at a school like this, never getting notice or help, she would've gone mad long ago. If she hadn't already. "Plus there's the guilt, like, there were so many better options and they picked me. You know. The girl doing remedial flying right now." She still didn't think she could look Ngawaiata, Margo, Kiara or Aurora in the eye, suspecting they were all thinking what she was thinking. "They don't even harp on about NEWTs nearly as much. I'm glad I don't have to come up with some supportive cr*p about how they're not that bad. Sounds like you've got everything under control."

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase barely paid any attention to others so when Aine mentioned feeling guilt about being picked for head girl he had no clue whether she should feel like that or not. He didn't know the other girls she mentioned nor did he care much for it. "Sounds like you're having a great time with that badge." He replied stoically. So far, the only positive thing that he had been able to get from their conversation was the private room. All other stuff surrounding the head girl badge didn't seem so great. Luckily for him that wasn't something he needed to break his head over. If becoming head boy was a race he was purposefully standing still at the starting line. "As long as I pass I'm good, people around here just have a habit of making a big deal about anything." He shrugged, even if he knew he'd still have to put in some effort to actually pass his exams at the end of the year. That felt like a worry for later though, for now he was more focussed on them inching closer and closer to the starting point of their lap around the pitch and what it would mean if they reached it. Had he actually been the one to help her do it or would she have managed on her own as well? And if so, would that affect his attitude towards himself as captain?

 

[Aine Thompson]

Somehow, they'd gotten close to where they'd started. Aine was still pale, breathing shallowly, and gripping the broom for dear life, but she'd stayed upright. "Um, thanks," she said, looking to keep the topic of conversation off herself and on Chase instead, in a manner of speaking. "You didn't have to hang around. But you did. And God knows, I wouldn't have been able to do this alone." She didn't dare look away from the goal ahead now, it wouldn't do to fall right at the finish line. "That was really kind of you." Sure, he wasn't exactly warm and friendly, and probably wouldn't appreciate the compliment so much, but Aine felt as though it needed to be said. Maybe he was one of those people who put on a front of aloofness to hide a caring heart, as opposed to Aine who put on a front of vague normality to hide a monstrous one.

 

[Chase Campbell]

Chase didn't know what he had expected to come from this whole situation nor was he entirely sure why he had stayed. Was it really because he had taken pity on Aine when he saw how she handled herself on a broom or was it because deep down it felt like an opportunity to prove something to himself? Either way, he hadn't given the outcome of it much thought and even though Aine thanking him wasn't surprising in itself her using more words than necessary to do so caught him off guard a little. He stared at her in silence for a moment before realizing he would actually have to say something to acknowledge her outing of gratitude."Yeah, no, uh, no worries." Chase managed awkwardly, not recalling the last time anyone had called him kind. Or anything of the sort for that matter. "Maybe you should've waited until we're back on the ground though." He added, a little worried about Aine thinking about flying when she was still very much up in the air.

 

[Aine Thompson]

"Probably should have," Aine admitted, giving a wry smile despite how miserable she no doubt looked. "But I've made it this far. Can't pretend to ignore it forever." In saying that, she was very quick to head back down to the ground near where her bag was lying, stumbling off the broom like it was overheated. She hunched over, her palms on her thighs as she caught her breath, before straightening up and wiping her brow. "Cool, great, I can tick that off my list and never have to do it again."