who would you rather... [benny]

It was a hot day and JR was laying in the grass under a huge oak tree next to his friend Benny. Both of them had been running around for the last week giving a go at every activity there was to try. JR had that good burn in his lungs and that weary exhaustion at the end of each day from all the activity and he loved it. He didn't know it was going to be this much fun, but now that he had won over some of his Hogwarts friends and a lot of them were at camp too, he felt much more comfortable.

At the current moment, they were doing something a bit more chill. A little sneaky too. They had grabbed some parchment and quills and had ran out to the field, picking a spot where no one could see them so they could do this little activity in private. "Hmm," JR sounded looking down at the paper and the list of names there, trying to decide. "She told me she has a lot of experience so she would be good," he said pointing to one of the names and writing it down on his side of the page.

Then he glanced at Benny, waiting to see what he thought. There was a list of all their year mates in front of them and then two columns on either side, one with Benny's picks and one with JR's picks. Hazel, Wendy, Tomie, Patience, Shelby, Mina, Charlotte. "She would really whack it hard," he added, pointing to another name, laughing a little at the idea.

@Benny Rivera

While he'd never thought in his life he'd be able to go to a summer camp (he didn't count the one run by his primary for little kids with parents that couldn't afford babysitters while they worked during the summer months) here Benny was. And he was having an absolute blast. They played Quidditch and learned about Quodpot (which was basically like Quidditch but things exploded?! --- Benny was a fan!) and so much more. He'd been kayaking and swimming in a shark free lake (he checked first) and he even learned about a game called Marco Polo that he wasn't too keen on. Thankfully he'd been assigned a bunk with JR so he didn't have to go through the emotional roller coaster of meeting all new people again. He had tried to get a cabin with Tomie, but boys and girls weren't permitted to bunk together.

And it turned out to be just fine. He knew Tomie was having fun too, they all were, Shelby and Bean and Simon and all of them. Their little Tomisquad was out in force at summer camp and honestly Benny had never felt so secure with a group of friends. Even in a brand new country, surrounded by students with accents he could not understand even with the best of translation charms, he felt comfortable.

Racing JR out to the field with a bit of parchment in his hand and snacks stuffed in his pockets (they'd made a mad dash to the canteen before heading out, of course) Benny lost the race but laughed anyway. He sat cross legged on the soft grass and let the sunshine warm his neck as they started working on their list. He pointed to the next name on the list, moving to add it to his column. "I heard she knows how to handle balls." He told JR, looking up from the list, and waiting for him to make his next pick.

"Ahh, I was going to pick her," JR complained a bit as Benny made his next pick and then renewed his interest in the remaining options. He wasn't quite sure where they had gotten this idea, but it was a fun idea to thing about. He had spent all night going through the possibilities and had only decided to write it down this morning.

He looked at the remaining names left and pointed to one glancing at Benny. "I'm picking her. We've played around before and she's really good at sticking it in," JR noted before scribbling the name down in his column.

"What do you think of the last options?" he asked with a curious look at his Gryffindor friend.

Benny nodded like the conversation they were having was the most normal thing in the world. Their list was shaping up pretty well, and he was proud of the name's he had on his side of the parchment. Some really good prospects. He wished he would of thought to pick the one JR had picked last, especially if she was good at that, he'd need someone who was good at that. "Hmm..." he said looking over the last of the names. There were still some good picks but he wasn't sure which one would be best suited for his needs. He revisited the list he already had and thought about what they were missing.

"Well I think she only likes to do it with girls, but I pick her." Benny said as he wrote another name down on his side of the list. There were only a few left now and he was wondering which of the others JR would pick next.

"I think this might be the best idea we've had yet." Benny said with a smile, excited about the list. "It should be a lot of fun."

JR groaned a bit at Benny's pick, wanting to choose her himself, but he looked at the last couple of names and shrugged. The Slytherin tried not to get too caught up in the fact that Benny's list was looking better than his. Even with this, he wanted to win.

But he grinned at Benny, nodding his head as he picked the last name and wrote it down on his column, leaving Benny with the only name left to write in his column. Then he sat back and looked at the paper. "These are the best quidditch line ups we have ever done. Think the girls would even want to play a big game like this?" he asked his friend, with a nod toward the pitch that stretched out in front of them.

He and Benny were trying to set up a big game with all the Hogwarts kids at camp.. and maybe a few others they had met here too, but it was only two days into camp so JR wasn't even sure if the girls would play, let alone kids he wasn't very familiar with.

Benny knew JR was going to pick the one he did, especially with only those two names left, but honestly he had quite the line up already and he was feeling pretty sure in his choices. JR had a lot of history with the game, he was basically an heir to the throne, but Benny had always been good at strategy. He thought he had a least half a chance, especially with this team. Smiling he clapped as JR sat back. "Oh yeah the best, absolutely." And he leaned back to mimic his friend.

Palms on the warm Vermont grass he looked out across the quidditch pitch, the sunlight shining through those golden hoops, and in that moment he understood what all the fuss was about. He was a fan, of course, but he wasn't a fan like JR or even Tomie was. He liked the sport because he liked fun and games, but he always felt like they saw so much more in it than he did. And he could see it now.

"I can't see why not. Especially if we get Tomie on our side first." He said, pausing before her name and nearly slipping up to call her Wilhelmina. It barely happened anymore, and he hadn't messed up too many times over the last year, he hoped none of them had noticed. "Maybe we add some stakes? I have a lot of candy left over from the egg hunt last weekend." He confessed, though he was remiss to give up his hoard, it would be for a good cause.

"True," he agreed. "Tomie will get everyone to play. Plus I hear some of the Americans haven't played quidditch before, only quodpot so maybe they'll be interested in learning a new game." He knew he was itching to learn the new game and since they were only a few days into camp, he was really looking forward to that activity in particular.

"The stakes?" JR questioned, sitting up a little straighter, a smile starting to pull up the corners of his mouth. "That will help, I'm sure," he nodded. "I have some rare chocolate frog cards we can throw in too." But he only mentioned it because he was that confident his team would win. "I think we should plan it for this weekend," he suggested with a glance at Benny to see what he thought.

"Have you played Quodpot yet?" Benny asked suddenly when it was brought up, he turned sharply to look at the other wizard, a bit of silky black hair sliding in front of his eyes. He should have let his mother cut it before he shipped off to summer camp but he hadn't wanted to look funny like the last time she did it. Especially not when meeting more new friends. "They pot explodes?!?" Benny was still enamored with the whole idea of Quodpot and he checked the sign up bulletin board every single morning for announcements of another match set up. He would be first on that list. It explodes! How cool was that? "

"Terrifying, but also like super cool right? Americans are so weird." He said with the same enthusiasm as before and then spoke on what they had been talking about before he'd completely derailed the conversation. "Yeah Tomie can convince anyone of anything, its also kind of terrifying." Benny gave JR a bit of a smile as they spoke about their friend. She was so easily the leader of their little first years group but Benny didn't mind. He had appointed himself treasurer.

Benny nodded when JR offered to throw in some chocolate frog cards and about planning it this weekend. "Weekend sounds good, gives us time to ask each of them." Benny hoped they would all want to play but they had a lot of names so if not he supposed they could gather up some more players. "Which cards do you have though? Before we start giving them away." He grinned, mentally going over his list in his head. "Do you have Gunther Grimshook? The magizoologist who discovered the Wendigo? I've been trying to find that one for sooo long." He tilted his head back dramatically as he spoke, because two weeks felt like an eternity to a twelve year old.

JR shook his head. "My da says Quodpot is for crazy people," then he turned to look at Benny with a wide grin. "We should try it," he decided with a firm nod. What his da didn't know, wouldn't hurt him right? He laughed quietly as he imagined the pot exploding. "I don't get it, but I want to try it. Think we'll be good at it since we're pretty good at quidditch?" he asked, his question more like a statement. He was pretty sure him and Benny wouldn't have any troubles. The pick up quidditch games they had had during the school year were always fun, especially when Tomie and Finn and Archie joined in, less fun with Kat joined in since she brought out his super competitive side. He still didn't want to remember that one time her team had won and he hadn't spoken to her for a week.

"So weird," JR agreed with a look. "We'll see how good they are at Quidditch though. If they can leave their exploding pots behind, that is." He looked over their rosters again and smiled a bit to himself. "We gotta get Tomie on our side first, she'll talk everyone else into it. Especially the girls," he nodded, developing a plan of attack already.

He shook his head as he sat up a little more. He had forgotten that Benny was a collector. He offered something even better. "No, but I do have a Youdle, you know, the ref that died during a match," he said, excitement adding a glimmer to his otherwise darker eyes. "Do you have any Plumpton?" he asked, mentioning the Roderick Plumpton card, a British seeker who caught the fastest snitch ever in 3.5 seconds. JR wasn't necessarily a seeker, but he was after lofty goals like setting records for his own quidditch career.

"Yeah we should." Benny said when JR said Quodpot was for crazy people but that they should try it anyway. He grinned and nodded quickly. "Of course we will. You're Wyatt Hawkins' son and I have arms of steel." He said, complimenting both of them but with one of those two things being far less true than the other. He held up his speghetti arms and tried to flex but nothing changed before laughing. Benny hadn't thought he'd enjoy playing Quidditch as much as it was turning out he did. He always liked playing the street games back at home, before they could even fly, but assumed that was more because he liked playing games in general and hanging around with Tomie. Now that they had learned to fly (because naturally after one year of lessons they were experts) Benny found it was just as much about the sport itself as it was everything else. And luckily enough he'd found plenty of friends who enjoyed it just as much, probably more even, like JR.

Agreeing again Benny nodded right along as JR spoke about bringing Tomie in first. It seemed the best plan really, Tomie was friends with everyone already. Every day Benny was learning about some new student she'd met at camp and was going to introduce him to. "Hopefully they don't need too much convincing though..." He pondered out loud, a little bit of worry reaching his eyebrows. If they really had to talk them into it then it would be less fun.

"No way Youdle?" Benny asked even as JR was still talking. Of course he knew who Youdle was, especially after this last term hanging around all of the other Quidditch fans and trading famous cards like they were drugs. "What do you want for him?" He asked before JR brought up Plumpton and then Benny let his eyes roll away as he mentally flipped through his binder of cards trying to remember if he had a Plumpton. "Hmm I don't think I do...." He said but then an idea came to him and spurred him back into excited action. "But!" He said quickly with a motivated hand flying into the air. "I do know an Ilvermorny wizard, Isiah something, who has one. And I know he's looking for a Meghan Merida if you have one of those?" Benny finished the question part of the statement faster than he'd started and raised an eyebrow.

"If not...  I have one and I could be convinced to let it go for a Youdle." He beamed, making deals and trades like they were in the stock market or something. And he took it just as seriously.

JR laughed as Benny joked about having arms and steel and watched him 'flex' with a doubtful look before pushing his friends arm away. "Tomie has bigger arms of steel than you do. All those push ups she's been doing," JR said then turned thoughtful. "If we stand a chance of making our quid teams next year, maybe we should be training too. How many push ups can you do? I can probably do about 50," he boasted even though he had probably never done 50 push ups in a row in his entire life. Or even like 10. He didn't have very big guns either.

"Yeah, it should be fine. We'll say it's just a fun pick up game," he told Benny confidently. "Then we can whip them into shape and teach them how to be real quidditch players," he added with a devious grin. He was all about the win, even if it was a non-important pick up game.

JR shrugged nonchalantly and smiled a bit as Benny got excited over his Youdle. "What do you got?" he asked, already reluctant to give up a rare a card as his Youdle. "I don't have a Meghan Merida, but is she as rare as Youdle?" he asked, his brows perked. "I should owl my mum and see if she could send me more of my collection. I didn't bring all of mine. Want to go get our binders and compare?"

"Really?" Benny asked, completely believing JR when he claimed he could do fifty push-ups. He knew Tomie was getting up there, she was way stronger than he was though and motivated. Benny shrugged, "I don't know, a couple maybe?" He said with a little laugh and shook his head. He supposed it made sense to be strong to play Quidditch but also he didn't really pay much attention to 'training' like Tomie, or JR he supposed, did.

"Oh yeah," he laughed again at JR's proclamation. He barely knew how to be a good quidditch player himself but damn if Benny wasn't trying. He really wanted to make the team but he wondered how often second years made the house teams. He knew a lot of the Gryffindors on last year's team had graduated, so there were open spots, but how many other students would be trying out? He also knew Tomie and JR both would make it. They were really good.

"I've got Florence Kelly?" He offered with a half-smile, it was a second-level type of rare card but certainly not the rarest out there. "You should see if she will?" Benny wondered how big of a collection JR had if he hadn't brought it all with him. Benny only had the one binder, but he was pretty freaking proud of it.

"Yeah lets go but maybe can we stop for snacks on the way?" He asked quickly as he folded their list up for traveling and got to his feet.

"Sure, 'course," JR claimed in reply about the push ups. He wasn't 100% sure, but if they tried, he was pretty sure he could do that many. Maybe he'd need to start practicing like Tomie did. After all, he wanted to make his quidditch team next year just as much as she and Benny did. It would be weird facing off against them on the pitch though.. He was competitive but they were also some of his best friends. Good thing he didn't have to really think about it until next term.

"Kelly?" JR asked with a smile. "You might have yourself a deal," he said with a nod, trying to be magnanimous. He was pretty sure he already had a Florence Kelly, but he didn't want to brag too much. "Yeah, I'll owl her later tonight after dinner," he told his friend before he stood up and brushed some of the grass off his shorts.

He nodded as Benny mentioned snacks and then grinned quickly before shoving Benny with a two-handed push. "Last one to the mess hall is a big fat loser!" he called just before he started racing away, his little legs picking up speedy quickly.

/end

Benny would have loved to get his hands on some of the more rare cards and he was pretty sure if anyone he knew had them it would be JR. Benny felt like JR had everything, and sometimes that made him feel weird but most of the time he wasn't bothered by it. And he was always impressed by it. "Yeah?" He asked eagerly, planning to remember they had almost made a deal and remind the Slytherin later. He would love to see his collection too.

"Wait! Wait! I wasn't ready!"

The little Gryffindor called after his friend as he broke out into a run. He wasn't as athletic as JR or Tomie but he made up for it in sheer will power. He pushed forward, pumping his legs as fast as his twelve-year-old body would go, and by the time he rounded the path that wound up to the mess hall he was huffing with loud breaths. His tanned cheeks were dark pink, a little bead of sweat trailing down the back of his neck. "Cheater!" He said between loud huffs when they got there. He doubled over, taking a deep breath, before he smacked JR on the chest abruptly and made a mad dash for the ice cream machine inside the dining hall.

/end