Artistic flying club - first meeting (open)

At the beginning of term all clubs and organisations had got a chance to present themselves and Zhenya had tried her best to advertise her sport in the best possible way. It was hard though, seeing how the girl was struggling with so many things. However, she had somehow managed not to lose it and answer questions patiently while offering a smile once in a while.

Last night Zhenya had put up a note at the info board to announce the first meeting of the artistic flying club on the quidditch pitch and she hoped that everybody who had signed up would actually also show up. After all, her family counted on her to advertise the sport and also the family businesses. It was a lot of pressure that the girl felt now.

The recent events and the secrecy connected to that didn't help either. It was quite probable that people would ask her about what had happened at the flying school during the open day and Zhenya honestly had no satisfying answer to that. She had not been told anything until after a first rumour had appeared in a newspaper. She had been shocked that her idol and distant relative, Aglaya Antonovna Tikhomirova, had been poisoned right under her nose and nobody had cared to tell her. She did not really know if the multiple-time World and European champion was recovering well and didn't know what exactly had happened to her either. The family didn't want any information out in the open and apparently she wasn't to be trusted with such sensitive details either. She had written to Aglaya's sister Nastya and got at least a little bit of information from her but everything was still pretty much a mystery to her. Besides neither she nor her sister wanted to talk about the recent European Junior Championships so that was yet another unpleasant topic she'd rather avoid.

The Drakonya Krov student was anxious, more anxious than she had been at the recent championships. She would have to speak in front of a group of students and that scared her more than she would have guessed. Most likely the majority of the students would only come to the first club meeting and then decide that she was an unworthy club captain. They probably thought that she was stupid too. Zhenya often felt like she was stupid, after all. Not really having time for school work, she was constantly struggling to get passing grades in all her classes and usually when a professor asked her a question she had no answer to it at all.

As she stood on the Quidditch pitch, a few brooms that her family had sponsored placed parallel to each other on the ground and two long balance beams specially designed for artistic flying in a 90 degree angle to the brooms, she waited for the other students to arrive. She was glad that her siblings were there. While she felt that they might think that they'd do a better job than she did they would still on her side. The weather was fortunately quite pleasant. Since it was afternoon the sun was already pretty low but overall the conditions were ideal.

“Hey,” she said timidly. Then, aware that probably nobody had heard her, she cleared her throat to start again, this time louder. “Hey! I'm glad you all came to our first club meeting,” she said, unsure what she should tell the group of students. She nervously stepped from one foot to the other, feeling how most students were looking at her now. “I'm glad to see that there are not only those joining the club who already have experience in artistic flying. Those of you who are new to the sport please pair up with one of our professional athletes,” at this she pointed at her siblings, distant cousins and last also at Iroda. “We'll start on the balance beams and once you feel comfortable standing and moving a little on that you can try with one of the brooms that my family sponsored. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. We're all here to help introducing you to this exciting sport and we're happy to answer any questions you might have.” 'As long as you don't ask about the recent European Championships or Aglaya Antonova,' she wanted to add but bit her tongue in time to stop herself.


[OOC: Open to everyone who's interested. Please sign up in the info and sign up thread in this board though. <33]

Finally, the event she had been waiting for since the beginning of term had arrived. The creation of the Artistic Flying club had made Zinaida so very excited. It was making her feel willing to go to training and work hard again after the disappointment of her lacklustre performance at the Junior European Championships. Zina, of course, knew about the first meeting a while before her sister, Zhenya, posted the announcement on the board. Getting through all her schoolwork had been a breeze with the thought of the meeting in her mind. She had never looked forward to practicing so much. Zina loved the idea of being able to teach new additions to the sport and, of course, enjoy flying with her extended family too. Zinaida trusted Yevgenia to do an amazing job as club captain, as her sister was the most incredible person she knew, and although she was supremely disappointed that she was not the captain of the club, she knew that she would get a chance to be it once Zhenya graduated.

Of course, it was nice to be able to look forward to the meeting and try and forget about the poisoning of her great role model and family member, Aglaya Antonovna. Without any information being forwarded to her, Zina was quickly growing worried sick, and she supremely hated being in the dark. She just wanted to know that Aglaya was safe, especially since the senior artistic flyer had been so nice to her, and the younger witch wanted to make her proud. And, there was still the issue of the Junior Europeans which the Shishkina sisters tried to gloss over and pretend didn’t happen. It made things somewhat awkward occasionally, especially as Zhenya was disappointed with her win, which Zina both did and didn't understand. Zina felt she had a better reason for being so bitterly disappointed with herself.

Zinaida headed down to the Quidditch pitch alongside Zhenya, remaining silent the entire way. Her older sister didn’t look like she wanted to be disturbed and the silence was actually quite comfortable. It seemed neither needed to talk at the moment. As she reached the pitch, Zina gasped in awe of the set-up. It was great, almost like a majorly scaled down version of the Artistic Flying School in Rybinsk. It was nice and cute, welcoming, even. Waiting for the meeting to officially start, Zina couldn’t help but bounce up and down on her toes, super excited for the distraction and needing to enjoy training again.

As Zhenya called for everyone’s attention, the younger of the Shiskina sisters smiled at the elder, hoping to encourage her as much as possible. Zina knew Zhenya was going to do great. She stood nearby, next to Yelizaveta, and she beamed as she looked over to the new additions to the flying crew as Zhenya mentioned them. Zinaida was so pleased and glad that there were quite a few people there who were new to the sport. And, of course, the fact that some of her friends were there was even better.

When Zhenya pointed in her direction, Zina waved in acknowledgement with a bright smile, just in case people didn’t know her well enough to figure out she was a professional artistic flyer. Hopefully, one of her friends would want to pair up wth her. Part of her worried that all the newbies would want to work, naturally, with the European Junior champion or the silver and bronze medallists. She was probably the last person that anyone would want advice from.

Zinaida was glad that they would be using balance beams first, as she thought that they were particularly amazing for confidence building, and she used them a lot herself for this particular kind of situation. In fact, Zina had decided that she would be using them to learn the back flip before actually trying it on her broom. Zina sighed as Zhenya mentioned any questions. She wanted to answer them, Zinaida loved imparting knowledge of her sport to less advanced people so that she could spread the love for their beautiful sport. She was so passionate about it. But she just prayed none of them would be about Euros or Aglaya Antonovna, she didn’t think she had the heart to answer them.

Zhenya stopped talking and Zina smiled brightly at her sister with a thumbs up in her direction. “You did great!” Zina exclaimed to her sister, as she waited for a beginner flyer to approach her.

Stasya had been fascinated by artistic flying since she had first seen her friend and year mate Zinaida practise. From that moment on she had tried to follow the sport as well as she could. It wasn't always easy for the young witch who grew up in muggle surroundings with a mother who did not approve of any magical magazines in her house. However, Stasya still managed to get some bits of information on the competitions over the summers, hiding the articles from her family's view.

The girl sometimes day dreamed about how it would be to be an artistic flyer herself. Of course, she had no chance of getting particularly skilled any more. She was already too old. Zinaida and her relatives who were in the sport had started at an age when Stasya hadn't even known that she was a witch.

When the news of the artistic flying club had been announced though, Stasya felt that, maybe, she could still join and try to have some fun even though she was well aware that all her attempts would probably look silly compared to what the Shishkins and Tikhomirovs were doing on their brooms.

She could still compete in actual competitions in her secret day dreams though. However, even in her dreams Stasya didn't see herself winning. She thought that Zina, Zhenya, Liza and all the others were just so amazingly talented that she, even if she had had the chance to start at an early age, stood no chance anyway.

Her legs felt like jelly as she reached the Quidditch pitch and joined the group of students. This was beyond exciting. It was terrifying. She listened to Zina's elder sister as she gave a brief introduction and wondered how it felt to have an international title like Zhenya and Liza did. It had to be amazing to have been the best of the best at a competition…

Since she had spoken to Zina the other day she knew better than to ask any questions about the rumours that had been in the papers about the poisoning of their distant relative and star of the artistic flying scene. Stasya felt certain that Zina would tell her if there was any news on Aglaya Antonovna's condition.

Seeing how the beginners were supposed to team up with an experienced artistic flyer, Stasya made a beeline for Zina. Hoping that nobody would beat her to getting her as their coach. “Hey,” she said, blushing slightly as she reached her friend. “Can't believe I'm here,” she said, her voice not quite sounding like her own, “I mean, I've always wanted to try this but, Merlin, I'm so scared that I'll make a fool of myself!” She laughed nervously and then shrugged. “So what am I supposed to do now?”