Warm Weather Atlast ((Riku))

[jake]

((I set the post so that Riku and Jake have met before, as I didn't recieve a reply to my IM, or atleast not before I posted this. I haven't actually said Jake's opinions on Riku (though I'm sure he'll like her) so that her's aren't decided and you can be free to think what you wand of Jake. I hope you don't mind. )

Jake lifted his foot to kick the ball again as it rebounded off the wall. He gave it a good, hard kick as it came close to him, and watched as it sailed off back towards the stone wall. It was a defiantly un-exciting pastime, Jake decided with a sigh, but there didn’t seem much else to do. It was a beautifully warm day, the sun, though still quite low in the sky, was shining at full-power into Jake’s eyes and there was no wind at all. It was this weather that had called Jake out to the courtyard, the Ravenclaw Common Room was very stuffy in such temperatures.

The football ricocheted off of the stone and soared through the air towards Jake, who neatly caught it and tucked it under his arm, using his other hand to shield his eyes from the sun’s glare. The courtyard was very busy, most students had opted for exploring the grounds rather than staying cooped up inside, but he managed to secure a spare bench, grabbing his chance as a group of Hupplepuff girls got up to leave. He shot them a grin and quickly sat down, placing his ball at his feet and lolling back against the wall, where the bench was situated. He glanced around, and just as he did, he saw a familiar black-haired girl join the crowds milling around the courtyard.

“Riku!” He shouted towards her, not caring that most of the courtyard were turning round to look at him. He waved to make sure she could see him and thanked his lucky stars that he had found someone to relieve his boredom.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku had decided to jog around the courtyard for an extra hour. She let the wind whip her hair around. She felt one with the wind as she jogged. She used to be on the track team while in Japan. When she finally got done with her jog she noticed a few students in the courtyard. She laughed at herself for not realizing it until that exact moment.

She sat down on a nearby bench where she had put her things and drank some water. She grabbed her things and ran up to the castle to change clothes. It was unusually warm outside and Riku was going to take advantage of it, just like everyone else. She quickly changed into a shirt and a skirt then ran outside once more.

"Whoa," She said as she looked around. More people were outside now. She looked around for someone she knew, when she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see Jake, whom she met earlier. "Hey Jake!" She yelled back as she ran towards him.

"What's going on? What's with that...thing...?" Riku asked him eyeing the brown thing in his hand. It seemed to be a ball of some sort. She had never seen one like that before, though.

[jake]

"This?" Jake said, an amused grin creeping onto his lips as he passed his football from one hand to the other.

"Well, it's a ball for a start," He laughed, throwing it towards her, "Used to play footy, football, y'know? It's a muggle game I picked up while I've been here. You might know it as...soccer?"

He threw the ball towards Riku for her to inspect, the same smile still decorating his face. Despite being half-blooded, and growing up in a wizarding household, Jake was no stranger to muggle games and sports. Over his five years at Hogwarts, football had become a great passion of his, taught to him by muggle-born friends.

"It's a good game," He told Riku earnestly, "Not a patch on Quidditch, ofcourse, but worth picking up."

"I could teach you if you like?" He added, his Ravenclaw desire to teach coming out as could be expected.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku caught the ball and inspected it. She threw it up in the air then caught it once more. She loved sports. She was like a tomboy, if you will. She quirked an eyebrow at Jake and a smiled played on her lips.

"Never heard of it. I moved to England four years ago, when i first came to Hogwarts. I'm up for the challenge though. Teach me, Sensei," Riku said as she bent forward in a bow.

She remembered the days back in Japan. She would always bow to her Sensei (teacher), who taught her some matrial arts. She knew enough to protect herself, but never enough to duel. Her father had always wanted her to take it, but Riku didn't mind. She wanted to take it. She loved anything that made her work out.

[jake]

Jake smiled despite himself as Riku bowed.

"Sensei Jake Hurstner," He said, nodding impressedly, "I could get used to that, sounds pretty good. I'm assuming it means teacher right?"

Oblivious of the answer but hoping he was right so he wouldn't look stupid infront of Riku Jake got up, stood opposite her and clapped is hands together.

"Alrighty then," He started, "Football. Where to begin?" He mused for a second a thought of explaining the offside rule or something simular, as it always seemed to come up, but, remembering Riku's bafflement, started with something simpler, "OK, for starters. You move with the ball by kicking it with your foot, no hand-contact allowed." He paused for a second after this, to amaze at how stupid he sounded explaining that football involved using your foot and a ball, but shook his head and continued.

"Pretty obvious really," He said, a slight pink tinge appearing at the side of his cheeks, "Anyway. Right, well, er....OK, I've got it. Imagine a quidditch pitch,” Jake did the same, a mental image of the Hogwarts arena in his mind, “OK, make it a hell of a lot smaller, square off the edges, take away the hoops, make it all grass. Basically make it look entirely un-recognisable as a quidditch pitch,” In his mind Jake did this, also taking away the stands and adding some unruly looking supporters at the sidelines, “Then add some lines separating it into quarters and two big nets at ground level at either end and, hey presto, you got yourself football pitch! The aim of the game is to get the ball," He pointed at the leather in Riku's hands, "Into the nets. That way you score goals and get points."

Again, Jake stopped and realised how little sense what he had just said made and gave Riku an endearing grin.

"I would say stop me if I’m not making sense," He said, "But I’m pretty sure that would’ve been about five minutes ago."

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku listened as Jake explained the game. She smiled to herself. He was sort of making sense. She knew what game he was talking about by then. He younger brother used to play it all the time when they went to the United States. She had never knew the name of the game, but she did see it being played before.

"Oh! I remember this game!" Riku said with a grin. She threw the ball in the air then let it bounce off of her head then she hit it with the side of her foot, than caught it again. "Muggle game. American's call it Soccer, the English call it Football, but I call it whatsamacallit."

Riku grined at him then tilted her head to the side. "So, I suppose you wouldn't want to play me? I mean, I don't want you to have the embarrassment of being beaten by a girl."

Riku looked at her outfit. She shrugged. She played the the American muggle came called Football in a skirt before. She even tackled her brother. She smirked at the memory. At least she was wearing a zipping hoodie over her tank and some tennis shoes.

"You are a good Sensei, though," Riku said to him as she bowed once more. "Thank you for telling me the correct name of the game."

[jake]

"Whatsamacallit is definitley a better name for it," Jake agreed chuckling good-humouredly, "Though I think we'd better stick to football so I don't get confused. We can't all understand things as well as you can we?"

He grinned, listening to Riku, but raised an eyebrow at her next comment, on her beating him.

"I'll agree that I would be embarassed if I was beaten by a girl," He admitted smiling, "But, luckily for me, it aint gonna happen any time soon, however good a, er, whatever-the-Japanese-word-for-student-is you are. So, then, I graciously accept your challenge with just a little bit of crowing that I'm going to win...which I am."

[rikuhiwatori]

"I'm not a student. I'm a friend," Riku said with a cocky grin. She loved getting guys fired up like this whenever she played against them. It almost graunteed her victory. She either acted like she was really good at the game or that she really sucked at the game. Either way, she won...most of the time.

"Alright, so I have one question, I hope its not too tough for you to answer. How are we going to play 'football' without the goal man, and those other people we need?" Riku asked him curiously.

She looked around the courtyard at all the people. There were alot of people. "Are you really planning on losing in front of all these people?" Riku asked him gesturing towards the people who would soon be their 'audience.'

[jake]

"You mean the goalkeeper?" Jake said teasingly, highly enjoying the confrontation, "Or is he another whatsamacallit?" He grinned broadly, joking and glanced around the courtyard as Riku pointed out the vast amounts of people. He wasn't deterred, Jake had always been a clown since day one and he craved an audience at all times. Very much the attention-seeker, people watching made it all the better for him.

"There's a snag in that sentance Riku," He said, clicking his tongue, "I'm not planning to lose."

He found her other comments on the disappointing lack of a team less easy to retaliate to, though.

"Didn't think of that," He said slightly glumly, very dissapointed at the prospect of missing out in a match with Riku, "I guess we could always settle for a war of words instead though, we seem to be doing pretty well at the minute."

[rikuhiwatori]

"Goal man, goalkeeper, same person, same occupation," Riku said with a wave of her hand and a roll of er eyes.

"Oh you're right. There was a snag in that sentence," Riku said putting her hand over her mouth in mock surprise. "I mean my planned victory, not you're losing. Then again, either way when you hear the sentence, it tells you who's going to win, meaning me," Riku said with pointing to herself, "and the loser, meaning you." Riku then tapped Jake on the tip of his nose with her finger.

"So...lets see. You wouldn't happen to see any open space would you?" Riku said looked around the courtyard at all the other people.

"If we find an open space...we could probably play it one on one. You know, like that muggle game...with the basket and that orangeish ball? Well yeah, then we could just do it like that..." Riku finished with a shurgg of her shoulders.

[jake]

Jake rubbed his nose and grinned at Riku, feeling increasingly glad he had bumped into her.

"You mean basketball?" Jake suggested, delighted to be able to put her right again, "You would have thought you'd've got the hang of it now, wouldn't you? Ball kicked with foot - football. Ball put in basket - basketball. And there's one called netball too that, shock horror, involves a net."

He laughed good-naturedly and glanced out towards the grounds.

"We're a bit short on space here," He said, thinking, "Though we could always, I dunno, curse them all so they'd go away or something, or scare them off. Pretend to be Slytherins. A lot of them are first years and if I were them I'd have the sense to be terrified if a Slytherin twice the size of me told me to clear off." He joked.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku turned red slightly as he corrected her again. He seemed to love putting her in the right place when she was wrong. She never admitted she was wrong, so it was unlikely that she would start now.

"So...why don't they call American Football...catchball?" Riku asked him with a raised eyebrow. "And you can't say because they are stupid."

She listened to his suggestion. That would be rather fun. "Sounds fun. I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Slytherin. Here's my chance to show my green." Riku said as she winked at Jake.

"Bloody first years. So annoying and stupid. I especially hate those Gryffindor characters," Riku said loudly. As she said her last sentence she glared at two Gryffindor first years.

"You know my favorites hexs to use on them? I like the Bat-Bogey Hex, you know that one right? Oh and the Furnunculus charm. I love watching the look on their face when they see their first boil." Riku smirked as she looked over at another group of first years.

"So, what do you think? Shall we have a spot of fun?" Riku asked him as she twisted a lock of her black hair as she smiled at Jake.

[jake]

"Dammit!" Jake scolded, "You can read my mind too well, Riku, though I was going for inventive rather than stupid. No, okay, I was going for stupid."

Jake listened with amusement as Riku regailed the hexed that she supposedly used on first years, noticing that the nearby group of firsties were going decidedly pale.

"I think it's our prerogative as Slytherins," Jake agreed nodding, speaking especially loud so the nearby groups of first years could hear him, "Now what curse to use? Do you think perhaps we should use Locomotor Mortis so they can't run away before we get the chance to inflict some damage?"

Jake watched amusedly as any colour that was left in the first-year's faces drained like water of a window and they started to gather up their things.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku's eyes light up at his comment. She was having so much fun scaring the first years, it was priceless.

"Oh! And while they are stuck like that we should give them the Furnunculus charm while they can't move! Then we could watch the look on their faces when the boils appear. My father would love this, seeing as he's a death eater and all..." Riku said with a clap of her hands and a grin. She looked around her. The first years seemed to be running.

"Well," Riku said pickng up the ball and throwing itintothe open space. "That worked well."

[jake]

"Very well indeed. We make a great team," Jake agreed, grinning as he watched the last first-year disappear into the castle. He then ran into the open space to make sure the ball didn't collide with some real Slytherin sixth years, "I think we'd do alright as Slytherins, you know, you're definitley evil enough."

He caught the ball in his hands and dropped it onto his feet, bouncing it between his knee and the side of his right foot.

"Keepy-uppy king, that's me," He said, kicking the ball into the air again, not taking his eyes off it, "My record's a hundred and twenty three so far so that’s a good a competition as any. Beat that."

Smiling he let the ball drop to the ground once and kicked it lightly towards Riku.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku looked at Jake in mock shock as he said she was evil. She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her tongue out at him, "Am not!"

She laughed at her childishness. It was exactly like Riku to do something like that. It was just her personailty. She watched as Jake kept the ball up. He said that he could do it over a hundred times.

"I can see what you do in your spare time," Riku said in an amused voice. He then kicked the ball lightly to her.

Now, even with all that boasting and bragging that Riku had done, she had only played the game once or twice. She did however used to take her brother's soccerball and just try to keep it in the way. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. She had never counted how long she could keep it up, but it had taken a while for it to touch the ground a couple of times.

"Alright, you're on," Riku said as she began kicked in ball lightly with her right foot then her left knee. "But, don't tell me you want me to beat you doing something as simple as this..."

[jake]

"Simple!?" Jake said hoarsley, in a convinving mock-affronted manor, "The noble pastime of keepy-uppy is nothing short of a refined art!"

He was unable to keep a straight face for long though and the same joking smile took it's rightful place on his face once again as he watched Riku. He had to admit, she was pretty good.

"You know what," He said, taking his gaze off the ball to look Riku in the eye, "I'm impressed, you're a worthy enough competitor. I didn't think you'd be as good as this. Obviously, though, obviously it;'s the fact you had such a good sensei."

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku concentrated as she mumbled each time she kept the ball up. She bit her lip as she kept her eyes on the ball and listening to Jake at the same time.

"Well, I must say that 'keepy uppy' does take a lot of brain work," Riku said as she rotated back and forth keeping the ball from touching the ground.

"36, 37, 38..." Riku mumbled quietly to herself. She looked up at see Jake smiling at her. 'Okay...' She thought to herself as she rose an eyebrow at him.

"Ah, you're not giving yourself enough credit," Riku said with a smile as she then looked back down at the ball. She was suprised she hadn't messed up when she looked up at him.

"Are you trying to mess up my concentration by talking to me?" Riku asked him curiously as she kept her eyes on the ball.

[jake]

"I told you it was a refined art," Jake pointed out, as Riku admitted keepy-uppy took brainwork, "I don't have to concentrate that much anymore, I've spent so many wasted hours kicking a ball in the air that it comes naturally."

He grinned and sat down on the bench, realising there was really no point for him to be standing up, as Riku had the ball. He laughed as she accused him of putting her off by talking to her.

"Dammit, you caught me," He said, clicking his fingers, "You wouldn't want me to stop though would you? I think you like the attention."

He smiled at Riku endearingly, knowing she'd take it with good humour.

[rikuhiwatori]

Riku smiled to herself as she listened to Jake talk. "Wow, what a wonderful life you lead." Riku said with a smirk while looking at the ball still.

She kept kicking the ball. "50, 51, 52, 53..." Riku said as she continued the game. Her legs were getting tired, but she wasn't going to tell Jake that.

"Now who said anythinglike that? What would make you think something like that?" Riku asked as she continued with her concentration. She bit her lip.