Everything is Hunky-Dory Now! (Ollie and Matthew)

Ari thought a walk in the park sounded quite splendid! She had only gone home to Ireland for a couple of days to pack all of her stuff, and then her and Aunt Evelyn returned to their vacation home in London to be close to her parents. Her summer house was marvelous. It was right outside the Hyde Park so she could go there any time she wanted without super vision, which was the best part! Today she wore a pair of shorts, and an old looking t-shirt, with some flip-flops, and her red hair was up in a pony-tail. It was a beautiful day as the sky was blue, and their was a light breeze blowing around. She smiled at her porch and then ran out to the park.

She walked around the track a little bit, and when she got about half way around, she saw something and got really excited! IT WAS HER BEST FRIEND MATTHEW! She bounced up and down a little bit and ran over! This day got SO much better! Not only does her best friend live around here, but she just made his day better too! She just knew it! She saw that they were playing futbol. Her dad wasn't around much, so she didn't know the sport very well! She wondered if Matthew could teach her! Maybe he could teach her to be so good she could be the best! Like when Hunter taught her how to fly! She was gonna be the best flyer around!

She ran over and gave him a giant hug! It was practically the best hug she could probably give! And her Aunt always said that she gave the BEST hugs! She said, "OH MY GOSH! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU LIVED HERE! THIS IS SO EXCITING!" She was literally jumping up and down and completely forgot the other boy. She asked, "CAN I PLAY FUTBOL TOO!?" She had always wanted to play and be the best at it. Because she was the best at everything!

Matthew wasn't necessarily the most athletic child in the world - sure, he was an amazing tree climber and he had tons of energy, but his coordination when it came to sports was just not up to par. Even so, he couldn't help his excitement when his awesome-amazing-cooler-than-everyone-else big brother Ollie suggested that they go play football in the park! Matthew was especially happy, because he had been sure that Ollie would never forgive him for breaking that tree in their backyard - but Matthew had forgotten that his brother was kind of the forgiving type. Matthew, on the other hand, wouldn't have forgiven someone so easily if he were a crazy tree lover and someone had broken a tree in his own back yard.

Matthew followed his brother happily to the park, and soon they were completely invested in their game. And Matthew was even doing alright, compared to some of his other attempts to be athletic. Ollie was winning by a bit, of course, but Matthew didn't care. He was just trying to beat his own personal record of goals he scored against Ollie - it wasn't that daunting of a task because his personal record was two. But what could anyone expect when his brother was so much bigger and taller than him?! How was he supposed to keep up? Matthew would show them all when he grew and got as tall as Ollie. Then, he'd score more than two goals. But right now, he was stuck on one.

It looked like he might make a second, though! He was so close! If he could just go a few more feet - only he never got there, because his name was screeched from a few feet away and all of a sudden someone was throwing themselves at him.
"Hey!" Matthew exclaimed indignantly, as the sudden impact knocked him off balance and caused him to fall over, taking whoever it was with him. What was going on - oh.

"What are you doing here?" Matthew asked, a feeling of disappointment washing over him. He struggled to scramble out from underneath the redhead, and was breathing heavily when he finally struggled back into a standing position. And of course, it wasn't long before Ollie came over to see what was going on. Matthew ignored her question, choosing to introduce his brother instead. "This is Ollie!" he exclaimed, a huge smile spreading across his face. "He's my brother, and he's only the coolest person to ever walk the face of the earth! He goes to Hogwarts too, he's in Hufflepuff!" Then he turned to his brother and explained. "This is Ariadne," Matthew told him, an annoyed edge creeping into his tone. "She's in Slytherin with me. And no, you can't play," he added, glancing uncertainly at his brother as though his brother might come up with a great reason why she couldn't join them. "Because - because, well - because then we wouldn't have even teams! And you need even teams for football!"

"GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLL!" Ollie shouted as Matthew scored his first goal against him. Playing with one person wasn't as great as playing with a team, but Matthew was perfect for today. Ollie was on fire, though! He kept scoring and scoring, and for a moment he wondered if it had anything to do with the age and size difference rather than actual skill. Ollie let out a loud laugh as he battled for the ball, his feet moving as fast as they could. He was sweaty and dirty and already had a few scrapes on his knees, but it was worth it.  

They battled for the ball for a few moments, until Matthew, quick as a fox, stole it from him and ran all the way to his opponent's goal. Oliver was having trouble breathing right, and his knees stung and his calves burned deep into his bones. His skin was finally getting a bit of a tan, and he could feel sweat dripping down his forehead and cheeks before falling off his jaw. The back of his red jersey was probably drenched and disgusting to look at, but none of that mattered then. His eyes were fixed on Matthew who was a few feet in front of him.

And then, Matthew almost scored! Almost. Some red and white figure thing threw itself on him. Ollie wanted a victory dance, because whatever that thing was it had kept his brother from scoring, but maybe not in front of all these people. Ollie's legs gave out and he fell to the floor, bursting into a galaxy of laughs and with his own personal version of the Milky Way right before his eyes. He needed water, he needed to keep playing, he needed to see if Matthew was okay. But mostly, he needed the water.

He stood up and reached for his water bottle, the freshness of it almost killing him. The heat of the day and the excitement of summer was too much. It was then he noticed that the thing wasn't a thing, but a girl...and she was with Matthew. It like a fan girl type of reaction. Ollie almost cried laughing, but he contained his amusement and put his water bottle down. Walking over to them, Ollie watched with a silly grin as his younger brother was mercilessly harassed by this weird girl. And seriously, who was she anyway? He crossed his arms and held his laughter back, but he was so going to tell mum that Matthew had a girlfriend. Ollie figured that was enough revenge for injuring the wise tree in the back of their home.

But then Matthew did the introductions. Ariadne. Cool. Ollie nodded at her, she looked too hyper and Matthew didn't seem pleased to have her around. Ollie's eyes grew wide, because she wanted to play with them, and he quickly went with Matthew's excuse. "Yeah, teams can't be odd or the balance of life and all that will be thrown off. That would be terrible." He nodded multiple times, he was now about to seen with THAT GIRL. Matthew was enough, but a LITTLE GIRL was too much for Ollie. Blake wouldn't be seen with an 11-year-old, would he?

Ari was on the ground now. With her best friend. She got up and shook the grass off her awesome clothes. She was to cool for grass to be on her. When who was apparently Matthews brother AND Matthew said she couldn't play because the teams would be uneven, her feelings where a tad hurt.

She folded her arms defensively and said," how bout this, Ollie, you can sit out and let me and Matthew play, and then maybe if your nice, we will let you play again! Right Matthew?!"

Matthew would agree with her! He was her best friend after all. And her best friends ALWAYS agreed with her. She continued, "Matthew is my best friend. We are awesome! We are in the same house and you are not!"

There! That would surly get him to let her play with them. After all, she was the bestest.

Matthew nodded vigorously when Ollie agreed with him, even though he had no idea what he was talking about. "Exactly! And the balance of life is some pretty important stuff!" Obviously. But he just stared at Ari as she started twisting what he'd said around until she'd figured out a way to accomplish the exact opposite of what he wanted! What? How had she even done that?! Matthew looked between her and Ollie a few times, completely unprepared for this particular turn of events. Of course they hadn't meant that one of them should sit out!

"But we can't do that!" Matthew protested, finally voicing his opinion. "Because - because we haven't finished our own game yet! You barged in in the middle of it! And I was just about to score!" Who knew if this would be the game where Matthew would beat his personal record?! "And this is brother time! Which doesn't include you! You aren't even a boy!" Not that she'd be any less annoying if she was. "You probably don't even know how to play."

Honestly, this girl was just out to ruin his life. Matthew looked over at Ollie, almost pleading with his eyes for his brother to help him get rid of her. He even raised his hands and clasped them together in an act of begging. But Ari was still talking as though either of them wanted to listen. And she was dissing his big brother, the best big brother ever!!! One does not simply diss Matthew's awesome amazing big brother Ollie - he'd learned that awesome phrase from watching awesome Lord of the Rings movies, by the way. And it definitely applied here. "Hey, don't say that! Ollie is cool and amazing and awesome and you're just jealous because you aren't!" Really, she was just annoying and for some reason thought that Matthew actually liked her. Which he didn't.