By Your Side. (Sequel to Art Girl and Wolf Boy)

By Your Side. (13)

Archer's POV:

Tony and I avoided each other for the time being.

We were currently standing in the pack house's backyard, with a huge expanse of land that stretched for about seven acres. My dad got on a lawnmower and cut the grass once every month or so. The sky was clear, and it was basically a perfect day.

My dad was goading Phoebe. He was a really bad role model for sportmanship.

"YOU'RE NOT GONNA KICK-!"

"JUST ROLL THE BALL!" Me and Phoebe yelled at the same time. My dad gave me a look that clearly said 'traitor' and rolled the ball perfectly, so that it had a little bounce but wasn't too fast. She drew her leg back, kicked...

And fell flat on her back. The ball went soaring through the air and she jumped up, running toward first base, where I was, her back covered in red dust. I grinned at her red face.

"Shut up," she mumbled.

"Are you okay, Charlie Brown?" I asked, trying my hardest not to smirk. She punched me in the shoulder and I shot her a fake injured look. "Ow."

Marissa kicked the ball hard and it soared farther than Phoebe's. She barely made it to second by sliding.

I guess I ought to explain the teams. It was me,  Tony, my father, Bruce, Max, Simon, and about five other non-shifted stragglers from the pack on the boy's team. On the girl's team, there was Phoebe, Mandie, Madison, Marissa, Dawn, Emma, Kyra and four other shifting weres on their team. So we were even in the number of wolves and humans. Dalton and my great-aunt were currently on their second honey-moon, so my aunt and uncle (Simon and Dawn) had to stay with us. They were only a few months older than me though, so I barely considered them more than my best friends.

My mother was umpiring with the promise not to overexcite herself. We couldn't have her water breaking over a kickball game, now could we?

I was standing on first, Tony was the home baseman, my father was the pitcher, Max was on second, and Bruce was on third. Phoebe was on second, talking with Max. I felt a surge of jealously as he reached up and tugged on a bit of her blond hair.

Breathe, Archer, there is no threat, he has no intentions of...

He leaned forward and softly touched her nose.

I started to see flickers, you know, when you see someone and you also see red. I snapped out of it when the sound of elastic ball hitting sneaker pierced the air, and looked up in time to see the ball flying toward me. I caught it automatically and threw it at Marissa as softly as I could, pegging her in the back just before she got the second. It bounced to the side.

"ARCHER, SHE'S GOING TO THIRD, YOU CAN CATCH HER!" My dad bellowed. I glanced over to see Phoebe with a determined look on her face, hauling butt toward Home. I ran over to the ball, scooped it up and got ready to throw...

And stopped. Just completely froze up.

I'd just like to say that you can't blame me. All of my life you were taught that you were never supposed to hurt your mate under any circumstances, physically or emotionally.

So while they were screaming at me, telling me to THROW THE DAMN BALL, I was having an internal battle. I wouldn't be able to make it over there to simply poke her with the ball, like I wanted to. It seemed that all of the other males didn't have this problem: they had no qualms about throwing the heck out of the ball while trying to get their mates out.

Then again, their mates weren't exactly thirteen.

By the time I was finished musing, Phoebe was doing a victory dance on home base and Max was in my face.

"What," he said in a very acidic, unfriendly tone, "was that?"

"A moment of indecision." I said simply, throwing the ball to my dad. He winked at me, while Max looked at me suspiciously and then growled, stomping away. I shrugged it off.

Must be that time of the month.

We were all tied up now, but we only needed one more out for our turn to come up. Unfortunately, it was a Madison's turn.

We all groaned. the outfielders moved way farther out while Bruce grinned at her evilly.

"Come on baby," he called. "Kick the ball right over here!"

She gave him a smirk and we all groaned again. Theo, one of the extra players called, "Wow, Bruce, why don't you just invite the devil to a tea party while you're at it!?!"

My dad even seemed afraid as he rolled the ball, and the girls cheered.

Madison had changed as we had grown up. Firstly, in order to try and help Tony and Phoebe out a little, she had dyed her hair a darker brown. She also wore golden contacts, so that her eyes looked more mesmerizing...and intimidating. Almost as intimidating as my mother. She has also cut her hair, so it was almost in sort of a bob. Bruce had no complaints, and Tony could at least look her in the eye now.

Though, if you looked closely, you could see him barely flinch.

Madison let the ball roll right past her and Tony caught it, throwing the ball back to my dad. "Ball one!" My mom called.

My dad rolled the ball again and once again, Madison didn't kick it. The entire outfield was tense, and so was I. What was she doing?

Ball two.

Ball three.

He rolled, this time cautiously, almost as if he were ready to hit the deck at any given moment. I, for one, did not blame him. She drew her leg back, kicked...and the ball went completely flat. The poor thing just gave out, going flat gradually until there was one, small red piece of plastic. She looked around as we all looked at her in horror. "Oops."

"That's the third one today, mom!" Marissa cried. You had to admit, it was pretty impressive. My mom threw up her arms. "Three outs! Someone get the other ball!"

"That was the last ball, cuz," Simon informed my mother. She blinked at him and swore. My dad scowled. "Dylan!"

"What?"

"We agreed! Not in front of the kids!"

"Oh whatever," she waved her hand. He gave her the evil eye while Phoebe skipped over to me. "Hiya!"

"Um, are you about to hit me or something?"

"No, why?"

"You just said 'hi-ya'!"

She smacked me on the forehead this time, which I was not expecting. She waggled a finger. "Slow reflexes, Archie. Ypu're going to die in battle."

"Ouch."

~*~

Mostly a filler ;D

Short, I know, but I need a favor from you guys. 50 comments? Please? Just so I know you're out there ;D

Listen to the song, I LOVE this song, and I think it's one of Phoebe and Archer's songs. I just wrote song three times in one sentence. You know i suffer from lack of sleep lol.