Little Games

It's the last day of summer and the weather is dreadfully humid, physically locking the town’s residences inside. Only a few brave shirtless boys roamed through the neighborhood. Niall was one of them. He's fifteen, blonde hair with dark roots, and a dazzling smile that most always reaches his sparkling blue eyes. He and some other neighborhood boys are aimlessly walking around occasionally kicking the football the tallest one in their group carried.

Down the street is Mckey, known formally as McKinsey. She, like Niall is fifteen. Her hair is an auburn brown that hangs just above her shoulders and she has bangs that land just above her eyes. She's average height for her age and normally wears glasses. The only thing she likes about her appearance is her blue eyes. Although, they too are dull to her.

Inside her house she watches the Telly only, partially paying attention to the drama unfolding before her. She scans the room wishing the summer would never end, but then again she misses her friends. This next year is her last, finally! Soon to be on to bigger and better things in the upper school. Mckey stands up and groggily straitens her white tank top and blue shorts. Her bangs are kind of messy but she decides to go out onto the porch anyway. After all, there's nobody out there anyways, at least she thinks.

After what feels like hours of aimlessly kicking the football back and forth, John, the oldest and therefore self appointed leader stops the other four. "Alright lads! Listen up! New game…"

Peyton, the youngest but also the tallest singsongs, "Let’s go swimming!" Everyone nods except for John, who for whatever reason that he doesn't even know, feels agitated by the groups lack of interest in what he has to say.

"Uhh no." he snaps back, "We're gonna do something exciting to end the summer! For Pete's sake Niall! Don't mope like a baby!"

Niall looks up from his feet which he had previously been shuffling, "I'm not mopping! I just wouldn't mind going swimming…" he mumbles the last part to himself but unfortunately John hears him.

John turns on his heels and looks down at Horan, "Okay Niall. Here's what your gonna do."

Mckey is laying on her porch swing drifting off to sleep. A smile creeps up on her face as she sleepily dreams of her final year.

"Hello!" A loud male voice shakes her out of her dreams and she jerks up to look around her porch. "Okay, this is weird.” She thinks. She sits up and carefully swipes her hair from her face. Being as hot as it is, her bangs stick to her forehead. "No one’s there." Mckey thinks as she looks around.

"Hell. O!?" Mckey jumps up and looks down behind the bench.

"Who are you?" She demands eyeing the shirtless boy staring at her from the ground. Her right hand firmly lands on her hip and she tilts her head to the side.

"Crap she's cute! Ugh! Why did I let John harass me into doing this! Ahh jeez, what is John gonna do?" Niall rants to himself while shuffling his feet. He can feel the heat building up in his cheeks. He looks up at her face and makes eye contact, he inwardly sighs.

Mckey raises her eye brow waiting for this boy to hurry up and speak. She has to admit to herself though that he's cute and a smile tugs at her lips as he starts blushing. "Well?" She pauses and he looks up at her. His eyes are beautiful! "Who are you? And why were you yelling at me?" She slightly giggles because of how his cheeks keep getting pinker.

Niall clears his throat. Okay, I can't back down… ugh shit. "Hi, I'm Niall. Ugh sorry," he scratches the back of his neck, "I didn't mean to yell." She just folded her arms and waited for Niall to say more, but he didn't.

Now she squirms under his gaze. "Okay… so what do yo-?"

Nialls cut her off, "We were wondering if you wanted to play football." He smiles and she feels a fluttering feeling in her stomach.

She was going to jump at his invitation but thought over his words, "Who's we?" She glanced around behind him and didn't see anyone. Everyone was shut in their houses hiding from the heat.

The adorable blonde boy looked up at her and smiled. His smile must have been contagious because Mckey found herself smiling back at him. "Me and my lads…" he looked down at his feet and fiddled nervously with the tank-top he had stuck in his belt loop.”Uh they're just around the corner there." He pointed behind him toward the end of Mckey's street. She glanced behind him and nodded.

"Sure… I love football!" She grinned at him again and turned to leap down her porch steps. He met her at the side walk and smiled again. "You never told me your name.” he said to her while they rounded the corner of the street.

She gave him a cheeky grin, "No. I don't reckon I did." She said dryly in attempt to sound disinterested. He smiled at her.

She looked forward and saw four other boys, she recognized one of them from her math’s class last year, and his name was Elliot. He had brown hair and brown eyes. He's always been nice to Mckey so she waves when she recognizes him. All the other boys including Niall look at Elliot and he smiles blushing slightly.

Mckey watched as one of the older looking boys walked up to Niall and grabbed him by the shoulder and led him to the other boys. They all turned to her and all grinned except for Niall and Elliot. Elliot quickly jumped around the boys, "Ugh… sorry boys I've gotta go. Mom rang me!" He quickly walked by Mckey, "Good to see you Mckey!" He chirped as he scurried off. She tried to reply but he was gone to quick.

Mckey turned back to the other boys and started contemplating going back home. After all its horribly hot and these boys clearly are suffering from heat sickness!

"So you going play football with us girly?" The one that led Niall away asked.

She cleared her throat and crossed her arms, clearly unsatisfied with the name he'd given her. "That's what I thought. But all you lot seem to do is stand there awkwardly and shuffle your feet."

John gave her the death glare and began pointing towards the others starting at the furthest from him, "That’s Heath, James, Niall and I'm John." He smirked at her and she raised an eyebrow to respond. "Okay! Let’s do this. Girly with James and I guess you guys can have Heath too." He shrugged and looked at Niall. "Against us!"

Mckey smiles and follows them to the grassy area next to a pretty ugly looking pond. Mckey's always believed swamp monsters probably live there with alligator children. She grimaces, imaging the mud swallowing you whole if you ever tried to go in, not that she’s ever planning to. She tugs her eyes from the water and sees that James and Heath are kind of staring at her waiting. She smiles and skips to them. When they don't say anything she speaks, "Hey!" She waves at them. "I'm Mckey! So what's the game plan, team mates?"

They smile at each other happy with her enthusiasm. "Well," They lean in to whisper. "The one to beat is Niall, but John plays dirty so one of us" James indicates himself and Heath. "Will have to guard him most of the time." he shrugs when he's done explaining to Mckey their situation.

She looks at both of them, "Okay. Well I'm a fast runner so…"

They both nod and Heath talks, "We'll get the ball to you then!" They all smile and look over at Niall and John who both are staring at the three looking amused.

They play for a good while, and James was right, John plays dirty. He keeps pushing Heath, who is guarding and has already tried to trip Mckey. James was also right about Niall he's the one to beat. He's quick but when Mckey get the ball she's able to score because she's just a little faster.

After an hour they all fall to the ground on a circle, exhausted from the heat and good game. Mckey catches her breath, “Ugh! It’s burning up!" They all nods even though they're eyes are all closed.

John then speaks, "Well Niall wanted to go for a swim!" John jumps up smiling evilly to himself and grabs Mckey's arm and Niall's yanking them toward the pond.

"No!" Mckey shrieks.