Sister City

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

I ducked away from her as she playfully swatted at me. We were sorted into teams just after introductions were made. Megan was chosen as one of the team captains, so we all ended up on the same team. Leena was the referee, since she couldn’t run, and she wasn’t biased toward our team at all. Seriously, I thought we’d be a shoo-in to win, with Megan being soccer star. She scored so many goals we lost count, but she had chosen a terrible goalie; I let in more goals than she made. We lost 5-7 in the first game. The next two games we played we won by one point each.

We were in the middle of a fourth game when a whistle sounded ending our play. It was time to go to our evening activities; Leena was happily chatting with a couple of girls I didn’t know from the other team as they trekked to dinner. Smiling I headed to Iron Camper. I was really looking forward to watching Inara make a huge mess in an attempt to show us how to cook.

I walked into our dorm room, covered with flour and the remnants of my cookie creation. I had lifted the beaters too high out of the bowl when I’d been mixing my cookie dough, which had flung partially mixed batter everywhere. When I’d managed to get the formed cookies into the oven, I’d left them in for a smidge too long and when I got them out, they were smoking- literally. There was a small fire inside the oven from the dough that had fallen off the bottom of the cookie sheet. Thankfully, Inara – ever the Girl Scout – had smothered the small flames with flour. Unfortunately, she’d been overly exuberant, and several of us ended up coated in whole wheat flour.

Trisha took one look at me and started cracking up. I laughed along sarcastically, grimaced at her and entered the bathroom for my third shower of the day. Dying to know the story behind my hysterical appearance, Trisha followed me into the bathroom. We caught up while I showered and made plans to ditch our nature activity class the next day. When I turned the water off, she graciously left the room so I could towel off in private. She told me that she had met the cutest guy at the pool that morning.

“He was hanging out with Luka and Marcus.”

“What did he look like?”

“Tall. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Beautiful smile with a mouthful of braces.”

“I’m trying to remember who Luka and Marcus said they had swimming with in the mornings. Did he have a big nose and humongous ears?”

“No,” she replied, laughing.

“That rules out two of the guys I know. Wait. Did he have a big scar down his right arm?”

“Yeah. He did. Do you know who he is?”

“You think Oli Oop is cute?”

I tried not to snicker. I guess it’s possible that many of Luka’s friends could be considered cute. I mean, Luka and Marcus always had girls fawning over them wherever they went, even at nine years old. If I sat down to think about it objectively, most of their friends, nearly the entire football team, were cute. I just didn’t think about them that way.

“Why is it funny that I think he’s cute? Is there something wrong with him?”

“It’s not funny. I’m sorry. I guess I just don’t think about them like that.”

“Is that his real name? Oli Oop?”

“NO. His name is Oliver. Oliver, uh, something that starts with an S. Um, Sampson, maybe. He plays a guard position on the football team. Whenever he gets the ball and makes a fabulous play, they always yell “Oli Oop”. It’s a boy thing.”

“Oliver. I like that. Oliver and Trisha.” She paused for a minute while I tried not to laugh at her wistful tone. “Oli and Trish. Trish and Oli.”