Summer Girl, Forever Chase

By the time we reached the front yard, Courtney and Amanda were walking out through the side door. Our wars always go like this, Courtney does something and a war begins outside. First we meet in the front of our house, and then we divide into teams. Finally, WW III begins, but I think by now we're up to WW XVI.

By this time, the two girls were right in front of us with water guns in hand.

"Okay," I started, "What are teams?"

"Bill, Amanda, and Courtney vs. Me, Sisky, Butcher, and Chizzy." Mike said automatically while shoving me towards the girls, so our teams would be made.

"Fine with us." Courtney answered for her and Amanda, giving me no time to react.

My friends who abandoned me nodded and then began to walk away.

"Wait! What are the rules?" Amanda asked with a little bit of fear in her voice.

Me and Courtney laughedat with her.

"Amanda, Amanda, Amanda," Courtney began, "Rule number one, there are no rules! Rule number two, you should already know this one, soak some TAI!"

Amanda laughed, letting us know that she was okay.

"So um...where are we going?"

"To the battlefield of course." Amanda looked a little confused and since Courtney wasn't going to explain, I decided to do it.

"You see, our neighborhood is full of old people and we tend to scream. Therefore, we always have our wars a few blocks away." I saw her mouth 'oh' in understanding and smiled.

"But beware," I warned, "The guys tend to play dirty."

"How so?"

"You'll see." Courtney and I said in unison. She laughed as the three of us continued walking towards our destination.

We were a street away when we stopped dead in our tracks. Laughter. More importantly, the laughter of Mike, Sisky, Chislett, and Butcher.

"They're coming," I heard Amanda whisper. Her voice was a little shakey; nervous and I could see the goosebumps running up her arms. I felt bad for her, she just moved in today and she's already being scared out of her skin.

"Don't worry," I said while putting an arm around her waist, "I'll protect you."

We smiled at each other, and then were immediately interrupted by Courtney.

"Halt." She commanded. Wait who made her the captain?

"Listen." Sure enough, the voices of my fellow bandmates could be heard over the sound of the light Chicago breeze. The hushed sound made it seem as though they were in the midst of plotting.

"We need a game plan." I barely whispered to Courtney. She nodded and we immediately began racking our brains.

"What if we create a false distraction and then attack them from behind?" The voice of this brilliant idea startled me because it wasn't Courtney, and my mouth was closed. But wow.

Amanda's plan was just vague enough to work, and by the look on my sister's face, she was thinking the same thing.

"Wow. Um...okay." Courtney agreed. "What's gonna be the distraction?"

Once again we thought until it felt as if our brains would melt. Summer vacation is not a time to be thinking.

"Well, since I'm new here and don't know my way around, I can go up to them pretending I'm lost because we decided to split up"

Jeez, her ideas are incredible! I mean seriously, that plan is perfect.

"I love that idea." I spoke aloud. Courtney nodded in agreement.

"Okay, it's settled then. Now how about we put operation 'Fly Birdie Home' into action?" Courtney and her operation names...

Amanda nodded and began to bravely walk to the targetzone.

"Wait!" I yelled out randomly, while running to Amanda to give her a hug.

"Good luck."

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it." We smiled at each other and then went our seperate ways. However, when I got back to Courtney, I saw something I wasn't expecting: that little annoying smirk she stole from me.

"What are you smirking at?" I questioned, but sadly I failed because that smirk wasn't going anywhere anythime soon.

"You like her." Courtney said, catching me off guard.

Usually, I'd say I didn't automatically, but this time was different. It's like my mouth was locked and I didn't have a key. Like she was telling me a secret that I couldn't repeat. I didn't want to lie.

I didn't want to lie because what she's saying is true.

"No, I don't." Okay, I thought about lying, but what I really said was,

"Yes I do."

If I had known what telling my sister that I like Amanda was going to get me into maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe things would be different. Unless they were worse. But either way, if I had someone to warn me about how this night would change the rest of my life then I would've done something about it.

That warning would have changed my life and maybe even who I am today. Of course the moment those three, dangerous words left my mouth, I opened a door I couldn't close.

To put it this way: Truth hits everybody.