10) I Swear I Didn't Break Anything

I've never been an overly active person.

Yes, I will go for the occasional run to the fridge or maybe sprint to school when I'm a little late.
But you will never see me willingly volunteer to do a sport.
I've tried that.
And failed.

Swimming wasn't bad but apparently doing somersaults in the water didn't count as laps.
Soccer involved too much running. I was so generous that I let everyone kick the ball and didn't even touch it. Though, when the ball did come towards me, I tried to kick it and it hit someone in the face.

I didn't even attempt gymnastics. That sport was designed to see me kill myself.

After my many failed attempts, I was still forced to try other sports in gym like tennis, volleyball and even hockey (which was a great excuse to hit people in the shins).
As you can tell, by now I should definitely stay away from anything involving physical activity.

I agree.

Charlie, on the other hand, was amazing any sport he puts his mind to. That meant that when he tried soccer he was automatically put into the top team and now is co-captain.

I have tried to be a supportive friend and go to his games but they were always super early games (I didn't understand why they had to do it at the coldest time in the day.)

Also, I seemed to be a ball magnet meaning I always end up getting hit at the game. (No matter how many people I hide behind.)

So when I walk onto the field after Aaron and Charlie finish soccer practice, I'm very wary of my surroundings.

I'm really not in the mood to be a -
"DUCK" two voices yell from across the field.
As I turn and duck to see Charlie pointing at the ball that flies over my head.

As I wave to Charlie to signal my survival, I'm oblivious to the fact that the second voice that just yelled at me came from a different direction.
What I also don't notice is the other soccer ball hurtling towards me from the same direction of the voice.

Whoever kicked that ball must have bionic legs because when the ball hits me on the hip, it easily knocks me over.

Sadly I don't fall onto the grass as gracefully as I hope.
To be honest it probably looks like I just got tackled by an invisible football player.

The grass is sadly not as soft as I expect it to be, it feels more like cement than an earthly cushion.

I open my eyes expecting to see clouds in the sky. Instead, I am graced with the whole soccer teams lovely faces plus Sam.

Their expressions are a mixer of confusion and amusement.

Aaron kneels down beside me and raises an eyebrow "I'm starting to regret asking you to come along as I'm realising that you're very accident prone."

Someone pushes their way through the small gathering.
"You're only noticing that now?" Charlie's voice is full of humour, "I bought an ice pack; I saw how hard the ball hit you soo..."

Happily, I take the ice pack and place it on my hip. The relief is instant as the cold numbs the pain but not so much my embarrassment.

"It's all good guys, I'm not that fragile, nothing's broken." I hope.

I wince slightly at the sore spot that's definitely going to leave a bruise tomorrow as Aaron and Charlie offer me their hands to pull me up.

I stumble over my own feet as I start to feel lightheaded and slightly woozy.

"Whoa, easy there, " Aaron holds my arm tightly "maybe you should sit down for a minute."

They lead me over towards the bench and lower me down slowly, both look at me with worry in their eyes.

The guys start having a very in-depth conversation, I'm assuming about me, as they keep quickly looking over their shoulders in my direction.

A snicker comes from the left side of the bench.

Sam shakes his head "I don't know why they're making such a big fuss over you, " he mutters so only I can hear "something like this practically happens every day. Plus that wasn't even one of your best falls, " he takes a sip of his Gatorade.

"I know right. I think my hurdle run of 2015 beats this easily, " a surprising smile starts to develop on my face at the painful memory.

He almost spits his drink at the mention of the embarrassing incident "I still don't understand how you knocked over 7 hurdles without touching them then majestically face planned into the ground." He laughs while changing his cleats to Nikes.

"It's called talent," I start to laugh with him "something that you've obviously never heard of."

Before Sam can make a snide comment back, Aaron comes over to us looking confused, his eyes flicker between the two of us.

"I swear you tw-" he mumbles the rest to himself shaking his head "Mac is there anything I can get you? Another ice pack, water, a pillow maybe?"

"Dude just give her food," Sam says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Which it is.

Food fixes everything!

"I've got a chocolate bar, " Lee offers, awkwardly taking something with a silver wrapper out of his bag "but it's kind of a bit melted by the sun."

'A bit' is an understatement. You can see the liquid chocolate flowing back and forth in the small sealed packet

On the one hand, I don't know how long it's been in his bag. For all, I know it could have been there since last year.
On the other hand. Chocolate.

I listen to my stomach and grab the chocolate "I'll take it."

They all look at me in shock.

"What?" I pause from opening it "It's just a chocolate bar guys, it's not going to kill me." Hopefully

I make a small cut on the corner and squeeze the creamy goodness into my mouth.

Okay, this may not be one of my most elegant, ladylike or even dignified moments but I need food right now.

"It's funny, " Sam starts "I was actually considering inviting Mackenzie to the next team bonding trip."

All the guys stop what they're doing and turn to stare at Sam

"What?" I snort "do you all just sit around a campfire singing Kumbayah and telling each other your hearts deepest desires while braiding hair?"
I felt like I would need to throw some confetti and glitter in the air to convince them to let me join the teams bonding trip.

Charlie looks around to the other guys who are trying to hold back their laughter "Think more along the lines of shooting each other with paintball," he winces as he says this. I can already sense how much pain it's caused him in the past.

"I'm totally in," I say clapping enthusiastically.

A worried look is passed between Charlie, Aaron and Lee.

Aaron crouches down to my level. "Mac, " he says carefully as he scratches the back of his head "I don't think it's the best idea for you to come. I don't want you to get hurt. The guys can get super competitive and I don't want you to get caught in the crossfire," he rubs his fingers over my knuckles which make my hands feel tingly and heat starts to grow on my cheeks.

"I think I can handle myself," I scoff, pulling my hands out of his grip and standing to look them all dead in the eye "just watch me destroy you all," I walk away in triumph and feeling like a boss.

Now, THIS is when I need the glitter cannons. Or any type of canon actually.

"Mace," a hand catches my shoulder "Wait up!"

Charlie throws his duffle bag over his shoulder "Even though I completely disagree with your terrible decision to play paintball with us. I've decided to teach you an important skill you can apply to paintball. How to Aim and Shoot," I look at him sceptically.

"Because," he continues as we start to walk towards the car park "I don't want to bring a walking target into the game. You will very likely get hurt.

It's so nice to know that somebody car-

"I also don't want my team to lose," he quickly adds as he hides behind his car.

Flinging the door open, I throw my stuff in the back and sit in the front seat "So tell me oh wise senpai. How will you teach me the mysterious ways of pointing and shooting," I lazily say.

Like the Cheshire cat he smiles wickedly.

Great, what have I gotten myself into?

"Two words," he nods "Nerf Guns."

***
Charlies lives in a small one story house a couple minutes away from me.

As we pull up to the house I can see Mikey barking in the corner of the window. It had been decided that Mikey wasn't my biggest fan. He's never attacked me.
He preferres annoying me and getting on my nerves.
Like how he will pee on anything that I own or deliberately trip me over.

When we walk in the front door I feel something brush up against my leg softly.
I look down to see a ginger kitten weaving itself through my legs.

"Well aren't you cute," Crouching down I go to pet the fluffy cat "I haven't seen you around before."

My heart melts as its meow came out like a squeak.

I squeal as a warm sensation goes down the back of my leg.

I really don't want to look down.

"MIKEY! Why did you do that?" A voice scolds from behind me.

Yep. Just as I suspected. I have been urinated on once again by the dog. What a surprise.

I turn around to the sound of Charlie's younger sisters voice "Corey!" I awkwardly shuffle towards her trying to ignore the terrible smell and the wet feeling that is following me. "I haven't seen you in such a long time. You're always out at a friend's house when I'm here."

I grab the familiar girl in front of me and give her the biggest hug that is humanly possible "You've grown so much. Stop becoming older. You're not allowed to become taller than me."
I stare deeply into the familiar dark blue eyes which the siblings shared.

"Don't grow up. It's a trap" I whisper into her ear.

She smiles back at me "I don't plan to. I'm happy with my very few friends who I'm not going to lose because we have to 'grow up and move on with life' " she tucks a blond strand of hair behind her ear.

"So" I nudge her "any cute boys at school at the moment?"

She shakes her head sadly "Not yet. I'm waiting a year till they grow brains and until they're semi-decent to look at," she giggles.

Charlie barges into the middle of our very important discussion "No boys for you Corey. You're not allowed to talk or even associate with them until you're 40."
He nods to himself, like what he says makes complete sense.

"How about Jamie? You can't deprive me of my one piece of sanity!" She questions lifting an eyebrow.

Charlie shakes his head and starts murmuring to himself.

"We will discuss Jamie later. I'm only allowing you to see each other because you'll both end up ganging up on me and probably dying my hair green if I try to separate the two of you. Now," he claps his hands together. "I need to teach the most uncoordinated person on the world how to shoot a toy gun."

This will not end well.

***

"Okay now lift your arms up a bit more and aim for the bullseye," Charlie whispers in an encouraging voice.

I try to close one eye so I can focus on the target. But it's starting to get blurry.

I probably should get my eyes checked.

I pull the trigger and hope for the best.

"Hmm," Charlie walks over to where we set up the targets outside near the old shed "well you were closer this time at least. Maybe try actually hitting the target next time."

He positions himself behind me and lifts my arms up slowly.

"Now I want you to clear your mind of any distraction."
That'll be pretty hard with him breathing down my neck and talking in my ear

"Inhale. And when you breathe out shoot and just imagine where you want the bullet to go. It will follow."

I take a deep breath and focus on the quiet surrounding and the bright red target.

Just breathe out and shoot. It's not that hard.

Keep my eyes closed as I exhale slowly and pull the trigger once again.

I hear a clang in the distance.

SUCCESS! I HIT IT!!

Opening my eyes, I look around to see there's no bullet near the target.

I look at my best friend in confusion.

He had lost all colour in his face.

Did I want to ask? "Ah Charlie."

"You just hit the vase that had my grandparents ashes in it," He barely squeaks out.

Widening my eyes in shock I look over to see the shattered remains of the pot "I swear I wasn't aiming for that."

I really do have bad aim.
There is now a broken pot with dust flying everywhere because of the slight breeze.

I hope nobody swallows it the Ashes in the air...

"That was a family heirloom."

What was I supposed to say 'the ashes will make great fertiliser' or maybe 'they'll be in an even better place now'.

I decide to do the only thing that seemed rational for this type of situation.

Pat him on the back, say sorry and just walk away like nothing happened.

Cupcake Theory 10#
Sometimes it's just best to be safe and not attempt things. People may say you're scared or lazy. But you're the one who knows just how capable you are. And how clumsy you can be.

:):):)

Hhhhiiiii 

I've gotten to 10 chapters YAY 💥🎉

I want to thank the person that is reading this. YES YOU.
I wanted to say thank you and you don't know how much it means to me that you're reading this book!
I love you a lot

So another week down and it's now raining which is a nice change in weather.

School is annoying because they decide that they want to put all the tests and assignments due in the span of 3 days (and this is with a week notice) oh how I love how organised some people are.

I hope you have a fabulous week and that you get given chocolate because you're amazing.

Love you like Magnus loves Alec (and glitter)

Theforgottonone ◇