4.33 Football

"Sophie! Hurry up!" Autumn banged on the door for the umpteenth time that morning. Why did teenage girls need so long in the bathroom anyway?
"I'll come out when I'm ready to come out. There's another bathroom downstairs! Use your legs for once." His sisters voice shouted back at him.
"But Jaydean's in there and she went in there after you came in here so she'll be hours yet. I really gotta go!"
"Well, go in a glass or something, I don't care." Autumn growled, frustrated, before running down the hall and banging on his mothers door.

 "What?!" Kaity's sleepy voice sounded a little grouchy.
"I gotta pee!" Autumn shouted back.
"You're a big boy now, what's stopping you?" Autumn sighed. He didn't have time for this. He tried the door, finding it unlocked he burst in and ran to the bathroom. "Autumn!" Kaity shouted as the door slammed shut behind him.

 "Winter, I'm not having this conversation. You're leaving in a few hours, I just want to enjoy what time we have left with the kids. Ok?" Autumn could hear his parents muttering as he washed his hands.
"Why do you always want to avoid the important discussions?" His dad didn't sound angry, but he knew his mum, and she'd take it the wrong way and flip out. Autumn to the rescue!

 "What are we doing today?" He asked, leaving the bathroom and sitting on the end of the bed. Judging by the expression on his mothers face, just in time, too. They never argued in front of him, but he knew they did argue because Ellie could hear them through her wall.
"What do you want to do?" Winter asked, sitting up and patting the bed between himself and Kaity, Autumn took the hint and scootched up the bed to sit between them.
"I want to go to the summer fair!" He announced, lying back on the bed. "Ellie's grandad took her last weekend and she said it was really fun! They have rollerskating and water fighting!"

 Kaity smiled and started running her fingers through his hair.
"Did you brush your hair yet?" She asked, touseling the knots out.
"Yes." Autumn lied, as his father lay back down beside him. "Can we go?"
"Don't see why not. You'll have to brush your hair first, though." How did his mother always know? "Do you want to see if Josh and Ellie want to come too?" Autumn nodded and rushed off to tell his friends. He knew they'd come too, they wouldn't leave him to spend the day with his moody sisters!

"Yesyesyes!" Elise danced on the spot in excitement. "I love being outside, and it's so warm today. This will be loads of fun!"
"Don't mess yourself." Josh muttered, and Elise punched his arm playfully.
"Oh, Tum, I forgot to tell you they had football there! Some dumb guy with a weird accent said it was 'soccer', but grampy told me I was right and it is football." Autumn pulled a face. Why would he have cared about that?

"Josh, you in?" Autumn didn't even really like playing with Elise all that much. They played around together because he'd get told off if he left her out, but he had far more fun with Josh. It was nothing against Elise, really, she was a nice person, but she never wanted to play the same games and what she did want to play was boring.
"Yeah, I'll get my mum to come too. All she does is mope around the house anyways."

_____

And so the Mattell/Lansing/McQueen household, plus Winter, headed down to the park to spend the day at the festival.

"Would you have fun like this in boring old Riverview?" Kaity joked, alluding to the town he'd be flying to that night.
"Probably not." He admitted, a grin spreading across his lips. "I travel for the peace and quiet."
"Hey!" Kaity reprimanded him, hitting his chest. "Your life would be boring if you didn't have me!"
"It wouldn't be the same, that's for sure." He pulled her into a kiss.

"Do you miss me when you're gone?" Kaity asked quietly.
"Of course I do! Why do you ask that?" Kaity shrugged, and kissed him again.

"You have to stop him from getting the ball in the goal!" Elise shouted.
"Yes, Ellie. I'm not stupid." Autumn replied, rolling his eyes. He turned back to face Josh, who'd placed the ball on the grass and was standing just back from it.

Josh shot the ball towards him at speed, and Autumn caught it effortlessly.
"Wooo! Go Autumn!" Elise screamed, jumping to her feet and dancing an impromptu cheer.
"Aww man!" Josh moaned, Autumn grinned and he and Josh swapped places.

"Ready, Soph?"
"I don't know if I even want to do this anymore, Jay... I mean, there's so many! I feel sick just thinking about it."
"Don't be a wiener." Jaydean laughed at her own bad pun.

The attendant sounded the claxon, and the twins, plus the guy who looked like a hotel employee, tucked in.

"Oh my plumbob..." Jaydean shouted, spraying half-chewed hot dog everywhere. Sophie refused to look up, she was sure her sister was just trying to distract her.

"Wooooooo!!!! Oh-Em-Pee! I did it!" Jaydean shouted, being sure to let the whole park know that she'd won the competition.

Almost a full minute later, the hotelier finished, with Sophie mere seconds behind, feeling rather sick,
"Aaah," Jaydean sighed, cracking her knuckles. "That was a sinch. Not even full." She boasted. Sophie rolled her eyes, and headed off to find the ladies room. The quicker she got those heavy hotdogs out of her system, the better.

Shaena looked up from her phone when she heard her cousin Rose shout an over-excited greeting to the accidental family gathering. Before her eyes made it to her cousin, they were distracted by Leighton. He was up on the grassy section, talking to some woman she'd never seen before.
"Shae!" Her name was called from behind her. She sighed, shook her head at Leighton and turned to the source of the shouting, her brother, Luis.

As the sun began to set, Josh, Autumn and Elise took to the skating rink with Lyris and Liana Lansing, Josh's twin cousins. The Lansing twins were closer to Jaydean and Sophie's age, but they didn't start high school for a few more weeks yet.

"Hey, I kept trying to talk to you but I could never get you alone." Leightons voice made Shaena look up.
"Oh, uhm.. Sorry, I guess?" Shaena stuttered, they were hardly alone right now, with the paparazzi hovering around Leighton.
"It's not your fault you're popular." Leighton shrugged her apology off. "How are you doing? I've not seen you for a few weeks." Shaena eyed the pap, who was now taking notes.
"Uh, are we ok to do this another time? I'm not really comfortable... you know..." She gestured subtly towards the paparazzo.
"Oh, sure, I barely even notice them anymore. Sorry. I'll see you around, then?" Shaena nodded, before heading to the skating rink to collect Josh.

_____

"I'm just saying you guys were so awesome at football, but I was the best at skating! You can't argue with that, because it's true." Elise reiterated her earlier statement.
"Sure, whatever El." Josh smirked, knowing how much the boys were winding her up.

Elise growled, exasperated, before standing and turning to her two friends.
"You know, I do like you both and everything, but I hate you as well." And with that, she stormed out of Autumns room, and the boys laughed as her heard her own bedroom door slam.

_____

 "I don't want you to go." Kaity moaned for the hundreth time since they'd arrived home five minutes earlier. She threw the bedroom door open and sulked in, Winter breathed a laugh as he kicked the door closed with his heel and pulled her to him, squeezing her tight.
"You might have mentioned that once or twice." He mumbled into her hair.
"Your flight doesn't even leave for hours, why are you going so early?" She huffed, trying not to let the fact that she really wanted to turn around and kiss him get in the way of her mood.

"Because." He started, taking both her hands and kissing from the base of her neck, across to her shoulder.
"Winter..." Kaity squirmed a little.
"Because someone wouldn't let me go home these past few weeks, and I need to get some fresh clothes."
"I took your stuff to the laundrette for you when I did mine! I even paid." She scowled, trying to ignore his gentle kisses.
"I'm still down a few shirts, you stole one, and threw one out the car window-"
"I didn't! I told you! The laundrette must've lost it because I definately took it with me!" She tried to pull one of her hands free. "You might as well just keep all your clothes here, because you're going to spend every night you can here..." She muttered. Winter stopped kissing, and there were a few moments silence while they each waited for the other to speak.

When she didn't continue, Winter spun her around and pulled her close, staring her straight in the eye.
"But then what would be the point in me renting that room?"
"I guess there wouldn't be a point." Kaity breathed. Why was she so nervous? There was a pause again.
"Well, that seems a little silly. Why would I waste my money renting a room I'll never use if we both agree there's no point?"
"Winter..." Kaity sighed. "Why are you being difficult?" She began to pull away a little, and Winter caught her arm.

"I want you to say the words, Kaity."
"I can't."
"Why not? What are you scared of?"
"I don't know!" She whined.
"You know what my answer will be." Kaity sighed, and there was silence again. Winter was just staring into her eyes, waiting. He clearly wasn't going to let this go easily.

After a couple of minutes, Kaity huffed. Why hadn't he given up already? She took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"Will you move in with me?" She whispered. Winter leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips as a reward.
"Yes." He replied, before pulling her close once more and kissing her properly.

"But I do have to go still." Winter mumbled, pulling back.
"I know." Kaity muttered. She couldn't seem to find her voice. She'd never been so sure of something in her life, but at the same time she'd never felt so nervous, excited and happy all at once.

"But when you get back..." Kaity breathed, trailing off.
"When I get back we'll move my stuff over." He quickly pecked her on the lips again, before pulling away fully to grab his suitcase.





I have no idea where Autumns tattoo- uh... markings are, but I did save him to bin with them, so I'll just have to transfer that version of him over before next chapter. Jaydean and Sophie's stockings, and Josh's outfit, were installed via launcher, and I forgot to reinstall all that stuff before playing. I'll add them back next time.
 And no, I never usually use the word 'sinch', that's American. Most of you are from the US, and I didn't think you'd know what 'pimp-squeak', or 'pimpsy' meant.