"Ray!... Rayyyyyyyy!" I banged on the door of his apartment. "Come out, I'll apologize for yesterday!"

To my surprise the door opened to reveal his mother, Isabella, looking rather annoyed through her fake smile. She sighed.

"You've got be the loudest 13 year old girl I know." She laughed. "You can just knock."

I leaned away. "I'm sorry about that, ma'am." Peering over her shoulder I saw my target, who looked annoyed. The two don't really differ when it comes to me."

"I'm assuming you're here for Ray?" She turned around and called to him. "Why don't you two go somewhere else and play, I want to salvage my home."

"She's not a tornado, mom." He walked over, putting on his shoes and dragging me away. "I'll be back."

"Have fun." She waved as we walked away, closing the door behind her.

Smiling, I turned towards Ray. "Yay, you're not ignoring me." I went into a hug but was quickly denied.

"I came because I had to and I want to her you grovel."

Sweat formed on my face. "Well I didn't say I would grovel I said I'd apologize, which reminds me." I came full stop and put him in front of me, putting on the most serious face I could muster.

"Ray, I am deeply sorry for my action that resulted in you being lectured for 2 hours by your mom." I hung my head in shame, keeping an eye open to see how he'd react.

Nothing. What more did he want from me?

I took a deep breath. "From the bottom of my heart I'll never do something like that again."

He crossed his arms. "Admit to what you did in your apology."

I groaned. "What am I supposed to write a whole essay for my apology?"

"Don't give me ideas."

"Okay fine," I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for letting a bird into your house, and I'm sorry you got hurt, also for the blood on you're carpet."

Ray grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "You're a monster, I had to deal with that damn birds aftermath even though I had no part in it. I'm gonna have scars, those gloves did nothing!"

"I'm so sorry!" I yelled as he stopped shaking me. "You can get revenge if you want, I deserve it."

He scoffed. "I know you do..." he looked at the scratches on my arms. "But I'm better than that so your remorse will do, and you also helped clean up a bit I guess." He sighed.

I beamed. "So are we friends again?"

"We never stopped being friends, idiot." He pat my hair. "Anyway, you wanna do something. I already left home so might as well."

"You really do forgive and forget, don't you?"

—

"Emma, I asked if you wanted to do something, implying it being just us." He pointed towards the other kids I'd gathered. "Why are we in a group?"

"'Cause I wanna play soccer." I smiled.

Ray face palmed and rubbed his eyebrows, sighing in defeat. "One game, you're on the opposite team."

"That was the plan anyway." I called out towards the other kids. "Okay Ray and I will choose the teams, he'll go first."

"Norman." Ray called out immediately.

Damn, he really went for the best option. He may be weak but boy was he smart.

"Don, come'er." I pointed.

We kept calling out who we wanted on our teams and eventually we're left with one odd man, Gilda, to be our referee.

"Ready... Start!" She whistled.

I took that chance to get started it didn't take long to the other side, working with the others on my team. The hard part was getting through the goalie, Barbara, someone a few years older than me. She was a bit scary.

"Emma, get it!" Violet called out sending me the ball flying.

I nearly received it before Ray stole the ball.

"Ah, Ray!" I chased after him. "Bastard." I whispered to myself.

Running after him wasn't difficult, taking the ball back was. Passing between him and Norman, nearly getting a goal in before I was able to steal it back. Kicking it towards Don on the other side, who quickly used the opportunity to make a goal, barely making it in.

"Point to team Emma!" Gilda called.

I stopped to catch my breath, looking over at Ray.

"You only won cause you're athletic." Ray said in-between breaths.

I smiled. "Duh, strategy can only get you so far in this game."

"We'll see." He walked away, preparing for the next part of the game.

The rest of the game went well, with both of us getting in enough points to leave us 2-2. It was getting late and we were going for a tie breaker.

"Ready! Go!" Gilda yelled.

Ayshe quickly got the ball and ran towards Barbara, who was just as alert as usual. I ran ahead, ready to receive the ball as soon as she was ready to pass it. Of course the devil himself had to intervene when the time came.

"Thanks for the ball, Ayshe!" Ray called out.

"Ah, hey!" I shouted, running after him.

I bumped shoulders with him trying to steal the ball and ended up in a game of tug of war with him and ball. As we fought for the ball he started talking.

"You've really slowed down, Emma. You don't usually struggle this much to get the ball back."

"And you usually aren't this good at sports, usually pathetic."

"You know that's not true." He rebutted.

"You're right, still bad compared to me."

Finally I was able to take the ball back, taking it and passing it towards Ayshe where she finished it off.

"Team Emma wins!" She called out.

I smiled and looked over the Ray, who looked away.

"I guess maybe strategy doesn't always win."

—

"Ah, how fun." I said as we claimed upstairs.

"Ah, how sweaty." Ray grimaced.

I slapped his back. "Come on, Ray! Cheer up, you almost won! That's better than most." I leaned towards him, and he looked away, all red in the face. "Sorry for the trash talk too, you're never disappointing to go against."

You could see a smile form on his face. "Obviously, I'm good at everything."

We shared a laugh, just between us.

—-

I wrote a side story for y'all, enjoy. I know I had fun writing this