The Tale of Two Best Friends (Dee)

“Carter, Carter. Mama said you can help me with my homework.”

Carter turned from his own homework to see his little brother Simon standing there with a sheet of paper in his small hands. At the age of 6, Simon was number 4 of 5 children, which meant he was the one most forgotten at the market, the one who was pushed around until someone had the time to help him. It was rather unfortunate too, but the kid still managed to worm his way into people’s hearts. “Sami couldn’t help you?” Carter teased Simon. He watched as little brother made a face and replied, “Sami’s a baby. She can’t do big kid stuff.” Carter laughed at Simon’s response before lifting him up onto his lap. Carter wasn’t particularly strong, but just like the rest of the family, Simon was small and hardly heavy. “Can I help you later? I got homework to do.”

“Carter, it’s Liam!” The sound of his sister’s voice rang through the house, notifying Carter that his best friend was at the door of his house. “Nope, definitely can’t help you right now. Tonight, okay?” He didn’t wait to hear a response from his little brother, knowing that Simon was just happy that Carter would eventually help him. He quickly ran down the hall and past the kitchen before he was stopped by his mother. “Did you help Simon?” Carter was going to have to be sweet. “I would have…but it’s Liam. C’mon, Mama, just let me go out for a bit.” His mother raised an eyebrow before nodding her head towards the door. “Tell Liam I said hello. And you better not be playing with your father’s axe!” she added as Carter ran to the door. “Okay, Mama. And I’ll help Simon tonight, I promise!”

Smiling, he walked to the open door that his sister had left open. Just as Celia had said, Liam was standing in the doorway. “Hey! Good thing you came, man. Homework’s being a real drag right now. What do you want to do?” He couldn’t help it, but all the words just spilled out like he hadn’t seen Liam in ages.



OOC: Sorry I don't have a template for Carter yet, but I wanted to get a response up as soon as possible.

I turn my eyes to the axe in his hand and give him a little smile. Of course he brought his axe with him; he has been trying to beat me for a while now, and although he sometimes does, poor guy has to think of strategies to beat me. I’m actually not that good, but for some reason I’m incredibly lucky when it comes to throwing axes and the fact that I want to keep beating Liam has only made me better. Still, I’ve been trying to curb my habit to throw axes, especially after Papa found out I was taking his axes.

But Carter and I have always been doing this and it had been a while—few days really—since we had last thrown axes so I saw no harm in indulging myself today. Plus, homework had been a real drain for me and I wanted to do something fun. “Nah, I’m game. I just have to get the axe.” After what had happened, I managed to get an axe of my own and hid it in a little spot I dug up. This axe wasn’t as good as Papa’s axes, but it did the job and I knew that once I started adjusting to it, I would get that old luck and skill back. For the meantime though, Liam had been getting really close to beating me. I will never let that happen. “Just wait here. I’ll be back in a second,” I tell Liam as I trot off to the hiding spot behind the house.

It’s a good thing we don’t have any digging pets, because my hiding spot would have definitely been uncovered already. The family is big enough as it is and the last thing Mama wants to do is worry about another mouth. None of us really play in the area behind the house anyway; the untended wild grass only showed proof of that. I quickly retrieved the axe and run back to the front side of the house, leaving it limp by my side in hopes that Mama doesn’t look out the window and see the axe in my hand. “Let’s go.” I don’t even bother to stop when I tell Liam to head out. It isn’t until I’m halfway to the woods that I realize I have no idea where we’re going. Stopping, I turn to Liam. “Do you know where we're going?"




OOC: Agh, I have a thing with matching the tense/pov with the person I'm RP-ing with so sorry for the sudden tense/pov change. I should have caught it the first time.

I look at Liam waiting for an answer. It really doesn’t matter to me, but I just want to make sure that I don’t ruin any plans he might have made already. I watch him look into the forest, and I laugh as he says he has no clue. I feel like we never have a plan when it comes to hanging out, but that’s just how we do things and I kinda like that. It’s different with being Liam than with my family. With my family, there’s always something to do, but with Liam, we just make things up as we go. It’s hard to do that in a family with five kids.

“No problem, let’s go find a good stump to work with.” I’ve never had any trouble with aiming at trees as long as the throw is horizontal, but I want to challenge myself by throwing it downward. We talked about something like this in class with velocity and all that, but really I just want to try something new. “Maybe you can beat me with downward throws,” I quip at Liam as I jab him in the arm. Even if Liam does beat me—which he won’t if I have anything to say about it—I’ll never stop making fun of him, and I know he’ll be cool with that.

That’s just how best buddies are.

“Hey, there’s a really sweet spot about 50 meters east of the mill. You wanna try there? There shouldn’t be a lot of people around there since they worked in that area a few months ago, and there’s enough tree cover that no one will spot us.” It’s not a big deal, but I’ve always had my eye on that place and I want to try it out before the workers start coming back. It won’t be at least another year, but I’m not taking my chances.

I grin as Liam agrees to go there. I knew there wouldn’t be any trouble persuading him to go to the spot; what matters is that we can have fun. A bit of movement directs my gaze back to Liam, just in time to see him adjust his grip with a huge smile on his face. The minute he says “race”, I laugh. The competition is already starting and I will not let him win. But he has a head start on me and he has longer legs than I do. It’s just a matter of time, though, before I can train myself to be faster than him.

With a little hop, I start running as well, the warmth already spreading to my covered legs as I move them as fast as I can. My breath is already starting to shorten, but I have to beat him. He is still in sight but I can barely hear his laugh as he still has an advantage over me. As much as I want to laugh and have as much fun as him, I take this like any other mental run and my face hardens as I pump my legs faster to reach him. It’s not enough, though, as he makes it to the spot before I do.

Gasping for breath, I close my eyes and try to bring myself to a “fun” sense of mind. I know that it was all for good fun, but after mentally hardening myself, I have to give myself a few seconds to recover. I don’t want Liam to see me on the brink of wheezing, though, so I turn my head away and force myself to take deep breaths. A cough reaches my throat but I suppress it before it can escape.

It doesn’t take long for me to recover and when I do, I look at Liam with a smile. “Okay, you beat me this time. But don’t expect me to let you win the throwing part.” My smile stretches into a grin.


OOC: Sorry this is late; I was travelling one day and my internet was down for a few days. Also, I hope you don't mind that I made Liam win the race. It just seemed logical.

When Liam smiles, my eyes narrow wondering if he’s making fun of me, before I decide that he’s probably just going along with it. He doesn’t even respond to my challenge, but instead asks where the spot is. I have to gather a few more breaths before I stand up tall and look around me. When my eyes spot the stump, a grin appears on my face. I point at the stump and I can feel the adrenaline coursing through my body again. “Right there.” I turn to face Liam with a mischievous smile. “Do you want to try from back here?” It’s a high demand, but I can think of no other way to start off.

Walking over to the spot would have been a drag and it was so close that even racing would seem pointless. Plus, it would give us an opportunity for us to work on our arm strength along with our accuracy. My face is expectant as I wait for Liam to respond. Who knows? Maybe he’ll be able to reach the stump with his throw while mine falls short—but I laugh a little inside my mind. It’s not that I don’t have faith in Liam’s ability—he is rather strong—but I know that there is a better chance that we both miss the stump than him making the stump alone.

“We won’t even have to aim for the center of the stump. Whoever can make it to the stump wins.” The grin on my face matches his.


OOC: Sorry it's so short. I've been in the mindset of writing blitz posts.