Tag [You're it]

Chapter 1.

Naomi.
Thursday  June 18th.

People  are always asking
"Why Olivia? You are literally nothing alike?" And  with that, I have to agree. We literally are the most different people in our school. I love reading, she loves playing football. I love painting she loves climbing. Even our music taste is different, I like Ariana Grande, she likes a band called Lovejoy, or something like that.

Anyway, I'm sure by now you can tell we are clearly nothing alike, yet we are best friends. We may not agree on everything, but I'd still run a marathon, or climb a mountain for her, and she'd do the same for me. But in her case, it'd be read a book or write one.

"Olivia, stop!"
I'm in my garden, drinking lemonade, as Olivia is trying to prod me with a stick. When she turns around, I get up and hide behind a bush, hoping she'll give up and put down the stick. Apparently, I forgot that its Olivia, she doesn't give up. I peer over the bush to see her now putting worms on it. Anyone would believe she was 7, not in year 10. She prowls around the garden for 5, 10, 15 minutes and just as she's about to put down the stick my 11 year old sister, Niki, storms out, looks around then goes
"Naomi? Why are you in the Bush?"
She snatches away the branch I was hiding behind. "And also mom says you need to help me with homewo-"
Niki is interrupted by Olivia running towards us with a stick of worms.
"You guys are weird." She says, stomping back off into the house.
Me and Olivia exchange glances, then burst into laughter.

I go inside to find my phone ringing, it's an unknown number.  Confused,I pass the phone to Olivia and without thinking she answers it.
"Hello? Who is this"
"Chase"
"Chase like Naomi's ex Chase?"
"Yeah I guess."
"Oh ok. Tall or short?"
"Tall"
"Ohh now I know you! Tall chase!"
"Sure"
"Brown or blue eyes?"
"Brown"
"Oh. So you're not tall Chase."
"Im not?"
"No you're tall Chase #2"
"Ah. Ok"
"So why did you call?"
"I didn't. You did?"
"No I don't think that's right."
"Whatever."

"He hung up" she says. "Thats weird." I say. She looks at me. "You think?" She says her eyes rolling. I smirk.

Olivia leaves mine at about 8 PM, when I get a message from an unknown number. However, it's not the same one. Confused I open my messages and read;

"Who wants to play a game?"

I screenshot it and send it straight to Olivia and just as I tap on her contact to wait for her reply, I see something that makes my heart stop. Olivia has sent a screenshot of the exact same message, from the same number, sent to her phone.

***

"Thank lord for Fridays right?" Olivia says at school the next day, pulling out my airpods.
"I would actually like to listen to this you know" I say, rolling my eyes.
"What is it?" She asks, but before I can answer she's already put the airpod in her ear.
"Doja cat?"
"Yeah!" I say.
"Hang on"
I see her connect my airpods to her Bluetooth, then go onto Spotify.
"Really?" I say.
She plays a song she listens to practically every day, called Heatwaves I think. It's not a bad song I guess, all I know is that it has something to do with Minecraft from what she's told me.
                                    ***
I walk into English just before 13:00, for the school Newspaper meetings. I pull out my Chromebook, and start typing.
I write the Sports page for the School Newspaper (The Bay-Front  High School Paper. I know very original.) Preferably, the general upcoming events at school would have been an  ideal  topic for me to writeabout, however that was already taken. And Olivia thought it would be cool for me to write about her in the sports section.

I look out the window, to see Liv score a goal, her team is winning. I smile proudly, like a mom watching her eight year old daughter at a ballet performance. Glancing back to my laptop, I continue typingout the article, checking the scoreboard every few seconds. "The Bay-Front High Sophomore team take the lead, 2 points in front of the Eastwood High team, making them most likely to be on the bottom half of the California, ten team football league." I type.

Rachel Golding, writer of the gossip page, peers over my shoulder. I get the feeling she doesn't exactly, well, like me.
"Football?" She asks, her nose wrinkling as she speaks. I look back at my work skim-reading the last paragraph. "Ah, football." I say. "You're not in sad, rainy, England any more." She says,sharply.
"Well it's not exactly sad-"
"Change it" she snaps, then struts back to her desk.

About 6 years ago, mine and Olivia's family moved from the UK to America, as my mom got an amazing job offer, but the only building that hadn't been shut down, or demolished was in central California.
However,  Olivia and her mom just decided they would come with us, even though they had one of the biggest estates in our town back home. I still have my British accent and vocabulary, however it's a complete different story for Liv. It still weirds me out when she talks to me sometimes, as she sounds different, in that weird way America has shaped her voice.

I take out my camera from my bag, pack away my Laptop, and head outside to the Soccer Pitch. Because most classes are online now, the Newspaper is online too. That means I have the extra job of recording 5 minutes of the game to post on there too.

As I make my way through the busy crowd, I spot a seat not vacated and quickly sit down. I start recording and everything is going great. Until, that is, things get heated with Olivia and her teammate,
Josh Michaels. I never liked him, there was always something shady about him i never understood. From what I can make out of the argument, Josh is a sexist idiot for not passing to Olivia or Millie Thornton, the only two girls on the team. I manage to record some muffles dialogue on the recording.
"You're such a bitch, Josh"

"Oh, you better shut your big British mouth."

"Or what? It's not that hard just pass me the ball. Are you scared I'm better than you?"
Suddenly, Josh runs to the other and of the pitch and kicks the ball, and for a second I think he's about to score a goal, or pass to Liv to make the winning shot. Then everyone watches it soar, up, up, and then at the speed of light, it hits Olivia square in the nose, sending her flying backwards. And I just caught it live on camera, and so did everyone at the game, and everyone watching our live newspaper.