Rebellion

I sit on the hill and look over the city. I watch as the round cars pass by at lightning speed and the big, glass skyscrapers of Romania reach the skies. Aarin sits next to me. She laughs.

“Have you heard about the new gadget shop that opened last weekend?” She asks.

Her short, blond hair sways in the wind. Her eyes are big and grey like her brother’s.

“Yeah, I did!” I exclaim. “Daddy promised to take Rufus and me this weekend.”

I grin. Aarin smiles back and I see her small dimples form at the corners of her perfect mouth. We are silent for a moment. I look around. The sky is grey and there is a strange fog lying around. It must be the pollution. It always comes and goes, as it seems.

There is a nudge on my upper arm. I look around to see Aarin grinning and casually showing off her blue trainers.

“What?” I ask, confused. “Did you get new shoes?”

She rolls her eyes and sighs.

“They’re converse!” She says.

“Okay…” I say, not understanding what’s going on.

“They’re like from the 1920’s!” She exclaims. “Imagine that! Nearly 300 years ago!”

I raise an eyebrow. “Since when were you an expert on shoes?”

She sighs.

“Don’t you remember?” She asks. “We were talking about what shoes were like in the early 1900’s.”

“Nope.” I say.

“Well that covers it,” she says in an annoyed tone of voice. “You simply don’t hear anything in class.”

I hear a touch of her French accent. I can always hear it when she gets annoyed.

“It’s not my fault that I don’t like history,” I say. I hear my British accent become stronger. “I mean why should we have history at all? They’re all dead anyway.”

“Oh Harper,” she says, rolling her eyes.

She leans back and lies onto the dry grass. She looks at her big, white, watch and looks at the time.

“Jesus,” she says, sitting straight up again. “We’re going to be late for the zilchball match! Where is your brother?”

I shrug.

“Don’t worry,” I say, calmly. “Rufus is always late.”

“And he’s making us late too!” She says. Her French accent is picking in again. She’s annoyed.

Right then I hear someone walk behind us.

“Hello, ladies.”

We turn around to see a tall young boy with thick, wavy, brown hair and big, dark blue eyes. He looks just like his father.

“Sorry I’m late,” Rufus says.

“Well be careful next time,” Aarin says, standing up. “Doesn’t that phone of yours have a clock?”

Rufus looks at me questionably and I shrug back. I walk up to him and pat his head.

“What’s up little bro?” I say, nudging him.

“You’re such a dork,” he says, rolling his eyes and then he gives me a smile back.

When we reach the zilchball field, I take off my jacket and reveal my blue zilchball uniform. It’s a white t-short with a blue Z in the middle and a blue circle around it and then tight, black pants. I take all my auburn hair and put it in a ponytail. Then I put on my blue and white sweatband and strap on my gloves. I run over to Aarin and Rufus who are waiting for me in their own uniforms.

“I’m so stressed out!” Aarin says when I reach them.

“Don’t worry,” I say. “If we do as we practiced, we can win those bastards.”

I give her a smile and she smiles shakily back.

“Where’s your twin?” I ask, looking around.

“I don’t know,” Aarin replies, whining. “Unlike Rufus, Blaze is never late. Something must be wrong!”

She starts panicking. I place my hand on her shoulders.

“Sshh…” I say. “Relax, relax.”

“We’re going to lose! We’re going to lose!” Aarin says, jumping up and down.

“Sorry I’m late, guys,” I hear a familiar, soothing voice behind me.

I turn around. A stocky boy with messy, blond hair and big, grey eyes looks at me.

“Blaze!” Aarin cries out and throws her arms around him. “Where the hell were you?”

“Sorry,” he says, surprised. “I couldn’t find my uniform.”

“How could you do this to me, I thought something happened to you!” Aarin says, giving him a small punch on his strong, muscly chest.

“You thought something bad happened because I was five minutes late?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes!” She says. He shakes his head and rolls his eyes.

Blaze is Aarin’s twin brother. He is one of the most popular boys in the school even though his family’s from the working class. I guess he’s just that handsome.

I hear the chief’s, the person who keeps track of the game and scores, whistle. The game is about to start.

Zilchball is a sport where everyone wears magnetic gloves and there is a ball, the ruffle, that’s made of magnets. The ruffle is placed in the middle on a hovering platform and then it shoots up in the air. The aim of the game is to get the ruffle with the magnetic gloves, pass it to your teammates and then get the ruffle back onto the platform that’s in the middle. The field is diamond shaped and is split into two. There is one blocker in each team who is placed in front of the goal, two runners on either side of the blocker, three middlemen in the middle of the field and one catcher at the far end of the field. I myself am a middleman.

Each goal is 3 points and minus one point for the opposite team. Although there is a reflector in each corner of the field which if the ruffle goes into it, it bounces back out and if it goes straight into the goal it’s five points for whoever touched the ruffle last.

“Okay, places everybody!” My coach calls.

All of the people in blue scatter around the field, facing the platform in the middle. Then the reds come in and take their places.

“Are you ready?” The chief calls out. “Shuffle the ruffle!”

The ruffle shoots up in the air.

I put my hand up and try to get the ruffle to come towards me. It drops down closer and closer towards me. I am about to catch when it swooshes past me. A tall boy from the red team catches it. He starts running forward, trying not to lose the ball out of his hands. He tightens his grip. He throws the ball to his teammate who is just by my side. I put out my hand and concentrate on the ball. The ball slows down and flies into my hands. I start running forwards. Reds start swarming around me. I start losing the grip of the ball. I look around, trying to find one of my teammates. I catch a glimpse of Blaze. I decide I must try to throw it to him but I mustn’t ruin it! Otherwise he’ll think that I am just another girl who can’t play zilchball, just another wannabe.

Harper! What are you doing? This isn’t you. This is Blaze Genesis, for Christ’s sake, Aarin’s brother!

Suddenly the ball starts tugging and I let it go. I snap back to reality. A strong looking girl from the other team caught it. I put out my hand to try to get the ball back.

What have you done? Now you’ve made a total fool of yourself in front of Blaze! Now he’ll think that you’re a total loser.

“Harper!” I suddenly hear someone call out to me. “Harper, watch out.”

Blaze is pointing towards something behind me. I turn around. Suddenly something hits me hard in the head and I fall down to the cold ground. I feel great pain on my forehead. Everything is black.