Laconic » a.i

5.1

//ashton//

A week later and Cooper was getting used to everything but she still acted weird sometimes. There were times where she'd just sit on the couch and stare at nothing or she'd start mumbling to herself or both. But on the bright side, she finally knew who everyone was and just accepted it without a complaint. The only downside was that she sometimes forgot that she was who we were talking to when we called her Cooper.

The only person she still didn't know about was Ella, but in the chaos of getting Bridgette back, she just sort of slipped everyone's minds.

We'd still been at Cal's house and so far, we had no plans for leaving since Marcus and the freaky witches probably still thought we were in London, and Sarah hadn't said anything about sensing them near us. I continued to stay in Bridgette's room since she was still scared and because she seemed to enjoy having me there, which I also enjoyed.

But Noel was also kind of moody because her and Cal have had to postpone celebrating their three-year anniversary because of everything going on. Calum wanted to stay with his family and help with Cooper, and while Noel was concerned about her too, she probably just really wanted to get it in since they probably hadn't in a while.

It was about afternoon-ish and we were all sitting in the kitchen with Calum's mom and sister. Mali-Koa hadn't really said or done anything unless she was talking to her mom but when she did, we couldn't hear what they were saying. It was probably either about Mali -- Calum had said their mom was working on something to try and make Mali forget me in a way -- or about Bridgette.

"We'll be back," Mrs. Hood finally said, grabbing her purse from the counter. Mali-Koa followed after her to the front door. "Don't do anything dumb."

After the door closed we stayed quiet, looking around at each other. Why did they have to go so quickly?

"I was thinking of dying my hair." Luke broke the silence, looking around at the rest of us.

Calum leaned across the table and whacked him in the back of the head, "You're an idiot."

-

We gathered in the backyard because Calum wanted to play a game of soccer since he hadn't gotten to in a while. We were sitting on the lawn in front of Calum while he stood with the ball under one foot.

"I'm captain," he announced. "So who wants to be the other captain?"

"I will." Jeremy volunteered before standing up. I'd known that Jeremy played the game back at his old school.

"Since when do you-"

"I was captain back at my old school," he cut in, stealing the ball out from under Calum's foot and kicking it up to bounce back and forth between his knees. He bounced it off his chest and let it go back to Calum. "So are you going to pick or what?"

"Ooh, shots fired." Luke coughed.

"Shut up," Calum sneered. "I pick Ashton."

I let go of Bridgette's hand -- she always held my hand, which made me really happy -- before I stood and walked to Calum's side.

Jeremy hummed as he thought before pointing to the now-white-haired girl, "Annie."

"Why her? You don't even know if she can play well." Calum said.

He shrugged, "Because she's a ghost hunter so she has to be pretty fast and stuff, right?"

"Whatever," he scoffed. "Noel."

"Sarah."

"Michael."

"Luke."

That left Emily and Bridgette but no one knew if Bridgette even wanted to play. Calum and Jeremy looked between each other.

"Should she play?" Calum wondered.

Jeremy shrugged before turning to his sister, "Bridge, are you up for playing?"

She looked up from picking grass out of the ground, "Um, playing what?"

"Soccer," he replied. "Do you remember how to play?"

She shrugged, "It's the one where you kick the ball, right?"

"Yeah, into the net."

"Yeah."

"Alright," Calum said. "I'll let you have your sister. Em, you're with me."

Emily jogged over to our team while Jeremy went to help his sister off the ground.

"How will we differentiate between teams?" Luke asked.

"Why don't we switch it and do boys verses girls?" Annie suggested, cocking an eyebrow.

Everyone shared looks before silently agreeing on it. All of the guys moved to one side of the yard while the girls went to the other. Noel brought Bridgette over to the goal which would probably be best for her. Then she met Calum at the center of the yard where he'd put the ball.

He counted down from three to one and then they both went after the ball. Noel got to it first, kicking it across to Annie. She ran with it toward Michael who served as our goalie. Luke ran up behind her, his long legs helping catch up since she was so fast, and took it from her, running back the other way. He somehow managed to dodge Emily before kicking it over to Jeremy before Sarah could intercept. Jeremy kicked it back to Luke once he was open again and he kicked it toward the net -- it didn't seem like he kicked it as hard as he could, though.

No one thought Cooper would do anything but she actually dove for the ball. She blocked it before it went into the left side of the net and smiled brightly at him. Everyone stopped and gaped at her.

"You're going easy. Don't." she told him before throwing the ball to Emily who was completely open in the middle of the yard.

She hit it with her chest, getting it back on the ground in front of her before running in the opposite direction. She kicked it up in the air towards Annie. As the ball came toward her, she flipped frontwards onto her hands, kicking the ball toward Michael. It sunk in to the left side.

"Holy shit," Calum breathed, standing next to me. All of the guys were speechless as the girls squealed and high-fived each other. "We're fucking dead."

-

After thirty minutes of playing, the score was 7-3 in favor of the girls. Sarah and Bridgette had switched places, and Bridgette was actually good at getting and keeping the ball. Currently, I was chasing after her, trying to get it but she was quick on her feet and quite nimble. She'd go sharp one way and I'd almost fall over.

She kicked the ball to Noel who was parallel to her on the other side of the yard and also open. Noel got it easily and Bridgette stopped running abruptly, making me run into her. She had one foot braced in front of her to hold her up so after I crashed into her, I stumbled backwards. She turned and laughed, holding out a hand. I just pulled her down on top of me, both of us giggling uncontrollably.

For someone who lost their memory, Bridgette was acting pretty well. Then again, even before she knew any of us, she acted pretty well.

"What?" Michael questioned. We both looked over to see Noel had stopped right in front of the goal.

We got up and jogged over with everyone else. Calum stood in front of her with his hands on her shoulders, "What is it?"

"E-Ella," she stammered, looking terrified. "We need to go. Now."

"Why?" Calum pressed as everyone connected in some way.

"Her future; she's going to die."

-

also if y'all listen to the first line or two of Afire Love by ed sheeran you'll notice it's literally ashton and cooper's situation and i laughed so hard

**future me update: this still makes me laugh