Miles walked into his apartment to find Charlie already sitting there, waiting for him in a chair that faced the doorway.
"Why are you stalking me?" He questioned.
"I'm not stalking you," Charlie insisted as she suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.
"Really? Because you've got me fooled with this whole lurking in my apartment, waiting for me like some kind of Bond villain thing," Miles commented. "Especially when this is the fourth time I've seen you in three days."
"Well, if you would just give me an answer, then I would stop showing up to ask you," she pointed out.
"I gave you an answer," he responded. "I've given you the same answer every time. I just haven't given you the answer you're looking for."
"Please?" She tried once again. Her eyes suddenly began to water as she stared up at him.
She clearly expected him to budge.
"No," he insisted. "How many times do I have to tell you that's not going to work on me this time?"
She blinked up at him and somehow her damn doe eyes looked even sadder.
"Why can't Ben do it?" Miles complained. "He's more your dad than I am."
"I already told you he's going with Danny," she argued.
"Can't he go with both of you?" Miles struggled.
"That's not how it works," Charlie insisted. "Everyone competes as a pair with their dad... And technically you are mine too."
"You seriously want me to compete against Ben as your dad?" Miles grunted out. "How does that sound like a good idea to you?"
"He's the one who told me to ask you," Charlie pointed out. "It'll be fine. I swear."
Miles sighed. The kid was laying it on thick, but he could think of thousands of things he would rather spend his time on than some lame all-day father-child competition. The fact that it was bound to be awkward, no matter whether Ben had supported the idea of him being there or not, only made it that much worse.
"Please?" She begged. "I promise it'll be fun."
He strongly doubted that.
"Fine."
"Great," Charlie told him as a beaming smile brightened her features. "I'll see you Saturday."
Before he had the chance to respond, the door to his apartment had already closed behind her.
"You didn't tell me how lame all of these activities were going to be," Miles muttered. "Seriously? There's going to be a three-legged race?"
Charlie completely ignored his sour mood as she assured him, "Don't worry. We're going to do great."
As she walked off to go talk to her brother, Miles mumbled to himself, "I really wasn't all that concerned."
As Charlie chatted with Danny, Ben came over to talk to his brother.
"Don't tell me you're actually excited about being stuck in this hell-hole all day," Miles begged when he saw the wide smile on his brother's lips.
"So what if I am?" Ben questioned.
"This whole thing is completely lame and corny," Miles pointed out. "You do realize that, right?"
"That's right," Ben responded without a hint of surprise in his voice. "I'm sure Miles Matheson is way too cool for all of this, but Charlie Matheson is pretty excited about it. For her sake, try to enjoy yourself. Or at least pretend to."
The first competition was a scavenger hunt. Each team was given a clue that would lead them to ten more clues, the last of which would lead them to the finish line. The pairs would get different points depending on when they got to the end.
Charlie only made it halfway through reading out the first clue before she had figured out where the next one was and had run off. Miles was perfectly fine with that. The less he had to do, the better.
She got more and more excited as she figured out hint after hint on her own. Scavenger hunts were her thing and she was so caught up in the competition that she didn't seem to notice that he was contributing nothing beyond following her around.
They reached the end first and Charlie was clearly thrilled. Miles faked a smile and waited for the other teams to roll in.
Tom and Jason Neville showed up next, with Ben and Danny shortly behind them. Bass and Connor made it next and, as they waited for the rest of the teams, Bass came over to talk to Miles.
Miles was more than a little surprised to find that his friend seemed to actually be enjoying himself.
"Don't tell me that you actually want to be here," he muttered.
"Of course I do," Bass responded. "Don't tell me you aren't ready for a little competition."
Miles let out a sigh. Clearly Bass was too clouded by the fact that Connor had actually asked him to participate in a father-son thing to realize how horrible this whole thing actually was.
The next competition was capture the flag. Before the game began, each team was given time to hide their flags. Points were to be awarded based on the order the flags were found. Whichever team's flag lasted the longest would get the most points.
Charlie and Miles had been walking for a while when he finally asked, "So where do you want to-"
He didn't get to finish asking where she wanted to hide it before Charlie began climbing up a particularly tall tree.
Miles glanced up and saw that she had stopped about two-thirds of the way up the tree. If she fell from there, odds were high that she would break something. But the kid was like a monkey and the flag might still be visible from there. Besides, the higher it was the harder it would be for other teams to get it down.
"Here?" Charlie questioned.
Miles shook his head, then called out, "Higher."
There. He helped. Now Ben could be happy and not lecture him about pretending to care about this stupid competition.
When it was time for the teams to begin searching for flags, Ben immediately turned to his son and asked, "Where is the most dangerous place she could have hidden it?"
Danny thought it over for a split second, then responded, "At the top of a tree."
Charlie started off with a similar strategy and began searching for her brother and father's flag. It turned out to be more well-hidden than she was expecting and after several minutes she gave up on trying to think of where he might have hidden it and decided instead to search everywhere for everyone's.
A few minutes later, Miles spotted a large, heavy looking, rock and remembered a time when Bass had retaliated against one of his sisters always stealing his stuff by taking something of hers and hiding it under a rock in their yard.
"Help me move this," he told Charlie.
She looked at him like he was crazy, but he just looked at her expectantly.
She reluctantly came over and helped him lift up the rock and was surprised to find that there was a flag underneath. She dragged it out with her foot, then asked Miles, "How did you know that was there?"
Once the challenge was over, it turned out that Danny and Ben had found Miles and Charlie's flag first. Tom and Jason Neville's flag was the last one found. That put Charlie and Miles behind them and they were no longer far ahead of Connor and Bass.
Miles found himself annoyed by that. There was no way in hell that he wanted to lose to the Tom Neville or Bass and his dimwit.
By the time they got to the last activity, the three-legged race that Miles had been dreading most, Tom and Jason were neck in neck with Charlie and Miles. If either of them won, they would win the whole competition. Bass and Connor still stood a chance, but Danny and Ben were no longer competing for the win. Neither were Eve and Brad Jaffe or Heather and Joe Matthews.
The race began and Charlie and Miles quickly fell behind as they took drastically different strides. Miles glanced around at the other teams and noticed that they didn't have a chance of winning with their current strategy, so he decided to switch tactics and came to a complete stop.
Charlie's foot caught and she turned to give him a questioning look, but he just smirked back at her and snaked an arm around her waist. His other hand grabbed onto hers that was already around his shoulders and she let out a surprised sound as he lifted her off the ground, with one of her ankles still bound to his own.
Other teams slowed down or stopped altogether as they looked up to try to figure out what was going on as Charlie began to screech and laugh. The pair took the lead within a matter of seconds as Miles ran as fast as his legs could carry him while he carried Charlie.
She was still laughing as they stumbled over the finish line.
Charlie was thrilled to have won and, okay, maybe Miles was pretty happy about it too. Tom Neville, however, was throwing a fit immediately.
"You have got to be kidding me!" He shouted out. "There is no way that counts. He carried her!"
Connor looked like he wasn't much happier with the result as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"We only used three legs, Tom," Miles pointed.
Charlie smirked at Miles' defending their win. He could feel her gaze on him and turned and asked, "What?"
"Admit it, you enjoyed yourself today," she told him.
"No, I didn't," he argued.
"Yes you did," she insisted. "You wouldn't have competed that hard if you really didn't care about the competition at all."
"I cared about beating Bass," Miles defended himself.
"I thought it was just some dumb competition," she taunted. "You had fun. Admit it."
"It is a dumb competition," he responded. "But what can I say? I had a good teammate."
A/N: Please read and review! Thanks for reading. :)