Arthur had spent every summer sine he was five years old at his family's lake house.

Simply put, he absolutely loathed the place, especially when he was a child. The house was creaky and small, the lake was always too cold to swim in even on the warmest of days, it didn't have a television or a phone, the roof leaked every time it rained, and there was no one even close to his age in the area. The summer's he spent at the lake house were the most boring days in his year, and he detested going.

The lake house was boring, it was lonely, and despite his most desperate pleas, his parents dragged him there every summer until he went off to university. At least, he hated it until the year he turned seven; life became much more interesting that year. For even though Arthur didn't know it, this was the summer he was going to meet his soul mate.

He had only been there for six days so far, and it had rained for every single one of them. At the age of seven, Arthur had not yet fully discovered the joys of reading, so the only entertainment he could find was exploring the woods behind the house, and his mother wouldn't let him go out when it was raining. Arthur was bored of lying around the house and of feeling the water dripping through the roof and plopping onto his head.

And so, on the sixth day, he was ecstatic to notice the sun peek through the clouds half-way through the afternoon. Yelling good bye to his mother (and ignoring her request to take a sweater,) he ran outside to joyfully greet the sunshine. He ran down to the pebble beach of the lake, smiling as his shoes squelched in the soggy grass. He looked happily across the lake and started when he noticed a child close to his age standing on the opposite shore.

He couldn't see them too terribly well, but since they had shoulder-length blonde hair and was wearing a white sundress, it was rather safe to assume that they were a girl. Arthur loathed girls.

She seemed to notice him just then, because she looked up and offered him a bright grin and a cherry wave. Arthur was not so friendly in return, however, because girls were truly icky. Instead of friendly smile or even a slight wave, he stuck his tongue out and glowered darkly at her. A look of surprise passed over her face, before one of fury took it over and set up camp. She stuck her tongue out at him as retaliation.

Arthur couldn't stand for that of course. Leaning down to pick up the largest rock he spotted, he threw it as far as he could across the lake. It landed near her shore with a heavy plop. The girl's scowl grew darker as she leant down to pick up a stone of her own. She hurtled it across the lake, and despite the fact that she threw it as hard as she could; it didn't make it even halfway as far as Arthur's did. Arthur grinned triumphantly when he saw this; the girl couldn't throw at all! What a sissy.

With the sense of triumph washing over him, he picked up another rock and threw it across the lake, crowing with delight when it flew far enough to splash the girl's dress. She yelped as the icy water hit her, and angrily screamed something that Arthur couldn't quite make out. He did, however, pick up on the accent she spoke in. She was French.

Arthur had never hated someone so much in his short life. It was the beginning of a hatred that would last for years to come.