We sat and ate our meal. Each of us silently eating as our mothers aimlessly conversed, bragged and lectured.

"...anyway, I come home and he's done that to his hair." Mrs Whit sighed, reaching over and touching Rai's hair as if it was about to jump from his head and bite her. Rai pulled away and rolled his eyes. I knew that look too well, I did that look so often. It was kind of a please don't embarrass me and tell this story again look.

I smirked at him and finished my last mouthful, wiping my mouth and sitting politely waiting for the others to finish.

"And he had such beautiful hair, it was like that boys...what's his name?...singer?...really popular with girls?" Mrs Whit babbled.

Mushi looked up. "Justin Bieber?"

"That's it!" Mrs Whit clicked her fingers. "He had hair like him...everybody liked his hair, why did you cut it off?"

I stifled a laugh. Any boy who had a haircut remotely like Justin Bieber's would be labelled as looking like him. No wonder he cut it.
Rai glared at his mother and shrugged.

"I just wanted a change." He shrugged.

Mrs Whit sighed. "But did you really have to do that to it?"

Rai rolled his eyes once more. "It's called punk mum."

My mum chuckled. "It's terrible when they reach grumpy teens isn't it?"

Mrs Whit hummed in agreement. "Yours hasn't even reached teens yet."

"Doesn't stop the adolescent attitude." My mum replied shaking her head.

I sighed. "Mum, can I be excused?"

"Why dear." She looked at me and asked.

I simply shrugged. "I said to Mr Holmes I'd walk his dog for him."

I could hear the ticking in my mothers head and see the thought that she was putting into whether she should allow me to go or not. Eventually she nodded.
"Okay, off you go."

"You want to come Rai?" I asked sweetly.

Rai nodded and stood up.

"Can I come?" Mushi asked.

"No." I replied sternly as the two of us walked out.

"...saying that I can't complain...She's very good." I heard my mother start to brag as I opened the door. "...she does a lot for the neighbours like walking their dogs for money, she wanted a dog but I said..."

I closed the door and sighed.

"Man, I don't know which mum's worse." Rai chuckled.

I laughed along with him. "I don't envy Mushi or our dads."

"I feel sorry for Mushi, but our dads will just drink deer, get drunk then get lectured by our mums for being a 'bad influence' and 'stupid'." Rai replied.

I laughed again. We walked to Mr Holmes' door and I got his sharpei puppy Apollo. We then walked around the park. Conversing happily as we walked.

We soon came to the open field, where Chad, Maurice, Hoagie and Wally were once again kicking a ball around. We walked over and joined them.

"Want to join in?" Maurice asked.

I shook my head. "I have to take care of the dog."

"I'm hanging with her." Rai shrugged.

"What?" Wally asked suspiciously.

"Our families are having dinner, we just escaped." I replied with a giggle.

For some reason, Wally looked at Rai as if he were some dangerous animal.

"Hey, We've got a gawper at four o'clock." Chad announced.

Wally stared at him in confusion. "What?"

"4 o'clock." Chad replied. "Aw, man don't tell me you don't understand what I'm saying?...think of a clock."

"Okay." Wally said, closing his eyes.

Chad tutted. "Now look at four 'o'clock."

"The big hand or the little one?" Wally asked.

Chad gave me a look as if to say how do you put up with him? And sighed again.
"Which one do you think?"

Wally opened his eyes and looked ahead of him.
Chad sighed an tutted again, walking and standing behind Wally, he grabbed his shoulders and rotated him.
"One..two...three...four o'clock."

We all looked to see Rachel Mckenzie sat on the bench staring at Wally.
What's she staring at Wally for? I asked myself. I thought she liked Nigel. There's no way she'd like Wally. She likes smart guys, he's just not her type.

Rachel smiled and stood up, beginning to walk over towards us.
"Hey." She smiled. "You guys playing soccer?"

"No, we're playing golf." Chad replied sarcastically.

Rachel glared at him and then looked back at Wally. "Didn't you say you wanted to be a soccer coach Numbuh 4?"

Wally shrugged. "I thought about it."

"Our girls team coach has just been decommissioned and we really need another one. Fancy giving it a go?" Rachel asked.

We all looked at him, he thought about it for a second. "I didn't know you had a girls soccer team."

Rachel nodded. "Sure we do. How about it?"

Wally nodded. "Sure."

Rachel beamed. "Great, it's on fridays at the KND training arena. 5-6."

With that she walked off.

"Oooh, great job Beatles, nice to know you'll be doing something progressive on fridays now...like teaching a bunch of girls how to kick a ball without chipping her toenail polish." Chad cackled. The rest of the boys laughed.

I hit him. "Shut up, girls can play soccer, you've seen Numbuh 5 play right? Anyway, it'll be good if you want to be a coach Wally because it'll be experience."

The boys laughed again, I glared at them. My cell began to vibrate. I took it out and read the text from my mum.

WIFRE BRE YOU

She's never been one for predictive text. I guess it's meant to say 'where are you?'
"We've got to go." I told Rai. He nodded and followed me.

"See you guys." He called.

I waved. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Wally glaring at us as we walked away. I shrugged it off, guessing that it was because Rai laughed at him when Chad made the joke.
We dropped Apollo back and then walked back to my house.

"Oh, here they are. Well thank you for the meal Kani, and Genki, thank you for inviting us over." Mrs Whit smiled.

They got in the car and sped off.

"He was a nice boy wasn't he Kuki?" My mum smiled.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"He's very handsome." Mum hinted. I sighed. "Sure mum whatever you say."