Just a Little Push

Part 44

You know, Mattie was used to weird happenings. You couldn't live in Pleasantville for very long without getting used to weird happenings, after all. And you definitely couldn't date Gillian without getting used to weird happenings.

But seeing her sister in a dress at dinner? That had almost been too much for her mind to handle.

"Thirty-love!"

And that shout suddenly brought her back to reality. Leaving her with barely enough time to duck as a tennis ball came rocketing toward her face. And then completed its path when it smashed against the chain link fence behind her.

"Another point for Awesome! Kesekesekese~"

And this probably wasn't the best place to be thinking about her sister's surprising wardrobe change, as Mattie was currently involved in a tennis match against Gill. And she was losing absolutely horrendously. They'd already played three games and she'd lost every single one without scoring a single point.

She was getting a little tired of this, actually. Gill was just too good at this game and she was currently too distracted by her thoughts.

Ally must have decided to dress like that in an attempt to get Arthur's attention. That was the only reasonable explanation for why she would completely change her appearance... But if that was true, then did it mean that Ally had finally realised that she liked him?

Mattie really hoped so. Arthur was a great guy after all, and it was pretty ridiculous that he and her sister weren't dating already. Everyone knew that they liked each other after all. They were always together, both inside and outside of school. Their mom already considered Arthur to be part of the family—and Mattie knew for a fact that she was already planning the wedding that was sure to come. Eventually.

Ally and Arthur were the only people in the entire school who didn't realise that they were a couple.

"Come on, Mattie!" Gill's shout brought her back to the present. "Get'cha head in the game!"

Mattie was a little surprised when her girlfriend paused for a moment, her smile falling. But then a wide smirk stretched across her lips as she bounced her tennis ball against the court. And then, "Yeah, Mattie. You gotta get'cha head in the game. You gotta get'cha, get'cha, get'cha, get'cha head in the game!"

Apparently Gillian had just managed to completely distract herself, as she now started singing while bouncing the tennis ball on the court and dancing.

...Yeah, you really had to get used to weird stuff when you were dating someone like Gill.

It was part of why Mattie loved her...

Anyway, back to thoughts of Ally. Since Gill was off in her own little world. Thoughts of Ally and Arthur and their hopefully soon-to-be relationship.

So, Ally had probably dressed like that in an attempt to attract Arthur's attention. Mattie had no doubt that Francis had been the mastermind of that little plan. It seemed like something he'd come up with and everyone knew that their French classmate adored butting his nose into other people's relationships.

Ally had dressed up like that, but Arthur hadn't seemed to really respond. Although Mattie hadn't really been paying that much attention to him at first, since she'd been dealing with her own shock at seeing her sister dressed like that. She hadn't even thought about Arthur until Francis had suddenly slapped him.

Yeah, that had been a surprise. Although it had really been a blessing in disguise actually... Arthur apparently said something that angered Francis, which led to the slap that managed to distract everyone's attention from Ally. Which was good, as it was obvious that she felt uncomfortable.

"So, what was up with your sister earlier?" Mattie was slightly surprised by the sudden actually-normal question coming from the other girl. Who was now bouncing her tennis ball on her racket without even looking at it... "She actually looked like a girl for once."

Well, that sort of ruined it. "Be nice, Gill. And I don't really know exactly what was going on."

Mattie hadn't talked to her sister since the incident. Although she had made sure to watch her during the meal. Not that it had helped much, since she hadn't been able to read much from Ally's facial expressions. She'd seemed to be acting normal, but it was hard to tell sometimes. She knew that her sister had a tendency to push things aside when she was upset—pretend that everything was going wonderfully and all that.

"You think that Ally and Arthur like each other, right?" she decided to ask instead.

"Psh." Gillian suddenly threw the ball into the air and then proceeded to spike it so hard that Mattie didn't even have the chance to think about returning it. Then she smirked and began walking over toward Mattie's side of the net. "Of course they do. Why are you even asking? Eyebrows totally has the hots for your sis. Don't ask me why, though."

"You've been friends with him for a really long time, right?"

Gill didn't really seem to be all that interested in talking about Arthur and Ally, as shown when she just shrugged as she walked toward Mattie. And then threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, kissing her on the cheek before she extended her racket in the air and pointed it toward the rest of the camp. "Onward we go, Mattie! To defeat your sister in canoeing like the awesome team we are!"

"Gill, we aren't even on the same team."

"Unawesome details!"

Yes. Well...

She stared down at her own racket as she thought for a moment. Then she continued, "I don't really understand why Arthur hasn't asked Ally out yet." He was the perfect guy for her sister, after all. "I mean, I guess I don't know him all that well, but he doesn't seem as oblivious about romance as Ally is."

Gill didn't respond for a few moments, which was rather surprising, since she wasn't usually the type of person who would think about a question before she decided to answer it.

"I guess I never really thought about it before." The tone of her voice sounded more serious than usual. "It probably has something to do with all of the unawesome stuff that happened before you guys moved here."

"Unawesome stuff?" She hadn't heard about anything like that from anyone.

And she was a little surprised when Gill didn't immediately explain. Instead her arm just lowered down so it was wrapped around Mattie's waist. Which—it felt a little odd to be walking around in public like this. She kept forgetting that people knew that she and Gill were a couple.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to tell you about that stuff, though. It happened like four years ago and it was really really unawesome..."

"Oh." She hurriedly backtracked. "Well, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to..."

"Although, you really should know..." Mattie wasn't sure if Gillian had even heard her. "I guess it couldn't hurt to tell you a little bit."

And now she stopped suddenly, jerking Mattie back slightly as she hadn't expected the sudden lack of motion. "You have to promise not to tell anyone about this, though. Especially not your unawesome sister."

Mattie wasn't entirely sure if she should agree, but...she was starting to feel curious now. "I promise."

Gill nodded once and then turned her head from side to side in an overly exaggerated motion, as if checking for eavesdroppers. Before she turned back and stated, "Artie, Franny, and Toni used to do lots of bad stuff, okay? Like really bad, really unawesome stuff." She frowned for a moment and then continued. "But then they got better, which was awesome. Leon helped a lot with that. And Artie came back to school and stopped getting in trouble all the time and everything. But then he started acting differently unawesome. Like he was always at school and working on homework and doing stuff for the student council and he'd never have fun with us anymore. At least 'til you guys moved here and Ally started bugging him..."

She paused, which gave Mattie at least a moment to try to comprehend what she'd just said.

'Really bad, really unawesome stuff'?

Arthur?

"Really?"

She nodded, but then hurriedly added, "Everything's awesome now, though! I mean, Mr. Roma even let Eyebrows run as the student council president and everything. Although I'm pretty sure that Leon had something to do with that too... And Toni and Franny and me are still best awesome friends forever!" And now she let go of Mattie's waist and spun around, throwing a peace sign into her face.

In a way that was very Ally-like actually.

"Artie's probably just being silly about that, again! He does that sometimes, but he'll be better eventually. And then he and your unawesome sister can get together and get married and have a bunch of caterpillar-eyebrowed babies!"

And Mattie's jaw dropped at that, the mental images flowing in entirely unbidden. "Gill! Don't say that!"

Of course, Gill just laughed and then stuck her tongue out at her before spinning around and running in the direction of the rest of the camp. "Gotta get'cha head in the game, Mattie! Bet'cha can't catch me!"

Mattie definitely loved her girlfriend and all the insanity she brought to her life.

At least, she did most of the time.

Although, this new information about Arthur was definitely going to require some thought. A lot of thought...

Especially if something from his past was what was keeping him and Ally apart... And especially if it was true that Ally's sudden makeover was an attempt to capture his attention.

After all, her sister may be a pain, but she was her sister and Mattie wanted her to be happy. More than anything else in the world really.


A/N: Aw, Mattie is trying to be a good sister ;) Yay for Mattie. And some random information about what happened 4 years ago. Oh hon hon.

And who noticed the High School Musical reference in there? xD Oh the randomness. I haven't seen that movie in years. But it popped into my head and I totally see Gill as the type of person who randomly gets songs stuck in her head when she hears certain words and then starts singing them (like me xD)... Yep.

And in other news...

I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB! :D :D :D It's at McDonald's again, but whatevz. It's money! Yay!

And then lastly, I think that the review system is still being wacky... Which is annoying. Since it's been like what? A month? Sigh... =.= If you still can submit reviews, then please do so! I still love them and reviews help lead to happiness and inspiration which leads to faster updates. If you can't though, then you can send angry vibes to the site with me and maybe SOMEDAY they'll fix the damn thing.