Harper and Ian stood at the door as the last of their belongings were loaded into a van. "Thank you so much for everything" Ian said, shaking Aarons hand. "I hope my daughter and I haven't been too much trouble. Please come and have dinner with us at the new place when you get a chance."
Eleanor stood there silently with tears in her eyes, she still hadn't accepted that Harper was actually moving out but had exhausted every option she could think of to get them to stay.
"I wanted to say thank you as well" Harper started, her eyes planted on the floor trying to hold back tears "you've made me some really great food, taken me shopping and Oliver helped me with my homework. I'll cherish these memories forever." At that point Eleanor broke down and pulled her into a hug sobbing.
"What am I going to do when you're not around?!" she cried. Aaron pulled her away, explaining that she is going to make it very difficult for Harper. They all waited out the front of the house and waved goodbye to them as they pulled out of the drive.
The drive over to the new house was nearly silent as a lump that had formed in Harper's throat prevented her from talking. Luckily the house was closer to her sixth form than the River's which meant she wouldn't have to get on any buses to get to school.
"Here we are," Ian exclaimed as he put the first box down in the apartment. "It's not much but it will do until we buy a new place." Harper and her Dad spent the evening moving boxes in and getting everything ready, it was a furnished apartment so they didn't have to worry about getting any beds or anything.
The next day at college, Harper filled her friends in on what happened and the location of the new apartment she would be living in for the time being.
"I thought you would live there forever" Sarah commented, they were living there a lot longer than Ian had claimed they would be originally, so she came to the conclusion that they were just going to live there for the rest of their lives somehow.
"That's disappointing" Niamh stated, "now your relationship with Oliver will deteriorate into nothing."
Harper stopped for a second as she contemplated the current situation. "To be honest, there was never really a relationship to begin with. I'd kind of given up on him" she confessed, she felt a sense of relief opening up to her friends.
"THAT'S GREAT HARPER!" a loud bellow came from behind her, making her jump. "This is the day I've been waiting for, you're finally accepting the truth". Kunal stood there with tears streaming down his face, unable to contain his joy.
Harper smiled at him, it was nice to get some encouragement as she had been struggling with this for a long time. "I'm gonna enjoy my college days and find a nice boyfriend who respects me." Kunal laughed, muttering something about her only needing him but she just laughed it off and continued walking. Goodbye Oliver, she thought to herself as she bid farewell to this chapter in her life. It was time to move on.
When Oliver returned home after college, he was greeted by Finley who was screaming incessantly at his Mum. "I'm hungry!" he shouted, "what's for dinner?!"
Eleanor slumped over the table looking really down and just told him that they could order take-out as she wasn't feeling up to cooking.
"Ollie, what's wrong with Mum?" he asked Oliver as his brother pulled the take-out menus out of the drawer in the kitchen.
"No idea" he responded before heading up to his bedroom to order. Finley followed closely behind him and sat down on his bed. After he had finished ordering the food, he looked at his little brother who had made himself comfortable on his bed and had started reading his school text books. "You have your own room now, why are you in mine?"
"I just got used to it I guess, I kind of like hanging out with you," Finley responded and he returned to school work. Oliver nodded, he supposed he was also used to having Finley around all the time as well so it wasn't too much of a big deal. Oliver opened one of his desk drawers to grab one of his textbooks for Biology when something caught his eye. It was the head massager that Harper had given him as a thank you for tutoring her back in school. He had never actually used it, the idea of rubbing your head with this thing just seemed downright ridiculous. He sat for a little while holding it in his hands whilst looking out the window lost in his thoughts.
Harper arrived at college the next day with her tennis bag in hand, even though she had given up on Oliver, she hadn't given up on tennis. Despite the intense training that Satanic Steve had been putting her through, she was determined to actually get good at it. So far, she hadn't actually been able to play any tennis as the newbies were mostly on ball duty but she was sure she would get there soon.
"I can't believe you're still coming to practise" Jenny scoffed as Harper walked onto the tennis pitch. "Oliver hasn't been since the first practice and honestly I don't think I could bear it if I had to spend the whole time picking up after people". She laughed as she walked off to the tennis pitches to join a doubles game with Steven.
Harper frowned, clearly herself and Jenny got off on the wrong foot somehow, but she didn't see them becoming friends anytime soon with her attitude. She continued to dutifully collect the tennis balls and place them back in the basket, she found herself sweating despite the fact that it was the middle of November. As she bent down to pick up one of the balls someone came over and placed their foot over it, making it difficult for her to pick up. She started to reprimand the person when she looked up and saw that it was actually Oliver. "Why are you here?!" she shouted "you never come to practice."
"So does that mean I'm not allowed to?" he responded, pushing past her and heading onto the court.
"Oliver!" Satanic Steve cheered as he spotted him. "I see you've come for a re-match!"
"We could do, but are you sure? I wouldn't want to embarrass you again?" he chuckled as he got set up on the court opposite him.
At that moment, Steven had the best idea. "Well why don't we spice it up a bit, if I win, you have to come on the club trip this weekend. How's that?"
"What if I win?" Oliver questioned, since it did seem like the more likely outcome.
"I'll treat you to lunch for a month, '' he promised in return. Oliver nodded in agreement, that seemed like a fair bet and it's not like he would lose so he wasn't worried about having to go to some camping trip.. "Oh one more thing, this is going to be a doubles match" he threw in at the last second. "Let's have first years to make it fair" he scoured the court for a suitable match for each of them. "I'll play with Jenny and you can play with Harper."
Oliver's face dropped immediately, "Are you kidding me?!" he shouted "in what way is that fair?! If I could win with that person, then I'd be able to win the world championship!"
"Silence! It has been decided. Harper, Jenny get on the court," Jenny was more than happy to go along with this plan, especially if it meant she got to spend a weekend at camp with Oliver.
She smiled as she walked past Oliver and whispered to him "I know it must be torture for you to think about having to spend more time around Harper. But I won't be going easy on you"
Once Harper reached Oliver's side, he told her not to do anything and he will take care of hitting the ball back to the other team's court. "Don't get in my way" he demanded as he took his stance, ready for the game to start.
As Steven served, smacking the ball with all of his might, it caused Harper to panic and dive out of the way, almost knocking Oliver over. "What are you doing?! Just go in the opposite direction from where the ball goes!" The other team had already scored a few points on them, despite Oliver's best efforts to knock the ball back. He looked completely exhausted trying to simultaneously dodge Harper and hit the ball back to the other team. Feeling bad, Harper decided it was time that she stepped up to the plate and hit the ball back over to the opposing team. She waited until just the right moment and when she thought it was a good time, she quickly swung the racquet back behind her, ready to cement her moment as a pro tennis player. What she didn't factor in was that Oliver was also trying to hit the ball and just happened to be standing right behind her, which resulted in her racquet smacking him square in the face. Oliver was now kneeling down on the floor, holding his face as he tried to hide the sheer amount of pain that had just been inflicted on him.
"Erm.." Harper knelt down, she sounded nervous, "are you okay?" she queried.
From the other side of the tennis court came a bellowing howl as Satanic Steve congratulated himself for scoring the final point which secured his victory. Oliver looked up to meet his eyes, he was furious. "You two make a great team, why don't we have another match again next week!"
"Not a chance!" Oliver responded, needless to say when you don't lose very often you become a bit of a sore loser when you do.
"Well how about this, if you can win against me and Jenny next week at the camp. I'll treat you to a nice dinner at some point." Steven proposed, he wanted more than anything to have another chance to humiliate Oliver.
Oliver paused for a second, Harper started whispering to him that it wasn't possible and she personally didn't really want to play against them again. But Oliver's pride got the better of him and he agreed, telling Harper that they were going to be practising together every day while they are at camp.
Oliver's Mum turned up to the college that day wearing a headscarf and glasses in the hope that her son wouldn't notice her sneaking around. Luckily for her though, her disguise didn't go unnoticed by Niamh and Sarah who ran up to greet her when they realised who she was. "What are you doing here looking so fashionable?" Niamh joked about her disguise.
"I just wanted to change up my look a little" she replied, laughing nervously. "I heard those two were playing doubles?"
"Yeah we heard that too," the two girls started giggling amongst themselves. "I heard Harper accidentally smacked him in the face with her racquet!"
"I feel bad for Harper though," Sarah commented, "she's been trying really hard to forget Oliver and she carried on going to tennis practice cause he never usually shows up."
Niamh nodded in agreement, "I thought the dynamic between those two would have changed at least slightly considering he kissed her a few months back."
"WAIT WHAT?!" Eleanor screamed, this was news to her. "HE KISSED HER? WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?" Niamh reiterated what Harper told her had happened on the night of their graduation and Eleanor could have almost died from happiness right there.
"That's it!" she cheered, "I am going to get Harper back to my house! I knew I knew my son, I was right all along!" Eleanor continued congratulating herself all the way back to her car. It was time to put some plans into motion.
