"OLLIE!" I screamed when we all gathered the morning we were heading to Ireland for our friendly.
"Goodness woman it's too early!" Jake and Oliver said in unison and then laughed. The two of them were starting to hit it off the last day or so.
"So! I had our team out last night, you and I were bickering all night! I don't know how anyone could stand us." I said storming over to the two of them while the rest of the team stared at me with terror. I got to them reaching into my pocket and pulling out the smaller versions of ourselves and putting them on the bench near Oliver. Everyone laughed when they realized I meant the figures.
"Who says that anyone could," Jake groaned pulling a knit hat down over his eyes.
"You always tried so hard to annoy me; didn't you ever wonder if it was annoying anyone else?" Oliver said laughing at the two of us yelling at each other on the bench.
"No. And I didn't really have to try to annoy you…I just had a certain skill at it." I said proudly and the little me started singing while the little Oliver was screaming that I couldn't sing and that I just needed to shut up and play quidditch.
"It looks like you were trying there" Jake said pointing to the little us.
"I was just singing," I laughed.
"She does have a point. Back in Hogwarts the damn girl had a song for everything. I would say something and she would burst out into song. Like this one time I was going over a quidditch play before a game and I said something along the lines 'I'm gonna be' and she burst out into five verses of "I'm Gonna be" By the Proclaimers." Oliver groaned.
I smirked an evil smirk that caused both of them to shout "DON'T" but then just laughed and stopped at that.
"It's not my fault that my beautiful singing voice is so abrasive to you" I said blinking all doe-eyed and innocently.
"It just didn't annoy anyone else because they would all start singing along." Oliver sighed putting a hand to the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah I witnessed that when Alicia and her started to sing some song about a prom at one of my parties a while back." Jake chuckled.
"And dance and dance and dance and dance and dance and dance" I sang quietly to myself and did the dance and then was sad when Alicia wasn't there to do the dance along with me.
"Oh god not that song" Oliver put his hands over his eyes.
"That song was mainly sung only when Oliver was at school that year…just to annoy him…and yet he would still continue to come back and visit" I laughed.
"Well that was when you all were still fighting to see who was the most annoying to me" Oliver said and Jake laughed.
"You lot had a competition to see who could annoy him the most?" Jake asked, giving Oliver an apologetic look for having such mean friends.
"Yeah and I won!" I boasted.
"You didn't officially win; none of you were really that annoying. If you were I wouldn't be talking to any of you right now." He shook his head.
"Well…you're not really talking to Alicia or Angelina, and no one has talked to Fred or George in almost two years. So if you think about it" I said laughing.
"Well then that way you lose because I still talk to you" Oliver said and I made a sad face.
"Well team when you're ready to go, head out and get on the bus" Greg said into the room but Oliver, Jake, and I were the only ones here so far.
"We're driving to Dublin?" I asked.
"Why not?" Oliver laughed and got his bags. Jake and I got ours and we walked out towards the bus.
"Just face it Kates, we all know your life goal is to annoy me" Oliver said laughing.
"Sorry Love, you're not that important" I said hitting him on the shoulder with my bag as I passed him.
"Oh well I should be" He laughed.
"Nope, there will always be someone cooler than you" I said laughing obviously spawning a song.
"Smile Like you've got nothing to prove, no matter what you might do, there's always someone out there cooler than you..." I started to sing at the top of my lungs from the back of the bus.
"Oh so now you're going to annoy me by singing some song?" Oliver said, shaking his head.
"I know that's hard to believe, but there are people you meet, they're into something that is too big to be..." I continued.
"How long do you think this will go on for?" Jake asked as we got onto the bus and sat down.
"Expressed, through their clothes, and they'll put up with all the poses you'll throw, and you won't..."
"Why is Katie singing?" Mica asked as he got on the bus.
"Even know, that they're not sizing you up, they know your mom fucked you up, or maybe let you watch too much TV..."
"Because she thinks it will bother me" Oliver said sitting back in his seat put his arms behind his head.
"But they'll still look in your eyes, to find the human inside, you know there's always something in there to see..."
"What song is she singing?" Jake asked after he got on the bus.
"Why does it matter?" Mica said.
"Beneath, the veneer, not everybody made the list this year, have a beer..."
"Think she'll ever stop?" Mica asked.
"Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there's always someone cooler than you..."
"Not until either she finishes the song or I address that she won… or she gets bored" Oliver said.
"Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be here for long, oh there's always someone cooler than you, yeah there's always someone cooler than you..."
"Well then how hard would it be to say she's won?" Jake asked.
"Now, that I've got the disease, in a way I'm relieved, 'cause I don't have to stress about it like you do..." I was singing in a more annoying voice but I think that it was only bothering Jake and Mica.
"No, because that will make her win," Oliver said.
"I might just get up and dance, and buy some acid-wash pants, if you've got nothing then you got nothing to lose..."
"Well then just let her win" Mica said.
"And I won't, hesitate, 'cause every moment life is slipping away, its ok..."
"Why does it matter who wins or loses anyways?" Mica asked.
"Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, but there's always someone cooler than you..."
"Because Oliver said that Katie's life goal was to annoy him because in school her and their friends had a competition to see who could be the most annoying to him and she said that he wasn't important enough to have her life goal be about him and then she started singing this song." Jake informed Mica.
"Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be it for long, oh there's always someone cooler than you, yeah there's always someone cooler than you, oh there's always someone cooler than..."
"It's a fitting song Oliver," Mica laughed.
"Life is wonderful. Life is beautiful. We're all children of, one big universe, so you don't have to be a chump..."
"Yeah whatever" Oliver said punching Mica.
"And you know, that I won't, hesitate, 'cause every moment life is slipping away, its ok..."
"She always seems to know a song that fits the situation" Jake said with a smile.
"Make me feel tiny if it makes you feel tall, oh 'cause there's always someone cooler than you..."
"It was worse during quidditch practices at Hogwarts" Oliver said sadly.
"Yeah, you're the shit but you won't be it for long, but there's always someone cooler than you, oh yeah there's always someone cooler than you because there's always someone cooler than you..."
"She would sing this song at the top of her lungs for the entire practice when I would be practicing them too hard and sometimes everyone on the team would join in on the chorus." Oliver sighed.
"Cooooler than yoooou boy"
"If I didn't know any better I'd say you liked it when they used to do that" Mica said and Oliver just looked at him strangely.
"Cooooler than yoooou sir" I finished and plopped into my seat after a half-hearted bow.
"Thank god she's done," Jake laughed.
"Kate I think you might be one of the WORST singers in the world" Mica laughed.
"She can sing better, just when she's trying to annoy me or just singing to sing at a random moment she doesn't try to" Oliver said like I wasn't there.
"Why thank you Ollie dearest?" I said.
"Yeah it's a rare compliment deary" He laughed.
Soon the whole team was on the bus and we began to drive to Dublin…yep like across the Irish Sea and everything. Oh and we didn't use a muggle fairy boat. MAGIC.
By the time we got to Wales I had our quidditch team out and Mica, Jake, Oliver and I were getting amusement out of the acts of each player. How Harry would always be off on his own looking for something and then the rest of us would just be us.
"Do you ever wonder why anyone other than us would find this a good buy?" Oliver asked while Fred, George and I were singing in our high pitch voices.
"In some cases I don't want to know" I laughed
"Like what if someone like…I don't know Marcus Flint or someone bought us and just repetitively stepped on us." Oliver said and I laughed at the mental picture I got.
"Well in that case he would probably be in St. Mungo's…or Azkaban." I laughed.
"Yeah I guess" Oliver said laughing as well at the mental picture of Marcus just jumping around in circles while the tiny me screamed different insults at him.
"Who's this Marcus Flint guy?" Jake asked.
"Oh he was the Slytherin captain when Oliver was the Gryffindor captain." I said.
"He also fancied Kates" Oliver said mockingly and I cringed.
"Was he really that bad?" Mica asked.
"He was worse than that bad." I continued cringing.
"He wasn't exactly the most attractive man, and didn't understand the meaning of the word no." Oliver explained.
"He just about wanted to kill Oliver when he found out that he was taking me to the Yule Ball." I said.
"You two went to the Yule Ball together?" Mica asked. Mica went to Hogwarts, but he was a few years younger than me, was a Hufflepuff, and wasn't on the quidditch team until his seventh year. So he was there for the Yule Ball.
"Yeah, well he was out of school by then and I didn't have a date so we figured it would work because it made me look like less of a dork and he got to come." I explained.
"Welcome to Ireland" A man with an Irish accent said at the front of the bus. He was on to check for dark magic.
"Oh wow, we're here already?" Mica asked.
"Yeah I guess so" I said and I looked out to see the downtown muggle Dublin….we were somehow parked above it….I guess in the magical world we don't ask questions….just go along with it. Once again MAGIC.
We got off of the bus and were brought to an Irish equivalent of Diagon Alley. Then we were brought to a hotel where we all were assigned a room (because I was the only girl I got my own room, and it just happened to be the best room as well.).
So Oliver, Mica, and Jake were hanging out in my room. Oliver and Mica were playing this weird quidditch video game that was on the telly in the room and Jake was watching and rooting for Oliver (he was playing as the Wasps because Mica pitched a fit that he wanted to be Puddlemore). I was looking out the window at the people all running about in the small wizard town when I noticed something down the road.
"Hey Ollie come here" I said and when he got to the window I pointed down the road to a big neon sign that read out 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'.
"Wow they really did get those all over the place" Oliver said.
"What Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Jake asked, trying to figure out what we were talking about.
"Yeah" Oliver and I said together.
"I went to one of those in the States when I was there last summer," He said.
"Wow….they must be millionaires by now" I said and Oliver nodded his head in agreement.
"You guys knew them well I take it?" He asked pointed to the two red haired figurines flicking something like tiny dung bombs at the tiny Oliver on my desk.
"Yeah. They were some of our best friends. The Beaters on the Quidditch team until their seventh year, my sixth, when they got kicked out of the sport for fighting. Later that year they dropped out of school to fulfill their life dreams of owning a Joke shop." I said, pointing out to the neon sign. "Within a year they started buying areas for new stores all over England. Then they left a few years ago to expand their business even more and we haven't heard from them since." I said, shrugging and looked at Oliver who was still staring at the figurines.
"Well I take that back, Fred writes to Angelina once a year. But it's mainly just an "I'm still alive and miss you Happy Christmas" letter." I continued.
"I wonder where they are these days…." Oliver said, now staring out the window.
"Yeah…and if they miss us enough to make toys out of us…why don't they get in contact with us?" I said staring at the little Fred and George who seemed to be plotting a new prank on my coffee table.
I woke up the next morning to the little versions of us chasing Oliver around my coffee table. At one point I wondered what would happen if he fell off because he came pretty close a couple of times. I smiled and got up to get dressed.
Not too much after I was finished getting dressed there was a fierce knocking at the door to my hotel room. I was sitting in the chair laughing at the little characters so jumped up to answer the door.
"You'll never believe what we just found out!" Oliver said at my front door with Jake at his side.
"Okay…" I said and let them pass me into my room.
Oliver walked in and then threw some newspaper in my face.
"Read page seven!" Jake said, looking at me like a child waiting for their friend to open a gift from them.
"Alright, alright" I said struggling to open the newspaper to the seventh page.
'GEORGE WEASLEY, OF WEASLEY'S WIZARDING WHEEZES, IS THE NEW BEATER OF THE IRISH NATIONAL TEAM' read the top of the page. I looked up at the boys in shock.
"The Irish national team…as in the team we're playing?" I said in shock and they both shook their heads up and down violently.
I got this big goofy smile on my face and started to get all excited. I even borrowed Oliver's owl and sent the newspaper to Angelina (I didn't know if Alicia would have been as happy about it).
"How does that even happen? Are the Weasleys Irish?" I asked as I came back.
"Who knows, that's money for you" Jake laughed.
During practice I was so hyper, Oliver of course wasn't as much because he was in quidditch mode so he was getting kinda mad when Jake and I were just goofing off and dancing around on our brooms(which I think sometimes is actually harder than playing quidditch if you ask me). It was quite a random day, I was just so giddy that everything seemed like it was coming together. Oliver and I were back on good terms, I should get to catch up with at least George as soon as tomorrow, and Jake and I were playing better than ever. Oliver was getting mad because the game was tomorrow and we were not at all practicing like we normally do but it wasn't enough to bring me down.
The next morning I woke up like it was Christmas morning. I jumped out of bed and got ready for my first official game on the English National Team.
Then before I knew it I was standing at the pitch ready to play. Oliver and Jake seemed to be in the same state as me when they got there. We all were pacing in the locker room when the rest of the team arrived.
We went out onto the field to warm up a bit when the other team showed up. The first thing I saw was bright orange hair among the rest of the blonde or brown hair. He looked like a walking Irish flag with bright orange hair, pale white skin, and his green robes on. Well I guess that's more the Ivory Coast flag because he would have to have green hair and an orange robe to properly be the Irish flag but you get the point.
The game started and as we were playing George kept giving us a weird look like he didn't believe it was us. Apparently he missed the memo of who was playing on the team today. This is until Oliver blocked a really fast ball and Jake and I did one of our soon to be famous plays to get the quaffle in.
It was actually a pretty short game because we didn't let the Irish score anything against us and Andrews caught the snitch in pretty good time.
After the game we had a few press conferences, a small team party, and a grand party for all involved in the ballroom of the hotel. The life of the team party was mainly Jake and I who were singing some karaoke and dancing about the room. The people at the hotel said that they were almost expecting to find the Weird Sisters to be in the room from the amount of noise and destruction that was coming from it. It was a large accomplishment for us to beat the Irish because they were still pretty much undefeated since '94 when they won the cup. Granted that team almost entirely didn't return after the war that followed. Still, Greg was almost certain that if we played like we did today that we would win the whole thing no contest.
After our team party Oliver, Jake and I went back into my room and continued the drink and merriment while we got ready to go to the fancy party for both teams that the association had planned. A reporter asked this afternoon if Jake and I were a couple because we worked so well together, he blushed and I replied 'well if you know anything about my past relationships you should know that I don't work well with people I am in a relationship with'. I looked past the reporter to see Oliver struggling to not show that he was feeling crushed. He seemed to realize it was nothing because he was acting normally around us now, as we were head banging to an old Weird Sisters record in the room together.
I have to say that the Weird Sisters are the only non-muggle band that I enjoy. Mainly I like to listen to a bunch of muggle music. They just have more diversity in the music, plus I was raised a muggle.
I was all dressed up in a silky red cocktail dress and the boys were wearing their blue dress robes with the three lion crest on their blue jacket and a blue tie with red stripes.
We entered the room linked arms with me in the center and one of them on each arm (we wanted to see if there would be a hundred different reasons for it in the newspapers the next morning). There was a jazz band in the corner and everyone was either mingling or dancing. The room was brilliant looking, the walls were a shiny almost silver looking fabric that reflected either red or green depending on which angle you saw it from, and the tables all had white tablecloths with red and green candles and flowers on it. It felt like you just walked into a fancy Christmas party. It made me want Christmas actually.
"Nice to see you three calmed down a bit" Greg said once we got down near the tables in the room.
"Well two and a half hours of dancing and singing tends to wear one down a bit I suppose" I said with a big devious smile and Greg just shook his head.
"Well I'd like to see you lot talking to as much press as you can, you are three of my four best players and you never seem to talk to the press enough" Greg said looking around as if he was trying to find a reporter for us to talk to at that moment.
"Well it just leaves the other teams to know less about us" Jake said with a more devious smile then my own, which I had never thought possible being that my smile was taught by the Weasley twins, which reminded me to look for them.
I looked about the room for two bunches of red hair towering above the rest and was failing at finding them.
"I don't think they're here." Oliver said into my ear as if he was aware that I was looking for them.
"Well at least George has to be here right?" I asked.
"Not if he didn't want to see us and told his coach he had other business to take care of with Weasley Wheezes." He shrugged.
I wanted to cry at this point but knowing that there were cameras all around me I had to fight it back, so the three of us went to go dance.
Just as we got to the dance floor the band started playing some upbeat songs. It was a swing dance so we attempted poorly to swing dance in a trio. It was interesting nevertheless and definitely got my mind off of finding the twins. This was of course until Jake was dipping me and I saw a brief bit of orange hair. Then as I'm being spun around I was trying so hard to look back in that area. I looked like one of the ice skaters who are spinning so fast that they have to focus on one area so that they don't get sick, though in my case I started to get sick. I walked off the dance floor like I was drunk, I'm sure there are pictures of it and tomorrow's paper will read "BELL GETS DRUNK AT IMPORTANT PARTY". At the thought of this I decided to go talk to some press so that at least one or two papers will have proof that I wasn't out of my mind intoxicated.
I went directly to a woman from the Daily Prophet (I figured that they would be the first to say that I was sloshed) and she was interesting.
"So we hear that you and Mr. Jacob McDermott are now a couple," the woman said as soon as I sat down.
"No Jake and I are certainly not even close to being a couple, we are just friends and I can't imagine us as more" I grunted clearly bored of this accusation.
"Are you having a hard time being on the same team as Oliver after your most public break up not too long ago?" The woman said with some sass.
"No not at all, Oliver and I have been friends for much longer than we were ever a couple so we will always be friends first and get along great" I answered and then saw Jake fall down the stairs which caused me to snort and her to look at me with concern.
"Speaking of old friends, is it hard to play against George Weasley? We understand that the two of you have not been speaking to each other for some time now" she ignored my outburst and continued to write quickly in a notebook as she asked me things.
"No it wasn't hard, It was great to see George again because you're right he has been off promoting he and his brother's business around the world for some time" I stated. At least this was something new and interesting.
"We talked to him a bit ago and he said it was hard for him to play against you because he secretly wanted to be on your team; would you want him to be on your team again?" she asked.
"Oh yes, I'd love to play with George again. I have to say that our team in Hogwarts must have been my favorite team to have ever played with. I'm not really clear how he did end up on the Irish Te..." I said trailing off as I looked at her strangely putting her words together.
"Did you say you talked to him earlier….is he here?" I shouted as it came together.
"Oh yes. I don't know where he has gotten to recently but he was here someplace" she said looking around.
"Oh well, then would you excuse me? Oliver wanted to know if he was here so I'll have to go find him." I said and then walked away to go find Oliver before she responded.
I found Oliver and Jake sitting at the table we would be eating at.
"I was just talking to some lady from the D.P. and she said that she had talked to George earlier" I said to Oliver.
"So do you think he is still here someplace?" Oliver asked.
"Well I would assume so" I shrugged straining to look over everyone's heads.
"Do you think he is avoiding us?" Oliver stood up easily seeing better than I could.
"I would hope not" I said and sat down in between them and put my head in my hands.
"I have the world's worst headache," I said, rubbing my temples.
"Probably from head banging so much" Jake laughed.
"Or being around Oliver's so much that it engulf yours" said a mysterious voice from across the table. I looked up to see Fred Weasley sitting there. I leapt up and ran over to him.
"Fredrick Weasley you should never surprise people like that!" I said while leaping into his arms.
"Katherine Bell you should know me better then to call that a surprise" He scoffed.
"It's been too long," Oliver said, giving Fred one of those weird manly handshake hugs.
"I saw you lot playing this morning, you're brilliant!" Fred said to the three of us.
"Well Oliver tends to be even more a crazy quidditch dictator when he is getting paid to be." I laughed and then realized that Jake was just sitting there with a left out look on his face.
"Oh Fred, this is our friend and teammate Jake McDermott, Jake this Fred Weasley" I said introducing the two.
"You're the other chaser?" Fred asked.
"Yeah that's me the other chaser" Jake laughed.
"Oh well you know what I mean. Anyway you're brilliant, man. I never knew anyone that was as crazy of a chaser as Kates." Fred said.
"Yeah they are going to win us the cup" Oliver said proudly.
"Well we need you and Andrews as well because if you let in every quaffle that hit you and Andrews never caught the snitch we wouldn't exactly do very well." I said.
"I'll have to go get George, he was wanting to talk to you" Fred said, turning to go find him.
"Well I wasn't really expecting them to find us." I said sitting back down at the table.
"It was a pleasant surprise," Oliver chuckled.
"Well I be…you lot really are over here" A voice said coming from the direction in which Fred had just left.
"Oh bloody hell Oliver I told you we should have left when I said to, now he's found us" I joked.
"Well with what I've been through tonight to find you I wouldn't half doubt that that was the case." George said sitting down with Fred at his side.
"Never, we've missed you two way too many to avoid you. Honestly I thought you were avoiding us." I said, forcing him into a hug.
"Well then you obviously haven't been in the shops lately or else you would have realized that we indeed missed you a lot." Fred said.
"Oh no we have and I bought a box of us" I said with a goofy smile.
"Ha did you really?" George asked, slapping his knee.
"Yes, and I've found it very entertaining to just let them out and run around acting like us. The other morning I woke up to you two screaming in really high pitched voices and chasing Oliver around my coffee table." I said and the two laughed.
"Yeah when we first made those we didn't think that anyone but us would find them entertaining but they have been one of the most purchased things in the store." Fred stated.
"Yeah…how is the store going?" Oliver asked
"Great, we have stores all around the world. We've gotten to the point that we have paid back Mum for everything that we have ever broken." George said.
"Wow you really have been doing well then!" I laughed.
"Why haven't you two come back to visit ever?" Oliver asked bluntly.
"We didn't really think that anyone other than you two wanted us too" George said looking at me and I knew exactly what he meant.
"I guess we aren't worth it then." I jeered. "Anyway, they miss you two more then the two of us combined!" I said to him seriously.
"Really?" George asked.
"Yeah…she really does miss you George" I said.
"Yeah heard about you two trying to get together awhile back" Fred said, throwing a blanket of awkwardness onto the crowd.
"Yeah…" I said and Oliver had this really weird look on his face.
"I totally just made things worse didn't I?" Fred said laughing at our responses.
"We're thinking about coming over to visit this Christmas possibly." George said changing the subject.
"Really? That would be fantastic! You totally should!" I said happy for the rescue. Jake got up to grab a drink.
"Yeah I have an extra room in my flat that you two could stay in." Oliver said.
"Yeah we'll write a few months before and talk about it" Fred said.
"Everyone get seated at your tables to begin the dinner" Some fancy man said and Fred and George got up to go sit at the table assigned to them.
The awkwardness between Oliver and I was still pretty thick. It's strange how it's almost like we forgot about it at times because we are all having so much fun and then someone brings it up and it's like instant awkwardness. I needed a shirt or something that says "Instant Awkwardness, Just add conversation about Oliver and my relationship". Jake seemed awkward too ever since the twins sat down, like he wanted to be part of us but didn't feel like he fit in. I suppose it would be awkward for me too if I was in his position. Greg and Andrews came over to sit down and were worried at how calm we were. Greg was worried that we got sick and made us go back to the hotel right after the dinner was over. We didn't even get time to say good-bye to the twins.
That night I sat up and thought about my life history. In the last quarter of a year I found Oliver, fell in love with him, broke up with him, hated him, envied him, forgave him, then became friends with him again and pretty much forgot about ever falling in love with him or hating him. All it takes is for someone to bring it up and I feel sorrow and hate all at the same time, because I'm still angry that he traded me, and still sad that we broke up….over a dead spider…I'm not sure if it's awkward that we ever tried to make it work or that we didn't try hard enough to fix it. Now I'm just trying to be his friend. And Jake's friend, but there is something there too. Why do all the papers think it's something more, there was that moment when we both got on the team where I could have felt something. But that was just two friends caught up in too much joy right? Oh who knows. Maybe I can't be friends with my attractive male teammates, I'll just be too...what was that ancient horrible term for powerful women? Hysterical. I'm too hysterical and crazy for a real relationship with anyone and that's why Oliver and I broke up over nothing, and why nothing would ever work with me and Jake...if I wanted something to that is.