Down by the Lake (OPEN)

Atlanta had, of course, been expecting some sort of retaliation for stealing the tennis ball right out of his hands. But she hadn’t expected it to come so swiftly. One moment, she was focused on the wink and acceptance of her challenge that he was offering her, and the next, he had her pinned to the ground with his hands around her wrists. She was forced to release the ball in the midst of her panic and she realized that it had been a clever plot by Mikael indeed. One, he had managed to gain the dominant spot in the fight and two, he was now probably going to be able to grab the ball first if she didn’t manage to make him lose his balance. But for a moment, she just lay there, staring up at him, a stupid grin playing on her lips. She couldn’t help it. Out of all the times that she had been flirting with a guy, none of them had ever quite ended up like this. Her eyes drifted to his arms; upon looking she determined that there was little to no way that she was going to be able to escape his grasp without him letting up a little bit. So she would just have to wait him out.

”Is this your way of proving your point, Erikson? That you’re always ready and get what you want ‘any time any place’?” She giggled as she tugged on her right wrist, checking to see how hard he was pressing down. She didn’t feel like she was held against her will, but rather just being held against grabbing the ball that was so close. She could see it in his eyes - how much he wanted to reach out and grab it too - but she also figured that he knew that as soon as he let go of her, she was going to make a b-line for the same thing. They were stuck at an impasse. Her eyes drifted to her right where she could see the neon ball a few feet from them. Slowly she returned her attention to his face and flashed him a cheesy smile, ”You gonna hold me here all night or are you gonna kiss me, too?” She puckered her lips, ”Don’t worry, don’t worry. I’m just kidding.” She said quickly, hoping that she hadn’t overstepped the loose boundary line that they had already established.

Lanta wasn’t sure when he was going to let up, but she knew that as soon as he did, it was all going to spiral from there. She giggled up at him, trying to get a read on his face, but finding it a little hard. She couldn’t exactly decipher Mikael’s expressions yet, but she was pretty sure that he was satisfied with himself. Then again, who wouldn’t be. She smiled even brighter at the thought. His look of mock surprise seemed epically characteristic of him, and she couldn’t help but let a little giggle escape her lips as she rolled her eyes. And then all of a sudden, she could feel him getting closer and her heart seemed to get caught in her throat. ‘He’s going to kiss you, Lanta-’ Her mind told her, matter-of-factly. Atlanta Vaisey had been kissed more times than she could count, but never in her seventeen years on this earth had she ever been nervous. Well, never nervous until this moment. For some reason, she felt like she was getting kissed for the first time. She could feel her pulse beginning to speed up in anxious anticipation.

His lips hit hers and she lost it momentarily, forgetting to breath completely as Mikael Erikson kissed her.

And then, as soon as it started, Lanta could feel herself pulling away from the kiss. It wasn’t like she wasn’t enjoying herself; she just couldn’t seem to calm down. She had never been this nervous about anything in her entire life and she couldn’t figure out why it was starting with him all of a sudden, ”I-” She felt like her voice was shaking and out of control and for a moment, Atlanta was more embarrassed than she had ever been. She could feel the blush rushing to her cheeks. It was then that she realized that she was nervous and being very un-Lanta like. Immediately, she did the only thing that she could think of. She pushed her right wrist up, throwing Mikael off-balance and to the ground next to her. Then, she reached over and snatched up the tennis ball. With a wicked grin and her sense of confidence restored she looked over at him, leaned down and kissed his cheek, her lips just barely grazing his skin, ”Close, but no cigar. Guess you’re going to have to try harder next time, lest you get beat out by the Hufflepuff Keeper.” She winked at him and then stood to her feet, the ball in her right hand.

Mikael said something about being able to steal a kiss and Lanta felt the blush rise to her cheeks again. She couldn’t figure out why she was getting so embarrassed about the whole thing! There was nothing to be embarrassed about. She had kissed loads of guys and she probably would still kiss loads of guys. ‘Get a grip, Vaisey. What would your older sister say about you fawning over a Ravengeek?’ Her subconscious asked her, but she shrugged the thoughts away. It didn’t really matter what house he was in, or what house she was in for that matter. They were just two people enjoying themselves this early morning. Brought together by fate - or desperately uncomfortable mattresses, ”Merlin’s Beard, Erikson,” Atlanta said, her voice stable once again and her cheeks beginning to turn pink instead of bright red, ”You’re on the ground, completely lost and you still think that you’ve won? I have to say that I’m impressed by your resilience.” She winked back at him and then threw the ball a couple of more times before deciding that she felt bad for what she had done. To be fair, she had taken advantage of a situation that she probably shouldn’t have.

”I really hope that you don’t kiss all the competition with that mouth-” She was still desperately trying to make the whole thing a joke and she wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was the weird feeling that she got in the pit of her stomach every time she really thought about what had just happened. There was something about Mikael that made her feel different about everything. She had noticed it from the moment that she had met him this morning; he made things fun, he made them exciting, but most importantly, he was always keeping her on her toes. And she had chosen to unfairly knock him to the ground so that she could win the petty game that they had been playing, ‘I’ll chalk that one up to purely competitiveness,’ She thought with a tiny smile. Old habits did indeed die hard. With that thought in mind, she looked down at him and smiled, ”I guess I don’t always play fair-” she said as she held out her hand to him, offering him help getting up.

Atlanta wasn’t sure exactly what Mikael was playing at when he said that small wins equaled a ultimate victory but she wasn’t sure that she really cared. All she knew was that she was having a good time and she didn’t want it to end. So she rolled her eyes, ”You have a very strange view of victory-” She breathed, brushing some of her dark hair away from her eyes so that she could look down on him. She wasn’t staring at him with condescension, but rather much of the opposite. Her eyes were full of amusement and laughter; she was intrigued by the boy who now lay at her feet after the struggle with the ball. Who was Mikael Erixon really and what kind of game was he playing with her?

She wasn’t sure what to say then; it wasn’t as if she was uncomfortable about the whole ordeal, she had just been taken aback by his...forwardness. It had surprised Lanta because she had thought him unlike all the boys that she normally hung around. That being said, she still put him far above the others that she had kissed. She realized that he was probably dizzy and tightened her grip on his hand while he stood up, ”Careful now, love-” She said with a tiny laugh. He looked like he had completely righted himself and she gave him a satisfactory smile and nod before letting go of his arm completely, figuring that he didn’t need her any longer, ”Be careful, you should stay off your back or pretty girls might take advantage of you.” She said, turning the conception about slutty women around on him. Then she shrugged her shoulders and picked up her bag that was on the ground and slung it over her shoulder, ”Are you okay?” She asked once more, making sure that Mikael was indeed not going to fall over on her. She wasn’t sure why she thought that he looked so dazed.

Mikael seemed to lurch forward and for a moment, Atlanta thought that he was going to catch himself, but it seemed as if he wasn’t able. He went crashing down to the ground and she felt her mouth fall open in surprise. She hadn’t been expecting that one at all. She felt her body react before her mind had finished registering what had just happened and she dropped to her knees beside him, putting her hand on his forehead. It was what her mum had always done when she thought that Lanta had had a fever. She wasn’t sure why that was her first instinct now, but she figured that she should probably just roll with it, ”Erm...” She said as she realized that he didn’t have a fever. She didn’t want to let go of him, though, fearing that he might collapse again.

”Maybe we should get you to the hospital wing...” She couldn’t believe that she had probably given Mikael Erikson a concussion. It was probably on the list of most embarrassing things that she had ever done in her life. To think...she could have just kissed him and everything would have been fine. But nooo, she had to panic and then everything just went down-hill from there. She cursed her inability to function as a normal human being sometimes. She realized then that he was smiling and her and close to laugher, it was only then that she saw some of the humor in the situation, ”You really shouldn’t be laughing-” She said, trying to keep a grip on her own laughter. But now it seemed impossible. She was very close to obnoxiously giggling for a very long time. His laughter seemed to be infectious, ”Seriously!” She stressed, but her words were lost amongst her laughter. She sat down next to him and shook her head, ”You could have like...an concussion or something.” She managed to get out amongst her fit.

Atlanta definitely didn’t know what to do with people that were hurt - that much was for certain. Sure, she played on the pitch and people got hurt all the time, but she was never the one who took care of them or even helped them get to the hospital wing. Instead, she took a back seat to injury and just...let the other girls on the team handle it. They were much better at all that stuff anyways. Between the laughing and the constant smile that he was emitting, Lanta knew that he was probably alright. But the very fact that he had nearly collapsed onto the ground had taken her for a bit of a loop. He said no hospital wing, but she wasn’t convinced. He probably was just saying things out of his delusional state, ”No seriously, we should go. Pomfrey can check you out and you can just-”