-Rory-
A young girl raced her older track star brother on the long dirt road of their neighborhood. Her hair looked like a flash of fire as she made the gap between them larger and larger. She reached the mailbox screeching, "I won!"
The brother slowed to a walk. "Nah, you were going way past the speed limit, Rory. That's illegal." He joked, breathing heavily, putting his hands on his knees. 'Rory' laughed it off and grabbed the mail from the mailbox, thumbing through it with her finger less charcoal gloves.
"Oh my god..." she breathed, a small smile forming on her lips.
"What?!" her brother asked. Before she was able to answer, she spotted their parents on the front porch and she darted off towards them.
"Whoa, racehorse, what's going on?" her dad asked, chuckling. Rory shoved the letter into his hands in response, practically jumping. Her father had always believed since Rory was a toddler that in a past life, she was a racehorse. But Rory didn't think so. She always thought she was faster, lighter in weight.
Her brother jogged over to them, "What?!" he repeated.
"We got invited to the International Peace Convention!" she beamed.
"Doesn't everyone get invited to that?" he squinted his eyes.
"No! If everyone in the world were to be invited, they wouldn't be able to fit everyone in the convention center." Rory countered, her eyes wandering over to a bird flying around the yard.
"Rory," her dad spoke suddenly to get her attention, "it's in China. Do you know how far away that is from here?"
"Come on, dad," she whined, "do you know how long I've been saving money to go? 13 years! I have enough for myself and one other person." Rory got on her knees and slapped her hands together. "Please? I need to get the league together."
Her mom and brother sighed in unison. Everyone in southwest Ireland knew about Rory's legend of the league. She made sure that so many people knew about it by doing basically everything she could to make it that way. She told everyone at school, talked to people about it on the streets, babbled on at family reunions, had her aunt put in in the city newspaper, somehow fitted it into most of her school assignments, and even drew it out and put it for show at fair.
"Please." Rory repeated.
Her dad looked to her mom for help. She nodded.
"Fine. You can go. You have to bring someone with you though." her dad sighed.
"Bennyyyyy~" Rory jumped to her feet and looked over at her brother expectedly.
"I'm not joining the league."
"I never said you had to."
"Fine," he sighed, "I'm in."
