The idea struck late one night, sitting in the treehouse till dusk with my younger brother Xander and two best friends, Lilah and Oliver, who were also brother and sister. To this day, no one remembers who actually came up with it, but it is undeniable that everyone had immediately jumped on board. We plotted the details, writing them down in a notebook so we wouldn't forget a thing. We were going to create our own summer Olympics. The rules were simple. First everyone had to choose a country. I, of course, chose Australia due to a recent phase where I would speak as if I was from "down under," doing my best impression of an Aussie accent. Oliver chose England, and immediately began ranting about tea in a British accent. Lilah picked Scotland and started practicing her imaginary bagbipes. My brother Xander decided to be basic and picked America as his home county. After eveyone's origins had been decided and we had mastered our accents, we planned out the sporting events. The following were included, but not limited to: two versus two basketball, pig, knockout, a tennis tournament, a frisbee throwing competition, a soccer kicking challenge, three point shooting contest, track events in the back yard, and two versus two football which would not include tackling and would be played at the end of the dead end road in front of Lilah and Oliver's house. Lilah wrote all of this down in the notebook and we discussed a system for scoring points. By the time all of this was settled, the parents had come out onto the porch and called us, saying it was time to leave. Through the entire ride home and as I fell asleep that night, all I could think about was the perfect summer laid out before me, and the competition that was sure to provide a lot of entertainment for me and my friends. Or should I say, _mates_?