Rich Re:grets

Chapter 2.1: The New Girl

(OCTOBER 2010)

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RICH MUTATIO

AFTER RECEIVING NEWS that a girl was joining our class, the rest of the week went by quickly.

   We haven't gotten a new girl in the class since fourth grade so the girls were squealing. The boys were exhilarated but I think their reasons were more hormone-based than intimate.

   After a couple more games of dodgeball, Mr Cranston divided us into permanent teams that were too balanced for my liking. The only reason why we enjoyed the first game of Indian Sticks was because both teams had randomized strengths and weaknesses. A game consisting of two teams with balanced stats will have the same outcome, while randomness made us approach each game at a new angle.

   Sometime during the week, Mr Darley and Mr Cranston informed us about a three-day overnight trip in December for the three oldest grades. Mr Cranston went on to explain how Mr Darley and the seventh-grade teacher, Mrs Delilah, agreed to pit their classes against each other in three activities they dubbed the Military Games.

   Everyone in the class was looking at each other smiling and nodding as if we were saying, "Let's go!"

   Mr Cranston crossed his arms and leaned on the board. "The competition is to take place on the last day of the retreat. The first game would be a game of pole toppling on the open field. The second game would be a game of hardpoint at the remodelled town in the reserve. And the last game was going to be a capture the flag match."

   Our class had two months to come up with a game plan. If Mr Darley told us what the games were then Mrs Delilah would have told the seventh graders too.

   Anyone with a working brain knew that the odds were stacked against us, but, for some reason, knowing that gave us more of a thrill.

   I read Sun Tzu's The Art of War two years ago and it looks like it's time for a reread.

   The academic activities we did this week were a blur. The only highlight I could think of was the pop quiz on geography Mr Darley made us do after most of us failed to hand in our homework from the night before.

  He also assigned another art assignment over the weekend which was to simply make a watercolour painting of our choice. That was it; beginner work.

   After school on Thursday, the class went to the park and played what we dubbed a 'Pinecone War'. There was no objective of the game; no one could be eliminated and there were no items to claim. The premise was two teams throwing pinecones at each other. It was that simple, that stupid, and that fun.

   The next day, Mr Darley noticed bumps on Annie and Charlie and began to worry, but after he realized a number of us had the same injuries, he probably shrugged it off and assumed we were doing something stupid after school. Which, to be fair, we were.

   We pulled a daring heist in the local dollar store on Friday. Eighteen of us walked into the store, blocking off each aisle and distracting the customers, employees, and managers.

   We had one goal—to look suspicious.

   While the workers were chaotically trying to keep an eye on us all, Bond walked into the store and, even though he was carrying his stupidly large saxophone case from music class, no one cared about him. They only cared about us and what we might steal.

   Seymour, Cook, Hunter, Sam, and I, who were in the snack aisle, promptly left and joined Conan, Charlie, Grant, and Brianna who were in the hardware section. The workers followed us, leaving no one to keep an eye on the snacks.