What lies in-between

Dodgeball is War!

My hand reached out to the handle of the boys locker room and swung the door open. When I walked into the locker room I was hit with the smell of deodorant, cologne, and BO. The worst combination of smells known to man, at least in my opinion. With a big sniff, to get myself used to the smell, I walk in and head to my locker. The locker room isn't exactly crowded but it isn't empty either. There were quite a few guys in the locker room, estimated around thirteen out of thirdy guys that actually came. Most of them were huddled in groups but there were a few guys that were minding their own business.

The floor was littered with stuff. There were clumps of clothes scattered, boxers, PE uniforms, and random pairs of shoes. Let's not mention the countless empty or half empty deodorant sticks that are always somewhere and you can't get rid of them, they're on the tops of lockers, under the benches, behind trash cans, and many other places. They are kinda like glitter, you can never get rid of them. Little bits of wrappers and trash are also in the mix of stuff on the floor.

The majority of the wrappers are condoms thanks to the communal bowl full of them. The idea was that it would help promote safe , but most of the time the guys just play with them. I eye the bowl as I walk past it, I snort at the rainbow of different colors and designs for the packaging. Who wouldn't want to play with Teenage Mutant Turtles or hot pink Barbie condoms. I continue my journey to my locker, stepping over other people's stuff, and stand in front of it.

I stand in front of locker 113, my locker. It is a dull grey color, but is littered with stickers from my favorite bands and hobbies, making it pop. With the lock in my hand I fiddle with it and put in my combo. I turn it to the right, stopping at nineteen. I turn it left until it lands on six. Then I do a full rotation to the right before turning it left and finally landing on twentythree. It clicks before unlocking, allowing me into my locker. I open it and grab my uniform. The bottom is a red color while the top is white. I pull the red pair of shorts to my waist and pull the white shirt over my head, being careful not to shred it with my quills.

Now that I'm dressed in my PE uniform I walk out the door leading to the main gym area. It doesn't take long for more of the class to filter out to the gym. When the PE teacher walks there is a cart of dodgeballs trailing behind him. He blows his whistle, the sound carrying across the gym, to get everyone's attention. When he was satisfied with the amount of eyes on him he began to speak.

"Okay kitties, you are going to be playing dodgeball today," He says, voice booming. "Let me go over the rules of the game."

For the next ten to fifteen minutes the Pe teacher lectures about the rules of the game. "Also, there is an optional challenge round at the end of class." My ears perked up at the sound of a challenge, I loved challenges.

The coach blew his whistle and sorted the class into two equal groups, one of the right side of the gym and the other on the left. If anybody passed the middle line then they would be out automatically. My group was mostly made up of girls, our coach was a little sexist, because I was a really good athlete. He believed that the girls were not athletic enough and so he paired them with the guys who were more athletic to try to balance everything. I know that a good portion of the girls were amazing athletes because they were on school sports teams. Our school just so happened to have one of the best girls basketball teams in the district. I smirked to myself because I knew that our team had a pretty decent chance of winning.

With another blow of a whistle the dodgeballs were dumped onto the gym floor. Everyone rushed to pick up a ball, while I just waited until a ball rolled over to me. A whole lot of people got out at the beginning of the game because of the fact there was such a big clump of them. This was the best way of not getting out, waiting for the ball. It has been a hundred percent effective so far so why change it. After the purge of so many students there was usually a whole lot of unoccupied balls that followed, most of which would roll towards the walls behind the dodgeball territories. That was where I was waiting, plenty of balls to pick from.

A pink ball caught my attention. It was rolling slowly towards me and bumped softly against my shoes before stopping. I did a squat to pick it up before quickly standing up once again. With a ball in my hand I walked closer to the middle line and aimed for one of the players on the opposing team. In a full body motion I threw the ball and got someone out. After that it was warfare. Lots of dodgeballs flew my way and I dodged them with ease, I even caught a few and threw them back.

The game seemed to go by in a blur. Dodgeball was one of the things that was actually fun about PE. The majority of the opposing team was gone, but my team wasn't in any better shape. There were about six people on our side and five on the other. I grabbed another ball and got ready to throw it but I was interrupted by the sound of the whistleblowing. Everyone's attention turned to the coach.

"Alright, time for the challenge round. We only have about five minutes left of class," The coach stated. "You have to survive five minutes against the whole class. Whoever wants to participate will step forward."
I wasted no time and stepped forward. "Count me in coach!"

The coach smiled at my enthusiasm. "The challenger is Sonic, everyone get a dodgeball."

"Let's do this," I said as I stared at everyone in the gym with a smirk on my face. "I can do this easy peasy."

The coach blew his whistle for the round to start. "I forgot to mention. If you lose this round then you have to run five miles around the gym after class."

My eyes widened in panic. I ducked out of the way just in time as a ball flew just centimeters from my face. I can't lose because or else I'll have to be the last person in the locker room! With adrenaline pumping, I dodged the flurry of balls that were launched at me. I was anxious because I couldn't see how much time I had left. I was getting tired. I was dodging nonstop while getting balls thrown at me from every possible direction. My breath was heavy and I started to get slower.

My ears perked up when I heard a girl shout. "We got thirty seconds before the bell rings!"

Strength filled me as I was determined to survive the next half minute. If I survive for over four minutes then I can survive just a few more seconds. A smile spread across my face because I was sure that I would win. I was maneuvering and weaving between balls, a few students cursed in frustration. Some of them were also getting tired of throwing dodgeballs. I moved my head as another ball nearly got me. It was almost over. I shrieked in surprise as I felt my foot slip out from underneath me. I had stepped on a ball, which was now rolling across the gym. I landed on my ass with an 'oof' and tried to get up. I was then hit in the back of the head as the bell rang a second

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Word count 1378