With The Labels

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

"You ready?" Blake asks me the next morning in his back yard with a football in his hand. Yes, it was time for Caroline Wright to take a swing at football. Or shall I say, a punt at football? I am clever, I know.

"Are you kidding?" I scoff, tying my long hair back into a pony tail. "I was born ready." I reach for the football.

Blake holds the football away from me and shakes his head. "Not so fast, Care Bear. You must learn basics first." He points to the football as if he was talking to a 5-year-old. "The purpose of American football is to move the ball towards the opposition's end zone and ultimately into their end zone, which is called a touchdown." I nod my head as Blake continues "This is achieved by either running with the ball until tackled, or throwing the ball down field to a team mate. Got it?"

"Yes, sir." I salute him, pretending to be serious.

Blake chooses to ignore me. "Do you know the point system?"

I raise my eyebrow at him, gesturing to myself. "Does it look like I would know something like that?"

He rolls his eyes and tries to contain a smile. "Alright so basically touchdown equals six points, field goals equals three points, safety equals two points, and an extra point equals kicking the ball through the uprights after a touchdown." I nod, pretending to follow him and his fancy football terms, but I actually have no idea what he is talking about. He points to one end of his yard between two small trees, "That is your goal line, defend it at all costs." Then he points to the other side of the yard between two gardens, "And that is my goal line, try to get the ball into there and we will go from there. Ready?"

Before I respond, I yank the football out of his hands and run like hell to his goal line. Who cares if this is cheating, we never established rules. Once I get past the gardens and far into the end zone I throw the football down and throw my arms up in the air with pride. I turn around and Blake looks like he is frozen in shock at what just happened.

"Looks like I just scored six points." I stick my tongue out at him, and he just glares at me. Fair is fair.

~

We play 'football' for a solid 20 minutes. It is pretty much just us running back and forth with a ball across the field trying not to get tagged by the other person. It is actually a lot of fun and I work up quite a sweat in the warm morning sun. Right now Blake is winning 9-6. He scored one touchdown after I did and a field goal.

Blake throws the football, aiming to get past my goal line, but I catch the ball. This game is totally unconventional but hey, it works. Once the ball is in my hands I book it towards his end, barely dodging Blake's touch. Our rule is once you get touched, the ball goes to the other person.

My foot touches inside the end zone before Blake literally tackles me to the ground. The football goes flying the other direction and I look up to a grinning Blake straddling my hips.

"Looks like I won." His smile is ear to ear.

"No way! I totally won. I was in end zone, that's  a touchdown. Six points. Fair and square. We weren't playing tackle." He is such a dirty, lying, cheating human being.

Blake ignores me. "I think the winner deserves a kiss." Our faces are mere centimeters apart. I can feel his warm, minty breath on my lips.

"Fine." I spit out. I give Blake a huge, slobbery kiss on the cheek. When I pull back, he looks disgusted, and rolls onto his back. We lay down shoulder to shoulder facing the clear sky.