"Here it is, folks. The lucky school." He opened it slowly. With a terrible grin, he read, "Marrisville Jr. Sr. High School located in Iowa."
"No!" students screamed. They all jumped to their feet. Others broke down in tears. The reactions were...
The whistle blew and chaos broke loose. People screamed their victory screams and ran, while others ran head on, destined to get caught.
I started off towards the white team, walking slowly to the edge of their territory. Once I stepped in it, I was free to be tagged. The other three teams slowly approached the quiet defense like lions about to pounce their prey. The kids stood looking as confident as their poor souls could make them.
A boy from the green team made the first jump. He sprinted, determined to get the flag. What he got instead was tagged. What I saw was crazy coming from a couple of quiets. The five linked arms and stood acting like a wall separating us from the flags. He ran straight into their trap. Those little clever tots. The boy was tagged and put in the prison. The five turned back around to face the rest of the game, leaving the boy standing shocked behind them.
I exchanged nervous looks with the girl from the blue team. "What do we do?" she mouthed. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Don't run right at them. You'll end up like him." I motioned my head towards the kid in prison. I turned back to my team, who was fighting off someone from the blue team. I heard a screech coming from the green team's corner. I turned my head and saw the troublemakers from the white team running around like absolute idiots. They scared the crap out of Amia but made me laugh. Others acted like they were about to go for the steal, teasing the defense of the team.
I heard more commotion from my own team and saw the kids doing the same. I could've marched right up to them and tagged, which I did. I found the one going for the flag and tagged him square on the back, sending him to prison. However, something seemed off. He smiled as he went.
"Take me away, officer!" he pleaded. I turned and saw another kid from the white team walk out of our territory suspiciously. Another kid went into the white's prison. I found Olivia speaking with Taylor. She nodded and walked off to her team and began talking. I caught the word alliance in her conversation.
"Shit," I muttered. "Clayton! Come here!"
"Busy!" he shouted back from the green team. He was tagged and sent to prison. It was up to me.
"Hey, Amia!" I called.
"What?" she called back.
"Let's form an alliance. Red and green against the other two. It'll be a truce, for now. Just to make sure the blue and white don't get us."
"Are they teaming up?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Got it. I'll let the others know."
She ran off and I let the others know. It went from four teams against each other to two built up teams against each other real fast. Now the real fun begins.
By now, it was war. Kids were yelling, running, stealing, the whole enchilada. Mrs. Howell was laughing her ass off the whole time. I swear I saw her taking a video at one point.
I watched as someone from the red team came back with a white flag. Another came with a blue flag. One more. How were we to break it with the green team?
"Screw it," I said to myself. "I'm committing treason."
I ran over to their territory, planning to sneak it casually. I watched as someone walked away with a green flag. She was from the blue team. Something green stuck out of her pocket. She had another green flag. She ran it over to Olivia. She smiled and took it, handing it to a troublemaker to take back to their camp. She had one. They still needed two more. I only needed one. Better luck next time, sweetheart.
I went for the green flag. It was in plain sight. I could snatch it easily.
I was in arm's reach of it when I was stopped by Amia. Small talk, I thought. Distract her.
"Hey," I greeted. "Did you see the one from the blue team take your flags?"
"Yeah, she took two for the white team! That leaves us with two."
"Yeah." I meant down and picked up the green. "I'm so sorry."
"Hey!"
I sprinted back to my team. I threw down the flag on the pile and threw my hands in the air, only to bring them down when I heard cheering from the white team.
"We got a winner!" Mrs. Howell announced. The white team cheered louder.
"How?" I questioned. "They only had one flag!"
"Oh yeah?" Olivia asked. She picked up four flags. One was white, one was green, one was blue, and the other was red. I stared at them in disbelief.
"How?" I managed to ask.
"Strategy." She grinned. She got a few high-fives from the kids on her team.
"How did she do that?" Clayton asked coming up to me.
"Asking myself the same thing," Brian agreed, joining us.
"Alright, go get changed!" Mrs. Howell ordered. The boys and girls split up to get changed.
"That was a good game," Taylor commented. Others agreed.
"I still don't get how they won," Nora told me. "I didn't even see her take the red flag."
"Exactly."
"Maybe you can ask her when you're making calls?" she suggested. I glanced back at Olivia. She walked out of the locker room with Taylor.
