Serpent | The Avengers [1]

Chapter 3

I sighed, tapping my flesh leg against the ground while staring at the clock. It was the last day of school, and I was ready to leave. 3 minutes left. I thought. We weren't doing anything, just socializing. This was my only class without Olive, so I was sat staring at the clock.

Unluckily, I also had this class with Zach Kimmers. He was pretty mad after what had happened a few days ago, and I called him out. Being the champion basketball player, he was pretty popular and was talking to all his friends. One of them got up and walked over to me. "I heard about what you told Zach. He says to watch your back, or he'll be after you," He warned.

 "Yeah, well deliver this message to him for me. Bring it on," I said, and he walked back to his friend. 2 minutes left until freedom. I thought, turning my attention back to the clock. I sighed when I saw Zach approaching from the corner of my eye. "Who do you think you are?" He demanded. "Hmm...let me think," I said, tapping my chin.

"Oh, I know! I think that I'm not scared of your petty threat," I snapped. "You should be. I can ruin you," He threatened. "Yeah, sorry, I'm not scared. I ain't interested in taking part in the battle of the egos," I smirked. "I can ruin your life," He repeated. "Yeah, I heard you the first time. I still don't care. Now, pack it up and get outta here, the bell's about to ring," I said, waving him away.

The bell rang right as he opened his mouth, and I got up and went to my locker after collecting my stuff. Olive was waiting for me at the lockers. "Zach looks pretty mad. What did you do to him?" They asked. "I called his bluff," I said, grabbing stuff for home and stuffing it into my bag. I slung it onto my back and we walked out to the busses together.

We grabbed our normal seats, I got the window, and started talking about our plans for the summer. "Oh, my mom's taking me camping sometime this summer. She said you can come if your parents agree to it," They said happily. "Yeah. I'll ask them when I get home," I said. We had the same stop and got off the bus and walked to the corner where our streets diverged. My house was the third on the block, so I quickly trudged home.

"Mrs. Finley, I'm home!" I called, setting my bag on its hook. "I told you to call me Mom, sweetie," Mrs. Finley said, coming around the corner with Mason on her hip. Her baby bump was ever prominent. "How was school?" She asked. "It was good. Um, Ms. Ilma offered to take me and Olive camping this summer," I said.

"That's great! Do you know when?" She asked. "No, Olive didn't say," I said. "That's okay. I'm sure we'll find out more soon," She said. "Where's Mr. Finley?" I asked. "He's working late," Mrs. Finley said.

 "Okay. I think I'm gonna go outside," I said, pulling off my mom's jacket. I hung it on the hook, then went to my room. I changed into some shorts and a t-shirt and ran out the front door. "Hey, Ellie! Come on, we're playing soccer!" Olive shouted, waving me over. The other neighborhood kids had set up goals in the field and were waiting for everyone to flock over.

"Okay, everyone line up. We're gonna be picking teams!" Gabbie, one of the kids, said. We all shuffled into a line, and Gabbie looked around. "Okay. Tommy and Penny, you're up," She said, then stepped to the side. "Penny, you go first," Gabbie said, and Penny scanned the line. "Jeremy," She said, and Jeremy went to Penny's side of the field.

"Ronnie," Tommy said. "Ally," Penny said. "Ellie," Tommy called, and I went over to stand next to Ronnie. Eventually, our teams had formed. We had Ronnie, Tommy, Owen, Sara, Katie, and I on one team, and Jeremy, Ally, Matt, Xander, Olive, and Penny on the other side.

"Okay team, huddle up," Tommy said, and we formed a circle. "Okay, Owen's on goalkeeper duty. Ronnie, Sara, and Katie will be on defense, and Ellie and I will play offense," Tommy said, assigning us our parts. I got into position, and Gabbie blew her whistle. We were off. I ran up and kicked the ball, hard, towards Tommy, who was already far out in the field.

Xander intercepted our ball, but Katie passed it to me. I lined up the shot and kicked it as hard as I could towards the goal. It soared passed Matt, who was the goalie, and slammed into the net. "Goal! 1 point to the Porgs! The first team to 5 points wins!" Gabbie called. Our team was called the Porgs because Tommy was wearing a Porg shirt, and Penny's team was called Pepper because she was wearing a Dr. Pepper shirt.

 After a lot of sweat, dirt, and aches, we were tied, 4 to 4. At one point, I was juggling the ball, but Xander ran up. He tried to kick the ball but ended up hitting both my leg and the ball. The ball rolled closer to the other goal, but everyone was stunned, watching my prosthetic flying through the air. It landed on the ball, which rolled straight into the goal.

"Goal?" I asked, and everyone cracked up and the hilarity of the situation. I was sitting on the ground, propped up on my hands. Xander, being the good sport that he is, brought me my leg. I popped it back on and stood up. "So...was it a goal?" I asked Gabbie.

Gabbie turned and consulted with the two kids who had chosen to watch instead of play. Eventually, she turned back around. "Gather around, all!" She said, and we all made a semi-circle around her. "After careful consultation of the rules, and discussion between the referees, a decision has been reached!" Gabbie proclaimed. "The winner of Jasmine Street's soccer street championship is..." Gabbie said.

"The Porgs!" She said, gesturing to our team. We started cheering but were good sports about the win. After Matt asked about it, Gabbie explained. "Well, there's no rule about the limb having to be attached to the person to score a point," She said. "I'll duct tape it on next time," I offered, and we all broke into another fit of laughter.

a/n This chapter was so much fun to write. It's probably one of my favorites. Makes me sad that Ellie probably won't be able to have fun like this in the future.