Wrangling teenage emotions is hard enough on good days, but what if on bad days they could manifest as giant flesh and blood monsters?
Pacific Rim meets Friday Night Lights as knee-jerk rebel Sage Sawyer is forced to join her high school "tourneytub...
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Wendy submerges Jolly Roger straight into Percival Moon Memorial Court without any hesitation. It feels like she was a different person the last time she played here.
Perhaps because she sort of was...
In any case, she remembers the malevolent purple of the Dulcet tubs, their glowering gold octopus logo, the thirsty crowd, the heat of the floodlights...
Wendy even remembers how terrified she truly was here, trembling all the way back in September, about to manifest her first ever regular season humor.
But she was Peter then.
And she's Wendy now.
So she's simply not afraid anymore.
The water around Jolly Roger is certainly cold, but nothing like the ruthless iciness of Prophetwood Lake. Wendy's temperature gauge isn't whining, at least.
But Sage is. Her voice grates through the comm system. "Not cool Coach - Talia! You made us train out in that freezing cold asshole lake for nothing!"
"Not for nothing, Sawyer. You're gonna be faster and tougher than they are now. Start acting like it, OK?" Talia barks back.
Sage does not reply. For once, she concedes.
Every Jackalope realizes Talia has a good point.
Win the Owl County Cup and they're going to the Atlas High School Tourneytub Association Playoffs in Barnum. The Jackalopes could be playing their next game at Ithaca Court. The Ithaca Court where the Pandas play! All they have to do is beat the Octopi.
Wendy adjusts her grip on her yoke.
It's show time.
Tonight, the court floats with a somehow menacing tide, rocking miniature buildings bouncing along on buoys in both teams' turf. Both teams' cities are incredibly spread out, so Wendy can already tell it's going to be impossible to defend every burgundy building. The Jackalopes just need to keep one of them standing upright until they can deal with the opposing humor. Just like last week.
The umpire motions for the thaumaturges to take their places in the manifestation stations. Wendy obeys. Nervousness no longer courses through her veins. Tonight it's just excitement. Egging her on. Giving her confidence. She breathes out. Strums a confident chord within. A dark blue cloud funnels through her humor horn.
The cloud spreads out into the water before Jolly Roger. It coalesces into some sort of dinosaur-type creature with strong, streamlined fins and an elongated neck. As usual, Wendy's humor has fangs.
"Dang, br-" Artie cuts himself off mid-sentence, then regathers his words slightly more carefully, "did you just manifest Nessie?"
"Guess so." Wendy replies. She trusts Artie explicitly. She just hopes he doesn't start acting weird around her after she revealed to him who she truly is. She shrugs. She doesn't think he will. It just might take him a little while to adjust to the new reality.
