Norman's POV
"Norman! Wanna play tag with us when Mom takes us outside?" Emma's enthusiastic voice shouts. She wraps her arms around my shoulders and jumps onto my back, making me stumble a bit.
"Sure, why not? Who else is going to be playing?" I ask, setting her down.
"Hmm, You, me, Phil, Gilda, Don, Anna, Nat, Lani, Thoma, and Sister Krone. Do you think that's enough?"
I nod. Soon enough, Mom announces for us to go outside and play. We all rush outside and pick who's going to be 'it'.
"Norman, can you be it?" Thoma asks. I nod and he jumps up and down, hugging me.
"Alright, I'll count to 30. You all run into the woods, got it?" I ask. Everyone nods. "Okay. On your marks, get set... GO!"
Everyone sprints into the woods as I start counting in my head. When I hit 30, I nod at Ray (who's sitting in his usual spot underneath the tree) and jog to find my friends.
Emma's POV
I'm paired up with Phil. His smarts and my athleticism can get us pretty far into the game without getting caught by Norman.
Yeah, at Gracefield we take tag very seriously.
"Emma? I hear footsteps coming from over there," Phil points to his right. I nod and we start sprinting away.
"Phil, go left, I'll go forward!" I say. Phil nods and runs left. I run forward and jump over a log and into a tree.
Looking down, I see Norman run in the direction Phil ran in. I giggle to myself and jump up to a higher branch.
"Alright, I just have to make it back to the beginning. There's no rule saying we can't be in the forest!" my eyes brighten at my realization.
I jump down from the tree and start right. Hearing footsteps behind me, I speed up and jump over the tiny ravine. Sadly, I miss and end up landing on my face in the dirt.
"Ow..." I rub my nose, my eyes tearing up. I look down and see my white button-up and skirt all brown now. I sigh. "Oh well!"
I hear heavy footsteps coming my way and look up in horror. Norman's sweaty face is in front of mine, him bending over to get to my eye level on the ground.
He leans close to my ear and whispers, "Found you." before kissing my cheek and running off probably to find Phil.
I feel my face turn bright red and I touch where he kissed me.
"Wait! He caught me!" I huff, running back to the house where everyone who has been found was waiting.
ok I know this is bad but I wanted something published :)
