Coming Together

Chap. 3

Colby's POV

I only had one goal in this dodgeball tournament, to take Aaron Bradshaw down.

“Team Awesome and Team Football are up first,” Coach Thompson called.

I took a seat with my team, watching Aaron and his tactics. He was good, but I noticed that about halfway through the game he switched to throwing the balls with his left arm, which significantly weakened his performance.

Perfect.

The tournament went on the entire length of practice, but somehow we continuously avoided getting paired up with Aaron’s team. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was part of Coach Thompson’s plan.

“Alright,” Coach Thompson announced, towards the end of practice. “The two teams that win these next two rounds will face each other for the Championship.”

I smiled at my team. “We’re the swolest team out there, we’ve got this.”

“There’s one other undefeated team,” Paul pointed out. “Team Awesome.”

“Then we’ll defeat them,” I stated, matter-of-factly.

The first two teams to play were Team Awesome and Team Football. Team Football was defeated.

“So the first team in the Championship will be Team Awesome!” Coach Thompson announced.

We took the court, facing off Coach Thompson’s team.

We easily defeated them, and I personally took out Coach Thompson and Principal McCoy, much to my delight.

“And Team Swole will be the second team in the Championship!” Coach Thompson announced. “Grab some water, the game will start in 2 minutes.”

“Alright, listen up,” I said, gathering my team around. “I’ve been studying Team Awesome.”

The guys laughed, knowing that what I meant was I’d been studying Aaron for his weaknesses.

“The only people that can actually play on that team are the receivers and Aaron. But Aaron stops trying about halfway through the game, switching to his left arm.”

“Why?” Paul asked.

I shrugged. “Who cares? We can take them down easy.”

“Take the court boys!” Coach Thompson called.

“One more thing,” I said to my team. “I want to be the one to take down Aaron.”

They all smiled at me and nodded in agreement.

I could see Aaron giving his team one last pep talk before they joined us on the court, a smirk on his face.

I wanted to smash his face with a dodgeball.

Coach Thompson blew his whistle, and the madness began. I aimed for their receivers, taking them out one-by-one while I focused in on Aaron.

He was doing the same, taking out my linebackers one-by-one. He was still using his right arm, but he had a pained expression on his face.

Before I knew it there were only two people left on my team, Paul and me. And there were three on Aaron’s team, two offensive linemen and Aaron.

Paul and I nodded at each other and each took out an offensive linemen.

But Aaron took out Paul.

I could hear my team chanting, and I could hear Aaron’s team chanting. There was laughing around the gym as well, the irony that the two of us would end up facing off.