She's Just That Kind of Girl

Seven | Violet

I did exactly what he said and within minutes I was done and out.

Dallas and Sel were already outside waiting on me. At almost the same time I came out, Tanner did too.

"We ready?" he asked, holding up the gun.

We nodded and headed back to the shack-appearing office, the guards attending. Inside, Middle Man saw we were ready and led us to his golf cart. Tanner hopped up front with him and the rest of us sat in the back. We waved goodbye to our guards as they watched us race off into the woods. On the way to the "Mini Town" course, The Middle Man was talking to Tanner about football, that's it. Nothing else. Just football, nothing about Splatzone, about its history, rules, how it's done, or anything like normal guides would do, just football. This led me to wonder if Tanner was annoyed by it, but if they were laughing about it then I guess not. I mean, I love football, but I like other topics too.

Sooner or later, after passing lots of trees into the forest, we arrive at a field with fences, barrels and wooden shields covered in splattered paintballs. Guau.

"Here we are. There is a lookout somewhere around this area so if y'all are in any trouble, he'll be here to assist you." The Middle Man informed us.

"Thank you, Scott," Tanner said. Then off in a flash was Scott. Scott is it? "Okay, so, very simple stuff. To shoot you pull the trigger, and when you run out of paintballs, you open the hopper," he unclasped the hopper and pulled a can from his belt. "Take a can of paintballs from your belt, unscrew it, and pour all you need." he put his can back in his belt.

We nodded. "Got it,"
we simultaneously said.

"Awesome, we need teams now. Since we'll be shooting at each other," he proposed.

"I'm with Sel," Dallas declared as she locked arms with her, giving me the glare of revenge, which we all knew she wanted anyway so I saw that coming.

"Alright then Grace, I'll just take sides with Tanny-boy then," I shot back with a Scottish accent and locked arms with Tanner. He appeared confused, probably on why I just called my older sister Grace.

"Then bring it Shannon!" Dallas dared with her Scottish accent on. I threw on my mask and raced for one of the wooden shields and dodged behind it, Tanner followed.

"What was that about?" Tanner shouted through his mask.

I drew my at-war or game-face on. "It's this thing we do. We all put on Scottish accents and have Scottish names for each other and just talk like we're from Scotland." I raised my gun up ready to fire. "It's just something fun to do or when we're really bored."

Tanner chuckled. "That's cute."

I blinked. I didn't know how to react to that response. "Thanks." I stretched my head around the corner of the shield, a paintball zoomed past me. I snapped back around behind the shield. "They mean serious business."

            "I can tell. Is Dallas mad at you or something?" he asked.

            I didn't answer, all I said was, "Are you ready?"

He nodded and we dashed like hell out from behind the shield and fired paintballs at my sisters hiding behind another shield. Paintballs zoomed past us as we dived behind yet another shield.

"So, I have a question for you, Mr. McGrey," I said after taking deep breaths, the adrenaline rush shocking my nervous system to life.

            "Shoot," he peeked over at me curiously.

            "Doesn't talking about football ever get annoying to you?"

Coincidentally we rose at the same time and bustled for the trees. Squatting and creeping around the dead trees, I lead.