Rich Re:grets

Chapter 4.4: A Quiet Calm

(DECEMBER 2010)

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RICH MUTATIO

Since everyone's mind was on the upcoming three-day retreat, the days leading up to it blurred together. We were excited at the thought of an overnight trip and this was sort of the quiet calm before that storm.

"There will be five hardpoints." Mr Cranston explained the second game, "each represented by the first five letters in the alphabet. I'm pretty sure you all know the letters but since we're playing military games could someone tell me the NATO version?"

Hunter raised his hand. "Alpha. Bravo. Charlie..."

We all looked at Charlie.

"You're only supposed to look at me if my name's in a math question," he pointed out.

"Delta. And Echo," Hunter finished.

Mr Cranston applauded. "Wow, good job on knowing. Your goal is to gain more points than the other team. Each person will gain one point for every second they are in a hardpoint. The hardpoint will change at random every sixty seconds. Think of this as King of the Hill except there are two big teams and five different mountains."

Annie raised her hand. "How do we keep track of how many points we have?"

"Good question." Mr Cranston pulled out a device from his pocket. "Each player will have this thing. This will know if you're in a hardpoint or not and count your points for you."

Silence.
"Since there are no more, let's practice how to perform an effective tackle."

We didn't know how to feel about this game. Unlike pole toppling and capture the flag, hardpoint relied on brawn over brains. There weren't a lot of strategies we could come up with; everything was too physical.

Our class was determined to show the seventh graders that numbers and strength weren't the only things that made an effective team. We were tired of losing to them and what better way to put them in their place than to win fairly with teachers watching?

We played lots of cops and robbers, manhunt, and tag during recess. To an outsider, it would look like we were just playing regular games. But in reality, we were building up our stamina and practicing how to evade, catch, and free people from jail.

If we had time, the entire class would train at the field behind the plaza after school. We had the defence unit try to take down the attack unit while trying to get through.

We even took turns getting tackled until we were blue in the face just so we'd get used to the feeling.

When the weekend before the retreat rolled around, Mallory insisted that we meet up at the hideout before the ground froze.

"Do we have to write a letter? This feels like homework. Over."

Mallory screamed into the walkie. "This is a great way to see how far we'll come, moron! Over and out."

Once I finished writing my letter, I left my house wearing a jacket and ran into Zoey who was headed to the hideout too.

"Did you write a letter?" Zoey asked.

I waved my envelope at her. "Yeah. I can't believe I actually wrote this. You?"

She showed her envelope. "Yeah."

"How many pages?"

"Just one. What about you?"

I shrugged my shoulders."I don't know."