I closed my eyes unprepared to witness a negative outcome. When I finally looked down, my hand was pressed down on the button with the all uppercase letters spelling out do nothing.
And then I turned my head to the right, and a sigh of relief flew out of me as I noticed the other boy's hand pressed down on the same button.
He grinned at me and stood up, dusting off the back of his jeans. "Good game," he said before sprinting off back into the game, leaving me sitting there, shocked by what he'd chosen. To be completely honest, I hadn't expected him to do what he did. I hadn't exactly fully trusted him, even though I had gone by his decision.
I stood up, and ran back onto the field, but as I was making my way back to the border, careful to avoid being tagged, a player from the other team managed to slip out from the fray of my teammates, carrying the bright blue colored flag in hand. The girl crossed over the white spray painted boundary and immediately loud cheers came from all around me as the opposing team celebrated their victory. I slowed my jog to a walk, realizing the absence of danger since the game had ended.
One of the black outfitted guards, who was watching our game from the side of the field, stepped forward into the middle of the field with a loudspeaker. He pressed the button on it and static filled the surrounding area.
"Red team scores one point. Whichever team reaches three first ones. Let the second round begin."
The blue flag, since we were the blue team, was returned to its spot on the field, and once again I stood in wait for the shrill whistle to announce the official start of the game. It came, and once again the running started.
The second game seemed to go on slightly longer than the first, with people running to grab flags, but always failing. I tagged one of the other team's members as he was grabbing the flag forcing him into jail, and throughout the game, managed to avoid returning to the situation I'd been in during the first game. I prevented myself from venturing too far into the other team's territory, not wanting to risk elimination.
After what felt like a half hour, the dirty blonde haired girl began sprinting into the other side, where the majority of the other team was already occupied with their own people they were trying to tag. The girl slipped past the main defense, and reached the flag without a problem. Her hands were tightly clutched around the bright red flag of the red team, as she came running back towards the boundary undetected, and then passed it, still undetected.
Now it was our team's turn. I shouted out spiritedly with the rest of my team as people randomly gave the girl hugs and I grinned at finally being able to win one of the rounds. Maybe working tomorrow was not in the near future for any of us.
Again, the guard appeared to announce the blue team's win, and the starting of the following, and final, round.
The red flag was returned, and the whistle blew one last time to signify the start of the game.
People came sprinting at me, and I started tagging as many of them as I could. My fingers brushed against shirts, elbows, shoulders, sometimes even legs. Overall, I managed to send many of the other team's members to their own jails, where they discussed and decided which button to press. I'd been carefully paying attention to what had been happening in the jails, and had watched as all three of the scenarios had taken place. Already, eight of the players were sitting out beside the field, looking tired and probably wishing they had chosen differently. Out of the three options, the most common had fortunately been the do nothing button for both, making it so each team hadn't lost too many players.
Suddenly, a player came hurtling by me and I barely managed to reach out and touch their shoulder. I had been so lost in thought I hadn't even seen the player coming. My feet brought me closer to the boundary, where an apparent stalemate was taking place. The players of both teams faced off, carefully watching and waiting for a player from either team to take a chance and make their way out onto the opposing side.
They didn't have to wait long.
In what looked like valiant attempt of stupidity, the dark-haired, arrogant boy from before dashed across the border without really having any open path. But he didn't stop, not until he was tagged down by at least four opposing team members. It had been a stupid move, blatantly running into the open. And even worse, because while our team had been distracted from the anticipation of seeing whether or not the boy would make it, a girl from the other team had gotten by our defense and was clutching the blue flag in her hand trying to run back.
She didn't make it far before an entire group of five or six of my team members converged around her. For a moment, I was relieved, until I realized that the break of the standing off formation had led to chaos once more. The other team was pouring into our side while the few remaining team members who weren't already on the girl with the flag were forced to fight off the huge influx of opponents.
Before I'd really figured out a plan, my legs were taking me across the boundary. Across the dew covered grass and past my opponents who were mostly on the boundary or on our side. They'd staged an offensive attack, without actually paying much attention to their defense. I ran by the few people attempting to defend me, but who weren't fast enough, and lashed out with my hand to grab the flag.
My legs flew me back towards my side of the field, where my team was still trying to hold off the horde of opponents, and had yet to see my running towards them with flag in hand.
Five feet. Four...three...two...
A light whisper of a tap on my shoulder and my moment of glory was over. I froze in place, and dropped the flag, turning around just in time to see the small girl from before, red headed and quick, grabbing my dropped flag and running back to replace it to its proper spot.
I turned towards the jails once again, and when I saw who I was going to be paired up with, I internally groaned.
The arrogant guy.
Not someone I ever wanted to be paired up with for anything.
I walked over towards his hula hoop anyway, knowing I didn't have much of a choice.
He didn't say anything as I sat down in the hula hoop and stared at the buttons.
"So, are we hitting it together?" I asked, not bothering to even try asking for cooperation from him. I worried that if I said anything, it would mess it up and make him even more inclined to get me eliminated.
"Obviously," he replied, quite obnoxiously. He stared at me, and I wondered if he was actually going to go against what he had just said and instead of going at the same time as me would end up waiting until after I'd pressed my button.
I didn't trust him one bit.
He just had that feeling surrounding him. The feeling of not being someone trustworthy, and being so full of himself that he'd do anything, and sacrifice anything, to get what he wanted. And right now, I could tell that he didn't want to lose. He didn't want to be eliminated.
But what it all really came down to was whether or not his urge to not be eliminated would affect his desperation to win the game for the rest of the team. I was certain him winning the flag would boost his ego tenfold in under a second, and personally, I didn't want to be around him when that happened.
But then our hands were pressing down on one of the two buttons in synchronization. My fingers felt sweaty, much like the rest of my body from all of the running, as they pushed down on the do nothing button. I'd placed my trust on the other boy now, and my fate was in his hands, and in whatever button he'd decided to press.
I dared to glance over at his button, and my heart sank into my stomach.
His fingers were still tightly pressing down on the button that screamed in all caps eliminate partner.
I shouldn't have trusted him. But then again it wouldn't have really mattered would it have? The best I could've gotten from the situation was having him be eliminated, too. Although that would somewhat make me feel like less of a failure, it would also make work tomorrow be much worse, with having to see him there, probably angrily scrubbing things and doing the work assigned to him. At least now I'd get to relax while doing it.
"Congrats," I said, trying to give him a partially genuine smile. At least my team had won. At least I could say that.
He ignored my statement and instead was already up and whooping as he ran across the field grabbing the flag on the way. Everyone who had been tagging each other on our side of the field froze and stared, some in joy, some disappointment, as the boy ran past the boundary, arms up in the air as the red flag fluttered behind him in the breeze.
Then the screaming started. People were hugging, giving each other high fives, and shoving the flag higher in the air. The opposing team walked sadly back towards their side, some with their heads down, mostly looking somber. I hadn't really expected the game to matter that much to anyone, but it did. I hadn't expected it to mean anything, being just a simple game often played in gym, but it had.
It probably had to do with recent events. With the uncertainty of everything, the unknown creeping up behind everyone as no one really knew what Mr. Neilson had meant by inspections. It was probably the shock of the entire day. The surprise at being told we would go through inspections, and even more earlier when me and Bea had been dragged out of the room.
So when our team had finally done something that was supposed to be good in the middle of all the unknowns, everyone was elated. We had no idea what was happening next. We had no idea why inspections were taking place. And we had no idea what pain or absence of privacy would be brought with the sudden introduction of Animuses in society.
But what we did know was that we won. And even though I knew I'd only be doing more work tomorrow, even though I'd technically lost, I couldn't help but smile, and join in. I couldn't stop myself from shouting with the rest of our team and from cheering as the red flag was passed around.
I couldn't stop the happiness that came with succeeding.