honestly- I wanted Seth to claim the flag, and me, with an adrenaline-infused victory kiss worthy of Hans Solo and Princess Leia. It’d take so much pressure off the dare too. Though a part of me didn’t want our first kiss to be public. Would Siobhan accept a cheek kiss?
“For what it’s worth, I think you guys would make a good couple.” Alex lifted a purple-polka-dotted fingernail and set the marching ants back down a few feet in front of our noses.
The ends of her blue crepe-paper armband caught in the breeze and I tucked it hastily back underneath her skinny bicep before it caught someone’s eye.
“It’s just a dare,” I reminded her, concentrating on the woods to my left where I thought I’d spotted movement. “Look over there.” I pointed out the spot.
Alex’s gaze followed my finger. “You know Siobhan only dared you because that kiss has been coming for a long time.”
I wondered what my friends saw when they looked at Seth and me. Why did they think we’d make a good couple? Or that a kiss was long overdue? I mean, just because I thought both those things didn’t make them true. My scientist’s mind wanted tangible evidence. Irrefutable proof.
Anything that would make a kiss easier for me.
“I think that’s Seth,” I realized suddenly. No one else moved through the woods as quietly as he could. I think the only reason I’d seen him is because—goofy as this may sound—I felt him.
Like I had a Seth radar or something.
“I don’t see anything,” Alex argued. “And you’re way too good at changing the subject—”
Suddenly, Hannah came charging out of the brush, her red hair flying, her face painted in her team’s color—orange. She headed right toward us. No, right toward Alex, I realized.
Had she not seen me?
I rolled away from Alex as she squealed and tried to run from the attacker. Hannah focused on Alex’s loosely tied blue armband, needing the band to make Alex her prisoner. On the other hand, Hannah’s orange armband wrapped around her limb so many times you’d need scissors to get it off. The cheater. Thankfully, she hadn’t noticed me.
Across the clearing, my teammate Seth peered out from the tree where he’d been hiding. He gave me the smallest nod. Toward Hannah. I only needed a second to understand what he needed me to do. I’d take care of Hannah. He’d grab the orange team’s flag.
Leaping from my hiding spot at the same time as Seth, I made for Hannah while he surged toward the enemy flag. Hannah wasn’t expecting me, and I raked off enough of her armband to loosen the crepe paper, taking her as my prisoner and knocking her out of the game.
Before I could savor that victory though, the orange team’s biggest dude, Buster, sauntered out of the woods nearby. Crap. How had all of these people been hiding so close to our position and Alex and I hadn’t noticed?
Buster sprinted between Seth and the flag.
For a minute, I thought all was lost. Hannah, Alex, and I watched in stunned silence as Seth charged the Warriors’ Warden behemoth. But Buster was huge. He put out one powerful arm in a clothesline move.
“Hey!” I wanted to leap in and tell him that wasn’t fair. And while technically Hannah and Alex couldn’t get involved or say anything since they were both captives, they each gasped as Seth fell.
“Ladies.” Bam-Bam, the counselor for Seth’s cabin, jogged onto the scene from behind us. “As referee for this end of the field, I’m telling you all to stand back.”
“I’m still in the game!” I argued, seeing other boys from the far side of the field running our way. “I have every right to take the flag!”
“She can’t do that, she’s a defender,” Hannah called.
Right then, Seth wrapped his leg around Buster’s calf and yanked him down to the ground. Hard.
I’m pretty sure the ground shook. Seth bounded up, vaulting over the fallen boy, and yanked the orange bandana off the stick.
We won.
I leaped onto Seth, almost