"You can't be serious," Seth whined upon finding out that Ava was his opponent again.
"Oh, believe it babe," Ava smirked, strapping a gun to her side. "To be fair, you've got three options,"
Emma nodded. She and Olivia were on Ava's team too. "You can either run away, try to shoot us or..."
"Just surrender and hop on board," Olivia finished, flashing her million-dollar smile at Seth.
"You guys are way too powerful," Ally noted, looking at the other team.
All in all, here's what they'd come up with: Ally, Valerie, Rebecca and Seth were on the Blue Team; Ava, Emma, Olivia and Mia were on the Red Team.
There wasn't much complaint in how they chose, they just got the previous game's winning team to decide who they wanted on their team. Whoever wasn't picked would go on the other team.
It was like your typical high school dodgeball game, except the Ava and Olivia were still on the same team, not captains of two different teams.
Hmm, don't ask why. It just was.
"Don't worry Miller," Olivia laughed. "You'll get to be on your girlfriend's team in the next round,"
Ava laughed and high-fived her friend.
"Nah, y'all know we 'gon lose," Ally poured.
"Aww," Mia gave the small girl a side hug. "Have a little faith in your team!"
Valerie rolled her eyes playfully. "Faith, you say?" she turned to look at her teammates. "Okay, we're gonna take 'em down,"
The girl with the blue hair never had to say much to boost morale. She was naturally good at that.
The atmosphere was livelier already.
Once they were all ready, both teams went their separate ways and to their own bases to plan their strategies.
"You guys good?" Todd ask over the loudspeakers from the control room. "Team leaders, give me a thumbs up once your teams are ready,"
Valerie gave a thumbs up almost immediately.
"Hey, that's you," Emma nudged her girlfriend. "We're ready,"
"Do I really have to be team leader?" Olivia asked nervously. She wasn't exactly used to leading a big group like Emma and Mia were on the cheer squad.
"You'll be fine Chancho," Ava pat her back comfortingly. "You did so great in the last game,"
Mia nodded in agreement and smiled. "I second that,"
Olivia nodded gratefully. "Okay," she raised her thumb and signalled at Todd, who raised a hand back in acknowledgement.
"But if anything happens, it ain't my fault," she laughed.
The other girls shook their heads in amusement. "Don't worry, we got you,"
"Both teams are ready," Todd said over the loudspeakers. "Let the games begin!"
•••
Ten minutes in, the teams were still neck and neck. Seth had gotten shot when he bumped into Emma.
Needless to say, it's never a good idea to leave your gun in its holster. You never know when it could get stuck.
Before Seth could even pull his gun out, Emma had shot him not once, but two times. You know, just for good measure.
It seemed like a good take, the Red Team was in the lead, 5-4.
Unfortunately for them, Mia had met face-to-face with Ally shortly after.
"Told you we've got this in the bag," Valerie yelled in Ally's direction from behind a boulder.
"Oh shut it," Ally yelled playfully. "Just shoot!"
Yeah, Ava and Olivia had them surrounded. Remind them never to play with these two as opponents anymore, please?
"Crap!" Ally groaned as she got shot. "Well, guess I'm your opponent now," she glanced at Valerie, who barely had time to roll away before Ally's laser hit the spot she last sat at.
"Ally!" Valerie rolled her eyes at the small girl. "You can't turn on me like that! I barely had any time to react,"
Ava laughed, emerging from her spot behind a wall. "Ally's on our team now, she can definitely do that,"
"Don't be a bitch," Valerie whined.
If you couldn't tell, the girls were pretty competitive.
"Okay, tell you what," Olivia's voice came from somewhere beside Ava. "We'll let you off for now, but you're done if we see you again,"
Ally made her way to the other girls. "Sorry captain," she shrugged. "Rules are rules,"
"Not so fast," a voice was heard from behind them, just as a light dimmed on Olivia's vest.
"Fuck!" the raven-haired girl groaned in defeat. The lights, once red, now turned blue. "Mia!"
"Sorry," the girl said, coming out from...nowhere. She'd blended in so well with the glow-in-the-dark arena that no one even knew she'd been here the entire time.
"Well, how about we regroup?" Valerie suggested.
Everyone agreed. It wouldn't be fair if they kept shooting at one another right after switching teams.
•••
"Okay, we lost Mia and Olivia," Ava said to Ally back at their team's base. "I haven't got a clue where Emma is,"
"That's dangerous," Ally noted. "She probably doesn't even know Olivia's on the other team now,"
Ava hadn't expected their team to be on the losing end. They only had herself, Ally, Emma and Seth.
While their numbers were still tied, Ava couldn't deny the fact that having Olivia and Mia on the other team put them at a great disadvantage.
The Blue Team now had Valerie, Rebecca, Olivia and Mia. Pretty powerful team, really.
"What should we do?" Ava asked Ally. It wasn't like her to be on the losing team, so she wasn't exactly sure how to react.
Ally took a few moments to think before responding. "First, we should probably look for Emma. Then I'm thinking we get Val and Olivia back on our side at least,"
"We could use Emma's help on that front," Ava agreed.
Ally glanced at the watch on Ava's wrist. "Isn't there a call function on that thing?" she lifted her friend's hand to inspect the gadget.
Ava smacked her forehead. "Oh my god, you're right! I could've called Emma all this time,"
The girls could only hope their teammate would pick up.
"Hey,"
Emma's voice was barely audible coming from the watch's speaker, but they were relieved that the call got through to begin with.
"Girl, hey!" Ava said, a little distraught. "I'm so glad we managed to get through to you,"
"Yeah, me too. Good thing I decided to wear my watch today, huh? It's the one you got me too,"
Ally laughed. "Did you not know about the call function?"
"Nope," Emma replied, popping the 'p'. "I thought she got it for me as a gift because I needed a fitness tracker when I joined the cheer squad,"
Ally turned to look at Ava. "You never told her about any of the functions?"
The tall girl raised her hands in surrender. "Hey, don't look at me! That thing came with a manual!"
"You know I don't read those things! Anyway, be glad I figured out how to pick up your call. Now, what's up?"
"Where are you, exactly?" Ally asked.
"Hiding behind a wall. I'm near the Blue Team's base,"
"Do you see any of them?" Ava pressed.
"I think I see Val and...Olivia. Wait, Liv?" Emma did a double take when she spotted her girlfriend chatting with Valerie at their base.
"About that..." Ava trailed off.
They heard Emma groan from the other end of the line. "Really? How are we going to beat them now?"
"That's where you come in," Ally spoke up this time. "Ava and I are at our base. We need you to find a way to distract them while we get them on our side,"
"Once their leader falls and joins our team, the others will pretty much falter too," Ava explained.
"I get that," Emma nodded, then realised they couldn't see her. "But how do I distract them? You guys know what happened in the last round," she said, referring to the moment she'd gotten a little carried away with Olivia and ended up letting her girlfriend win the game of Capture the Flag.
"You don't have to talk to them,"
"You're a cheerleader! Put those skills to use, Chancho!" Ava practically yelled.
Ally winced and looked around, hoping no one heard her. She smacked Ava's arm and whispered for her to lower her voice.
"Sorry," Ava pouted, rubbing the spot where Ally had hit her.
"I'll try my best," Emma replied, tone laced with determination. "Just get here as quickly as you can,"
Wow, they sure were taking these games seriously.
•••
Once all three girls had met up near the Blue Team's base, they set their plan in motion.
Alas, Seth had found his way to them too.
"Babe, when Emma goes out there and distracts them, Ally and I are gonna aim for Val and Livy. I need you to cover our backs," Ava explained to him, hoping he'd catch her drift.
"No problem, lover," the boy winked. "Locked and loaded,"
"Alright, let's do this thing,"
Emma came around the wall, eyes immediately meeting Olivia's. Even in the darkness of the arena, she swore she could see the green in her girlfriend's orbs.
"No time for distractions, Em," she mumbled under breath.
"There!" Olivia shouted and almost immediately, Emma had two laser beams pointed straight at her.
Once Olivia and Valerie took their shots, however, Emma ducked and rolled out of the way.
"Crap," Valerie cursed, attempting to reload her gun.
"These things really need a quicker recovery time," Olivia grunted.
"Now!" Ava and Ally came out from their hiding spots and made their shots.
Unfortunately for them, they missed.
"Seriously?" Emma whined. "You guys had one job!"
Ally muttered her apologies profusely as she reloaded her weapon.
"We got you now, babe," Olivia smirked as she fired her second shot.
"I don't think so," Emma grinned as she did a backflip.
"You're like, a spy out of those movies," Valerie yelled. "Dope,"
Before the girl with the blue hair could 'shoot her shot', the lights on her vest turned red.
"Nice shot, Ave!" Emma called out to her teammate.
"Nah, that wasn't me!"
"Ally?" Emma turned to the smaller girl.
"Nope, I hit Olivia,"
Sure enough, Olivia's groan was evidence enough of Ally's successful shot.
"Girl, come on! Why wasn't I your first choice?" Seth rolled his eyes playfully, spinning his pistol around his finger.
"Seth!"
"Gotcha," he winked at Valerie. "Didn't see that coming, did you?"
"Gotta admit, that was pretty good," Olivia nodded towards her friend.
"I guess we're down to Mia and Rebecca," Ava concluded.
"Yeah, wherever they are," Ally said, looking around for any signs of the two girls.
"Last I heard, they were on their way to infiltrate your base," Valerie reported, recounting her conversation with the girls before the attack.
"Well, our base now," Olivia corrected with a smile.
"Let's finish this," Emma cheered. "Can't be too hard, right?"
Wrong.
•••
"I can't believe we lost!" Valerie groaned as everyone took their seats at the arena's canteen once more.
Although the Red Team had a huge lead of 6-2, they'd still managed to lose to Rebecca and Mia.
How, you might ask?
Well, the answer's simple.
"We found a power up," Mia smiled.
"Sweet sweet victory," Rebecca cheered, leaning on Valerie's shoulder.
The other girl pouted, but smiled when her date leaned in to give her a peck on the lips.
Well, it seemed like their date was going well.
"What power up was that, exactly?" Olivia asked curiously.
"Yeah, how did you guys even find it? I haven't seen any since we started,"
"I guess the staff is pretty good at hiding them then," Rebecca shrugged. "It was a power up that allowed us to turn our pistols into automatic machine guns for thirty seconds,"
"I found it near the Red Team's base, actually," Mia spoke. "I pretty much had it on me the entire game. I was going to give it to you guys, but then I got shot," she glanced at Ally, who raised her hands in surrender.
"A game's a game,"
Mia chuckled. "So I decided to keep it with me. You know, just in case,"
"And I'm glad she did," Rebecca laughed. "I don't think we could've won any other way,"
Everyone nodded in agreement. The power up definitely gave the two girls the upper hand. With an automatic machine gun, even if it was just for thirty seconds, they could wipe the entire team out with little to no effort.
And that's exactly what they did.
"Well," Ava sat up and shifted in her seat. "It was a good game. Congrats, you two," she smiled.
Valerie spoke up next. "Yeah, I agree. Smart move, keeping the power up till the end,"
"I know I was supposed to be team leader," Olivia looked at Ava. "But I stunk,"
"No way!" Ava shot her friend a playful glare. "You just didn't get the chance to show off your skills because you had to keep switching teams," she laughed.
"You're alright," Emma leaned in and pecked her girlfriend on the lips.
See? Once the game had ended, everything went back to normal.
Things just got a little rough on the field because of everyone's fighting spirit.
But, at the end of the day, there was indeed no harm, no foul. All was good among the group of friends.