Page 71 of Better Than Revenge

He buckled on his belt.

“Oh, look what I finally found.” I lifted my cleats off my shoulder.

“Nice.” He took them from me and flung them toward the sidelines. “We’ll use them later.”

The next five minutes were spent teaching me the rules, which were mostly the same as regular football, except no tackling was involved. By the time the ball was placed on the scrimmage line, I thought I had it down, despite the fact that twenty kids were yelling different things at me the whole time. Theo had assigned me to the yellow team and himself to the red, so we stood on oppositesides of that invisible line, staring at each other. He’d made me the quarterback, which I thought was really rude, but my plan was to get rid of the ball as quickly as possible after each snap.

That plan was harder said than done. The kids were fast. My yellow ribbons were torn from my belt after each snap three separate times. On the fourth down, Theo whispered to the line of kids something that I suspected went,Let her throw the ball.

“Don’t go easy on me!” I called.

He laughed. “Fine, don’t go easy on her, team.”

This time when the ball was snapped, I backed up more, and my pocket of protectors actually protected me as I looked down the field for someone to throw it to. A dark-haired little girl was open on the right, and our eyes met. I chucked the ball, very poorly, but she managed to catch it. Just as I released the ball, Theo was by my side, tugging one of the ribbons on my belt. The Velcro must’ve been super strength because the action threw me off-balance and I careened into his chest. His arm wrapped around me, possibly to keep me from falling.

“Too late,” I said, with a smile, against his chest.

“Lucky pass,” he said.

“Talent,” I assured him.

“Maybe you’re trying out for the wrong position.”

I laughed. “You’re right—I should just try out for all the positions.”

Shouts upfield drew our attention away from each other, and he released his hold on me. Down the way, my little teammate had made it all the way to the endzone. I let out a whoop and high-fived the kid next to me.

I held my fake microphone up to my mouth. “Coach Theo, youhave now witnessed the person you literally just taught the game to throw a touchdown pass to take the lead. How does that make youfeel?”

He took my hand in his and brought it up to his mouth. “I feel like I need to show you how it’s done.” With those words, he went to collect the ball.

Kids trailed after him, like shadows, mimicking his every move, it seemed. Once he had the ball, he turned and said something that made his shadows laugh. My heart gave a lurch.

Then we were back to the game, him playing quarterback this time and, apparently, me making it my one and only goal to relieve him of a ribbon. I would race around and through and past players, reaching for the red material.

On his third completed pass, he narrowed his eyes at me after my failed attempt, playfully swatting my hand away from his waist. “I’m not even who you’re supposed to be after.”

“Oh, you are,” I said. “You are.”

He laughed. A laugh that lit up his whole face. “Get back to your side.”

The little boy next to me looked up when I was standing in my place. “You go that way and block Micah from catching the ball.” He pointed behind me.

“Or we can all go after Coach,” I said, whispering to the kids around me. “Do you all want to go after Coach?”

They nodded in unison, and that time on the snap, we rushed Theo. I got behind him and wrapped my arms around his, pinning them to his sides as a gaggle of kids ripped the ribbons from hisbelt.

“Cheaters!” he yelled. “All of you are cheaters.”

The kids howled with laughter as I released him, and he turned to face me. “Especially you,” he said. “The biggest cheater of all.” He scooped me into his arms and lifted me off the ground, spinning once. I tensed, worried about his knee, but he just set me back down and shouted, “Ten-yard penalty!”

“Worth it!” I said.

“You’re a bad influence,” he said.

“Thank you,” I called over my shoulder as I headed to my team.

The rest of the hour was more straightforward; we followed the rules and both teams scored a couple more touchdowns. And then it was over. Parents were collecting their kids, and kids were saying goodbye as the lights on the field clicked on. Then it was just Theo and me standing midfield with a pile of belts and a couple of footballs.