Page 81 of Cream and Punishment
“They’ll expect Rowan or me to be the flag stealer, so I’ll be the front runner decoy.” Lex repositioned her gun in one hand, using a stick to trace out a crude map in the dirt with the other. “Now, the rules dictate that our flags must be easily accessible, stuck in the ground, and in plain sight. Because of this, their defenses will have to compensate.”
Kris raised a hand. “Question: if we’re all going together, who’s going to guard our flag?”
We murmured our agreement, our heads bobbing like tactical chickens.
“Ideally, if we’re fast enough, we’ll get back before they can grab our flag since they’ll be focused on defending their own.” Lex shrugged. “But, if you want, we can always have one person hang back and defend.”
If I was certain that our plan would succeed without any of the guys trying to get the flag, I’d volunteer to be the defender in a heartbeat. Anything to decrease my odds of getting shot. However, if even one of the guys came for the flag, I’d be outgunned. Or at least out-skilled, which was probably worse.
“I can defend,” Kris offered.
“Uh—” I raised my hand like I was back in grade school. “Who’s to say they won’t have the exact same plan? Because if so, it’ll probably come down to who’s faster, right?” The dresses would undoubtedly slow them down, but we were in the same boat.
Lex chuckled. “I seriously doubt they will. Alec is too cocky to see us as the threats we are, Colt is too cautious, Booker will defer to Colt, especially in unfamiliar territory and with Colt as the team captain, and McBride is only semi-invested since he’s also the unofficial referee.”
I shifted uneasily. “What about Max and Isaiah?”
She dipped her head. “They’re probably the most immediate threats. If I had to guess, Isaiah will stay on defense with McBride. As for Max, well, I don’t know anymore.”
I rocked on my heels. “What do you mean you don’t know?”
She shrugged, exchanging a look with Rowan, who fielded the question. “He’s fearless, but there might be some other motivations in play that we’ve never had to deal with before.”
“Like what?” They all exchanged loaded looks, which only deepened my frustration. “Seriously, guys, like what?”
“Well, he has to make dessert if he loses.” Kris snickered. “But more importantly, he’s got itbadfor you. He couldn’t keep his eyes off you if he tried.”
Oh. I wasn’t completely convinced yet, but the possibility jump-started my crushed hope back to life and gave it wings. If they thought Max had romantic feelings toward me, it was more possible than was safe to let myself believe. After all, they’d been right about him not hating me in the first place.
“Anyway,” Lex took control of the conversation again, “while we’re leading our charge, I want you guys to cover me, since I’m supposedly the flag thief. And, if our real plan fails, maybe that’ll be the case. We might just have to wing it if things go south.”
“But if they don’t, who’s really going to steal the flag?” Annie asked.
“You are.”
Annie’s free hand fell slack at her side as she looked at each of us as if waiting for the punchline. “Wait, what?”
“You ran track in high school, right?” Lex pressed. “And you were fast enough to qualify for state, right?”
“Yeah, but that was years ago.” Annie pulled at the lacey expanse of her skirt. “And I wasn’t wearing a dress.”
Lex shrugged, undeterred. “Well, aside from Dekker, you’re probably the one they’re going to underestimate the most. And being the underdogs—being underestimated—is our secret weapon.”
“Yeah,” Hattie piped up, ever the optimist, “it’s pretty hard to defend against us whenwedon’t even know what we’re doing.”
“Exactly,” Rowan confirmed, “we’ll be impossible to anticipate.”
Not exactly the pep talk I expected, but considering what we were working with, it could be a whole lot worse.
“Alright, ladies.” Kris set her gun down and lifted the extra fabric of her skirt. “Time to gird up our loins.”
She wrapped the cloth through and around her legs and tied it until it looked more like weird shorts over her spandex shorts. How she knew to do that was beyond me, but considering how often she wore dresses, she probably knew every trick in the book.
Those of us with flexible enough skirts copied her. Yours truly did not fall under that category. My bubbly skirt and I were in this together to the bitter end.
We worked out the finer details of the plan, and Kris got into position by hoisting herself up in a one-armed pull-up—which was apparently physically possible—into a tree near the flag. To give ourselves as much time as possible, we’d placed our bedazzled beauty of a flag at the very back of our territory, so we made our way toward the halfway mark before McBride would signal the start of the game any minute now.
Hattie, Lex, Rowan, and I stopped at the edge of no man’s land, the narrow strip of land between the two cars parked on the edge of the woods. They weren’t super noticeable, but capture the flag was a lawless land anyway.
