Page 71 of Caper Crush
“The wet suits didn’t foretell that?” I ask playfully. All of our foam soaker water guns are now filled.
“I thought maybe it was because you didn’t want to be cold,” he says. “But you two look like you’re about to star in a James Bond movie.”
Tessa returns with the towel and red T-shirt decoy. We wrap our red flag in the green towel. William places it high up in the pine tree while we give direction from the ground as to whether it’s visible. When we’re all satisfied, Tessa blows the whistle, signaling that we are ready to start the game.
“I’ll play defense,” Tessa says. “You two go attack.”
There’s an answering whistle. Game on. And now William is all in. He takes his water gun and stealthily sneaks around the north side of the house. I smile and sneak around the south side of the house. I imagine they’ve all divided up too, but with one extra person, that means they’ve got someone attacking from under the house.
I crouch down behind a bush, water gun ready to fire.
A flash of blue. Rory is hiding behind a bush.
There are not that many bushes to hide behind. I crawl a little closer, looking up in the two pine trees to see if I can spot their red flag. It’s either in a tree or in the rafters of the upper deck.
No red in the trees. I come barreling out, spraying both water guns at Rory behind the bush, and run toward the front deck to see if the flag is there. Rory sprays me with water, and I’m soaking wet. I hear a shout, and William is behind me. We’re back-to-back, spraying water at Rory and Kareem. His back is warm and solid. This literal having my back is even better than figurative.Focus. Mind out of the gutter.
Penelope is refilling water guns, so Zelda must be attacking Tessa.
“I’m running out of water,” I say to William. Luckily, all of our water guns are evenly matched, so both teams run out of water around the same time. I dip under the house to retreat to our refilling station. William follows me, head bent, hunched over. We have to bend down because it’s not high enough to stand up straight. I climb over the wooden bracing.
“I’m too tall for this,” he mutters.
Zelda pops out from behind a post, spraying water at us. “Got you!” She laughs at our surprise.
William moves to shield me and take the brunt of her attack. How does she have water left? We run, crouching, back to where Penelope is refilling. Both of us are soaked. William’s wet T-shirt outlines his muscular chest. There’s a reason this game is not just for kids.
“Did you see the flag?” he asks.
“No.” I refill my gun.
Tessa hands a refilled gun to William. “I only refilled two before Zelda attacked.”
Zelda, Kareem, and Rory burst out from around the corner of the house. Kareem sprays us while Zelda runs for our decoy flag.
“Let’s go.” William runs around to the other side. I stay back and refill more water guns as Tessa sprays Rory and Kareem.
“It’s not it,” Zelda yells. “Do you see it?”
Now they’ve run out of water, except for Zelda. I take both full water guns and follow them while Tessa and Zelda spray each other.
William is climbing up a tree while Penelope sprays him with the hose. Their red flag is within reach.
“Careful,” I say. “Don’t hurt him.” That’s all I need—for William to get hurt when playing around with my friends.
I spray Penelope at the bottom of the tree. She’s not that wet yet because she’s been refilling the water guns. She flinches as the cold water hits her shirt. Rory and Kareem must be on our side, looking for our flag.
Penelope yells for Rory to come back.
William shimmies down the tree with the flag. I block Penelope from grabbing him, and he runs back toward our side. If he gets there with the flag, we win. We hear a shout from behind the house. They’ve got our flag.
But William crosses the line first. We win.
And William has passed the fun test. I’m not surprised.
We all shake hands and hug each other.
Tessa smiles at me. “So much for your test.”
