Page 153 of Coff

“Okay, listen up!” CT yells. “The teams are as follows: on the blue team are Sarina, Cody, Connie, Coff, Jolene, and myself. On the red team are Rover, Lucy, Maverick, Trax, and Fox.”

“Wait, no! You can’t put Coff and his girlfriend together!” Rover says.

CT rolls his eyes. “Fine. Jolene, you get to be with that polite man there. Everyone, make sure you grab the right color paintballs.”

“Here,” Lucy says as she hands me a container. “Teammate.”

“Thanks.”

“Don’t let anything Rover says bother you. He speaks before he thinks sometimes.”

I nod. “No, I’m more concerned with the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve never played.”

She steps back. “Have you ever been shot with a paintball?”

I shake my head.

“Dammit, Coff. Well, you should know it hurts, so be ready for that. I can’t believe he didn’t take you out for target practice.”

I laugh. “I’m not worried about that. I can hit a target.”

“Oh, you’ve shot a real gun, then?”

I nod.

“Hey, they started,” Fox says as he runs by us.

Lucy follows him, then yells over her shoulder. “Hide. We have ten seconds, and then it’s game on.”

Coff may not have prepared me for this game, but he did take me for a walk through this forest last week. And I distinctly remember a tree down on the edge of it that I will fit behind. I run to it and jump over. There is a bush covering part of the tree from view, and I hide behind that. If anyone comes around the corner, I have an unobstructed view and can take them out before they see me. I hope anyway.

“Go!” CT yells from somewhere.

Then I hear several shots go off.

“Dammit!” Lucy yells. “First one out again?”

Several more shots go off, and there is a lot of yelling. By the time it settles down, I’m unsure who is left. Then someone slowly rounds the corner. It’s Cody. I shoot. His head droops. “Dang it!”

He turns and walks back to the building. It’s silent for some time, so I decide to make my way closer to the center, where most of the shots were fired. As soon as I’m over the log, I’m hit. I turn and look up to find Trax smiling at me from up in the tree. He waves.

You can climb the trees? Well, that would have been good to know. I walk out, looking for Coff, but he’s not on the deck.

“Your man’s still in there,” Lucy says.

“Who’s left?” I ask.

“Coff, Sarina, Fox, and Trax,” she says.

“No!” Coff yells, and more shots go off.

“Not cool!” Trax yells.

Coff and Trax walk out of the forest, and Sarina is behind them, all smiles.

“I won again!” she says. Then her body jerks. “Ouch!” she yells.

Fox steps out from the trees. “Nope, I won.”

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