Jace, his muscles especially tired by now, dangled his legs off the side near one of the little waterslides. The central, colorful play fort was so big that it held the eight of them with room to spare. But Jared and Zach still seemed to be all but ignoring their friends, instead keeping their eyes on the park’s other attractions.

Wessy, oblivious to all of that, told Jace, “Hey, Jason—you did a good job leading us around today. It was almost like you’ve been here before.”

Sadie, who had been whispering with Ash, then exclaimed, “But it’s too bad Zach and Jared weren’t really with us, huh? Hey guys, do you even remember any of the rides?”

“Huh?” Zach turned to her and pushed down his shades. “What’cha on about?”

“Don’t act like we didn’t notice you and Jared, staring at boobs all day,” Sadie answered, garnering a snicker from Ash and red faces from the two accused.

“I—I was not!” Jared fired back. “W-well, only because Zach was doing it first.”

“Hey, don’t hate on us just because we’re starting to notice girls,” Zach replied. “It was going to happen eventually. Not like we’re disrespecting them or somethin’.”

“Uh-huh,” Ash replied. “We love it when guys stare at our chests.”

“I’m not getting involved in this one…” Wessy said, as Colin gazed off into space. “Puberty, things getting weird between boys and girls… Yeck, not for me.”

“They’re just teasing you guys,” Arthur said. “C’mon, we all had the talk, right?”

Jared, Jace, Wes, and Colin all looked at him inquisitively.

“Man, guess we’re at that age now where some of us are suddenly a little ‘older’ than the others…” Zach stated. “Look, whatever happens when we all turn into weird, awkward, hormoney teenagers, let’s promise that things don’t get weird between us.”

“Not a problem!” Wessy naïvely tried to assure the others.

Jared said nothing and went back to gawking at certain passerby tourists, but did avert his eyes when the twins’ mom came up to collect the kids. An awkward sort of silence remained throughout the group that hadn’t gone away by the time they were all picked up by the parents out front, one by one as Mrs. Teller watched over them.

Adult Wes had been correct when he recalled that “something weird happened.”

• •

“We’re running out of time,” Wes told Jace shortly after he came home from school the next day. “The big game is this Saturday. You still need to learn how to ride a bike and work on a team full of water gun-toting kids. So, we’re going hardcore.”

“I don’t like the sound of that…” Jace replied.

Millie was around to “help out” again, as Wes held Jace’s waiting bike. They had gone to a quiet corner of the neighborhood, away from all the familiar blocks to practice in one of Desert Tree’s few cul-de-sacs. Grudgingly, Jace put his helmet on—Millie’s technique at least let him protect his head—and he took a seat on his bicycle.

“Just go ‘round and ‘round the cul-de-sac,” Wes instructed. “Practice your turns, master the bike. And this is just so you can arrive at the game. Your aim still needs help.”

“I played online shooters all the time back home, dude…”

“Online… shooters?” Millie wondered.

“Don’t ask,” Wes said. “Probably better you don’t know. Jace, I forgot… What did happen at the water park yesterday?”

“It was mostly fine. But some weird… boy-girl stuff made it a little awkward.”

“That starts to happen at your age.” Wes took out his iPhone—something Jace rarely ever saw him do—and turned the volume all the way up. “Here, train to this!”

He pressed the play button, and Push it to the Limit began blasting from his phone speakers. As Wes got into it, Jace rolled his eyes and began his not-at-all extreme bike riding around the circle of asphalt. He was still wobbly, but after picking up some additional evening practice the previous day, he was at least riding on his own.

After the song looped for what must have been the fifth time, Millie eyed Wes curiously and asked over the music, “You like 80s jams or something?”

“Huh?” He looked at her as Jace peddled nearby. “You kidding? The 80s and 90s had the best music, rock especially. You… haven’t seen Scarface, right? At your age…”

She shrugged. “It’s one of my dad’s favorite movies.” After Jace crashed and let out a loud swear, she added, “It’s weird saying this since I’m still living in this decade, but you seem to be pretty… nostalgic, I think is the word? About this time, I mean.”

“Yeah, well…” Wes went to his parked car and took out the water guns in the back, handing one of them to Millie. “I grew up in this era, too. I’m not that old.”

“You don’t say…” Millie checked her gun’s water level. “What town?”

“That’s enough questions. Jace! You can stop with the bike. We’re switching to water gun practice. I’m gonna teach you some advanced dodging techniques today.”

Jace hit the kickstand and grumbled back, “Ah, man… with Millie again? She gets so freaking competitive, even just for practice… Why can’t I just shoot at you?”

“Hey, I actually don’t like running around and getting sweaty,” Millie replied and pocketed a Lincoln that Wes had given her. “But if I have to, I’m gonna win.”

“You don’t win practice, and anyway… Ugh, Dad! Just, why her?”

He shrugged. “Sorry, kiddo. I’m too tall a target. You need to hone your aim so you can hit and not be hit by all those other short people running around with you.”

He tossed Jace his water gun, which he caught, barely. He let out a big sigh as his opponent pumped her weapon repeatedly to maximize the pressure and range.

It wasn’t just that she could be scary; he was also still a little hesitant, nervous even, about playing any sort of game at all against a girl. Stupid, he knew.

Despite that, he also spent Tuesday and Wednesday pushing it to the limit and biking along the razor’s edge, and remembering his lessons about confidence, he became exponentially better at both subjects. He soon graduated from learning to shoot straight and avoiding water jets in a wide-open space, to understanding how to use bushes and mail boxes for cover, the team lingo, and formulating area-specific strategies. He wasn’t used to being so physical, but as a veteran of first-person shooters, he did have a leg up.

It was on that Wednesday, right around sunset, that Wes wanted to see the culmination of the training efforts. Specifically, he wanted to see them combined.

“Come on, it will look totally awesome,” he pestered his nephew on the street in front of their house. “Just do it once. I won’t even play cheesy 80s music this time.”

Jace shook his head, got on his bike, rode to the end of the block, and returned at full speed—with his Super Soaker in one hand. As he pedaled past Wes, he hit him with several vindictive sprays, right in the face. This made both his uncle and Millie burst out laughing, after which Jace screeched to a stop and walked his bike back over.

“Good! Very good!” Wes said once he settled down and dried his face. “Too bad bikes are banned in Bullet Water games. You could provide the drive-by support.”

Jace mumbled, “So… learning how to do that served no practical purpose.”

“Hey, the best things in life never do.”

• •

On Thursday, Jace was granted a recovery day so that he could relax a bit before the game that weekend, which he was grateful for. He was perfectly fine with spending recess chilling on the main fort with the others, hoping to just take it easy. The strange winter heat wave was only getting worse, and it was taking a toll on the kids.

“Now I really want them to install sprinklers here…” Jared moaned.

They looked around at those on the playground, few of their peers moving in excess. At the basketball court, Carson and Gerald seemed to be into it again, and even the inseparable Tamatha and Trudy, hanging out in the shade of the trees, looked like they were having a spat, arguing over some inconsequential thing.

“Never thought I’d see that…” Sadie spoke up. “Tam and Trude are actually more than three feet away from each other for the first time since… before I can remember.”

“I think this heat is starting to get to everyone,” Arthur replied.

Wessy strode up to them like the air temp didn’t bother him at all, coolly and quickly walked right up the slide like he often did, and joined them in the shaded fort.

“Wanted to tell ya guys, I met up with Gavin at the K yesterday so we could agree on our final rosters for the game Saturday. They’re just about set in stone now.”

“Cool, so who… isn’t making the cut?” Jared inquired.

“That’s the thing… I mean, we’re all in. You, too, Jason. Because it isn’t just him and his buddies. Turns out he knows a lot of kids on his end of the neighborhood, and roped a whole bunch onto his team. This game is gonna be crazy big, guys. Maybe epic.”

“Okay, okay,” Sadie replied. “Just give us a number. How many we talking?”

Wes held out quite a few of his fingers. “Eight. Eight versus eight. Crazy.”

Jared counted his own, mouthing everyone’s names as he did so, and he realized something after a few seconds. “There’s only seven of us. We’ll be at a disadvantage.”

“He said we can still add one more… I just wonder who it could be.”

“How about Lucy?” Sadie asked semi-jokingly. “She can shoot, remember?”

“Ugh, Sadie, don’t remind me of that… I was thinking maybe we could ask around, get one of the other guys in our class to join us?”

“What about Ash?”

Arthur shook his head. “There’s no way she’d go for it. How about Wright? Saw him playing DOOM in the lab. Or Carson? He’d be cool under pressure, probably.”

Colin spoke up, “I’d be afraid to ask, but… Hutch might actually be a…”

Jared and Wes looked at him, and Colin gave up on trying to make a point.

Sadie then interjected, “Hold on, are you two seriously not even considering…”

Wessy rubbed his chin and thought aloud, “Wonder if Robby or Brian…”

“Yeah, I knew it! Our eighth team member just has to be a boy, doesn’t it?”

“W-well, I just… don’t know if the other girls would want to do it, that’s all!”

“I mean…” Colin nudged his glasses. “Not to sound mean, Sadie—you’re tough, but look at the girls in our class… Could you see Spice, or Willa, or… or Millie running around in the sun, shooting water guns at a bunch of seventh-graders?”

“Hehe, yeah…” Jared laughed. “Millie, on a team, listening to orders…”

“Sheesh, don’t even consider Delilah,” Sadie groaned and rolled her eyes. “Not like The Dump’s bouncer-bodyguard would be intimidating or anything…”

December suddenly came storming over, looking quite angry for some reason, which was an unusual look for her. Zach followed close behind, making hand gestures and remarks of the “just calm down, what’s the big deal?” sort.

She suddenly stopped, right where most of the fifth-grade student body could see her, and yelled, “Just be quiet, Zach! You know what you said!”

“Ugh, what now…” Sadie moaned. “Zach! What’d you do?”

“Nothin’, Said’!” he shouted back. “She’s freaking out for no reason!”

“Any men’s sports team could beat any women’s sports team, huh?” December said loud enough for everyone to hear. “Is that what I overheard you telling Park?”

“I-it’s not like that! He was just asking me about sports betting, and I happen to know a thing or two about that, really… Also, it was just a joke!”

“Oh, wow,” Sadie grumbled. “The hits just keep on coming today.”

“Emergency class meeting, everyone!” December announced. “At the court!”

“Man…” Wessy said. “December doesn’t get mad often, but when she does…”

He went down the slide, as the others hopped down until only Colin remained on the fort, who just wanted to stay put. He looked at December nervously.

“That means you, too, Colin,” she insisted.

Jace didn’t know what was about to happen, but he had gotten tired of all the boy-girl stuff going on recently. It almost felt like the theme of a TV show episode.

“Here’s what’s up,” December said once everyone in class had gathered on the basketball court. “There’s a half-hour left of recess, and we’re gonna use it for a good old-fashioned kickball game. I’m a captain, and Zach volunteered to be the other.”

“What? No I didn’t!” he argued.

“Haven’t had a kickball game in a while…” Delilah said and crossed her arms.

Carson looked out at the old kickball field at the corner of the playground that was both dusty and overgrown, near the chain-link fences. “You know I’m not much for running around and getting gross. But I’ll still be a pitcher—always was good at it.”

“Zach’s going to be a gentleman and let me pick my first three players,” December proclaimed. “That was nice of him, right?”

“Whatever, December…” Zach sighed. “Let’s just get this over with.”

“All right. So… I pick Delilah as our pitcher, Sadie, and Felicity.” Once her choices walked over to her side, December added, “Notice a theme, Zach?”

“Yeah, yeah… I get it. Wes, Jared, Arthur… get over here.”

“Oooh, I see,” Willa said. “It’s a boys vs. girls game! Y-yeah, I can get into it!”

“Man, I have seen way too many of these episodes,” Jace complained to Colin.

“What brought this on, exactly?” Colin wondered.

“What do you mean?” Ash replied. “You guys have been acting really weird the last few weeks, and I was there when Zach made that stupid joke.”

“What do you mean you guys…? I never…”

“What’d he say?” Trudy wondered.

“That men’s sports teams could beat any women’s team at anything!” Ash said.

Zach tried to protest, “That’s not what I—”

“Wow, so not nice, Zach,” Trudy grumbled. “December, I want in!”

“Sure,” the captain agreed. “And I guess Tammy, too.”

“U-um, actually…” Tamatha spoke up as Trudy walked over. “We’re kind of having a tiny bit of a tizzy right now, so maybe it’s better if I don’t play…”

December raised an eyebrow. “You two… are fighting?”

“We are not!” Trudy replied, hands on her hips. “Tam’s just being a tiny bit of a dum-dum right now because at our last sleepover, she insisted that Brandon Walsh is cuter and smarter than Dylan McKay. But it’s not even a contest!”

Wessy did a gagging motion towards Jace and Colin as Tamatha glowered.

“Okay, that’s it!” she said angrily. “I will not be on the same team as her. Zach, I don’t care if you’re a terrible sexist pig, put me on your team!”

He groaned. “I am not a sexist pi… Fine, whatever, get over here.”

Tamatha demonstrated her maturity by sticking her tongue out at a shocked Trudy as she skipped over to join the boys. She got too close to Wessy for comfort, who rolled his eyes and sidestepped away from her.

“Let’s just finish this up,” Zach asked of December. “Colin, Gerald, and… Carson. I think that about fills the rest of the spots.”

“I’m pretty good at kickball,” Gerald admitted, but then crossed his arms and turned away from Carson. “But I’m not being on his team.”

“For the love of… All right, what is it this time? I thought you worked this out.”

“Me, too. We were totally cool for a few days. But then he goes and makes fun of Barbra Streisand. She’s a national treasure!”

“You really have to learn how to get over a joke, Gerald…” Carson mumbled.