Read Ethereal wish :: Sports festival (part 1)

It was a hot June school day, the day of 24th. Summer vacation is around the corner and it was tghe day that Wamu High was holding the annual sports activities.

They call it "sports festival" but I call it an "exam". It's pretty fun in my opinion.

The physical activities were composed of five of them, or assigned "games"

The first activity was tag, a very simple game, yet really complicated since we could've used the whole school as tagging ground and if you are the tagger, then good luck, you will need it.

There were 3 types of players: The taggers, which had a yellow band over their head, but some students put them on their biceps instead of their foreheads or just anywhere they wanted, those were the taggers.

The runners, the ones who just had to run from the taggers, and the pranksters that joked around, making a band out of paper and coloring it with crayola and put it on their hands and ran after the runners, just to scare them or just so they can escape if the taggers didn't pay enough attention, but it was forbidden to hide your band or to touch somebody with a fake band.

"Let's start the yearly high school sports activities"

Exclaimed the lady director's voice from inside the speakers with a hype and joyful voice in her cords.

The runners had a one minute start-up so that they can think about a place that is in their favor ..

There were only two taggers versus a hundred students, so it was pretty easy to catch twenty to thirty in the first minutes, but in that case, Jang and Matheo came up with a brilliant plan.

They knew that the inside of the high school may seem the best option to evade the taggers, since the space is too confined and you can dodge one- two people really easily and outside you can be jumped by other corners too. Inside it's just a straight hall with more classes and rooms. Knowing that at least half of the students will go right inside, so, they used them as shark bait and hid inside the changing room for the girls from the gym arena, which was a tiny place, it was ten per six meters, not too big, not too small, just good to enjoy a good sugary cold soda straight from the gym's fridge and enjoy it.

Both of them opened the soda bottles with a metal opener. They cheered their drinks, gently tapping the bottom of each other's drink, then slowly taking a cold sip of a fresh opened bottle that softened their throat's, filling their energy to the brim with it's sweetness and fizzy coldness.

"You sure we won't get in trouble for this?"

Asked Jang upset, looking at Matheo, then changing his sight towards the bottle

"You are already drinking it, why ask now?"

Asked Matheo, pointing at Jang's drink with the top of his own drink, while still savouring the drink inside his mouth. With Matheo's commentary, Jang looked at his own drink and revealed an answer with his own actions that raised his drink towards the mouth, drinking another sip.

"Damn it! (clicks tongue and bumps fist into the stone wall once, then takes another sip from the bottle), fair enough.

Replied Jang with wanted thirst towards the cold fizzy soda.

They continued sipping their drinks, slowly, taking their time. Suddenly, Matheo asked Jang about Soso, the girl from the party. Jang told him that it's going good, while slightly scratching his cheek with it's index finger.

"Did you sleep with her?"
Slowly asked, Matheo with an very interested look in his eyes

"Dude, not cool- (chuckles)"

Matheo started laughing after seeing Jang's reaction to what he was saying. He bumped his elbow into Jang's meaty shoulder and kept drinking his sip with a joyful look on his face and Jang turned his head sideways a few times while smiling and taking another sip too.

"The taggers are released, I hope everyone is hidden already!"

The game has started and the taggers first walked in the directions that they thought the students were, but they have found nobody, not a single student. The taggers continued looking. First, they looked outside because it was easier and the students would cover more ground like that.

The taggers looked at the trees from inside the school's yard, the park of the school and where the teachers kept their cars, the garage. They have found no one. Around the school...nobody. In the symmetrycally shaped bushed...no one.

One of the taggers went back to the garage, setting the blitz effect on his camera so that he could see in the dark with it. He squatted down and slowly placed his face close to the ground without touching it. There he found two students under every single car. More to the horde that means.

After five minutes, the taggers found no one searching together around the school, so they split into a few groups to make their search easier, covering more ground with this one tactic.

"First, we have to search the small buildings around the school, like the gym arena. The rest (points at the other team of taggers) go with the others, we can take care of it"
Explained one student to the others with a careful language in his mouth.

The assigned ground went directly to the gym arena, thinking that it should be a good hiding place, so more runners. Inside the gym halls, they saw the court where there was a volleyball bag put on in the middle of the court, the silence was loud, but not too loud. Some murmur could be heard from inside the girls changing room.

The taggers looked at each other before opening their room, like they were agreeing and readying up for the door handle movement.

One of the taggers quickly opened the door, hearing a thud on the concrete floor from outside the gym hall, right under the window a small peak of someone's hair falling down, only the top edge of it, it was Jang's.

As one of the taggers saw what was happening, he exclaimed to the others from his group that were standing right behind him.

"I saw them, I think they are heading for the gate entrance, go, hurry!"

Both Jang and Matheo ran a fast one towards the school's door entrance.

"Pfew, that was a really close one"

Said Matheo, taking small breaks of breathing, after the small session of hide-and-run near the school.

"You're telling me?"

Asked Jang, huffing, reaching out for a deep breath while supportinh his palms on his knees.

Matheo looked behind him without noticing the squad of people wandering around the school entrance that were in front of them with yellow bands on their arms.

Jang and Matheo slowed down and looked directly at the taggers, trying to look unbothered like they're just some students wandering around there. Thinking about a good plan that would get them a chance of getting out, Jang and Matheo put it in plan.

"Right, that's (claps twice) what I was telling you"

"Oh maan, you should see how she reacted, oh (does a gesture of mindblown with his fingers)

The taggers looked at them, at first, they didn't bother with them, one quick peek and that was all.

One of the taggers quickly looked back at them and didn't see any yellow band on their hands, so that was when things got heated.

"CATCH THEM!"

Exclaimed one of them, pointing towards Jang and started running towards them, with the others behind him.

"Run, Jong my friend, run!"

Screamed Matheo, running less faster than Jang. Peeking once, behind him, turning his head for one movement, he saw Matheo go for the main entrance of the School, tens of taggers were after him, while Jang going alone to the second entrance of the school.

"What are you doing, Matheo, you already know that there will be a lot more of them"

Said Jang, upsetly, before rushing inside the school's entrance.

As he ran inside the school and a few more tens of meters, after he saw himself safe, Jang rested for a quick second, looking behind him, then in front.

"Pfew, I outran them... I suppose, but poor Matheo, I don't believe in him running out the others, he smokes a lot of flavored air"

Jang scoffed heavily, looking behind him, with his hopes up that Matheo will come from behind one of the wide range of classrooms, aligned in perfect symmetry. As he watched behind him more, in front of him, some taggers spawned out of the thin air.

This time, charging his gears, running faster, imagining that the High School was his running track, 50 meters, 100 meters, 150 meters, 200 meters. The fake pistol at the end of the track was close to be shot, Jang was left behind, he knew he had to do something to not remain the last, losing the competition, so he heated his engine up and bending his back, sharping the top of his hands and charging his calves, he prepared for a run-for.

Every tagger from there made a small commentary towards Jang, while rushing towards him.

"We got him now!"

"That's right, dude, come here"

Jang ran faster, faster and faster, the top of his shoe's rubber was melting off from the gear charge. The front protection of taggers ran towards Jang, with a few of them remaining in the back, if the tier one front would lose the prey.

Jang dodged the first front, running towards the losing end. The students held their palm's by their shoulder, creating an impenetrable wall, with no way to escape for Jang.

The Star student grunted his eyes, staring at the second front, whispering to himself

"Four students, two though ones, two of them have a lower kilogram percentage (looks at the first two, then at the last two), they don't hold themselves to the wall (looks at both ends), that's it!"

Jang ran towards the middle, then dribbled his shoes to the left, making the first two though students jump towards that part, dragging the skinnier students too, with them, making all four of them fall in the left, creating a pathway for Jang.

As the first frontier wanted to go towards Jang, one of the students exclaimed his thoughts, lowkey deranged by how fast Jang was.

"What is up with him, he runs like a sports car!"

As Jang was watching behind him, dodging the first and second frontier, more taggers came out of the classrooms, like an High School infested with zombies, Jang widened his eyes while gaining more speed, imagining that he was running away from actual zombies.

"YAAAAA!"

Screamed a voice of a girl from the other part of the high school, where Matheo should have been

"It's Matheo!"

Happily exclaimed Jang while slowing himself down and looking behind him, but continuing towards the exit of the school.

Outside, near the outside walls, Jang sat down in the ice cold grey shadow, claiming himself a good breezy spot, while enjoying a good breath-break.

"That was it with you, right, Matheo?"

Whispered Jang to himself, thinking that Matheo got caught, which craved an upset smirk on his face that slowly faded away.

"One minute remaining runners, buckle up, this will be a sticky one!"

Suddenly, Matheo appears right from the heated corner of the school, just like a rainy day in a sunny week, scaring Jang

"Jong, you're here!"

Exclaimed Matheo cheerfully, approaching Jang more and more, but with no sweat on his body at all.

Jang sat up really fast, he saw the red flags too, just like no sweat on his body, raised up sleeve and on and on.

"Why is your sleeve pulled up from your hand?

Asked Jang with a fading smile

"What do you mean (chuckles nervously) you know how much I want the prize, the one month off of school, just like the rest of you, you know I can't be catched, right?"

"I can't win, even if I'm the last one, I still need to pass the time limit, that's right"

Whispered Jang to himself

"Fifty-five seconds remaining!"

"What are you talking about, you're spouting non-sense, Jong, look around, we are safe (chuckles)"

Jang kept looking at his pulled up sleeve from his left hand.

"Oh, this (points at the sleeve with his index finger) I-I, It's just really hot in here, that's all, nothing much"

"My theory states that you have been caught right when you got into the school, taking a break, that explains that you don't have any sweat on your forehead, arms or body"

Matheo prepared his throat to take out a few words, but he just couldn't, Jang got him good.

Both of them looked at each other, like two cowboys in a duel from the Wild West, pushing their luck with their sticky fingers on the life ending metal demons with 6 monsters inside them, each of them prepared for a confrontation.

In a drop of the sweat from Jang's elbow, on the point of impact, Jang used his right leg to push himself from the spot he was on, running towards the entry gate of the school.

"My last chance is, to get past the time limit"

Thought Jang to himself, not even looking back, hoping that he was faster.

Matheo's ego didn't let him to call the other taggers to help him tag Jang, he wanted that prize, and he alone, he didn't want to share it with the other taggers, for one day off of School for everyone, he craved for it.

Jang ran as fast as he could, but his legs slowly started to give up, keeping the pace to the lower half.

The countdown had started, with the last ten seconds on the clock

"Nine, Eight"

But Matheo was faster

"Seven!"

Faster than him?

"Six!"

Both of them put everything in it

"Five"

Even if it was just a game

"Four"

But in the end

"Three"

Matheo and Jang...

"Two"

We're totally equal.

"One!"

As the last second was being counted for, Matheo had finally achieved the chance of almost tapping Jang's shoulder, but right when he could, the game had ended.

"Times up!"

"The first game of this year sports event has just ended!"

All the participating students gathered to the School's yard.

"Nice thinking, Jong... about my sleeve, I tried to hide my yellow band, but I can't fool you, you are just too incredible

Scoffed Matheo, joyfully, but with a sign of indisposness

Jang reached out for Matheo with his hand, wanting to dab him up from the ground.

The director came to both of them, but headed to Jang instead.

"And this years winner of the game of tag is...!"

"MYEON JOOOON!"

The director put the golden medal on Jang's neck and a silver medal on Matheo's.

The whole school went crazy with the applause and cheering for them.

Matheo and Jang looked at their medals, holding it with the tip of their fingers, then looking at each other, high fiving a big one, with a switch to a handshake and a cool popping sound from the air inside the two palms, while smiling cheerfully.