It started out so normal. Thursday,11:30 am, fourth period. We were playing a spin on doctor dodge. We got mats and everyone set them up as walls. I ran over to my friends in the corner, setting one up.

Amelia and Julia. God, we had no idea what was going to happen. We giggled as we set up our plan, hidden nicely behind the mat. Everyone else was doing the same. I saw my friend Sarah just in the other corner, she looked safe. My other friend Ava was walking out in the open, nothing bad could happen yet, the game hadn’t started. We tried to call her over but she laughed and kept walking.

Then...the balls were released. Everyone ran for them. The small, innocent gym became a battle field. Me, Amelia and Julia stayed in our corner. Then I had an idea.

“I’ll go get some ammo!” I said to them. The nodded and Amelia moved to let me leave. There were some balls close. I ran and grabbed them. Quickly, I threw them over our mat to them. I looked around some more and saw a ball in the middle of my teams area.

I ran for it.

That was my first mistake.

As I slowed to grabbed it a whistle filled the air. A dodgeball hit me right in the legs. My legs buckled. I fell to my knees and then onto my back. I stared at the ceiling for a moment then to the ball in my hands. With whatever strength I had I knew what to do.

“DOCTOR!” I yelled. The battle went on.

“DOCTOR!!” I tried again. I sat up and waved my arms, still yelling. The game was so unorganized.

“Psst!” I heard a voice whisper. I turned to look behind me. It was like an angel rising from the ashes. A glimmer of hope. A boy slipped out from behind a mat and looked at me. Maddox, was it? He smiled and ran over to me. He gave me a high five and I felt stronger. I jumped up and smiled.

“Thank you!” I said cheerfully.

“No problem! I don’t know who the doctors are anyway” he said. He then slipped back behind the mat, disappearing.

With my new strength I ran over to Amelia and Julia. They laughed and threw the balls. They had no idea of the hell i had been to and come back from. I shrugged and threw threw my ball at the other team. It missed badly. I went back behind the mat and laughed with my friends. We noticed people on the other side moving.

“Let’s move up!” Julia said. Me and Amelia smiled and nodded.

We grabbed sides of the mat and penguin shuffled forward.

Into the battle zone.

I heard scream coming but we kept shuffling forward. A kid locked eyes with me. Brayden. He grabbed a ball and whipped it at us. I screamed and ducked down. Amelia dropped beside me. We popped back up and I planned my revenge. Summer Salting out to the side I grabbed a ball and whipped it in his general direction. I scrambled back to cover. We looked for our friends on the other team.

“There’s Alanah!” Amelia said, pointing to a corner. I saw Alanah’s head under a mat on the ground. It suddenly flew off. A boy named Nick had be hidden underneath.

Maybe twenty balls were also revealed. They pooled out from under him and all hell broke loose. All the kids on that side ran over and began to fight over the balls. Brayden kept firing them at us. Me and my friends screamed as we hid. We threw balls blindly over the mat.

Screams. I felt the mat get pelted by the balls. We had to hold our ground. I looked at my friends.

Julia, holding her side of the mat with all her might.

Amelia, her eyes were squeezed shut.

I looked up. How long has this war gone on? Days? Weeks? Years? I grabbed a ball and launched it over. A loud whistle filled the room. The teacher calmly took the whistle out of her mouth and went back to her iPad. We were back in the small, cold gym. Everyone picked up their mats and placed them in the storage rooms. As I was walking around Amelia came up to me.

“That was fun!” She said.

“I can’t believe we survived!”

“We could be part of that series now!”

“I survived dodge ball 2019” I said dramatically.

“We could make it really intense too!” Amelia said as we left the gym.

“Yes! I’ll start writing it tonight, you write a version too! I said as we walked down the hall.