Xisuma's Parrotsitting [HermitSteal AU]

Football POG

In the afternoon, there is a secret meeting that takes place at the school grounds. A squad of kids gather, jumping over the fencing with joyous screams and laughter that could sometimes be heard from two blocks down. Almost always, there is one that carries a beaten up ball to play football, and sometimes even a knock-off version of basketball.

The local playground doesn't have enough space for the sports they play, so they make do with that.

Parrot is usually amongst these kids and he just so happens to be amongst them today. After ridding himself of the curse of homework (by that, he means threatening Xisuma with his gun again –it's a Friday for God's sake), he left the house and ran straight back to school. Upon his arrival, there were about five of his friends in the yard chatting and making funny faces at each other.

"Parrot!", his closest friend, Spoke, yells as Parrot flies over the iron fence –that's wing privileges.

Spoke, in all his shadow-y glory, runs up to Parrot right as he lands on the worn and cracked tiles. The ends of his rainbow bandana trail after him.

"Hey, Spoke", he greets his friend, doing the incredibly complex handshake-fist bump-half hug that is the code between them and the rest of their friends. No one else knows of it, which is why it is the only way for an outsider to be initiated into their group of (what most people call) delinquents. "Is everyone here?"

Spoke does a so-so gesture with his hand. "Almost everyone, we're waiting on Mapic and Pangi. Now, come on!", he shouts excitedly and Parrot laughs as he is led to the rest of the children who are still standing in a circle.

Mapic and Pangi don't go to this school, seeing as they live a long way away from the neighborhood. That is the reason as to why they're always late to their gatherings. They both have parents to answer to, so that also adds to why they don't come right after the bell rings for the end of the school day. That also leads to the actual game of football to start late but it's always more fun when they're all playing together –even though Mapic is too fast to catch up to and Pangi accidentally scratches everyone with his claws.

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees something move on the other side of the school window. Huh. Weird. Usually, there is no one inside except for the principal at this time. Maybe it's just the cleaning lady; she's very nice and she usually sticks around to watch their match during her break. If it were anyone else, they'd probably get chased out of the school grounds every other day.

"Let's do a warm-up match till Mapic and Pangi get here!", one of Parrot's classmates, Ro, shouts, the five white-gloved hands that float around the boy's head waving around in a show of enthusiasm. Some of the others match him in volume and Parrot's wings ruffle.

The teams are decided easily enough with an even number of players on each side and they split the yard. Parrot is the goalie of his team and Spoke shoots him a thumbs up as he runs towards the center. To be fair, none of them know much about football outside of kicking the ball and not using their abilities and hybrid traits to get the upper hand –like that one time that Parrot hit someone square in the face with a wing.

It was written off as an accident but the guy totally deserved it. Said guy hasn't shown his face in the neighborhood in weeks and that could either be bad or bad -bad.

"Let's go, Spoke!", he yells right before the referee –a teenage boy named Zam from the neighboring middle school– signals for the start of the match.

The whole game is filled with the amount of concentration required for a History test. There is a lot of talking –and much more of shit-talking that would make Xisuma frown, Parrot notes absentmindedly– but everyone remains focused on stealing and exchanging the white and black ball regardless. There is a lot of laughing and a lot of sweat, and Parrot has accumulated a lot of scratches and scrapes on his arms and knees from diving to push the ball away from the notional net's boundaries by the time he gets a chance to catch his breath.