The Life Of A Quarter

Seven

Once outside, Olivia began to shiver. It was below freezing, and she had on shorts and a t-shirt. Zach saw his opportunity, and put his arm around her shoulder. "Are you cold too?" He asked.

"No, I'm just fine." Olivia said through chattering teeth, while pushing Zach's arm off of her shoulder. As they trudged through the snow, it collected in their shoes. Olivia looked out at the wide grass field covered in snow. "How are we supposed to know where the fields are?"

"We'll just have to guess." Zach shrugged. A brisk breeze passed through the group of students. "Whoa, that's cold. Wish I had someone to keep me warm." Zach said, giving Olivia a pointed look.

"Keep wishing, buddy."

The two teams, 2 and 4, gathered together where they thought field 2 was. "Let's get playing, guys." Someone called out. The football was handed to Olivia, and Zach walked up to Wyatt, who was on the other team.

"Rock paper scissors, whoever wins gets the ball first." Zach threw scissors, and Wyatt threw rock. Zach lowered his hands in defeat. "Best two out of three?" He asked. Wyatt shook his head, and they both returned to their teams.

"They have the ball first." He pointed behind him, and Olivia threw it to Wyatt, who was waiting for the ball. "That was a nice spiral." He said.

"Thanks." Olivia brushed him off, and headed to the opposite end of the field where they would be receiving the kickoff along with the rest of the team. "Alright, guys, If you're not sure you can catch it, just let it hit the ground." Olivia shouted out to the team. Throughout the school year she had become somewhat of a team captain. Team 4 had become one of the best teams in the whole class. It doesn't seem like much, but Olivia took pride in it.

"I'm gonna be totally honest here guys, I am awful at football." Zach announced.

"Don't worry, most of us are too." Sadie, a girl on the team, responded.

The other team punted the ball high up in the air. Olivia ran over to where it was going to land, and caught it. She took off running for the end zone. "Guys, cover me!" She yelled as the kids on the other team started to try and tackle her. Team 4 took off, blocking the defenders so they couldn't get in her way. Zach followed, and watched as his team worked together like a machine.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wyatt barreling towards Olivia. He ran in front of him, and tackled Wyatt to the ground. "Nope." He said, watching as Olivia scored a touchdown. He stood up, and brushed the snow off of himself. His arms and legs turned red from the cold. The blow of a whistle caught their attention, and they all looked to where Coach Spencer was standing.

"Martin! This is flag football! No tackling!" Coach yelled from across the field.

"My bad! Sorry!" He yelled back. Olivia gave him a proud smile as he joined her on the other side of the field.

"Not bad, Zach." She told him. "Do you want to punt?"

"Umm..." He paused, looking at the ball nervously. "Yeah, I'll give it a try." He took it in both hands, tossed it up, and kicked it as hard as he could. It rolled off the front of his foot, and went straight up. Olivia watched as it came down right on top of his head.

"What was that?" She asked, suppressing a smile.

"I told you I was bad at football."