History Will Repeat Itself - Pallet Town High School

Chapter 28

Brock's POV

The Mud Bowl's not like a holiday that happens at the same time every year. Tradition says it has to be played in the rain. So you wait for a real gully washer to come along, and then it's time to rumble. Fortunately, the day before Ash's move happens to fit that description.

Let's set the scene, sports fans: It's Friday afternoon. It's been raining for forty-eight hours. And the thirty-eighth annual Mud Bowl is about to begin. The starting lineup for PTHS is Ash, Paul, Gary, May, Dawn, Mallow and I. The starting lineup for VCH is, well, I only recognize Tobias and James right now.

"Wow. They're big!" Dawn says as we take our positions. She's right. Did Viridian City's whole ninth grade class stay back a year? Or three?

Clemont comes off from the sidelines. Being the strategist that he is, he has us go over defensive assignments, because they're going to get the firsbee first. "Mallow, you cover the girl with the headband. Brock, take James."

Ash shoots his hand up. "I'll take Tobias."

Clemont fidgets. "Okay," he says after a long pause. "We'll see how it goes."

As Clemont walks off the field, Ash gives him a dirty look. Ash clearly didn't like how that sounded.

"You ready?" Paul calls to the VCH team.

"Yeah!" Tobias responds. "Ready to spank you, for the 37th year in a row!"

"Go ahead and try!" Ash yells.

With that, Paul heaves the disk toward VCH's end zone, and the game's on.

If you've ever played Ultimate, you know it's pretty simple. The goal is to score points, and you do that by getting the disk into the other team's end zone. But you can't run with the disk. You can only score by throwing and catching, which VCH's really, really good at. They throw pass after pass over our heads, until Tobias catches the disk high in the end zone.

"Ha!" Tobias yells in Ash's face. "Score!"

VCH 1, PTHS 0. Yikes. That was fast.

Mallow leaps around with enough energy to power the school. "Don't worry, gang! We'll get 'em back!"

But we don't. On our first possession, Paul lofts a high floater in Dawn's direction, and her defender easily picks it off and tosses it over Ash's head to Tobias in the end zone.

"Nice try, twerp!" Tobias taunts Ash again. "Next time, bring a ladder!"

That makes it 2-0. And minutes later, after Tobias snags another scoring pass high about Ash's head, it's 3-zip. This is a disaster.

Clemont, who came onto the field right before that last point, turns to the referee. "Time out."

We huddle up. "Let's change a few things,"  he announces, "before they blow us off the field."

He turns to Ash. "Ash, you take a break."

Ash's POV

What? I'm not tired at all. I can keep playing out there!

Clemont turns to Paul. "Paul, you're going to cover Tobias if he comes back on."

"What!?!" I protest. "But I'm covering Tobias!"

Clemont nods. "I know. And he's scored three straight times."

Good thing my face is so dirty. I'm pretty sure that underneath all this mud, my cheeks are turning fire-engine red.

"It's okay, Ash," Dawn says. "He's too tall for you, that's all."

"Their whole team's too tall," Lana points out.