"Okay, really guys!" AJ shouted from beneath the pile of third graders. "SHEERRRRMAAAAANN!"

"As much as I'd love to help…" Sherman grunted as the kids played tug-of-war with his arms. "Okay, come on guys. We have to go play basketball!"

"Don't wanna!" One of the kids yelled.

"The winner gets candy!" AJ yelled in desperation. All the kids froze.

"Candy!" They all yelled, stampeding for the cart of basketballs.

"Yeah! Uhm, wait! Kids-OKAY! EVERYONE GRAB A BASKETBALL!" AJ tried to keep control, then gave up. "NOW COME OVER HERE AND WE'LL TELL YOU WHAT TO DO!"

"Uhm, do we know what to do?" Sherman whispered.

"Uh…" AJ checked his schedule. "No, we most certainly do not." The Canadian shrugged. "We'll just teach them how to pass and shoot, then scrimmage a little. How hard could it be?" Sherman nodded as the kids ran up, dribbling madly.

"Okay, hold the balls, guys." Sherman announced, making AJ snicker. "Billy, hold the balls…" He warned.

"Yeah Billy!" AJ wheezed through laughter. "Hold your balls!" Billy continued to dribble impudently, then grabbed the basketball, resting it on his hip.

"Alright, first we're going to-" Sherman glared at Billy as his ball fell to the ground.

"What? It slipped!" Billy protested, holding in a smile. Both sighed.

"First we're going to-" Another basketball dropped with a thunk. AJ glared around for the offender, but each kid appeared innocent.

"Okay, guys, seriously. First we're-"

THUNK!

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Everybody got a stick?" Stanford addressed the fourth graders, who nodded.

"You don't." Tony snickered. Stanford looked in confusion to the floor hockey stick in his hand.

"Yes I d-….." Stanford looked down, the meaning grasped. "Oh, very funny!" Tony and crew snickered. "Anyway, we need to make four teams of five, so…"

"Line up on the end line." Tezz took over, then numbered the kids 1-4. "Ones and twos go to the far court, threes and four stay here." He directed them. "We explained the rules, yes?" He rolled a rubber ball to each court. "Begin playing!" Stanford eyed the Russian curiously.

"How'd you get so good with kids?" He asked.

"With no personal offense intended, Stanford, it is not exceedingly difficult to control those with such small attention spans." He said. Stanford hmphed.

"So, do we just sit here and watch them play?" He asked. Tezz raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Stanford, it would not be logical to choose another course of action." The Russian reminded him, and Stanford rolled his eyes when they heard one of the kids cry out.

"OWWWW! CHEATER!" One of the girls, Heather, was on the ground clutching her ankle.

"What happened?" Tezz rushed over, Stanford close behind.

"Kayla hit me with her stick!"

"She stole the ball from me!" Another girl stepped forward pouting.

"It's in the rules!"

"Well, I was trying to get it back!"

"Liar! You hit me on purpose because I wouldn't share my Wedding Barbie with you yesterday!"

"I didn't! And you still should have shared! I let you use my silver high heels!"

"No you didn't! Your mom made you share!"

"She should have made you share!"

"You still hit me!"

"On accident!"

"On purpose!"

"So? Maybe the nurse will share an ice pack with you!"

"Hey! I got that Barbie for my birthday!"

"I got those shoes for Christmas!"

"It's not my fault your mom is uptight!"

"SHE'S NOT UPTIGHT!"

"Oh yeah?" Heather began, but Tezz stepped between the two.

"Both of you, calm down!" He said authoratively. "Heather, how is your ankle?" He knelt next to her.

"It hurts." She sniffled.

"I will take you to the nurse. Kayla, please apologize for hitting her." Tezz said. Kayla crossed her arms.

"Why should I?" Tezz glared down at her. "Okay. I'm sorry that I hit you." She sighed.

"I'm sorry I didn't share my Barbie." Heather admitted, standing up.

"Good." Tezz nodded.

"Uhm, my ankle is fine now. I'm gonna play." Heather said, before running away. The other fourth graders who had gathered to watch the fight dispersed.

"Geez." Stanford commented. "Drama." Tezz gave him a look that said "Really?" and left to sit down.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Okay, everybody grab a ball and a partner." Agura announced to the second graders once outside. "First, we're just going to kick it back and forth, then do some dribbling and eventually get a game started, okay?" The kids all partnered up, then spread out and followed her instructions.

"Uhm…Ah…Agura?" A girl named Katie asked.

"Yeah?" She leaned down.

"What if I don't know how to play soccer?" The timid blonde asked.

"Oh, its okay! We'll teach you." Agura comforted. Satisfied, Katie turned back to her partner, attempting a kick at the ball but missing entirely and falling on her back. Vert let out a brief snicker at the comical sight, but Agura elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ow!" He hissed.

"It's not her fault!" She replied. "Come on, you have younger siblings."

"How'd you know that?"

"Do you even pay attention to what comes out of your mouth anymore?" She rolled her eyes.

"Yes!" He defended. "Most of the time."

"Yeah, okay." Agura said. "Alright kids, everybody grab a ball!" She announced more loudly, when they heard sounds of fighting.

"I had it first!"

"No, me!"

"Liar, liar, pants on fire!"

"I'm not! And you're supposed to say hanging from a telephone wire! Duh!"

"I don't care! Give it back!"

"No! It's mine!"

"I had dibs!"

"You can't dibs, you have to get it!" Agura and Vert watched, holding in laughter, as two of the little girls fought over a pink soccer ball.

"Hey, break it up, you two." Agura grinned as she separated them. "Who had it first?"

"I did!" Both shouted.

"No, I did!"

"Fine, Jenny had it first but I CALLED DIBS!"

"Sorry, Allison, but Jenny had it first." Agura shrugged and Jenny took the pink ball smugly.

"I don't know, Agura, Allison did have dibs." Vert reminded her. "Gotta respect the dibs, right?" He said to her, and they high-fived.

"No, I'd say Jenny had it first." Agura replied, and Jenny nodded smugly.

"But Allison called dibs." Vert argued.

"You can't call dibs! Jenny got it, so she gets to keep it!" Agura glared. What is he trying to prove?

"No, Allison wanted it, and called dibs before Jenny, so she gets it!" He retorted. Why does she have to be so uptight about this? The kids had gathered around and were watching them, fish-eyed.

"No, Allison!"

"Jenny!"

"Alliso-mmfh!" Agura was startled when Vert leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, stopping her mid-retort. The second-graders gaped as she relaxed her lips, welcoming him, then noticed they had an audience and pulled away.

"Sorry." He blushed.

"Woahhh…" One of the kids breathed.

"Vert and Agura, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Another chanted. "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes-"

"OKAY!" Vert stopped them. "Jenny, Allison, both of you grab a different ball. I'll use this one."

"Ooh! Vert likes pink!" The boys all snickered.

"Hey! Real men love pink." Vert fake-glared at them, silencing the laughter. "So, what you're gonna do is dribble down this sideline and back. Ready? Set? Go!" All the kids eagerly raced down the field, tripping over their own feet and laughing.

"So, Vert?" Agura turned to him. He blushed slightly. "Interesting way of getting someone to stop talking." She smirked.

"Uhm, right…about that…" He blushed darker. "You're cute when you're mad."

"You're cute when you're embarrassed." She replied, winking as the kids returned.

"First!" One cried out.

"Nuh-uh! I beat you!"

"No, I beat y-"

"OKAY! Who's ready for a game?" Vert exclaimed, and the kids cheered.

"Great! Everyone, make teams of…" Agura did a head count. "Six." There was much scrambling, and they ended up with teams of two, six, five and…eleven?

"No, guys, you need groups of six. So, you two combine, and…these two over here….no, over here sweetie…good, now…no no no! Stay there! Okay, good…now you separate…come on, guys….join them…no, them! No, the other ones! Okay! Now, you, go join that group of five…no, that's the group of two-HOW COULD YOU CONFUSE THOSE? Okay, there! Yup, there you g-no no no no no! GAH! Okay, line up! You six, over there! You three and you three, go play them! You, you, you, you, and you two, grab a ball and play these guys!" Vert commanded, and the kids scurried off.

"Nice…" Agura joked. "I'll "ref" this game if you wanna take that one?"

"Sure." He shrugged, walking over to the field.

"Hey! He used his hands!" A pudgy kid ran up to Vert moments later, pointing incriminatingly at the goalie.

"Well, he's the goalie, so he's allowed to." Vert explained.

"No! Agura said that we can't use our hands!" The kid pouted.

"Yeah but then I explained how the goalies could." Vert reminded him.

"You did?" The kid squinted.

"Yeah…" Vert nodded.

"When?" The kid asked.

"Right after Agura finished talking?" Vert suggested.

"Oh. Huh." The kid shrugged, then ran back into the game, leaving Vert in dismay. I'm not that boring! Am I? He was about to go and ask Agura when he heard a howl from one of the kids. A younger boy with white-blonde hair was on the ground near the goal, gritting his teeth.

"Hey, you okay?" Vert asked. The kid, whose name happened to be TJ, nodded. "What happened?"

"I…I tried to block a shot…and my shin hit the goalpost." He said. "But I'm fine."

"It was sooooo cool! He like, ninja-kicked it out! And…then he fell..." One of TJ's friends added.

"Well, that looks pretty serious. Let's go get you an ice pack." Vert said, looking at the dark bruise that had already begun to form.

"No! I'm fine!" He tried to stand, but fell again. Vert snickered; his enthusiasm reminded him of a certain Canadian he knew…

"Come on, TJ." Vert said firmly, lifting him onto his shoulders.

"Woah! It's so tall up here!" TJ exclaimed.

"Agura, I'm taking him to the nurse!" Vert yelled over his shoulder. Agura gave him a thumbs up, taking control of his group. Once they were several feet away, TJ began to talk.

"How tall are you?" He began, then started again, not giving Vert a chance to answer. "Because my brother lifts me on his shoulders sometimes, but I think you're taller than him. Do you have any brothers? I do. And a sister, but she's older than me. I also have a mommy and a daddy who plays football with me. Do you have a mommy and a daddy? Actually, everybody does, so I bet you do. Do you still live with them? My oldest brother doesn't live with us anymore. He went away to get some oppertooniteez." He exaggerated the last word of the rambling.

"Cool." Vert said, unsure of how to respond.

"Hey Vert?"

"Yeah TJ?"

"Do you love Agura?"

"What?" Vert was surprised.

"Well, you kissed her, and that means you love her. But my big brother says that girls have cooties. Are you gonna get cooties because you kissed her? Or do girls lose their cooties? Because I don't think Agura has cooties, because she's all grown-up and nice and pretty, but I still think most girls have cooties. But I bet Agura doesn't. You don't look at her like she has cooties. Most girls think that boys have cooties, but we don't. It's definitely the girls. Does Agura think you have cooties?" TJ stopped to take a breath.

"Uhm." Vert was at a loss for words, TJ having said most of them. "No, I don't think Agura thinks I have cooties."

"Do you think you have cooties?"

"No."

"Do you think I have cooties?"

"No."

"Do you think she has cooties?"

"No."

"Do you loooove her?" TJ asked.

"That's none of your business, mister." Vert joked, ruffling the boy's hair.

"Yes it is! Because you're my friend, and I like you. And I think you like her. Like, like like. And I wanna know, because you're my friend, and you hafta tell me!"

"Do not." Vert joked.

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too! Please? I'll give you my cookie at lunch!"

"No thanks, I have my own cookie."

"My mommy made my cookie. Who made your cookie?" TJ rambled again.

"Uhm…" Vert groaned inwardly. "Agura did."

"Dude! She made you a cookie! Don't eat it, okay? I bet her girl cooties are all over it!"

"I thought you said Agura was nice and pretty and didn't have cooties?"

"Well sure, but all girls have cooties. Wait, if she made you your cookie, do you live with her? Because my mommy made my cookie, and she lives with me." TJ said, and Vert was unsure of how to answer.

"Yes, we live together. But it's more like apartments than a house." Vert could tell his last sentence had been lost on the bug-eyed youth.

"Do you sleep together? Because my mommy and daddy love each other, and they sleep together, so since you love Agura, you must-"

"NO, WE DO NOT SLEEP TOGETHER." Vert said, blushing a deep red. A few other counselors and staff walking by gave him strange looks.

"Sheesh. Just wondering." TJ muttered, allowing a second of blissful silence. "So, you don't sleep with her, but you kissed her. And she made you cookies, so-"

"For the whole. Team, TJ." Vert said. "Er, for all of us. Me and a few other friends share the house. Not just for me."

"Oh. So, you and her…." Vert groaned as the relationship-savvy tyke continued his rambling.