Sorry, but a good 95 percent of this chapter will probably be episode-centric. I'll try to keep it from being boring, though.
WARNING: The title of this chapter is a crappy Sonic joke. Proceed with caution.
-X-
Façade: Through the Eyes of the Codemeister
Chapter Six: Dodge the Red Spheres
"What the hell?"
"I could've sworn this wasn't here yesterday…"
"I knoooow, riiiiiight? …What is it?"
"Hell, probably."
"No, it's the arena where your next challenge is going to take place." This last line was from Chris, who still had his seemingly ever-present smirk on his face.
"So, our challenge takes place in hell?"
-X-
We entered the arena (could we even call it an arena?) and stood in front of Chris, who was standing next to Chef, who was wearing a referee uniform. I could already tell that this wasn't going to be an Academic Bowl.
Duncan was the last to enter, the sleepless nights obviously taking its toll on him. "Wake me up," he threatened, "and it'll be the last thing you do."
If there were any other reason why I was glad to be a Gopher (other than the fact that my best friends here, and the girl of my dreams, are all on my team), it was because of Duncan. He was threatening his own team!
Chef blew his whistle, which caught our attention.
Chris began. "Today's challenge is the classic game of Dodgeball. The first rule of Dodgeball is –"
"Do not talk about Dodgeball?" Noah quirked, earning a few chuckles.
"As I was saying…" Chris continued. He began to discuss the rules of the game, annoying several campers (especially Courtney) in the process.
When he was done explaining the game, Lindsay spoke up. "So, what do I do again when the ball comes at me?"
At this time, Geoff threw the ball Chris instructed him to throw, and Chris deflected it back at Lindsay, who got knocked down. OUCH!
"You were supposed to dodge!"
Lindsay slowly got to her feet, a noticeable bruise on her otherwise flawless face.
Chris then informed us that we needed to have at least person sit out every game, due to the fact that we now outnumbered the Bass team by two. Noah volunteered to sit out.
The first round was about to start. Heather, Lindsay (who was only out because Heather was), Leshawna, Owen, and I took the floor first. Honestly, the only reason why I decided to be out first was because I wanted to impress Gwen, but I must not have thought of how difficult it would be to impress someone who's constantly falling asleep on the bleachers.
"Bring it on, Fishies!" Heather taunted the other team. "Otherwise, winning three in a row just won't be as satisfying."
This obviously did not bode well for our opponents, especially Tyler. "Oh! You're going down! We're gonna bring the dinner to the table, and then we're gonna eat it!"
…What the heck?
"Both teams ready?" Chris asked, but before we could reply, he continued. "Best of five games wins. Now, let's dodge some ball!"
Alright! Here we go! I picked up a ball and stared at Tyler. …Why not? I threw the ball at him… and missed.
Tyler's expression turned sour as he held up a ball. His glare pierced into my soul as he wound up his throw by spinning in circles.
…I'm dead…
Luckily for me, he let go of the ball too early, and the ball went sailing toward the Bass' bleachers, knocking Sadie down.
Phew!
As I regained my composure, Owen charged and took out Tyler, earning cheers from our team. Knowing he had my back, I gave him a high-five.
Harold walked up to the middle line, standing face to face with Leshawna. "Time to unleash my wicked skills."
"Yeah?" Leshawna challenged. "Then bring it, String Bean! Let's see what you got!"
We watched as Harold did some poses, which I assume were supposed to be intimidating, and slammed the ball at the floor. It bounced a few times and rolled slowly toward Leshawna, who picked it up.
Owen and I shared a smirk as Harold started running, squealing, in the opposite direction, before getting knocked down by a hard throw by Leshawna. He skidded on the floor and hit the wall with a hard CRUNCH!
I cringed. This guy had the worst possible luck. Just like me.
"And that's how we roll!" Leshawna shouted as our team cheered once again. Owen gave her a high-five, and I gave her a congratulatory thumbs up.
Our celebration was short lived, however, as Lindsay got hit in the face, again, by a dodgeball. Owen, Leshawna, and I cringed as she went down, and I made my opinion known, "That… had to hurt…"
-X-
The round was nearly over. All Leshawna and I had to do was take out DJ and Katie.
Concerned for her, I looked over to Gwen, who had been brought out earlier in the round. She still looked sore and sleepy. And pretty…
Leshawna snapped her fingers in front of my face. "Focus, boy!"
"Yes, ma'am!" I quickly said as if I was in boot camp, and faced the other team.
She rolled her eyes and turned to our opponents just in time to find two dodgeballs heading straight for her. Quickly thinking, she deflected the first ball, but the second hit her in the gut.
Chef's telltale whistle sounded, and I stared at the other team with a worried look in my eyes. Two-on-one were sucky odds.
"Easy out, guys," Courtney said from the sidelines. "Easy out."
I growled inwardly. What was her deal? First she dissed our team during the cliff-diving competition – and lost, I might add – and now she was dissing me, saying I'll be easy to beat.
Well, just like that first challenge, Courtney's condescending remarks did something to me, and my confidence rose once again. Using mathematics and "cartoon physics" – I won't bore you with the details – I managed to put a new "spin" on the game, pardon the pun. After putting a little spin on the ball, I lined it up and threw it at DJ. It missed, but it came back like a boomerang and hit him from behind.
The Bass were shocked, especially Courtney. Good. I'm finally putting her in her place for underestimating me and my team!
After Katie threw a ball of her own, I grabbed another. My grin became quite sinister and twisted as I thought of how this was going to give Courtney another low blow. As I rubbed the ball across my shirt, charging it with static electricity, I was actually starting to wish that it was Courtney on the court instead of Katie. Unfortunately for the thin twin, she was to be the victim.
I lined it up and threw the ball at Katie. As I expected, it honed in on Katie's clothes, and, after chasing her around the arena, finally caught up with her when she hit the wall.
I hopped up and down in victory as my teammates cheered back. But even if they didn't cheer, I would've been satisfied: the look on Courtney's face said it all – she got what was coming to her.
Owen gave me a high-five after I reached the bleachers. "Nice job, Codester!"
"Thanks, big guy!" I replied. I made my way through the bleachers to a spot behind Noah. "Hey, dude. Did you see that?"
He looked up from his book. "Huh? Oh… Yeah… Good job, Cody."
"Thanks!" I said, not really thinking about how uninterested he sounded.
Heather walked up to us. "Alright, Noah. You're up."
Noah gave her a smirk. "You know, you guys did such an awesome job on the last game that I don't want to mess up your mojo."
Heather didn't look too happy, but she reluctantly agreed. "…Fine. Let's go, guys."
After she walked away, I turned to Noah. "You sure, dude?"
"Yeah, I'm quite positive, Cody," he said, not looking up from his book.
"It's a lot of fu-uuun…"
"I'm sure it i-iiiiis…"
I rolled my eyes, chuckling. "So, whatcha reading?"
He answered my question, but I couldn't hear it because Chef blew the whistle for round two when he said it. I didn't bother asking again, as I figured asking him the same question more than once was probably one of his biggest peeves.
"Is… Is it any good?"
Noah turned to me and gave me a death glare. "Cody… can't you see I'm reading? Please stop bothering me."
I glared back. What was his problem? "Geez, Noah! What's with you, today?"
He sighed, and looked up from his book, as if thinking of how to answer my question, but before he could, we had been… interrupted – Tyler accidentally threw a dodgeball at our set of bleachers. Luckily, we all had managed to jump to safety, even the practically sleeping Gwen.
We eventually all regrouped on the bleachers. Unfortunately, the interruption had left Noah to be quite irritable, and he wasn't willing to answer anymore of my questions.
Now, don't get me wrong – it's not like I didn't know how cynical or private Noah was; he was always very open about his "matter-of-fact" opinion, and he didn't really care whose feelings he hurt when he spoke. Some people on the team truly thought he was a real jerk, and I could see why.
But he had never been a jerk to me before.
"GREAT GATSBY, THAT IS IT!" we suddenly heard from the court. I watched as Owen basically went psycho and grabbed every ball he could get his hands on, and took out the Bass team.
Once again, things were looking up for us Gophers, and we cheered on the big guy, who chuckled modestly. "I don't know what got into me."
Heather snarled, making her thoughts known. "I'm glad someone is trying today."
We all turned to Noah, who was just looking up from his book. "Oh, sorry. Woo-hoo!" he said, not very enthusiastically. "Way to throw those murder balls. Go team, go." Then he went back to reading.
I sighed. I wasn't very happy with how he was acting right now. Even if he wasn't very good at sports, he still could've at least gone out on the court once. I mean, I'm not very athletic either, but I went out there that first time… and I won the round!
After a few minutes, I finally spoke up. "Noah, I think you should at least be in this round. I mean, even if you get hit with a ball right away, at least you would be doing something for the team."
"I am doing something for the team: moral support," he responded.
I shook my head. I should've known – Noah's stubborn, so why would I be able to get him to join the competition?
I turned to the court again. Our team was ready to go, but the Bass were still on the sidelines. What gives? I turned to the Bass side, seeing the team about to poke Duncan with a big stick. It took a few seconds to understand, but I did. They were trying to wake him up.
He was their shoe-in.
-X-
Remember how I said I hate being right at times. You should – I believe I said it at least twice by now…
The next two rounds didn't go very smoothly for our team. Duncan's Dodgeball strategy had allowed the Killer Bass to catch up with us. What used to look like a definite victory was now a thick gray fog – it wasn't clear who was going to win anymore.
It also didn't help that Noah was still his sarcastic, stubborn self.
Finally, the last round. Gwen actually volunteered herself to start this out, since everyone knew Noah wasn't going to be a part of it. Knowing she still wasn't 100 percent, I volunteered as well to make sure she would be safe. Heather, Owen, and Leshawna joined us on the court, and we stared down our five opponents: DJ, Geoff, Courtney, Bridgette, Duncan, and Courtney. Yeah, I know I said Courtney twice – I was giving her extra attention. I wasn't going to let her underestimate us again.
As we waited for Chef's whistle, I could feel my heartbeat getting faster. I couldn't tell if it was because of the adrenaline brought by the game, or by the fact that I was standing next to Gwen. Probably both.
This was it: the final round. It's either going to be us or them.
The whistle blew…
