Disclaimer: I don't own Newsies
Author's Note: I apologize in advance for any massive confusion over the rules of the game.
The third (and final) announcement took place in the gymnasium. Mr. Andersen and Mr. Denton were waiting there. Manhattan Tech never seemed to have a proper gym teacher. It rotated between various staff members every few weeks. And currently, the position belonged to the English teacher.
"We will be doing the third challenge, here, during first period." The class cheered. They got to miss the beginning of the school day! "We will be playing a game of European handball." Everyone got a little nervous. They hadn't done that since the ninth grade. They had forgotten all of the rules. "First, a little review."
"Similar to soccer," he continued. "The object of the game, is to throw the ball into the other team's goal, one on either side of the room, guarded by one person. A person can make any combination of these four actions. Dribbling, stepping, passing to a teammate, or shooting to the goal. But a person can only do up to three moves a time. You can also do unlimited pivots. To move the ball across the floor, throw it, or roll it. When you shoot, you cannot put any part of your foot on the line outside of the net. You can, however, do a running start and do a small jump inside. Whoever has the most goals in thirty minutes, wins. There will be a halftime. For the seniors, one person will not be playing the first half, and will replace someone for the second. Any questions?" No one could remember what he just said. "It'll be easier to understand once you start to play. Just come back to me if you get confused. Jack, pick your person to sit out."
Jack randomly decided on Specs, but any player on the team would've been fine to play. The game began.
The thing about David is, that he is scared of moving projectiles (such as balls.) He's not good at catching, and he's not good at deflecting them either. Jack tried to get the ball to him, but it always ended up in the arms of the opposite team. Everyone was frustrated with David, even himself. "Just go for it!" Jack yelled.
"Easy for you to say," David mumbled under his breath. Eventually, no one even tried to get him into the game. They might as well have been playing a person down, and they didn't listen to any of his ideas.
At that point, since David wasn't doing anything, he started watching and analyzing everything. He saw that it was a big problem (rather than a solution) that the balls went so high into the air, and at extremely far distances. Yes, it made it easier to get from one side of the court to the other, but it caused so many fumbles, and opportunities for the other team to intercept it.
And people didn't take advantage of rolling the ball, even though it could've worked well in so many situations. People were cornered a lot, and instead of rolling it under the legs of the enemy, they threw it over the head. That made the ball go to the opposite team's possession multiple times.
Spot made the majority goals for his side, making them seem to be in the lead for every point of the game. But David also noticed that his foot was always on the line, and that hadn't been taken into account. "Spot, none of your goals count if you keep stepping on the line. You can still make the same point if you just take one step back."
"Whatever, it doesn't matter."
David was annoyed. It did matter, if Spot wanted to win at least. David counted that out of his seven goals, only one actually got the juniors a point. But David only shrugged it off. It was good for him, and if Spot wanted to ruin his team, he would let him have it.
No surprise, that in the second half of the game, David was the one on the sidelines. Naturally, once again, he kept looking out for mistakes. (Because Mr. Denton didn't seem to be doing a good job of it. He could only check one side of the gym at a time.)
"Jack!" David called out. "That sequence was illegal." Jack had run, doing steps far exceeding two.
"If the ref doesn't see it, it's not illegal!" Jack shouted back. But then David told Mr. Denton. He ended up becoming the unofficial referee. In fact, he started tallying all of the false goals (on both teams.) Although he wanted to win, he also wanted to be fair.
Itey, who was taking a break (Swifty did the same to make the game even), randomly complained to David, "You guys crowd around us and get way too close to our faces. I feel like I can't move anything without hitting someone. My team may crowd, but not that bad. It's so annoying."
"Racetrack! Maybe you should take a little step back!" Racetrack was up against Jake, trying to make sure that he didn't pass to his teammate.
"Shut up!"
"Sorry," David apologized to Itey. "I tried." Itey was fine with it though. He understood that David couldn't fix everything.
At the end of the game, the seniors got creamed. They lost, according to Jack's count, twenty to twelve. He thought it was pathetic. Hot and sweaty, he opened the door to the locker room. Until, Mr. Denton stopped anyone from leaving.
"It has come to my attention that the score written is actually wrong. It's actually nine to nine. A lot of goals didn't count." It pays to follow the rules. "Jack, go to the goalie box. Juniors, face him. You will go up against him, one by one, to see if you can score. Seniors, you will do the same thing after them with Spot as goalie. Whoever ends up with the most points after this wins."
Crutchy, Dutchy, Itey, Spot, Pie-Eater, Bumlets, Snitch, and Jake, all went. None of them made a single goal. They normally would've been really good at it, but the extra pressure made Jack better and them worse.
"One of the seniors has to sit out," Mr. Denton reminded them. Jack was about to tell David to do it, but then Mr. Denton added, "And it can't be David, Ryan, or Robert." That person ended up being Skittery. Jack got scared for a moment. Once again, no one got a point on his team. But there was still one more person. It all came down to David.
But the thing is, just because David was scared of being hit by a ball, didn't mean that he wasn't good at throwing them. He had impeccable aim and a strong arm. Spot gave everything he got to deflect his throw, but David still got the point.
The seniors won. And so wraps up competition week.