"Reg, you can't play!"

She shot him an angry look. "Why don't you keep telling me what I can and can't do?"

Twister wanted to backtrack to try to avoid making her more upset but he wasn't going to change his mind. "I don't think this is a good idea."

"Otto's only in town for one week, most of which I'll be working. And you don't want me to see him?"

"All I said is I don't think you should play... you know, in your condition."

When she saw the outrage on her face, he knew this had been the wrong thing to say. "My condition?"

"You're due like any second!"

"I can't surf, I can skate, I can ride bikes..." she listed, grabbing her phone and sending a text.

"What are you doing?"

She continued typing. "I'm texting Lars."

"Why?"

"To see if he's in." She put her phone back in her pocket. "Since we still have uneven teams and it's obvious you never asked him."

"Because I don't think we should play!" he defended.

"Too bad. We're playing. And you know what? You're not on my team."

"What? Why?"

"Because, you're going to be too worried about me and end up costing us the game."

"But that means I'll just be worried about you from the other team!"

"Great, then we'll put Otto on your team," she smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck, looking at him with a mischievous smile before giving him a quick kiss. "And you guys are going down."

O.O.O.O.O.O.O.O

"Okay, rules," Reggie started.

"We all know the rules," Otto groaned. "Let's just play."

Sam smirked. "Going over the rules is probably more for you than anyone else."

"Cheating tendency?" Sam's fiancé, Ally, asked.

"You have to ask?"

Reggie continued. "The Shack is our base. If you get tagged elsewhere, it's a full ten Mississippi-seconds."

"We know, we know."

Reggie glared at her brother. "No fake-out flags."

"Or moving where the flag is hidden," Twister added.

"The flag must be visible. No phones—"

"What?" Twister interrupted. "What if there's an emergency?"

Reggie knew exactly what he was referring to but dismissed his concern. Looking at Twister and Otto. "With the two of you on a team, there's no way you wouldn't use them to cheat. We'll leave them with my dad and Tito."

Twister looked annoyed but Reggie ignored him, knowing he was completely overreacting.

"You guys ready to go down?" Lars crossed his arms and smirked at Sam, Otto, and Twister.

"In your dreams, Lars," Otto retorted.

While they smack-talked, Sam and Ally split into a side conversation and Reggie turned to Twister, taking his hand for reassurance. She felt bad she wasn't being more sympathetic about his concerns. It was sweet of him to worry about her, it was just completely unnecessary. She could take care of herself.

"Hey," she tilted her head, trying to meet his eyes which were staring at the ground. "I'm gonna be fine, okay?"

"Okay," he sighed but she could tell he was still feeling the exact same.

She lifted her hands to his face and kissed him. "Try to have some fun."

He nodded feebly and she hoped that once things started, he would get into it and actually end up having a good time.

Their groups split up and she went with Ally and Lars to Madtown, going over her plan. "I'm thinking we should hide it in the tunnel. There's a crack in the wall that would be big enough to hold it there and I don't think they'd expect us to hide it there."

"And they only have two entrances," Ally pointed out.

"Exactly, so way more risk of getting tagged if they venture in there. It's dark enough that I don't think they would see it from outside."

"So you better do your job and tag them the second you see them," Lars told Ally, a little threateningly. He'd changed a lot since they were kids, he even was friends with Twister, but he still had a strong competitive streak and wasn't going to let anything get in his way.

"Okay, so I'm the guard?" she confirmed.

"I won't be quick enough," Reggie begrudgingly admitted, looking down at her stomach. "And Lars will definitely want to be in the field, so I think you as guard would make the most sense."

"That's fine," she smiled. "Just checking."

Ally was usually pretty agreeable. When Reggie first met her, she was really surprised. She had pictured Sam's new girlfriend to be a by-the-numbers sciencey girl. She hadn't expected a pretty, petite kindergarten teacher. But as she watched them interact, she noticed that they were actually really good together, balancing each other out. She was from South Carolina originally and didn't have much experience with some of the sports they did but she was always willing to try. She was really sweet and over the last two years, she had become part of their group.

She was also the perfect choice to guard the flag. Otto and Twister were quick but Ally had run track in college and Reggie didn't think they would be any match for her. Reggie was positive the guys would make Sam the guard for their team.