We cheered. They cheered. I don’t think anybody knew why we were cheering, but that was okay. Nobody seemed to know exactly what to do next, but Sage, our only connection to the real Olympics, took charge.
“Okay, people!” she announced once Cassie had passed her the megaphone. “Here’s the primary rule of the game: Get your balloon down the field and in the goal the best way you can. Kick it, hit it, any way works. And if nothing works, no big deal!”
Huh? Okay, good; I relaxed a little. It wasn’t like this was going to be recorded in official Olympic records someplace! Balloons in a box—why not?
Sage cleared her throat. “The rest of the rules are loose and flexible. Here’s how we score.”
Okay, I was listening.
—Balloons that pop: one point—but you have to get a new one and start over.
—Balloons on the field: two points—just for showing up.
—Balloons that go over the fence: two points.
—Balloons that fly into the sky and never come back: three points.
—Balloons you capture from another team: five points.
—Balloons that land in your team’s basket: five points.
—Balloons that land on your lap and stay there: fifty points because that never happens!
—Balloons that fly away with Peter Pan and never come back: ten thousand points!
Everybody loved that one. There would be four rounds, two kids from two teams at a time. And each round was six minutes.
When Sage was satisfied that we pretty much knew what was going on, she announced that the first teams up would be the Fiery Falcons and the Purple Panthers. “Green Gazelles and Blue Badgers, you’ll be up next. Devin and Santiago from the Panthers, Jocelyn and Athena from the Falcons, you’re in the first round,” she declared.
Phew! At least I didn’t have to go first!! Now I could see how this game was played before I went out there and made a total fool of myself.
Athena and Jocelyn trotted over to the top of the FF lane, flexing big-time in their sleeveless T-shirts. I hit “GO FALCONS” on Elvira, loud. Devin, with his electric wheelchair, could maneuver on his own, and Santiago, with Noah behind him to help, lined up at their start, looking all kinds of smug. Their counselors handed them each a purple balloon, while Kim gave orange ones to Athena and Jocelyn.
How hard was it going to be to navigate these chairs on the grass? This would be interesting.
Cassie double-checked that they all had a balloon, then bellowed, “Are you ready?” Fist pumps said YES! So she rang a bell—an old-fashioned, ding-a-ling school bell like you see in movies—and Athena, Jocelyn, Devin, and Santiago were off! They went into an immediate kicking frenzy, and the balloons couldn’t care less! Jocelyn’s perfectly executed soccer kick sent her balloon sideways. A gentle tap from Devin caused another one to pop; he had to speed back to the start for a new balloon! Santiago’s flat-foot kick sent his balloon floating high into the air, landing exactly where it had started. It was almost too hysterical to watch.
I’d thought Devin would have the advantage, since he had a motorized chair, but his chair had only one speed—slow! It moved easily over the bumpy terrain, but not quickly. He was soon overtaken by Santiago and Noah. Then Santiago gave a monster kick and his balloon floated high, higher, higher still… backward! We roared with laughter as Noah swung him around to go get it, and Devin was able to take the lead once more. Then a gust of wind took his next kick, and his balloon floated over the fence.
“Two points for the Panthers!” Cassie shouted.
But neither of the Panthers could keep up with Athena. She ran full speed down the field. She kicked, and ran, then kicked again and ran, so focused, connecting with her balloon over and over, but the balloon seemed to have other ideas. Her face was flushed, and her forehead sweaty. I hollered so loud for her my throat got raspy.
But—gotta be honest—at the same time, I was hollering for the boys’ team as well. Santiago and Noah were great together. They’d clearly played this game before. Most of the time, their balloon zipped across that grass lik eit knew where it was going. Noah’s towel-cape flared behind him like in superhero cartoons. I really wanted them to win this round, but oh, there goes my girl Athena! I had to switch my cheers back to her. I wanted my Falcons to win too! Athena landed a balloon in a basket. Hooray!
“Five points, Falcons!” Cassie called out. All of us on the sidelines roared for her.
As for Jocelyn, she was so fast that even though lots of her kicks floated sideways, she kept barreling forward. But then, oh no! She made a massive kick just feet away from our goal, and her balloon popped! Gahhh! She looked furious as she raced back to the starting line. C’mon, Jocelyn! But I couldn’t stop cheering for the guys too!
Then I came up with a genius idea—I set Elvira to her loudest setting and let her holler “Yay” and “Hooray” and “Great shot” over and over.
Just a few feet from the Panther goal, Noah rolled Santiago right over the balloon! Ka-plooey! That one wasn’t gonna feel air again!
“I’m trading you in for a new chauffeur!” Santiago’s machine shouted as Noah spun him around to go get another balloon. I bet he’d typed that in ahead of time—he had a great sense of humor.
Then Athena, who had steadily worked her way back to the goal, went to tap her balloon in. It got caught on a wisp of air, and, oh no! It floated right into the guys’ box! Arghhhhh! Everyone froze—how was that counted? Cassie ran over and declared that Athena got double points for getting it into a goal that was even farther away than her own! Woo-hoo! Athena ran to get another balloon.
Maybe we Falcons woo-hooed too soon though, because Cassie then added that the boys also got five points for “technically” capturing Athena’s balloon. But then we realized, we still got five more points than the boys, and woo-hooed all over again!
And the bell rang. It was the end of that round.
We thought that the score was about tied, but nobody was entirely sure, and no one seemed to care.