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“We want to pick our own teams!” Marcus called.
“You’re not picking your own teams,” Luke called back. “Or else it won’t be fair.”
The kids fell silent, eagerly awaiting their names to be called. “When you hear your name, line up in front of one of the colored flags taped to the wall.” He gestured to the far wall where he’d taped up blue, red, yellow and green flags.
“Those are supposed to be flags?” Marcus jeered. “They’re just cardboard rectangles.”
“Do I look like an artist?” Luke said, lifting the clipboard to read off the first name. “Kinsley. Team red.” A little girl popped up from the crowd and ran over to the wall. “Jerome. Team yellow.”
Lydia joined him about halfway through reading off the names, smiling as the kids ran to their positions.
“Okay,” Luke announced. “That’s everyone.”
“We’re short one person!” Marcus called, having taken charge of the red team.
“So are we!” said the blues.
Luke checked his list. “Just have one person run twice.”
“That’s not fair!” Marcus shouted. “They’ll be tired. We get Lydia!”
“No, we get Lydia!” said the kids from the blue team.
“No one gets Lydia,” Luke explained. “Because Lydia is on my team.”
Marcus did the math quickly. “That means you both have to run the course like five times.”
“Bingo.”
“Oh, come on,” Lydia said under her breath.
“Did you forget this was a training session?” he laughed. “Better go get on that starting line.”
Lydia waltzed over to join the kids, who giggled at her antics.
“Remember to tag out the next person on your team,” Luke said. “Runners take your marks. On my whistle. Three. Two. One!” He blew the whistle and the kids erupted in screams and cheers.
Luke turned on some music, then raced over to the starting line, taking his position. As Lydia made her way through the obstacle course, he could tell she was pacing herself, matching her speed to the younger kids participating. That was good, because after three laps of this, she was going to need that energy. She ran back the length of the gym, tagging him out.
“Go, go, go!” the kids screamed the moment he set foot on the course. They clearly no longer cared about beating each other, only him and Lydia. He hurried through the obstacles, whipping a Hula-Hoop around his waist, then ran back to tag out Lydia. She set off, faster this time as some of the older kids set foot on the floor.
Marcus’s team started throwing the extra beanbags at Luke as he waited for Lydia to return. “Interference!” Luke shouted. “You’re going down!”
Lydia was back faster than he’d expected, and they traded out another round. By the time Luke returned from his third lap, Lydia was laughing so hard at Marcus’s taunting that she had to wipe tears from her eyes for her entire lap, repeatedly dropping the Hula-Hoop at the end.
“Get it together,” Luke said as she tagged him out.
“Um, I think we’re winning, and I’m totally carrying this team.”
“Only because I let you,” Luke said, jogging backward to prove his point. By the time he’d almost completed his lap, he realized theywerewinning. Well, he was going to have to do something to even out the race. As he returned from his lap, he reached out to tag Lydia, but instead of high-fiving, he caught her hand, tugging her back as she tried to bolt.
“Luke!” she yelped, giggling as he caught her around the waist, lifting her off her feet. “What are you doing?” She twisted in his arms. “You’re sabotaging your own team!”
“We have to let them win,” he mumbled under his breath, watching her eyes dart out to track the other teams. The kids laughed and cheered, using the advantage to pull ahead. “Build their confidence and all that.”
“And what about my confidence?” she teased, her hands pressing against his chest. “Don’t you think they’ve beaten us badly enough yet?”
“Almost,” he said, keeping a firm grip around her waist. He was loath to let her go, even to finish the race. A desperate thrill ran through him like a shiver. The way she looked at him, Lydia must have been able to feel it too. When she didn’t push him away, his pulse jumped in his chest.
