Tag, You're It

I’m startled out of my rapt attention at the novella in my hands fairly early the next day. Checking my phone's clock, I can see that it is only seven in the morning. I also check the text message that had shocked me back to the present.

Rowan’s name lights up across my screen, indicating that she has sent me the wake-up message. So, I unlock my phone and look at it.

Scanning it quickly I look up at Dana for a minute before looking back down at my phone. Rising from my seat I saunter out onto the balcony at the far side of the room from my still sleeping friend. I press Rowan’s name and hit the call button before putting my phone on speaker, turning it down a little to try and make sure I don’t disturb anyone else.

“SOOO, do you want to come?” Rowan’s voice sounds excitedly over the phone, and I lean on the railing.

“I didn’t even know there was a laser tag shop in the area, how did you know about it?”

“The magic of having family living in these parts for generations. So, can you come?”

“I mean, I’m hanging out with my friend Dana, so I don’t know…” I startle at someone leaning on my shoulders and I look back to see my groggy friend draping herself over me. I hear Rowan’s ‘oh’ over the phone and then shrug my shoulders trying to get Dana off of me.

“We can go to laser tag. I want to meet these new acquaintances of yours anyway.”

“I heard that! She’s more than welcome to join us too! The more the merrier you know, since it’s hard for Xander to do things in dark spaces…” Rowan trails off and I frown a little. If it’s even difficult for him during the day, I can’t even imagine what it’s like for him at night when it’s dark.

“So, who all is coming?”

“All the cousins in the area, so there will be about twelve of us kids that are going to play laser tag.”

“How many cousins do you guys have in the area?”

“Well, the main family makes two, then there are three of us who can play which already makes five. Then you and now your friend. Then my mother’s brother and his three kids are coming, and Tristan’s fathers’ sisters’ twins are coming too. So that’s twelve, right?” I hear her mutter, probably to one of her brothers about how she didn’t think that she’d done the math wrong, and I wonder if she had already been banking on me coming the whole time. Dana just evens out the numbers.

“We could even do three teams,” I hear someone’s voice from the other end of the call, and I shrug, then remember that they can’t see me.

“Just tell us where, and Dana and I will get there.”

“Okay, meet us in Southwelling’s at two? The laser tag place is right off main street.”

“Easy enough,” I respond and look at Dana who seems to be near falling asleep again.

“See you then!” Rowan chirps before hanging up the phone.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” Dana asks me after I put my phone back into my pocket. She takes a look at my clothes, not even changed out of my outfit from yesterday. I probably should have at least put on my pj’s, but I hadn’t thought that far last night. Hindsight is 20/20.

She doesn’t listen to my poor excuses and drags me back into the room. She throws my pj’s at my head and glares at me until I change into them. Then she shoves me onto the bed, before curling up beside me.

“Sleep for at least a couple of hours, or else you’ll end up dead at laser tag and that won't be any fun.”

I finally agree, not really seeing any other option and I close my eyes.

Dana turns right onto a side road just off main street. Just like Rowan said, the laser tag place was right there. I’m surprised that I had never known about this place.

“I can’t believe this is the first time we’re going here,” Dana mutters, mirroring my own thoughts exactly.

She pulls off the road and parks the car in an empty spot, and then I notice Rowan and Caleb standing over by the building. More like leaning on it and chatting.

We both get out of the car and Rowan is the first to spot us, grinning widely and rushing toward us.

“Xander not here?” I ask and she shakes her head.

“Xander didn’t want to come and watch us having fun while he couldn’t do anything,” Caleb explains and I nod along. I don’t really understand the feeling, but it’s probably really shitty knowing that you can’t do something that you want to do, but you can watch your siblings, cousins, and friends do the thing that you can’t, without any issues.

“Hi, I’m Dana!” My friend bounces up beside me and sticks her hand out toward Caleb first.

“Caleb.”

“Hi! I’m Rowan. It’s nice to meet you!” Rowan grabs her hand too after Caleb releases it.

“I heard a lot about you guys last night.” Dana grins as she nudges me in the arm. I frown at her before Rowan just laughs. She grabs my hand and then Dana’s in her other one and drags us toward the building.

“Let’s go laser tag.”

“Got you!” Dana’s voice rings out somewhere in the dark.

The twelve of us ended up splitting into three teams of four. The red team, the green team, and the blue team. Rowan, Dana, Caleb, and I made up the red team.

I felt more comfortable with this setup. Not that the cousins were mean or anything, but I was most familiar with those three people. And it made sense for Dana and I to be put with the people who had invited us here anyways.

I wouldn’t say that we were good at laser tag, but I wouldn’t say that we were bad either. The green team seemed to live in the darkness and kept knocking us all out easily.

I like that instead of being knocked out and not being allowed to play anymore, the vests were on a timer. Every time you were hit you had to sit where you were until your vest lit back up again. This was also how they counted the points against your team.

The team with the lowest ‘deaths’ would be the winner.

I managed to find a good hiding spot after climbing up a conspicuous ladder into a loft-type area. There was only one way in. But this also meant that there was only one way out for me as well.

Not that I was planning to move now that I had been shot at least five times by one of Rowan’s cousins.

I heard cries as people got caught, and laughter coming from the maze below me. I kept my perch looking down on the area below me. I waited to see a glowing vest that I could shoot. Maybe I could hit at least one person before the hour was up.

The clock continues clicking down as I sit here, waiting, watching. I feel like I sound much better at this than I really am.

Luckily, before I get too bored of waiting, I see a blue glow. I hide behind a wall so that I can potentially avoid detection and point my laser gun at the glow. I pull the trigger and hear the woosh as it makes the noise indicating that I had hit the target. I see the glow go out and I hear a voice questioning where the heck the shot came from.

I had been incredibly lucky that I had poked out when they weren’t facing toward me. Otherwise, they definitely would have seen the glow of my gun and my vest.

Once their glow comes back on, they continue looking around to see if there is anyone around them who might have shot them.

I hear their footsteps getting closer to where I am positioned, and I frown.

“Ooo, a ladder,” I hear the voice say as they start to climb into my little perch.

I position myself in the corner closest to the ladder, prepared to ambush them and then get the hell out of here while they are recharging.

I see Tristan’s face come up over the wall, noticing that he hasn’t seen me yet, but it won't be long until my glowing alerts him to my presence.

Just as I think this his face turns to me and his eyes widen when he sees me crouched in the corner.

He isn’t quick enough to grab his gun though and I shoot him for the second time now. The woosh shoots out and I hit my target easily at near point-blank range.

He frowns and finishes climbing before sitting down, right in front of the ladder.

“Um…” I pause, trying to see how I can get around him. “Can I climb down?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. I’m dead right now.” He points to his dark vest, and I frown.

“That doesn’t mean that you can’t move so that I can get out of the loft.”

“Of course, it does. I’m dead.” He smirks at me, and I grunt before trying to step around him. I don’t have much time left until his vest comes back on and then he will be able to shoot me instead.

Thankfully he doesn’t impair me from getting around him, he just sits there like a lumpy obstacle for me to get around.

I get halfway down the ladder as I hear the double beep, meaning the vest is back up. I hurry my steps and then dash out of the little area at the bottom of the loft.

Not quick enough though as my vest makes a beeping sound and goes out.

“Got you!” Tristan calls quietly and I grunt, stopping in my tracks. Of course, he got me.

“I would have gotten away too if you hadn’t sat in my way” I mutter grumpily and I hear a laugh. Coming closer to me.

“Want to see who’s the better shot?” he asks as he comes to stand right in front of me. I roll my eyes, not that he can see that.

“Obviously it won't be me.”

“Really? Doubting your skills? Or overestimating mine?”

“Hush, this is my first time playing laser tag.”

“Well, you’re doing a great job for your first time.” He grins down at me as my vest beeps twice and glows red again.

Tristan doesn’t reach for his gun, surprisingly enough, and I lift my own to shoot him.

He just lets it happen too. Which makes me furrow my brow.

“Didn’t even try to evade huh?”

“Nope, now you’ve shot me three times. Give you a head start to run away and hide? No chance.” I can hear the evil grin in his voice as he says this, and I hiss out a breath.

“Can we call a truce?”

“Nope,” he pops the p while shaking his head. “No truces here, only war.”

I sigh and then turn on my heel, making my way into the maze to try and get away from the guy teasing me. He could tell I wasn’t good at laser tag, that was definitely why he was teasing me so much right now.

I round a few corners and I surprisingly don’t see anyone else, from any of the teams. Though I keep the gun at the ready, to try and outshoot anyone I come across.

Then the bell rings, bringing me out of my thoughts. That’s the hour.

The lights go on and we all make our way to the exit door and leave the laser tag room. The cousins are all chatting wildly, and I even notice that Dana and Caleb seem to be in a very deep conversation about something.

I decide to not bother anyone and walk my way out on my own.

“You and Dana should come to our house for dinner,” Rowan says as she comes up behind me and I startle, not having noticed her before.

“Um, I’d have to talk to Dana,” I point out and Rowan shrugs before marching off, probably to invite Dana to dinner.

I meet up with the three of them outside, and as my hunch suggested, Dana agreed to go to the Meier’s house for dinner. She had even already texted her parents telling them so.

I didn’t need to tell anyone though, my mother still wasn’t around, and she wasn’t there enough to care where I went or what I did when she was around. And my father hadn’t come home since the beginning of the school year. He couldn’t be assed to care about what I was doing.

With Dana’s parents' permission, and Rowan deciding to come along in Dana’s car “to give us directions,” as she claimed, the three of us got in and pulled out of the laser tag parking lot.

“Are you sure we can just leave your brother and cousins here?” I ask Rowan as we escape the city limits, heading back home.

“Oh yeah, we came with Tristan originally, and he and his brother are coming back to ours anyways to have dinner, so Caleb will be fine.” She shrugs and I nod, though I still feel a little weird about just leaving him there with not so much as a word.

“And the cousins?” Dana asks, trying to get more details and Rowan just laughs.

“We all see each other a lot more now that we’re here instead of in Europe. They’ll be fine for a week until next time.” She brushes this off too and then demands that we play the radio really loud.

She and Dana begin to belt out the songs on the radio, chatting in between the so-called “hits”. I’m glad that the two of them seem to be hitting it off better than I had originally thought. Dana was always a sociable person, so I never worried that she’d be able to make friends with the Meier’s, but I still didn’t know them all that well myself. So, I couldn’t tell what would happen with them.

“Why haven’t I seen you in school?” Rowan finally asks the question and Dana laughs.

“I’m doing the semester online; my parents and I went traveling for several months and it was just easier to do that instead of missing so much school and having to catch up.”

“Are you coming back next semester then? Or just finishing out online?”

“Nope, I’ll be back for the second semester, our last semester as high schoolers.” Dana glances at me in the rear-view mirror as she says this. She knows that I am just counting down the days to when I’ll be able to get myself out of this place. Or at least away from my parents.

“What classes do you have!” Rowan gets excited and I start to tune them out as they discuss their class schedules. I know the only class I share with Dana next semester is my French class in period two, and that’s only because we’re both in the immersion stream and have to take the same French course.

I lean my head back on the seat and listen to the music, my body finally tired after all the running around.

We make it back to the Meier house before Tristan and the entourage in his car, and Rowan drags us into the house almost as soon as we get parked. She goes hunting for her other brother, insisting that she wants to introduce Dana to him as well.

“Xander!” She shouts and I see the old butler I met last time I was here come over and tell Rowan something. She grins and drags us away from him, pulling us somewhere.

“Thanks!”

I start to notice parts of the house that I recognize and then I see the door leading to the basement. She pulls us down the stairs, and I see Xander sitting on the couch. He seems to be watching a cartoon.

“You’re rewatching this again? Ugh, such a nerd.” Rowan crows as she skips over to the remote and shuts the TV off.

“Hey, I was watching that.”

“Yeah, yeah, you can finish your show later.” She points toward the two of us. “Elle and her friend Dana came over, be nice.” Rowan chuffs him on the head before she plops herself down beside him and invites us over to sit too.

“Hi.” Xander huffs, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting. I hold in my laughter, knowing laughing at his antics won't make any of this better for him.

“Holy Hannah, and I thought my dad was a gaming nut,” Dana exclaims as she sees the consoles and the gaming setup. She wanders over and starts checking it out. Rowan gets up and goes to tell her about some of the things that Dana sees.

I wander over and sit in the place that Rowan vacated.

“How was laser tag?” Xander asks me, his exaggerated pout from earlier disappearing as his sister leaves him alone.

“Oh, it was fun. I was really bad at it though.” I smile thinking about the two different games we played and how I’d only hit about five targets combined, while I’d been hit several dozen times in both games.

I’d still had lots of fun though, so that made it all worth it. At least it did in my books.

Dana and Rowan arbitrarily decided that we were going to play video games together. Though Xander had an excuse.

Mario Kart was the game of choice. And once the Bentley siblings and the two missing Meier siblings got to the house, they were also forced into the gaming competition.

“Why do I suck so much?” I ask as I fall off of the rainbow road for what feels like the hundredth time.

“It’s hard. Don’t worry about it.” Dana and Rowan both say in exactly the same voice at exactly the same time, both patting my head for only a moment before they continue playing their own characters.

I sigh and just give up. I slowly start inching forward, trying to avoid the little areas that boost your speed. I don’t need to get flung off of the course again.

“Kids! Dinner!” I hear someone call us. And Rowan shouts back that we’d come up once the game was done.

Only a few minutes later, Caleb got first, Dana got second, and Tristan third, then the rest of us trickled in until I got last place, not even managing to actually finish the course.

I put my controller down and stand up.

“Let’s go.” I look at Xander and he stands beside me. We get to the stairs, and I look back at him, noticing the frown. I also frown, wondering if he would feel weird if I helped him out, or if he even needed my help. But then the little burst of hesitation as he reaches slowly in front of him and I decide it might be fine to try.

“The stairs are right in front of you,” I whisper to him, and he smiles at me in thanks while lifting his leg. Xander and I make it upstairs first, but the others are following closely behind us.

When I get to the dining room, I notice both Mrs. Meier and Mrs. Bentley waiting for us. And the entire table except two places are set.

We all sit down, me between Xander and Dana. Rowan is on Dana’s other side. Once we had all sat down, the dishes were served. A large cobb salad with some sort of cream soup on the side was put in front of all of us.

The food is delicious, the conversation fun. I miss this kind of family get-together sometimes. But I can enjoy it vicariously through my friends' families at least.