Juvenile Delinquent

"What's next?" Reese asked, tucking the rope course workers number into her pocket.
I licked up the last of my chocolate ice cream and thought back to the sign at the entrance,

"Laser tag?"

"Oh yeah!" Reese high-fived me. We followed the signs to the indoor laser tag room and signed in. They put me on a team with Chris and a bunch of little kids and we shrugged on the heavy vests, me ignoring how many sweaty people had already put them on.

"Alright guys, here's the rules. No running, keep your shoes on, no swearing, and don't shoot the back of your own box. It doesn't give you points and it just makes you look stupid." The worker said, and we laughed.

He quickly showed us how to start and re-start our guns and then took us, the red team, into the game. He led us to our corner and explained how to re-load our guns. Faintly I could hear another instructor saying the same things to the other team.

Finally, he walked away and a mechanical voice said 'get ready.' Our vests and guns lit up and my group scattered. Laser sounds rang out and I headed for the platform in the middle of the floor, ducking behind fake walls as I ran. I weaved between walls and objects, keeping my gun high.

My vest vibrated and then shut off, which meant that my target had been hit. Looking around I saw Reese waving her gun in the air at me. A little kid on my team shot at her vest and high-fived his equally tiny friend when Reese's vest shut off. I laughed and waved back.

Chris than ran up behind me and took a shot at a teenage girl on the other team. He missed and jogged away from me, nearly colliding with the worker who just laughed. It's a good thing he actually didn't expect us to follow the rules.

I caught sight of Ryan and took off after him, electro music pounding in my ears. I got an opportunity to shoot and missed, ducking when he looked back at me.

I watched unmoving as he headed back in my direction; still to far to him. He stopped then and took of to his right, after a shrieking boy.

I hopped up and jumped right into Reese, she put her finger to her lips and shot past me, at the boy Ryan had gone after. His vest flashed and then turned off; he groaned and took of to hide. She laughed, "truce?", "Of course." I replied, shaking her outstretched hand. She ran off and I shot at her back. "Never trust an enemy's word!" I called laughing. She grinned, shook her fist at me and ran off towards her base.

"Five minutes." The robotic voice said. The tempo of the music sped up and I dodged between my teammates. Slithering on my elbows into the enemies base. My spot from the ground gave me full access to the box and I shot at it multiple times, watching the meter on my gun as my points shot up.

"Hey!" I heard Ryan call. In the dark I couldn't tell where he was but I struggled to get up.

Just then someone jumped on me and pinned me to the ground by my arms. They laughed as I struggled, "Ryan," I gasped, "Get off me!" He laughed again and shifted lower so he was more on my legs. "Better?" He asked, still holding my arms down I fake shifted like I was uncomfortable and flicked up my right hand, aiming for the target on his right shoulder. Triumphant I lunged out from under him and sprinted to the my side of the room. Out of breath, I watched the time run out on my gun, when it hit zero my vest blinked and then shut off.

"Hope you enjoyed it guys," The worker said as we returned our guns and vests to the separate room. I yelled 'yes' at him and took my score sheet from the printer by the entrance. Guess who got best score on my team?! Not me. One of the little kids did. I came in third after Chris.

"So are you guys ready to head home?" Chris asked, jingling the car keys in his hand. I nodded, realizing how tired I was. I checked my cell phone and thankfully my mother had not called since earlier this morning. It was far fetched, but maybe she was learning that I'm not as childish and irresponsible as she had always thought I was. Just kidding. I played on the park with a six year old before we left. Corkscrew slides? Booyah!