“I'm calling a day off,” Emily said as they gathered for Cavalry training. She'd had her cast off for a few weeks, and it was time to have some fun. They all looked at her questioningly as she was in her black sports bra and a pair of cut-off sweat pants that were rolled down at the top to fit against her hips.
“You are?” Kyle asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, can I do that?”
“Sure”
“Good… then line up,” she said, and watched as the recruits lined up on the left and the Cavalry lined up on the right. Kyle went and stood by her.
“Ok… you,” she said, pointing to the first new recruit. “Take your shirt off.”
He frowned slightly and then did as he was told.
“Ok, Mark,” she said, turning to the second Cavalry member, “Shirt off.”
Kyle looked at her oddly, not sure what she was up to.
Emily went through the two lines and every other heku removed their shirt.
“Kyle, your turn.” She grinned.
He shook his head and took his shirt off, “Now what?”
Emily disappeared into the tack room and came back with a football, “Time to play.”
The gathered heku all grinned and divided up automatically, shirts against skins.
“I'll be quarterback for the shirts… obviously.” She couldn't help but blush some, “Kyle will be quarterback for the skins. When we aren't playing offense, we'll help with defense. The end zones are already marked with my shoes.”
The heku looked at both ends of the lawn and saw shoes on each side. Emily pulled out a quarter and turned to the skins team, “Call it.”
She tossed the quarter into the air as they called heads. She caught it in her hand and looked, skins were going first.
“There's just one tiny problem,” Kyle said as they lined up.
“What's that?” Emily asked.
“We can't tackle the quarterback… that's kind of cheating.” He grinned.
“Oh right, well…” She tried to come up with a solution, “Then tackle me, I'm tougher than I look.”
Kyle shook his head, “The Elder would kill us for that.”
She frowned, “He won't even know.”
“Ok then… don't hit her full force, though,” Kyle said, turning to his team, and they all agreed.
Emily lined up behind one of her teammates and put her hands out to him. He hiked the ball and she backed up, looking for someone who was free. Her linemen were doing a good job keeping the opposing team off of her, and she finally saw a guard off to the side with his hands up. She threw the ball as hard as she could and he caught it nimbly, then blurred to the end zone.
“Touchdown!” Emily shouted, doing a victory dance.
They re-lined up on what was somewhere near the center of the field and this time, Emily was one of the lineman. She grinned at the shirtless guard across from her. Emily glanced to the sidelines when she saw movement and laughed, there was a crowd gathering.
From up on the third floor, Chevalier paced his office, thinking. He stopped for a quick glance out the window, and looked down to see what was going on below. He smiled and shook his head when he saw the Cavalry and the new recruits gathered playing football. Chevalier laughed when he saw Emily lined up defensively against one of the larger recruits. She looked miniscule in comparison to him.
As the ball was hiked, Emily lunged at the new recruit and he turned just as she jumped. She slammed into his back and wrapped her arms and legs around him. He took off down the field as Emily struggled to make him fall. She finally hooked her elbow around his neck and threw herself backwards. The heku fell back and landed to the side of her.
Chevalier decided he'd worked enough for one day, and headed down to join the growing crowd that was watching. He arrived just as the skins team made a touchdown. The scoring heku was high-fiving his teammate.
“Move to the front, Elder,” one of the heku in the crowd offered.
“No, I'll stay back out of sight.” He was afraid their game would end if they knew he was watching. They were seriously breaking the 'no touching' rule, but he knew that the entire idea had to be Emily's, and he was enjoying watching her have fun.
Emily lined up again behind a heku and put her hands out. As soon as the ball was hiked, one of the skins broke away and tackled Emily. She felt herself being hit and then somehow gently set against the ground. Chevalier started to jump toward them, but saw that the heku who tackled her was being extremely careful.
She stood up and got back in position. Chevalier looked around, there had to be at least two hundred heku gathered to watch.
“What's going on?” Maleth asked, standing by Chevalier.
“Emily has the Cavalry playing football,” he explained.
“Interesting.” Maleth turned back to the game.
The heku playing center hiked the ball to Emily and she fell back, looking for an open guard member. Her eyes fell on a hole, and she tucked the ball under her arm and ran as fast as she could. She heard her team surround her and knock out the opposing team as they tried to get to her. Emily suddenly felt her feet leave the ground as strong arms grabbed her around the waist, and blurred her to the end zone.
The Cavalry member set her down and she spiked the ball and did a victory dance. She high-fived the guard that had carried her into the end zone, just as Kyle held up a hand.
“I don't think that's legal,” he said, returning to the front line.
“What's not?” Emily asked, and walked back to her position.
“Nowhere in the rule books does it say someone can carry the quarterback into the end zone,” he said, laughing.
“Nowhere in the rule books does it say they can't,” she said, and pus