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Had he just started planning for a future, or had he sealed his fate in loneliness?

Chapter5

Remi

Remi marched over the hill next to the younger kids. To her left, Hadley led the older kids. They could keep the varied ages together for some events, but tug-of-war needed a bit of separation.

“What are we doing next?” Amberly asked. The most chipper in the bunch today, she had a huge smile, a wide imagination, and two and a half teeth in the front of her mouth.

“Tug-of-war. You ever played?”

Amberly’s smile fell. “Yeah. We played at my school.”

“You don’t have to play if you don’t want to,” Remi added.

Amberly looked back at the other kids in the group. “I might.”

Being in charge of kids was a lot of taking cues. Most kids knew their limits and likes, and Remi tried to offer up a variety of fun things to do.

Tug-of-war wasn’t for everyone. It wasn’t Remi’s favorite. Never had been. But about half the kids got super giddy at the challenge.

When they reached the top of the hill, the two groups lined up in front of the ropes lying on the ground. The younger kids aged from three to six and the older kids were seven to ten.

Remi clapped her hands. “Tug-of-war time. Who wants to play?” She raised a hand, letting them know how to opt in.

The majority of the kids flung their hands in the air.

Remi pointed at the two ropes. “Take your places.”

When the kids were evenly divided on each rope, Hadley held the middle tie on one, and Remi held the middle tie on the other.

“One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to go!”

Remi and Hadley backed up as the teams started to pull. The older kids held a tense back and forth, but the younger kids had a clear winner early on.

Remi helped some of the little kids to their feet. “Was that fun?”

“Yeah! Again!” the kids shouted in unison.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Hadley shouted.

Remi got to her feet and looked to the other group. Hadley was wedged between two boys who were pushing and shoving at each other. They were around eight or nine, and while they couldn’t completely overpower Hadley, their reckless flailing made it hard to wrangle them in.

That escalated quickly.

“Hey, break it up!” Remi shouted as she ran toward them. She pulled one of the boys back and wrapped her arms around him from behind, securing them to his body so he’d stop swinging. He wasn’t giving up easily and kept wiggling in her hold.

“Cool it, Grant. We’re playing tug-of-war, not battling it out.”

She’d barely gotten the words out of her mouth when Grant jerked his head back, nailing Remi in the nose with his thick skull. The bright midday turned dark before the light came back and stars swirled in her vision. The sharp pain pierced to the back of her head and down her spine. Warmth spread down her face as the other kids screamed. She closed her eyes and focused on holding Grant.

“Miss Remi is bleeding!” one of the girls cried.

A few seconds later, Grant started relaxing. He kept squirming, but the fire in him was dying.

Remi blinked through tears. She wasn’t sniffling or crying, but the blow to the nose had started up the waterworks.

Hadley was able to get a handle on the other boy, and the rest of the group stepped back.