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“We’ve totally got this,” Aidan says. His voice sends a chill through me. I can’t see a thing, but I can feel how close he is. He trails his fingers down my arm and then gives my hand a squeeze. “Just listen to my voice.”
I nod, waiting. In my head, I’m picturing the layout in front of me. Not going to lie, I already guesstimated how many steps I would need to take before dropping to my knees and climbing under the spider web ropes. The balance beam will be the toughest part.
“Ready?” Coach yells, interrupting my internal run-through.
The crowd starts to cheer, and I panic for a moment thinking I won’t be able to hear Aidan.
The whistle blows, and he’s so loud. “Five steps and down!”
I nearly come out of my skin. His voice is so commanding, searing like a drill sergeant. He’s used to calling out plays in the middle of a packed stadium, so I’m not sure what I was worried about.
I hop off the line, doing what he says. I’d estimated it at five steps, too. Without thinking about it too much, I take the five steps and dive right down.
“Lower!” Aidan yells when my forehead hits the first rope.
I duck under and keep moving. My ass drags along the ropes above me, but I scramble through as fast as I can.
“A few more feet. Two! One! Up!” Aidan instructs as I come out of the web. I shoot to my feet, choking a little on the dust of dirt that must be circling around me. My heart beats a mile a minute.
“Two steps right. Forward three. There.” I follow Aidan’s instructions to the letter, moving my right foot when he says. Once I’m on the balance beam, I decide to slide along it. I feel when the elbow in the beam comes and veer left on instinct.
“Yes, Angel! Yes!” Aidan screams.
I hope that’s good news because the next thing I know, I’m jumping off the balance beam and Aidan is telling me where the slide is. I reach out, fishing for the handrails and then run as fast as I can up the slide. “Last step!”
My foot hits the top stair just like he said.Holy shit! We’re doing this.
I fling myself forward butt first and slide down. I don’t even get to my feet before Aidan is scrambling at the knot in my blindfold.
“That was amazing!” he says, his voice an excited whisper.
The sun stings my eyes when he whips it off me. I rush to my feet, squinting while I maneuver to his back to tie the knot.
His first obstacle is the monkey bars. I run along with him. “One step to the right! That’s right, two more steps,” I say, guiding him. “Step up.”
He does what I say, but once he’s on the monkey bars, he doesn’t need any guidance until I tell him he only has one rung left. He swings himself forward, landing on his feet.
The next is a rope swing. If he falls, he has to start over.
“Walk three steps. Step up.” Once he’s on the platform, I tell him where to reach for the rope that’s hanging on a hook. He grabs it, sails forward, and I yell “Jump!” when he’s close enough to hit the other platform.
Miraculously, he lands it perfectly. I run to catch up with him. Looking over, I notice we’re ahead. There’s no one else on the ropes with us. Kenna and West are still back on the monkey bars.
My heart beats overtime. The last obstacle is a net climb. This seems particularly tricky blindfolded. Clips denote a line he has to stay on the other side of so that each player has their own space to climb, or he’ll get called to the beginning again.
I guide Aidan to his stretch of netting. “Move right. Right,” I yell as Aidan runs forward. He starts up the net, but the judge tells him to get off because he started on top of the clip.
“Two pacesright!” I scream. He shuffles his feet to the side.
“Good?”
“Now!”
He starts up the netting. There really isn’t much to say to guide him. He keeps moving up, finding footing. When he’s almost to the top, I tell him he only has a foot to go, and then he’s laying over the top beam and trying to find his footing on the other side.
“Let’s go, Aidan!” people yell.
He comes down methodically, his foot searching for the net as quickly as possible. “Let me know when I can jump.”