“Alright, kids, I want a good clean game,” the professional referee said, overseeing the four-square court at Middlebridge Elementary School. “Your serve.”
He handed the ball to Billy, who took it and chucked it overhand into Caroline’s square. The referee blew the whistle. “That wasn’t a serve, Billy. Back to square one.”
“I didn’t call no cherry bombs, though,” Billy said, smirking as Caroline raced halfway across the playground to get the ball.
“I read nothing about cherry bombs in the rule book,” the ref said.
“Well, it’s a rule,” Billy said.
“But you didn’t call cherry bombs,” Caroline said, returning to the four squares. Sawyer and Misty nodded in agreement.
“Alright, redo point,” Billy said. “I’m calling cherry bombs, lines-sees and one-eyed Jacks.”
“Wait,” the ref said, holding up his hands. “What are line-sees, and what are one-eyed Jacks?”
“Line-sees is a rule where you’re allowed to hit the line, and one-eyed Jacks require every player to cover an eye with their hand before hitting the ball.”
The three players put their hands up to their eyes. Billy got ready to serve, but the ref blew the whistle.
“You didn’t one-eye Jack.”
“The server doesn’t one-eye Jack,” Billy said.
Just then, Misty ran into Billy’s square. “Tag, you’re it.”
Billy looked mad, threw the ball after Misty, and then turned and tagged Sawyer. The kids ran off.
“Now we’re playing tag?” the ref asked. Sawyer nodded and tagged the ref. “Hey, you can’t tag the ref!”
“No one ever said that,” Sawyer said, racing off. Now, the ref ran around looking for the kids. He found Caroline and tagged her.
She turned and tagged the ref again. As she ran off laughing, she yelled, “No tag-backs!”
The referee fumed. How was a professional somehow playing tag with children?
He found Swayer and chased him, but Sawyer ran to a tree. “This is a safe base. You can’t tag me.”
Misty ran behind the ref and said, “10-second rule on safe base.”
Sawyer scowled and started counting. The ref waited, “Hey, no puppy guarding!”
“What does that mean?” the ref asked.
“You can’t just stand here!” Sawyer yelled.
Billy came up to the ref and said, “Tag me.”
The ref, uncertain, tapped Billy and turned to run.
“Freeze tag,” Billy yelled and touched the ref, now stuck on one foot.
The ref fumed as Billy chased the other kids. I need a rule book for this. You can’t ref in these circumstances. Just then, his phone alarm sounded, and he blew the whistle three times. “That’s game! Recess is over!”