Guardian Angel Academy (10 page)

Chapter 18

It was time for the 11:00 activity, Invisibility Freeze Tag.  We named our team The Incredibles and we were up against the team Mostly Ghostly.  We went to a large practice room.  This room, to make it more fun, had some dividers here and there, kind of like a maze.

“We will flip for who is It first,” said Professor Occult, the professor in charge of this activity and rightly so since he is the Invisibility instructor.

I thought Professor Occult was going to pull out a coin to flip, but then I remembered we don't use money in heaven.  So, I wondered what he would flip.  Professor Occult waited to see that we were all watching and then reached into his gown pocket.  He pulled out a smooth and beautifully detailed sand dollar.

“I'm a sand dollar fan,” he simply said. “I like to collect these.”  And then he tossed it up, catching it and flipping it over onto his arm very quickly.

“That's how it's done, I've labeled one side heads and the other tails, so choose a team captain and come up and call it,” he said.

I was chosen to be our team's captain and I went up near the professor along with the captain from the Mostly Ghostly team, a small boy, looking only 10 or 12 in appearance. 

“Heads,” we both said at the same time.

“Call again,” said Professor Occult.

“Tails,” we both said at the same time.

“Again,” said Professor Occult.

“Heads,” said their captain.

“Tails,” I said.

'Very well.”

Professor Occult tossed up the sand dollar, quickly caught it and turned it over on his arm.

“Tails it is,” he said.

So I chose for our team would be It first.

I went back to my team and we chose areas to cover.  I would cover the northeast area of the room, Felix the northwest, Journey the southeast, and Kevin the southwest.  That way we had all four sections covered.  Anyway, we thought that was a good plan.  Having never played the game, we couldn't be too sure.

“Okay, I have the rings you are to put on.  These will be the only thing visible until you are touched.  Come forward team captains and take your team's rings.”

I got four rings and distributed them to my team, after which we went to our places.  After putting on the rings, we became invisible except for the ring.

“Everyone ready?”

“Yes,” I said. 

“We're ready,” said the Mostly Ghostly team captain.

“All right, then go!” said Professor Occult.

We floated around our sections looking carefully for any floating rings.  The rings were so small, it was difficult to spot them.  I saw one in my area and quickly floated toward it.  Unfortunately it escaped me quickly and I let it go into Felix's section.  I wanted to stay in my area because that was the plan.

I saw another ring floating in my area and this time I quickly floated toward it and reached out my hand to try to touch whatever was in its whereabouts.  This time I succeeded in making one of the Mostly Ghostly visible and frozen.  It was a girl named Gretchen.  Quickly, I looked around the room and could see the whereabouts of another ghost, but the other two were hidden behind some of the dividers creating the maze-like divisions in the room.  The one that I did see visible was in Journey's territory so I yelled to Journey.  “Catch that one, Journey.”

She heard me and quickly floated toward him.  He quickly floated away and as the three seconds were up he became invisible except for his ring.  He floated away into the maze of dividers and Journey had lost him. 

I continued to look for rings in my area and to stand guard over my captive.  I didn't want anyone to come and free Gretchen.  She stood frozen and visible in my area.  Finally I spied two rings headed toward Gretchen.  One was coming from one direction and one from another direction.  There was no way I could get them both.  So I called for help.  I let out a whistle.  We had decided that we would have a special whistle that we would give loudly when we needed help in our area and the others would know to come quickly.

The whistle startled the other team's members who were moving quickly toward Gretchen, causing them to pause for a second.  However, my team members, when hearing the whistle, floated as quickly as they could in my direction.  I was already floating toward one of the rings that I saw moving in on Gretchen.  In just one second, I reached the ring floating toward Gretchen, swinging my arms in the air and touched the would-be rescuer, causing her to become visible and frozen.  Meanwhile, Journey and Felix had reached the other one and froze him as well.  Now we had three of their teammates frozen.  Just one more to go.  We had to guard these frozen victims well, and capture the last one.  We were on our guard.

I motioned for a time-out.  Earlier, when explaining the rules, Professor Occult said that we were allowed one time-out per game.  So I gathered my teammates to form a plan.

“Shall we each guard one of our prisoners and the fourth man out rove around looking for the last guy?” I asked. 

“That sounds like a pretty good plan to me,” said Journey.

“Any other suggestions?” I asked.

“I think we should give a signal if we need help, but we should change it this time to surprise them,” said Felix.

“Okay, what should the signal be?” I asked.

“What other annoying sounds can we make?” asked Kevin.

“I say we yell “Help” in another language,” said Journey.

“Yes,” I replied.  “It always gets my attention when people speak in another language.

“Okay,” said Felix.  “What language?”

“How about we all say help in Lithuanian,” said Journey.  As a young college graduate she had spent a year in Lithuania teaching English. 

“Okay, Lithuanian it is,” I said.  “Now you have to tell us how to say it,” I added.

“Say padeti,” said  Journey.

We decided who would guard who and Kevin was left as the rover.

I signaled that our time-out was over.  I carefully began to guard Gretchen, my assigned captive.  I watched for any floating rings coming from any direction.  Journey was guarding Hector and Felix was guarding Jocita. 

A few moments of quiet time went by and then I heard “Padeti” yelled loudly by Journey.  I could see that someone had just got by her and released her prisoner.  They were both still close so I floated quickly over to tag one of the two who were starting to get away, but were still totally visible.  Jocita was astonished when she heard Journey scream help in Lithuanian because she herself was from Lithuania while on earth and didn't expect us to know the language.  Journey tagged her captive, Hector, and I tagged Maynard, the last man out, so to speak.  Our team had won the first point of the game.

Now it was Mostly Ghostly's turn to be It.  They huddled together to make their plans. 

“I hope they don't copy us,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Journey, “Like whistling or yelling out code words.”

“Maybe they have something else up their sleeve,” said Felix.

“What are our plans?” I asked.

“Try not to get tagged,”Kevin chuckled.

“Is there any kind of strategy we can use?” I asked.

We have to be careful when we are trying to unfreeze someone,” said Felix.  “You don't want to get tagged when they see you.”

“What if we did something different to catch them off-guard?” asked Journey.

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like maybe when we are visible to also start glowing real strong and kind of blind them out,” said Journey.

“That's an interesting idea,” I said.  “Is there some rule against that, though?”

“Not that I know of,” said Journey.

“Okay, then we'll try it and see how it works.  Let's plan on who will try to unfreeze who so that we don't all try it at the same time,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Kevin.  “How about, if Ally gets frozen Journey unfreezes her and visa versa and the same with me and Felix.”

“All right,” Journey and I agreed. 

Professor Occult announced, “Everyone, time to start.”

We put on our rings and began floating around the room.  We were doing pretty well, but I kept seeing someone chasing after me.  I think it was Gretchen because of the color of her ring.  Finally she caught me and I became visible.  I waited to see if Journey would come and unfreeze me.  A few seconds later I saw Journey's ring floating in the air heading toward me.  There was another ring of the opposing team near me, I supposed it was my guard.  That ring started chasing Journey's ring, to scare her off from trying to unfreeze me.  She went back a ways.  Just then I saw Kevin become visible because someone had tagged him.  When that happened, Journey snuck by her guard and tagged me.  I was visible and unfrozen.  Both Journey and I shone our glowing powers to the best of our abilities, thus blinding the opposing team, who were trying to tag us while we were visible.  We quickly got away and then the three seconds were up and we were invisible.  Our opponents were baffled and I heard one whisper, “Is that fair?”

Professor Occult answered, “There is no rule against it, so I suppose so.”

We continued to float around.  If we could make it for twenty-five minutes without all of us being frozen, then we would be proclaimed the winners of that point and thus the game.  So, we had to keep hanging in there.  I saw someone become visible, and it was Felix.  I happened to be right behind him so I quickly unfroze him and continued flying by hoping no one would catch me.  After I unfroze him and became visible, one of the opposing team saw me and headed in my direction.  I quickly floated backwards and towards a divider to try to hide.  Fortunately, after I hid I became invisible again and my opponent didn't catch me.  I then saw that Journey had been tagged and was now frozen.  I was officially the individual who was supposed to unfreeze her according to our plan, but I was afraid it was kind of risky.  I could see a couple of rings floating near her guarding her.  So I waited a bit.  However, just then Felix must've decided to chance it and unfreeze her and he too was caught.  Now it was just Kevin and me left.  But I knew the time was ticking so I didn't want to chance getting caught while unfreezing the others.  If Kevin and I could just stay unfrozen for a couple of more minutes we would win.  So, I tried to stay as hidden as possible and not take any risks.  Finally I saw Kevin get tagged and frozen as he was trying to unfreeze Felix.  I just had to try to keep from being tagged for a few more seconds even though I knew they may all be ganging up against me.

I could feel the tension in the air and the energy on me.  I stayed as still as possible, thinking that if I started floating around they would be more likely to see my ring.  I could hear them whispering among themselves, obviously they hadn't learned telepathy yet either.  I could see some of their rings floating past me.  They were floating quickly trying to scope out the entire area, but didn't look carefully at me.    The suspense was killing me, but finally the buzzer went off and we had won!

After our 11:00 activity, I was ready for a quiet lunch hour.  I was exhausted from that game, but exhilarated, too.  We floated over to the lunch room and made our food choices and sat down with our meals. 

“What is our 1:00 activity?” asked Kevin in between bites of enchilada.

I swallowed my water and set down my salad fork.  “I don't remember.”

“It's Catch the Ghost game,” said Journey, after a spoonful of soup.  “It sounds a lot like the Invisibility game we just played so we better rest up.”

“Isn't that where we are all against the ghost who is It?” asked Felix.  “We have to catch him before he catches all of us?”

“Yes,” said Kevin, after crunching a piece of a nacho cheese covered chip.  “But when our flashlights are shining he can see us and when they are not we're pretty much invisible.  The game is played in the dark.  We have to try to shine our light on him, but it is tough because you can't see him in the dark.  He can sneak up on you and tag you because he can see you when you shine your light, which is most of the time.”  

“Okay,” I said.  “But if you don't shine your flashlight then he can't see you, right?”

“That's correct,” said Kevin.

“That game sounds like fun,” said Journey.  “I wonder if we can strategize.”

“Probably,” I said.

“Just like the last game,” said Felix. “When you are trying to bring a “dead” teammate back to life (one who's been tagged by the ghost) you are most vulnerable.  This is because you have to shine your flashlight on them for a certain amount of time to give them enough energy to get up and going.  The flashlight's light gives them life.”

“And while you are shining your light on them, you are susceptible, right?” I asked.

“Yes, the ghost can just come up to you and tag you while you are saving someone.”

“I see,” I said, a bite of crusty Italian bread in my mouth.  “The good thing about it, is that there is only one ghost and four of us, right?”

“Right,” Felix said.”

“Suppose two of us shine our flashlights at the same time on a 'dead' teammate, would they come back to life quicker?”

“Yes, they will,” said Kevin.