A Get To Know You Kind of Game

We're standing in a gaggle off to one side waiting while the Kims explain the game we’re about to participate in. This is an hour after Blake arrived and we've gone through all the basic introduction activities and the welcome speech as well. We know each others names and Two Fun Facts About UsTM! and now we're ready to move on to trust exercises.

Or at least the Kims trust that we are.

The game is this. Someone stands alone in the field and the Kims blindfold them. Once blindfolded they are left there and the Kims blow a whistle. Someone volunteers, stepping forward and stepping up behind them. The Kims blow a whistle a second time and the person falls, being caught by the volunteer who then takes their place next under the blindfold.

Everyone has to catch. Everyone has to be caught. Volunteering is mandatory, so it isn’t volunteering at all.

A girl named Molly was chosen, or rather was voluntold first. When she had the blindfold on and the whistle sounded a boy who I think was named Ryan stepped up to catch her. This happened the last time as well and it all played out the same too.

She gasps as she falls and he catches her and then she tries to shift but she's off balance. She's about to slip again, but his grip tightens and he holds her in his arms and helps her to her feet and slips the blindfold off her face. There is an instant where they are looking eye to eye before she blushes, but everyone knows what they've seen.

I have a vague memory, one that happened in a different life. I'm sitting in my apartment thumbing through my alumni magazine and I'm drawn to stop for some reason on an article about couples who found love during their time at Phineas College. These two are the central feature of the article, together from today onwards and now happily married. Or will be happily married. Either way.

Someone catches Ryan and someone else catches them. Three or four people go and then Rachel steps up at the whistle and there is tension as people prepare to move. Every last guy is about to move.

When the whistle sounds they rush forward and I remember how this happened before. I remember Blake getting there first and me second. A little moment where his eyebrows raised just enough that I took note of it and only I noticed the unspoken intimidation and then I skulked back with my tail between my legs.

The memory gives me pause and makes me falter. I don't react quickly enough but to my shock neither does Blake.

It is Eddie instead who gets their first. A giggle from girl-Kim as she reads the obvious situation and sees the boys all slinking away and a half question from the blindfolded Rachel before the whistle sounds again and she falls. She falls into Eddies arms who stumbles but holds her for an instant before she gets up and turns, slipping off the blindfold and thanking him politely before pressing it into his hands and stepping away.

Now it’s his turn. He looks over the group, no doubt expecting the worst for what is going to happen next. He seems to almost sigh as he pulls his blindfold over his eyes and gives a half shake of his head before he turns and the whistle sounds again.

Eddie, at this point, has alienated pretty much everyone in the group. The guys are all pissed that they didn't get to catch Rachel and the girls aren't impressed by how quickly everyone rushed to rescue the most beautiful girl in the group.

None of us have any attachment to each other and none of us have any reason to be there to catch him, none of us but me that is.

When the whistle sounds I step forward immediately. I don't want there to be any delay and I don't want that lingering moment like there was the last time. I step up behind him, noting for the first time that this new body is substantially shorter than my old one and thus much shorter than him and I'm given one instant to second guess before the whistle blows and Eddie comes crashing down.

It's the first physical thing that I've done in this body and yet I find that it responds so well to me. I don't have to think, I just move as my arms reach out and my hands find him and stop him. I take a step back to brace myself and it's like I've always been able to do it and I even react with a little flourish, giving him a little hop as I set him back on his feet.

I'm smiling when he pulls the blindfold off. But by the time Eddie walks away he's scowling all over again.

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