To the Game

By the time he got out of the shower, people had begun to trickle back in. Aunt Hanna and the kids had gotten back from their shopping, and the quartet had gotten started making dinner, a process that first Matt and then Clair (after she took a quick de-horsing shower) got roped into. The twins wouldn't be coming home; they were staying at the school for the game. By the time Peter and Sarah got back from work, and Brian from his friend's house, dinner was just about ready, and the whole family got to eating.

Matt of course went out of his way not to mention what he had been doing that day, making vague motions about relaxing, before allowing his mom to take over the conversation, as she usually did, with her grousing about work. As 6 rolled around, the family got ready to head out to the football game; the babysitter arrived to watch the kids, who whined that they wanted to go but were told in no uncertain terms that they had a curfew to keep even if they were in a different country.

Everyone piled into a couple cars and headed over to the school stadium, a multi-purpose indoor affair that could be reconfigured for just about any sport. They arrived a bit early, and Brian found himself roped into helping to move around the reconfigurable bleachers and fencing. Matt and Clair also pitched in, leaving the adults to talk. Mary was also helping set things set up; for all her earlier griping, she seemed to be having a moderately good time, although that could have just been from getting to yell orders at everyone, as she was nominally in charge of set up as the first alternate cheerleader. Matt and Clair were tasked with pulling out several portable mattresses; ostensibly a precaution against the game running late, but really for when people got drunk. The school turned a blind eye to the drinking as long as it didn't get out of hand, since everybody at the game was at least a high school student. Everyone had been warned not to break out the drinks until later, though, as a local news station was covering the game for the first half as a public interest story.

At last, everything was set up, and the crowds had filed in. The two teams hustled out onto the field to cheers. The Mamaroneck Tigers' mascot, the orange and black Taby, roused the visiting crowd in her skintight Tiger suit with face paint, while the Rye Rhino's mascot, Chumbly, did his usual comedic overacting in a grey leotard and an obviously cheap and grossly oversized costume rhino head, drawing both cheers and laughter from the home crowd. The two teams charged out onto the field, followed by their coaching staff and cheerleaders.