Overcompetitive

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Considering the chaos that was happening in front of you, those words seem like an appropriate reaction.

You’d think you would start off the week’s training with a quiet and well kept locker room, but no. In one corner is a garbage can on fire. In another corner is a blow up doll in your school’s jersey being double stuffed by two comically large dildos. Your walls were spray painted with childish insults. And for some fucking reason, there’s a goat chewing on your flag right in the smack dab middle of the room.

Sometimes you start to question how a simple prank war between two university flag football teams could ever escalate this far. But you know it’s a stupid question because you already know the answer.

“Checkmate bitches.” The TV in the locker room suddenly flashes on with the mastermind of this disaster.

Tsuki Fukutomi.

The prank war between your two universities has always been a long standing tradition. Pranks would range from water balloon attacks, paintball ambushes, missing equipment that turns back up after it was actually needed. Some harmless jokes and pranks just to get in each other’s heads. Neither team ever thought of doing anything borderline illegal.

That is until Tsuki came along.

You still remember it clearly, your freshman orientation. Your seniors had already briefed you and your batchmates about the “harmless” prank war, so you were expecting something light-hearted. Something you could laugh about later as a funny memory. 

That was foolish of you.

Tsuki and her team came out swinging. Faked a fire alarm after the team finished your first practice and while you were all in the shower. They had you all running out of the facilities with nothing but towels, all before they started pelting you with paint balloons filled with their team colors. You barely had any time to register what was happening, but one thing you did remember was her face. Tsuki’s face. Almost like she wanted you to know it was her.

You’ve never hated the color green more in your life after having to scrub it off of you.

Now, sensible people would try to negotiate a peace treaty. A ceasefire that could get everyone their bearings back and tone down the pranks to being harmless.

Not you, though.

Whatever playful rivalry your two schools had, that went down the drain. Now, you’re out for revenge.

The escalation happened throughout the season, but your team was clearly underprepared compared to them. You answered by slashing the tires on their bus, they fire back with extra spicy lunch packs snuck into your diet. It was a back and forth throughout the whole first season, but their team was more prepared and had you waving the white flag by the half of the year. 

The second season you came in more prepared, catching them off guard by replacing the confetti in their confetti canons with blue paint. Painted their students with enemy colors during their send-off, everyone was on their asses for months. It was another back and forth season of borderline illegal pranks but somehow your team came out on top at the end. 

Now tied at 1-1, this upcoming season will be the decider for your batch. Hell, you’ve almost completely forgotten about the games in the past two seasons. Both schools were stuck in mediocrity in the standings in flag football, but the real battlefield was the one without the fans. The prank war became your main priority, sports becoming almost a distraction. Sure you still took games seriously when it came to other schools, but this grudge had the games starting even before the clock started running. With the record on the line, you wanted– not the team or the school, you wanted to come out victorious. With Tsuki firing the first shot, you aim to fire back soon.

And that’s why you find yourself in the situation right now. Half naked with a horse mask on in the middle of a (thankfully) empty stadium. You don’t know how you ended up here, or how your plan went completely off the rails, but this is the hand you’ve been dealt with. Might as well try to make the most of what you have. Though you’re pretty happy that Tsuki’s plan seems to have gone awry as well.

Just a few meters from you, Tsuki was in a full shrek costume. Over that was a bright pink bikini for some fucking reason. To top it all off she had sparklers sticking out of the shrek head that she was wearing. Both of your plans seem to have been derailed, but you both share some relief knowing that the crowd had already gone home.

“Not what you had in mind?” Tsuki says as she closes the distance between the two of you, meeting you in the middle of the field. She takes off the shrek mask as she reaches you. 

“It’s not ideal.” You reply, taking off the horse mask and putting on a shirt. “But if it means that you don’t win. I’ll take it.”

“A pretty shallow victory if you ask me.” She jokes. “Are you okay with finishing this rubber match in a tie?”

“Can’t really do anything about it now, can we?” You relent as you start walking back towards the locker rooms. Tsuki follows you.

“I can’t believe it’s been three years since this all started.” She says from behind. 

“You mean it’s been three years since you pelted my team with green paint balloons while we were in nothing but towels?”

“You can never forget your first.” She says with a mischievous bunny smile.

“You’d think with the lengths we’ve gone through there was an actual prize at the end of all this or something.” You joke.

“Pride was on the line. That’s enough of a reason to go all out.”

“Again, you’d think we would have channeled that on the field. Through the game. Something more productive than… self-destructive”

“If I’m being honest…” Tsuki starts to confess. “... I kinda had more than pride on the line for this little rivalry.”

“What?”

“You know, I thought you’d get the message after almost three years of this little back and forth.”

“No… No fucking way. This has to be your fucking silver bullet or something. One last trump card in your sleeve.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Well forgive me for having a hard time believing, considering the borderline illegal acts. Hell, some of them were illegal, Tsuki! How the fuck was that supposed to let me know you liked me?”

“I assumed the dedication I showed to planning and executing them would have sent the message.” She says in a ho-hum tune, her legs swinging as she sits on a table at the sidelines. 

The sudden confession has you unable to remain still. You stand up and start pacing in front of Tsuki, you pass in front of her countless times that you’ve started to create a visible path on the field. 

“No!” After minutes of pacing that’s all you could think of.

“No, you don’t like me back or No, you still don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know? Both?”

“Well if you need help believing…” Tsuki kicks her leg out to stop you from pacing. She reaches out and grabs your shirt, forcing you to face her. “... maybe this might make things a bit clearer.”

With all her strength, Tsuki pulled you towards her. Your feet had a hard time keeping up with her force, making you stumble and lose your footing. She stops pulling you just as you get a few centimeters away from her face. Your hands land on the table, just outside her thighs in an attempt to stabilize your weight. She keeps your face close to hers, her warm breath crashing on to your skin, as does yours with hers. Your heart starts racing. Thumping hard against your rib cage, almost breaking out of your chest. For a few moments silence takes over the space between the two of you. She’s the first one to break it.

“You believe me now?”

“Tsuki, I…”

“Don’t. Because you’re right.”

“I— wait, what?”

It happens in an instant. Tsuki lets go of you and jumps to the side. Suddenly, her teammates jump out from the barricade of the audience. In their hands was a gigantic cooler of gatorade. You look up at them like that one willem dafoe meme, accepting your sad fate for falling for her trap. You get drenched with lemon-lime gatorade, with the cheers of Tsuki and her team filling the empty stadium. It felt like the cooler had no end, but eventually it ran out and was dropped in front of you. Tsuki comes back to you while you're standing there soaking wet.

“Congratulations on winning the game.” She says with a sly grin. “But it looks like we won the war.”

She suddenly closes the gap between you again, getting up on her toes to reach your ear.

“And you might have been right, but I wasn’t lying either.” Your eyes widen when she whispers that to you, and damn near pop out of your skull with her action after. She sneaks a quick kiss on your cheek before running back to her teammates. She looks over her shoulder towards you as she walks away with them, a cheeky smile plastered on her face. 
Once again, you’re left standing while soaking wet from another prank by Tsuki. A complete deja vu of the first night you met her. The added addition being the confusion she had planted in your brain. Despite all of the confusing feelings and emotions, you know one thing is for sure. The war isn’t over. Right now, it’s just begun.

Game fucking on.