Chapter 48: Psychological Warfare
(A few minutes earlier...)
"Now, you all have to understand one thing," Aiden remarked as the group of ten stood around in a circle.
"We’re never winning against those twerps head on. Whatever the heck it is they’re consuming, it’s clearly not the same as us," he continued, earning a chuckle from the team.
"Besides, with the number of football students in their grade on the starting team, I wouldn’t put it past them to line them all up against us," he pointed out to which they all nodded in agreement.
"But, where we can win, is by using psychological warfare," he raised a finger up, a guileful smile touching his lips as he spoke;
"All we’ll need to do, is pretty simple."
"Whatever call I make the first time, do the exact opposite. Whatever I make on the second, do just that. As for the third, ignore my call and pull as hard as you possibly can," he remarked, his smile ’innocent’ as he continued;
"By then, they’d have been so overly conscious, there’d be a split in their unity. From there, we can easily pull the rug from underneath them. That gives us the chance to secure our victory."
"Leading up to that though, please engage in as much trash talking as you can with them. Afterall, we do need to sell the illusion that we’re gearing up for a head-on battle." he beamed in conclusion.
No sooner was he done speaking, his buddies and the rest of the team looked at him in utter bewilderment, wondering how and when he’d managed to concoct such an underhandedly beautiful tactic.
More than that,
"Anyone ever tell you, you can be genuinely scary?" Kevin remarked rhetorically, his tone impressed to which Casper pointed at his buddy with a proud smile;
"You know, I don’t know when you became an evil mastermind, but I like it!"
"Thank you. Now, let’s go mop the floor with those runts." Aiden clasped his palms to which the group of seniors shamelessly nodded, devious smiles on their lips.
As a result, when the signal to begin landed with a loud ’FWEET!’, both sides pulled, their kicks digging into the grass with all the resistance it could manage.
In an instant, a deadlock had ensued, resulting in boisterous cheers from the crowd encircling them.
The juniors, especially, seemed to be going wild as they cheered on to hype their team.
"Don’t let these fraudsters win, boys--" one of the juniors amongst those pulling tried to call out, only for a familiar senior’s voice to cut him off with a command of his own;
"Everyone, release!"
No sooner had the opposing team heard that, they subconsciously furrowed their brows, their expression confused.
At the same time, their hold on the rope seemed to lessen, ever-so-slightly. Unfortunately for them, they figured out a second to late as their seniors yanked them forwards!
"Oi! That’s cheating!" one of the juniors called out as he pulled, clearly shocked at the shameless grin on the faces of his seniors.
"You, slimy, bastards!"
"That isn’t fair!"
Naturally, a good number of the surrounding students on the field comprising of juniors, looked just as shocked by the underhanded tactic.
At the same time, their gazes darted over to Coach Ramirez who simply waved it off, dismissing the complaints. More than that, the man was currently smiling, clearly amused.
Yet, it was in such stark contrast to the other chunk of students on field comprising of the seniors whom were cheering on shamelessly;
"You think this is a kiddies game, runts!?"
"Show them why we’re the seniors, boys!"
"This. Is. Sparta!!!"
As for the students from the other grades, they were simply laughing their asses off, thoroughly entertained by the back and forth between the upper grades.
By the time the junior team had managed to wrestle back some metric of control though, they were already close to the line.
Without thinking twice, Aiden called out yet again;
"Everyone, release briefly!"
This time, the juniors refused to be caught off guard.
Thankfully, more than half of them were smart enough to not fall for the trap and assume the orders weren’t true this time. As a result, they didn’t immediately yank the rope.
To their joy, their hunch turned out right, lest they would’ve all overpulled and fell on their butts, a result that would’ve ultimately cost them the win.
Yet, just before both sides of the field could get in a few words, Aiden’s voice rang out once more;
"Rear end, pull! Mid-section, hold! Front end, release!"
This time, the opposing team didn’t even know what to make of the youth’s orders.
Discombobulated beyond measure, with more than half of their team unprepared for such psychological warfare, their teamwork which was already teetering on the edges, fell off.
Some of them pulled, some released, and the rest found themselves in the middle of a sudden choice paralysis.
Without mercy, and with all the strength they could muster, the seniors capitalized on it and yanked them over their line!
Immediately, Coach Ramirez blew and gestured with a hand, his voice booming through the megaphone;
"Senior grade, wins!"
In an instant, the field erupted into cheers, the seniors cheering the loudest as they swarmed over to meet the team while the juniors--both on the team and off-team--began complaining.
Naturally, the seniors knew better than to let the opportunity slip by.
"That’s some bullshit win!" one of the guys in the junior team exasperatedly raised his arms.
"Cope harder!" Kevin replied with a shameless grin, his hands cupping over his mouth.
"Ref! I DEMAND A REMATCH!" another proceeded to walk up to Coach Ramirez.
"We’re not looking so washed to you now, are we?!" Casper on the other hand completely owned the shameless act, his cackle infectious as he trolled the junior in question.
"You have no honor, Aiden!" one of the juniors whom was set to be Silvercat’s next wide receiver, walked up to Aiden and fake spat in faux annoyance at his feet, drawing the attention of several students around.
"And you’re a slave to it, Jimmy." Aiden replied with an amused gloat, his response so fast his fellow peers practically turned into his personal hype men on the spot.
At the same time, his buddies took to trolling Jimmy whom was already trying his darndest not to break character.
"Pack up the bags, lil’ bruh." Larry patted the boy’s shoulders to which Benjamin added;
"Need a lift home? ’Cause that’s gonna leave a sick burn."
"Or we can call 911. Your choice, lil’ bruh." Clyde followed up, adjusting his glasses in almost mock condescension.
This time, Jimmy broke character, his laughter just as amused as it was impressed to which he then said to Aiden while extending a handshake;
"Good game."
"Good game." Aiden received it, his smile amiable and relaxed.
Following that, it didn’t take long before Coach Ramirez coordinated the sophomores and juniors to equally battle out their own tug-of-war, the sophomores coming out on top.
Eventually, the seniors and the sophomores were matched up, resulting in the senior grades’ victory and bagging them a total of twenty (20) points.
Just like that, their moral was boosted to high heavens. One that bled into the next four competition brackets, starting with the two-legged race.
Despite having never worked on it together prior to the race, Aiden and Clarissa had managed to snag the second place for their grade, resulting in a gain of fifteen (15) points.
Still, compared to everyone, they were well-ahead.
When the board games came around though, the gap between them and other grades only widened.
The main cause for this, was none other than Theo.
Given he hadn’t once engaged in the previous Spirit Weeks prior to joining the gang, not a single one of his juniors had seen him coming when he sat before the chess and the sudoku boards.
Clyde too was an absolute menace, he and his teammates destroying the competition in Codenames.
As for the last board game--scrabble--they unfortunately weren’t able to come out on top...
...not that it stopped the grade’s general ’blitzkrieg’.
The baton relay came and yet again, they took the first position.
The female bracket especially deserved a highlight, with Daisy, Clarissa, Lizzie and two other girls from the football team coming in clutch.
In total, they were currently seventy (70) points and well ahead of the competition.
With their juniors managing to secure fifty-five points (55) in total though, they were hoping their seniors--whom they’d dare not even call washed anymore--would somehow lose to the teachers in the teacher Vs student dodgeball competition.
Unfortunately for them, the seniors already had a personal vendetta against all their teachers for piling tests upon tests on their head during Spirit Week.
As a result, it really didn’t take long before there was one teacher left on the other side of the field.
As ’luck’ would have it, it just so happened to Mr. Lazlow. The teacher whom was most infamous for his tests and pop quizzes.
"You know, this is supposed to be a fun exchange," the mathematics teacher let out a resigned sigh, knowing fully well the youths had purposely singled him out.
Without responding, Aiden, much like the rest of his teammates grinned in devious vindication.
Then, upon getting the order from Coach Ramirez, Mr. Lazlow didn’t even bother to run to pick up the balls.
Instead, he watched with yet again another sigh as his students assaulted him with a barrage of gator balls, every single throw coming with the force of every pent-up angst they could muster.
At the very same time...
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[Quest Completed!]
⸢Exclusive Quests
› Beat the allegations.
└ Take your class to victory! – [1 LP Awarded!]
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Despite this, despite Coach Ramirez already declaring their victory, Aiden and his mates continued to pelt the man without restraint.
Afterall, which other time would they legally be allowed to assault their Mathematics and Calculus teacher if not in a dodgeball match.