When we got to the school, my sisters and I jumped out and DadGuy reluctantly followed. My sisters shimmied up the drainpipes, while DadGuy's jaw became slack.
"You really do this?"
"Yeah. It's fun. Come on!" and up I went
He soon followed. Once we were all on the roof, we met in a huddle to go over the rules.
"Okay, don't fall. Don't yell. If you see the cops, come back and tell us. If you fall off, you're it.... Oh, and DadGuy? Newbies are always it."
The girls and I scattered. It took DadGuy a second to realize that he was the tagger.
At this point, I didn't know if he thought I was crazy or not. I didn't care much. I was playing a game, and I play to win.
DadGuy started to chase after me, and while he had speed, I had the advantage of knowing the layout of the roofs.
He was closing in on me, and I was booking it. I was running at full speed, knowing there was no way he would follow me once I jumped.
Now, I should tell you, that back in the day, I was a pretty agile gal. I was very active, and I was pretty fearless. This particular "jump" was more of a, well, swing-type action. (This is the home court advantage I was talking about.) I knew that from building A to building B was too far to jump, but there was a TREE in the middle. And if you could make it from Building A to the tree, then you could swing to the drainpipe of Building B and never touch the ground once....
What I didn't see, is that the tree had been trimmed. And the branch I was jumping to, was gone. Of course, I realized this mid-air.
I hit the pavement hard and rolled my ankle. DadGuy leaned over the edge and started laughing hysterically.
My sisters ran over, saw that I was okay, and shouted "You're it!"
Which was fine. My ankle wasn't hurt. But my ego? shattered.
