• tab Over my ”Spring Break” I went to my grandfather's house in Virginia. At the time I thought that I would be missing a lot because I had Volleyball practice everyday and a match on the eighth. Not only that but I had this paper and five AP Physics B chapters to read and various problems to finish. However, this trip was rather entertaining despite my initial worries.
    tab The person I choose to write about was a girl I met at the Hogback Mountain paintball fields. My brother and I had chosen to “walk-on” on Saturday. We put on our gear and then I got my first glimpse of the girl. She was a blond and she had her own gear, full camouflage jumpsuit and a customized DP Fusion marker. She was with her family and a group of friends that I considered way to loud and obnoxious to even pay attention to. She mostly stayed close to her family instead of goofing around with her friends. That tendency was the first thing that caught my attention, the second was the almost obsessive attention she gave to her gun. She fiddled with it constantly; adjusting tank pressure, making sure she had a belt full of canisters in case she ran out of paint in her hopper, flipping the lid on the hopper, I it really drew my eye.
    tab As the officials called the walk-ons to go up the hill to the first field we would play on, the girl looked over and saw me looking at her. She made a rather rude gesture without her parents seeing and then made a motion like slitting a throat. My brother who watched the exchange made a rude comment about me getting hurt and how I wouldn't last the round. I replied that it was going to be an interesting day and that I didn't really care one way or the other.
    tab The first field we played on was a rather shoddily built castle-like simulation. It consisted of two “castles” on each side and various towers in the center. My brother and I were placed on the team with the girl and her family and friends. We all marched out to the field and took up our respective positions. The start of the round saw my brother and I on the left side of the field picking off anyone who stuck their limbs or bodies too far into our kill zone. The girl and her family were advancing as a unit down the middle. I watched them for a bit and noticed a group ready to ambush them. I pointed them out to my brother and we opened fire. We blasted them full of paint, but, unfortunately, I hit the girl in the head a few times. My brother turned and laughed at me then just pointed at me. Of course, the girl saw, but before she could do anything the official declared her “painted” and she had to exit the field. The rest of the round I just let my brother snipe anyone who approached our position and thought about my mortality and my extremely bad luck.
    tab When my brother, the girl's family, and I got back from the first round the girl was waiting. She started yelling at me about friendly fire and to check before I shoot and that she would shoot me the next time it happened. My brother stood next to me laughing so hard that he started crying and the girl's family had confused expressions on their faces. They hadn't seen me shoot her, but they thought it was insanely funny and joined my brother in laughter. The girl's friends just gave me dirty looks. Throughout the tirade I examined her hair because I had turned to an interesting shade of blue-green – thanks to the paint that I had hit her with. When she finished, I asked politely if she liked her hair dye and walked back to my gear to refill my empty hopper and two empty canisters.
    tab She threw her bag at me after I turned back and it smacked my in the face. However, the contents of the bag spilled out and I got an interesting glimpse of bright pink UGGs before she picked it up and re-stuffed her bag. My brother burst into laughter and the girl's friends laughed at me. The girl's family gave me a sympathetic look and then the officials came and took us to the second field. The field was on a slope and the only cover available were low woodpiles with holes so we could shoot through them. We started at the bottom of the hill, rather unluckily considering it obstructed our line of sight. The girl's mother took cover near me and she said that she was sorry for her daughter's behavior and I replied that it was understandable. My brother was taking cover with the girl and her friends were, not coincidentally, arranged around my position.
    tab The round began and I immediately sprinted up to a position well ahead of the girl. My brother automatically went to the opposite side of the field and set up an intersecting line of fire. From our respective positions we were able to pick off five or six of the twenty man opposing team. Then, out of the blue, the girl's friends opened fire at my position and covered me in paint. The officials saw them and disqualified the lot of them for the duration of the round. We were down to about a third of our original strength and the opposing team were down to about half strength. Before I brought my attention back to the round I flicked a rude gesture at the girl. I took out two more people before someone painted my shoulder and I exited the field.
    tab I watched the rest of the round from the waiting area. The enemy team swept down he hill and before my team could fire any well placed shots, eliminated our team. As the girl walked back into the waiting area I just shook my head at her and sighed; I didn't yell at her, didn't threaten her with retribution even though she cost us the match. Her family looked at me like I was a time bomb ready to go off and her friends were still giving me dirty looks. The girl just sat on the bench near the edge of the waiting area and fiddled with her gun. My brother walked over to me and started ranting about how many kills he had and what elite skills he possessed.
    tab The next and final round I would play that day was particularly memorable. My brother had the rare foresight to buy about thirty paint grenades. We split them between the two of us and trudged onto the field again. This time we started on the top of the slope and I took full advantage of the slope. I took the opportunity to beam grenades at the enemy team and managed to get a group of four hiding behind a wide woodpile. I got a bit silly and uncapped four grenades at a time and tossed them all down the hill. Meanwhile, the girl had been forced to make a series of sprints to cover because she kept getting outmaneuvered. She eventually got to my woodpile and started firing. We made a reasonable efficient team, every time I forced someone out of cover she would pick them off.
    tab My brother ran over to our cover and stole my grenades and disappeared. I switched to my gun and fired a bit. Finally, the officials called “game over” with our team as the victors. My brother walked over and returned my bag of grenades and ran; it blew up and covered me and the girl in paint. I walked over to him and shot him in the face mask just to make a point. After that round, we came down the hill and we had some dinner. I never got the girl's name and neither of us apologized to each other. I wouldn't be surprised if she was still angry with my brother and I.