{CO} I'm Totally Not Judging

[Charity Croft]

Times like this, Charity hated being the one who was apparently kid friendly. That was very specific, by the by: "kid" friendly, not "teenager" friendly. Oh no, the teenagers still hated Charity, nearly en masse. She'd all but given up trying to reach them except for the fact that she almost couldn't give up trying to reach them for various reasons. This time, however, they'd all banded together to ask her if they could... if they could have a tug of war contest. Actually, there had been several suggestions, including dodge-ball, dodge-ball involving cupcakes, dodge-ball involving smaller students, and dodge-ball involving the school cat. But once Charity had gotten of dodge-ball, tug of war had come up. So had football, but they didn't know where one of those was, but there was definitely a rope available.

But no way did Charity want to end up with a group of children by herself. She might like them, but she didn't want to end up overwhelmed. Plus, she wasn't entirely sure she could actually legitimately judge this. She'd just declare everyone winners, and that wouldn't work for this bunch.

Thankfully, Charity knew a PE teacher: Ethan Parks. Charity had sent him a text, hoping he'd show up, and then waved him down as he got closer. "Ethan, come over here. They so want to talk to you about something."

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan had been looking forward to the cookout because who wouldn't? Free grilled food. But just as he was leaving his apartment, he received a text from Charity. Pocketing his phone, he picked up his pace to get to the school and to where Charity had texted she would be.

Waving back at her, he looked to her and then down to the kids.

"Why do I have a feeling that I'd regret what is about to be said?" He said with a grin to the kids and then up to Charity.

[Charity Croft]

"Well, obviously because you hate children and joy," Charity said brightly, bobbing her heads. A few of the kids, those who had Ethan in class or had met him before, were already protesting, and a few others were giggling. The general mood was definitely jovial and they were beaming up at Ethan (and at least one or two were probably discussing whether or not he happened to actually be a superhero, or Charity's boyfriend, or her brother, or possibly just the cutest coach to ever, like, be [because there were girls because of course girls did all this too]).

Eventually one of the braver ones stepped forward, explaining that they really wanted to play some games and they'd thought about dodgeball but after Miss Legrange had said no a bunch of times they finally decided that tug of war sounded more fun and they already had the rope but now they needed someone super fair to judge.

"And of course I thought of you," Charity explained, gesturing toward Ethan and nodding.

[Ethan Parks]

He was about to protest when the kids themselves spoke out in his defense. He didn't quite hear some of the other whispers but the ones he did, he couldn't help but smile at.

When the kid stepped out and explained what they wanted to do and then Charity said she thought of him, Ethan's smile softened before turning to the kids.

"That sounds good. So you guys better have an equal amount of girls and boys on each team." To which the kids groaned. "And no power usage." To which all them protested. "Hey, you wanted me to be fair!"

After much debating and grumbling, they did split into two teams of boys and girls begrudgingly but once they were in position, they looked determined to beat the other team.

He turned to look at Charity to start the game. "I'm just the judge, you can start."

[Charity Croft]

Charity smiled as Ethan began laying down the law. When a few of the kids looked her way, she held up her hands. "Hey, he's the judge, and you did say fair," she pointed out, backing up Ethan's protests as well. She kept her eyes on them while they shifted around, using her power to make sure that there wasn't anyone on either side who had a power that might affect things. They seemed pretty even, though each one did have a super strong person.

"They've each got a super strength," she said, turning to Ethan, "not controlled, right?" she looked at one then the other, both of whom were nodding. "So that probably cancels out. Uncontrolled powers are okay, but if you do it purposefully, I'll know," a few people groaned and when one put up a hand, Charity was on top of it. "That's my power. Ask Mr. Parks, I got his."

Charity nodded and gestured at him before turning. "Anyway, do we agree that the teams are fair? Because then I think we can start on a mutual count of three..." Charity looked at the teams, who were already scrambling to grab and trying to look somehow fair. They did have a lot of energy to burn up, after all.

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan grinned when Charity backed him up. Between the two of them, obviously they could round these kids up no problem. Especially when Charity started her whole schtick with the power thing that got the kids looking to him for assurance.

"She did. It's true. See, how come you can't just judge this? You're gonna be a lot fairer." He chuckled before turning back to the kids.

He saw the looks of determination on all the kids and he couldn't help but smile. It sucked a little that he never got the time to enjoy his childhood as much as these kids were. Shaking his head when one of the kids started sniffling and looking at him with big sad eyes, he placed a finger on his lips and smiled gently.

When the tugging started, he walked around to see whether the kids were doing fine and they were. They were actually all playing quite fair and were strong individuals already. He was actually surprised that some had such a natural strength to them that he could definitely hone in his class.

Walking over to Charity, he didn't take his eyes off them as he asked. "How are they doing?"

[Charity Croft]

Charity was about to answer when one of the kids piped up: "Because Miss Legrange would just say that we were all winners, and that would suck!" Charity then smiled and pointed at the kid in question, before looking over at Ethan and practically smirking. She'd figured that would happen anyway, but hearing that at least the kids thought the same way was fairly gratifying.

The kids got situated regardless. They got in line, they waited and looked and Charity waited and got the timing just right. They immediately got into it, and to Charity's surprise, got into something of a dead lock pretty quickly. Charity kept her attention focused, looking from one group to the other. Most of their powers actually wouldn't help, at least, not with the ones that had powers. Technically one or two were visiting siblings or something along those lines. The superstrong ones were in work, and Charity could sense something else, maybe something else passive?

"Pretty even," she said, nodding. "Does it look like someone's doing something? I'm picking up, like, a light power usage or something." Charity pursed her lips and looked. "Maybe someone's glowing or something? I'm getting a lot of interference..." because there were just mutants everywhere and the two really distracting super strong kids. Charity gave Ethan a quick look to suggest that he go check at least. If nothing else, his presence should stop some light cheating.

[Ethan Parks]

Ethan looked to the kid and then to Charity before setting his lips in a tight line, trying not to laugh. "Yes, because being winners totally suck." He nodded and started walking around.

They really were enthusiastic and him as a sort of maybe unbiased judge, he could see they were all playing fair.

At least until Charity pointed out there was someone not doing that. Ethan narrowed his eyes and scanned the lines. They were all avoiding eye contact with him. "I give you to the count of three. If you don't cut it, the rope gets it. Don't let the pretty rope suffer for your transgressions."

He held a finger up. "One."

[Charity Croft]

Charity actually let out a slight snort at Ethan's comments. She tried to cover it by turning away, but still couldn't quite help but crack a smile there. The logic of it all just nearly made her bust out laughing regardless. Unfortunately, the actual tug of war got her a good deal more serious, particularly as the whole powers thing got to it.

"Whoa, whoa, there, cowboy!" Charity said, waving her arms. "It could be someone totally doing it on accident or something. So why doesn't everyone just---" Charity paused as the nagging feeling suddenly stopped. She lowered her arms and then pointed. "Shaaaaaame," she said, before looking back to Ethan, "well, at least you didn't even have to get to two." She added a slight shrug before looking back. The game seemed to be going on again, and now one team seemed to be losing ground. It was a slow thing, but there was the inevitable creep, one that seemed to hint toward giving. Then, almost suddenly, a smaller guy in front suddenly lost his footing entirely. He managed to cling to the rope, but he'd gone from being an asset to a liability, and it was all over from there.

Or at least, Charity was fairly certain it was, she was going to leave it to Ethan for confirmation. And for having to deal with the inevitable shouts about how very unfair it was and how they of course had to do two out of three.