Twenty
"Ready," said the referee. "Fight."
The Lillians grabbed, threw, and knocked down Betty girls to help their teammate take the ball to the first goal of the game.
"Nice one, Lily," said Betty. "It will make your anguish more severe when I take away your freedom. We have tissues standing by."
"Can you say that again?" said Lily. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of me not caring." A Betty girl next took the ball to the Lillian goal, where stood their two shortest players.
"I got it, I got it," said Brian, off whom the ball then bounced into the goal.
"I seem to have more players to take the ball to your goal, Lily," said Betty. "I guess you'll marry my brother wearing a funny hat after all."
"They say modern medicine can bring people like you back to Earth," said Lily. "Progress means you don't have to live in orbit anymore."
"Hubert, do you have it?" said Brian in regard to the Betty girl taking him the ball. "Do you have it? Hubert, do you have it?" The Betty girl bounced the ball again off Brian into the goal. So the game went, until the Lillians tied the Betties 52 to 52. The Betties had enough time to try one more goal.
"Oh no, not again," said Brian. "What do I do? Somebody do something." In an upset of expert timing, Brian blocked the last kick of the game.
"Your Majesty," said Lily. "As you saw, our strategy was to increase the pace of the game to make opportunities for us to score. But to also encourage in Betty's team the happy habit of scoring from the same weakness. From your boy. Then, to her unhappiness, Brian closed off our weakness in the final moments of the game to secure our victory — oh, thank you, Sir Brian."
"...I can taste my liver," said Brian. "It's tantalizing..."
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21