Chapter 69: Playing Paper Football

"Ok Becca, that end up getting pretty heavy. Let's play a few games to bring our spirits up."

I had prepared a few games to play, since I knew we were going to be bored sitting in a carriage all day with nothing to do. I went back to my seat and pulled out the table again. I also grabbed a piece of paper I had put in my pocket earlier to play our first game.

Becca was still in a sad mood, but she was looking at me fold the paper with curious eyes. For the first game, I decided to pick a game I was pretty sure did not exist in this world. I wanted Becca to try something completely new. This game was also one of my favorites when I was a young kid. I could play it for hours on end without getting tired of it.

After I finished folding the paper into a neat triangle, I looked out at Becca to explain the rules.

"This game is called paper football. Football itself was a different sport in my world, but you don't need to know about it to play this game. In this game, we use this paper football to score points. To score points, we each take turns to try to push the paper football close enough to the other edge of the table to have a piece of it going past the edge without completely falling off the table. If you can do that, you get a 6 point touchdown. Then, you will get a chance for a extra point field goal. For a field goal, the person who didn't score will create the goal by putting both fingers in an L-shape and connecting them at the thumbs. Then, the person who scored will stand the paper football up on its point and try to flick the football so it flies through the goal. If they can, then they get an extra point. The extra points will be important because if we have the same number of touchdowns, but you missed one of extra point and I made all mine, then I will still win."

Becca looked pretty confused by my long worded explanation. She muttered, "touchdown? Field goal? It's weird that one is worth 6 whole points and the other is worth only a single point…"

"It is a little weird in this type of game, but it is because it is based off the original game of football in my world. Me and my friends in the past would sometimes only shoot field goals for a game or two because it was the most fun part. But let's just play it with the original rules for now so you can get the hang of it. Once we start, I'll explain if you make any mistakes. Once you get going, the rules are pretty simple, so I'm sure you will pick it up quickly. I'll start by trying to push the paper football to your edge without dropping it."

I quickly took the paper football that was on my side of the table and pushed it towards the other edge. I didn't try to aim it much and purposefully put a little less force, so it would definitely not fall of the table. I wanted Becca to get a few tries pushing the paper before I got too serious. The paper football ended up only 75% of the table width, so it was not really close to scoring.

"Ok, I missed. Now it's your turn to push the paper football and try to score."

Becca put her hand on the paper football and slowly tried to gauge how much strength she should put into it. She closed one eye as she tried her best to aim. I couldn't help, but smile at how serious she was. She was definitely a competitive person. After a couple more readjustments, she finally pushed the paper. She ended up putting too much power on it and the paper football landed on my lap.

"Haha, you don't know your own strength."

Becca pouted at me. "I'm just getting the feel for it. Give me a few more tries and then I'll be locked in."

"Ok, I guess I need to match your seriousness."

Since Becca was being competitive, it only felt right to match her energy. I put the paper football back on the table and flipped it with my finger. The paper football ended up stopping with one tip just barely past the edge of the table. Becca had to turned to look for the best angle and she excitedly called out, "you got it! You did that so effortlessly!"

When I played this game as a kid, I would always flick the paper football instead of pushing it because I thought it was more fun. I used to be able to score pretty regularly back in the day, but now I'm very rusty. I just got lucky to make the first one.

I leaned over the table to grab the football. "Alright Becca, make the goal and let's see if I can score the extra point.

"Ok."

Becca made the goal and I quickly flicked the paper football. It sailed through the sky, went through the goal, and then hit Becca's stomach. Getting hit by a paper football would feel like nothing, so Becca wasn't effected at all.

"Wow, it does look like fun to flick the paper through the air and try to aim it! I need to score my first touchdown quick, so I can give it a try!"

After 5 more turns of us trying to score a touchdown, Becca finally scored her first one.

She clapped her hands with a smile, "Alright!"

I handed her the football and made the goal for her.

"Ok, let's see your field goal making skills."

She started to line up the football and sticked her tongue to the side as she focused. As I was busy day dreaming about how adorable she was, the paper football came flying at me and the point ended up hitting my square in the forehead.