“Who will be the champion?” James questioned. James was my friend Nick’s older brother, who had six years on us. The challenge was simple, the first person to climb across the playground without touching the ground won. It was between Nick and I, and I knew I had to be the champion. It was sunny and warm out, and we were enjoying the spring weather at Nick’s house.

“It’s mine. Easy,” my cocky friend Nick said.

“No chance,” I replied. I had won two out of the three other challenges so far and I was confident that I could pull off another win and take the championship. If I won, then I would have three wins and there would be no way for Nick to come back, because we were playing best out of five. Our game-maker, James, was a junior in high school, so we had to listen to what he told us to do, it was just natural.

“Ok then Nick, put your money where your mouth is. Three, two, one, go!” James yelled from the deck as I wrestled Nick to get to the playground first. I ran to the ladder and started climbing, but I lost footing and Nick passed me. I knew that it was over from there. He had positioning on me and I couldn’t get past his big body. The challenge was over, and the series was tied two to two.

“Good try scrub. Maybe next time you can win,” Nick jeered at me.

“Yeah whatever. We’re still tied and I have this championship under my belt. Don’t worry, it’s already over, you just don’t know it yet,” I was taking shots at him, and that’s what made it all entertaining for our gamekeeper.

“Ok, stop with all the talk and let’s see who has what it takes to be the champion,” James told us. “The next challenge is the tie-breaker, and it looks easy, but its not.” I looked quizzically at Nick and wondered what we would have to do next. “The first one to climb to the top of the shed wins. Simple,” James beckoned us forward towards the edge of the shed.

Easy enough I thought to myself. It wasn’t, and it wasn’t supposed to be, and that was the fatal flaw, there was no planning, and I thought I was better than I really was.

“Ok Nick watch out, I’m going first” I told Nick as I walked over to the shed and weighed out the options in my mind. A rusty pole sat to the right against a tree, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Then, in the glorious rays of sunshine a cement cinder block caught my eye, my ticket to the top, to be favored by a junior, and to be called the champion.

I walked over to the cinder block and I placed it under the edge of the roof. “Be careful,” my friend said to me as I hopped on the cinder block.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. And this championship is mine by the way,” I told him as I took a big hop off the cinder block and tried to pull myself onto the roof. I could feel every muscle in my back and arms straining to pull up my body, but I couldn’t do it, and I let go.

I dropped to the floor and I turned around to face my ghostly pale friend and his brother. “What’s wrong?” I asked. They were looking past me with horror on their faces, and I turned around wondering if they saw a bear. I then felt a little prick in my leg, and I looked back at my deathly pale and barely breathing friends, who were still staring at me.

Just then, when I was bout to give up and take a step forward towards my friends, Nick looked down and pointed directly at my left leg. “Holy sh-” he uttered as I looked down and saw my entire leg covered in blood.

Just then the worst pain I had ever felt in my entire life seared up my leg as I hobbled around helplessly about to fall on the ground. My friends ran over and took me by the shoulders and carried me to the deck as I was screaming because of the horrible pain. I looked down at my leg again just to see it, and all I could see was red from the middle of my calf all the way down to my sock. This was not a light wound, and it wasn’t going to heal quickly.

They laid me down on the deck as I saw James rush inside to get the phone and call 911, and just then I laid my head back on the deck and braced for whatever else was going to come.