Anniversary Art Challenge: Picture #2 - The Avengers of Poseidon

To celebrate our anniversary, my amazing artist husband, Phil, decided that he would do a 19-day art challenge, drawing one new picture every day for 19 days. And I thought it sounded like fun, so I jumped right on the band wagon and declared that I would write a silly, one-page story to go with each picture he creates during this challenge. I didn't post the first picture / story on my blog yesterday, because he drew a picture that perfectly fits with a picture book manuscript I'm already working on ... and I'm not sure if I want to share that story online yet. But here's a link to the adorable illustration. (Of course, because I have to wait for him to finish each day's picture, I am one day behind him. He's drawing picture number three today as I write story number two.)

Picture #2: The Avengers of Poseidon was inspired by a memory of my freshman year in college. Everyone in my dorm was supposed to go play capture the flag in the park, as a way to get to know each other and stuff ... So my friends, Will, Seth, Becca and I decided to form a third team. Armed with Super Soakers, we called ourselves The Avengers of Poseidon and ambushed everyone who tried to take the game too seriously. We made many enemies, but we also managed to convert several people to our side, and our rogue team tripled in size by the time the next capture the flag game happened. :)

I love this picture!! And here's my silly story to go with it. (I tried to capture the emotions of the real memory while making the events in my story fully my own creation... though I did steal names from actual participants!)

Adam crouched in the bushes behind Mr. Schaeffer’s tool shed. The red team’s flag flapped in the breeze on the other side of the garden, and Sheila was the only guard on watch. Piece of cake. He’d have that flag back to the blue team’s base before anyone even realized it was missing.
 
Slipping silently between the tall shrubs, Adam inched closer. He stopped at the edge of the bushes to wait for just the right moment. The three feet of open field between him and the flag might be tricky, but if he timed it right, Sheila wouldn’t even know he was there. He watched as she paced back and forth in front of the flag, counting the seconds each time she turned to survey the opposite side of the garden.
 
Ten seconds to sprint out, grab the flag and get back to the cover of the tool shed. No problem.
 
Adam took a deep breath and got set for the sprint of a lifetime. As soon as Sheila’s back was turned, he sprang forward, covering half the distance to the flag in one giant leap. Three more steps and his fingers closed around the bright, red silk.
 
And splosh! A stream of icy-cold water hit him right between the shoulder blades. He dropped the flag and turned to see Becca, Seth and Will, all with super-soakers pointed directly at him.
 
“Hey! No weapons allowed,” he said. “If you don’t tag me yourself, it doesn’t count.”
 
Becca smirked and grabbed the red flag, winding it around the blue one she already held. “Your rules mean nothing to us, mortal,” she proclaimed, and blasted Adam in the face with her super-soaker.
 
“What? Hey, who are you?” Sheila demanded. “Give us back our flags.”
 
“We are the Avengers of Poseidon!” Will declared, soaking Sheila with the entire contents of his water gun. “And we just kicked both of your butts.”