it's the luck of the throw

M'eyep aveti lem'elh
-- fling me upwards, Hebrew, similar to Ascendio
regila/regiyot-- typical, used in this instant as the Hebrew slang word for Muggles, which is gevzeym.
Shni/shniyot--  other, second, secondary, used in this case as Hebrew slang word for magical

The gaga pit was octagonal, twenty feet on a diagonal, with dingy wooden barriers three and half feet high. The ground was dirt and dust. The door in the barrier opened easily, and closed with a metal latch. Spoiling the effect of humanity, however, was a canvas sheet spread tight, fifteen feet in the air, with nothing holding it but magic.

Ayelet took a breath, focusing on the court. It was Maccabeah, and it was gaga time, the sport everyone came out, the one friendships ended. The rules were similar to what she'd grown up playing: A player can hit the ball with their hands, but picking up the ball and throwing it at a player is not allowed. Here, only open hand hits were allowed to prevent striking injury to small children and also to enable greater control of the ball, keeping it low and in bounds.
If the ball touched a player anywhere on or below the knee. If a player hit themself with the ball, accidentally or otherwise, that player was eliminated.
There were spells circling the pit to make sure the ball could not escape. Wall jumping-- using hands to push yourself up on the wall was not technically allowed. There was no double-touching until the last three players. Catching was illegal. A player must completely leave the pit to show elimination, and a player must start the game with one of their feet touching the wall of the pit. One player had to throw the ball in, have it bounce thrice,  all would chant "Ga-Ga-Ga". If a player removed their  foot off the wall before the chant, they were eliminated.

But then, it was changed. The walls grew hot if a player lingered on them, the balls were spelled to target people at random for a throw, players could launch themselves upwards to avoid the ball, the tarp could raise five feet or lower ten, the pit would shrink or grow to accommodate players in game, and parts of the walls would have their boards swing out at random times.

Shiraz gave a grin. Leah had painted her face with war stripes. Samantha had temporarily cut her hair. Yael had worn camouflage that likely would not be useful at all. These were her girls-- as the oldest girls in the school on the Blue Haifa team, gaga was the last time they could shine. Bar, Ayelet's real competitor, went to summer camp in the United States, where they played it at least once a week. But Bar was no longer a camper there and had became a counselor, so it was assumed her gaga skills would not be as good. Ayelet had grown up playing it-- most people had, really, but none of them knew it the shni way as well as she did.

Little Leah (Katz, not Leah Azoulay, who had no relation), the youngest in the school, looked petrified. Ayelet bared her teeth in a smile. Little Leah (who could not be called Katz, because there was another non-related Katz a year above her and an older sibling who had been in Yeshiva the year before) carried the ball to the middle of the pit. She tossed it up.

"Ga," the cry went out on the first bounce. "Ga," on the second, from seventy throats. Julia Goldburg moved before the third bounce and was eliminated. "GA!"

The ball was in play and dust was thick in the air with the movements of the ball. With a silent M'eyep aveti lem'elh, Ayelet threw herself into the air to try to get a better view. They'd strategized-- Rachel Stienberg and Sarah Cardozo, if they were in the game by the time White Tel Aviv shrunk to twenty players, they'd Black Mamba the ball. Their replacements were carefully picked, and Ayelet knew, with the confidence of a Maccabeah general, that the chain would be ignored. That was fine-- They'd weed through the weaker member of their teams until the core team faced the depleted White team. She came back hard, narrowly missing Espadero's hand as the Tel Aviv girl scooped the ball to de Rothschild Frères (Haifa) who did a neat spin, shoved the ball back and launched herself up to land heavily five feet away. 

Ayelet didn't have time for envy for Frères's  (as she liked to be called, saying that if any regilim antisemetics knew of a magical Rothschild, the conspiracy theories would get so much worse, because she would never be able to be proved her parents were as well, and if one Rothschild was shni, then everyone would assume they all were) acrobatics. The ball-- Banished into her chest threw her backwards, and the girl who'd spelled it was eliminated. She picked herself up, spitting out dirt. Carabajal had the ball, she thought, she struck out Samantha who gave a muttered swear as she Banished the ball back, slamming Carabajal in the head. Ayelet calculated the cost-- one hundred points, likely, and detention, but they still had a chance of winning, especially as Carabajal matched Shiraz in strength.

Girls were being eliminated quickly, helped by the walls winging out and the canvas suddenly catching their heads as they went up to avoid the ball. One of the first years-- Rachel Laguna, she thought-- was escorted out in tears-- the wall had burned her because she'd clung to it too long.

Ayelet hardened her heart. This was Maccabeah-- you did your part, or dragged the team down.  Laguna hadn't done her part. Ayelet sprinted behind Sarah Cordozo, letting the other girl take the hit and snatching the ball. She focused for a bright, blinding second, aimed, and hurled the ball towards Bar-- and luck of all lucks, it hit. Ayelet was about to cheer when Esperado flung her hands out and the ball sped into her calf. 

Ayelet was out, but her team would win-- of that, she was sure.