It's all about possession...

Dear Sean,
so we've been rockin the 4 square every summer for some time now, but just got back into it this summer. There's been a hot debat on a specific rule and we'd like some clarification. so here's teh court set up: looking birds eye view, square one is on the north west quadrant, square 2 is below that in the sw quadrant, square 3 in se and square 4 ne. If a person in square one taps teh ball into square 4, but the ball only bounces once in that square and then lands in square 3, does the person in square 4 have to hit it? or can they just let it bounce from their square (b/c it only bounced once) and let it just freely bounce into square 3 for the player in square 3 to then need to return it? hope that makees some sense. - Dr. Hamburger, 7/27/2009

Dude, if it touches your square then you must hit it. Seriously.

In fact, according to our rules NO ONE can touch the ball once it has hit your square until you hit it first. This makes it clear who is in possession of the ball, and who should be out if there is an error. That is about the clearest answer I can give you. Let us know how this shakes down with your friends.