"Submit your assignment tomorrow. Class dismissed." 

As soon as Miss Wilson declared the six words out, the students started thrashing their notebooks inside their duffle bags ready to head home, whispering noises echoed in the background. 

Sitting on the last bench, Cole quickly pulled out his mobile phone to check in his notification. 

Today was the day...it was the day he had been anticipating for so long. His first live streaming match.

"You ready, man?" 

Cole's eyes moved up from his mobile screen to look at the person, standing in front of him. It was his squad buddy, Vincent. They call him, Vinny or Vin.

"Yeah. They still have not sent any notification yet. " Cole replied.

This match was important not because it was Cole's and his squad's first live streaming match but the winner in this match would earn the bet of a solid dollar of five hundred in the end.

A total of hundred squads were participating in it, each squad having four members which made the total count to be actually a whooping four hundred players of which Cole and his buddy would have to kill all three hundred and ninety-six members to win the match. 

"They will send in a while. " Vin said, patting Cole's shoulder. 

Cole nodded his head, training his eyes at Vin. 

"Till then we go home, get fresh, and sit in front of our personal computer. " Vin resumed the talk.

Cole stood up, picking his black colored school bag, and then both the friends headed outside of the class.

"Did you know that Kosoo is playing too?" Vin asked. 

Cole shook his head positive. A game without Kosoo and his team were hard to come by. But what they did not understand was even after losing all the matches, Kosoo and his team always showed up in every match only to lose again. 

Their team was known by the name Bhokra Patha (BP) with Kosoo being the head, the other three were Phyko Beast, Colonel Sikara, and Koti. Those were all playing names but not the real name.

Cole and his team went by the name of Intrepid. Cole being the head, Vin the second in command, Chris and Matty completed their team. 

What more exciting about this thing was that in real-life Chris and Matty never met with Cole or Vin. They belonged from a different country or different state. Only Vin and Cole went to the same school and lived in the same neighborhood. They came to know Chris and Matty through the game.

On reaching home, Cole closed the door behind him in a thud sound. He cursed under his breath for making the sound. Now his irritating mother would come to know that he is already home.

"Cole is that you?" 

Cole sighed and headed towards the living room to say hi to his mother. He was an anti-social being by now everyone had come to know about it. While his father was a renowned publicist who divorced his mother when he was still inside his mother's womb. He did not know what happened but everything changed since then.

He just saw his father on the television and never met him in real life. He just knew that they receive a monthly allowance from his father. If not for that he was aware of the fact that his mother could never afford him to admit to a private school with her waitressing job's salary. 

"Well come over here and say hi to your old mother." 

"Oh, you are here." 

His mother turned to see him standing by the edge of the door, silent. She let out the smoke from smoking the cigarette, sitting on their overused sofa, dressed in her pink and white waitress uniform.

"I have an evening shift. " she huffed. 

"Heat the casserole from yesternight for dinner. I will be late." 

With that his mother stood up, putting on the long black coat over her petite frame. She dropped the cigarette on the floor, placed a brief kiss on Cole's forehead before going out. 

Cole bent down to pick up the cigar to dump it inside the dustbin in the kitchen. By now it was not a surprise to him why his mother worked late in the nights. It was because she resorted to prostitution to keep the household going. 

The allowance his father sent every month was not enough to run the house. His mother used it only to pay his school fees. The water bill, electricity bill, gas bill, every other thing, his mother had to pay for it.

His father was a bastard who married his mother solely out of infatuation, he realized that because his mother was really beautiful even to this date. So winning this match was important so that he could stop his mother from selling her body every damn night.

He took out the casserole from last night inside of the fridge and put it inside the oven, starting it. Just then his phone beeped. He immediately pulled it out of his pants pocket and swiped it open. 

*GAME STARTS IN FIVE MINUTES*

Cole quickly set the oven in fifteen minute time off and dashed towards his room, running up the stairs, knocking his door open. He threw his school bag on the mini bed and shortly sat on his spinning chair, switching on his computer. 

It was an old model since he could not afford a new one. But it did the work fine so at the moment he was not really looking to buy a new gaming personal computer. 

His phone beeped again and it was messages from his teammates Vin, Matty, and Chris. 

Vin

DUDE, WE ARE FUCKED! 

Matty

NO, WE ARE NOT!!!

Chris

WE CAN TRY TO NOT FUCK IT UP! 

Cole was not getting what his friends were saying. What happened again? He wondered. He instead of typing on his phone to ask what happened waited for his computer to open. It took about three minutes to start since it was an old model.

Once the monitor lit up, he typed in his password and waited for the screen to take him to his homepage. 

Vin

Cole you there? Dude? 

Matty

He probably waiting for his desktop to open 😏

Chris

I told you I have a guy who could land you a new 15 series of gaming PC. 

Matty

He said he does not wants it Chris. So stop mentioning it again and again😑

Vin

He is just trying to help here! 

Cole rolled his eyes looking at the text messages. Thankfully, the computer opened and he shortly started to get in with the game. 

Vin

THE SALSIKU ARE PLAYING, COLE!! 

That got Cole's attention. Damn! The Salsiku...they were the best squad who even got the chance to represent Miami in esports. 

Cole could literally see that their chance of winning the match now had reduced to thirteen percent. There was no way he and his teammates could take over Viku, the head of the Salsiku team.

Viku was a shrewd and cunning player. He did not show one bit of mercy and was a very good shooter. His bullet never missed to pierced in through the head of his opposition team members.

"Fuck." 

Cole cursed. This was his golden chance to change things a bit but now a new obstacle had knocked at his door.

Matty

GUYS, WE CAN DEFEAT HIM. BELIEVE ME!

Chris

😑 TRY TO KILL VIKU AND THEN WE WILL TALK.

Vin

Cole you there? 

Matty

We go by our initial plan. We kill Viku in the end.

The game started and Cole named Crypto, his playing name, Vin as Vinyl, Chris as Commander, and Matty as Martagalus. 

They waited in the loby. Their match would happen on the Erangle map. Their virtual characters inside the computer looked at each other. 

A few seconds more before they would broad the plane and be dropped on the battlefield. 

Cole totally forgot about the casserole he set inside the oven to hit up. The fifteen minutes were to be over soon. 

They got inside the plane. Cole closed his eyes imagining their victory in his mind.

Vin

Let's do it, guys! 

Matty

We are ready. 

Chris

May the best team wins! 

The beep-beep sound of the oven went unheard by Cole because of the headphones attached to his ears. 

Cole

Amen! 

And a big blast took place, blackening the view, time went static and a ping sound was heard in the background.

___________________________________________