A few days later, clubs came out at lunch.
"Yo, Sam." I say.
"Yeah, wassup." He says.
"Wanna join a club?" I ask.
"I was thinking of gaming." He responded.
"Sure, I guess." I say. I take the flier back to class a few minutes later.
Once class ends, I stumble onto my bus, waiting to arrive at home.
"You're going into gaming?" Liem asked me.
"Are you stalking me?" I follow up, confused as to how he knows.
"Nah. I heard at lunch. We sit at the same table, remember?" He asks.
"Oh. Well, yeah I am." I continue.
"Cool, I'm going too." He says.
"Nice!" I say, enthusiastically. Sick! Now I get to play video games for school! And with my friends!
I excitedly rush home.
"Mom! Can I join this club?" I ask.
"Sure. What club?" She says, slightly interested.
"Gaming." I say. She clicks her tongue.
"I thought you were going to do something useful." She says, laughing at her own (kinda) joke. She pauses for a bit and thinks.
"Sure. Why not?" She says. I jump for joy.
"Just sign here." I say adamantly while flinging the paper onto the desk in front of me. She takes a pen from a drawer and doodles her signature on the dotted line.
"There you go." She says.
"Thanks!" I yell, running to my room.
The next day, I walk into the lunch room after school and sit down excitedly. Quite a few games and consoles are put up on display, one of each for every table. Then, I spot the game. See, I played this game a lot as a kid and I ended up loosing the cartridge and never playing again. It's still a thing? I thought it would have been forgotten by now!
The teacher slumped down at the table we were all sitting on.
"Hello guys. You may know me as a math teacher for eighth grade. Today we'll be just starting out on some games. Since there are so many people, I have decided to host a tournament for each game. As you can see, there is a game with its respective console on each table with a few controllers, two to be precise." She says, quickly.
"So, for today, you guys can pick your game." She sighs. I look around and see no one I know. Man! They ditched me! Either way, I, annoyed, run to the table I had my eyes on to see another dude sitting next to me.
"Hey." I say.
"Sup," He says.
"Nothing. You?" I ask casually.
"Nothin." He replies. We boot up the console and I throw the cartridge in. The big screen flashes on in a light of nostalgia.
"Yes!" I cheer quietly. I immediately go for the character I used to play. The other person picks at random.
"Ready. Set. Go!" The screen shouts. My character runs to his, immediately punching and shielding randomly. Man. I don't remember any of the controls. His character sweeps me up and slams me to the edge of the field. I angrily press forward and land one punch before being slammed again, this time straight into the sky. I glide downward, spamming buttons before getting punched into oblivion again. This time, my character didn't come back. Three hits on me and I had already lost. His character does a little dance and shows its victory trophy. I get angry- like this was a real person trying to show me who's boss.
"Good game." I say. He sighs.
"How long has it been since you played? I know this is an old game so- yeah." He asks politely. My face drops further. Is he saying I'm bad?
"Maybe five years." I say.
"Oh." He says, like that makes perfect sense.
"Round two?" I ask. He sighs again.
"Sure." He says, disinterested. I go for the same character as before and he continues to close his eyes and choose at random. The fact that he slammed me with a random character. I note to myself.
"Ready. Set. Go!" The game screeches again. I immediately, with a better grasp of the controls, put his character into a choke hold and I slam his face into the dirt. He chuckles as his character throws what I assume is a blade at me. It cuts through my characters' chest and I clutch my shirt. While my character is still paralyzed, he jumps up and throws several darts into my head.
"Good game." I say, aggravated.
"Bro, why are you so bad?" He asks.
"Like- the last time I played was when I was six and you can't lay more than one hit on me before I destroy you." He says. I stay silent for a while.
"Alright. I'll try landing a few good hits on you, I guess." I say, sighing solemnly. He looks at me in utter shock.
"Okay." He says, regaining his focus on the character screen.
"You should try this character, man." He says, pointing to the big PLAYER 1 marking his pointer.
"Alright." I say. He hits random and this time, I pick the character he recommended.
Again, the game shouts.
"Ready. Set. Go!"
I immediately slam on the A button when I get near him. He tosses my character and slams me onto the grass. I follow up by kicking him in the shin before pressing Y to sling him over my shoulder. After that, I grab him in a chokehold once again and I throw him into the sky. Quickly, he comes back, tosses me into the grass, then into a chokehold and punches my head clean off. He grins.
"Nice game." He says, cockily. Not the type of cocky where he thinks he's better than me, though. It's the type where he's kind of overconfident and it's apparent to both of us that he is. I laugh.
"Nice!" I yell.
"You know, I use that combo a bunch! I can't believe you are so smooth with that character. You almost beat me!" He says.
"Thanks." I say, sheepishly.
"What's your name, man." He says, holding out his hand.
"Aline. You?" I say, putting my hand out as well.
"Mark. Nice to meet you!" He says as he aggressively shakes my hand.
"You too." I say.