The Game

by Terry Schott

  Chapter 35

  “One thing missing today is old fashioned rivalry. Players of the Game do not compete against each other. Sure, when they are out dancing and enjoying their fame on Tygon, words are exchanged and bold claims thrown out against other players. In the old days a rivalry involved one skilled player going directly against another, squaring off to see who was the best! Players today still build the hype before they compete, but once they enter the Game it’s impossible for one star to directly compete with another. Some say this is disappointing, but I disagree. I find it much more exciting to see two top ranked players interact with each other, not knowing who or what they are in the real world. Some enemies become dear friends, some friends do their best to connect and fail, and others spend no credits on connecting in-Game and somehow spend their whole virtual lives together. If you ask me, the Game provides thousands of possibilities for exciting events and occurrences. You can take your old rivalries and keep them; I’d rather watch a low-ranked player break into the top standings or a high-ranked player sink low, without them even knowing they’re playing the Game that they are!

  Excerpt, ‘One Fan’s Opinion’

  Trew - 17

  “Hey, sexy, wait for me!”

  Before I can turn around and close my locker I feel a soft warm hand come up from behind and firmly touch my chest. I smile and turn around.

  Her name’s Jane and she’s my new girlfriend. Long blonde hair, green eyes, a smile that makes me forget who I am, and a body… well, she’s been a figure skater since she was five. When I tell my friends she’s got a nice body, they laugh at the understatement. She’s just a bit shorter than me, but hey, I’m six foot tall, so that’s understandable, and I like it when she stretches up to kiss me, which she does right now.

  “Class is done. Ready to get out of here and go swimming with the gang?” she asks.

  I should really be doing some extra research work, but it’s so hard to say no to her. We’ve been dating for just about a month now and I don’t seem to have time to get anything done. It’s fun, having a girlfriend, but Danni’s wondering why I chat with her less and don’t seem to have any new info to share with her on our projects. I wish she didn’t live so far away; it would be much better if we could hang out and work.

  “Hey, where did you go, big boy?” Jane asks, snapping me out of my thoughts. Here I am with this hot girl and I’m thinking about Danni. What’s wrong with me? I start to tell myself Danni is one great looking girl too, but I can’t be having conversations with myself about her while I’m standing here. I shake my head and smile.

  “I’m right here, babe. Sure, let’s go swimming.”

  We go out to the parking lot and I unlock the car, a nice sporty job that my parents let me drive. I have a part-time job working to pay for gas and insurance. They never have to ask me to fill the tank or take care of it. I laugh at my friends who think their parents are such hard cases because they expect their kids to do simple stuff like that. I figure it helps me get the car easier when I need it. Parents aren’t so different from us kids; they just want some help from us when we can give it. I think kids would have better parents if they were better at being kids. Not all, but lots.

  Jane gets in the passenger side, and as I start up the engine, she turns on the radio. Windows down, we drive over to her friend Cynthia’s place. There are already twenty or so people there, standing around in groups and swimming.

  “Trew!” my buddy Rob calls out. I wave and walk towards him. Jane tells me she’s going to put her bathing suit on and I give her a kiss before she jogs into the house.

  Rob hands me a drink. “Nothing with alcohol, is it? I want to be able to drive home,” I ask.

  “No, it’s clean,” he laughs. Of course, it’s illegal to drink at our age… so we never do. Hahaha, okay, but seriously. None today for me.

  “You should really come out and play ball again this year, Trew.” Rob says. “You were MVP last year and we need you back on the team.”

  I shrug. He knows how I play. It was time to move on. I’ve known Rob my whole life and he’s followed me from sport to sport, activity to activity. First I leave, then he groans the next session how they miss me and I should come back. I shrug and ignore him, and soon he announces that he’s coming to join me in my new interest. It’s a regular pattern. I chuckle because he doesn’t seem to see it, but I am better at spotting patterns than most people.

  He laughs at my shrug and says, “So you liking the girl friend thing? Jane’s a catch for sure.”

  “Yeah, she’s a great girl. Lots of fun.” I look around, waving and smiling to the people gathered in groups. Most of them look towards me exactly as I shift my attention to them. I’m not the most popular kid in school, but I’m friendly with the most people. There aren't too many people I don't get along with. I think it’s my sense of humour and quick wit; even the groups that don’t like each other seem to enjoy my company. I play sports pretty well, and since I’ve played so many over the years, I’ve been in a class with most of the kids my age. Some people don’t like me because I breeze in for a short time and do better at their activity than they do, but that’s always going to happen. Like my Dad says, ‘If everyone says they like you, then some of them are lying.’

  Rob and I walk around and mingle; most of the time I practice my new home study assignment. I ask them about themselves, then sit back and listen. When I went looking for someone to teach me how to communicate better with others, the best teachers turned out to be living in my own house! My parents are both incredible with people, always comfortable with friends and strangers. We could go to a town where no one knew us and, in almost no time at all, my parents would have new friends and acquaintances to talk and laugh with. When I asked my Dad to help me improve my communication skills he laughed and said they’d been teaching me since I was young, but he agreed that there was some formal training to provide. Most people laugh when I tell them I’m training in communicating. They tell me we all communicate and not to waste time learning, just go out and do it! I’ve met some very awkward people who could benefit from training in this area. The truth is that not everyone can do it, and most can’t do it well. My mom says most problems in the world today result from poor communication, and she’s given me so many examples that it’s impossible to not believe her.

  So my current homework is to listen. Whenever I can talk with someone, my goal is to ask them some good questions, then listen. It’s amazing what you can learn, and what people will tell you when you are truly interested in them. I swear it’s like magic.

  I get so immersed in conversations that time passes quickly and before I know it an hour has gone by. I look around but still don’t see Jane anywhere. I excuse myself and go find Cynthia.

  “Hey, Cyn, you seen Jane around?”

  Cynthia looks real freaked out and starts looking back towards the house. “Um… hey, Trew. No, I haven’t seen her. I thought she came out to swim a while ago. Oh, actually, yeah, I think she went with Sally to go get ice at the store. She’ll be back soon.”

  Something doesn’t feel right. “Okay, thanks,” I say. I head into the house. I’ve got to use the bathroom anyway.

  The main floor bathroom is in use, so I head upstairs. I don’t know the layout of the house that well and I guess I must make a wrong turn. I hear moaning and kissing noises from the room to my left and I look to see who’s getting lucky.

  My emotions disappear, my heart stops beating in my chest, and it feels like the room has just frozen solid. There’s Jane, in her bathing suit, with her back to the door, making out with Ted, a guy from school. He opens his eyes and sees me; his eyes start to twinkle with laughter. He kisses her for another couple seconds, then stops and says, “Run along, Junior, big kids are playing.”

  Jane turns around and looks towards the door. She giggles but quickly stops, trying to appear upset and sorry. “Oops,” she says. “Sorry, Trew.”

  I just stand there, not knowing
what to say. It could be worse, I guess. I could have spent more than a month with this girl before finding out she’s not really into me. But still, this is pretty embarrassing.

  Instead I just look at her and say, “There was no tingle with you.”

  “What?” she asks.

  “When I kissed you,” I say.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says.

  I just turn and walk out. I hear Ted yelling at me from the bedroom. “Hey, Trew, don’t you want to kick my ass? Come on, man, you may have beat me when we were eight in karate, but I could clean your clock now. I just stole your girl, Trew! Don’t you want to fight?”

  I stop and go back to the doorway. I see Ted smiling and I’m pretty sure he just wants to make me fight him. I smile back. “I’ll fight you any time, Ted. You suck at it, but if you want to get knocked out, I can help you with that any time.” I point at Jane. “She’s not my girl, though, and definitely not worth fighting over.” Both of them say nothing, their mouths opening and closing like fish laying on the deck of a boat trying to get a breath. I walk downstairs and out to the back of the house.

  Rob sees me and comes over. From my look he must be able to tell that something isn’t right. “Hey, man, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I assure him. “Look, man, I’m gonna head out.”

  “Okay, no problem. Where you going?” he asks.

  Still remembering the tingle of that kiss on her birthday, I answer, “I think I’m going to go call my girlfriend.”