Young Writers Society

Game On Level 0.3

Throughout the night sleep was scares. Eventually I grew bored of tossing and turning and went downstairs to eat something. I cooked myself some chips and sat in the living room. I switched on the television and saw that it was nearing two in the morning. I groaned and lathered my chips in salt and vinegar. The aroma caressed my nostrils and made my mouth water.

There was nothing on the television so I switched to a pre-recorded show. Mum loved to watch crime dramas so I stuck one on. I was a quarter the way through the show when I ran out of chips. I went back and made some more before returning to the show.

When both the show and my chips were finished I returned to my chamber with a full belly. Joy was lying on my bed so I had to push her off. Grumpily she strolled off my bed and lay on the floor.

The ceiling fan was still on – it was never really off. I watched as it spun and hypnotised me in a trace of its blades.

I must have fallen asleep as the next thing I remembered was the door bell ringing. I crawled out of my sleep and stumbled to put Joy and Lady into my mother’s room. The two lazily clipped their paws into the room as I went downstairs.

I opened the door with my eyes half shut. Through the slits I could see two boys.

“Wha?” I mumbled.

Kern pushed past and walked straight into my house. Jason smiled at me and joined him. I was too tired to complain.

“What time is I?” I said with a heavy tongue.

“Nine thirty,” Jason said.

I don’t think you’ve even see nine thirty have you, Alison? I smacked Little Alison. Okay, fuck you and your violence.

I gestured that we moved into the living room while closing the front door.

“Why are you guys here so early?” I asked.

“We guessed you’d be asleep so we decided to give you a hand and get this place ready,” Kern said.

“The place is fine,” I said, laying on the couch.

“Have you gotten out the blow up bed? Have you prepared snacks? Or drinks? Have you set up the study so we can all play games? Do you even know what games we’re playing?”

“Okay, maybe the place isn’t fine,” I murmured.

“It’s a good thing we came then,” Kern said, pulling me up on my feet. “Go get showered and dressed. We’ll take care of things for now.”

I did as Kern demanded of me and stumbled up the steps. I turned down the temperature of the shower to wake myself up a little. The cold water hit me like shards of ice. I bit my lip to stifle my gasp. I resist the urge to warm the temperature fearing that if I do I’ll be lulled back to sleep. I spend no longer than is necessary in the shower. The water drips from my nude body as I reach for a towel. I wrap the cotton around me. It loving embraces me as I creek open the bathroom door.

Downstairs I can hear Jason and Kern laughing about something. There is also a small commotion which I start to worry about.

Hastily, I exit the bathroom and rush into my bedroom. I throw myself onto my bed, the towels embrace slowly starts to weaken. I stare up at the lazy fan. The wooden blades try to convince me back to sleep.

How can you still be tired after that? Little Alison questions with a shiver.

“It’s the heat,” I tell her.

Heat my ass, she curses. You’re just lazy.

She’s right. It took every ounce of my will not to march down the stairs and call the whole get together off. All I really wanted to do was play my video games and wallow in sadness as I mourned my mother.

A knock at my door causes me to bolt upright and clutch the towel over my embrassingly flat chest.

“Hey, Ally,” calls Jason.

A hot blush attacks my cheeks as I imagine him walking into my room seeing me so bare. “I’m getting changed!” I call.

“When you’re done could you bring down your console? We’ve set up the other ones in the study,” he asks.

“S-sure,” I stamper. “I’ll be ready in a few.”

“Thanks,” he says.

I wait until I can no longer hear his footsteps before dropping the towel and heading to my dresser.

Little Alison pushes me to wear clothes which show off what little assets my body has. I ignore her pleads and opt for my usual attire: a hoody and shorts.

You’re so boring, she complains. You’re little chest is so cute. So it off you big prude!

“It’s embarrassing,” I tell her, trying to shut her up.

She just rolls her eyes at me and allows me to get dressed without any more comments.

Once I am fully dressed I use the towel to scrub my hair somewhat dry. Afterwards I pull the top half of my hair in a messy bun, leaving the bottom waves to dangle from my shoulders.

I then proceeded to unplug my console taking great care not to bump it against my television. I waddle downstairs with the black box cradled in my arms.

When I enter the study Kern is sitting crossed legged on the desk chair. He spins round and round, his dark skin tinting green from motion sickness. He sticks his feet out halting the ride. Embarrassed, he rubs the back of his neck and chuckles.

The study was the largest room in the house. In the other homes on our street it is actually used as the living room. However, Mum wanted large space so she could work and I wanted a ‘game room’. In the corner is the computer desk. Papers, folders and little nick-nacks are scattered around the coffee stained desk. The computer is much more powerful than the one in my room. Little Alison mocked it as being a ‘tech-geeks wet dream’. The wall to the right held a LCD television which was hooked up to two other gaming consoles. Mum used the Wii for fitness and light party games along with the PS3 for movies. There was a small coffee table underneath the television which contained two drawers filled with games and DVDs. Most of them I never played anymore since the XBOX was moved into my room. The other walls had couches pushed lovingly against them. One was doubled as a bed since Mum would sometimes spend all night on her work. Whenever I had trouble sleeping I’d sometimes wander into the study to find Mum curled up with a blanket.

The thought of my mother formed a lump in my throat which I desperately tried to swallow.

Kern took the console from my arms and helped me set it up on the computer screen. Just as we were turning it on Jason entered the room with a tray in his hands. The tray had a variety of foods and drinks found in my kitchen. He set down the tray on the coffee table then exited.

“What’s he doing?” I asked, fiddling with the controls on the television.

“He’s making breakfast,” Kern said, stuffing a scone in his mouth. “Ee wans o-” Kern cut himself off to swallow. “He wants to be in charge of food.”

“Why?”

Kern shrugged. “Says he likes doing little things like that – since he never gets to do that kinda stuff at home.”

Kern was right. According to Jason, he barely had to lift a finger in his house. When he first came to our house for a ‘play date’ – as Mum comically put it – she made him do things by himself. Jason, funnily enough, enjoyed the new ‘responsibility’ and took on random jobs inside my home.

Kern and I set up all the gaming consoles before Jason came back down. His arms held up most of my games. He set those down also on the coffee table – some slipped onto the floor.

“I didn’t get them all,” he said, rushing back upstairs.

I couldn’t help but giggle. He was strangely adorable rushing around my house. Kern noticed this giggle and wiggled his eyebrows at me.

“You should pull out those killer moves you have,” he joked. “I’m sure he’d fall head over heels for your stuttering.”

I kicked his shin harder than I first intended to.

“C’mon, you’ve been eyeing him up ever since we first met,” he said, grabbing another scone.

“It’s just a stupid girly thing, it means nothing,” I mumbled.

Could you talk anymore bullshit?

I mentally pushed Little Alison.

“If you say so,” Kern shrugged and rummaged through the video game cases.

Jason came back down with a smaller amount of games. He set those on the desk. He dangled a USB stick inbetween his fingers. My blood suddenly ran cold as I remembered my act the day before.

“What’s this?” he asked. “It was plugged into your computer, you normally keep your PC games on these, no?”

My pulse raced and I quickly tried to mumble something.

“Ye-yeah. I, uh, it…” I took in a breath and tried to steady myself. “I actually won that contest thingy.”

“Really?” he said, putting down the stick.

I nodded steadily. “I played some of it last night but…well it seemed kinda strange.”

“Strange?”

I fanned my hand. “I’ll show you whenever one gets here.”

Just as I finished that sentence the doorbell rang. My eyes darted to the clock which hung from the wall. I was surprised to see that it had turned eleven o’clock.

I scrambled to my feet and went to greet my guest. Thorn and Cole stood at the door with overnight bags. I let the two of them in and showed them to my room. At first I was a little taken back as a blow up bed sat in the middle of my room. I pieced together that Jason must have put it there when he was gathering my games.

I told them to put their bags on the bed then headed back downstairs. We strolled back into the study as I told them where all the rooms were and what they contained. Just as I pushed the door open to the study the doorbell chimed once again.

An eager feeling jumped into my gut as I knew who would be on the other side. I was rather excited to show Emmy my home. While it wasn’t as flamboyant and glamour’s as her house I could guess that she would still, hopefully, love my humble abode.

Emmy stood at the door with a bright smile on her face.

“Ally!” she yelled merrily, as she bounced towards me with her arms open wide. “You smell nice,” she complimented. “Are you finally wearing that perfume I bought you.”

I blushed and nodded. “I n-never really had a chance to use it so I thought I would today.”

She pulled me into an even tighter hug. “Yay! I’m glad that went to full use.”

She let me go and strolled right into my home as if it was her own. It made me relax a little knowing she seemed so comfortable in – compared to her own – a rather tiny house.

“Where will I put this?” she said, holding up her – designer – bag.

I gestured for her to follow me up to my room. We placed her bags with all the others. She giddily pointed out mundane things in my house as magical trinkets.

“Oh, is that your mom?” she asked, pointing to a photo.

“Yeah,” I said. “That was when we were at Florida.”

“You look so nice,” she said smiling.

We exited my room and I heard the faint whispers of a whine. I opened my mother’s bedroom door while warning Emmy of the two dogs that busted through. Emmy giggled in delight as the two rushed downstairs. I ran downstairs following the dogs to the back garden. I pushed open the door as quickly as I could allowing the dogs to relieve themselves.

“Aw, they’re so cute,” purred Emmy behind me.

I laughed and placed a door stopper on the floor that way the dogs had free roam of the place.

We returned to the study and found Jason on the desk chair. He had booted up the USB stick and had clicked on the game. It was fully loaded at the menu screen I clicked on last night.

“We wanna see it,” said Jason, a grin on his face.

I swallowed nervously and walked over to the desk. Jason pushed himself to his feet and signalled for me to take his place. I felt the ‘gangs’ eyes on me as I gingerly sat in the chair. I grabbed the mouse and hit ‘play.’

Authers Note:

Okay I swear this is the last of the 0. thingys. The next chapter will get into the meat of the actually story I just wanted to get these characters fully introduced. I apologize if things are going a little slow.

Anyway, thanks for reading and - hopefully - review.