by Sylv Chiang
It’s only a few minutes later, when someone cuts in front of me and I almost trip over their rolling suitcase that I remember—my suitcase is still on the train!
I make everyone run back to the platform at supersonic speed, but it’s too late. Our train is gone. My controller is on its way to Quebec City with that stupid old lady.
I want to crumple on the train station floor. I can’t compete without a controller. I might as well have left my hands at home. ArcadeStix is so going to drop me.
When we find Cali and her dad I’m so mad I hardly register them.
My imagination takes me to an arena and lets Kaigo beat me up.
How could I be so stupid? Punch to the face.
Why didn’t I pay more attention? Leg swipe.
What idiot forgets his most valuable possession on a train? Elbow strike to the chin.
I shake my head and try to focus. Through a haze I see Melanie hug Cali. She explains about my suitcase. Devesh hugs Cali too, and I’m glad to see she backs out of it.
“Aw, c’mon. Don’t cry over this,” Cali’s dad says. That brings me back to reality because, no joke, there’s an actual tear running down my cheek. “Can’t you just borrow Cali’s joystick?”
“It’s called a controller, Dad.” Cali rolls her eyes. “You can totally use one of mine tomorrow. Don’t worry, you did great last time with one just like it.”
“Who’s picking you up?” Melanie asks Devesh and Hugh. I look around and realize Roy has disappeared.
“We’re taking the metro. My uncle lives close to Atwater station.” Devesh acts like he’s some world traveler. Why can’t he just say subway?
Everyone makes plans for meeting tomorrow. I don’t see the point. We might as well take the next train home. I watch my friends head toward the METRO sign. Stepping out from behind a pillar, Roy falls in step behind them as they pass through the turnstile.
Cali notices and looks at me with raised eyebrows. I’m still too much of a mess to respond. I’m such a loser.
On the car ride home, Melanie calls the railway company’s lost and found number, but it’s Friday after five o’clock so she gets a recorded message. There’s zero chance I’m getting my controller in time for the tournament tomorrow. I might never see it again. I feel like I just got punched in the stomach.
Mr. Chen pulls the car up in front of a tiny bungalow with a red door. From the driveway we can hear a baby screaming.
“Warning, it’s the witching hour,” Mr. Chen says.
I look at Cali.
“Ruby always cries around dinner time,” she says.
“And she doesn’t stop until morning,” Mr. Chen adds. I can’t tell if he’s joking.
Chapter 11
Mr. Chen’s girlfriend, Marnie, greets us with the screaming baby in her arms. I met her when she was pregnant with Ruby, and she still looks about the same, but not nearly as energetic. In fact, she looks like she hasn’t slept in a year.
“Hi, Jaden. Hi, Melanie,” she says, giving us each a limp hug, which apparently Ruby does not like, since she ramps up the volume. “Sorry, Ruby’s colicky.”
That’s the last we see of Marnie. She spends the next few hours in the bedroom, trying to get the baby to sleep. Whatever she’s doing, it’s not working.
Inside, the house looks even smaller than it did from the outside. It’s like a wizard came by and cast a shrinking spell on a normal house.
The kitchen is cramped and littered with dishes, mostly baby bottles. How can a little baby drink so much? Cali goes to the cupboard and starts taking out cans of soup. Melanie stops her and pulls out the bag of food Mom sent along. There are noodles, vegetables, and even a whole fish. I don’t know how my mom thought we could eat this on the train.
It’s enough to feed us all, with leftovers. Mr. Chen takes a plate of food and disappears to the living room to watch TV. Me and Cali sit at the kitchen table with Melanie, who only looks up from her phone to fork food into her mouth.
“Sorry. Things are different here than with my mom,” Cali says.
I wonder what she means. The small house? The fact that we’re all eating separately? Or the screaming? I don’t know what to say so I just smile and chew.
“At least you’re here now,” she says.
“You think you’ll get to come home soon?”
“No. Whenever I ask my mom she says, ‘not yet.’ And my dad says I need to think of his place as home too. I think he just likes the free help for Marnie. If I wash bottles, it’s less work for him.”
“Really?”
“I don’t know. That’s what it feels like. I miss my real home.”
After we eat, we head to Cali’s room. It takes about three steps to get there from the kitchen. You could cross the entire house in ten.
There’s a mattress next to Cali’s bed, and it’s taking up all the floor space. That’s where Melanie will sleep. No one’s said where I’ll sleep. I’m guessing the bathtub. I hope it’s a normal size.
Cali says, “I know, it’s small, right?”
“Nah,” I lie. Worst is the fact that her room is next to Ruby’s. Does she ever stop crying? I’m so glad I don’t live here. Then I spy something that makes me reconsider. “They let you keep your gaming system in your bedroom?”
“There’s nowhere else.”
We plunk ourselves on her bed and start playing Cross Ups. I need to get used to the gamepad controller again, fast.
Melanie lies on the mattress with her phone, probably texting Roy. When Cali shouts Yes! after knocking me out, Melanie looks up. “Why didn’t you sign up for the tournament? I hear you beat Jaden.”
Seriously? Does everybody know?
“Not my scene.”
“Why not? You obviously love it, and you’re really good.” Melanie has a point.
“It’s more for guys,” Cali says. That’s true. There aren’t many girl competitors. I remember walking around the T3 tournament with Cali and counting only twelve girls in the room, including Cali and my mom.
“So what? You could totally whip their butts.” Melanie’s voice rises the way it does when she’s in the mood for a fight. “Just because there aren’t that many girls competing doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. There aren’t a lot of girl golfers either. That hasn’t stopped me. It’s how I got my summer job. The club owner thinks having a female camp counselor encourages more girls to join the program. I’m a role model! I show that girls play golf too.”
“Shut up, Melanie,” I say. “Fighting games aren’t like golf.”
My bed for the night is the couch. The living room is way too close to the baby’s room. Actually, every room is.
All I have is what’s in my backpack: my MP3 player, a hoodie, a half-eaten bag of Oreo cookies, the papers from Kyle, and my toothbrush. My clothes are in the suitcase with my controller, so I’m wearing clothes I borrowed from Cali to sleep in. Thank god Cali doesn’t wear girly stuff. She gave me gray drawstring track shorts and a black T-shirt. It’s tight, but better than sleeping in my clothes, since I’ll have to wear those again tomorrow. And Sunday.
I lie there, trying to figure out what to say to Kyle tomorrow. How am I going to explain that I don’t have the controller he gave me? What if he doesn’t let me compete? The whole point of ArcadeStix sponsoring me is for me to come out and dominate using their product.
Plus, how bad will I suck using Cali’s controller? The arcade stick took some getting used to, but now I hate playing without it. I’ve gotten so good at throwing all Kaigo’s Supers, even Dragon Fire. That one is so hard with a gamepad.
I toss and turn. Between my nerves and the screaming baby, sleep is impossible.
There’s light creeping out from under Cali’s bedroom door. I peek in. Cali’s sitting on the mattress on the floor playing a mirror match: Saki versus Saki.
I flop onto the bed next to Melanie. “I can’t believe this,” she says.
Neither can I. Melanie cares about gaming? Maybe I did fall asleep and this is some weird dream. “I know, she’s good.” I yawn.
“That’s not what I mean,” Melanie says. “Look at those messages.”
I look at the screen. Someone’s messaging Cali over and over, even though Cali isn’t answering.
I shrug. “So?”
“She says he’s been creeping her for weeks.”
I look at Cali. “You beat him?”
She nods.
“He just wants a rematch.”
Melanie shakes her head. “There’s more. Show him.”
Cali shakes her head and keeps her eyes glued to the screen.
I look closer and realize that her Saki’s not the one winning. In fact, she’s whiffing moves that I know she can connect.
Melanie passes me Cali’s phone but I don’t look at it. “She doesn’t want me to.”
“C’mon, Cali,” Melanie says. “You should show your dad too.”
Saki’s win quote appears on the screen:
IT’S EXTRA COLD WHEN YOU’RE ALL ALONE!
Chapter 12
Cali puts her head under the pillow. “Whatever. It’s so embarrassing,” she mumbles.
I turn on the phone. She’s got pictures of earlier comments from this guy and others. They call her things that would totally get someone suspended from school. But that’s normal online. Melanie just doesn’t get it.
“Those are the creepiest ones,” Cali says, peeking out from the pillow. “What do you think I should do?”
“Nothing. That’s just how gamers talk,” I say.
“You say things like that?” Melanie asks.
I feel Kaigo’s fire heat my cheeks. “Well, not that bad. Some of those messages are extra. But I hear stuff like that all the time.”
“Did you see the last one?”
I flick through more screenshots. ShoMe goes on about wanting to play her. Says she sounds pretty. Then:
Mel is reading over my shoulder. “C’mon, you have to admit that’s messed up.”
“How does he know where I am?” Cali asks. That wobble is back in her voice.
Is this what she meant by trouble? She’s totally overreacting. Okay, maybe this guy is taking it a bit far, but still.
“He doesn’t know exactly where you live. He probably just looked up your IP address and knows what city you’re in. Don’t let him freak you out. He’s just trying to mess with you so he can have an advantage when you play again. It’s normal.”
“I don’t know what’s normal to you weirdos, but if someone sent me that, I’d be calling the cops. This ShoMe guy is stalking her. Cali, scroll up. Show him what the guy wrote today.”
Cali’s hand trembles as she uses the controller to scroll through her messages.
She looks at me, like I should see what she means now.
I shake my head. “Don’t worry. It’s just mind games.”
“Whatever.” She closes the messages and starts a new match. The baby has finally stopped crying and it’s quiet, except for Melanie’s ranting, but I’m used to tuning her out. I’m so tired. I put my head down. The glow from the screen reflects off the green stone in the ring hanging from a chain around Cali’s neck. Above it, Cali’s face is lit up, while her black hair blends into the darkness. She looks like a fairy. I close my eyes.
When I open them, there’s light coming through Cali’s window. Melanie and Cali are asleep, head to feet, on the mattress on the floor. We need to leave in fifteen minutes!
Me and Cali rush to get ready.
After my shower I have no choice but to throw on my clothes from yesterday and hope I don’t stink too bad. I wonder if Yuudai Sato ever lost his luggage before a tournament. He’d probably still win, even with a gamepad, playing with one hand. That guy is godlike.
When we finally get Melanie up, she takes forever in the bathroom. We’ll never make it on time.
Cali and I sit at the kitchen table with our shoes on. I’ve got the info package with the forms my mom signed under Cali’s gamepad and I’m fidgeting with the controls.
Her dad is eating toast and reading on his phone. “When do you guys want to leave?” he asks.
Now!
“As soon as Melanie’s ready,” Cali answers.
Or we can just leave without her.
Marnie walks into the kitchen looking like a zombie. She makes coffee with her eyes half open and the baby on her hip. Then she puts Ruby in a baby seat on the table—the only place there’s room for her—and flicks a button. The thing starts vibrating. The sound competes with my tapping thumbs.
Melanie finally comes out, stinking like a rose garden. She says good morning to everyone, and coochie coo to Ruby. Then she looks at me. “Make sure you bring two of those controllers.”
“Ha, ha. I’m not going to lose another one.”
“Didn’t she tell you?” Melanie says. “Cali signed up last night.”
“You’re competing?”
“Don’t be so rude,” Melanie says.
“What? It’s just a question.”
“Listen to yourself,” Melanie lectures. “Plus, that look on your face—so insulting.”
It is? I try to make my face look normal. “Why’d you change your mind?”
“Because I do want to compete. I just never thought I could until Melanie said that stuff last night.”
What’s weird is that I never thought of it either. To be honest, I never thought of competing at a tournament myself until I got invited to T3. Maybe Cali just needed a push like that. Why didn’t I ever think to ask her to sign up?
“And Melanie’s right: I should stop letting people hold me back.”
By people, does she mean me?
Chapter 13
The ride to the hotel feels like forever. The three of us are in the back of Mr. Chen’s car, Cali in the middle.
I spend the ride freaking out over what to say to Kyle about my controller. Obviously I can’t tell him the truth. He’d cut me from the team for sure if he found out I was so irresponsible.
I can’t tell him it broke, because he’ll want to see it and try to fix it.
I could tell him someone stole it. That wouldn’t be my fault. Who knows, maybe someone did steal it. I mean, I never got a chance to check. Someone could even have picked up my case by mistake. There were a lot of small black suitcases on that shelf. It would be an honest mistake. By the end of the fifteen-minute drive, I’ve convinced myself that someone took my case by accident. Once they realize their mistake, they’ll use our address on the tag to return it. I hope I’m still this confident when I talk to Kyle.
I’m super late for the meeting. Stupid Melanie. I throw my forms at her and tell her to go hand them in. She goes with Cali and her dad to the registration table. He needs to sign forms since Cali’s twelve, like me.
The hotel restaurant is called Chez Antoine. It’s long and narrow with tables along a wall of windows and booths on the other side. There are blue-checked cloths on all the tables. I find Kyle and four other guys at a table near the entrance. They’ve got plates in front of them with half-eaten eggs and sausages. All five are wearing red ArcadeStix T-shirts where the X is made out of two sticks of wood.
“Hey, JStar!” Kyle stands and shakes my hand. I’ve only seen him in person once before, at the T3 tournament when he asked me to join the ArcadeStix team. He’s cut his hair in an army style and looks like a shorter version of that actor from the latest Spiderman movie.
“Everyone, meet our young prodigy, Jaden.” Kyle goes around the table making introductions. “That’s Chris Chung,” he says, pointing to a chubby guy with short spiky hair.
The guy looks up and nods, but doesn’t smile.
; That must be Chung-Key. I wonder if I should apologize for dropping off the other day after I invited him to play. But he’s already focused back on his plate.
“Jeffy and Nicco are at the window there.” He points to a couple of guys who are more interested in something on the one guy’s phone than me. “They’re playing Mega Haunt with me, so you won’t compete against them.”
“And this guy—who dyed his hair the wrong freaking color—is Sage.” Kyle bops the electric-blue hair of the guy sitting next to him.
“C’mon. The blue complements the red shirt, don’t you think, kid?”
The word kid makes me remember how much older all these guys are. They’re probably all in college already. “Uh . . . totally,” I say.
“Sit down and shut up,” Kyle says. I sit down fast. He smiles and tosses me a red T-shirt. Yes! A clean shirt. “You’re part of the ArcadeStix team now.”
I feel like the Padawan to his Obi-Wan. “Yes, sir.”
“I like this kid already,” Sage says. “Did you hear that? Sir!”
A waiter comes by and asks if I want anything.
“Bring him the same as the rest of us,” Kyle says. “But you’re going to have to scarf it down fast. Only half an hour till game time.”
Kyle pushes over the schedule and a competitor’s pass attached to a neon-green lanyard. Then he pulls out some papers. “We were about to go over the matchups. Unfortunately, you’re not going to have an easy path. This tournament is bigger than T3. It draws a lot of American players up for the weekend. They run the first day as a round-robin. In order to compete tomorrow, you need to prove yourself by making top two in your pool.”
I read that in the package. There are eight pools of eight. You play everyone in your pool, and only the top two in each pool, sixteen players in total, come back to play for the prize on Sunday.
