by Kate Cullen
Back at the entrance, the nice lady Amy had gone home for the day so I started to panic that the new lady might not know anything about the prize or where it was. When Dad told her who we were, her face lit up immediately as though we were really important people. "Oh so you're today's lucky winner. Well you're going to have heaps of fun with this I can just see." She was looking straight at me as if she already knew I was the winner. She asked Dad to sign some papers and asked him for some identification. Then she handed over the hugest box with a big ribbon tied around it. There weren't any words written on it to give away any clues.
I was just about to leave the office when Mom pulled one of her angry faces. Dad says she carries around a suitcase full of different faces depending on what's happening. "Ryan, aren't you forgetting something?" I looked around for something I'd forgotten.
"No, Dad's got the box," I replied.
"Aren't you forgetting to say something?"
"Oh yeah thanks heaps Mom."
"Not to me silly.
"Oh yeah, sorry." I was so used to saying thanks to Mom all the time. I turned to the lady who was beaming brightly at me. "Thank you very much, god blesses you."
Mom whispered in my ear," Ryan it's lovely to say that but you don't have to say god bless you every time you thank someone. Now let's go and have a look at this present."
"Let's wait till we get back to the hotel to open the prize," Dad butted in as he began loading it into the boot.
"No! No Dad please can I open it here. I've been waiting all day patiently." I began jumping up and down tugging on Dad's shirt. I knew that would make him give in because he hates it when I do that.
"Oh alright, I suppose you've waited long enough. Come on let's get in the back seat and have a look." He put the box in the back and I jumped in beside it.
"Watch it!" shouted Lisa as I accidentally brushed past her to get in. "Don't push. Mom, he's pushing me."
I tried to rip the box open but it wouldn't budge. Dad got his pen knife and slit the taping down the side.
"Oh My God!" were the only words that came out of my mouth.
Chapter 18: Heaven in a Box
"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" I couldn't think of anything else to say. I started to hyperventilate, and felt all spaced out.
"I thought you said not to use the lord's name in vain," said the whining blob of a sister, but her futile words were just like smelly gas vaporising into the atmosphere to me. My heart froze and my legs went all wobbly. I felt like a jelly fish doing the Macarena, which is sort of a dance. Dad calls it the macaroni and my legs definitely resembled soggy macaroni right then.
Inside the plain brown box was a white box with a very familiar brand name on the side. It could only mean one thing. I grabbed at it like a seagull in a frenzied attack on a bag of fish and chips at the beach, and pulled it out.
"OMG! OMG!" I kept saying when I saw the sacred words and graphics on the side of the box. "Thankyou God. Thankyou sooooooo much." I raced back to the office where the lady had given me this wonderful miracle wrapped up in a box. I could hear Mom screaming out in her normal shrill tone, "Careful, watch the road!" She didn't have to worry. I wasn't about to do a head butt with a bus and leave my body print on it, now that I had won that prize.
"Ryan, where are you going?" Dad called out.
I burst into the office. "Thankyou so much," I said to the bewildered lady. I felt like hugging her which was pretty scary as I hate hugging girls, but I did anyway. I think she was a little bit dumbfounded.
Then I raced back out to my heavenly treasure waiting for me. Mom and Dad were standing up leaning against the car with really cheesy grins on their faces. Dad's smile went from one ear all the way round to his other ear. I think he was just as excited as I was. Lisa of course was slumped over the back seat with a huge grumpy look on her face pretending to be asleep. Girls are so weird. They just can't stand not being the centre of attention all the time, especially when it's their birthday.
Again I pulled the white box out and hugged it tightly like a precious, new born baby. I couldn't believe it. I was going to be the first boy in Fifth grade, maybe even in the whole school to own this.
Chapter 19: The luckiest Boy in the World
It was all mine. Nearly six hundred dollars worth. It was the best day of my whole life. I was now the proud owner of a Play Station 4. "I own a Play Station 4," I kept saying it to myself, because I couldn't believe it was true. I was the luckiest person that ever roamed the earth.
"Have you looked in the bottom of the box?" Dad said as he motioned towards the brown box? Puzzled I looked inside and on the bottom was not one, not two, but five games and one girlie one. Maybe if Lisa was nice to me I'd let her have that one.
"Mom can we forget about staying the weekend and just go home now?" I knew what her answer would be but all I wanted to do was go home and set the console up on our big 72 inch TV.
"Absolutely not young man! We've paid for the hotel and we are here to celebrate Lisa's birthday and that's what we're doing."
"Ok! Ok, ok," I said. It was worth a try, but I knew I'd been very lucky so I wasn't going to push my luck further.
"Well Dad can you set it up in the hotel room?"
"Noooo!" my Dad said. "Of course not. We'd end up wrecking all the settings in a TV that doesn't belong to us."
"Pleeeeeeease," I said starting to get desperate. I reminded myself of how Lisa sounded when she put on one of her whiney voices begging for a second cupcake. It's no wonder she's starting to get pimples, they always give into her.
"Ryan we've given you the answer." Dad put on one of his stern looks that meant 'don't say another word or you might not live to tell the tale.'
"Now don't ruin a wonderful thing by wanting more. Be happy and content with what you've been given. When we get it home tomorrow as soon as we've unpacked I'll set it up for you. Unless Mom wants to do all the unpacking by herself, then we can get started straight away, hey love?"
He looked at Mom. And Mom shot him one of her looks that said 'don't you even dare think about it.' And he kissed her on the head. Yuk!
"So do we have a deal?" Dad said to me.
I didn't answer.
"DEAL?" he raised his voice.
"Ok deal," I said, but I didn't know how I was going to get through the next twenty-four hours without being able to set up my precious console. Mom and Dad have this habit of bringing me down when things are looking really great. But I suppose they had a point. It was Lisa's birthday and this weekend was for her. It was the most exciting day in my whole ten years and I wasn't going to let anything ruin it for me. Even when Santa Claus brought my Play station 2 to the house and got it stuck in the chimney didn't come close to this.
Chapter 20: Unbelievable
I couldn't wait to get to school on Monday to tell everyone about my prize. I didn't even remember to ask about the play offs until Matthew greeted me at the gate. "What happened to you on Friday? Are you better now?"
"What?"
"You missed the grand final 'cos you were sick didn't you? You must have been so sick you had to go to your own funeral to have missed that."
"Oh yeah, Doh! I nearly forgot. No I wasn't sick. I was at Movie World"
"Oh sic, cool. Still, I can't believe you went on the day of the grand final."
"Yeah I know. Believe me it wasn't my first choice, or my second or even my last choice. It was Lisa's birthday so I had to go, long story, I'll tell ya later but you're never gonna believe what happened. You are going to be so jealous." I was so excited to tell him until I remembered the playoffs. I rambled on asking him questions faster than a batman car.
"So who won the play offs? Did he just award it to Nige or did Josh get to take my place? Please tell me Josh won. I couldn't stand it if Nigel won. Did you get to see it? How many people went to watch?"
"Whoa! Hang on. One question at a time," Matthew said putting his hand up near my face. "No-one went to watch it, and no, I di
dn't get to see it, and no Josh didn't win because no, he didn't take your place, and no, Nige didn't win either because you weren't here so Mr Higginbottom said we'd wait until this week when you got back and play the final then." He gasped for breath as my jaw dropped open wide enough to let a whole army of flies swarm in. I was gob smacked.
"Yyy you mean," I stuttered, unable to get the words out, "I still get to play in the grand final. I'm still in?"
"Yep," said Matthew. "I volunteered to take your place but Mr H said that you won the heats and worked hard at school so you deserved to play it out."
"You're kidding right? You're pulling my leg."
"What? I'm not touching your leg, what are you talking about?" He looked at me confused. He's so dumb sometimes. "I'm not kidding; you get to play this Friday."
We arrived at our class room door. I don't think my jaw had returned to its proper position. It was still dragging along the ground flabbergasted. I looked inside and the best ever teacher was sitting at his desk in the best ever school in the whole world. I wanted to run up and give him a big hug but I thought I would embarrass myself if I did. I couldn't wait to tell him what happened.
Chapter 21: Good Things can Come out of Bad Things
It was probably the closest play station game I had ever played but when I finally won the grand final, I made one of the weirdest, strangest decisions in my life. I decided to donate the winning game to the runner-up. That was Nigel, the nastiest boy in fifth grade. I had won five games and a console on the weekend so I decided it would be a nice idea to give somebody else some of my good luck.
And you know what; it actually felt really good to give something to someone. I'd never done that before except for birthdays and at Christmas time. It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach when Nigel said "Gee thanks Ryan, that's way cool of you to give it to me after you won it," and he smiled. I'd never seen him smile before. He didn't look so mean. After that he even asked me if I wanted to be friends, which kinda scared me a bit.
Actually it was Mom's idea to give the prize to him, but when I thought about it, it was a pretty good suggestion. I guess Mom does know what she's talking about sometimes. She was definitely right when she said, "You know, sometimes good things can come out of bad things!"
The End
Following is an excerpt of Game on Boys 2 : Minecraft Madness
Game on Boys 2 : Minecraft Madness (excerpt)
Chapter 1 : Saved By Minecraft
Noooooooooo! I can not believe it. I can not believe this is happening to me again. What is wrong with my family? Don't they have any intelligence or common sense, or any brains for that matter?
How many times are they going to ruin my life? I'm sure there is some microchip in my mom's brain that sets off an alarm when everything is going along awesomely for me. "DING!" it goes. "Things are going well for Ryan. Time to set a bomb to detonate disaster for him," says Mom's Siri messenger in her brain. Actually I'm not sure my mom has a brain sometimes. Maybe she does, but she definitely doesn't have a heart; not when it comes to me anyway. When it comes to me, my mom's heart is made of rock.
When it comes to Lisa though, it's a different story. Where Lisa is concerned, my mom's heart is as big as an elephant's bum. What Lisa wants, Lisa gets. If Lisa wants a biscuit, she gets a whole packet. If she wants a Dvd, Mom gets her five. If she wants a phone, she gets the latest.
If Lisa does something wrong, Mom forgives her and says it was the cat's fault, even though we don't have a cat. But when I do something wrong, I get life imprisonment.
Life can be so unfair when there's a 'Lisa' involved. I suppose I have to suck it up and feel sorry for her, because Mom gives her all these things to make up for the fact that she has a smaller IQ than a toothbrush. In case you don't know, an IQ is your intelligence level, and Lisa's is right down there next to ants and worms.
Ok, I know I'm sounding really spiteful, like I have middle child, psycho syndrome, suffering from lack of attention, but I don't. It's impossible, because there's only two of us. I just get a little frustrated with the imbalance of things around here that's all.
It was Saturday morning and I was staring out my bedroom window, watching the rain pelt down outside, dampening my already soggy mood. My mood was soggier than the sandwiches Mom puts in my lunch, and that's saying something.
The sky was hidden by an ominous veil of clouds similar to the blanket of dread that hung heavily over my head. Soccer had been cancelled for the day due to dangerous conditions, so I was already down in the dumps to begin with. What's so dangerous about a muddy field I want to know. If you ask me, it only makes it more fun, sloshing around in the mud, trying to kick a ball that's heavier than lead. Having a mud bath in the pouring rain is pure awesomeness!
So, when Mom told me the dirty rotten stinkin' news, I exploded. I continued to glare out the window, my eyes glazing over as my thoughts jumped between constructing buildings, fighting zombies, making cities and farming carrots and potatoes, to thinking about my mate Matthew's awesome birthday party, that I was supposed to be going to that night.
I imagined his party with bowls of candy and chips scattered around the motionless bodies of boys engrossed in a world of PlayStations and Xboxes. There would be no interruptions to ruin the video game marathon, except Matthew's Mom sneaking in with more food.
I pictured the lounge room floor, layered with bodies, wall to wall, some lying on their back, others on their elbows, while Matthew the birthday king, sat in the centre on his bean bag.
And right in the far corner, there'd be an empty spot where some poor, lost boy should have been, who didn't turn up. And that poor, forlorn boy would be me. Oh by the way, did I tell you? I HATE MY FAMILY! It's their fault that I wasn't going to be at Matthew's birthday bash, aka 'marathon video game all-nighter', 'super slayer smash up party'. Why me? WHY ME?????? Well I was determined to find a way to get to that party, even if I had to run away from home.
There was only one thing I could do to squash back the overwhelming anger and fury that was rising inside of me, taking over every cell like an enemy invading foreign terrain. I had to stop the beast from overpowering my tortured soul, and there was only one thing that I knew that could conquer the strong feelings of doom.
I flipped open my laptop, and powered the machine on. I slammed my body onto my bed angrily, trying to get rid of the anger stuck in every atom. It felt so good, so I did it again, throwing myself violently through the air before I landed. It was exhilarating, and it brought back memories of jumping up and down on the bed like a trampoline when I was five. So I threw my shoes off, and began to bounce; at first tentatively, but then vigorously reaching for the ceiling. I distinctly remembered my mom's voice echoing through the halls of history, "Get off that bed NOW! It's not a trampoline you know. You'll break the slats underneath, blah blah blah."
As if the bed would break, I thought to myself as a loud cracking sound snapped from beneath me. I cringed as I looked underneath the bed preparing myself for the worst. Two pieces of wood strayed jaggedly from each other until I carefully pushed the offending one back into position. I gently climbed back onto the bed waiting for tell-tale sounds to give me away, but there was nothing. Relieved, I decided it would be a little secret between myself and the bed. No need for my mom to find out. I just had to remember to make my bed every morning so she didn't get too close to the incriminating evidence (not that she would ever be nice and make it for me anyway). I also had to remind myself that I was possibly twice as heavy as I was when I was five, and it was probably not a good idea to use the bed as a trampoline, or anger venting machine anymore.
After my bed breaking episode, the computer had finally booted up and I could forget all my troubles for a while by playing Minecraft. I logged on, lay back on my pillow with my knees up, and placed the computer comfortably on my lap ready to take on the zombies from the Nether. I knew as ugly and beastly as their boofy, square heads were, they were good for helping me fo
rget about my annoying family and their crazy ideas.
I jumped on in as soon as the game began and headed out to create a nether reactor. On completion, the grand portal looked amazing with its gold and iron glistening in the sunshine. I was actually quite proud of my efforts. I got in and ventured out to the Nether amidst the perilous barren land, bumping into a harmless pig on the way. "Come hither you pink pedestrian," I said aloud. "Come with me and make yourself useful or be minced into pink pork pie." I tamed it with a carrot, and it gladly joined me on the adventure.
Not long after, as I trekked through the dried grass, a group of Zombie Pigmen tried to overwhelm me by ganging up on me after I provoked their leader with my sword. I tried to fend them off by damaging them with TNT ignited with flint, but they became hostile towards me and their anger enraged. My adrenalin pumped fiercely as I returned the fury slashing my sword in every direction. I could feel my blood boiling inside me as I defended myself against the savage enemy.
I relished the chance to become lost in the perilous challenges of Minecraft. After the terrible news I had received that morning, I had to immerse myself in its world of warfare and destruction, building and challenge. It was the only thing that could help ease the pain. Not even the new 'Dragonball Z' Xbox game or 'Grand Theft Auto' could eradicate the thoughts of desperation.
Minecraft was the only way I could stay cool and not lose my sanity. I need Minecraft like I need oxygen. It is a necessary part of my survival. And I'm talking about the real world here, not in the uber world of gaming.
In fact, I learnt this really interesting thing in the health lessons we have with Harold the dorky giraffe who rides around with a racy looking health teacher in a weird bus. There's this thing called 'Mambo's pyramid of needs'. Or maybe it's Manbo, or Maslow, I forget. At the bottom of the pyramid is the really important physical stuff that we couldn't live without, like water, oxygen and basic food. Whereas at the top is the less important, airy fairy stuff like love and self-esteem (that's when you love yourself), and probably candy. Well for me, Minecraft is right there on the ground floor level, sitting happily next to Oxygen and water in all their grand importance, keeping my heart and lungs ticking away nicely.
