VBL

VBL

Chapter 2

Nora is sound asleep on her bed, in her new room. There’re still a few boxes not fully unpacked but most of her figures, books, and posters fill out her room nicely. Nora is dreaming.

In her dream Nora is standing on a large stage inside a large stadium. There isn’t a single empty seat, as the excited crowd roars for their favorite player. Nora walks over to the table where there is a T.V/ game console combo, followed by two empty seats. Nora sits in one of the seats, while her opponent sits in the adjacent seat. They both plug in their own controllers, pick their characters, and start the game. The first game is close, but Nora comes out on top. Her opponent wins the second game, meaning it comes down to one more round. The crowd roars from excitement. After a long, and drawn-out last round, Nora finally wins! She jumps from her chair, fists in the air and the crowd screaming her name!

“Nora! You’re going to be late for your first day!” Jasmine yells from the bottom step of the staircase.

The image of the stadium with Nora holding the trophy collapses as Nora wakes up. She slowly lifts her head from the pillow, hair frizzy, and lifeless eyes. She lets out a big yawn.

**

Nora is uncomfortably standing in front of the gate of her new school. Parket High school. She looks at her student map, that’s meant to tell her where all her classes are.

**

Nora is standing right in front of her new classroom. Matching up the classroom number with what her map says.

Nora inner thoughts: I could still just walk away. Skip school for today. My parents won’t be home until 6pm so they would be none the wiser.

She stands still for a few seconds, giving the idea serious thought. Until she knocks on the door.

“Come in.”

A voice yells out. Nora opens the door and realizes that it’s a full classroom, with all eyes immediately on her. Making her pay sudden attention to her breathing. Feeling the beat of sweat go down her neck. She walks to the front of the class. Each footstep feeling like a whole minute.

“Ahh, yes. Class this is our newest student, Nora Maxim. Her family just moved to Strand city.” The teacher explains. “Is that correct?”

“Yes. Both of my parents are in the military, so we move around a lot.” Nora explains.

“Well Nora my name is Mrs. Holiday, and we have a small tradition here in Parket High where the class asks you any question in 30 seconds. This is to get to know you better, ready?” Mrs. Holiday asks.

“Well, I.” Before Nora can object a few students barrage her with sudden questions.

“What other cities have you lived in?”, “Did you ever date long distance?”, “Are you a gamer?”, “Are you a nerd?”, “Gamer and nerd are the same things, idiot”, “No they’re not, stupid!”, random classmates blurt out.

“Now, now class. One question at a time. “Don’t overwhelm her.,” Mrs. Holiday chimes in. “Sorry, you can answer any question you may have heard in that chaos.”

Nora already looks overwhelmed, sweating more than she already was. Her eye’s darting back to some of the people that asked questions, mixed in with people who clearly don’t care.

“Um, well I think someone asked if I was a gamer – “

A red headed girl immediately raises her hand. Her curly red hair flows freely on her shoulders, while her posture is perfect, and her demeanor is sincere. This is Faith Storm (15).

“Yeah, that was me!” Faith clarifies.

Nora inner thoughts: Wow, she’s really pretty. She seems so confident too.

“I – I actually am a gamer.,” Nora stammers.

“What sort of games do you play?” Faith immediately asks in response.

“Oh, umm fighting games. Street Fighter, Tekken, Mortal Kombat.” Nora clarifies.

“Woah did you hear her?” “She said it so casually”, “She’s already annoying”, “You’re crazy, gamer girls are so hot”, “she should join the gaming club!” the classroom breaks into multiple conversations once again.

“If I’m being honest… I won’t be around long enough to get to know any of your names. So, you don’t have to focus on remembering mine.” Nora says.

The class goes quiet. A few students look surprised, while a few look amused. Although Mrs. Holiday doesn’t look happy with Nora’s comment.

“Okay Ms. Maxim, you can take your seat now. We have an opened chair right behind Faith.” Mrs. Holiday tells Nora.

Nora walks over to her new seat, still feeling some rogue set of eyes on her. She sits down and looks down at her desk. As Nora walks by Faith, Faith can’t help but give a slight smirk at Nora.

Faith inner thoughts: Interesting.

Nora inner thoughts: Why did I say that? Now people are going to think I’m some stuck-up military brat.

**

It’s lunch time. The atmosphere is a minor chaos. Students talk over each other, laugh at/with each other, and talk about things they don’t like. Dozens of students who didn’t bring their own lunch wait in the overcrowded lunch line. Nora is somewhere in the middle of the line when she overhears a loud conversation between some students behind her. She keeps her eyes forward.

“Did you hear Javier was pretty close to beating Brian in their last match!”

“You always say that! Those two must’ve fought each other a dozen times but Javier never wins!”

“Dude, Brian is the TRUE KING. The man almost never loses a VBL match!”

“I bet Takeshi would give him a run for his money!”

“I’m more surprised the two of them never had a proper match before.”

“There’s rumors that they both had a secret match behind closed doors.”

“And?”

“I bet Brian won.”

“God, would you hop off this man’s band wagon?”

Nora inner thoughts: What’s VBL?