Atomic Rebooted

22. Secret Weapon

CLAIRE

With all the weirdness that had taken over my life entirely, I was grateful for esports practice.

I was ready for Mage Sword and to take out all the tension and aggression that had been building in my body since last Thursday into our first in-person practice since the monorail accident.

Esports was a developing circuit— more had been established outside of New Kingsbury than within our city limits. I guess that for all the progress and innovation that our local government liked to tout, there were some things that still had yet to catch on, even with adequate time.

As a result, our coach was my astronomy teacher, a Mr. Kramer who was known for being an all-around cool dude and certified geek. When the circuit had first developed, around my freshman year, one of the older students had gone to him, asking if he wanted to help. Because the school gave a bonus to the teachers that supervised after-school activities, he eagerly accepted.

In the four years that had passed, the North Kingsbury Narwhals had developed into one of the superstars in the area with his wisdom and years of video game experience to help us— even if it was all technically amateur.

Since sixth period was his planning period, he'd take the time to go and get snacks and stuff for us when he'd gotten whatever he'd needed done for his actual classes.

So none of us were surprised when we walked into the room and Mr. Kramer wasn't there. The others were all there— Leta, Matty, Reid, Christine, and Henry, but none of them were doing anything.

Leta sat on a desk, listening to music as she texted someone.

Christine was working on her homework— as a studious and petite freshman, she always had this awkwardness about her that stemmed from being the youngest in the group.

Reid and Henry were talking about the latest trailer for the next Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, an extensive RPG game series that was set in the same world as Mage Sword.

Matty was reading through a strategy guide for an older vintage game— the kind that he liked to go through the challenge of making work in his rig so that he could upload Let's Plays for them in his free time.

I liked to watch his Let's Plays when I had the time— which admittedly, which was few and between. But teammates have to support each other.

I believed that then, and I believe it now.

"Hey!" I cried as I dropped my messenger bag on a random desk. "We should start hooking up our rigs!"

"But we don't know how to set up the part that shows the entire match on the TV," Reid pointed out, gesturing the ancient blocky TV that sat precariously atop a black cart with rusty wheels.

"I do," I said, kneeling down to work the jumble of cords— but one important one was missing. "Does anyone know where the AV chord is?"

Most just shook their heads, but Matty ventured a guess without looking up from his strategy guides.

"During my period, the media center had to get him a different TV and rack because the other one crapped out during the documentary about the Challenger," Matty offered.

"I'll go see if the media center has an AV chord, then." I was reluctant, but it made more sense than just sitting on our butts waiting for our coach to come back with the snacks.

I headed into the media center in time to see none other than Malcolm McQueen working on finishing shelving books.

"I didn't know you did Media Studies as your sixth period," I said as I approached.