NO SURPRISES --- Steve Harrington

CHAPTER ONE.

- NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
- luneetoilex.

' PLAY THEIR GAMES UNTIL YOU DONT. '

   "YOU CAN NEVER BEAT THE MASTER," Amelia cackled, grabbing Dustin by the head and shaking him with excitement with her unbeaten high score.

   "I hate this overpriced bullshit!" He slammed the screen with the palm of his hand in defeat, "Son of a bitch! Piece of shit!" It only made Amelia laugh harder until she was doubled over with laughter leaning against one of the machines.

   "You're not nimble enough little Dustpan, you'll get there someday..." She sighed dramatically, falling into the machine "But until then, I am the master of Dragons Lair!" Dustin gave the machine a final thump and Lucas snorted in laughter.

   "Whatever, I'm still tops on Centipede and DigDug." He shrugged. The crunch of cheetos between teeth echoed behind them and they turned to face the greasy weirdo that was Keith - the arcade manager. Keith had been crushing on Amelia since middle school and it had gotten old fast.

   "You sure about that?" Horror struck Amelia's face as it dawned on her what he meant. Someone had beaten his high score and it would be all she would hear about from the party for weeks until he reclaimed it.

   "Sure about what?" Dustin was blissfully ignorant to what Keith meant for a moment before it hit him. "No no no - move - no no no no!" The DigDug leaderboard now shown DUSTIN in second place and MADMAX in first with-

   "751,300 points!"

   "That's impossible!"

   "It's right there Sinclair, of course it's possible," Dustin turned to face Keith with his cheeto fingers "Who's MadMax?"

   "Better than you." Amelia rolled her eyes at the guy, folding her hands over her chest as she watched the kid grumble over his lost high score.

   "Is it you?" Mike accused - Keith despised DigDug

   "You know I hate DigDug"

   "Who is it then?" Amelia knitted her brows, squinting her eyes at the greasy manager. Slouchy band t-shirt she stole from Maia falling off her shoulder and bun loose in her hair, bangs and stray pieces falling in her eyes. She looked like she just rolled out of bed - because the party had shown up at her window, stole the parties collective jar of quarters and dragged her out with them.