Troy High

Chapter 1

It was a late Sunday afternoon when I kissed my best friend.

We had been playing our favorite video game, Martial Battle 2, in his parents den. Playing video was something we did a lot. Kissing was not.

"Oh you are so dead, Cassie Prince," Greg Mennon growled, his eyes locked on the TV screen.

We watched as the two fighters on the screen lunged toward each other. My fighter, a woman dressed in a long flowing gown, grabbed Greg's hulking fighter and slung him over her shoulder. The screen proclaimed, CASSIE WINS!

"That's what you think" I said, kicking Greg's foot with my own. "I even beat in heels."

"You cheat" Greg told me.

I snorted. "Yeah, okay. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and believe that I cheat and not that you just suck"

Greg hit the button on his controller to start a new game and the Choose a Character screen appeared.

"So tomorrow's the big day" he said as he selected his next fighter. "We go back to being enemies again"

I rolled my eyes. " Wow, I can hardly wait."

Every school had a bit of a rivalry with the other schools, but the one between Lacede High and Troy High was legendary. It made sense, I suppose, that our mascot were the Spartans and Trojans, respectively. Just as the Greeks and Trojans battled thousands of years ago, our schools fought on the football field.

The rivalry gad been going on since before my parents had been in high school. Back in in the 1950s, right after Troy High was Lacede and Troy played their first football game against each other. The game took place at Lacede and everything was going fine-until the fourth quarter. Then a Trojan player caught the ball just before being  roughly shoved out of bounds by a Spartan. Or at least, that's the Trojan version of the story. The Spartans claim that the Trojan had stepped out of bounds. The Trojan shoved the Spartan back and the  coaches had to break them up so the game could continue. The referee sided with the Spartans.

But that wasn't the end of it. the next time the Trojans lined up to the start their offensive play, one of the Spartans said the Trojans played football like little girls and they should try cheerleading instead. The quarterback leaped out of position to lunge at the Spartan and wrestle him to the ground. Soon, all of the players even the ones who had been sitting on the sidelines at the time, were throwing punches at one another.  And a bloody brawl ensued.

Troy lost the game, the Trojan quarterback was banned from the team the rest of the season, and war between the schools had been declared. During the time of my parents turn at Troy, some guys and let a bunch of pigs loose during a dance a Lacede. In revenge, the Spartans had rigged up buckets of soured milk to dump onto the Trojans when they had entered the school one morning.

The rivalry was a thing of legend around two neighboring school districts. Everyone had a story. Everyone like to act as if they played a part in continuing the saga. 

Greg went to Lacede High .

I went to Troy.

Greg pressed the Start button and our fighters appeared onscreen again, staring at each other while the count down flashed between them.

I punched at the buttons on my controller, making my fighter throw a wild series of punches and kicks so fast that Greg could barely get his fighter out of the way in time.

"Twenty bucks says Lacede High  kicks Troy's butt this season" Greg grunted as his fingers tried to keep up with mine.

My dancing lady tried to grab Greg's blue wolverine, but he jumped out of the way at the last second, flying over her head to land behind her and grab her around the waist. The wolverine swung the dancing lady over his head, but I got her to free herself and somersault through the air, then land gracefully.