The Legacy of Avalon: The Boy, the Elder and the Sword - PREVIEW

Chapter 1: The once and future king of button football

Chapter 1

The once and future king of button football

"Okay, let's go... Letter A. Game on!"

Aurelio's eyes locked onto the sheet of paper in his notebook, just like the other students from the 7th grade, class B. The paper was divided into vertical columns, a copy of what the substitute teacher had drawn on the blackboard with chalk. At the top of each column, names of different categories had been written: C.S.C., King/Emperor/President, Historic Event, Historic Monument, Weapon or Combat Vehicle, Hitler is..., and Total.

It was the third time the titular high-school History teacher had skipped class that month, maybe the tenth in the year. Great. History was just Aurelio's favorite class, no big deal. As always, the substitute they'd sent didn't know diddlysquat about the subject, and Julio, the class representative, proposed the game "Historic Stop" again, teaching the confused teacher how to play it along with his students. It wasn't that Aurelio didn't like the game, but playing for the fourth time in a row when the teacher could be lecturing on the period when Brazil was Portugal's colony (because according to his schoolbook, that's what they what they were supposed to be learning by now) was driving him mad already. Furthermore, he was certain he wouldn't be able to fill in all the columns with words starting with "A". Winning a Stop game was far easier when playing with consonants.

In the C.S.C. (standing for City, State, and Country) column, he'd written "Antarctica", certain that the vast majority would go for "Australia" or "Argentina". When more than one kid uses the same name, they're granted only half the points on that turn. It was fair to take into account that Antarctica was a continent, not a country, but in the last round, Mariana, who sat in the far back of the class, had gone for "Oceania" when filling the C.S.C. column with the letter O, and the substitute teacher had validated it.

Being good at geography and his hobby of skimming through the Atlas proved themselves useful in situations like these. He could remember places in the world the majority of his classmates didn't even know existed – there was a flipside, though. They'd often suspect he was making those up, and to make matters worse, more often than not the teacher himself would be unsure about their existence.

Under "Historic Event" he scribbled, "Amador Bueno's Proclamation", an event he read about briefly while skimming through the History book before class began. It was when São Paulo proclaimed its own king or something. He advanced to "Historic Monument" and wrote "Avenida Rio Branco" so fast he nearly broke his pencil's point – which would had eliminated him automatically because of the time it'd take to sharpen it again. The avenue wasn't a historic spot in itself, but it was filled with landmarks and memorials, as he recalled from his last visit. In case the substitute argued with him, that was how he'd state his case. There was no need to worry about getting him angry. Most likely scenario was he'd never see the man again after today.

Under "Weapon or Combat Vehicle", Aurelio jotted down "Aircraft" in order to differentiate himself from the rest of the group, which would most likely write "Airplane", they'd tie and get half their points. When it was time to fill in the "Hitler is..." slot, he entered "Amiable". Contradictory as it may have seemed, Hitler had to have been amiable to someone else, perhaps Mussolini. In reality, that category served as great cussing generator – the substitute teacher, however, didn't seem to care much about it. A mild recommendation for his students to soften their language and that was it.

Only one slot left: King, Emperor, or President. Aurelio was caught in a blank. What name starting with "A" could he fill in? In a desperate hush to end first, he merely wrote "Amador Bueno", wondering if the teacher would poke a needle at the fact that, in a way, he had written that name twice. But wasn't that Amador Bueno guy acclaimed King of São Paulo, even if for little time? It was valid then. He gulped a deep breath of air and, letting go of his pencil, he shouted out while raising an arm: