Guardians and Angels

Chapter 19: Jack

Pew! Pew!

"Not today, Jack!" Hiccup shouted at me.

Pew! Pew!

"Oh yeah? Tell that to my headshot count!"

If you haven't guessed it already, we're playing video games... again. Don't judge us, one day these pointless hours of animated combat is going to pay off, I just know it. Until then, I need to have proficient skills ready at my disposal for emergencies.

"Game over, Frostlord wins," the console announced.

Hiccup glared at me to which I just grinned. "Wanna play again?" I urged.

He shrugged, completely brushing off his epic defeat. "Sure, why not."

We started another round with gunshots, screaming, and Hiccup's pathetic wailing vibrating the whole house. I'm surprised we haven't gone deaf, or that the neighbors haven't called the cops complaining about the noise. Or maybe the police have shown up and we just couldn't hear them pounding on the door. It honestly wouldn't surprise me.

As my character ran through the rocky terrain in search for Hiccup, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I normally would've ignored it, but since Hiccup's character just fell into a hole and couldn't get out, I decided to check who it was. It's gonna take him a while to get out of there.

Punzie: I'm home now. Yayyyyy!

I couldn't help but lightly chuckle. I can almost hear her squealing in excitement through the text.

Me: Good for you, Princess.

Punzie: I finally get my own bed again!

Punzie: Well, Merida's bed, but still.

Punzie: And I get to watch tv in bed ALL week!

Me: Something tells me you're really happy to be home.

Punzie: What gave me away?

Me: It could be the 4 extra y's on 'yay' or the fact that you're rambling a bit.

"Ha! Take that, Jack!"

I look up from my phone to see animated blood flinging out from underneath my character's helmet. Did he just..?

"How did you...?"

"Someone was a little too busy looking at their phone to realize my sneak attack," he simpered.

"That doesn't even count, I wasn't playing."

"You snooze you looze, Jack."

I glared at him and quickly respawned so I could get my revenge.

We spent another twenty minutes of us screaming and blowing each other's heads off, in the game, of course. My phone buzzed once more and I snuck a glance to see it was Rapunzel. In order to prevent giving Hiccup an advantage, I paused the game.

"Hey!"

I ignored him and looked at the text from Rapunzel.

Punzie: Have you gotten my pizza yet?

Me: You're very persistent aren't you?

Punzie: Well, yeah! I deserve it after getting stabbed.

I frowned at that. I know she's trying to be light about the subject, but it's still a sore topic for all of us, and I presumed it is for her as well. As troubling as it was, though, I needed to be more like Rapunzel and try to be light about it too. It wouldn't do any good to dwell on the sadness of it.