Welcome to the Family

Chapter 1

Allow me to introduce everyone to you: Charles, probably the most intense of us and most passionate about gaming. He technically founded the group and grew up with his head wrapped around gaming. As you can imagine any guy that lives for gaming, isn’t active. He’s heavy and would rather play Madden then go outside. Unlike Charles and the rest of us, Harvey has a girlfriend. Everyone obviously envies Harvey because he’s the least likely to be a gamer. His girlfriend is tall, blonde, and gorgeous. And Harvey himself? - the starting pitcher on his baseball team, with a full ride to the University of Alabama. The oddball of the group is Charles’ best friend Tayler, who is actually Harvey’s cousin. Tayler is scrawny and basically the complete opposite of Harvey. Ty is the least talkative of bunch but the most strategic of the group. The newest member of the group is James- the most comedic of the group. With laugh lines at the age of 20, he laughs at everything and can make a joke out of every situation. And that leaves me. The only female in the group, but still a hard-core gamer. Our late night game sessions and the ‘drop everything and get on’ situations are what bring us together- despite living 1,000’s of miles apart, we still are the closest family members each of us have.

“Hurry, plant the bomb!” Harvey yelled into his microphone, towards Tayler. Mission clock about to expire! The game narrated.

I spectator the last round due to lagging out of the game session and was waiting for the game to be over and dinner to be ready. Mission failed, RTB for retasking. “God dammit, what is that, four in a row?” Charles crunched another cheese curl. “I’m sick of this game, GTA anyone?”

“I’m in,” I said quickly and took the disc out of my Xbox tray, replacing it with the GTA disc.”So Harvey, when do you leave for ‘Bama?”

“Classes start in August, but training starts in July. Are you guys coming down for graduation?” Harvey lived in Alabama, which was almost 600 miles away from me. I’ve made the trip twice to be there for his 16th birthday, and for his parents wedding.

I heard the call for dinner, “I should be able to make it, what day?” James chuckled about who-knew-what.

“Shoot, okay guys, I’ll be back in a little, dinner time.” I muted my microphone and took the headset off as I walked out of my room.

The smell of steak and baked potatoes filled my nose as I entered our newly remolded kitchen. “Dad, that smells amazing. Where’s Liv and Karson?” Liv was my step-mom, who he married five years ago. And Karson was my little brother, who they had together.

My dad handed me a plate with food already on it, “she’s picking up something on her way home from work later. They changed her hours at the hospital. And Kar is sleeping. Just us tonight, Lar.”

I took the plate and sat it on the table and grabbed a tea from the fridge, opening the aluminum can with my chipped red painted nails. “Well that’s stupid! She just had them changed again, can’t she complain?”

“Unfortunately no, it’s a hospital they need the help, at least she is getting more hours.” My dad finished cutting his steak up, “but anyways, how was work today?”

I took a bite of my food, “it was boring as usual. I’m thinking about just quitting and becoming a stripper.” I chuckled, “Actually dad, so you remember Harvey, right? He lives in Alabama and stuff.”

My dad shrugged, “briefly, why?”

“Well he’s graduating soon, and we were all going to go hang out with him before he leaves for college.” I sipped my tea and waited for an answer.

“I don’t know, Lara. You’d have to take off work and don’t forget that you start classes soon, too. I’d be fine paying for it, it’s just you have to watch Karson, as well.”