Trollhunters - first meetings - (various x reader)

Chapter 11

You stood at one of the round tables at the back of Alex's Arcade. The loud music was muffled and only faint in this part of the building and the light was less neon-ish and more like regular lighting.
Toby and Jim stood next to you on either side, forming a triangle around the table's chapped edge.

All of your six eyes were focused on what was laying on the table. Even the lamp above you seemed to be anxiously waiting for someone to speak as it gave a small flicker, shortly darkening the space and then brightening it up again.

Three small heaps of tickets sat before Jim, Toby and you. You were currently sorting them into a neat, grid-like cluster to be able to count them faster.
Once you were done, there was one thing you could tell immediately and that was that Jim definitely went into third place for this competition.
His finished cluster was two lines smaller than both Toby's and yours.

The question was how you'd hold up against the chubbier boy, who loved to play videogames late into the night and definitely had more skill with them too.
You were feverishly counting your tickets but you kept getting thrown off and restarting.

Knowing that Thomas was hiding behind the corner not too far from Jim's back wasn't helping your nervousness right now either.

The blue-eyed boy glanced to you as he had just finished counting his smaller cluster.
"I got eighteen tickets in total," he announced, already sounding pretty disappointed. Seemed like he too had noticed the much higher amount of tickets his friends had.

Tobias spoke up next, puffing his chest proudly. He had a lot more confidence, which made you worry a little.
"Don't worry, Jimbo, I'll go easy on you," said the light brown-haired teen with a grin, "I have twenty-eight tickets!"
It looked like he was about to start a victory dance when he remembered that you still had to reveal your amount.
Halting with his hands already midair, Toby looked to you, an expression of anticipation on his round face.

You went through the tickets, your (e/c) eyes skipping from one spot to the next over and over until you had reached the last.

...
Did you count that right?

Deciding to play it safe, you ignored the impatient boys and counted again.

...
You did count right.

"I-.." you began, "..-have twenty-nine."

"What!? No waaaaaaay!" Toby threw his short arms up into the stuffy air, letting out a groan of defeat as he slumped back down, "you're way too lucky, (Y/n)!"

Rubbing the back of your head, you let out a small chuckle.
"I guess I am, yeah."
You quickly threw a short glance toward the corner, spotting Thomas' thumbs-up and smile before he went back into hiding. You really were lucky.

Without the tall boy's help, you wouldn't have been able to beat even Jim's eighteen tickets. You'd have to keep your promise and buy him ice cream later.

"I already know we're going to suffer, my dear friend Jim!" exclaimed Tobias and hung himself onto his thin buddy, faking a crying expression pretty well.
Jim only smiled at Toby's overdramatic reaction, shaking his head softly.
"Come on, Tobes, (Y/n)'s dares can't be that bad.." he told him but then quickly grew uncertain as he threw you a look, "..right?"

You couldn't help but smirk impishly in response.

"Oh god," was all Jim uttered while a horrified expression came over his face.
You could tell he was already imagining all sorts of embarrassing things that you might possibly dare him to do. He was also probably remembering your teasing from before, regarding his crush on Claire.

"Come on, let's get some fresh air before I dish out the dares," you told the two boys, grabbing your tickets with a victorious feeling and stuffing them into the pocket of your (c/o/c) hoodie. Maybe you'd exchange them for something one day or give them to Thomas as thanks. Not like you actually wanted any of those rather cheap plastic trophies they handed out here.
Right now you wanted to enjoy this glorious triumph.