Chapter 1

 

As I continued to run, I started to recall everything that had happened. It all started on that particular day; it was during the summer – about a week before a new school year would start. Earlier that month, Mom heard news about a family moving into a house just down the road. I didn't really listen to what she was telling Dad at the time, but I did manage to catch that she knew the wife because they were friends in high school.

Mom's local gossip had apparently turned out to be true. The family moved into the house a couple days earlier, and it was now when Mom decided to go down and see how her old friend was doing. There wasn't really anything for me to do at the house – and I also had to admit that I was a little curious about who had moved into town – so I decided to tag along with her to meet our new neighbors.

As we neared the pink two-story house, I saw a woman about the same age as Mom step out of the front door. Upon her doing so, my mother shouted a greeting towards her. The woman almost immediately recognized Mom when she looked at her, and rushed down the couple cement steps and down the blacktop driveway. When they were finally in reach, they gave each other friendly embraces before getting into some conversation. I didn't listen to a single word they said because adult conversations weren't interesting to a nine-year-old boy like me. While the two talked, I idly looked around, trying to find something of interest that would maybe alleviate me of my boredom.

“Mom, I can't find my Game Boy Color!” said a voice.

I looked up the driveway to see a boy around my age running down it. He had short, somewhat messy black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing dark blue shorts and a white T-shirt that had Pokémon on it.

“Where did you put it last?” his mother asked him as he finally reached her.

“I dunno,” he said. “I don't remember.”

“Well I haven't seen it. Look in your room. I'm sure it's in there somewhere.”

His mother looked back at Mom, making some comment about how kids are always losing stuff. The boy didn't bother saying anything else to his mother, but instead looked at me.

“Hey, I'm Jack,” he said, smiling. “What's your name?”

“Jay,” I replied.

“Why don't you two go inside and play?” Jack's mom suggested as she looked down at us.

Jack looked up at his mom and shrugged before looking at me.

“You want to?” he asked me.

I looked up at Mom questioningly to see if she had any objections.

“Go ahead,” she told me.

“Okay, let's go then,” I said.

I followed Jack up his driveway and to his house. When we got inside, he took his shoes off and I emulated him, figuring that there was probably some rule against wearing your shoes in the house. He suggested that we should go up to his room and I didn't protest. I followed him up a flight of carpeted stairs, which were slightly darkened due to the lack of lighting, making it hard to see each individual step. I somehow managed to get up them regardless though and I followed him into a room on the right.

“Here it is,” he said, standing a little proudly as I stepped into the room.

I looked around a little. The carpet was a pale blue and the walls were of a similar color, but a bit lighter in shade. A bunk bed sat in the corner of the room with a small nightstand beside it, which was covered with miscellaneous items such as candy wrappers and small toys. In another corner was the closet, which was opened to reveal the hanged clothes and the pile of toys at the bottom. Against the wall next to the doorway was a somewhat short wooden dresser, which had a small television sitting on top of it.

“Wanna play Nintendo 64?” he asked me.

I agreed and he walked over to his bed. After pushing a few of the scattered toys to the side, he got down on all fours and reached underneath the bed. A couple seconds later, he pulled out a plastic transparent bin filled with several games that belonged to the system.

“Oh, I was wondering where this was,” he stated, apparently more to himself than to me, as he picked up his blue Game Boy Color.

Jack studied it for a moment as if to make sure it wasn't ruined before setting it on the bed. He turned his attention back to the games before picking one out of the bin and holding it up while asking,

“Wanna play this one?”

“Okay,” I replied.

Jack walked over to the Nintendo 64, which was sitting on the floor in front of the dresser. He put the game in the slot before turning on the television and game console. Both of us grabbed a controller and waited for Super Smash Bros. to start. It was then when I realized something.

“How do you play?” I asked him.

He quickly told me the controls before we started to play the game. Even though he had told me what buttons did what, it was still hard for me to play. This was my first time playing a Nintendo 64 game, so every time I wanted to push a button, I had to glance down at the controller. By the time I finally found the one I wanted to press, I was usually either knocked off the side and had no chance to recover, or I was knocked off the screen completely.

“I win!” Jack cried triumphantly when I had lost all three of my lives.

“No fair, you were cheating!” I said.

“Nuh-uh, you just stink,” he replied with a grin. “Wanna play again?”

“Yeah,” I said. We started to select what characters we wanted to use this time. “So where're you from?”

“Chicago,” he replied as he started to choose the stage we were going to play at.

“Where's that?”

“It's—um. . .” He paused. It was obvious that the cogs were turning in his head. “A little far from here.”

The answer didn't really help me understand that it was west from Ohio, but the answer sufficed. We continued to play the game; I lost every single time, but by the time we played our tenth match, I was able to stay alive much longer than what I did on our first one. As we played, we continued to talk, mainly about the things that we liked. I found out that we liked a lot of the same cartoons and video games (they were a big part of my life).

About an hour later, Jack's mother shouted from downstairs that Mom said I had to go. I told Jack bye before walking out of the house and down to the street where Mom stood. When I finally reached her, we started to make our way up the street. I had a lot of fun with Jack that day, even if it was only for a short period of time, and I hoped that we could maybe become good friends sometime soon.

Author's Note

Is the dialogue and the chapter itself believable enough?

Reviews

[courtney]

i'm really getting into the story its hard to stop reading it. the only thing i do see how ever is you need alittle more filler so your story will flow smoother. it sort of fills like its jumpy. as for him remebering this while running throught the airport i think its genious people in real life have flash backs like this all the time it just seems to happen faster so i have to disagree with amund schofield on that one.

[Eidolon Michael]

Yes, it was all very believable ^_^ And YAY SUPER SMASH BROS!!! *is a major Smash Bros. fan

[Amund Schofield]

The dialouge and the chapter over all is believable. However the part where he's remembing all of this while running through an air port... not so much.... then again they do that in hollywood.