My name is Logan Daniels.
Before I lost my title as the ping-pong champion at Ridrik High, my life was pretty good. I was a sophomore in high school, top of my class, and, until today, captain of the ping-pong team. And to think the day started so wonderfully, but it ended very, very badly. My downfall really began during lunch in the middle of a very serious conversation.
"I'm telling you for the last time Collin, Harry Potter is ten times better than The Lord of the Rings will ever be!" Brian insisted angrily, slamming his hairy fist on the table.
"Dude, cool it! You spilled my chocolate milk," Collin complained as he dabbed up the contents of his overturned carton. "And no way!" he continued. "The Lord of the Rings is based off of the Volsungasaga, a very important historical document. Harry Potter is just a school full of pansies pointing sticks at each other and yelling gibberish!"
"Oh cut it out you two. The Hunger Games is ten times better than the both of them," Claire chided from beside Logan at the two across the table.
These are my friends. Yes, we are nerds. No, we're not the pocket protectors and buck teeth kind. Just the social outcasts who banded together so we didn't have to sit alone at lunch. Trust me, there's nothing worse than bad food and no one to talk to.
I Logan preside over the group as their fearless leader, a position that was more or less thrown upon me. I was the reason the group came together after all. Perhaps there was a raffle or secret election to declare me their overlord, but I'm not sure.
Collin Davis was the newest to the group. I picked him up in the beginning of Freshman year. He was a small, gothic guy with long greasy black hair and eyes the color of charcoal. He couldn't have had many friends before high school. Tell you the truth, he kind of scares me a little. But, then again, everything scares him.
I've known Brian Wood far longer. It was four years ago on the first day of seventh grade when I first met him. Small little guy, but he already was sporting some whiskers. Brian has a weird leg condition and walks with a bit of a limp. This made him an easy target for the school bullies. I always was the biggest guy in the grade and stood up for him. We've been best friends ever since.
As for Claire Reader, I really can't remember how long that I've known her. Something tells me that it was for a really long time, but I can't draw up specific memories from before this year. It's like, I felt she was there but just can't see her. But, I never did have the best memory. I could've sworn I knew her before Brian, but they always seemed to go way back. Perhaps he introduced me to her. Doesn't really matter though.
She always was kind of the misfit of the group. Misfit in the best possibly way, of course. She's incredibly athletic, talented, and downright beautiful. The only way she remotely fits in is because she is a major band geek. She can play any instrument that you put in front of her as though she'd been doing it her whole life. She's kind of obsessed with music. Always humming some little ditty. With long blonde hair, perfect blue eyes, and being overall pretty awesome, she could easily do better than our measly group. But I'm not complaining. I'm glad she stays.
It's not just that I enjoy her company. At first I just liked her as I would any other friend, I mean, you've got to like your friends, but over the course of this last year the feelings grew stronger. Butterflies in my stomach. Frogs in my throat. I'd need to make a call to animal control to fix all the issues. The only person I've told about this is Brian, but he seems surprisingly opposed to the idea. I thought it was like an understood law of guyhood that you support the romantic interests of others. He always just said, "It's for the best," and left it at that. What does Brian know though? All that the scruffy guy cares about is what we're having for lunch.
But when I think about it, I really don't have much of a chance with her. She is practically a goddess, but I'm nothing more than a nerd whose only talent is being good with a screwdriver. I can do practically anything with a screwdriver and a little time. To be quite frank, I'm not incredibly good looking. Just average with long brown hair and eyes to match. The only thing even slightly exceptional about me is my size and strength.
"Whatever! Katniss is such an unrealistic character." Collin argued as our conversation continued.
"And Gandalf's furry toed little munchkins are realistic?" Claire countered sarcastically.
I tried to maintain a neutral position on such an important discussion and refused to argue anyone's side in the discussion. My opinion would inevitably be biased.
It was about the time that Brian had Collin in a chokehold to entice a change of heart when Otus and Chia arrived in the lunch room with their signature idiotic grins. It wouldn't be half bad if they had decent teeth, but considering they were two of the biggest and most aggressive linemen on the football team, dental surgery didn't really seem all that worth it, seeing as they would only be knocked out again. They both had to duck to get through doorways and walked with a hunch like Quasimodo.
I had been tinkering with my newest project before they approached. Essentially I'm "pimping out" an old remote control car that I found at thrift store. Only ran me a dollar fifty, but wouldn't you know it, at first the thing wouldn't even work. But, needless to say, I finally put some life back into and rewired it. So far, I've given it everything from both front and rear view camera's with live feed to my remote to a speaker system with a mike and enough horsepower to pull a large load under the right conditions. Seeing the potential destruction that Otus and Chia could cause, I quickly stashed it in my backpack.
"What do you two want?" Claire demanded as they approached, taking charge as usual. She very clearly tensed at the sight of them, and Brian quickly let go of Collin and shook in his seat. Our group has had some bad run-ins with these guys before, and we were in no mood to confront them again. Cleaning toilet water off Collin was only fun once.
"Nuthin'" Chia said with a deep gravelly voice. That dumb grin never left his face. The guy wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he'd break one of your bones in a heartbeat.
"Can't we just come and have a chat with our good friends?" Otus asked innocently in an equally earthy voice. They both sat down at the table opposite each other, Otus squeezing in beside Claire and Chia beside Collin. I felt sorry for both of them. A mutual chill went down all of their backs, and we shared the same thought, This isn't going to end well. "Heard you losers are pretty good at ping-pong. Football practice is cancelled this afternoon, so we'd like to join you for a game, if you don't mind. Might even try out for the team."
The whole point of their ping-pong team was to get out of the mandatory after school athletics program. If you weren't involved in a sport, then you were forced to be in a crowd with the rest of your sweaty grade and do meaningless stretches and exercises. Not exactly our cup of tea. Thus the ping-pong team was born. Collin stumbled upon the table in one of the disused rooms in the old gym, and the idea grew from there. We've been goofing off playing ping-pong in the afternoon for over a year now. And even though we aren't too serious about it, we're pretty good.
"Absolutely no-" Brian began in protest before I cut him off.
"Fine," I agreed simply. The rest of the group sputtered their protests, but I continued anyway, "Claire and I will take you on if it's a place on the team you want. Beat us, and you've got it." I was fairly confident that Claire and I could beat the snot out of the two thickheads. Sure, they were bigger… And stronger… And bench pressed with bleachers… But I decided they were undoubtedly a lot slower too. I myself am not exceptionally fast, but once Claire gets going, all that's visible is a blur. It's actually kind of scary how good she is. Plus, with the modifications that I'd made to my paddle, no one could beat me. It's why I'm the captain.
"Good," Chia said slowly, his dumb grin now a wicked one. I couldn't help but notice a brief look exchanged between Brian and Claire. It was as though they knew something he didn't. It made me uneasy, but I ignored it.
"See you then," Otus assured us with an equally wicked grin. The two gargantuan goons then rose, being sure to shake the table in the process, completely emptying Collin's milk carton, and stalked off to another side of the lunch room to torment some other poor defenseless kid.
"Are you out of your mind, Logan?" Brian demanded as soon as the two were out of ear shot. "Those guys are going to kill us! All they want is to catch us alone!"
"Yeah, dude, mundo bad idea! This is worse than the time that General Motti insulted Darth Vader!" Collin said, freaking out a little. "It's only going to end badly for us! Remember the last time? The bathroom incident?"
I had to stifle a chuckle at that. It actually was pretty funny. "Don't worry you guys," I said reassuringly. "Claire and I can handle these numbskulls. Right Claire?" I asked turning to her for support. Surely she wasn't a scaredy cat. But on her face I found not agreement but a worried frown.
"You have no idea what you're up against, Logan," she said seriously. "We should not show up this afternoon. It'll only end badly. We can't beat them."
"Yeah!" Brian agreed, nodding furiously, his curly hair bouncing with his head. "What she said. They'll cream you guys! And not into the good kind of cream!"
I stared at him in confusion for a moment. "What's the good kind?" I asked out of pure curiosity.
"You know, like vanilla or chocolate. You guys will be pummeled into like pistachio or something like that."
"I see," I said, still not sure that Brian knew what he was talking about.
"I kind of like pistachio…" Collin mumbled quietly, resulting in a stare of disbelief from all at the table.
"Anyways," Claire continued without missing a beat. "It's almost time for Christmas break. Those guys will only ruin your Christmas spirit. You should be more concerned with getting pumped for the camp that we've been telling you about," she said enthusiastically. As usual, Brian affirmed everything Claire said.
"And what a better way to end our break than by beating these guys in a game of ping-pong?" I asked with a grin. "This is our game. We've got this. First we'll show the Neanderthals who's boss, then we'll chill at this camp you guys talk about so much for the next two weeks." Even though they talked about it a lot, I still know almost nothing about it. I'm not too concerned though.
"The sooner we get there the better," Brian said rather ominously. The closer it got to Christmas break, the more comments like these he seemed to make. In fact, he and Claire did seem a bit more on edge lately. I brushed it off as them being excited for a break from school.
The ring of a loud bell signaled the end of the lunch period and a five minute break before the next class. I'd already taken my tray and was ready to roll. I couldn't help but overhear Claire whisper, "Today," to Brian. Codeword perhaps? I wasn't sure, but I looked at Collin and said, "Fish sticks," with a very serious look on my face just to throw them off. I wasn't about to be outdone.
Of course, Collin had to go and ruin it by saying, "What?" but oh well.
"Meet you over at the gym after class," I said as a brief goodbye and quickly headed towards the door, not wanting to be late. My schedule doesn't correspond with my friends for many classes, as most of them had quite a bit of trouble paying attention in class. Something about ADHD or ADD some other acronym invented as an excuse for laziness. It' not easy for me either, but I manage it a lot better and was put in more difficult classes. I looked back only for a moment and saw Claire and Brian whispering something to each other frantically again. I was beginning to get a little suspicious, but I had algebra to keep my mind busy.
My next three classes were all rather dull and seemed to drone on forever. My only comic relief the whole time was in ethics class, which I have with Brian. It's hard for me to pay attention with Brian sitting beside me gnawing through all of the pencils in his case. I always thought it was just a nervous tick because he had a crush on the teacher, Ms. Rose, but he genuinely seems to enjoy them. Who was I to ruin his fun?
Luckily, ethics was the last class of the day, so we could walk over to the gym together. It was better to travel in packs around this place.
"Are you seriously going to go through with this, Logan?" Brian asked with a quiver in his voice referring to ping-pong. "I talked to Claire and we think that we might be able to take our break a little early. All of our exams are done for the semester, and we have enough sick days saved up to take off for the rest of the week," he explained urgently as they neared the gym. "Claire has even set up a means of transportation for us to leave today. But if we're going to do this, we need to leave now."
"And miss out on our ping-pong game? I think not," I said and never broke out of my long stride. Brian seemed to be almost galloping to keep up. "Wait a minute. How has she already set a means transportation up? It's like a four hour drive from Boston to New York. No one in their right mind is going to agree to that kind of trip last minute," I asked rather puzzled. "Kind of unnecessary."
"Oh, it's necessary," Brian assured me. "And she knows people." Our pace had slowed since we had reached the gym. Something about the way he said that sent a shiver down my spine. It was finally getting through to me how bad of an idea this may be. But oh well. No backing out now.
"I didn't think you'd be able to talk him out of it," Claire said with a sigh as we arrived at the door of ping-pong room.
"I tried!" Brian said, defensively crossing his arms. "He's intent on playing this game."
"Well, I guess we'll be doing this the hard way," she resigned and readjusted the little yellow clip that she always wore in her hair. I can't think of a time that I've seen her with out it.
"Surely you're not scared too," I said to her jokingly as we all passed through the door. "Just one game. Then we're out," he assured them.
"If we make it out of here," Claire said in that same ominous tone that Brian used earlier. This was really starting to get on my nerves.
"I hear that you called up some last minute transportation," I said, just trying to get off the subject of the ping-pong game. "How'd you work that out? Didn't even think about calling our parents first? I can't exactly just pick up and leave whenever I want."
"I just called in a favor from my friend Butch," she explained. She looked really nervous, staring at the door as though it was going to explode. I could have sworn she was going to have a heart attack when Collin busted through the door.
He was panting pretty hard and had to take a few puffs from his emergency inhaler. Asthmatic. "Oh, good. You guys- aren't dead- yet. I -was worried- I was- going to miss- the game. Mrs. Harper- held me back- a few minutes- after class- to discuss- my performance," he said in-between gasps.
"Nope, you're just in time for the manslaughter," Brian said pessimistically. At that moment, the door slammed open revealing Otus and Chia, both dressed in football gear. It was as though he sensed their presence. The fact they were wearing their uniform confused me. I thought football was cancelled today.
"Let's get started. First to eleven wins," Otus said immediately with no lack of saliva, his blue mouth guard bending in the shape of a half-moon. That same stupid grin. His eagerness was a little unsettling, but I wasn't going to let them play mind games with me. Claire and Brian both had the same terrified look on their faces, but I grabbed Claire's arm to snap her out of it. We had a game to win.
She turned and looked at me with a sad expression, but she quickly pulled herself together, grabbed a paddle, and took her stance at the table just as we had rehearsed. She wasn't going to let whatever was bugging her mess up her game. I was glad for this, because by this time, I was beginning to have second thoughts. No turning back now.
"Thanks," I muttered before taking my spot beside her. Even if she didn't know what I meant, I felt the need to say it. Otus and Chia approached the opposite end of the table and took hold of the preplaced paddles. Chia rolled his neck to crack it, and Otus drew a ping-pong ball out of one of his pant pockets. I couldn't figure out why they thought to bring their own balls, considering they knew we had plenty. But then it hit me. Literally.
"We'll serve first," Otus offered, and gave the ball to Chia. He took it, threw it up in the air, and slammed it faster and harder than I ever would have thought possible. If he only worked on his aim, he'd be the best in the league, because the ball completely missed the table and nailed me dead center in the forehead.
I stumbled back, feeling as though I'd just had a bad run in with the school baseball team's best batter. I was certain that I was going to have major brain damage after that. The ball landed on the ground with an unfamiliar clunk, and it rested where it hit. As I held my aching head, I leaned down to pick up the ball, but I swear it weighed at least a pound or two. It had to be a solid ball of lead or something like that.
"Logan, are you alright?" came the almost unanimous cry from Collin, Brian, and Claire. Claire knelt down and wrapped her arm around me for support. Too bad I was seeing too many stars to enjoy it.
"Never better," I mumbled as I staggered back to the table and glared at the two buffoons. Of course they were both laughing their heads off and already had another ball ready to serve. These balls were going to go right through my paddle upon a direct impact, I thought to myself with concern. Excuse to push a button. "1-0," I said reluctantly and pressed one of the many the small buttons on the edge of my paddle. After a few metallic clicks, the plates of the blade of my paddle split apart opening a gap to be filled by several springs. Perhaps enough to absorb the force.
This time Otus served, and it was just as powerful as Chia's. Claire, being a lot faster than I was beat me to this one, and as I expected, the ball knocked a whole in the middle of her paddle and hit the wall behind us. She didn't even flinch. Brian, who was presently quivering in a corner with Collin, threw her another, and she was ready to go again.
"2-0," she said through gritted teeth and blew the hair out of her eyes.
Chia dished out their final serve, and I finally was able to make contact with the ball, though it hit so hard that it jarred my hand, leaving it aching, even with the added measure of the springs. Claire must have been miserable. But, after a worrisome crack and a satisfying "Doink," the ball returned to the other side. Not expecting this whatsoever, Otus and Chia didn't even attempt to hit it back. They just stood there dumfounded.
"2-1," I said triumphantly, and retrieved a normal ping-pong ball. It was our serve, and there's no way I could hit the lead balls like they did. This was our grand opportunity to rack up some points, as they were no match for our speed. I handed the ball to Claire, and she served it practically before it left my hand. They didn't even have the opportunity to hit it back.
"2-2," she said with a grin, while Otus and Chia fumed. They started threatening each other and making guttural sounds.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, I served, knowing I could never do as well as Claire, and happily announced, "2-3." Was it cheating? Maybe. Was I going to take it? Absolutely.
Though, perhaps this wasn't my best idea. Now the two of them were shaking mad, not happy at all that we were in the lead. I gave the ball to Claire for our last serve, and once again, it went flying. Only this time, Chia made the mistake of swinging at it. Obviously, he missed by a long shot, but in the middle of his wild flailing, he managed to clock Otus in the back of the head with his paddle.
They went from having a heated argument to a full-blown fight in the blink of eye. Exchanging kicks and punches like there was no tomorrow. We were all just thankful to be on the opposite side of the room. It was actually quite entertaining before they started throwing things.
I don't remember much about the next few moments. Just an enraged yell, a floor waxer that seemed to be growing ever larger, and something about a duck. The only other thing I remember is going through a door the hard way and being sandwiched in between the waxer and a cold metal contraption. At that point, I lost consciousness.