A/N: Oh hai! Thank you, first off, to my two reviewers! You guys rock :) So I wasn't going to update for a while but I got a new review so after I bounced off the walls in glee I decided to write this. I hope you all like it. Bella gets a bit OOC here, but it's a comedy story so I hope I can be excused. I'll try and get a new chapter out soon and, as always, please review and give suggestions! Kay, enjoy!
The arcade was a shining, loud, glittering gem right in the middle of the food court on the fourth floor. Jasper, it seemed, had reached his last nerve and broke off to find Alice and Rosalie. Edward looked queasy at the thought of the teenager-filled, acid trip of an arcade. Emmett held out his arm and I linked mine with his, giggling. We skipped right on in.
Immediately, I was assaulted by beeping of every frequency. There was a babble of voices, all who sounded happy. Emmett and I swapped wide grins. I remembered the arcade back in Phoenix. It wasn't as big as this, but it was amazing. My small group of friends and I would spend hours in there, until our fingers hurt. The prize exchange people knew my name.
I instantly recognized all my favourites, and more. And then I recognized the sweetest thing I'd ever seen in my life. My knees were weak as I stumbled forward. It was sitting there, nestled between the other, mediocre games, beeping quietly, patiently, waiting for it's next player. The pure beauty of it struck me right in the chest like a harpoon of sunshine.
"OH MY GOD! PONG!" I shrieked.
I ran right to the little game and shoved my hands in my pockets, pulling out all the change I found. I found a coin and shoved it into the slot. I let out a tortured groan as I realised it didn't fit. I frantically began trying every other coin I had.
"Um, Bella," Emmett said timidly.
"What?" I snapped, not taking my eyes off the coin slot.
"You have to get tokens,"
My shoulders slumped and I let my head hang, defeated. The Pong machine beeped daringly, as if challenging me.
"But I have to play Pong!" I whined.
Edward was looking at me with a disturbed and confused expression. Honestly, I was a sucker for vintage games. I'd never seen Pong in arcade form and something about this place had me at my most crazy.
"Emmett, Edward," I stood up straight and grabbed their shoulders, positioning them in front of the machine, "Guard Pong,"
I stalked off to find the token exchange machine, leaving the boys to swap bewildered expressions. I tapped my foot impatiently as I waited in line for my tokens. I pulled a crisp ten dollar note out of my purse and finally fed it to the machine. It promptly spat out my tokens and I rushed them back to the Pong machine. Edward and Emmett were standing right where I left them.
"Alright Pong, it's just you and me now," I said when they moved. I inserted two coins and handed the rest to Emmett. The Pong machine chimed a simple melody and flashed. I grabbed the joystick.
"Now be prepared, because I am very good at Pong," I declared.
The little square appeared on screen and I took control of the paddle. And the square went through. Edward and Emmett snickered as I gasped.
"No, shut up, that was just a practise run. I was getting used to the controls," I growled.
The square appeared again. This time, I deflected it. And again. And again. The little square puttered in between mine and the computer's paddles. I kept my eyes sharp on it, never taking it out of my full attention.
"You really made such a big deal over this?" Edward asked after a few minutes.
"Come on, Edward, you were around when this first came out. Surely you can appreciate how amazing this is?" I snapped, trying not to divert my attention.
"Exactly, I was around when this was made. So I've had my fair share of it," Edward scoffed. I could tell he was just loving this. I hissed under my breath.
"Whatever, Bella, we're gonna go play Tekken," Emmett laughed.
My head popped up. I heard the beeping sound of the little square slipping past my paddle but I didn't care.
"Tekken?" I whispered.
My old friend.
We played a few rounds of Tekken. Edward, it turned out, was incredibly good at Tekken and Emmett was a… Well, he didn't take losing very well. Once he'd calmed down enough to speak in coherent sentences, we took to the Dance Dance Revolution platform. This was one we didn't have back in Phoenix. After watching Emmett play a round I decided that this game certainly wasn't for me. Edward wasn't really up for dancing, either, so we cheered Emmett through three rounds. Again, Emmett showed his sore loser side when he put a few feet wrong and lost the round.
We were left with six tokens. We skimmed all the games, considering car games, when we came across the hoops. Four cages in a row, each with eight small basketballs and hoops at the back. Completely simple and very fun. We took three of the cage and each inserted two coins. The game board lit up and a recording that we could barely hear over the rest of the noise in the arcade screamed sporting phrases at us. Finally, the scoreboard prompted us to begin. Edward and Emmett were slightly handicapped, having to slow down to make it look natural, but their accuracy was almost perfect. I looked dismal beside them, throwing like my heart depended on it but never actually landing any in the hoop. Fifteen seconds were left on the clock and things were getting serious. I resigned myself to the fact that I'd never win, so I stood back to watch Edward and Emmett. They were both well into the forties and still going strong. I could see determination etched on their faces ad they played, tossing with one hand and grabbing their next ball with the other. A little crowd of teenagers were crowding around, watching in awe. Five seconds left and I think they'd forgotten they were in public. I got ready to interfere if they worked too fast.
Three seconds, and Emmett's basketballs snagged on each other as the rolled down to him. Two seconds and Edward took the lead by three. One second and Emmett was cursing like a sailor as he threw. The crowd was on the edge of their seats (figuratively) as the ending whistle sounded. Edward had one. He turned around with a winner's grin, the kind where you're trying to look modest but really you want to grin and gloat your butt off. I gave him a light, congratulatory kiss on the cheek and turned my attention to Emmett.
I yelped. "Emmett! For god's sake!" I yelled.
Emmett had climbed into the cage and was stuffing the basketballs down the hoop, yelling and swearing. Edward hissed. He reached into the cage and grabbed Emmett's collar, tugging him out of the cage and out of the arcade just as the uniformed workers began to close in on us. We escaped just in time.
"Are you crazy?" I yelled, "It's just a game!"
"I should have won!" Emmett yelled at Edward, ignoring me, "I want a rematch,"
"Emmett, we're never going back in that arcade. Ever," Edward vowed quietly, trying to divert the curious onlookers.
We walked in a stony silence, Emmett mad at Edward, Edward mad at Emmett and I, mad at… Well, I was mad.
So, did you like it? Huh? Huh? BTW, if you're wondering about the games in the story, I'll give a quick explanation.
PONG - Pretty much the first game ever. Two paddles and a little square. Kinda like extremely basic air hockey.
TEKKEN - Fighting game. Best game ever. Pretty regular as far as fighting games go.
DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION - Four pads on the ground with arrows. Music plays and arrows light on the screen, indicating the pads you have to step on. Very hard.
Okay, well that's it. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!