"Aiight," Louie replied. "You go against…uh…Olivia and Aaron," he said, reading off the list. "You know the rules-don't cha?"
I nodded and grabbed a stick that was lying against a table. "Let's go."
Olivia grinned, ready to tear into me. Hey, girl, I've got harder skin than you'd think. Even Aaron looked smug, as if I was just the next punkster kid that happened to challenge them. I wanted to grab them both by the collars and tell them that they were going to be wiping those smirks off their faces faster than they thought. But, I could wait. They'd cry soon enough.
As the opponent against the champions, I was allowed to break first. In a matter of seconds, I figured out how hard I was going to have to push the balls to go in the direction I wanted them to. I let the stick fly right towards the creamy white ball. There was a cracking sound as the balls split and headed to their dark homes at the corner of the tables.
I looked away for a split second, hearing something behind me. When I looked back to the table, I realized I didn't know how many I'd sunk. But, the shocked looks on Olivia's and Aaron's faces told me that they weren't going to be winning easily. Perfect.
Backing away from the table, I rested my hands on the top of the pool stick, despite the fact I was getting chalk all over my palms. Aaron and Olivia whispered to each other about which ball to aim for that would have the best chance of being sunk.
Olivia bent over the table, the pool stick cradled in between her neatly manicured fingers. She was rather nervous, I could see it. Hopefully, this would cause her to mess up.
But, I wouldn't rely on that factor. That was just hoping for good luck. Good luck? The words don't exist together in my vocabulary.
In a swan-like move, she sent two balls spiraling across the sea-green table. One of them landed in a hole, the other teetered on the edge, but didn't enter its home. Olivia cursed silently and began to chew on a nail as I bent down to take aim.
This time I didn't even bother to line up my shot beforehand. I just shot. Not removing my eyes from the table, I watched impatiently as three striped balls landed in the corner pockets of the table.
There was a fair amount of clapping, but Aaron and Olivia were starting to get irritated. Good. They deserved to have somebody knock them on their asses after being claimed as the champions they weren't. Besides, it would be nice to get the first place cash. I needed it more than they did.
Aaron, this time, lined up his aim and shot just two balls into the holes. Again, some people clapped for him, but it wasn't really anything special.
The game was getting tedious and I just wanted to take the money and run. So, not wasting any time, I examined the situation in front of me. Using my quick reflexes, I sent the rest of the striped balls into the pockets.
The crowd paused, unsure almost of whether to cheer me on. Then, they burst out into clapping. I rose slowly to an erect position. Lying my pool stick on the table, I met the eyes of Aaron and Olivia and stared at them evenly. I raised my eyebrows, mentally asking them if they were going to say anything. They didn't.
I think Aaron muttered a gruff, "good game". But, I couldn't have been entirely sure. Didn't matter much anyhow, I had just been appointed the new leader of the game. Sure, Aaron and Olivia were going to have to challenge the loser of my game, but, they wouldn't be on top again. Hah. I almost raised the pool stick above my head in a warlike manner and almost cried out with pure joy that for once, I was almost actually happy in what I was doing.
Almost.