Hi. Wow. I'm sorry, but this just seems funny to me. After all I've been through, a simple greeting, like hi, seems entirely pointless, if not down right insulting. Well I suppose I should start from the beginning.
Well, the first thing you need to know is my name is Derek and I'm addicted to magic: the gathering. All my close friends are, too. It's a part of our lives as much as eating and breathing are. Were like the five musketeers. Their names are Justin, Scott, Zack, and Cassie.
Justin is really not the type of person that you would expect to play magic. He's tall, really in shape, has a beautiful girl friend, and is… well… popular. Zack is the group's spaz/clown. He is rather short, but what he lacks in size, he makes up in charisma. Scott is our resident black sheep. He's cynical and a prankster, but we love him. He's really good at heart, though it may be hard to see.
Then there's Cassie. Ah, Cassie. She's tall, a brunette, beautiful, an angel… … um.... sorry. As you may have guessed, I really like her. She has haunted me for years always just out of my grasp. The worst part is like most beautiful, radiant, etc. girls she has a boy friend. He's the stereotypical football tackle. 5'7", 250 lbs., about as smart as a brick, a bully and has a passionate hatred for me because I like Cassie. Getting back to me, I'm 5'9", 177 lbs., in decent shape, not bad to look at, and a complete and utter nerd. Video games, magic, Dungeons and Dragons, you know the type. However not many know that I'm a very intense, deep, and poetic person who wants to do something heroic and noteworthy. Well, enough about that. Were all sophomores in high school and were always together.
Now we are all way above average to excellent players. I am second in our city and its suburbs only to Justin. He uses a black zombie deck that is world tournament quality and I have only beaten it once. I use a white green mirari's wake deck. Scott is third and he uses a blue green madness deck. Zack is fourth and uses a red green burn deck and Cassie is new to the game, but has real talent for it. She uses a white angel life gain deck. Knowing this we can get started. The story stars on April 8th, 2003 at 6:42…. My 16th birthday…
"Derek! Are you dressed yet" My mom. She's strict but fair. My alarm had failed to go off, again. "Derek!" "Wha…?" "Your still in bed?!" "Wha…?" "GET UP! YOUR GONNA MISS THE BUS!" "Wha…? What time is it?" I looked over at my clock "6:44?! HOLY SHIT!" "Watch your mouth and hurry! The bus will be here in ten minutes!" I jumped out of the bed and got dressed a quickly as humanly possible. I got my bag and ran out my door to my bus stop. I was just in time and everything would have been fine until I realized and exclaimed "my deck!"
Normally I would have begrudgingly got on the bus and gone a day with out my precious deck. Unfortunately, my friends and I had set up a school-wide tourney for my birthday present and I was not about to miss it. I turned and ran home as fast as I could, opened the door grabbed my deck and ran back out just in time to see the bus drive away.
"God damnit!" My mom leaves for work right before I leave for school, so there was no way I could get a ride from her. So I did the only thing I could. Walk 5 miles to school, oh and did I mention it was raining? Hard? Two hours later I dragged my self into school drenched and cold. This is where fate comes into play. "Watch out you nerd!"
I had stepped into the way of Rob (Cassie's boy friend) as he was chasing down Zack who had a hat he liked. We collided and the impact brought us both to the ground, me with a bruised elbow and him with a bruised ego. "Your gonna pay for that you fucking geek" Now I can hold my own in a fight, but I am a pacifist by principle. I am a pacifist by principle, but I can hold my own in a fight and I never let anyone pick on my friends so I did the only thing I could. I put up my fists ready for a fight. The fight would have been a stalemate but two of Rob's fellow brick heads showed up. "It looks like your gonna get what's coming, you piece of shit!" It looked bad until Justin and Scott came to my rescue.
"Are you ok Derek?" said Justin " Yea for the moment. Thanks a lot, but this is about to get ugly." I had arrived between periods and there were people every where. By now they had formed a circle and were ready for the blood sport and chanting "Fight, Fight!" Cassie just arrived and was yelling "Rob! Stop this before you hurt someone!" He yelled back " that's what I'm looking to do!" Rob lunged at me and yelled, "Your dead!" I would have dodged it, but I felt a sudden heat radiate from my left pocket and this distracted me. He landed one solid punch on me and bruised my rib. As he tensed to strike again when a hand grabbed his wrist. Zack, who is built for running not fighting did just what he was made for and went to get the principal. "Not so fast Mr. Kingston! This is the last straw! I will have you expelled!" Our principal had had his car vandalized last year and Rob was accused of the crime, but it could never be proven. To add insult to injury, he took rob by the ear to his office. Justin, Scott and Zack helped me to my feet.
As the crowd dispersed, Cassie ran forward and to my surprise, she slapped me! "How dare you scare me like that! He could have killed you!" Then, shocking me again, she hugged me! " I'm so glad your alright!" in her relief she squeezed me as hard as she could and put pressure on my injured rib, causing me to wince in pain. "Oh! You are hurt! I'm taking you right to the nurse!" "No really I'm fine its just a *wince* scratch " "Don't you argue!" So we walked together down to the nurse, Cassie full of worry and I full of joy. I ended up getting a detention for being late, but it was worth it because she broke up with Rob later that day. After school we walked down to tournament being held in the gym, but I couldn't shake the thought that there had been a heat in my pocket. All that was in there was a pack of gum and my… deck.
