DDR King
Criticism accepted as long as they're constructive. Others will be ignored.
In case I didn't explain characters and their personalities enough, there are mini-biographies of the characters at the end of the chapters.
It was the last week of school, so the school got to take a trip to the huge arcade a couple miles away. It was pretty new, and I had only been there once. To be honest, it wasn't really that great, but I was there before they had everything put in. I wasn't sure how this was going to go.
"Yo, Kyle!" My friend Andrew called to me.
"What." I replied, unenthusiastically
"You ready for the arcade?" He said with a huge grin.
"No, not really, I don't want to waste too much money." I replied.
"Come on, you can win prizes and stuff!" He shouted. "I hear you can get one of those things that shock people!"
"It probably costs 10 billion tickets, and you can get the same thing at the dollar store." I replied.
"Well, we'll have to see about that when I hit the jackpot of some game and get ten billion tickets with 1 quarter."
"Really." I replied.
We got on the bus that was going to take us there, and sat down in an empty seat. Andrew just had to come over and pick the seat right next to mine.
"How much money do you have anyway?" Andrew asked.
"Um 10 dollars, why?" I replied
"Dude, that's only enough for food and 5 bucks worth of points."
"And your point is?"
"Well, don't you want to get a cool prize?"
"I wonder if they have sledgehammers, when I get one, I'll bash your head open."
"You're a party pooper."
"This isn't much of a party." I replied.
"Shut up."
We finally got to the arcade and we went in. I bought 500 points for 5 dollars. I started to wonder what I was actually going to use these on. I sat down on one of the chairs. I waited a while, and then watched a bunch of girls run over to the corner of the arcade. I wonder what the hell is over there… I thought to myself. I was bored so I went to see what they were doing. I couldn't believe what I saw. An actual DDR machine. Around here you only get cheap ripoffs with 2 good songs out of 50. Some girls were playing some song I didn't know on standard. They finished right after and the girls were waiting for somebody else to go on. They all had enough points, I don't see why they don't just try.
"Hey Kyle, we might be able to get some girls with that thing." One of my friends, Robbie whispered.
"Do you even know how to play?" I asked him.
"Let's just do it." I told him.
We walked onto the stage, some of the girls started giggling, and Andrew put on a blank stare.
"Lets do a warmup on um beginner." Robbie told me. He selected the song, .59, and he set difficulty to beginner. Before he pressed start, I saw him switch my difficulty to standard, but I pretended not to notice.
"Hey, you switched me to standard!" I told him.
"You are going to look like such a loser." Robbie said.
"Oh really." I replied.
The song started. Robbie kept getting boos and almosts and I was laughing. I had gotten all perfects so far. The easy part was over, and I continued to get perfects and greats. Robbie stared and jumped off the stage. His dance meter was still alive, but barely, a brown-haired girl jumped on and started playing for him. Her name was Sasha, she was in my homeroom class. The song finished, I got a AA and Sasha managed to bring Robbie up to a C. Robbie walked away, and we both set our difficulty to heavy. We changed the song to 321 Stars. I had worked on this one at home, I was good at this one. I had a good combo going, and finally, the song ended. We both got A's.
"Hey Kyle, you're good at this." Sasha told me.
"Thanks, you too." I replied.
We had 2 more songs left, I picked A, by DJ Amuro, and we started.
The slow beginning was the easiest part, I had picked up a huge combo, and then, right before the stop that doubled the speed, I remembered how I haven't passed this yet playing at home. I missed the first couple fast arrows and then, I finally picked it back up and finished with a B. Sasha got an A.
"One more left." Sasha said with a smile. "I'm picking this one."
Legend Of Max. I quickly bumped down to standard.
"Come on!" Sasha teased. "Too fast?"
"Unfortunately yes." I replied. "I'm still not sure if I can pass this, I've only beaten light."
"Neither have I, but I think we can do this." She replied.
The song started. I was dreading this. My legs were starting to hurt hitting all of the arrows at a high speed. I tripped, got up quickly and tried to start a combo, but it was too fast to get back into. I failed, she got a D. Damn, she's good.
I played a couple standard songs with this girl Rachel, who was pretty good. I haven't really worked on any others heavy songs, and I didn't want to be repetitive. After, I finally got off the stage and took my truckload of tickets.
"Holy…" Andrew said when he saw my tickets. "That game sure gave you a bunch of tickets."
"Well, apparently, when you play on heavy, you get 4 tickets every 5 in a combo, and then extra for your grade, and I got a pretty big combo."
"So, I think that Sasha girl likes you."
"I barely know her, that DDR game was the closest contact I've ever been with her."
"Your point is?" Andrew replied, clearly attempting to mock my voice.
I glared. "So, how many tickets did you get?"
"Not that many, but I still have a ton of game points left."
"Anyway, I'm going to go play some more games, see you later." Andrew ran off to the ski-ball game.
I sat on the bench, I wasn't expecting anything interesting to happen after that, and I wanted to save my 200 remaining game points.
The loudspeaker went on. "Aaron Greenburg, Chris Redd, Kyle Rowe, Steven Muran, Rachel Sygos, Sasha Cooper, Isabel Freedman, Emily King, and Elise Sorell, front desk please.
I had no idea what this was about, I barely knew most of these people. A man wearing a suit was standing at the desk.
"Hello, my name is Dan Smith." He said. "You all seem to be very experienced DDR players, and you all qualify for the Island DDR competition." "I'm a player scout hired by Konami, you can see the details in this packet, fill it out and hand it back to me.
DDR Island Tournament
This is a tournament for experienced DDR players on the Island! A dancing level of at least Standard is required, light and beginner players are not accepted. Placing 1st-5th in this competition will give you a ticket to the state competition, which will take place in the summer. Have fun dancing!
Prizes:
1st- Any 3 DDR Video Games, and a metal pad
2nd-Any 2 DDR Video Games
3rd-1 DDR Game
-KONAMI USA
I filled out all the information and handed to packet back to Dan.
"Good, we needed to find some players." He replied.
We walked over to the DDR machine, and I went up on the stage. Aaron,
came up with me. I wasn't sure how good he was.
"Let's play witch doctor, standard." He said.
Good. I thought. he probably isn't one of the people who get perfect combos on heavy.
He selected the song but he held the button. The modifier screen came up.
Oh no. Not good. No, don't make me look bad, don't put on…
"Stealth." He said. "Can you do this?" He asked.
"Um." I started. "I don't know this song that well." I stayed on normal settings.
He turned backwards.
The song started. Holy… A combo of perfects backwards. It was amazing. I had the same combo with a great here or there, but I wasn't playing backwards.
"Aaron! Aaron!" Everyone started chanting. This was insane. "Yeah!" the shouted. The song ended, we both got AAs.
"So, are you going to be at the Island tournament?" I asked.
"Nope." He said.
"But you're amazing!" I exclaimed.
"I'm already in." He said "Won last year's island tournament, I told the guy that."
"Oh." I said.
"If you make it, you'll see me in States."
"Hope I do." I said "You're definitely going to win States."
"You never know."
"Pick another song already!" The speakers blared. We had 15 seconds to choose. We quickly selected B4U. He picked stealth again. I just went with him, I knew this song.
The music started playing and suddenly, my mind started to go blank. I missed a bunch of arrows. My life meter was low. I looked at footsteps and copied him. I couldn't get perfect timing, but it was better than just missing. I ended up with a C.
"I guess you can't do stealth really." Aaron said.
"I haven't exactly practiced with modifiers." I replied.
"You're going to need to if you want to hit the world comp."
"I don't think I'm that good, I can barely do any heavy songs."
"Hey, you'll probably win a game or something in the island comp, you can practice more songs."
"Yeah, that will be helpful." I said. "I only have 1 game."
We realized the numbers hit zero again, and we got kicked off the machine.
"Hey, want to go eat lunch now?" Aaron asked.
"Sure." I replied.
"You're going to be with the other DDR players here." He said.
"By the way, are they going to be at the island competition?" I asked.
"Chris, Steven, Emily and Isabel are already in States, the others will be there."
"So, I'm going to be with Sasha, Steven, Rachel, and Elise?"
"Yeah, I think that's right." He replied.
We walked over to the restaurant area, and we sat down. 2 other people were sitting already, A black haired girl, and a brown haired guy.
"I guess not everyone is here yet?" Aaron asked.
"Emily and Sasha are doing a couple songs right now." A black-haired girl said. "I'm not sure about the others." "Anyway, who's he?" She was looking at me.
"Isabel, this is Kyle." He said. "He's pretty good at DDR, he just can't do hard heavy songs or use modifiers."
"Hey, I'm Isabel." She said. "DDR is my obsession."
The brown haired boy started to speak. "I'm Chris." "I'm pretty good at DDR I guess."
"Chris, you're not just pretty good, if you can memorize songs after playing once, that's amazing!" Isabel shouted.
"Well, I memorize the steps, but I'm still not good at the actual dancing part.
"Well, none of us can do that." Aaron said.
Chris stayed silent.
A group of girls walked towards us and I assumed it was the others.
"There they are." Isabel said.
They all walked over to the table.
"Guys, this is Kyle." Aaron said. "This one is…" He paused. "Guys, introduce yourselves."
"I'm Sasha, you kinda already know me." She sat down next to me.
"I'm Emily." "And I'm better than Sasha."
"Shut up." Sasha glared.
"Hey, I'm Elise." She sat down.
"Hi." Rachel sat down.
"Rachel, that wasn't much of an intro." Emily said.
"I already played a couple games with him, and I have some classes with him at school." Rachel replied.
"Whatever." Emily looked annoyed.
"Emily's hobby is pissing people off." Chris said.
"Hmmph." Emily frowned. "Anybody know where Steven is?"
"No idea." Isabel said. "Probably playing some games." "Let's go up and order."
The restaurant was set up fast-food style, so we had to get on line. We got our food and ate silently. Suddenly, and tall boy walked in, with a load of tickets.
"Steven!" Everybody shouted.
"Triple A on Max 300." Steven grinned.
"No way." We all said at once.
"Yup." He replied. "I'll be back with you guys later, I'm going to exchange these for a prize."
"He's probably going to get one of those insane prizes that usually only people who spend $50.00 here every day get." Isabel whispered to me.
"He's getting a lava lamp." I said, watching Steven. "No wait, he's getting a CD."
"I think he's getting both." Isabel stared in awe.
"I don't have enough tickets for one of those." I said. "That's nuts."
"Hey, Steven still fails some standard songs though." Isabel said
"And he can pass 10-footers." I replied. "How is that possible?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure." Isabel said.
We talked a little while longer, and then Andrew ran over.
"Hey guys, we only have 15 minutes left, get prizes!"
We ran over to the prize counter and I picked some stuff that I was probably going to use once and never use again. It wasn't a big deal. The others had enough to get CDs because they brung more money than I did, but I already had a large collection of CDs. We took the bus back to the school and I walked home by myself, but once I got home, I received a surprise.
"Kyle!" My mom shouted.
She was standing next to a large brown box.
"I got a phone call about the competition, and I know how you're into it so…" She opened the box, pulled out DDR Supernova (All arcade songs for home.) and a RedOctane ignition pad.
"No way."
A/N:
Character Bios
Kyle Rowe
14 Years Old
Appearance: Brown hair, 5' 7", average weight, a bit muscular.
Slightly sarcastic, tries not to show off, but ends up doing that anyway. Kyle has played DDR since age 7.
Skill: Easier Heavy Songs
Sasha Cooper
14 Years Old
Appearance: Brown hair, 5' 4", Thin, Attractive
Sasha is generally a nice person, but is very competitive.
Skill: Medium Heavy Songs
Aaron Greenburg
14 Years Old
Appearance: Black Hair, 5' 11"
Aaron is talkative, but is the most skilled player out of the group. He has lots of talent, but often brags and gloats.
Skill: 9&10 Footers, Stealth Standard
Isabel Freedman
15 Years Old
Appearance: Black Hair, 5' 8"
Isabel is calm, and not competitive. She has skill, but she doesn't brag about it. Despite her personality, she likes Aaron.
Skill: 9 Footers
Elise Sorell
14 Years Old
Appearance: Darker blonde hair, 5' 3", Skinny
Elise is a mixed kind of person, and you can't always tell how she is going to act.
Skill: Hard Standard/Easy Heavy
Emily King
16 Years Old
Appearance: Light Brown Hair, 5'6" Average wt.
Emily likes bothering people and bragging. Usually annoying.
Skill: Standard
Steven Muran
16 Years Old
Appearance: Blonde hair, 6' 2"
Steven is good at some songs, but terrible at others.
Skill: Standard-Heavy
Rachel Sygnos
14 Years Old
Appearance: Dark brown hair, 5' 9"
Rachel is kind of quiet and keeps to herself.
Skill: Standard
Chris Redd
15 Years Old
Appearance: Brown hair, short
Also keeps to himself, but is less shy than Rachel.
Skill: Standard (Can Memorize easily, so can pass some heavy)