A young man by the name of Tino dragged himself up from the foot of the stairs and took slow steps towards the nearest phone in his house. He clutched his limp right arm and winced in pain as he came closer, letting go of it when he needed to enter numbers using the dial pad. He placed the receiver to his ear with his able arm and waited for the line to connect.
"Hi, it's me Tino. I'm afraid I can't practice with you two today..."
Matthew got up early the following morning and tiptoed over to his cousin's computer in the corner.
He switched it on and waited ages for it to start up. The clunky desktop screen appeared before him and he wondered why his cousin still used a model from 1995 when he could easily afford something a lot more current and slick. He double clicked on the Internet Explorer icon and waited another few minutes for the window to open.
Once the homepage had loaded, he typed the address for Amazon Canada into the search bar and went to make himself a mug of coffee.
The phone rang just as he was about to scoop some sugar into his cup. He dropped the spoon into his drink with a splash and bolted to the coffee table in the living room, seizing the receiver in a rush.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"It's me, Emma. Tell me you're not thinking of juggling two girls..."
"No! Why would I do that? Who told you so?"
"Francis."
Matthew took a step backwards and saw Francis still asleep in the corner of his eye.
"He's not even awake!" He yelled into the phone at his cousin's childhood friend.
"Whatever. I can't wait to tell everybody in my contacts list!"
Emma hung up straight after and Matthew had no choice but to do the same. He wandered back into the bedroom and saw that Francis was holding a cellphone tightly in his hand.
"How did you do that?" He sighed.
"Francis, I really need to order something here. Is this where I fill in my credit card details?"
"Yes..." Francis muttered, struggling to sit himself up in bed.
Matthew clicked to complete his order and a voice alerted him of a new email he'd received.
"Wow, this thing tells me I have mail!"
Francis shook his head. "Maybe you shouldn't call yourself a nineties kid, then..."
Matthew opened his inbox and eyed his two unread messages. The first was a confirmation email from Amazon just he had expected, while the second one was apparently from some guy known as 'Raj'.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to read it.
Dear Mr Williams, it has come to my attention...we shall be fighting to the death soon...my name is Raj and I am...
"This is...this is..." Matthew's eyes dilated as he mouthed quietly, seemingly in shock.
"What is it?"
"This is boring! I think I'll delete it!"
Matthew logged out of his account, closed the browser and shut down the computer. He walked over to the main door of the apartment and sat down on the floor, crossing his legs.
"What are you doing, Matthieu?"
"I'm waiting for the package I ordered."
"Matthieu, don't be silly. It always takes a few days for deliveries to arrive..."
The doorbell rang and Matthew jumped up excitedly, grabbing the doorknob and getting ready to turn it.
"You were saying..?"
He opened the door and instantly felt like smacking his head against a wall, for it was simply Mei coming over a visit.
"Attack hug!" She squealed, throwing herself forward and squeezing his chest hard. He gasped and twisted his head in Francis' direction, hoping his roommate wouldn't torment him for his stupidity later.
Mei released him after a few seconds and spoke to him firmly with a hint of impatience in her voice.
"You were supposed to meet me at the bus stop half an hour ago."
"Oh, how could I forget!" Matthew smacked his own forehead. "I guess I was too busy ordering stuff online!"
"Yearbook club is so boring. I can't believe they expect us to listen to dull old songs while we work..." Mei chattered as they walked out of a pizza store together.
Matthew's expression made it seem as if he were listening intently, when his mind was solely on the American girl and the delivery he was waiting for.
"I wish my brother wasn't such a control freak, he's always telling me how to do my homework even when I don't really need any help..." She went on as she picked a jacket at Goodwill.
Matthew found himself unable to concentrate as he played Ninja Ninja Revolution with his girlfriend. He messed up several of his moves and eventually bumped into her clumsily, resulting in a 'game over'.
He froze and didn't know what to expect. She stopped and gazed at his face sweetly, before jumping up and gave him a quick kiss on his lips.
He almost fell backwards in shock but managed to compose himself and maintain his balance.
"May, this might seem like bad news but I was thinking that I should...I should..."
"Go on..." She encouraged him, a visible blush on her cheeks.
"...I should go rehearse!"
"Great! Can I go with you?"
"Uh, sure..."
Matthew took a deep breath, silently hating himself for lacking the courage to tell his girlfriend that he wanted to break up. Now that she had kissed him, did it mean that things were officially serious between them?
Matthew sat by the window tuning his bass guitar, ignoring the positive mood around him.
"Guess what, guys? I got us a deal!" Alfred announced to plenty of excitement from Mei, whom was wearing a shirt with 'Sex Bob-omb' printed on it.
"Spill it..." Elizaveta groaned with a lack of enthusiasm.
"We're playing in a battle of the bands."
"Oh my God! When is it?!" Mei screamed.
Matthew winced.
"On Wednesday, at the Rockit-"
"Isn't that place actually a toilet?"
"Not anymore, Liz. They just renovated it."
"So what is this battle of the bands about? What's the deal?" Mei asked cluelessly.
"Well girl, whoever wins gets a record deal with music manager A.K...and people will start wearing our t-shirts..." He explained, putting his hand on her shoulder without thinking. She pushed his arm away.
"Who are we battling?" Emil raised his hand.
"I'm getting there." Alfred dismissed the boy with a wave of his hand. He pulled a giant flip chart from underneath his table and stood it up the others to see.
"Erik and the Boys." He introduced as he motioned to the first page, which simply contained the name of the band scrawled out in large letters.
"That band? Oh no..." Emil groaned.
"I know them! Their lead singer's really creepy!" Mei exclaimed.
He turned to a cartoon drawing of Erik on the second sheet with annotations surrounding the frowning figure.
Name: Erik
Attributes: Doesn't have feelings, as far as I know...
Position: Vocals, Guitarist
Powers: Metal Scream, Incredibly Hard Skull
Alfred flipped to the third page of the flip chart, showing a picture of a scowling man with a bass guitar by his side.
Name: Berwald
Attributes: Never smiles
Position: Bass Guitarist
Powers: Icy Stare, Sound Manipulation
Alfred turned to Elizaveta, putting on a more serious expression as he got ready to show her the page about the drummer.
"Brace yourself, Liz..." He said quietly. She nodded.
On the last page, was nothing but a large question mark in the centre of the sheet.
"I don't know what it means for us, but I heard their drummer went insane last week and broke his own arm."
Elizaveta forced herself to smile and put her hand against Alfred's arm.
"Relax, I'll have an easy battle. There's no way they could find an equally great player in so short a time."
While his four friends were busy planning and talking about the rival band, Matthew drifted towards the bathroom so he could take a leak. He zipped up his pants once he was finished and went back to the door.
He opened it and was confronted with a corridor of lockers just like the ones he knew in highschool. He stepped out and saw a head of blonde hair at the other end of the hallway.
The woman opened a door with a star on it while a brown package was tucked under her arm. She disappeared through the exit and he tried to catch up. A gust of wind blew the door shut and he reached for the doorknob, trying to force it open.
He burst through after much pushing and kicking and found himself tumbling on to the floor of Francis' apartment. He got to his feet and realized that there was a small star marked on his cousin's front door, which he had never noticed before.
A bell rang just as he approached and he swiftly opened the door to see Amelia standing before him holding the delivery package.
Here are the characters from the last two chapters.
Lucas 'Crash' Wilson: Norway
Joel MacMillan: Sweden
Michael Comeau: Estonia