Recess: The Video Game

Chapter Four: Nowhere Restaurant

TJ, Spinelli, Mikey, and Vince walked into the building and looked around.

It looked like your standard bar; the kind you'd see in the Twilight Zone or something.

It had a bunch of tables in the middle, uselessly spinning fans on the ceiling, and a bartender washing a bar. All of the other riders - Princess, Yoshi, King Kong, Luigi, and Toad. There were also people they didn't recognize next to the players, people they hadn't seen on the racetrack.

A sign by the door said "Seat Yourself," so they did. The picked a table in the corner, away from the other riders.

They sat in silence, covered in driving dirt, remembering their fallen comrade.

"Ah... you must be they new players." said a voice from the table next to them. They looked.

A man was sitting a the table, a man in a wide-brimmed hat that covered his eyes and a long trench coat. They were sure he hadn't been there before.

"Who are you?" asked TJ.

"My name is Harold Balthazar." he said. They waited for a further explanation, but they were disappointed. Instead he gave them a toothy smile.

"Usually we only get one at a time; very rarely we get two. And now here you are - four."

"We used to have five." said Vince sorrowfully.

"What do you mean, 'others?'" asked Spinelli suspiciously.

"I mean the other kids that Janette has snared." replied Harold.

"Janette?" repeated Mikey.

"The girl who brought you here. The pink one." Harold answered.

"Wait, wait, back up. There have been others?" asked TJ.

Harold sighed. "Yes. Of course. After all, players' souls are what keeps this game alive. With out new players constantly being provided, this place would die." He sighed, and the Recess gang was silent for a few seconds while Harold's words sank in.

"Did you say players' souls?" whispered Spinelli.

"Yes. When players die their souls are added to the game for more energy. The more souls, the better the game. Sometimes you can see their faces in the scenery." he sounded sad.

"I was a player once. When I found out about this, I tried to cheat so I would have better chances. I slit the Princess's tires. But if you cheat in the game, you become enslaved. The bartender is a cheater too. All the actors in this gruesome player are cheaters."

Harold stood up. "Well, I better get going. It's my job to clean up the racetrack after a game." his words were heavy and sad. "Good luck, players." he walked away, leaving a stunned and silent foursome.

"Well-" started Vince, but he was cut off by another, more unpleasant voice.

"Well, if it isn't the new players." said Princess. The gang glared up at her, hatred evident on their faces.

"You should really eat something to bring up your strength for the next race. You'll need it." she said, and walked away to her table. She was sitting next to another princessy-looking girl with brown hair at the same table with Yoshi and Kong - plus they're own sort-of look-alikes.

"Who are those people?" Mikey wondered aloud.

"I dunno, but I'm going to find out." said TJ, and walked up to the bartender. The other waited and watch TJ talk to the bartender for a while before coming back.

"He says that they're sort of the riders' servants and seconds." replied TJ.

"Seconds?" asked Mikey.

"It means that if the riders get sick or something, their servants will drive instead." informed Vince. "I looked it up when I read Harry Potter."

"Hey, I've seen them before!" cried Spinelli suddenly. "They're in the new Nintendo version. I only know the Princess's helper - Peach. I forget all the others' names."

"I never got the new one. I always played the old ones." TJ said.

Suddenly, a whistle blew inside the bar, and the bartender souted, "Next ride!"

All the riders got up and began to move towards the door. The gang followed.

TJ grasped Spinelli's hand. "Good luck," he said.

They followed the other players out into blinding light.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR

Please review! I'm going to make faster updates from now on, I promise! (sweatdrop) I'm really sorry about the slowness. And I'll make an exciting chapter for the next race soon! And I'll probably be a better writer since I've grown up :)
He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. -Joseph Romm, Washington -

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away."