"All right Lee, you make sure no trouble, I be back in two days," Mrs. Ping lectured. "Yes mom, I'll be responsible, now please relax, you're gonna miss your flight if you don't go soon." His mother sighed and gave him a hug as well as a nod to her husband, ensuring her rules were meant for him as well. She also whispered something to her husband before heading down the hall to board her plane. "Bye honey! Have Fun!" Said his dad. "Ok Lee, I guess we better head home now.
Lee's mother was going out for a business trip and Lee, being the good son that he was, came to wish her safe travels. For the next two days it would just be Lee and his dad. One thing that Lee was looking forward to was being able to have a little more fun than usual.
Due to his grounding, his mother also wouldn't allow Lee to stay up late and game, a fun hobby that Lee used to partake in prior to the whole prank fiasco. Lee wasn't able to ever sneak a session in at home because of his mom's scary and accurate intuition, but he knew his dad was a heavy sleeper which meant he would get away with it this time around. Lee was so confident that he was already texting his friends during the car ride back.
"So kiddo, what are you thinking for dinner?" His dad asked with a smile. Another little perk of just his dad being with him, was that just like Lee, he was a fan of takeout. "Maybe Thai food? What do you think?" asked Lee. "Ooh good suggestion as always Lee." Lee chuckled and went to get the table ready. After eating and conversing with his dad over dinner, his dad finally got up and yawned, "okay Lee, I'm off to bed, you should too since tomorrow's school."
"Will do, dad," said Lee as he watched his dad go to his room and heard the door shut. Which was his sign that things were ready to go, he opened up his laptop and noticed that Cam, Holger, and Biffy were already in the chat room.
Lee: K guys my dad just went to bed so I'm good to go
Cam: Finally Hermano, it's been ages
Holger: Yay Lee!
Biffy: Can we start now?
Lee chuckled at seeing Biffy reply, he always knew how impatient he could get with games.
Lee: Okay let's start. Same teams as usual?
Biffy: I'm with Lee
Cam: Holger and I are together
After selecting teams the game lit up and a countdown started. The online game's concept was fairly simple, there were two teams (Holger/Cam vs Biffy/Lee), and the goal was to destroy the other team's base. Often one player would stay in one location to guard the base while the other would go to attack the opponent's base.
Both teams were broken into separate chat rooms, for around 90 seconds, so that they could strategize without the other group seeing.
LEE/BIFFY CHAT ROOM
Lee: Kay, so same plan as last time?
Biffy: No way, you got us killed cuz you couldn't stop Holger
Lee: It was one time plus I was having internet issues
Biffy: Uh huh. Sure. I'm not taking chances, I'll guard and you attack
Lee: Ugh! Okay General
Biffy: :)
HOLGER/CAM CHAT ROOM
Holger: Hii! Cam
Cam: Focus! We need a strategy and we don't have much time. You attack and I'll guard. Same as last time.
Holger: Okay, Holger will attacks
With that the teams were set and chat rooms ended, the players were then shown in the game. Lee started moving his character towards the other team's base and to his satisfaction he found Cam guarding the place.
He wasn't worried about Holger and Biffy, as he knew Biffy was solid on defense. He quickly started attacking the base as its health points started going down, before it could be destroyed, Lee ended up being damaged by Cam and respawning to his own base.
There he noticed Biffy fighting off Holger and joined him, after defeating Holger they both rushed the opponents base and immediately brought down its health points, earning them the first victory. The winning team is chosen by a best-out-of-three system, after the first round everyone was put back in their chat rooms.
LEE/BIFFY CHATROOM
Biffy: Told you my strategy would work
Lee: K, let me be the defender for the next one
Biffy: No way man
Lee: Cmon, we're already up a point so even if we lose we still have another game, plus I don't think they'll keep the same formation
Biffy: UUUGGGHHH Fine, just don't mess up
Lee: :)
HOLGER/CAM CHAT ROOM
Cam: K, we lost one, no big deal. Let's keep the same formation
Holger: OKAAAYYYY
With that, the second round began. Lee ended up being wrong about Cam and Holger's formation, resulting in Holger finding Lee as the guard. Eventually, leading to a loss for Lee and Biffy
LEE/BIFFY CHAT ROOM
Biffy: DUUUUUDDEE!
Lee: I know, my bad :(
Biffy: FOCUS! This is the last game what's the plan
Lee: IDK do you think they'll keep the same formation
Biffy: I doubt it, no one plays the same formation for all three games
Lee: K, so I'm guard then?
Biffy: Yeah, Cam will probably be the attacker and Holger would be the guard in the next round. So we should be able to win this.
Lee: Sounds good!
HOLGER/CAM CHAT ROOM
Holger: Holger thinks we should keep the same setup
Cam: Agreed hombre, Biffy and Lee probably think we're gonna switch anyway
With that the final round started. Biffy immediately rushed for the base and to his surprise found Cam, he started going at it with him, hoping Lee could hold up his end. Lee, however, wasn't faring as well as Holger kept depleting his healthpoints, after killing him he went for the base. Cam, despite not being as good of a defender, was doing well in slowing down Biffy, but eventually also died.
It was a race now as both Biffy and Holger were attacking each other's bases, while Cam and Lee still had a countdown for their respawn.
Unfortunately for Biffy, Holger was the better attacker and eventually broke his base first. Declaring Cam and Holger's team as the winners.
Lee knew his dad was a heavy sleeper, so he ended up inviting everyone to a virtual meeting. He always preferred talking rather than typing anyway.
Slowly Biffy, Cam, and Holger joined, having their names displayed on the screen before they turned on their camera, "Yo, Lee turn on your camera," asked Biffy, "My camera is on, I'm just sitting in the dark, I can't turn on the lights cuz my dad might wake up" replied Lee.
"Man, looks like we win again," celebrated Cam and Holger. "Yeah, yeah, we'll see how next time goes," said Biffy. "
"My mom is still going to be away for another day. Same time tomorrow?" asked Lee. "I'm down" replied all three unanimously.
After saying their goodbyes, all four logged out and closed their laptops, getting ready for bed.
Lee was already sleepy and with the lights off decided to just get up and crash on his bed.
"What are you doing tomorrow?" a voice in the dark asked.
Lee didn't wait for an explanation, he threw a fist, hitting something soft.
Thump
Before Lee could go for another hit "kiddo it's me, give your old man a break"
Lee immediately turned on the lights and began profusely apologizing to his dad "dad I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was you. I was-", "Playing the game, I know son. Your mother whispered to me that you might try something like this," his dad said while rubbing his stomach.
"How long have you been standing there?" asked Lee as he realized on top of being in the dark, he also had earphones, which made it so that he wouldn't have heard his dad come in.
"Long enough to know that you should listen to Biffy more" chuckled his dad.
"You're not gonna tell mom are you?" pleaded Lee.
"Don't worry kiddo, I'm sure this whole detention/grounding thing has been weighing you down. We'll pretend this didn't happen, as long as you can still be up on time you're welcome to game until your mother gets back."
"Appreciate it dad" Lee said before his dad ruffled his hair and went off to bed. Lee followed suit and drifted off to sleep as well, excited for another session with the other trio tomorrow.