Reality Check

Friends

Balcony (by Dayglow)

"Every day, nowadays, it's getting strange in different ways. You call me out from in a haze . . . "

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Although Kiel had heard of arcades before, hearing about it was nothing compared to the real thing. For one, it was much noisier than he expected, with the sounds of fast-paced music mixing with indistinguishable yelling and laughter. There seemed to be a flurry of other noises in every direction, from beeps to explosion-noises to the sound of revving engines. Rows and rows of various machines were distributed around the arcade, set aglow by colorful, flashing screens.

All this machinery in one place sort of reminded him of Quanterium, which reminded him of Charm. If she were here, she'd probably scoff at technology being used for games. The thought made Kiel grin, and then it caused his heart to squeeze. He missed her a lot.

Going against Oliver's threats for Kiel to stop hanging around Bethany, Kiel had followed through with his plan to join Liz and Bethany at the arcade. Of course, he'd brought precautions— his wand-knifes and spell book were buried in his backpack, close enough that he could whip them out at a moment's notice. But since there was no sign of the boy, Kiel hoped that meant Oliver had no idea of his Friday night plans. And if he did show up, Kiel would be ready.

In the meantime, he intended to enjoy himself. Which, seeing the amazing games the arcade had to offer, shouldn't be hard.

Actually playing the games, though, required money, which would be transferred into coins that could be inserted into each game. Fishing through their pockets and wallets, they took an inventory of how much money they had. Kiel was thankful he'd remembered to bring any at all. Without really intending to use it (since he didn't know how), he'd magicked some money up, just for emergencies. Luckily, the girls had a better handle on their own currency, and divvied up all of their money to buy arcade coins. After evenly splitting the coins among them, they ventured off to play the games.

While Bethany went straight for Dig Dug, Liz and Kiel played Dance Dance Revolution, which he found surprisingly easy ("Are you sure you've never played this before?" an exasperated Liz asked, after Kiel won three games in a row). The goal for each game, Kiel learned, was mainly to get the highest score possible, and therefore a higher amount of tickets. Across the room, prizes had been hung on the walls, and Kiel was determined to win at least one.

"Think we'll win those?" Kiel had asked, while they'd all stared at the assortment of prizes.

Bethany made a face. "Maybe. But the games are super rigged."

"Hey, you never know," Liz said, an air of hopefulness to her voice.

They drifted from game to game, Bethany and Liz often instructing Kiel how to put the coins in the slot, and then how to play. But soon enough, he got the hang of it. Mostly. His favorite, by far, turned out to be the racing games— proving he actually wasn't as bad a driver as Owen once claimed him to be. For the most part, it was always the three of them in the same vicinity. But that changed once Liz announced she was going to play Whack-O-Mole, which sat several feet away.

Left by themselves, Kiel and Bethany wandered around to look at the other games. With Liz gone, there was a slight shift in the air. Somehow, Bethany seemed more withdrawn, but it could've just been Kiel's imagination. That thought was quickly dashed when she suggested they play skee ball, which according to Bethany, was the best game in the arcade. Andthe least rigged, meaning more tickets for both of them. Sharing eager looks, they marched up to the skee ball machines, hastily slipping their coins through the slots.