Axis

Chapter 2

"Dude! You watched the video, right?!" Chester, who was leaning over his desk, whispered fiercely to James. Chester was one of James' oldest gaming friends, and his excitement was seething. Today Chester wore his typical oversized baggy t-shirt and jeans, he usually wore bright shirts to contrast with his dark skin.

"Of course." James replied doing his best not to grab the attention of their English teacher who was lecturing on grammar. "Did you download Axis?"

"Duh, man. I started the download right after I sent you the video." Chester relaxed in his seat, and started toying with his pencil in his hand. "You did too, right?"

"I started right before I went to bed. It should be installed and ready to go once I get home." James replied, while reflectively copying notes from the whiteboard. He would need to know this stuff for a test, even if more exciting things were popping around in his mind.

"Good man." Chester said instinctively. With a pause he started, "You know we're gonna have to compete, right?" He declared while rhythmically tapping his pencil against the desk. James continued to copy notes before replying.

"Obviously." He said, void of excitement. "I've been thinking about it nonstop since last night, to be honest. But..." He finished the section of notes, and looked over at Chester, "who are we going to have on our team?" Chester looked at him, and began to think. You could always tell Chester was thinking because he would grab his chin with his fingers and gaze off upwards, as if looking into the sky.

"Dude. Winnie would be down." Chester said, giving a smart smile.

"You mean Ed?" James knew his friend Edwin hated the nickname 'Winnie.' "Yeah, he certainly would. Actually I'm surprised he hasn't texted me about Axis yet."

"That's true," Chester agreed. "But who else...?" Both James and Chester sat silent, thinking about who they'd want on their team. Sure they knew many gamers, but who could they trust with a tournament like this? Who had the skill to compete in a tournament like this? The amount of possible candidates were minimal to the say the least. "Oh man, there's that chick in my math class." James responded with a blank stare, obviously unaware of 'that chick.' "I think her name is Sarah... or something."

"She's a gamer?" James responded, unamused.

"Yeah. She is." Chester was growing more confident in his candidate. "I remember now, I checked her stream a few times, and she is good."

"Have you spoken with her before?"

"We've... spoken... before..." James rolled his eyes at Chester.

"Well, try speaking to her, and see if she'll meet up with us after school." James dictated. "I'll speak to Eddie at lunch, and I'll see about the last teammate." Chester nodded with agreement.

"Tech Room?"

"Yup, right after school."

"Got it, dude." Chester said, getting back to copying down notes from the whiteboard.

James faced forward again, and stared at the whiteboard, but the notes blurred out as he tried to focus on the final teammate. His mind ran in circles... Who did he know? Who could it be?

Earlier that Morning

Anna Loverick sat at her desk, as she did every morning, to check her email, the leaderboards, and the various other things a 16 year old, secret gamer girl would need to check. This morning was a little different than her standard routine, today she found herself welded to her seat having just finished the Avid Entertainment announcement video of Axis. She'd always wanted to compete in a tournament, but didn't have any gamer friends to compete with, so she competed against the leaderboard and her rival, J3richo.