Chapter 1: Happy Wheels
“Do I really need to attend another one of these things? My manager said I should be in good shape if I keep doing the stupid Orange show and that one thing on Nickelodeon.” Toby gripped the wheel of his Blazer, talking on his iPhone.
“We already told you, your gambling habit cleaned out most of your savings, Toby.” His accountant sheepishly tried to explain to him over the phone, “We’re letting some of the business card purchases go, but we're just trying to get you back into a stable economic position so you don’t end up like M.C. Hammer.”
Toby’s face gave a grimaced, open mouthed smile, trying to make humor of the situation, “Never go full M.C. Hammer.” his eyes wandered about the streets of Indianapolis, completely lost in an unfamiliar enviroment.
“Also, I have to advise you about your fast food habit. You’ve been to Arby’s seven times this week. That can’t just be hurting your wallet.” His accountant gave a painful laugh while his keyboard let out a few tapping sounds.
“I still have abs, Shaun." He proceded to look down at the tiny gut he was forming. "Plus, it’s coming out of my pocket.” Toby kept driving along, looking for the convention center.
Shaun coughed a bit, sounding a bit worried, “Toby, where are you getting that money from?”
“Personal investments?” Toby’s voice became high pitched and pained.
"You're not planning on putting your money on the contest, are you?" The reality of the situation was worse than Shaun could imagine.Toby’s gambling habit had come back full swing since he began to star at the gaming competitions. He could usually pick out the winners, but the few times he had shelled out large sums of money, the player either ended up forfeiting or getting disqualified. The last large sum, paid in Arizona at about $5,000 per win, the girl ended up in the hospital for cardiac arrest due to poor diet and too much caffeine. He had terrible luck.
"No, dude, I swear. I'm just getting some old favors turned in." Toby gave a 'Pfft' sound while he was talking, causing a bit of a knot in his throat, "I gotta go, I'll check in with you when I get to the center. BOOP!"
Shaun slapped his face on the other side of the line and groaned, "You're a 30 year old man, do you really feel the need to do that?" He heard a sudden click and starting chanting to the empty dial tone, "Toby?"
Toby took his eyes off the road and counted the amount of money in his pocket while traffic was stopped. “Hm… fifty bucks. I can do something with it.” He smiled at his wallet, "I'm not going to regret today. Seriously, I have nothing to worry about. I have people who watch over me, girls who adore me, and a company exclusively about me! Bad luck, don't catch me now!" That was only his second mistake to tempt lady luck, as he was jerked forward by his Blazer rear ending the truck infront of him. He slammed his forehead into the steering wheel, "DANG IT, WHYYYY?!"
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The sound of a loud chicken stirred Arnia out of another long, hopeless night of solemn slumber. Her dreams of handsome men swooping her away to fantasy like adventures couldn't even remotely motivate the young girl to open an eye lid. A calloused hand slammed the novelty alarm clock off the shabby night stand it presided on.
“Is it morning already..?” She shot up and stretched out of her covers, revealing a ragged T-shirt she had worn as a nightgown. She stared over to the broken head of a comical chicken, looking at the time. It was 10:30 A.M., also known as ‘holy crap I woke up late’ to the young, twenty-four year old slacker. “I’ve got thirty minutes till I need to be in the truck… Traffic is going to be bad…” She began lifting her shirt over her head, knocking into walls and various items in her shack of an apartment. “OW!” She fell over her clothes pile she sat in front of the bathroom door.
“What’s clean?!” She ran over to the drier and found two mismatched socks and a pair of black leggings. “... I forgot to do laundry again!” She hobbled around, trying to get the clothes on without bashing her head into the door. “Shirtshirtshirtshirt!” She tore through her clothes pile, finding a long enough hoodie to go over the leggings. She slid into the bathroom, doing a combination of brushing her teeth and combing her hair (but not very well). She spat out her tooth paste, ran to the door, put her cheap slipper-flats on, and jogged down the stairs to her beat up, old pick-up.
She yawned, flipping open her 2000’s style slider phone as it rang out a dial tone, “Hello?”
“ARNIA! You’re up, good!” a familiar voice chirped in her ear, making her wince at the volume of it, “I was sure setting your alarm forward half an hour wouldn’t work!”
“... Daria, you ever touch my stuff again, I will get the landlord to take you off the lease.” Arnia relaxed herself a bit, being stuck at a small intersection, “But, it was okay this one-time.”
“I’m not there half the time anyway.” Daria was too perky for this time of morning.
Arnia closed her eyes for half a second, before feeling something hit the back of her vehicle, “... I’ll be right back.” She groaned, sticking her head and part of her body out the window, “LEARN HOW TO DRIVE, YOU INSUBORDINATE GRUNT!” She climbed back in the vehicle, picking up her phone again, “Sorry, some jerk in a Blazer just tore up my freaking bumper.”
“Some people.” Daria snorted, “I’m going to have to call you back, boyfriend just got back from work. Good luck with the tournament!” and with a click, she was gone. As Arnia looked up, she saw the Blazer driver signalling her over to the pull-over lane. She gripped the wheel, bit her lip, and maneuvered as best as she could.
She put her hands on her forehead and rubbed it, “I really didn’t need this today… I really hope I didn’t just mouth off to an undercover cop.” With a long sigh, she got out of the truck and walked toward the owner of the Blazer.
“Oh my god, Ma’am, I’m so sorry. Please don’t sue me, I don’t have the money. Just, are you alright? DO you need an ambulance? Oh god, Shaun’s going to kill me...” Standing there was a short, athletic man with dark curly hair, pulling it and staring at the fender while hurriedly speaking in a concerned tone. That’s when she recognized the once rising star, Toby Turner. She blushed, thinking of all the times she had told Daria that he was one of the only celebrities she was a huge fan of. Those were the days, just sitting with her best friend and watching the few hundreds of videos that he had up on his channel while trying to find a shiny pokemon on her Nintendo DS. She bit her lip and shook her head, that was when she was eightteen; She was an adult now. She wanted to talk to him more and get to know him, but she had a tournament to go to and she really didn’t have the money to replace the bumper or repair the scratches on his car.
“You’re.. That one guy! Turner… Tony… Tori…” She pretended to stumble over names, “Toby! I remember watching you play Minecraft when I was like, eight-teen. Sorry for the insult, I just have a game tournament and I woke up late, and I didn’t eat anything, so… You know how that goes.” She edged away to her truck, throwing her fender in the back of her pick up, “So,uhm… Act like this never happened?”
Toby blinked, raising a brow and looked at the small scratch on his fender, still very confused at her response “Uhm..”
Arnia got in her truck and started it up, pulling away as quickly as she could.
“... I really should have got her insurance information.” He scolded himself and leaned on the front of the blazer, “I better call Shaun… Wait, I’m heading to the center. I can jot down her license plate number. THEN I CAN GET MONEY!” Toby cheered silently, then looked to his car, “... Oh, right... Well, I can at least clear the scratches out of court with her.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Arnia almost crashed through the doors, shoulder-checking almost everyone in front of her and running in like a tasmanian devil on crack to the small name tag table. She panted, “Arnia… Arnia Hendricks.” The woman at the table glanced through the tags, and handed her a small card with a lanyard attached. She snatched it and ran off in a random direction, trying to find the tournament list. A small crowd made her slow down and start to bully through them, “Coming through! Gamer here! Need to find my opponent!” with a couple loud ‘heys!’ and a few ‘ow!’ esque comments, she made it to the front, only to find her name was located in one of the last slots on the chart.
“You’re slacking, Artie.” A girl wearing a Pokemon hoodie giggled, not even needing to push the crowd away to look at the slots, “Looks like they knew who to put up in the higher ranks.” Arnie clenched her fists and resisted the urge to punch the handsome, petite girl in the face. A few short breaths came out her mouth, before she spoke again.
“It’s Arnie. You don’t get to call me that.” Arnia put her foot forward and remained out of anyone’s personal space, “If it wasn’t for the fact you’re pretty, you’d never have ended up here, Franklin... Your skill is average at best..” She whispered to herself and walked off in the direction one of the giant flat-screens that were wheeled in, “I helped you get here...” She pouted, looking at all the blonde-headed 'gamer girls' around her and shrugged, knowing she looked like crap compared to them. She slumped on a bench and pouted, looking at her phone and texting the few people back that knew she even existed.
"AUDIENCE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? I didn't even know you lived here!" Arnia heard a familiar voice start to approach from behind. It was Mr. Turner himself, making a podcast for his youtube channel. She froze in fear and anxiety, had he followed her here to get reperation for his vehicle? She panicked and ducked to go find a place to hide. "Well look who we have here!" he was right behind her, "You want to tell my audience how we met?"
"Well... Uhm.." She blushed and fumbled for words, trying to find a quick way out of this video. Regretfully, relief came in the form of Franklin Lidbit, her friend turned rival.
"Oh my god, Toby! I LOOOOOOVE your videos! Can I say hi to your audience?" Franklin closed in on him and touched his shoulder as if to hug him.
Toby was now fumbling for words as Arnia rushed to the restroom, "Hototothothothothotttt... Uhhh, sure!" Arnia had no time to sit around to avoid his questioning, for ADHD only distracts someone for so long. She dashed into the restroom and sat in a stall, holding her cheeks in her hands to stop the blush.
"What have I done... Now he's going to track me down. He knows my license plate number and everything! I wish I were pretty or had big boobs or something to get me out of this!"