Gamers Con: The First Zak Steepleman Novel by Dave Bakers

said.
    “Oh,” I said, not sure if we should shake hands or hug or kiss on the cheek or what . . . though since we were both thirteen-year-old kids, and thinking about the way I was blushing, I guessed that it made sense for it to be awkward.
    “I’m in Group D,” she said, “so, maybe we’ll see one another in the next rounds.”
    Though I was sure that my heart was pumping gallons of blood per second into my cheeks, I couldn’t help thinking, in a snide way, that, most likely, she would get knocked out soon enough.
    I wondered if she was going to intercept this thought of mine, but, instead, she just gave me a sliver of a smile, showing off a tiny glimmer of her very white teeth, and then she shimmied on away, lost herself in the crowd.
    “Dad?” I called out.
    He glanced up from his mobile screen.
    Only about ten paces away from me now.
    He caught my eye.

 
     
     
    13
     
     
    “SO?” Dad said. “All set for the matchup?”
    Though Dad had picked the right terminology, I couldn’t help wincing just a little.
    I stared down at my half-eaten hamburger, lying there on the greased-up, thin paper. I decided that now was the time for me to make inroads into my fries—so far I hadn’t touched them. There’s definitely something to be said for salt before a gaming tournament.
    If nothing else, it gets your heart pounding just that little bit harder.
    Can help you hit those split-second reactions.
    “Uh huh,” I replied, snatching for a handful of chips, stuffing them between my lips, chewing up the salt and fat, and all that goodness, washing it down with a good slurp of Brizzmere Buzz.
    The sugary bubbles seemed to lash their way right into my bloodstream.
    Again, some pretty good energy.
    I breathed in the fat on the air, found it reassuring, and I did my best to block out the blabbering crowd that sat at the food court.
    I didn’t really want to run into another meet-and-greet situation.
    It was enough for my inside-kid nature to have the stress of ‘getting to know’ two people in one day.
    Kate and James.
    That meant two more names I’d have to remember.
    I reached down for my lukewarm hamburger.
    Bit off another quarter.
    Chewed it up thinking that—to the casual observer—I no doubt looked a little like a cow chewing away on some cud.
    Let them think what they want.
    Because I was going to show them all who was boss just as soon as I found myself at a gamepad.
    It was then that I realised that I hadn’t called Mum, and that I had told her I would ring her the day before.
    I looked to Dad, who was currently pondering his next move in his computer chess game. I saw that the other player was ambiguously named Nemux5 . . . Dad really did have some of the geekiest friends, and that’s coming from his video-game-playing son .
    “Can I give Mum a ring, Dad? I told her I would, and I don’t have any minutes.”
    Okay, that was kind of, sort of accurate.
    The truth was that I never really liked to use up my minutes.
    I always get a little paranoid that I might end up somewhere— someplace, sometime —and not be able to make a potentially life-saving phone call . . . yeah, or something like that . . . but, long story short, why should I have to use my phone to call one of my parents?
    . . . Couldn’t they call me?
    Dad pondered his next move for half a minute or so, long enough that, if I hadn’t known him so well, I might’ve thought that he hadn’t heard what I’d just said.
    But, sure enough, after he’d made his move, he slid his mobile across the table to me.
    I checked down the list for Mum’s name and number then hit the Call button.
    The dial tone chirped away in my ear.
    I waited.
    And waited.
    And waited.
    I checked the time, saw that it was around midday now—hence the hamburger.
    I guessed that, maybe, Mum had gone to have her own lunch with my aunt, and that she had perhaps left her phone behind in the guest room.
    Still, I tried another couple of times, and then settled on