“Just ask him!”
“You ask him!”
“You’re the one with no moral compass,” Harvey argued back. Tai didn’t have a good rebuttal for that. It’d been his idea after all.
The two took another peek inside the almost empty classroom. Almost empty but for the one student that had stayed behind. Normally, the lunch break meant socializing with friends, finishing homework that someone didn’t get done the night before or, in Tai and Harvey’s case, club activities.
The solitary boy in the classroom didn’t indulge in any of that. He ate bites of a dry looking sandwich, flipping the pages of a novel laying flat on his desk. Lane was famous in a way. People knew him as mute, but there were rumors of people that had heard his voice. He was thin to the point of being gaunt, with an angular face and dark hair. He wore a gray hoodie and jeans. Even as he was the only kid in the classroom, Tai felt his eyes slide over him, like he just melted into the scenery too easily. He was the kid who didn’t stand out or speak up.
Tai was counting on that second part. “Alright, fine,” he told Harvey. He took a breath and bounced into the room.
“Hey, Lane!” Tai clearly startled the other boy. Tai was a junior at Engine City High, with a big body and a big voice. Tai didn’t actually know Lane, but he was pretty sure they were in the same classes once or twice.
“Listen, our Cross Kingdom club is short a player for a match this afternoon. It’s a long story, we actually had a teammate go pro! Which was… great for him… but a long story and means we need a third for our club meet today! I’d ask if you play, but I’m sure you do, right?” Tai was pretty sure the kid never touched the game, and Lane shook his head. “You’ll do it? Great!” Tai bumped him on the shoulder affectionately.
“So listen, the match is in room 211 at 3:15. If you need to borrow some cards, we’ve got some extras in a few binders up there, so just take what you need, okay? We’re really counting on you, so make sure you show up!”
Lane wanted to stop him, shaking his hands like he was shooing an insect. His mouth opened and closed like a fish, but he couldn’t get a voice to come out. It always happened that way when he was stressed or overwhelmed, it was like his thoughts moved too fast for his voice to follow.
Tai felt a pang of guilt. He wasn’t oblivious. Lane didn’t want this, but they really did have a lost-minute change to their roster. If they canceled the match, their club could be disbanded by school faculty, who already had doubts about the value of a TCG Club. So, Tai did what everyone else did and ignored Lane.
“Great, you’re already signed up! We’ll see you there.”
Tai turned his back and left the classroom. Harvey followed closely behind.
“You think he’ll actually come?” she asked, looking back at the boy, now sitting still in his seat.
“Of course,” Tai sounded more confident than he really was. “He’s the only guy in the school who can’t say ‘no.’”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Lane was distraught. A peaceful lunch ruined by a social commitment hanging over his head like a patient guillotine. Lane had heard of Cross Kingdom, and had even watched a few matches. The trading card game was unavoidable these days. More and more trading card shops opened just to sell cards, accessories and host tournaments. He’d also heard that Engine City High was home to a very promising young player and that he’d single-handedly convinced the stuffy school faculty to approve of a TCG Club.
But, he’d never played. Playing required talking, didn’t it? Pretty much everything did. And when a situation needed it most, Lane was even less likely to let a word leak through.
Lane assumed the big kid was conscripted by some teacher to push him to join a club. Every few weeks somebody at the school would remember he existed and convince another student to make friends with Lane. They would treat him like a lost puppy and force him to come practice with a sport or a club or some extracurricular that would realize Lane was just a quiet, awkward kid. The impromptu charity would end and Lane could fade into the background again, just as he liked.
Once he flailed a bit at this, the big kid would leave him alone again. That’s what always happened.
----------------------------------------
Lane’s last class period was his independent study, which normally meant that his day ended an hour before most everyone else. Of course, it just meant he had nothing to do until the public execution later. Lane would show up, disappoint whichever teacher was behind things, and then be able to resume his normal schedule.
But, until then, he was bored. The downside of not having any extra commitments was that you finished everything quickly. Lane had devoured his new book, finished his homework for the day, and almost killed the battery on his phone.Time moved so slowly when he didn't have anything to look forward to. The minutes crawled by and his days felt exhausting and endless. All he wanted to do was fill the time with anything just to make his days end more quickly.
A video featuring a match of Cross Kingdom was recommended on his feed. He almost watched it, but decided it was a sign to actually prepare for this appointment with public shame.
Lane wandered towards Room 211, which didn’t appear to host any classes for this period. It looked to be an English classroom, with black and white pictures of authors and a green bookshelf filled with secondhand copies of recognizable novels. He almost pulled one out, until he saw a plastic tub labeled with a stretch of blue tape.
“TCG Club!”
Lane put the book back and pulled out the little tub. Inside were deck boxes, a few binders and foam playmats. There were so many cards, endless distinct cards. Each featured a cartoon-y portrait of some monster or scene or object, with extravagant names at the top and detailed descriptions underneath.
Lane looked up the instructions for Cross Kingdom. He knew the general gist of the game, destroy your opponent’s creatures, force them to draw cards and then someone lost. He checked to see if he was right on the Fold Corporation's website. One of the most popular links was to a cardlist and an online rule book. An option for contacting a live rules judge also appeared, which he quickly dismissed.
“Victory Condition: If a player must draw from their Prize Deck but there are no cards remaining, then they lose! Alternatively, if a player must draw from their Main Deck, but there are no cards remaining, then they lose! Some cards and kingdoms feature more alternative victory conditions!”
Lane kept reading. What was a Prize Deck? He rummaged through the bin, pulled out mats. They were all different, with colorful designs played across the entire canvas. More curiously, they seemed to be arranged distinctly, with different names and weird rules written on them.
Lane explored the digital rule book a bit more.
“Kingdoms: Each player must field a Kingdom (an official playmat) before starting a duel. Playmats will determine how many of which kinds of cards can be on the field at any given time. They may also feature alternative win and loss conditions, as well as unique ways of preparing for a match! Please observe both Kingdom’s rules before beginning play!”
This sparked even more questions, and Lane was again digging through the tub and rule book with newfound interest. The time wasn’t passing by so slowly anymore.