“All he needs to do is sit down when the match starts,” Tai said. At this point he was just trying to reassure himself more than Harvey. “That way, we aren’t completely disqualified from play. It’s not like our club was ever going to beat West Bank anyways.”
Tai had calmed down considerably since that morning. He'd gone red when he learned that Callum wasn’t going to be joining them for the match that day, or any match as a member of the Engine City High TCG Club ever again. He knew Callum was considering going pro, Tai just thought they’d have a couple more events together before it happened.
Tai was Polynesian, big and tall, but where his friends from junior high all dispersed into every different sport, Tai had fallen in love with Cross Kingdom. It always made more sense to him than cracking heads on rubber turf. He wore a pastel polo and khakis, dressing a bit nicer for match days than his usual wear. Now, he just felt like an idiot for thinking the event was special.
“You don’t think you can win?” Harvey asked. She’d been mad too, but not quite as bad off as Tai. She’d been trying to scout sponsors for her own career aspirations. If they’d come knocking, she’d be off in a heartbeat too. Not that Tai needed to know.
Harvey was a short girl, a junior like Tai and Callum. The three had met at a local tournament before even realizing they all went to the same school and it was her idea to start the club, even if Callum was the one that really pushed it through. She wore brown overalls and carried a small camera rig with her. To set up for matches their club hosted, Harvey usually got permission to cut class early and bring along the two guys. It already felt strange doing it with just Tai.
“I’m sure they’re all running some meta deck or some counter to me,” Tai moaned. Harvey tried to ignore the implied arrogance. “I heard somebody at the school is related to a game designer at Fold Corp., so they get a bunch of swag for free.”
A bomb had exploded in the back of Room 211. Cards and mats and binders had been scattered like debris across unfilled desks and plastic chairs. Only one student occupied one seat, counting sleeved cards intently.
“Looks like we won’t have trouble getting him to sit down,” Harvey remarked.
Lane heard the pair and enter and realized what a mess he’d made of the classroom. He shook his hands in a worried gesture before moving to gather up everything.
“It’s all good,” Harvey said. “All the stuff in there is extra. It’s for any member of the club to borrow and play with.” She started putting desks together to accommodate two players sitting opposite one another. She also tried to peek at what kind of deck Lane had been assembling, but only saw a random mess of cards.
The club had no budget, so the extra cards left in the “library” as they’d taken calling the plastic tub, were just the cards they couldn’t resell or trade for anything valuable. Very rarely, they would use the extra sleeves or deck boxes or the spare cards to test out a new strategy, but Tai and Harvey kept really valuable cards in their own collections.
“Oh, good, you’ve already made a mess of things.” Mr. Seitz-Khund walked into his classroom with a sour expression. The middle-aged English teacher always had a sour-expression, but he challenged himself to darken his bitter heart further when the TCG club hosted an event.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The teacher had not originally volunteered to moderate the club as its faculty advisor. Most teachers eventually get roped into coaching or advising a club, deepening their already intensive time commitment to Engine City High. Callum had convinced him that the club would basically ask nothing of him, just to host the occasional visit from another school in his classroom and sign some papers. Compared to spending every day watching over a freshman track team or driving kids to some club event, the investment appeared agreeably modest.
So, he signed, surrendered a shelf of his precious bookcase and tried not to think about the kids until they reminded him of their presence.
“Is one of you missing? Should I be alarmed?” Mr. Seitz-Khund asked the question as he was marking up essays in red pen.
“Callum is going to have to drop out of the club,” Tai explained. “But, Lane here volunteered to join in his place!”
“Mr. Ramsay?” the teacher asked, looking for Lane. Lane gave a shallow wave. The two had come to a one-sided argument freshman year when Lane was unable to present a Shakespearean monologue in front of the class. “Hm,” he said, and returned to his papers.
“We have to play in here?” a new voice asked, whiny and nasal. Four high-school-aged kids walked into Room 211, awkwardly finding some place to drop their backpacks. Tai noticed they carried deckboxes and AR accessories.
“Are you the team from West Bank, where’s Kylie?”
The boy with the nasal voice stepped forward. “Our team has so many members, that we decided to divide our time commitments,” he explained proudly. “Kylie is captain of West Bank’s Varsity TCG team, and they had a tournament out of town this weekend. We’re the West Bank JV TCG team. I’m Felix Westing.”
“Tai Longham,” the two boys shook hands.
“Where’s your AR setup?” Felix asked. He was already wearing the fancy AR rig glasses. They were mostly disguised as normal spectacles, with rectangular lenses. That was except for a wide, circular panel behind the ear and a company branding on the side that said “Fold Corp.” It was becoming more and more common for tournaments to host an AR rig that was compatible with Fold Corp's new line of visors and glasses. With them on, even spectators could watch a Cross Kingdom match play out as more than cards on a table, but as full 3-D models warring against one another. The development had done a great deal towards making tournaments more fun to watch.
“We don’t have one,” Harvey explained sheepishly. She’d just finished setting up camera arms to look down at the adjoining desks, perfect for following play when she checked the footage later. “I hope you don’t mind if we record the matches. I post them to my YouTube.”
Some of the West Bank team started complaining that they’d brought their AR stuff for nothing, but they were quickly interrupted. “That’s fine!” Felix said, turning noticeably more chipper. “You’ll have to send us the link to your channel after… so we can review the game footage.” Lane noticed some of the other members of the JV team rolling their eyes at Felix's behavior.
There was some negotiating about how the team match would be carried out. Lane had read about them in the online rulebook. Team matches were played between two groups of odd-numbered players at the same time. Individual results all tallied up to a team score. One player could earn two points for a victory and both players earned one point for each Prize Card left in their own Prize Deck. Even if someone lost, forcing their opponent to draw Prize Cards could still change the outcome of the team’s results.
Tai and Felix finally reached an agreement after some debate. It seemed Felix was insistent on not dueling Harvey and Lane thought he overheard something about not wanting to “embarrass her.” Finally, Felix announced how it would work. “Okay, team, it’s a best-of-one, three on three team battle. Benny, you’re against Tai, Jaime, you’re against Harvey and I’ll play Lane.”
Lane felt his shoulders tighten. Felix's eyes narrowed on Lane, and the newcomer suddenly remembered how embarrassing this was all going to be for him. Felix grinned and said, with unmissable sarcasm, "Good luck."