The Girl in the Striped Bikini

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

 

Cale Morrison

　

　

“How many?” asked the bored looking red headed female worker at Ultrazone. Clicking my gaze to my Dad, who was standing at the register, I see him raise an eyebrow at her. My mom, who was standing next to him, laughed silently. What a stupid question, I think to myself. She either can’t count or is too lazy to bother.

“Six,” Dad finally responded in a flat tone, and pulls his wallet out of his back pocket.

“Alright, that’ll be sixty dollars. Sign up to one of our arenas, and when they’re ready for you, it will be announced over the intercom.”

His eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he heard the price. Opening his wallet, he groaned in pain, and pulled out a fifty and a ten and slapped it on the counter. “Sixty dollars for a game of laser tag… Ridiculous,” I hear him mutter under his breath.

“Loosen up a little bit, sweetie. It’s our vacation,” mom says with a laugh, placing her hand on my fathers shoulder.

“Mhmm,” he grumbled, turning away from the cash register. “So, which arena do you all wanna do?”

“Oh, I know!” Keana said brightly, dashing towards the sign up sheet. “We should do Alien Invasion. That one is the best. There’s this UFO in the middle of the arena you can camp in.” Excitedly, Keana looks down to jot down our names.

“Camp?” my Dad says, furrowing his eyebrows together in confusion. “Like camping, camping?”

“It’s gamer talk, Dad,” I explain with a laugh.

“Yeah,” Kendal pipes up, “and Keana is a hard-core gamer. Don’t let her looks fool yours — ow! What was that for?” Rubbing her arm where Keana had swiped her, she glared at her.

“I’m not a gamer!” Keana says defensively, her face reddening.

“Aw, Keana, you don’t have to be embarrassed about it,” grins Carmen. “I bet if you told a guy about your love of killing zombies, they would wanna marry you.”

“Shut up, Carmen! You weren’t supposed to tell anyone that!” snaps Keana, her face turning a darker shade of red.

“Whoops,” Carmen smiles mischievously, “my bad.”

I look at Carmen curiously. She’s up to something again, as usual. Probably matchmaking, if I had to guess. But the question was, with who? I’m the only guy in our group, other than my Dad. I look around the arcade we’re standing in, and almost immediately, I find that who.

Standing at the entrance of the Alien Invasion arena was a brown haired guy in one of those neon green worker shirts, eying Keana. I switch my gaze to Carmen and catch her eye, raising an eyebrow at her knowingly. She then gives me a small smile and shrugs her shoulders. I roll my eyes at her and look away.

My dad let out a frustrated sigh. “What do you all mean by camping?”

“It’s like being a sniper. You hide in one spot,” I explained.

“Staying in one spot?” he parroted. “Well, that doesn’t sound like very much fun.”

“Suit yourself.”

* * *

“Alien Invasion players, please start making your way towards the arena. The game will begin in ten minutes.”