String of Fate

Chapter Ninety Nine

"Let's go, but you know I have to be at the arena by five." I told her.

"Of course, but it's just after one and you need to eat." She replied, coming into my room to look around. I knew there was no point arguing with her, so, I quickly sorted out my backpack and slung it on my shoulder.

A couple of hours later, we headed into the arena for the competition. The room was already beginning to get crowded with people already waiting for the competition to start. I handed my parents their tickets for their seats and they headed to the audience queue. I headed over to the queue for the competitors, which was quite short. In fact, there was only one guy in the queue in front of me. "There you go, Leo. Good luck in the tournament."

"Thanks." He replied, taking the badge that she handed him and headed off in the direction that she pointed. I couldn't help but think that the guy that I was behind 'Leo_Lion' in the queue. I knew he was in the competition, but I didn't think that I would meet him so soon. In my opinion, he was my biggest competition because he liked to think that he was better than me because he's a guy. In fact, we were both good at the game.

The woman checked me in and directed me to the waiting room, where all the gamers would wait until it was their turn to go against another gamer in the one-to-one battles that had been planned. It would probably be a long first round to the tournament. It wasn't surprising that it was going to last over the whole five days considering that there were over sixty people competing. It was a little surprised that there was a lot of people in the competition this year since it was invitation only. Usually, there were only fifty people in it.

I headed into the backstage room where we would all be waiting to be called on stage and found that I was probably one of the last few to arrive. As long as I wasn't late, that was all that mattered. There were a bunch of miss-matched settees and comfy chairs that were perfect for lounging around on, as well as a massive TV on one of the walls that was already set up to show the competition. It would be great to see what the audience would be seeing. I saw that the guy who had been in front of me was already sitting on one end of a settee, his phone already in his hand. I sat down on the opposite end and pulled out my phone, thinking that I could reply to comments on my video while I waited. It wouldn't surprise me if he was doing the same.

"Hey." Someone spoke after a little while, and I turned to see the guy at the other end of the settee looking at me. I was a little surprised that he was talking to me, but I wasn't going to knock it. I smiled at him and he held out a hand to me, turning so that his body was facing me. "I'm Leo."

"Hi, I'm Josi." I replied, shaking his hand. I locked my phone and turned so that my body was also facing him. "Aren't you Leo the Lion?"

"Yep. That's me. I'm guessing that you're the famous Josi. My fierce competition." He noted, his American accent quite captivating. I forgot that he was more local to this competition than I was, however, he was from Chicago and the competition was in LA, so maybe not that local. Still, I really liked his accent. I nodded in reply to his answer. "Well, I guess today might finally be the day that we find out who is actually better at the game."

"True, but we are here to have a bit of fun." I told him. I mean, it would be great to win the competition, but it was also great for people to meet up with each other and chat about our interests, after all, we were all gamers who enjoyed this game. Still, there wouldn't be any bad feelings if Leo did win, I'd just kick his butt next year. "I mean, we're all just here to play a game that we enjoy."

"You are so British." He laughed, leaning back. "I mean, we're literally about to start a competition and you're saying that it's just for fun. You're probably just saying that because you expect to be knocked out in the first round. I mean, you're the only girl here, after all."