"A Loss in the Neighborhood" Chapter One

Jose looked at me from across the video arcade. I hadn't seen him in a few weeks, and I was sure that he had been honing his skills on Blasteroidz. It's not that I had been ducking him or anything, it's just that I hadn't had time to practice myself. A public confrontation now would be humiliating as all get out. He moved closer to me.
"Hey, man."
"Hey, Jose. How you been?" I tried to avoid the topic, but my subconscious had other ideas. "Been playing much Blasteroidz?"
"Uh, sure, a little. I haven't had much time, and when I do come here is always such a long line you know?"
I nodded.
"Yeah, Rico, anyway, I was wondering, we going to have that big matchup ever?"
"Sure, sure," I responded quickly. A small crowd had gathered at the mere fact that we had been talking. "Besides, its not like I was ducking you or anything!" That came out a bit more nervous than I had intended.
Jose stared at me intently now. "Yeah, not like you were ducking me or anything."
Another kid, a tag-a-long named Jimmy spoke up. "Hey, ya! you wasn't ducking him or anything was ya?"
The crowd murmured their approval to the comment. I began to hear certain people muttering in the background.
"Yeah, he ain't been coming in lately has he?"
"Way I see it, no one can beat Jose, so why even show up?"
"I know Rico can't, that's for sure."
I had to say something quickly, and it seemed the only thing I could do was to accept the challenge. I didn't know if I had a shot to win or not, but eh, even losing was better than facing the whispering in this crowd. Besides, ducking someone did something to your reputation in this place.
"Yeah...we'll have that big match up. How's tomorrow for ya, Jose?"
"What time?"
"Why you got something better to do? Or are you ducking me now?" I'm not sure where that comment came from, but after hearing the positive reaction from the crowd, I grew more confident.
"Me ducking you? Ha, that's a good one brother. How's three o'clock? I mean, if you don't have to babysit your sister or help your mother with the dishes."
A slight laughter broke out in the crowd.
"Three o'clock is fine. See ya then."
That being set, Jose left the arcade and the crowd dispersed, talking about how badly Jose would destroy me. I pushed many of the kids out of the way and made my way to the Blasteriodz machine. The kids looked at me with wide eyes. A quick glance at the current occupant made him melt away like a popsicle in the sun. The game was mine.
Unfortunately after his ship was destroyed, the game revealed the high scores--all of them Jose's. His top score was slightly over a million. I could top that. I'm sure of it. I began plugging in quarters as if my pockets were a adolescent ATM.
BAM! On my ninth or tenth try, I bested his high score. This was going to be a cakewalk, I thought. I not only beat it, I had a couple hundred thousand to spare. I decided to call it a day, and went towards the door.
Outside of the arcade, I jumped on my bike. I couldn't help but see that smarty Jimmy sitting on a bench talking to some kid I didn't recognize.
"Hey Jimmy, I just nailed Jose's score. Almost a million and a half. Beat it by over two hundred thousand. What do you think of that?"
Jimmy burst into laughter. "A million and a half? I think yous better look at that machine again. Jose's got all the top scores, and all of them are over ten million! A million, ha! We made a blind kid play one day and even he got sixty thousand! Ha, ha, ha!"
My heart sank. It couldn't be. It would make sense, but it couldn't be. I ran back into the arcade and slowed as I reached the machine. The screens were cycling through, showing the game demos and then, the high scores. My name didn't appear anywhere. And after counting digits again, I realized I had no prayer in this competition. Was it possible that Jose had become ten times better than me?
As I reached my bike again, I noticed Jimmy looking at me. At first I wasn't sure what the look meant, but then I realized what it was. I had seen that look before. Pity. He was pitying me.
Hopping on my bike I realized I had two options. Improving quickly so that I had a chance, or...ducking him. This was going to call for something drastic.