The New Gamer

Button stood in surprise for what seemed like hours, but eventually managed to assess the current situation that rocked his routine out of orbit:

At the Pac-Man cabinet was a scrawny, mysterious figure. Mysterious was the good word of choice, as this person was cloaked in a dark-blue jacket, with the hood covering his head. He also wore dark-as-night black jeans that were big enough to hide the size of the legs they covered. His face was unable to be seen, as his back was to Button, and the sides of the cabinet covered any hints on the sides of the face.

What is going on here? Button thought. Nobody ever plays Pac-Man, except maybe old people from the 80's. Well, obviously, himself, too, but he always liked the 80's. Plus, it's not like he had friends to be embarrassed by his game preferences.

Button felt himself gasping for air. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't! Button was looking forward to playing Pac-Man first things first today, like always. It was his first and bestest friend out of all the game adventures in this arcade, after all. All the other games were simply games.

But now, it seemed like he would have to wait.

Sighing, Button turned away from the new gamer playing with his best friend and decided to search for a new game.

Finding something else to do at the FunTime Arcade was incredibly difficult for Button.

One other reason he liked Pac-Man was because it was never crowded or busy. He could play it without waiting, neither would he have an audience to bother him or give him annoying advice about the game he already knew. It could be a little lonely at times, but that didn't matter once the game went into full swing for Button.

Almost all the other games in the arcade were almost always packed, and the ones that were free were either broken, in need of repairs, or were more suited for little kids that come in to the arcade every once in a while. Today was no exception.

Button first tried to get on the motorcycle game, but his classmate Rumble and his older brother Thunderlane told him to beat it.

He then tried the Mortal Combat game, but Pipsqueak, the European exchange student, was already there.

"Sorry, mate. Goin' be playin' this game fer quite a jolly good while, Aye think," he said.

Button sighed and walked away. At least Pip was nice about it. Plus, can't blame the binge-gaming. Mortal Combat is pretty cool to play, not to mention addicting. Maybe he could play a round with him sometime. Maybe not. Given Button, probably the latter.

Next, even though he hated sports, Button decided to see if the surfing game next to the snack bar was free. However, he was met with First Base, the young baseball player of Ponyville. He may have been 15, like Button, but was inches taller and much more stronger. Button was basically more of a scrawny string bean than he already was standing next to Base. Button didn't even bother bothering him.

Eventually, all of the games were tried, but in vain. So, out of boredom and sadness, Button had to go to the little games just to be satisfied. The whole time, playing Shape Finder or Math Wiz, little kids, like Carrot and Pound Cake, the little twins from nearby, looked at him with strange looks. Rumble saw Button every once in a while, and chuckled at the sight. Button shook his head in shame. This was not a good day.

After an hour of looks and verbal abuse of giggles from the gamers in the arcade, the frustration inside him grew, until after another hour, having wasted nearly a third of his precious Saturday, Button had had enough.

Button marched back to the Pac-Man cabinet with anger in his eyes and fury in his step. He couldn't believe his Saturday got ruined by a newbie! Well, I'll show him! he thought. Hopefully.

The mysterious cloaked figure was still there, frantically moving the joystick to move Pac-Man to and fro. Button could see he was not good at Pac-Man, because he looked more frazzled and messy in his figure. This was even more confirmed, as Button saw him bang on the buttons in anger and stress.

Now, if this was a usual day and this went well, Button would have walked up to the dude and told him to get lost from his precious Pac-Man. Or he would've most likely at least tried, then chickened out and walked away.

However, this was not a usual day, thus not a normal situation.

As he was about to say something, nearby, two boys were laughing and playing video games together. One was tall, lanky, and orange, with the name Snails. The other was shorter, chubbier, and blue, and holding a banana peel, having finished said banana. This blue boy, named Snips, in carelessness and stupidity, threw away the peel, thinking it would land in the trash can. He thought wrong.

Instead, as if by fate, it landed right where Button was stepping before he was going to speak.

So, instead of "Hey, game-hogger!" like he wanted to say, Button ended up going "Heeeyyywwaaah!" as he tumbled backward.

He fell downward, then, like dominoes, his feet hit the legs of the new gamer, causing him to yelp and fall right on top of Button, face to face. In the commotion, his hood came off his head, allowing Button to see the gamer in the open. Finally, he could see the game-hogging newbie in person! Button thought.

What he saw left his jaws more agape than Pac-Man's after ghostly defeat.