I had always wanted to play the game, watching friends play PES (Pro Evolution Soccer) developed by Konami back in the days was a torture especially if you don’t know how to play. For me, I don’t joke with my fun, so I had to learn how to play PES as quickly as I could to be able to join the party. From that moment, I became so addicted to the game that I could skip eating hours just to play it.
Back in the days during my high school days, PES which was popularly known back then as winning 11 used to be a big deal for young boys who were still in secondary school… students used to leave their various schools during school hours to go to various gaming centers just to play the PES game…
My case was a bit similar… but I wasn’t that crazy to sneak out during class hours just for a game… I always waited for the closing bell to ring before I disappear from the school premises to the gaming centers like the speed of light (even faster than the speed of light… lol)
Those closing bell sounds felt like heaven on earth… I’m not sure I had ever waited for the final bell to ring.
The pre-game argument:
We had a group of friends who we usually go play the games together… and we always fight for supremacy like gods fighting for one throne… always disagreeing and fighting over who is the player PES player… playing PES back in the days was more about bragging rights and nothing more… losing felt like a real loss even though it was just a game… no one wanted to be on the losing side.
During class hours, we would spend most of the free time discussing the game and how every one of us would come out victorious. For me, I would always stand by my words and argue for myself too. we would spend most of the time, arguing on who is better and making assumptions on how we were going to battle against each other… most times, the argument got so intense that it had to be settled on the battle field which in this case was the PES gaming center.
Immediately the closing bell will go off, we could gather ourselves and move in a group straight to the gaming centers all wearing our school uniforms… on reaching there, people would look at us as kids but we didn’t see ourselves as kids… lol
The game battle:
Once we have settled ourselves, we would pair up and play against each other… the winner from each pair would play against the winner from another pair… we would do this until one person would emerge the overall champion and would earn all the bragging rights for that day. Sometimes, during the game contest, arguments would set in, disagreements and real exchange of words would set in… it was a normal thing because no one wanted to be on the losing end and receive all the mocking. The worst thing that would happen that day was to leave the gaming centers without at least beating someone in one of the game rounds. hehehe
Before the incidence:
As usual, everything kept on going smoothly for me, until one fateful day… this particular day, we had an extra moral lesson and most of the students stayed back in school after the normal school hours just to attend the lessons… I told my parents about it…
Everyone at home supported the idea for me to also join them for the after-school lessons… for me, it was far from that… it was more about after-school game contest… :D… I left for school, on reaching my school, I noticed I forgot something…
I forgot my cell phone… but I felt it wasn’t all that important that day… so I was less bothered.
All my gaming friends were all present for the extra lessons… they all had the same thoughts as me… it wasn’t about lessons for us… it was about gaming war…
After the lessons, we all matched in a group as usual and went to the usual gaming center… got ourselves ready, paired up, took our controllers and the battle began…
The day of reckoning:
It was all fun… after I got satisfied, I decided to stop for the day… I took my bag and immediately I opened the exit door… my eyes saw the impossible… I saw TOTAL DARKNESS… I had stayed beyond time… the bright lights inside the room deceived me… I was terrified... I didn’t know what to do… no phones with me… I knew there was trouble and I knew what was waiting for me at home… after all the panic, I finally got home…
The first thing that welcomed me immediately I opened the door was “WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN SCHOOL TILL THIS TIME?”
I tried to look for excuses to bail myself out of the trouble… My brain began cooking up excuses in milliseconds… I gave out everything my brains could come up with, thinking they were enough to save the day… I never knew my dad had picked up my phone I forgot at home to call one of my friends to confirm why the extra lessons took so long… but my friend had told my dad that the lessons were over long hours ago… all the excuses I gave were just void and didn’t make any atom of sense…
The moment my dad told me everything he had discussed with my friend… All I could remember was that I felt a hand on my face and I heard a loud sound of thunder and at the same time, I saw very bright stars… it was after few seconds later that my brain had to reboot and figure out that the hand that landed on my face WAS A THUNDEROUS SLAP… It didn’t just end there, all the goodies I was promised were canceled as a punishment… I learnt my lessons the hard way and only went to gaming centers during holidays.
And that is a wrap…
What was your own experience?...
I would love to read yours… Enjoy your day.
This post article is written for the MyFirstGame writers contest. The information and link for participation can be found here
Comments