This is what I wrote for the back to school contest... After I had to shorten it from 1200 words to 500 you can't really tell that it's a school setting... Well here it is anyways in it's exactly 500 words glory. Let me know what you think.
“You kidding?”
I wasn’t. I’d worked for this day, my day to win. I’d studied, drilled myself, for this… and he thought I was kidding. “No, I know how to play.”
He didn’t believe me. Of course he couldn’t. What was I to him but a fellow classmate, a lowly admirer? I couldn’t be part of this world, of his world without proving myself. “Play my best friend first,” he said. “If you beat him, you can play me.
The board is placed between us. I’d beat him, the friend means nothing but another piece in my game, it’s the king, that matters the most. I had to get to him, even if I had to go through all of the other pieces. He laughs just like the King, with the same crooked smile. They could be brothers. They both think I’m a joke. I’d show them that I know how to play.
He moved his Knight. Odd. I thought he’d start with a pawn. The pawns were the best pieces, right? Having the role of infants, moving blindly, trying to make it through, to the other side, where they would become polished individuals, reaching their full potential.
My move. I move a pawn, the one in front of my queen. He was an ambitious pawn, so he moved forward two spaces. They both laugh, but this time, I don’t care, because I know how to play.
The pieces called to me each time it was my turn. I was winning. I could tell because the crooked smiles were replaced with scowls. I was really going to beat him, and then the King would no longer look through me. I would be part of the game, because I know how to play.
I felt his hand on my shoulder, the King. Yes. He finally realized I was there, and I was a worthy competitor. Of course, I was wrong.
He reached forward and made the next move for me.
How dare he. The pieces were mine; I was the puppeteer in this show. That was the true role of the King, to play puppet master, but these were my puppets. In this game, I was the King.
He reaches to make my next move, but I pushed his arm away.
“I know how to play.”
I move my lowly pawn forward one last time, to the edge of the board, and my pawn becomes a queen. His King has nowhere to go. I win.
The King sets up the game board. He goes first. Moving my favorite pawn, the one in front of his queen. It’s ambitious so it moves forward two spaces.
This time I laugh, as I move to leave the room.
“Wait, this is the game you wanted, don’t you want to prove yourself? To beat me?” the King asked.
I shook my head. I’d gotten what I wanted. Him believing I was a competitor. That was enough for me. “No thanks. I know how to play.”
Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:03 pm