Flashback to June 11, 2013…

We’re sitting under a large screened area which contains a dirty glass table and chairs. In the corner sits a dilapidated hot tub. At the table, we are locked in combat. Unfortunately, things aren’t going so well for me.

“Are you shitting your pants yet?” Lily asks me.

“No!” I exclaim. “That’s gross!”

Her Darkrai (or as I call it, King Motherfucker, or “the fucker” for short,) finishes off my Scrafty with a second Thunderbolt.

I had been hoping that a Hi Jump Kick would wipe the fucker out, but I never even got a chance to find out, thanks to Dark Void.

“We’re battling again,” I tell her, incensed. “And this time, you’re not allowed to use your goddamn piece of shit Darkrai.”

Lily cackles evilly. “You mean you’ve had all these years and a whole new generation, and you still haven’t found a better counter?”

I was hoping that Scrafty, being quad-resistant to Dark Pulse and immune to Psychic, would be able to take attacks long enough for Shed Skin to kick in. But no…

“That thing is fucking broken!” I say. “It’s an unfair f -…”

She shushes me before I can finish my thought. “Stop swearing,” she whispers, “I hear someone coming.”

Next time, I will need to prepare something that is either fast enough to outspeed that thing (which few things are, that thing having a base speed of 125. It will take something with Crobat-tier speed to do the trick, EV trained.)

My train of thought is interrupted when I find out who Lily was referring to. Her grandma has come out onto the porch with us, holding a small box that's wrapped with multi colored wrapping paper.

“Oh man,” I say. “Is that…”

“Here’s your birthday present,” she says. “Consider it a thank you for being such a good friend to Lily all these years.”

She lays the box down on the table. I begin tearing it open anxiously. I can’t believe it… It can’t be… I honestly had forgotten it was my birthday today, but I guess it is...

“No way!” I shout, as I see exactly what I hoped it would be: a new 3DS! “My mom’s gonna be p- ticked off at you guys!” My mom has been getting onto me for my video games a lot recently.

“You’ll just have to keep it our little secret,” Lily says, winking at me..

“You may want to be heading home soon,” her grandma says. “I’m sure your parents will want to spend your birthday with you.”

I'm not so sure about that. “I’m not in a big hurry,” I tell her.

“Yeah, grandma, it’s only four!” Lily says quickly. “He can stay a little bit longer. We still have business to settle, after all.”

Her grandma chuckles. “All right, just don’t be out here too late.”

After her grandma goes back into the house, Lily looks at me. “Are your parents…”

“Yeah,” I say quickly, because I know exactly what she’s going to ask and I don’t want to hear her say it out loud.

As I take the system out of its box and turn it on, I start thinking about what games I would like on it. Obviously, X and Y is coming out in about four months. Star Fox 64 3D is a must...

“Oh yeah, before I forget,” Lily says, “you can have this now.”

She gives me another wrapped box, this one smaller and square-shaped. I have a feeling that there’s a game in there, and sure enough, it’s Mario Kart 7!

“You guys are so cool,” I say to her, feeling even more appreciation for her and her family. This reminds me of something, though... “Shit. I forgot to tell your grandparents thank you!”

Lily laughs at me. “Don’t sweat it.”

I can’t help but to “sweat it,” though. I know from experience that people get angry at you if you don’t thank them when they give you presents.

While I’m entering in my name and the date and everything, I can’t help but to start thinking about what I was trying not to earlier.

“Man, I hope that I don’t have to move,” I say. “You know I’m not too good at making new friends.”

Lily doesn’t have a response for this.

To take my mind off of the depressing shit, I continue plotting against the Darkrai while I ride my bike home later. Perhaps I could try and use a priority move? The problem is, the only priority move I can think of that gets super effective coverage is Mach Punch, which is too weak.

When I arrive at the back door, I can hear the voices yelling already. I’ll have to be quick.

Maybe Technician Breloom? Where do you get Shroomish in B2W2, anyway? I don’t think it’s in the regional dex.

“...won’t even please your own wife!” My mom’s voice shouts as I open the door. “What kind of man are you?”

“One who wants some peace and quiet that YOU won’t let me have!” My dad shouts back.

Whew, I managed to get by without them noticing me. Anyways, Technician is a Dream World ability, so getting a hold of one of those may be more trouble than it’s worth.

“Well, newsflash, Jace, the rest of us in society don’t get any peace and quiet! We won’t until we’re dead !”

Real charmer, my mother is. Anyways, now that I’m home I think I should continue on playing Star Fox Assault.

“Ain’t you ever gonna chill for just two seconds! You ain’t human!”

It’s one of those old GameCube games that I’ve been putting off playing through for ages, and last weekend I started it and played through the first few missions.

“I ain’t soft like you, I work for a god damn living and I’m tired of getting questions about why I still put up with you!”

Is it as good as 64? Probably not, but I did really like this game’s version of the Star Wolf fight.

“It’s no wonder you don’t even know how to raise a child right!”

“What are you talkin’ about?”

“You know that boy ain’t right, Jace! ”

Damn it, I wish they would shut up. I don’t see Kat anywhere, I bet she’s hiding in her room again.

“You heard what that doctor said! It ain’t no one’s fault!”

“I don’t give a damn about any doctor! You’re too weak to knock any sense into him, that’s what the problem is!”

So anyway, the last thing I remember is the team was on the hunt for Pigma, who is apparently on some snow planet.

There is a loud clattering of dishes from the kitchen, followed by footsteps. “I ain’t gonna be knocking anything… you’re crazy, woman!”

“DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!”

I usually don’t care for ice levels in video games, but since this is an air combat game I imagine it shouldn’t be too difficult to deal with.

Suddenly, a huge crash sounds from the kitchen as a plate was hurled against the wall.

“JESUS CHRIST!” the man yells.

That’s the second time that’s happened this month. Can’t they just let me play my games in peace?

Back to 2014…

Yeah, that was pretty much my life back then, before my parents finally officially got divorced. The good news was, my younger sister and I got to go with my dad, which is good because my mom is a crazy psychotic bitch. The bad news is, we had to move into an apartment in Enchantment City, so I haven’t seen Lily since we moved.

At least I have one friend down here, Lily’s cousin Anja. (She’s also friends with these other two girls, but I don’t really like them.) Anja said she’d come over to my place today to play Smash Bros, and the thought of that is what has gotten me through today.

I’m warming up by owning a bunch of lv. 9 CPUs as King Dedede, who’s my main, when there’s knocking on the door. I pause the game and run up to the door. I check the peephole, and it’s Anja, so I open it.

“Hey there Nov,” she says. “Hmm. Nov… Your name isn't shortened quite as easily as the others.”

“Is it that girl of yours?” My dad calls out from the kitchen.

“Yeah!” I call back, and I really wish he hadn’t said that because as we walk back into the living room, Kat appears at the door to her bedroom.

“Ooh, Nova’s got a girlfriend now,” she says.

“Shut up,” I tell her. “Get back to your room.”

“I’m surprised at you, Nova. I thought you were gay!”

“You don’t know what I am,” I tell her. She runs away giggling, and I make to slap her but miss and hit the wall on purpose.

“You never told me that you have a little sister!” Anja says to me.

“Yeah, well, I try to forget she exists,” I say, as I make my way back to the TV. “Come on, it’s time to Smash.”

I hear her giggling behind me too, though I can’t figure out why.

Smash Bros. is going great. I’m winning probably three quarters of the matches we’re in. She’s trying to counter my Dedede with fast characters like Sonic and Sheik. Along the way, though, we discuss what’s really important in life: which characters will show up in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. (Personally, I’m pulling for Mewtwo to return.)

After my fourth consecutive win, Anja finishes off her third Dr. Pepper with a loud slurp. “Man, what is your secret, Nova?” she asks me.

I shrug.

“Don’t tell me you were practicing the whole day before I came over?” Anja says.

“No, we only got home about thirty minutes before you got here,” I tell her.

“Really?” she replies. “Where were you.”

Awh, damn it. I’d really rather not talk about it, but now I don’t have any choice.

“I had to go to civil court,” I tell her.

“You were in court? ” she asks. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” I say. “My mom’s trying to get custody back of my sister and I.”

“Hmm,” Anja says. “How do you feel about that?”

“I hope she doesn’t win. She’s an insane psychopath.”

“Really?” Anja says. She’s stopped looking at the game and is now staring at me.

“But she doesn’t act like that when we’re in court,” I explain. ”She acts all professional and shit like she’s at work. The judge, Justice Pavia, seems totally fooled by her. She keeps telling him that my dad’s some deadbeat who can’t support us, which is not true at all. But what can I say? My mom’s a lawyer, so she must know how to get on judge’s good sides.”

I pause for moment. I guess I said a little more than I had to there. “The Justice is kind of a dick too,” I add. “He’s this old guy who thinks he can talk shit, keeps calling my dad ‘low-class.’”

Anja shakes her head. “My dad said that man was crooked,” she says.

“He acts like he’s the king of the world!” I say angrily, glad that she is agreeing with me.

We continue on with the next match. She must be really desperate now, she’s playing as Fox.

“So, what did your mom do to make you not want to live with her?” she asks me.

“She’s horrible,” I explain. “Always screaming at my dad, and at my sister and I, and throws stuff around when she doesn’t get her way. She always calls me a ‘freak’ and tries to stop me from playing video games.”

I don’t plan for all of this to come out. I just find that once I started ranting about this, it’s hard to stop.

“So you’d prefer to live with your dad?” she says. “Your situation does seem… unusual.”

“It’s hell, is what it is,” I go on. “I really don’t want to have to go back to living with her…”

I’m so distracted that Anja knocks out one of my stocks, but I don’t really care that much.

“Why does she call you a freak?” Anja asks.

I reeeally don’t want to answer that. So I don’t, for a while.

“It’s a really horrible thing for a parent to say to any child,” she elaborates. “Is it just because you like to play games, or…”

“It's because I have Asperger’s,” I tell her.

There’s a pause. I can’t help but to feel nervous that she won’t like that. Or, maybe she doesn’t know what that is…?

“I thought you might,” she says, after a while. “I’m so sorry, Nova. That’s really despicable of your mom to insult you for that.”

We don’t talk to each other for a while after that. I’m so distracted that I end up losing the match.

“Let’s take a break,” I say afterwards. I put the controller down.

I see out of the corner of my eye that Anja is watching me. I wonder if she’s able to tell how I feel. If she knows about the empty feeling I feel right now.

“You know, we ought to figure out how to put that man in his place,” Anja says suddenly.

I look up at her, startled. “There’s no way we can do that!” I reply. “My dad just has to sit there and take it, or he’ll get thrown out of the courtroom!”

Anja starts acting kind of strange, looking around the room and moving her hands.

“It’s not fair,” she says finally. “There has to be some way to fight back… even though we’re kids…”

“If you find out something, I’d love to hear about it.” I tell her. I pick up my own Dr. Pepper and start drinking it for something to do.

“When I’m an adult,” she says, “I’m not going to let shit like this happen anymore. People like that Justice Pavia don’t deserve power. People like you and I should be the ones ruling.”

I can’t ever imagine myself being a judge or anything like that, but I bet she won’t want to be interrupted while she’s being all angry.

“The tides are turning here in America,” she says. “I can smell it. Soon, the people will be tired of listening to these backwards asshats, and they’re gonna get what’s coming to them.”

...I have no idea what she’s talking about now.

“Come on, another round,” I say, picking my controller back up.

It’s dark outside when Anja leaves for home at last.

I don’t really want to stop playing Smash Bros: now that I’m on a roll, I want to go try my hand at online playing. Before I can, though, my dad comes into the living room and sits on the couch.

“You got any homework this weekend?”

I feel a stab at annoyance at being interrupted. “I don’t know,” I say.

“You should go check,” he tells me. “I won’t be here tomorrow to remind you to do it.”

“You just wanna watch TV, don’t you?” I say to him.

My dad sighs. I hear him rustling around behind me, and before I know it he’s sitting on the floor next to me.

“Listen to me, kid,” he says. “I know you’ve got a tough time, with all of this with your mom. But you gotta get a grip on your academics,” he says. “You don’t want to end up like me when you grow up.”

I stare at the screen, watching the animation the game plays when it’s connecting to the wifi. And in my head, I see my dad. Working his shitty job, getting home late at night, not getting paid… I bet he feels like I’m ungrateful.

I reach over to the Wii and turn it off. “I’ll go check my stuff,” I say.

He rustles my hair as I get up to my feet.

And so that’s how I got to be sitting here, finishing an algebra assignment on a Saturday night. It’s a weird feeling.