I had nicked my Mom's old saddlebags from the garage at five in the morning, then sneaked my gaming pc downstairs, making as little noise as possible.

That was the easy part. Relatively speaking (Mom was a light sleeper).

The hardest part followed when arriving at school.

Waiting for Rolf to arrive in the dark, cold morning really gave one the oppertunity to wonder where it all went wrong, and how one winded up in this situation.

Of course I waited for nothing. Rolf said he'd be a bit earlier to avoid teachers, but I should have known he wanted an audience more than 'safety.'

By the time Rolf sauntered my way, a smug, arrogant grin plastered on his face, there were already plenty of people around.

Plenty of people who stopped walking to watch when Rolf yanked the PC out my hands.

"Thanks man," Rolf taunted me, as if I'd given it to him willingly. "I'm going to enjoy using this."

"Don't you think this is going a bit too far, Rolf?" one of the seniors I only vaguely recognised asked.

"Fuck no," her friend scoffed. "If he didn't want this to happen, he shouldn't have started that bet. It's his own fault."

There were more people with opinions. I heard murmurs, surprisingly some of them taking my side but most seemed to think I shouldn't have made the bet if I didn't want the consequences.

I didn't care about the discussion either way. I'd done what needed to be done, and now I only wanted to leave.

Because nobody would really move for me, I pushed my way past the curious sightseeing students surrounding me and Rolf with my head down.

Before I made it out of the circle there was yelling behind me and sounds of a struggle going on.

I turned back just in time to see Asa smacking Rolf across the face with the palm of his hand.

Rolf stumbled back. "Stay out of it, Jennings. I won that PC fair and square!" he protested from a safe distance away - out of Asa's punch-zone.

"No. That's not yours," Asa replied with a dead-calm, icy tone.

My PC had been set down on the pavement, seemingly unharmed. Asa must've ripped it out of Rolf's hands first.

"Yes, yes it is," Rolf dared to protest again. "Gabriel gave it to me, right Gay-briel?"

Rolf made the mistake of slightly mispronouncing my name in front of Asa.

Judging by the sudden rage edged on Asa's face, it could well be the last mistake he'd ever make. Rolf was going to catch another punch, this time with a fist meant to do damage instead of just a palm.

"Wait!" I called out, and surprisingly enough, both Asa and Rolf froze mid-movement and both heads whipped my direction.

I breathed out shakily. "It is Rolf's pc now, Asa," I said. "I took that bet and now I'm keeping my word. I shot and missed, and now it's over."

Slowly, Asa lowered his fist. There was leftover anger simmering just below the surface, but he listened to me.

Then Asa left without a word, and I didn't see him the rest of the day.

I didn't run into Rolf, Rolf's friends, or anyone else involved in the skirmish the rest of the day either. Sometimes I spotted them from a distance, but everyone seemed impressed enough by Asa's show to back off and give me some relative peace.

Everyone except Landon, Randall, and Camilla.

I had avoided them so far, but clearly it was unrealistic to avoid them for the full duration of the school year. It was even unrealistic to avoid them for the duration of the break, because they all waited for me outside the classroom.

I nearly ran right into Landon, who had positioned himself just around the corner in the blindspot.

"Geez," I muttered, before glancing at Randall and Camilla too. "You don't have to corner me in the hallway to talk to me."

"Apparently, we do," Landon disagreed.

"Don't talk bullshit," Randall added. "You've been completely unreachable online. Would you have preferred a messenger pidgeon?"

I sighed, unable to argue with being off the grid. "Fine. But I guess I don't need to explain anymore why I didn't want to go public with Extra Ordinary. Nor why I didn't tell you."

"Well... you could always start over?" Camilla offered, after an awkward silence.

I snorted. "That bad huh?"

If even quiet, careful Camilla said it'd be best to abandon ship and start anew, you knew it was serious. Not that I needed more proof.

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Camilla brought out with wide eyes.

I shook my head. "It's okay, don't worry."

"Fuck, dude," Landon said. "You can't have us watch your channel disappear, plus the cesspit that is the tournament's comment section - they're shitting all over you- and expect us not to worry."

There was nothing like Landon blurting out every thought in his head, especially the ones you really didn't want to know about, to brighten one's spirits. Truly.

I mustered a wry smile. "I mean it Landon," I said. "I'm going to do exactly what you told me to do from the start: lay low and don't make it worse."

"But I didn't know you were a big shot streamer then," Landon protested, pointing at me.

"And now I'm no longer one. It's over."

Landon's arm slowly drooped down, and that's the last I saw of him, Randall, and Camilla before slipping past them into the crowded hallway.

There were only two people left who didn't know about my decision, and they were both waiting for me on the living room couch after school.

Mom had her hands folded stiffly in her lap. She tried to look relaxed but clearly wasn't.

Dad was sitting back with his legs crossed and the newspaper on his lap. He did look relaxed, but the fact that he was home early from work was unusual and only tended to happen when he and mom decided they needed to talk to me together.

"Hey," I greeted both my parents, wary but pretending I didn't know anything was going on.

"Hi Gabriel," Mom started with a small smile. "... I was in your room today, and I noticed your gaming PC was missing. I also noticed you took my bike saddlebags. Sweetie, what's going on?"

I swallowed as a lump had suddenly formed in my throat. "I sold the PC," I lied.

"What?" Mom's eyes went wide.

"Why did you sell it?" Dad asked, forehead wrinkling. "You'd be on that thing twenty-four seven if you didn't need to sleep and go to school. You love games."

I shrugged like I didn't care. "That's right. And now I sold it, so I won't be playing video games anymore. Exactly like you wanted. It's over."

"Gabriel!" Mom called after me while I left the living room and ran up the stairs. I waited on my bed for a few moments, listening closely, but neither she nor dad followed me.

I got under the covers.

Three times today I'd repeated it was over. And I believed it was, at least for Extra Ordinary.

If it was, however... why did everyone seemed to insist otherwise? Mom and Dad, who were in total shock that I'd 'sell' my equipment despite always nagging for me to stop playing video games. Landon, Randall, and Camilla, who wanted me to start over.

And Asa. There was always Asa to confuse me right after I'd decided on one course. I had told him to leave me alone- why did he try to interfere? Was this part of his on-off rollercoaster?

Asa certainly didn't seem to care about me on the day of the tournament, and I don't know why he bothered after I pissed him off about snooping through his things.

That was wrong of me. I should've never read those psychological files, nor bring up those private things he didn't tell me about because I was angry. I knew now, first hand, how much it sucked when people know things about you that you don't want them to know.

I'd said I was stepping off the rollercoaster ride, but I allowed myself to grab my phone for one last text to Asa.

Thanks for standing up for me today. And I'm sorry for snooping through your things. That wasn't right and I shouldn't have done that.

Stupid as it was, part of me still hoped Asa would text back. That he'd finally decide to explain himself.

I waited, but I didn't get a reaction from Asa before going to sleep.

As expected, this too, was over.