Paige Cole found herself in the exact spot she arrived every Thursday at precisely 4:16 pm, without the faintest clue how she had come to be there. In a town too small to get lost in, she had wandered the streets in the hopes of loosing her way and finding grand adventures. Instead, she wound up exactly where she knew she always would: the front doors of a red brick building that announced to the street in dull gray letters: ‘Arcade.’

After coming to the realization that university was a waste of her time, despite her high marks in high school and her parents’ insistence that it was the right –the only – path, Paige had left after only one semester of study. The people had been dull and the classes weren’t teaching her anything she felt she needed to know. Having spent a childhood lost between the pages of her favourite books, she resolved that in order to find who she was supposed to be, she would have to find an adventure to put her on the right path. Not just the path her parents envisioned for her.

She had grown up in a city, not too large, but large enough that she could wander endlessly, in the constant pursuit of adventure. She had good friends and numerous acquaintances whenever she needed company, but often she found herself alone. She loved every nook and cranny of the city she had unlimited time to explore. She would loose herself daily among the crowds of people and the cement jungle that made up the downtown hub of her city. But her parents would have none of it.

“You’re too old to be wasting your time in childish pursuits,” they had told her time and time again. “This is real life, there are no fairy tale adventures.” After only a month of freedom from school, her parents decided to chain her to a whole new prison.

Her grandmother was old and ailing. Her hearing going almost as quickly as her memories, and Paige’s parents decided the old woman needed someone to stay with her. Despite having no qualifications for caring for the elderly, Paige, in need of occupation, was shipped to the frustratingly tiny town to live in the mothball-ridden house of a woman slowly loosing her mind.

To occupy her boredom, Paige had quickly gotten a job at the local café waiting tables. She had no friends in the town, and didn’t attempt to make any. She had only her rival, and the one hour and sixteen minutes she spent wandering the town every week, before she would find herself in front of the old arcade.

“I won’t go in today,” she lied to herself. “Today is the day for adventure.” She remained rooted in place, telling herself patiently to turn away with no success. Every Thursday she finished work at three o’clock and planned on finding adventure, far away from her mundane life, and every day she found herself in this same spot. She resigned herself to her fate, murmuring; “Next time,” before she pushed through the front doors into the dim light and noisy hall that entrapped her time and time again.

“No adventures today, Paige?” she glanced toward the source of the voice, a girl her own age, very slightly taller and built almost entirely out of angles. “You’re two whole minutes late.”

“You could wait two minutes,” Paige grabbed the pool stick the other girl held out to her and picked up the chalk from the table. “It’s not like you have anything else to do.”

The other grinned a toothy grin. “Maybe next week I won’t be here. What would you do then?”

“You’ll always be here, Taylor,” was the reply. “Where else is there to go?”

From a distance, the two appeared to match through their sheer opposition. Paige was shorter, curvy but petite, softer in features, but fierce in her dark eyes and determined in her expressions. Chestnut hair fell straight past her shoulders in an unremarkable cut, always clean but never styled. Taylor, skinny and spunky, oozed mischief in every facial feature and laughed at your behind green eyes. Her short blonde hair was spiked out, carefully made to look like a mess.

All Paige really knew about Taylor John was that she could rely on her rival to be on time to their unofficial meeting every week. As she understood it, the spunky blonde had lived in the small town her entire life. She had a large family, contrasting Paige who was an only child, and for some reason, Taylor hadn’t left town after graduation to move on to bigger and better things. The reason eluded her as much as the reason Paige found herself in the town.

They each chalked their cues, standing at the second pool table from the left at the back of the arcade, past the noise of the video games and next to a set of dusty ping-pong tables. It was the oldest pool table, but the only one that stood evenly on all four legs and had kept its friction. It was unstained by careless players’ drinks, all of its proper markings were in place, and it never racked the cue ball with the others, as the other tables were known to do. Unremarkable in every way besides its perfection, the two girls claimed the same table every week without fail.

“My break,” Paige passed Taylor the rack, watching the other girl set up the balls as she carefully placed the cue ball at the opposite end of the table. “Best out of three? Same as always?”

“Same as always,” Taylor replied. “You know that.” She glanced up from arranging the balls with a cruel smirk. “And I’ll win, same as always.”

“Seems we’re playing a different game here,” Paige replied. “I’m the one that always wins,” she scoured her messenger bag for the tally sheet they used to keep track and tacking it to the wall next to them. Taylor trailed Paige by one game according to the sheet that was nearly filled.

Taylor removed the rack, the table set. “Break.”

With the crack of the cue ball against the triangle Taylor had arranged, the game began just as it did every week. The rest of the arcade, the high schoolers and younger students of the area continued their games, oblivious to the bitter rivalry that raged at the back of the arcade. The rivals played, oblivious to the noise of successes and failures that made up the only place for the youth of their small town to congregate.

The girls played in silence, as they did every week. Each watched the other girl respectfully and contemplatively as she set up her shot. They respected one another’s successes and did not celebrate the failures. Their games were captivating; each understood the personalities of the balls on the table, not worrying about the geometry, and going by what they knew worked. The 1 would always be agoraphobic, staying close to the rails or packed into a group. The 7 would always be a little bitch, refusing to fall in the pockets as if it were afraid of the dark.

By the end of their set of three games, Taylor had tied them up once more. Whenever one of them pulled ahead, the other would catch up the very next week, caught in an endless draw. Taylor placed her cue on the rack with reverence, glancing over her shoulder to Paige. “See you next week?” she asked, sparks in her eyes.

Paige glanced over her shoulder from where she was stuffing her things back into her bag. “Only if adventure doesn’t spirit me away,” she said.

“Trust me,” Taylor lifted one eyebrow slightly. “There’s no adventure in this town.”