game over

People like to play games with me.

They like to chase me and then jump on my head like I'm a robotic crab in a Sonic the Hedgehog game and they're the super-speedy blue creature. They like to watch me fall as they continue in their mission to win, to complete the level successfully. It's because I don't have all that many friends and I work in the nearest Walmart to all the kids at school.

They're slightly better off than me and they enjoy the luxuries of having college funds but I have to work for it and I have to work for my peace and quiet. It's no wonder I compare my life to video games. I would spend every waking minute in the little fantasy lands if I could. Sonic's world is my favourite though. Sure, I don't mind Mario's but the idea of two little Italian plumbers saving a Princess never appealed to my gaming nature.

I have almost every console that was built, even from way back when, and they help me escape when I need it. I pretend the little monsters are the kids at school who empty my backpack on the floor, the ones who deliberately trip me up and call me names and the ones who dump crap in my locker when I'm not around.

God, I love to squash them and beat them.

But my geek-like habits have made me very susceptible to games and strategies. I recognise them in my gaming world and I can see them in reality too. So when Logan – Charlton High's resident basketball star and general hottie I suppose the girls would call him – approached me at the end of my History class one day, I knew something was going on.

The way he stood, the way he addressed me and the smirk which danced around his face whilst his ever loyal disciples-ahem-team mates stood and watched told me everything I needed to know.

This was a game.

He was Sonic and I was the little robotic crab.

So I put myself in that mind-frame.

I could handle this. I was on the Emerald Level, the first one. I would pinch him with my pincers and make him lose a life if he did anything out of line. He could try and jump on my head and crush me if he so liked but I would make sure he flashed in mid-air and lost all his golden rings. I'd show him that if he messed with me, he would only be humiliated.

If only I actually believed that. If only I wasn't such a damn girl.

He was leaning against the doorframe and smiling at me initially, but almost as soon as I glanced at him, looked behind me to make sure he was definitely looking at me, then glanced back his smile had changed to an arrogant smirk. Great. I was supposed to be beating the superhero, not playing into his traps.

"Hey Reid, do you want me to walk you to your next class?" He asked and I could tell it was rehearsed. I barely responded and he was already taking my bag from me and my folders out of my hands. He thought I didn't notice, but he threw a wink at his friends watching from the other side of the hall and began to lead me away. I didn't want him to walk me but I had no choice now. He had all my stuff.

"So how has your day been so far?" He asked with a cheery – fake – smile.

"All the better now you're walking me to class." I responded sarcastically wondering when the opportunity to steal one of his four lives would arise.

"Really? That's cute, Reid." He chuckled, obviously missing my sarcasm. "Do you want to go out with me on Friday night?"

He had me shocked then. But I was still the robotic crab, I couldn't lose my way now or he would jump on my head and crush me!

"You've never said a word to me and now you're asking me out. Did your friends dare you?" I asked raising an eyebrow, watching with amusement as he nervously ran his free hand through his unruly hair.

"Yeah, they saw you in Walmart and thought it would be hilarious if I were to string you along a little bit." He answered honestly and I was genuinely surprised.

"So why tell me the truth?" I asked curiously, teasing my folders out of his arm and trying to retrieve my bag.

"Because you weren't immediately compliant. You're interesting, I guess." He smiled and handed my bag over without question when he noticed I was struggling. Too little too late though, he had already lost a life. I wouldn't go out with him.

"You said a big word, kid. Calm down." I smirked and continued on my journey to my class hoping that would be the end of it.

For a while it was the end of it.

Until Sonic turned up outside my history class again the next week, like clockwork.

"Did they dare you again?" I asked, rolling my eyes and walking straight past him so he couldn't grab any of my things.

"Something like that. Only the dare this time was to have an actual conversation with you, without you running away." I looked around and couldn't see his asinine friends hanging around so decided to take him at face value but grew increasingly wary of his friends being ready to jump out and grab me or something.

It was a horrible life, being so nervous every day, never knowing who was out to get you this time. But it was a horrible existence I only had two more years of before I could be free!

"So what do you want to talk about?" I pushed, growing impatient. If he wanted to win this dare, he would have to work for it or didn't he understand the rules?

"I want to get to know you. I told you last week you were interesting, why not prove it?" He asked and he made it seem like a challenge but I was ever wary of giving into his charms and traps. I didn't want to end up a squashed little crab like so many other quiet girls around the school had become. I sort of felt like a spokesperson for them.

"That's your opinion. Nothing I do or say will change that." I countered and as soon as I spoke the bell rang to signal that I really should have been in class. So I ran away, like he didn't want me to before I really got in trouble and just left him in the hall.

I walked into my class just in time to avoid getting told off by my teacher, Mr York, and sat down next to my only real friend in the whole school.

Jessica is a quiet kid, just like me, but she does it by choice. She keeps her head down and hopes to get through high school with as little hassle as possible and it seemed to be working. Hardly anyone knows who she is. Several times teachers have called out a 'Jessica' amid a flurry of 'Who's Jessica?' from the rest of the class but it didn't bother her. It only told her she was succeeding in her mission.

But her anonymous status within the school means she gets all the gossip. She is able to stand next to any group, eavesdropping, and not be noticed. It was sort of amazing how they were all blind to her and it angered me in some ways because she was so amazing and funny. If people just opened their eyes and dropped the fight for popularity then they would see it. But I know that's how things would work in a parallel world, definitely not this one.

So on this particular day, Jessica had been snooping around with the cheerleaders and the basketball team. It was completely by accident that they had happened to be discussing everything right by her locker so no one could blame her for overhearing things but I could tell as soon as I sat down next to her that she was ready to burst.

"What's up?" I whispered, hoping that Mr York wouldn't hear us.

"I heard something really interesting today and then I saw it with my own eyes." She exclaimed with a wry smile.

"Well, spill it." I urged, anticipating her news more than ever.

"The cheerleaders say Logan is pursuing you, for lack of a better term. I saw you talking to him out in the hall, what's going on?" She asked.

"He's been dared by the basketball team to talk to me a few times and to get me to go out with him. It's all crap, I'm not falling for it." I insisted, turning to the page in the book we were supposed to be reading.

"Then something doesn't add up." She looked confused. "I overheard Benjamin saying that it was ridiculous how Logan was chasing you when he could have any one of the cheerleaders with a click of his fingers."

Now things were getting weird.

"Why me?" I groaned, putting my head in my hands.

"So if he wanted to date you, you'd turn him down?" Jessica asked. I had thoroughly confused her.

"Yes. No. I don't know. Look, it's not going to happen." I insisted in a slightly tense tone which immediately signalled the end of that conversation.

So I had assumed Logan was done for that day from out earlier encounter until the bell signalled for the end of the day and he accosted me outside the school grounds.

"Let me walk you home." He insisted and I began stomping in the direction of my house, not bothering to see if he was following or not. I really couldn't care less.

He was playing a game with me and I wouldn't comply. I wouldn't play along. I didn't care what Jessica thought she had seen or heard. This was one game I was going to have to fail to complete because if I did, he would win. Sonic would prevail and the crab would lose. Under normal circumstances this would be awesome but in this unique and troublesome situation, it would have been disastrous.

"Another dare, Logan?" I asked, this time exasperated with the irritating routine.

"No this is a continuation of the last one." He smiled, finally catching up with me.

"I'm really not that fascinating."

"But you are! You're the quiet girl who works at Walmart. You don't have many friends and yet you're not exactly lacking in social skills. What happened to you?" He asked gently and I felt ashamed of my angry response but it had to be said. He also lost another life with that little remark. He was down to two.

"Kids like you! You come into the store, you mock me and then you take it back to school and make my life hell. If anyone wanted to be my friend, I'd let them. I'm not a nasty person, bitter maybe, but not nasty. But no one bothers. They just put me down and make my life as crap as possible. So I'm not interested in what you think of me." I snapped and realised too soon that I was playing his game. I was giving him too much information and letting him too far in.

"I never did anything to you, Reid. I can't account for my friends but I never touched you." He frowned at me, defiant to the end. It was almost admirable and as I cast my mind back I couldn't actually remember a time when he had done anything to me.

"You're the same as your friends though. Without these stupid dares, given time, you would have found a way to torment me." I laughed with some kind of twisted amusement.

"No, no I wouldn't have. I know that for a fact." He insisted, still looking less than impressed.

"How do you know that?" I asked, tired of the conversation.

"Because I - " He started but I refused to let him finish.

"You know what? I don't want to hear it. I'm going home now without you. Goodbye." I finished and started on my way home alone looking forward to the peace and quiet which would await me.

"You didn't even let me answer!" Logan yelled after me.

"Goodbye, Logan!" I called back giving him a backwards wave as I didn't even bother to look back at him. If I had of done, maybe I could have spared him the hassle of losing his last two lives.

My week continued normally. Kids from my school would come into the store and buy the craziest things then make stupid complaints about me because I didn't smile at them or other reasons equally as stupid. Luckily I had an understanding boss who knew my situation with the kids from school and sympathised. She would pretend to file their complaints but I always saw when she chucked them in the waste paper as soon as they left.

But it was a vicious circle. When they saw I was still employed the next time they visited, they would complain even more and set me up in more elaborate ways. If I didn't need the money so badly, I would have quit.

"I don't know why you let them give you so much hassle, Reid." Mandy, my boss, would continually say.

"I'd rather let them get it over with here than torment me all week at school although so far that theory hasn't worked out too well for me." I complained, slumping over my checkout when it was quiet.

"You've already had seven complaints this week, doll. I'd say that's almost a record." She chuckled to herself finding it amusing because she was the one who could throw them away and forget about it. I couldn't. Every last thing they did to me or against me stayed right in my head.

So that was the way my week went along, pretty routine and normal except I had the added presence of one Logan Griffin who decided he needed to shop in this particular store all week. He would wait until my checkout became available and then he would purchase his ridiculous items. He would buy anything, just to get me to talk to him.

"Logan, I'm working. There are customers waiting." I told him on his fourth trip to my store and checkout in a row.

"No one that I can see." He insisted.

"I can't only serve you every day! You need to go before my boss or your friends see you." I pleaded.

"I don't care about my friends. I care more about being yours."

"Is there a problem here?" Mandy asked as she neared my checkout. "Is Miss Parker causing you any problems, sir?"

I wasn't angry at her blaming it on me. I knew she didn't mean it really. She had to say these things to keep the customers happy because if one of them did wish to complain about something, they would have to be the ones with the problem. Not me.

If I had an issue with a customer I would have to deal with them and then politely request afterwards that it would be preferable to not serve them again. Mandy was fair and I trusted her, so when I looked at Logan with pleading eyes begging him not to say I was causing a problem – which was all an act of course – I was grateful when he played along.

"No ma'am. I was merely just trying to get Miss Parker here to come out with me at the weekend. She's a school friend, you see. She's claiming she has to work here though." He said with a tinge of sadness but I knew it was all false. He may have thought he was just saving my ass (when I didn't even need it) but he had just fabricated a whole story and I knew exactly what Mandy would do.

Logan wasn't unattractive at all. He wouldn't have got to where he was in the school's hierarchy if he was. But he knew he was good looking and he knew how to use it to his advantage. Further acting to his advantage was the fact that I had mentioned his attempts to talk to me and be my 'friend' to Mandy already so there was no chance she would shoo him out of the door.

"Oh, Reid doesn't have to work." She smirked. "She's more than free to go out with a nice young man like you."

She didn't need to add the compliments. She did it on purpose. I would kill her later. I actually have yet to kill her because of what happened since then but trust me I will get around to it.

Right after that he lost his third life. He was hanging onto his last one by a thread so he would have to do something pretty spectacular to keep himself in the game. I also mentally noted that I was putting Mandy into a game and she had clean wiped through three lives straight away with her sneaky ways.

So despite my protests, that's how I found myself being bundled into Logan's car on a Sunday afternoon against my wishes. It was torture. Especially when he took to me to a point in town which overlooked the sea and made yet more attempts to get to know me. The beautiful view was pure agony. I couldn't imagine anything worse to behold. Obviously.

"Just tell me what game you're playing. I'm good at working them out. I'll figure you out." I said quietly as I shut my eyes and took in the smell of the sea. It was a little tinged with sea weed and other unpleasant things but overall it was a nice smell. It reminded me of seaside visits when I was a child, before the days of no friends and constant gaming.

"I'm not playing any games." He insisted but I'll be damned if I was going to believe him.

"You only started talking to me for a dare and now you insist upon spending every waking moment by my side. Sounds like a game to me, maybe a one-person shooter. Maybe it's something that requires more strategic thinking. I don't know. Either way, it's a game." I insisted.

I opened my eyes to grab another look at the sea, all the while determined not to see Logan and the smirk which would almost definitely be attached to his smug – pretty – face. Come on, I'm a girl. I'm not immune to the effects of a perfectly good looking guy. Who works out. Who seems persistent in getting my attention.

But that's as far as it went.

"Would it help if I told you there were no dares?" He sighed, seeming ashamed to give away such a secret.

This time I did look at him. With total disbelief. He wanted me to give him the time of day when he spent most of his lying to me? Oh hell no.

"No, that definitely doesn't help. That just makes you a liar." I poked him in the side whilst frowning with anger.

"I needed to get you to talk to me somehow!" He exclaimed, poking me in the shoulder as retaliation.

"You didn't have to lie! How can I trust a word you say?" I asked eyes wide with determination. I wasn't backing down without a fight. So I poked him back twice as hard in the ribs.

"That hurt, Reid!" He cried as he clutched at his chest. I felt guilty for a moment but then remembered what he had done to deserve it.

"I don't care!" I exclaimed. "This is why I play games all the time. They don't lie, they don't hurt and they're easy. They don't want anything from me." Unfortunately I didn't realise until it was too late that I had blurted out possibly the last piece of vital information about me that I never wanted him to know. But I remained defiant, trying not to show that I had let it slip by accident.

"You play games? Like video games?" He asked having the decency to look surprised instead of amused.

"Yes. Problem?" I asked haughtily. "That's how I know you're playing an epic one right now with me."

"I love video games too. Nothing beats Mario on a classic Nintendo 64!" He exclaimed happily and for the first time, I regarded him with interest.

Was he for real?

"What about Sonic the Hedgehog, before Tails and Knuckles, on the old Megadrive?" I asked carefully, frowning at him to check his response which was surprisingly – thankfully – absolute glee.

"That's like my second favourite. Nothing beats Mario for me I'm afraid." He held his hands up as if in surrender and it made me chuckle, I was ashamed to admit. Finally, he had some decent conversation. Finally, I was warming to him. Not that I wanted to. Oh no.

"Pacman on Atari 2600?" I asked knowing for a fact I was pushing it now but it was funny to watch him squirm.

"Sorry, no can do on that one." He winced, genuinely seeming sorry as though he had wanted to please me at every point.

"You just lost your last life then." I sighed trying to hold back the laughter when he frowned at me and asked me what the hell that meant. "You were playing games with me so I played them back. I gave you four lives and you just lost the last one by not experiencing the retro wonder of an Atari machine."

"So what does that mean?" He asked.

"It means you lose, Sonic. I – the robotic crab – win. Hard luck." I smiled and stood up, ready to head back to his car. He remained where he was for a few moments, obviously digesting what I had said so I decided to lean against the front of the car and wait for him to wake up.

It's not that I wanted him to lose. I wanted him to prove me wrong and not play his stupid game. I didn't want him to fail so spectacularly that each life was taken from him so easily. I mean, sure, I was the one controlling the life giving and taking but it was for my own protection.

I said it before, I'll say it again: people like playing games with me.

He's the school's wonder-boy who apparently does have a personality and I'm the quiet girl who works in a Walmart. It was never going to go the way he planned. He underestimated how easy I would be to win over.

He eventually stood from where we had been sitting previously but as he walked over to me he had a funny look in his eyes. It was a look I couldn't place but it did make me feel uneasy. Maybe I shouldn't have played him back twice as hard; maybe I should have just been more compliant and easygoing...

But as he finally reached me he raised his hand and nestled it in my hair at the back of my neck and leaned down towards me, his lips meeting mine in a gentle and completely unexpected kiss. It was the only reason I was letting it happen; I was too dumbfounded to argue.

He didn't push me to deepen the kiss, assuming correctly that it was my very first. I suppose in a way he was stealing it but he was so skilled at what he was doing that I didn't mind. It was so nice, the way his lips moved gently across mine and before I knew what was happening, he had pulled away while my eyes were embarrassingly still closed.

"Wha...?" I began to try and ask but he merely placed his index finger over my lips and told me to be quiet.

"You should have told me we were playing a game. I would have made sure I won." He smirked, smoothing down my hair where he had truly messed it up. "I've wanted to kiss you since the moment I saw you outside Walmart on your break, with your old Gameboy. God knows what you were playing but you were so animated, it was cute."

"You told me it was a dare." I mentioned, wide-eyed not quite believing what I was hearing.

"The guys didn't believe I could win you around so I guess that was a sort of dare but they were only doing it to stop me going on about how badly I wanted you in the changing rooms." He was now playing with the ends of my hair and I didn't fail to notice how he wouldn't look me in the eye.

"You're supposed to date cheerleaders. Not me." I again mentioned dumbly, failing to think of anything with substance. I missed the 'me' from ten minutes ago who had been so witty, so on the ball. Now I was a mess. A knee-trembling mess.

"I almost definitely don't want anyone on the cheerleading squad." He laughed, finally looking at me. But my mouth was still wide open and I'm sure my eyes were perfect circles by that point. "I've been so arrogant, you don't even like me." He said as if it had just occurred to him and he rapidly took a few steps back away from me.

I looked to the ground with embarrassment and mulled over his attempts to get to me. He was perfectly charming, apparently genuine and had a love of video games. Plus, he was the hottest guy for miles. Was I really going to be crazy and let him go when I had a chance at a boyfriend and a happily ever after – no matter how long it lasts?

Sure I didn't know him all that well but as I traced my fingers across my lips where his had previously been, I found myself smiling like I hadn't in some time.

"Wow, Logan Griffin likes me." I smiled, looking up at him with my fingers still at my mouth. "You like me."

"Look it's okay, I was only thinking of myself. Clearly, you're not interested." He ran his hand back through his hair like he did when he was nervous but it only made my smile grow. He looked worried and embarrassed, especially when I walked towards him and snaked my arms around his waist with a manic grin.

"You like me." I said once again and pulled myself onto my tip-toes so I could kiss him myself.

To say he was surprised was an understatement. As soon as I pressed my lips against his, his body stiffened like a board and it was almost enough to make me pull away. But as I persisted, he relaxed and his arms gradually wrapped themselves around me. It didn't last as long as the first kiss but I had a feeling that these were the start of many more to come so it really didn't matter.

"And you like me?" He asked, smiling at me with genuine surprise in his eyes as we pulled apart.

"We'll see." I smirked.

"Good enough for me." He sighed and leaned down to kiss me again.

You see, people did like to play games with me. They make me the victim and jump on my head more than any other social interaction I have experienced. But every now and then, I like to play them back just to level the playing field.

So he lost all his lives...it didn't mean I wouldn't grant him a special bonus round at some point.

But for now, it was game over.