Seth sat in a daze, watching as they left (watching her as she left!) and wondering if he would ever see her again. If she was here a lot, babysitting and all… but he never saw the family so, well, that would be hard.
“Ok, Seth, let’s talk about your lines,” Mr Madison said as he came back in a few minutes later, closing the door. Seth still hadn’t seen the family! “You’ve got the sullen jealous thing down well, I think. And your joy when you level up is good. But we need to work on your not being quite so excited when you actualy hit something. It looks bad.”
“Oh,” Seth said. “I’m sorry.”
“I’ve been able to edit it out, mostly,” Mr Madison said. “But it’s not the effect we are looking for. I want you to be almost bored when you shoot they eye out of some giant. As if you just expected it to hit.”
“And as far as actual lines, I want you to do more calling your shots. When there are four monsters, I want you to see which one makes the most sense for you to go after… which as we discussed will always be the one with skills in the background… and call it. “I’ve got the gnome with the purple hat!” kind of thing.”
“Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Let’s the others know what I’m doing.”
“Yes. And let’s the audience know that you are on the ball and are doing your job. Let’s practice for a few minutes, and then we’ll do the interview.”
“Ok. Oh, umm, I left my food and stuff out in the other room.”
“Well, run get it and then we’ll run some tests.”
Seth got the plate and his Coke. Funny, Jullia’s tea was gone. Had she taken it? Oh, well.
He went back in, put it in front of him, and put his eyes on the screen. Five enemies walked in. No one with back rank skill but… “I’ve got the archers, guys!” he yelled.
“Good, good,” Mr Madison said, and booted up another video.
A half an hour later, Mr Madison said, “Ok, that was good. Let’s work on that tomorrow in the game. Now, over to the couch.”
Seth’s heart beat. He had seen the other’s interviews, Sue and Frank, and they had gone well. And, of course, Mr Madison would edit out anything that didn’t go well. But, still, he was nervous.
“No, bring your plate and Coke,” Mr Madison said, as he moved to the couch. “They’re part of your schtick. In fact, go get another coke. There are enough donuts, but we need to give you somethign to sip as we talk.”
“Ok,” Seth said, and went out into the office.
“Are you done?” Jullia asked. She had been sitting on the couch and leapt up when he came in.
“Umm, no,” Seth said, getting a Coke out. “I have my interview still to do.”
“Can I watch?” she asked. “That would be so exciting!”
“Bring her in.”
Seth did NOT want her there! He was nervous enough already. But she followed him in, and Mr Madison waved her over to a chair in the ‘studio’. Seth sat down, opened his Coke so he wouldn’t have to do it on screen, took a sip because he was nervous, stared at Jullia, which made him more nervous, and then looked at Mr Madison.
“Welcome back, Seth!” Mr Madison said. “I hope you are enjoying the game!”
“Oh, yes,” Seth said, his eyes tracking the teleprompter right over Mr Madison’s shoulder. “It’s early days yet, and we are still developing our build, but its loads of fun.” (Loads of fun? Who said that?)
“And your role? You’re not unhappy at being relegated to the back rank?”
“What? Oh, no,” he said. “I’m not really a front line type,” he said. “I mean,” he added, going past the teleprompter and looking more at Jullia than Mr Madison. “I like being in the back. I get to see what’s going on more. George, gotta love the guy, but he’s always totally focused on the battle, so he never really gets to see anything except what’s right in front of him.”
“And, of course, that puts you right next to Sue… I mean the healer!” Mr Madison said, with a kind of significant tone.
“Yes!” Seth said, his eyes back on the teleprompter. “That is another aspect. I need to keep an eye out and make sure that no one is flanking our healer. She has basically no defence.”
“You had to kill that one gnome with your knife that was sneaking up on her.” Mr Madison said, sounding a bit relieved…
“Oh, that was so fun!” Julia said, as the two emerged from the house a half an hour later. “Thank you for inviting me!”
“Umm, you’re welcome,” he said. Although he had not invited her!
“Are you busy, now?” she said. “I’d love to have you come meet my family.”
For an instant he thought about making some excuse. Meeting her family sounded crazy scary. But then he came to his senses. He desperately wanted to see more of this girl, and the more he knew her family, the more excuses he could come up with to do that.
“No, I’m fine. How did it go with Mrs Madison?”
“Oh, she was crazy excited,” Julia said. “I think I’ll be over there a lot.”
“Nice kids?”
“Oh, super nice. Three girls and one poor boy. Homeschooled.”
“Oh.”
“Mom! Dad!” she said, as they came in her front door, her still holding him by the arm. What would these parents think?!?
“Jullia? Where have you been?” A woman’s voice asked, from just past the hallway. A few seconds later the woman herself came around the corner. Greying hair, apron, sort of stocky but not really fat.
“I’ve been across the street! And I’ve met a boy, a video star, and a very nice family. They are going to use me to babysit.”
“Well, that’s just wonderful,” the woman said, coming forward. “And who is the boy?”
“Umm, my name is Seth, Seth Aaronson,” Seth said, holding out his hand. But the woman hugged him instead. A strong hug!
“I’m glad to see Jullia making friends. Your father and your brother are in the garage, dear. You should take your boyfriend out there.”
“Come on!” Julia said, as Seth tried to digest the word ‘boyfriend’. Surely she just meant, ‘friend who was a boy’?
She led him down a hallway and then through a door, where he was prepared to see a car up on jacks and a couple of guys working on it. But he stopped, dead. Because there were no cars in this garage. There were no boxes of junk and lawn mowers and old bikes. This was a workout room. He had seen less professional set ups in strip mall gyms.
And where he had expected to see an older man and a boy holding wrenches and peering into the hood of a car, he saw an older man lifting weights and a boy about his age, or maybe a bit older, trashing a punching bag… with his bare hands. And where he had expected them to be in old jeans and greasy T-shirts, they were both stripped down to shorts.
“Hey, guys, meet my friend Seth!” Julia called, and the older man put down his weights and turned around and the young man, covered in sweat, turned toward him, gasping a bit.
The older man didn’t say anything, but the younger man came over and held out his hand. “Justice,” he said. “Justice Brown. Glad to meet you, Seth. Come to work out?”
“I… umm, Julia was just showing me around. I mean she brought me in to meet you all.”
“Oh, don’t be like that. Let’s get you dressed and see how you do.”
Seth, in a daze, followed the boy to his room and had a pair of shorts thrown at him. Seconds later he was dressed and headed back. He felt horribly weak. His stomach… it wasn’t like he was fat but he was nothing like either of those two.
He was greatly relieved when he got back and Jullia wasn’t there. He didn’t want her to see him, half naked like this, next to her brother. The comparison was horrible.
“Let’s start you out with this bag, here,” Mr Brown said, as Seth looked around. “I’ll teach you how to make a safe fist, and we’ll get you started. Don’t worry, it takes a while to get into a good rhythm.”
An hour later Seth was exhausted but kind of excited. He had never really gotten to do this before! He wasn’t doing it anywhere near as well as Justice, but he wasn’t missing the bag nearly as often as he had at first.
He took a short breather and looked around… and noticed Jullia sitting at a TV table and sipping her tea… and looking at him. Embarrassed he turned back, but, she had been grinning. A nice grin, not, like, laughing at him.
—
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Von