It took Benny the better part of twenty minutes to bike down to the mall, but it was all easy going, since it was all over pavement and traffic was light. Once he was there, it was just a short walk to the arcade next door.
Andrew was waiting just inside the door, sipping on a Mountain Dew and diddling around with some little text-based RPG on his cell phone. He looked up as Benny entered and grinned. "Hey, man," he said, "how ya been?"
"Okay," Benny replied, smiling back. "How about you?"
Andrew gave him a bit of an odd look when he heard Benny's now higher voice, but shrugged it off. "Pretty good," he said. "Kinda wondering where you've been for the past few weeks, though. Is homeschooling really that intense?"
"No," Benny said. "I've just...well, I came down with something a few weeks ago."
"Oh man," Andrew said, sympathetically. "Nothin' serious, I hope?"
Benny shook his head. "Nah. Not serious, and not contagious, but they say it's probably gonna be a long time before I'm over it, and it kinda leaves me drained most days." It wasn't exactly the truth, but it was easier and more believable than trying to explain that he was now technically female and probably turning into a full-fledged girl.
"Oh, bummer," Andrew sighed. "Any idea how long?"
"Nope." Benny sighed. "That's kinda why I wanted to come today. I was feeling better than usual, and...well, I don't know when the next time I'll get the chance to hang out will be. So this kinda might be my last hurrah for a while."
"Man, I'm sorry to hear that," Andrew said. "We can still keep in touch online though, right?"
Benny thought about it. Even if there was a lot he couldn't share, it would still be good to have friend to talk to when he was holed up in the house. "Yeah," he said. "We'll keep in touch."
Andrew's grin returned. "Great," he said. "Now come on, let's get to the gaming!"
The rest of the guys were huddled around the Guilty Gear X standup, taking turns kicking each other's asses. As the two joined them, they regarded Benny with varying levels of disgust. "Geez, Benny," one of them said, "where the hell have you been?" His name was Jason, and he was probably the most confrontational of the group.
"I've been home," Benny replied. "Sorry to drop off the face of the Earth like that."
"Man," one of the other guys chuckled, "you sound like a girl!" Benny shrugged. "Yeah, like you haven't been mistaken for a girl before?"
That got a laugh out of most of the group; the boy in question, Steve, had been mistaken for his twin sister on the phone by his own mother when his voice was changing. Even Steve himself had to suppress a smile. But Jason was still annoyed. "So tell me, Ben," he said, "what was it that kept you from ever showing up to anything?"
"He was sick, asshole!" Andrew interrupted. "Like you've never come down with something before?" Most of the group softened their expressions at this, but not Jason. It was plain from the look in his eyes that he was trying to pick a fight.
Benny held up his hand. "No," he said, "he's right. It was kind of jerkish of me to just drop out of touch without telling anybody, and I'm sorry about that."
"Whatever," Jason said, turning back to the arcade game. "You gonna play or not?"
Benny fished out a quarter and dropped it in, but paused for a moment when he got to the character-select screen. He knew from experience that he was best as Jam Cloudberry, a Chun Li playalike in a waitress's outfit, but playing as a female character, in light of recent events and in front of the other guys...no, he just couldn't do it. He picked a male character instead, and the fight began.
It didn't go very well. He could still play fairly well as other characters, but Jason was playing as Sol Badguy, the character he was best at, and it wasn't too long before he had beaten Benny. Depressed, Benny excused himself to go to the bathroom.
Benny sat in the stall for a while, moping. Maybe he had been right all along. Maybe he couldn't stay the same person. After all, how many girls were into fighting games, or even video games at all? Maybe he'd find himself wanting to take up ballet next. Maybe he should just resign himself to being a girly-girl and get it over with.
But if he were resigned to being a girl, he reasoned, he shouldn't be ashamed to play as one, should he? Maybe part of his "last hurrah" with his guy friends should be him playing as a girl. Getting up, he made his way out to the Guilty Gear standup again. When Jason had finished thrashing Steven, he walked up and, without a word, plunked another quarter in and settled on Jam.
He didn't completely thrash Jason as he would've liked; the fight extended into the tiebreaker round, but he did beat Jason pretty soundly then, and the elation he felt was just as thrilling as if he'd kicked Jason's ass in two rounds. And that's when it struck him; the thrill of winning, the enjoyment of playing, it was the same as it had always been. He was doing something he enjoyed, and he was enjoying it just the same as he always had, even with all the changes that were taking place in his life. Maybe his mom was right after all. Maybe he could stay the same person. Maybe he didn't have to become everybody's stereotype of what girls were just because he was turning into one.
He was brought back to reality when one of the other boys walked up and dropped in a coin. He prepared to fight, and fight he did. Winning, losing, playing...it was a glorious afternoon.
Benny was exhausted from two bike rides and an afternoon on his feet when he got home that evening, but he felt better than he had since this whole crazy thing began. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
