Chapter Text
Annie arrives at the school. It’s nothing special, with dark hallways and an odd smell that all high schools seem to have but she doesn’t care. It’s her first tournament and she’s excited. If her competition are anything like the boys she beat in the chess club, she’d be able to pay back Mr. Hawthorne the five dollars he lent her for the tournament. Plus she’d be able to help her stepmother Shirley with her financial trouble.
She sees a table which she assumes is where the players register. Seated there are two quite nerdy looking boys, one black and one she assumes is Asian. She goes up to them.
“Hey there, I’m Troy and this is Abed.” the black kid cheerfully tells her. The other kid, Abed, just stares, not even blinking. “What’s your ranking?”
“I don’t have a ranking.” She replies a little too bluntly, trying to hide her embarassment.
“Okay, no problem. We’ll put you in the beginners open,” Troy gently replies.
“But I’m not a beginner.” Annie objects.
Surprisingly, it’s Abed who speaks next. “Doesn’t matter. If you’re unranked, you go with the beginners. It’s everyone below 1600.” He talks in monotone and almost too quickly for her to understand.
Annie takes a moment to reply. Playing beginners would be even easier, hardly a challenge. She’d be done before lunch but what was the point in that?
“What’s the prize for beginners?”
“Twenty”, says Abed flatly.
“What about non-beginners?”
“Sixty dollars for first prize. Hello rich people!” grins Troy. He gives her a thumbs up.
Sixty dollars. Annie’s never had that amount of money. It would really help with basic supplies and groceries. And adderrall, which isn’t cheap. Good thing she brought some today. She’d need to take one or two to focus and play well.
“Does it say in any rule I can’t join there?” she tries one last time.
“Not really.”
“Then put me in there.” she says firmly. She tries her best to be assertive. She makes eye contact which usually achieves good results. It worked on Mr. Hawthorne anyway.
Troy looks over to Abed, who tilts his head sideways, studying her. It makes her feel a bit uncomfortable. He then grabs a pen and writes something on a pad. Troy watches Abed closely. He continues to write. This goes on for a while so she clears her throat. Both boys stop and look back at her.
“Oh, sorry. Here, fill this up. and then you’re good to go” Troy says as he hands her a clipboard.
After completing the sign up sheet, she heads downstairs and inside the gym.
“What is it Abed?” Troy asks.
“She’s the protagonist in this story. It makes sense. She’s younger than everyone here, plus she’s a girl in the chess world. She has to be a chess prodigy. I want to see how this plays out but she’ll probably win this tournament then have to deal with her drug problem later.” Abed replies.
Troy’s eyes open wide. “Are you psychic?” he says in a high-pitched voice.
Abed turns to him and inflects, “Yes Troy, I am psychic.” He hoped Troy would pick up on his sarcasm.
He doesn’t. “Woah, okay, that’s a lot to take in.”
“She also dropped this.” He shows Troy a blister pack labelled “Adderall”.
“Cool. Wanna bet Jeff falls in love with her?” Troy asks excitedly.
“Oh he won’t know what hit him. This will be fun. Maybe even better than the matches themselves.”