GAME OVER
(Another installment in the Deluca/Valenti household
series)
Maria, fed up with hearing Tess's squeal travel down the hallway and into
her room, wheeled her chair towards the door and slammed it with her foot.
It was no use, she could still hear the blonde-in-a-bottle's voice in her
room. She could also hear Kyle and Max yelling sporadically, but it was not
their voices that brought out her homicidal tendencies. As if that wasn't
bad enough, when she checked her email, she noticed that Tess had sent her
yet another stupid forward about the Jennifer Lopez/Destiny's Child tour.
Maria jokingly called it the Destiny's Hoe tour. She could see Liz smile
and look at Tess whenever Maria said that. As usual, Tess didn't understand
what was so funny.
As she deleted the numerous emails, she silently cursed Kyle. He had given
Tess her email address in retaliation for a comment that Maria had made when
he was in his wrestling uniform. Something about it being cold out. Ever
since then, she had been receiving nothing but junk mail from the girl. Not
that she sent out anything else. And then there was what she always had at
the bottom as her signature. It said, Do not reply to this message by
email. "Am I to reply via carrier pigeon?" Maria muttered as she signed out
of her email.
She heard another screech from down the hall. She stared at her door,"If
only I wouldn't get sentenced to 25 to life..." she trailed off as she
walked over to her bed to attempt to get some sleep with Tess in the house.
'I wonder what she's yapping about,' was the last thought Maria had before
succumbing to slumber.
Out in the living room, Max was attempting to run Kyle off of the road. At
least, that was the point of the video game that he and Kyle were playing.
He couldn't believe how into it he was. Max liked to consider himself
pretty even tempered, but the game was bringing out the worst in him. He
was cursing like a sailor and could almost feel the testosterone flowing
through his blood. He and Kyle were playing Super Mario Cart. He had
originally come over to work on his AP History project with Kyle. He had
shown up at the new DeLuca/Valenti household to find Kyle rooting through
the garage for his old video game systems. He had attempted to get them
back on track but had ended up helping to set up both Super Nintendo and
Sega.
Kyle had consistently smoked him in the racing game. He was having so much
fun that it was almost possible to ignore Tess. Almost. She kept giving
him helpful directions like, "Go faster, no, faster than that," and asking
intelligent questions such as, "Is it good to crash into the wall, cause you
seem to be doing that a lot." It was taking all of his strength to keep his
hands on the controller and off of her scrawny little neck. After he lost,
yet again, he threw the controller down in disgust, "I could not blow more
if I tried."
"I couldn't have put it better myself," Kyle said, satisfied that he could
beat Evans at one thing in life. "You want to try another game," he asked
while waggling his eyebrows.
"Wait, when is it my turn Kyle," Tess whined. "You said that I could play
after Max was done. That it would be my turn, that I could play. I mean,
you never let me drive your real car."
"Shocking," Max whispered.
"Fine," Kyle conceded, as he retrieved the controller from where Max had
thrown it on the floor, "but just one race. But then Max and I really need
to get started with our dumb history project."
And then, Tess was at the helm of an imaginary car, and it scared Max
deeply. She kept ramming into everything, going backwards and trying to use
the controller as a steering wheel. She seemed to think that by turning the
controller right, she could make her car go in that direction. It was a
nightmare. But, Kyle quickly put a stop to it by beating her quickly.
"Well," Kyle said, "Max and I REALLY need to get to work now, Tess. Off you
go, bye-bye, thanks for flying with us."
Max was surprised that Kyle actually wanted to start working. He thought
that he would be more into playing the games. "Right Max," Kyle said, while
holding up a fighting game behind Tess's back, "we really need to get
started on this war stuff."
"Yeah, right," Max said, following Kyle's lead. "So, it'd be great of you
if you could, you know...."
"Leave," Kyle said bluntly.
"Anything for you, Maxie," Tess said chirpily, as he left the room.
Kyle began to open his mouth but Max cut him off quickly, "You say one word
and I'll melt your games."
"Fair enough," Kyle said, while popping the fighting game into the system.
"Have you seen Maria since you've gotten here?"
"Nope," Max said, while watching the "credits" for the game appear. "Why?"
"Well, the reason that I had to disconnect the system last week was because
she kept kicking my ass at this game when we played and wouldn't let me live
it down. Now I only play when she's holed up in her room aka when Tess is
home. Prepare to get your ass kicked."
"I think not, young grasshopper," Max said as the game began.
A half hour later, Tess flounced back into the living room and immediately
began yelling like a shrew. "I can't believe you lied to me! You said you
were working! You're just playing another game without me! I can't believe
you two! I wanna play!" And with that she threw herself at Kyle and began
wrestling for the controller.
Maria was woken by a familiar sound. Tess's voice. She dragged herself out
of bed and walked into the living room where it appeared that there was a
melee going on. She was able to determine that Tess was attacking Kyle and
Max was attempting to get her off of him. With a resigned sigh, Maria
joined in on the fun.
"I. Am. Going. To. Play." Tess growled as she picked up one of the
controllers. At the same time, Maria picked up the other so no one would
get tangled in it. Kyle and Max were surprised to find that they now had
their arms wrapped around each other, instead of Tess. They quickly stopped
embracing and looked around. "Where'd they go," Max asked.
Kyle's eyes widened as he looked at the TV. Maria and Tess were in the
game. He tapped Max on the shoulder and pointed at what he had discovered.
"Oh my...." Max said. He then realized her could hear Maria and Tess's
voices coming from the TV. They were fighting.
"What the hell have you done now, you idiot," Maria yelled.
"This isn't my fault," Tess said.
"You're right. It's obviously mine, cause I'm the one with all the voodoo
powers. Get me out of here now!" Maria retorted.
Tess walked slowly up to Maria and pulled herself to full height (which
still wasn't much) and said, "And if I don't, what are YOU going to do about
it? A human is no match for me."
"Why don't we test that theory," Maria said and reached behind her.
The video game was Street Fighter. Maria was a pro at it. She knew all of
the tricks and where the "hidden" weapons were. Maria grabbed a pipe and
advanced on Tess. Max and Kyle watched in amazement as Video Maria began
beating Video Tess to a bloody pulp. Tess began to use her powers to fend
off Maria. It worked for a bit. However, in this particular video game,
each character has a power all of their own. Maria simply used her
"shielding" power to fend off Tess's attacks.
Kyle and Max watched quietly for a few minutes with random bursts of "Ow" or
"That looked like it hurt" when one of the girls would strike what looked to
be a particularly powerful blow.
Both girls were grimy and out of breath. Tess was the worse off. Maria had
broken her leg and ripped out most of her hair. Her trashy clothing was
begun to rip and tear as well, with no guy to appreciate it. Which made her
mad. She lunged at Maria, but Maria easily sidestepped her and Tess went
flying into a fence.
Tess stood up and screamed. Maria could feel power building all around her,
'This is it, girl, now or never' she thought. As Tess threw her fireball at
Maria, Maria threw up her shield and added a bit extra to it. The fireball
bounced harmlessly away from Maria...and right into Tess. She was charred
instantly.
"Game over," came the creepy computer voice. Maria fell to her knees, and
was transported back to the living room.
Both young men rushed over to her, preparing to ask if Maria was OK. The
look on her face stopped them. Her eyes were feral and the grime upon her
face accented her cheekbones. She looked like a warrior. Both Max and Kyle
stopped in their tracks. She stood up. She was heading towards the hall to
go back to sleep. Max was in her way and he quickly stepped aside. She
went into her room and slammed the door.
"She is so hot," Max said.
"Tell me about it," Kyle answered.
The End
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