Rising Star (Cross Ups Book 3) Read online

  For my dad, who would totally drive

  me to Comic Con if I asked him to,

  and for my husband, who would

  do the same for our girls.

  —S.C.

  Chapter 1

  “Finally!” From the sidewalk I see a small cardboard box sitting at my front door. I turn to high-five Cali, but she’s already taking off.

  I scramble up our steep porch steps behind her and use my house key to tear open the tape on the box. “Yes!” I hold up the advance copy of Cross Ups V in victory.

  “C’mon, Jaden!” She grabs the key from my hand and opens my door. Even though her own front door is only a few feet away, we want to play together. And anyway, Cali’s ArcadeStix controller is still at my place.

  We drop our backpacks, jump out of our shoes, and run to the living room. Lights are all off, so I know I’m home first. I rip the plastic off and open the case. Instruction papers fall to the floor. Who needs those? I grab the disk and slide it in.

  “It’s beautiful,” she says. We’re staring at the picture on the cover as we wait for the start-up screen to appear on my TV. It shows all the characters around a giant roman numeral V because this is the fifth version of Cross Ups.

  “Look at Kaigo!” I say. My main—a big muscly guy—has a new punk hairstyle and more badges on his kung-fu uniform. I wish I looked like him. I’m the scrawniest guy in grade eight. The only thing we kind of had in common was his old, messy hairstyle.

  “Who’s that?” Cali points to a girl with a long black ponytail that starts right above her forehead.

  “Who cares? Let’s go.” I click through all kinds of pop-up screens, ignoring all the messages, until I can finally select the new Kaigo and start a match. “This is amazing.” My thumbs tap the controller buttons excitedly. Ever since the announcement that Cross Ups was releasing a new game, it’s been all I can think about. And the graphics totally live up to the hype. The new Kaigo looks so crisp.

  We’re battling in some kind of rainforest. That’s new. And the colors are amazing. It’s like one of those nature programs they show at Best Buy to make the TV look good. Everything looks so high def.

  Cali’s playing Ylva, the dire wolf–cross. She fits right in with this backdrop. Her cavewoman outfit is different too—shorter and striped.

  In Cross Ups, the characters fight as people doing crazy hand-to-hand combat. They each have a bunch of Super moves they can use when they transform into the mythical creature they are crossed with. To transform your character, you have to wait for your Super Meter to be full, like mine is now. Kaigo is the dragon-cross, and I go for his Dragon Fire Super. It’s his hardest Super, and I want to see what the new graphics look like. But Kaigo doesn’t do anything. I’m so excited that I must have messed up.

  Cali uses my mistake to grab me and spin me over her head.

  The home phone rings. Yes, we still have a landline. My mom is stuck in the last century. She won’t even let me have a cellphone.

  “You gonna get that?” Cali asks, her onscreen-self pouncing on me as soon as I recover.

  “Nah, it’s just Devesh or Hugh calling to see if Five came. They’ve been calling every day since I told them about the advance copies.” Cali and I are sponsored by ArcadeStix to play Cross Ups. Our rep, Kyle, sent us this advance copy of the new version so we can get our skills upped fast. He told us to keep it on the down-low because the game doesn’t actually come out for two more weeks, but of course I told my friends.

  “You should get that. Could be Hailey.”

  “And let you say you won the first match on Five? Nu-uh.”

  “So Cross Ups Five is more important than true love?” I know Cali’s just going for the win, because she never teases me about Hailey.

  “Shut up.” I input Dragon Fire Super again, but Kaigo still doesn’t transform into his dragon side and spin across the screen like he’s supposed to. Okay, that’s weird. I never miss that move anymore.

  Cali’s not having any problem with her Supers. She howls to transform into a canine beast and shoots shimmering moonbeams at me from her eyes. I crumple to the forest floor.

  As soon as I’m out of hit-stun I go for my Dragon Tail Super. I burst out of my kung-fu uniform, mutating into my dragon-self and slashing my tail across the screen. Cali goes flying. That’s better.

  The phone stops ringing and the answering machine—yes, we seriously still have one of those—picks up. After a few seconds, when the outgoing message must be playing, we hear: “Hi, Jaden. It’s Kyle. Listen, a great opportunity has come up. Give me a call . . .”

  I jump off the couch, sending my huge controller thumping to the carpet. My feet get tangled in the cord and I land on my knees. I lunge at the phone, knocking it to the ground. When I finally get it to my ear, I hear my screechy voice through the machine, “Kyle. I’m here.”

  Dead air on the other end.

  “What do you think that was about?” I ask.

  “Dunno. But I just kicked your butt.”

  I glance at the screen. A big K.O. announces my defeat.

  This isn’t the first time Cali’s beaten me. But it still burns. On screen, Ylva celebrates, shaking her hands wildly above her head. Her win quote runs along the bottom:

  STAND UP AND DEFEND YOURSELF!

  Way to rub it in. I lay on the floor, wrapped in the controller cord, scrolling through the saved numbers on the phone, trying to find Kyle’s.

  Cali’s phone buzzes on the table. “Hello?” She looks at me and mouths Kyle. After a few seconds she says, “Seriously?”

  I bug my eyes out at her. “What’s he saying?” I whisper.

  She waves her hand to shake me off. After a long pause, she says, “Sounds amazing. I’ll ask my mom and let you know.” She hangs up and grabs her controller to start a match.

  “So?” I practically scream.

  “Oh, ArcadeStix wants to send me to Comic Con in New York.” She tosses her long black hair over her shoulder, all casual.

  “For real?”

  “Yup. The makers of Cross Ups are launching Five there and they want me to demo it for the crowds. You know, get young gamers interested.”

  “Oh . . . But, he called me first.”

  “Yeah. Too bad you didn’t get to the phone.” She selects Ylva and waits for me to start the match.

  “That’s totally unfair. I was trying to call him. I’ve been on the team longer, I should get to—”

  “Whoa, chill! I’m just messing with you. We’re both invited.”

  “You serious?”

  She nods. “They’ll even pay for our flights.”

  “Awesome!” Flying to New York for Comic Con with my best friend? That’s living the dream! I fall backward onto the couch and realize my thumbs are tapping like they always do when I’m stressed out. “That wasn’t funny!”

  “But they won’t pay for chaperones. We’d go with Kyle.”

  I crash-land back in reality. Fly to another country with a guy we hardly know? There’s no chance in hell my parents will go for that.

  Chapter 2

  After Cali leaves, I spend hours playing V. The game is awesome. Tons of great new locations, and Kaigo’s Supers look smoother and flashier. At least the ones I can do. Even after hours of practice, I still can’t get Dragon Fire Super to work.

  It’s not the first time I’ve had this problem. I used to struggle with that Super back in the day, at my first tournament. But I learned to relax and not overthink the move, and then it came naturally. I roll my shoulders and force myself to take deep breaths.
But it’s not working. The more I think about relaxing, the more stressed out I get.

  My mom makes me go to bed at eleven, but I can’t sleep. All I can think about is Dragon Fire. I turn on the laptop in our room and search New York Comic Con. It looks amazing. I click GUESTS on the official website and what I see puts me in hit-stun.

  Yuudai Sato, the most godlike Cross Ups player ever, is going to be there.

  He won EVO, the biggest fighting-game competition in the world, twice. I watch his channel all the time. He’s my biggest inspiration. Imagine meeting him? It would be the best moment of my life!

  Once I’m sure my parents are asleep, I sneak down and put the game on training mode. Training mode! What am I, a newb? Dragon Fire Super is supposed to turn Kaigo into a whirling smoke storm that smashes through his opponent. I practice for, like, three hours but don’t see a single smoke tornado.

  It does feel like something is spinning in my stomach, though.

  What if I can never get it to work? I won’t be able to compete with V the way I did with IV. It’s better if I don’t go to Comic Con. Save myself the embarrassment of choking in front of a crowd and ruining ArcadeStix’s reputation. It would be so lame to whiff Dragon Fire Super in front of my idol.

  I fall into bed, defeated.

  “Dude, why didn’t you call us?” Hugh whines when we meet up in the schoolyard the next morning.

  Devesh joins in. “I wanted to stream your first Five match.”

  The guys love Cross Ups, but they aren’t great at playing. Devesh streams my fights on Twitch. I never talk, but Devesh is a good commentator and gets a lot of views. And when Hugh joins in on mic, they get even more because Hugh just acts like a fool.

  “You can’t show us playing Five yet. Remember? No one’s supposed to know we have it,” Cali says.

  “Who cares about Five?” Hugh says. “Comic Con in New York? That’s amazeballs!”

  “How do you even know about that?” I ask.

  “ArcadeStix posted last night that you guys are invited. Everyone knows.”

  Ugh. Kyle keeps telling me to ‘be more active on social media.’ Kind of impossible without a phone. Last week there was an article in an online gamer magazine that called me and Cali “rising stars,” and everyone knew before I did. “Well, it would be cool except . . .”

  “I know, your mom.” Hugh gets it. His dad is super-strict. But even he got a phone for his birthday this month. He pulls it out, takes off his glasses, and shows me the tweet from Kyle.

  ARCADESTIX @ARCADESTIX SEPT 28 RISING STARS @JSTAR & @HERM1ONE INVITED TO @NY_COMIC_CON TO SHOW THEIR MAD SKILLS ON THE NEW #CROSSUPSV #FGC #ESPORTS

  He wouldn’t have written that if he saw me playing V yesterday.

  “How are things with your mom?” Devesh asks Cali.

  Her mom has MS. A few months ago her symptoms were so bad she fell and broke her leg. Cali had to move to Montreal to live with her dad and his girlfriend while her mom was in rehab. That didn’t work out so good, since they had a new baby and everything. She lived with us for a while so she could start grade seven at Layton. Her mom finally came home last week.

  “She’s okay.”

  “Will she let you go?”

  “I think so. She’ll probably go with whatever Jaden’s mom does.”

  “So, all we have to do is convince Jaden’s mom to let him go. Easy. We’ve done that before,” Devesh says.

  To be honest, I never thought my mom would let me go to any video game event. She hates how violent Cross Ups is. So far I’ve been crazy lucky. I got to go to the Top Tiers Tournament here in town and the Underground Hype Tournament in Montreal. But Comic Con is in a whole other country.

  “My mom’s not going to let me go with Kyle—she hardly knows him. And a plane ticket to New York costs a lot of money. My parents aren’t going to pay to take me.”

  The school bell rings and we head inside.

  “You don’t have to fly to New York,” Devesh says. “You can drive there in one night. We went last March Break to visit my aunt. Me and my sisters slept the whole way.”

  I snort. “Like my mom’s going to drive all night to go to Comic Con.”

  Chapter 3

  “Cali told me you guys got Five yesterday. What’s it like?” Hailey asks during morning announcements.

  Math is my first class of the day, and it’s only bearable because I sit next to the coolest girl in school. She’s sporty and smart. Plus she’s got these freaky-cool, green-gray eyes that I have to stop myself from staring at. I didn’t think she’d ever talk to me, but it turns out she’s into Cross Ups and she has a lot of questions.

  “It’s good.” I wish I was better at talking to her.

  “What’s different about it?”

  “A lot.” Like the fact that I suck. But I can’t tell her that. What’ll she think if she finds out I’m not good at Cross Ups anymore? It’s probably the only thing she likes about me.

  “Can I try it?” Hailey asks.

  I answer before I can think. “Yeah. Wanna come over after school and play?”

  It would be perfect, except Ty and Flash sit behind us.

  “Oooh, Hailey, do you want to play with me?” Ty sings.

  “Let’s have a playdate,” Flash adds.

  “Shut up,” I say.

  “Make me,” Ty answers. “We both know you can only fight in video games, Rising Star.”

  I didn’t think they’d know about that article. Reading’s not really their thing. My thumbs start tapping.

  Hailey whips her head around so fast her curly ponytail grazes my cheek. “You wanna battle him?” she throws down.

  Uh-oh! The way I was playing last night, I’m not sure I could beat them at Cross Ups V. And having a girl defend me is not going to shut these guys up. They’re the kind of guys who think girls should stick to ballet and baking.

  Fortunately, Mr. Efram walks by our desks with his stop-talking-and-listen-to-the-announcements look.

  The voice over the speaker is wrapping up. “Finally, a reminder that tomorrow morning is the deadline to hand in nominations for student council elections. So far we have one set of candidates for class president and vice president. If no other nominations are received by the deadline, the positions will be acclaimed without an election. Exercise your democratic right to run for office!”

  Behind us Ty and Flash give each other high fives.

  “Seriously?” Hailey says, shaking her head. “Those two cannot run our school. That settles it. I’m getting a nomination form today.” Hailey is one of those people who joins everything. She’s in the photography club, the band, the eco club, and on every sports team. She even writes for the school paper. She’s my exact opposite.

  Mr. Efram starts the lesson. “Let’s imagine we’re in the DC universe. You’re Batman, or Batgirl, and you get this message from the Riddler.” He unfolds a piece of chart paper. “Riddle me this—”

  Ty calls out, “If I’m Batman, I’m getting Alfred to solve math problems for me.”

  “Superheroes don’t cheat, Tyrell,” Mr. Efram says.

  That shuts him up. Last year, Mr. Efram caught Ty and Flash copying off me, Devesh, and Hugh, and the consequences sucked for all of us.

  While we work on the riddle, my invitation to Hailey hangs in the air, like an unclaimed coin in Super Mario Bros. I’m so tired from playing V all night. Hailey does most of the thinking and writing.

  Finally, when we’re almost done, she says, “I can’t come over today. I’ve got tryouts.”

  “Liar.” Ty coughs out the word.

  I look at him.

  “It’s football tryouts after school.” Flash smiles. “Girls’ basketball is tomorrow. I guess she doesn’t want to play with you, Rising Star.”

  These guys can’t do math, but I believe they’ve g
ot the tryout schedule memorized. They’re on all the teams. Flash even got his nickname because he’s the fastest guy in our grade. The only person he can’t legit beat is Hailey.

  My face feels as red as Kaigo’s flames. Why’d I even ask her to come over? I should’ve just offered to lend her the game.

  She glares at them. “Actually, touch football is coed. Coach Lee said he wants me on the team for sure.”

  That shuts them up.

  Then she turns to me. “You trying out?”

  I don’t even blame Ty and Flash for laughing. I suck so bad at sports. Hailey should know that from summer camp. Unless maybe I tricked her with those sweet passes I threw her way. But in a real game, I’d get sacked before I ever had the chance to release the ball.

  “Uh . . . can’t. Gotta practice Five.” This is true. If I don’t get my Dragon Fire Super back, I’m going to get kicked off ArcadeStix—the only team I’ve ever been on.

  Chapter 4

  Hugh and Devesh follow me and Cali home after school.

  “You actually asked Hailey to come over?” Devesh says, holding his fist out for a bump.

  “She really wants to try the game,” I say, ignoring his fist.

  “Or she wants an excuse to hang out with you,” Devesh says, pushing his fist back at me. “Because she knows you’re friends with me.”

  Hugh snorts.

  “Even if she did, she’s on so many teams and clubs, I don’t think she’s got a free hour in her week,” I say. “Plus now she’s going to run for class president.”

  “There’s going to be an election after all? I figured the two losers who brought in their forms were going to win by default,” Devesh says. “Who wants all that work?”

  “Those two losers are Ty and Flash,” I say.

  “No! They can’t add, and they’re going to run our school?” Even Cali, who’s a grade seven newbie at Layton, knows Ty and Flash’s reputation.

  “Hopefully everyone will vote for Hailey now instead,” I say.