No response You gonna tell me or what Nothing This better not be another booger Nope Five more minutes passed I sighed Fine Eric was going to win this one But only because looking at his dumb booger would be more fun than this math homework I closed my book put on my jacket and walked across the street to Eric’s house The door was open so I let myself in and walked down to the basement All right let’s see it I said as I reached the bottom of the stairs No booger Also no Eric Come on I called out I wandered into the laundry room where the dirty clothes should be I walked upstairs into Eric’s room where the dirty clothes actually were I checked behind all the doors inside all the closets and under all the beds No booger No Eric I couldn’t believe it Ever since Eric’s family moved into the house across the street from mine in first grade his favorite activity
has been playing practical jokes on me I appreciate a good practical joke as much as the next guy unfortunately none of Eric’s practical jokes are good Because he’s so impatient he ruins every joke before it even begins I don’t know how many sleepovers I’ve been to where Eric has attempted to dip a sleeping friend’s finger in warm water only to have the water dumped over his head by the victim who’d had his eyes closed for less than 30 seconds So on one hand I had to admire Eric’s commitment to this particular joke On the other it may have been his dumbest yet Back in the basement I decided that I’d had enough OK I yelled to an empty house I’m going back home now I have to finish the math homework due Monday Maybe you should do the same More silence I looked around The only sign of life anywhere was a video game paused on the TV in the corner Eric loved his video games Especially the one on the screen right now Full Blast Never heard of Full Blast That’s because it’s not out yet Eric got it two weeks ago from Charlie the coolest kid in our class To clarify Charlie isn’t the coolest kid in sixth grade because he’s actually a cool kid He’s the coolest because his dad works for a video game company
and sometimes gives Charlie’s friends early copies of games to test For the past two weeks Eric’s mouth has been going full blast about Full Blast Jesse I’m telling you It is the greatest video game ever made I don’t care All these aliens are trying to take over the world and you’re the only person alive who can save everyone because I don’t care Because you found one of their blasters and once you charge it to FULL BLAST you can I DON’T CARE You can start shooting Eric never stopped trying to get me to watch him play his new game I never went because I would rather get sprayed in the face with a fire hose full blast than watch someone else play video games I don’t hate video games I’m sure they’re fine I’ve just never really had time to sit down and play them
I walked toward the TV I’d never heard Eric rant about a game like he ranted about this one Maybe I should give it a chance At the very least it would probably beat math homework I picked up the controller and looked at the screen ARE YOU SURE YES NO I paused for a second Should I What if I erased Eric’s saved game Nah he wouldn’t mind He’d just be happy I was trying a video game I clicked YES The instant I did everything went black Not everything on the screen Everything in the room
