Midnight Zombie Warriors

The arcade smelled like stale popcorn and desperation. I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans for the third time, heart racing like I'd just chugged three Monster Energies.

"You good, Marcus?" Kai asked, barely looking up from the screen. Of course he was calm. He always was. His hoodie was perfectly zipped, his messy curls somehow intentional. Meanwhile, I felt like a walking disaster.

"Yeah. Just " This was it. Friday night lock-in, me, Kai, and Riley against twenty other teams in the biggest zombie survival tournament of the year. And I was sitting next to my crush, trying not to embarrass myself.

Round Three started and everything was going fine until someone knocked over The Bear – this ugly stuffed brown bear that served as our team mascot. Kai dove to save it like it was a grenade, cable ripping out of his console in slow motion.

"NO!" he screamed. "My character!"

Riley didn't panic. She never did. "Marcus, switch cables with me. NOW."

I frantically swapped the HDMI cords while she built this insane zombie defense formation. "We're doing the Pyramid Strategy," she commanded. "Kai takes point, I've got rear guard. Marcus, you're the anchor. Don't move."

My palms were sweating so hard my controller was practically slipping. But something clicked. We moved together – Kai's aggressive frontlining, Riley's tactical brilliance, me holding it down like my life depended on it.

Wave after wave of pixelated zombies fell. We lost power twice. I nearly dropped my controller when Kai's shoulder brushed mine. But we kept climbing the leaderboard until –

"FINAL WAVE CLEARED! TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONS: TEAM BEAR PYRAMID!"

Kai high-fived me so hard my hand stung. Riley just smirked. "Not bad for a bunch of amateurs." Then her phone dinged. "Crap. My mom's here."

We packed up in this weird, electric silence. The fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.

"Hey," Kai said, shouldering his backpack. "Same time next week?"

"Definitely," I said, and my voice didn't even shake.

Walking out, I noticed something. The ugly brown bear mascot? Kai had tucked it into his backpack like it was precious. My sweaty palms didn't feel so nervous anymore. They felt like victory.