Taking The Desk

"Well that was an exciting series, wasn't it Warren?"

"It certainly was Tyler."

Of the two commentators from the zero period media class that broadcast the school's morning announcements, Tyler was taller. A senior, he was the more experienced and tended to take anchor a lot of the time while Warren was a freshman who only joined the class this year.

"For the upcoming Rocket versus 1mm0rt4l series, I understand you have a guest who will be joining us on stage?"

"Yes sir I do. Please welcome [insert name here] from team [insert name here] to the desk! They'll help us break down the action and enlighten us with their insight. Put your hands together!"

Confused audience members applauded obediently. Warren just sat there expectantly while Tyler hit his forehead with his palm. Kelly and Miranda shared a glance, unsure of whether to join them or not.

"What?" asked Warren as Tyler gave him an exasperated look.

"You were supposed to fill in the names, not literally say 'insert name here'."

"What? Oh, oh! … Oops." The audience laughed as Warren apparently realized he'd just went into autopilot and reeled off the script from the teleprompter without actually thinking about what he was saying.

"Uh… just forget about that. From the just defeated team Nobody Cares we have Kelly and her friend Miranda."

This time the audience gave appreciative applause as Kelly took her seat at the cobbled together broadcasting area. Miranda stood awkwardly until another folding chair was brought up for her.

"Test. Test. Test."

"Great! Is your mic working Miranda?"

Miranda coughed and then took a deep breath before lowering her voice as far as it would go.

"Luke, I am your father."

It was a terrible impression, but quite a few of the audience members still cracked up anyways and Warren looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"I think it works," quipped Kelly with a straight face.

"Great, great." Tyler professionally brought everything back into order with his two words. "So what role did you play in the team?" he asked Kelly.

"And what's up with the team name?" added Warren before Kelly had a chance to reply. Tyler gave him a look but Warren didn't notice.

"I was the mid laner, Queen of Strings. As for the team name, Miranda you want to take that?"

"Sure." Miranda shrugged. "I was the jungler, Fleeting Chance. About the name… I just wanted a team where I could goof around and play off meta builds. Someone else came up with the name and we never bothered to make a real one."

"You were the gambler, right?" asked Warren excitedly.

"Yup." The crowd cheered. Miranda acknowledged them with a smile.

"That was so sick!" Warren seemed like he wanted to keep asking her more questions, but Tyler waved him off.

"I heard Godmode put in a request to see if she was cheating."

"Cheating?"

Tyler did not elaborate but instead shook his head. "We'll have to get back to it later. It's almost time for class selection and we need to do introductions. You were Kelly?"

"No, I'm Kelly." Kelly exaggerated looking hurt before grinning. "What's up?"

"How long have you been playing Champions Arena?"

"Well we started classes in, what, January? Since then."

"Do you have a rank?"

"I'm Silver."

"So you're pretty good then."

"Sometimes."

"And what about you Miranda?"

"Unranked."

A small commotion broke out in the crowd. Miranda was that good and still not ranked?

"Don't lie." Kelly prodded Miranda in the shoulder. "You were plat in Champions Arena weren't you?"

"Years and years ago before I stopped playing," retorted Miranda.

"She's been collecting all the Legendary skins for the classes she has instead of unlocking new classes so she doesn't have enough for ranked in Champions Arena: Reborn," explained Kelly.

"And all of the bonus trees. I'll have 'em all in a few games. Then I just need 1 more class for ranked."

"So she's the team leader?" asked Warren.

"I am mostly, yeah," admitted Miranda.

"And what grade are you?"

"Seventh. We all are."

"So you'll be back again next year to try for the win again."

"Yup, gotta nail that extra credit."

"Just the extra credit?"

"Yeah, why else?"

"The gift cards and scholarships."

"What gift cards and scholarships?"

"You seriously didn't read the prizes?"

Both Kelly and Miranda shook their heads drawing dumbfounded looks from the commentators and audience.

"Semifinals gets $10 gift cards. Second gets $20 gift cards. First gets gift cards plus automatic addition to the high school team at any public high school in the city."

Kelly squealed and shook Miranda by the shoulders. "I can finally get that new shampoo! We need to go to the mall!"

"Sure, sure, sure." Miranda wanted a new pair of jeans and this was the perfect excuse to go get them.

Warren and audience: "..."

Tyler sighed. "Well you can plan that later. We're already heading into class selection."