The Rise of Zerrow

"Here we are at Le House of Smash in Lincoln Town, with the new up and coming rookie-- ZeRo!" The small crowd that was left from the recent video game tournament clapped, he stared awkwardly at the camera as the interviewer introduced him. "Hi, it's pronounced Zee-row, like Zerrow." he managed to force out a smile and greeting.

He had a sweat run down the side of his face, however his heart out ran it, beating consistently faster as his thoughts came to join the race. He wondered what questions the interviewer was about to spit out.

"Tell us Zerrow, how do you feel right now? You just won your very first tournament,"the interviewer asked as she shoved her microphone into Zerrow's face. "Uhhhh." Zerrow couldn't take his eyes off the camera that moved closer to him, he couldn't even look around. "I feel great," he lied, "I feel like this is just the beginning for me." His thoughts slowed down after saying those words, "This is definitely just the beginning," he repeated.

"That is great to hear," the interviewer said bringing the microphone closer to her mouth. "What are you going to do next, now that you've gotten the prize money and proved that you aren't the rookie to be messing with?"

The microphone once again was shoved into his face, "Is that even a question," Zerrow's shaky hands steadied like his resolve. His heart continued to race though, as his staring became more intense. "I'm going to become the best Smash player."

I had to be the best.

*Author's Note: This Lincoln Town is Fictional.*

I was born on August 9, 2000. In Lincoln Town, a poor neighborhood in Philadelphia. The population is mostly diverse, although being majority white, I am apart of the minority. My family hails from South Korea and Kenya, I'm blasian (Black and Asian). We grew up relatively nice, until my younger sister was born 3 years after my birth. She was really sick when she was born, my parents had to pour all their money into hospitals and medicine to keep her alive. She lived, fortunately, but unfortunately we had to suffer with lack of money for a good few years.

We almost went bankrupt, and I would usually hear my father and mother arguing about sending me to school due to the costs. They had small arguments at first, but they began to escalate with each passing day. It was almost like as I got older, they just got angrier. In that type of environment it was only natural that I would become an angry kid.

I never got the toys I wanted, or got to eat the things I wanted to eat. I blamed it all on my sister and after she recovered I was cold to her, but my parents continued to give her all the warmth. I wasn't being cold to her, I was freezing myself. It wasn't until the December of 2008, Christmas day, after years of my family working their hardest to repay all the debt they were in from my sister's sickness. As well as caring for two children, though we still barely had any money, my father came home late that night.

It was almost like a chance encounter, the kind you would see in Pokemon, I happened to wet the bed that day. Embarrassing I know, I had a competition with my friends on who can hold their bladder the longest. I wasn't going to lose no matter, I had to make sure that I was going to win. So that night, where I wet the bed, I walked down the stairs into our living room. We lived in a pretty small house, two floors, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. The bathroom on the second floor had no toilet paper, plus the toilet was broken. I was forced to go down the stairs, where I saw my dad.

"Dad, what are you doing?" My father was the black one in the family, so it was hard to see him in the dark. I, of course, got used to seeing him at night.

"Daren, what are you doing up?" He asked me as he turned on the lights.

I embarrassingly said, "I peed my pants." I noticed, now that the lights were on, that my dad held an unfinished wrapped box, he put it down on our table. the way our living room was arranged, we had a long couch, with 2 single couch chairs adjacent to the long couch. Our Christmas tree was on the right of one of the single couches. We had a television, one that my dad got from some flea market, it was in the middle of everything; set on top of the fireplace.

"Well, then let's get you cleaned up buddy." My dad made his way over to me and picked me up, smiling and making me laugh by doing whatever he would usually do. Though while getting cleaned up that box was on my mind. Upon returning to the living room, I asked my dad, "What was that box?"

He smiled, "I was waiting to tell you until Christmas, but..." he checked his watch, " technically it is Christmas."

He moved me onto the long couch, and unwrapped the box. It had the words Nintendo and Wii on it. I grabbed it and shook it, nothing was inside. I looked at my dad with surprise, he pushed his fingers against his lips and told me to be quiet. He walked to the TV and brought out the Wii from behind it. He did some technical stuff, that I couldn't understand as a kid, and when he was done, he turned it on.

The volume on the TV wasn't that high, but the midnight effect- the night time amplified the volume. I wonder if it happened with just me? However the start up sound, followed by the menu music of the Wii, filled me with a sense of serenity. What did this mysterious device hold for me? Why did my dad get this? I wonder if mom would be anger about this in the morning. We were already strapped with money, but my dad goes out and buy this. Was it worth the money, the sacrifice?

"Isn't it too loud dad?"

"Don't worry, your mom and your sister won't wake up."

My dad took a box out from behind the television, it was a lot smaller than the big one he was wrapping. He opened it and placed a disk inside the Wii. He threw the box to me, I got distracted and focused on the box. I picked it up and read the title, "Super Smash Bros. Brawl"

I was amazed by the box art, there is Mario was my first thought. Then I saw Pikachu and Kirby, they were the only ones I could recognized. So many characters were exploding out of the box art it was hard for me to keep up with it all, they all seemed to be living in their own way; trying to hop out, off the box itself. Who are these characters? What do they do?

While I was distracted, my dad got the Wii remote and sunk down next to me. I looked up at the TV and saw the Wii menu, it seemed so simple, but complex. Questions ran through my mind, what can these all do, what if I do this, what if I do that? The conspicuous image of Super Smash Bros Brawl in the start game slot, caught my eye. I focused on it and waited. I looked at my dad, who smiled and pressed a button on the remote, I looked back and saw my father start up the game.

This moment changed my life, everything seemed to slow down. The start of the opening theme from that game, resonated within me. Like meeting a girl, growing a relationship with her, and one day look at her with another level of understanding. Your view of life changes, with the first *DUN DUN* that blessed my ears. With the view of all of those characters awaiting the world ahead of them.

With awe, I watched the opening theme, with each chant by the choir. With each new character that came on the screen. I felt a rush of emotions and heat overcome me. The fluctuating highs and lows of the choir, moments of low and high moments. I felt like I was on a journey through this new unexplored world. The questions I had before disappeared. My curiosity could no longer be answered in simple answers. I had to experience this. I had to understand what this was.

By the end of it all, I saw the title screen, "Press any button."