Slamdown Town Read online

  “You have no idea the struggles of being a web developer,” said Hollis dramatically one afternoon when they ran into each other in the hallway on their way to the bathroom.

  “You aren’t a web developer, Hollis. You’re a thirteen-year-old with a fan site that has, like, five people on it, including me, you, Mom, and Tamiko.”

  “I’ll have you know I am up to seven users,” said Hollis as he slammed the bathroom door in his brother’s face. Ollie was certain that the other three were just alternate accounts Hollis had made himself. But still, Ollie would take any opportunity to discuss wrestling with anyone.

  Even Hollis.

  Ollie tucked the laptop under his arm and, making sure to be as sneaky as possible, tiptoed quietly back into the hallway.

  Ollie and Hollis had shared a bedroom until Hollis turned thirteen and decided that he needed “his own space.” Ollie didn’t understand why they couldn’t continue to share a room. He didn’t take up much space, and he really liked falling asleep knowing his brother was right there with him. Having someone in the room during thunderstorms to talk about how definitely not scared they both were had always been a relief. And though he never openly admitted it, he even found Hollis’s snoring kinda comforting.

  But Hollis insisted, and so their mom cleared her stuff out of her office and let him move into that room. When Hollis moved out, he took all his stuff plus the stuff they shared, like the laptop. Sharing, to Hollis, meant keeping their stuff in his room all the time.

  So Ollie tried to beat Hollis at his own game. He would hide the laptop in his room whenever it was his turn to use it, which usually ended with him in a headlock and revealing the hidden location to his brother. After a few weeks of this, Ollie begged and begged his mom to buy him his own. She refused.

  “You don’t need two laptops,” she said as she shook her head. “You need to respect each other and share. And if you can’t do that, then I’ll have to lay down the law.”

  Ollie knew she wasn’t kidding around. She never joked when it came to the rules . . . and in this case, laying down the law meant they’d both lose out on the laptop.

  Which meant that he wouldn’t be able to play Revenge of Kragthar.

  Back in his own room, Ollie dove onto his beanbag chair and opened the computer. His room was way cooler than Hollis’s. There were action figures and comic books lining the shelves. Clothes, some of them clean, were strewn everywhere other than in his dresser drawers and laundry basket. And of course, his pride and joy: Years of accumulated wrestling treasures, including the signed poster of Professor Pain—his most prized possession—hung on the wall by the window. Just the way it had been before Hollis left.

  With significantly less-smelly clothes.

  The Revenge of Kragthar menu-screen music drew his attention back to the game. He threw on his headset and saw that Tamiko was already waiting for him online.

  “There you are. Thought I’d have to clear out this dungeon myself,” said Tamiko, her voice blaring through his headset. “Hold on a second while I get the stream started.”

  As a streamer, Tamiko, under the handle T@M1k0, would broadcast her games so that other gamers could watch her play. Ollie tended to feel a bit odd knowing that someone he didn’t know was watching him fight waves of pixies and giant toads. But Tamiko insisted that her magnificent gaming prowess be witnessed by the masses.

  Or at least the dozen or so followers who tuned in to watch.

  “We are live! Let’s do this!” shouted Tamiko.

  Ollie winced and lowered the volume. “Think we can defeat Kragthar this time?”

  “We better,” said Tamiko. “I just got all my potions restocked from the last time we failed. Not to mention my acid gauntlets for maximum face melting.”

  Kragthar. A level ninety-nine endgame boss. A half goblin, half troll bent on stopping would-be plunderers from leaving his dungeon with his loot. For months, Ollie and Tamiko had grinded and leveled up in order to be strong enough to defeat him. For months, they entered his dungeon cave only to be defeated and sent back to the entrance to try again.

  Today would be Kragthar’s downfall.

  Probably.

  Tamiko, who Ollie had to admit was the more skilled gamer of the two, played a wizard class. Lightning bolts. Fireballs. Blizzards. The elements were under her control. She played support to Ollie and shielded him from any and all harm. Managing the forces of evil while keeping Ollie’s character safe proved no challenge at all for her.

  But Ollie preferred a more direct, fight-everything-in-front-of-him approach. A knight, decked out in armor, with a sword and shield that were twice his character’s size.

  And of course, all his skill points were placed into strength.

  “We’re gonna hit Kragthar so hard, he’s going to feel it in all five games in the series,” said Tamiko. Ollie laughed. Tamiko really had a way of inspiring confidence in him.

  He was ready.

  “Wait,” said Tamiko. “Before we go in, we gotta equip the right outfit.”

  She was right. You couldn’t go into battle wearing rags and soiled underwear. For months, they had worked together to unlock the best gear: a helmet that emitted blue flames; diamond-encrusted gloves of dexterity; plate armor that resisted poison and stun damage; shoulder pads that, when fully charged with gemstones, allowed the wearer to teleport short distances; and a little friendly hedgehog that followed their characters.

  The upgraded gear provided additional health and other class-specific benefits, and, most important, it looked really cool. And the hedgehog was just cute.

  Now fully equipped, Ollie’s knight charged forward into the dungeon and Tamiko’s wizard followed. Ollie could hear Tamiko’s fingers mashing buttons over the headset. They cleared the first area—a room full of poison-spitting bats—without breaking a sweat.

  As always, the calming nature of gaming mayhem allowed Ollie’s thoughts to drift back to wrestling. Discussing the action of Slamdown Town wrestling matches paired surprisingly well over the epic battles against the pixelated forces of evil.

  “I still can’t believe that Tommy TV Remote defeated Iron Duckie with two dead batteries last night,” said Ollie as they arrived at the first gate. Ollie’s knight produced a key, inserted it into the lock, and pushed the gate open. They ran forward.

  “Really?” asked Tamiko. “I thought that was pretty obvious. Now, Emerald Emma offering Barb Haywire an alliance? That was shocking. Speaking of shocking . . .”

  Tamiko’s wizard zapped a horde of undead spiders.

  “. . . who woulda thought Captain Cashew would defeat Immunity?” she continued.

  “Because of a peanut allergy? I know. You couldn’t write that!”

  They turned the corner and encountered a giant silver snake with three heads. Ollie and Tamiko tried to hack away at her, but nothing they did caused any damage.

  The snake raised her three heads and began to speak. “Brave wizard and noble knight, for you both, the end’s in sight. But to pass, you must first state why you seek such a terrible fate.”

  “Oh, wait,” said Ollie. “This snake lady is trying to say something to us.”

  “I know what to pick.” Tamiko scrolled through the available lines and selected. “We are here, oh slithering snake, to free the realm and our vengeance take.”

  Having chosen the right dialogue option, Ollie’s knight and Tamiko’s wizard ran past the snake and into the next and final area.

  “Sucks about Werewrestler,” he said, bringing the conversation back to wrestling.

  “Yep,” said Tamiko. “Now we gotta watch another championship match with Weredoofus in it. Seriously, no one can beat his stupid face? I’m starting to think that the whole thing may be rigged.”

  For years, Ollie had waited for justice to catch up to Werewrestler. Someday, someone would avenge his mother’s loss. He didn’t care who it was. He’d be satisfied as long as Werewrestler didn’t wear the championship belt around his waist. />
  “Bolt should’ve opened with Zap Attack. Something quick and nimble to set the pace of the match. That’s what Professor Pain would have done.”

  “Not this again,” whined Tamiko. “I know Professor Pain’s your favorite wrestler of all time, but come on, dude.”

  “I’m just saying. I love The Bolt. I really do. But if Professor Pain were around today, he’d totally be the one to beat Werewrestler,” he argued.

  Their knight and wizard avatars cleared the final room and made their way to the boss gate. Her wizard produced the boss key, placed it into the lock, and turned it.

  This was it. It didn’t matter what armor you wore or what dialogue options you chose. Kragthar was a test of half-goblin, half-troll, all-gross strength. If you were strong enough, and fast enough, you could win. But if you weren’t, it was GAME OVER.

  Ollie leaned in toward the screen. “Okay,” he whispered. He didn’t know why he was whispering, but he was. He wiped his sweaty hands on the back of his pants.

  “Let’s think about this before rushing in. It’s—”

  At that very moment, Hollis barged into his bedroom.

  “Hollis?!” Ollie shouted.

  “Hollis?!” screamed Tamiko. “What are you talking about? It’s not Hollis; that’s Kragthar! Okay, so set your power attack to—”

  But Ollie wasn’t listening. For one brief moment, Ollie was convinced, or perhaps hoped, that Hollis had actually come to play the game with them. But the fiery look in his eyes when he spotted the laptop quickly put an end to that thought.

  “Give it back,” said Hollis, grabbing at the controller.

  Tamiko was still giving directions into the headset. “Ollie, are you listening?”

  He wasn’t. He yanked the controller away before Hollis could snatch it.

  “Get out of my room!” Ollie yelled.

  “You snuck into my room and stole my computer. Now give it back!”

  Ollie could hear Tamiko screaming into the headset. “Ollie! I need backup!” On the screen, Tamiko’s wizard blasted spells while Ollie’s knight swung his sword. Then Ollie’s knight stood still. Until he didn’t.

  Ollie saw Hollis’s meaty hands grab the laptop. He froze and stared into his older brother’s eyes. He felt his heart speed to the pace of one of Professor Pain’s patented powerhouse pile drivers. And those were deadly fast. “What are you doing?! We’re in the middle of fighting Kragthar!”

  “I’m taking my computer to my room,” said Hollis. He yanked the laptop forward, but Ollie held on for dear life and was pulled directly into Hollis’s chest. The momentum made them both tumble to the floor.

  On the screen, Ollie’s knight ran around erratically, pulled and pushed in all directions as the two boys wrestled on the ground over the computer.

  Before he and Hollis had been enemies, they had shared things. Even in recent months, as Hollis decided he didn’t need Ollie anymore, they had played by their mom’s rules. But the rules had just changed without Ollie even realizing it.

  “Give it back,” groaned Hollis.

  “It’s both of ours,” replied Ollie with a strain.

  Ollie dug his heels into the carpet and pulled the laptop toward him. Hollis gritted his unbrushed teeth and pulled the laptop back in his direction with all his adolescent might. The computer, caught in the middle, remained suspended between the two.

  That is, until Ollie felt it slip from his hands.

  “Kragthar, I’m sorry!” shouted Ollie.

  “No!” yelled Hollis, to Ollie’s great surprise.

  Ollie watched, horrified, as he realized why Hollis had also yelled. He saw the laptop not just get pulled from his own grip but also slip from his brother’s sweaty hold. Ollie knew all too well how sweaty Hollis got now that he was a teenager.

  For a brief moment, the laptop almost seemed to hang in the air. Then, with a sickening crash, it fell to the ground.

  The two boys leaned down and saw a large crack across the center of the screen. Ollie hardly dared to breathe. This was not a problem some tape could help fix.

  Now the screen was frozen. For the briefest of moments, Ollie’s knight and Tamiko’s wizard were stuck in stiff parodies of attack . . . And Kragthar, only a few hits from finally being defeated, was, well, frozen. Then the screen faded to black.

  “Great job, dweeb,” said Hollis, his scruffy upper lip contorted in disgust. “Look what you did. Now how am I supposed to run the Officially Unofficial Slamdown Town Fan Club?”

  Ollie didn’t have long to consider the consequences. Their mom strode into the room—through the din of utter chaos, he hadn’t even heard her come up the stairs. No longer in her referee uniform, she sported a tank top and a sweatband to hold her hair back. Her sweat-covered face let Ollie know she’d just come from their makeshift basement gym. She did not appreciate being interrupted during a workout.

  “What in the blazes is going on up here?” she demanded.

  The look on her face made Ollie realize how much trouble they were potentially in. He caught Hollis’s eyes and saw that he realized the danger, too. The stern gaze of their mom united the brothers, who had fallen under that look too many times to count.

  “Boys. We’ve talked about this. Destruction of household property and unsanctioned roughhousing?” She arched a brow. “Two major infractions in one romp. Not okay.”

  Ollie couldn’t believe that just moments ago he was sad that his brother had moved out. Hollis had shifted from ultimate brother to ultimate villain.

  Puberty. Just a phase. A teenager thing. Blah, blah, blah. Ollie had heard many excuses. None seemed right or reasonable. Hollis was just a jerkface. Why couldn’t Hollis go back to the way he used to be when they were younger?

  Good thing Ollie had met Tamiko.

  “Now, apologize. And then no more video games for either of you for the rest of the night. No—the rest of the week. And I mean none of them. Not on your computers or phones or anything,” said Ollie’s mom.

  “But—” started Ollie.

  “Trust me. I’ll know. And do you have any idea how expensive it will be to repair that laptop? So no buts, mister.”

  Ollie giggled. Butts. There was a time when Hollis would have laughed, too. But he didn’t even crack a grin. Ollie guessed Hollis thought butts were for babies or something.

  Under their mom’s watchful eyes, the two boys muttered their apologies.

  “Sorry I got mad after you snuck into my room without permission,” mumbled Hollis. It looked almost painful for him to say.

  “That’s okay. And sorry I got mad after you caused me to lose when we totally would’ve beaten Kragthar,” offered Ollie.

  He waited for Hollis to accept his apology. It never came.

  He couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment.

  “Shake hands and go to your corners. I mean, rooms,” corrected their mom.

  The two boys shook hands, Ollie straining under Hollis’s grip.

  With that, Hollis stormed out of the room, cradling the broken laptop.

  “You know better than to fight your brother,” said his mom when they were alone.

  “I know. If I were stronger, I could’ve taken him,” said Ollie.

  His mom opened her mouth and then closed it. She hesitated, as if choosing her words carefully. “You are strong Ollie,” she said, planting a kiss on his forehead.

  “No, I’m not. Look.” Ollie flexed his arm with all his might. No muscle appeared. In fact, his arm somehow looked even more noodley. “Not like you, Mom.”

  His mom shook her head, her neck muscles bulging as she did so. “You don’t need to be big and strong in order to be big and strong. Someday you’ll understand.”

  As Ollie lay in bed that night, he replayed their conversation in his mind. He wondered what strength his mom saw in him. He lay wondering about it until his brain hurt and he finally drifted to sleep.

  After all, tomorrow was a big day.

  CHAPTER 5

&nbs
p; Monday mornings meant two things: Ollie would have to wait five more days for wrestling. Also, school. But this Monday was different, because today was Ollie’s birthday.

  And not just any birthday. It was his eleventh birthday!

  That meant he was no longer some little ten-year-old baby, as Hollis would occasionally refer to him. After all, he’d been in double digits for a whole year now. And eleven felt just so much older than ten. Something about two ones, side by side, inspired confidence.

  He leapt out of bed and rushed to the mirror. He pulled at his cheeks, looked behind his ears, and spun around to try and examine himself from all angles.

  Well, he certainly felt older, but he couldn’t be sure if he looked older. There was only one way to find out. He rushed out of his bedroom and sprinted downstairs.

  Ollie’s mom was always going on and on about how much Hollis was changing now that he was a teenager. Every day it would be a comment about how he was a “young man” or that he “grew overnight.” Well, Ollie could see that Hollis was changing, all right. Strange and random body hair, sudden and swift mood changes, voice cracking and deepening, and a life-consuming and complete desire to “fit in” and “be cool.”

  Thankfully, Ollie seemed to have avoided all of that. There was, however, one part of growing up he was looking forward to: the growing part!

  Over the years, his mom had tracked their heights near the doorframe of the kitchen. Each birthday, they would stand tall (well, as tall as they could) and use a pencil to mark the tops of their heads. While he doubted he would ever reach the high bar set by his mom, Ollie held out hope that today of all days he’d see a marked improvement.

  He leaned back against the frame and stood tall. Holding his breath, Ollie marked his height with the nearby pencil attached to a piece of string. He checked his progress.

  Nothing.

  Ollie ran his finger over the birthday marks and noted that he hadn’t grown at all since he was nine. Well, maybe at all was an exaggeration, but it was such a small amount that he didn’t even know what to call it. What’s less than a millimeter? Maybe an olliemeter? He made sure to keep that to himself. He didn’t want to give Hollis any big ideas.