Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2020 03:39:02 +0100 (CET)
From: chaosmode00@tutanota.com
Subject: Summer Games Part 1

Summer Games
Part 1
Chaosmode


Authors Note: This is the first part of what I anticipate being at least a
four part series.  Up front: There is no sex or any kind of sexual things
going on here in the first part.  Aiden and James will have a relationship
and it is going to be complex and amazing but the first part of the story
is all set up getting to know the characters even more so I think than I
did in Discovering Noah. Although when this story picks up it goes a lot
faster than Noah did.  Also on that note: there is a lot of descriptions of
video games from the era of the Super Nintendo, if you do not want said
games spoiled well sorry.  IF you're not interested in reading a kids
thoughts on a game the first time he tries it sorry but this is the story
that I wanted to tell about a loner kid that loves gaming and the friend he
makes who happens to love both him and games as well...  Also there is one
tough part of this story but it is the only bump after it there is nothing
else really bad and its here in the first part...

As always I can be reached at: chaosmode00@tutanota.com

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One.


	The sound of the alarm buzzing on his cellphone woke James up from
what had been a night of pretty much restless sleep.  He had tossed and
turned more than he had liked trying to get to sleep and not finding
it. James got up out of his bed and started for the bathroom.  In the
shower he rested his hands against the wall as James let the warm water
wash over him and thought about the fact that while today was the first day
of summer it was also the first day of his summer job before going back to
his last year of college.  A job that he was sort of glad he had landed but
also one that he would rather not be doing.  Though he had agreed that if
his performance went good over the summer that he would stay on in the fall
when college back up and in a part time capacity just like he was doing
now.

	James slipped out of the shower and combed his hair, brushed his
teeth and went back into his bedroom.  In the bedroom James pulled on a
pair of slacks and the uniform shirt which had the company name on it.
Voltage Games was a moderate chain of gaming stores that had video games
but also all kinds of other games and even an online gaming arcade in the
back of the store where people could come to play games and tournaments
were hosted.  At just twenty-one and having just finished his third year of
college and going into his last it made sense to take a job that wasn't too
demanding.

	James could have gone to other jobs similar at like a grocery store
or some other kind of retail, but being a gamer this job had appealed even
more so than working at some place like Gamestop which seemed to be places
stuck in the past. He pulled the uniform shirt on and grabbed the stupid
plastic name tag that had the name James on it and headed out of the
bedroom stopping for a moment before my bathroom and studying himself in
the mirror again running a comb through his still wet brown hair before
heading towards the kitchen.

	He was making a sandwich for lunch when his roommate Kyle showed up
from his room at the other end of the apartment.  Kyle had been one of
James two best friends during high school and when when they had both
decided to go to the same college it had seemed like a easy solution to get
an apartment together.  James was going to school to be a teacher and Kyle
was going to school to be a professional loser, that was his words. In
reality he was going to school so that he could go into the oil industry.

	Kyle was taller , but also bigger, he was wide and had just a bit
of a gut and he didn't care if you saw it which was why he walked around
the apartment without a shirt.  At six-four he was tall and wide and knew
it.  James in comparison was just a hair over six feet in height, and for
the most part skinny, just not as thin as he had been a few years earlier.
James stepped around Kyle who was taking up half of the kitchen and said,
"put on a shirt."

	Kyle shrugged, "why I ain't going nowhere today.  Got the day off
from Target.  I told you to get a job there with me, tell them you need a
day off and the fuckers give it to you."

	James just finished with getting his lunch ready for the day, "yeah
well I think I'll stick with this one for now."

	Kyle said, "well see ya this evening, we going to hit it up on GTA
tonight? Lilly was asking if you're going to kick some ass with us
tonight."

	James grabbed a soda from the fridge going around Kyle again who
was now leaning against the counter top in the kitchen and said, "Maybe,
depends on how I feel when I get off."  he headed out of the apartment
going down the stairs and out to where he had parked his car last night in
front of the complex building.  James and Kyle had been living together for
almost a year and while he enjoyed playing GTA with Kyle and Lilly (his
girlfriend who lived in another city but not too far away) James was not
really that kind of a gamer.  He liked more retro stuff and role playing
games, some action and adventure, but online wasn't his favorite style of
game and GTA online could get particularly crazy at times.  Still with
Lilly and Kyle it could be fun at times as well.  They had a really good
team and had all kinds of crazy things built up in the game.

	Voltage Games was on the corner of two streets, one was a main road
that led to an interstate about ten minutes up it, and the other road it
sat off of led back into a subdivision and that was the life blood of the
game store.  They were close to a large subdivision and at one of its main
exits out so that helped drive traffic for game buying, for collection
buying and for the online servers that they had in the back for local LAN
matching or for more.  There was also a space for more traditional board
and pen and paper gaming where they hosted those on the weekends in one
large room where four different games could all be set up at once.

	As James parked in front of the building, about an hour before they
were due to open he saw that there was only one other car, the store
manager Noel's car. The front of the store had signs up for a few of the
latest games that had just come out, one proclaiming that they would beat
Gamestops trade in values on some of the hottest games out.  Another sign
about a Magic the Gathering tournament that they were holding at the end of
the month.  James climbed out of the car and headed up to the front
door. Noel opened it letting him in.

	Noel was a bigger man, more round than straight, probably weighing
well over two hundred and he was a little short too, about four inches
shorter as well with a shaved head and dark brown eyes along with a
prominent smile that he always wore. "James, on time, I like that." He said
taking his hand. Noel was twenty-six and had been managing the store for
two years and was friends with the owner of the company so his job was
secure as long as Voltage Games was a thing.

	James smiled and said, "could you imagine a school teacher being
late to school?"

	Noel laughed, "no, not really.  Come on let me show you around the
store.  I was going to ask you at the interview but when we got to talking
about Xenogears I sort of forgot the other stuff, what grade are you
looking at teaching?"

	James shrugged, "that's cool, probably the fifth grade, I'm still
trying to decide between that or sixth honestly."

	As we walked towards the back of the store James took it in getting
a good sense for the set up of the store.  The store was a huge square, but
it was split off into four different sections.  There was the long set of
glass display cases that ran along one wall from one side to the other and
then formed an L ending at a wall that had been put up as part of the back
room that was off to the left of it. This whole area was where the
traditional video games and board games were all stored for trading in and
selling of course.  There was a huge display in the center of this room set
up with all of the latest game systems, the switch, the ps4, the xbox, then
next to that display was another one that had four retro systems set up on
it as well.

	The place had larger rooms in the back off to that other end of the
L and those rooms were split for the online area for LAN games and also
online games that people could come up and pay by the hour to play.  This
was the smallest room, the other two rooms were for board games and D&D
sessions along with Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, and various other card
games.  The final room in that back area was the employee only area where
they stored games and other valuable things along with the break room.

	As they walked back there towards that room Noel said, "I don't
know how you could do that to yourself all day long, teaching kids, its bad
enough now that its summer here and we'll be over run by the ones that are
old enough to leave their house without parents."

	James shrugged, "I don't know its just what I want to do."  he
didn't have a problem with kids, especially not kids in the fifth to sixth
grade age range. Especially not boy kids between those ages.

	Noel just shrugged it off and said, "if you put your stuff down in
the break room I'll go over the morning routine since you'll be one of my
openers, which is good since I'm gone next week on vacation.  Veronica and
I go to Florida every summer to visit Disney World, its her favorite
place."  James knew that Veronica was his wife, he had talked about her at
the interview a few days earlier.  After James put his stuff down Noel
walked him through the opening routine.  First after you were logged in and
had disarmed the alarm system you would go to the computer and run the
trade in report from the night before, check it and then if the games
matched you put the games in their correct system bin unless they were
needed to fill a hole out front.

	After that of course you counted the tills which the store had two
and set them up at the computer desk.  Checked the schedule to see when the
other employees were due in which there was a total of five people working
at the store.  Then you loaded up the game systems, made sure that the
online computer room with its four computer slots was ready for anyone that
had scheduled time to come up and use the internet.  This room was a small
box with enough space for four computers.  Noel actually told James that it
used to be bigger when they first opened but with the internet being
everywhere now they had shrunk it down and it was used about once a week if
that sometimes.

	Then you checked the schedule to see if anyone had any games set up
for the two gaming rooms which on a weekday was usually a no, though there
was almost always in the afternoon a group of teens that came in and played
Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic. Now though with summer all bets were off and there was
actually a few sessions already scheduled for a D&D session later in the
afternoon today which Noel told James was actually a group of high school
students.

	Once he had shown James all the stuff then it was actually time for
the store to open.  James flipped on the open sign and just as he unlocked
it another member of the team showed up.  Jill Sloane was a teenager, at
eighteen and she had just finished her senior year of high school as well.
She wasn't bad to look at really, though she wasn't what you would call
classic eye catching, she was slender but her body was still nice with full
hips and what most boys would like in the breast size as well.  Noel said,
"Jill this is James he'll be working mornings with you when I'm on vacation
next week."

	Jill nodded and took his hand which surprised James as she said,
"good to meet you James."  The look of appraisal she gave he had seen girls
give before, but teenage or older girls really and rarely interested James.
Rarely did girls younger than that interest him either.

	James was used to it though when girls did look at him so he smiled
and said, "You too, so how long have you been working here?"

	Jill shrugged, "Since the start of my senior year, I just graduated
going to college in the fall to be something if I can ever settle on a
major."  Some kids showed up then, all teenagers and some of them knew Jill
as they went to the same high school.  She took them back into one of the
rooms as they were there to play some card games.  James was working up
front with Noel when some more people came in, some adults looking to trade
in games and after a few times of this and the purchase of new games from
them James started to get the handle on what the process was.

	Around noon another employee Richard came in, he was somewhere in
his twenties, like Noel just some regular guy that hadn't ever gone to
college and was working here as it was job in retail and he was a gamer and
had gotten the job based on his game knowledge.  Richard was a cool guy
really, James found that he had some game stuff in common and when he
started talking about GTA James let him know about Kyle's team and said
that he'd hook him up so he could get on the same server and maybe as he
put it fuck some things up.  It was a little later when Noel came and
relieved James for lunch and he sat in the back watching videos while
eating lunch.

	It was later after lunch and James was working on filling one of
the gaming cases when the door chimed with the sound of someone walking
into the shop.  James looked up and he had to gather himself for a moment
as he saw who had walked in. Since he had been a teenager James had known
that he wasn't like others.  He wasn't interested in girls his own age, or
even girls all that much though he'd never actually say he was gay as he
sometimes did find girls about the age of the kid that had just walked in
interesting sometimes.  Part of the reason why he wanted to teach was that
it would mean that he got to be around boys around the ages of ten to
twelve.  Discovering that was what he liked when he was a late teen had led
James on a long journey and he had met some others like himself.

	He knew that he would never harm a kid, or do anything
inappropriate to a point, that point was one that he often had fantasies
about, a kid coming onto him and forcing him into a moment where he had to
be with that kid, that it was really the only option he would have for
himself. He knew if a kid around the age of the one that had just walked in
did try to seduce him or make a move that James would give in, he was he
knew a little weak.  But that would take getting to know the kid really
well and as a teacher that wouldn't happen.  As a teacher all he'd get to
do was protect what he loved and make sure that those kids were taught
right and taken care of.

	The boy that walked in wore a tee-shirt that looked a little worn
and had what looked like Link from the Legend of Zelda on it shooting an
arrow.  The shirt was a little large on his smaller frame, he was probably
just at four and a half feet tall.  He wore jeans as well that looked a
little worn and converse sneakers that also looked a little worn.  His hair
was a deep dark brown and went to about his shoulders but it was hard to
tell as it was hardly combed, almost looked like he had woken up, ran a
hand through it and left the house.  His eyes were a light brown, what some
would call puppy dog brown in color.  He had a whole row of little freckles
on his cheeks under his eyes as well that James noticed almost right away.

	He walked over to one case in the store and started looking over
some of the games at one of the displays of retro games from the old super
Nintendo days.  James had actually been surprised to see games from that
far back in our store.  He hadn't even been alive when the system had come
out but he had played games from it.  The more that James had gotten into
Role playing games and stuff like Zelda the more that he had heard about
the older versions and gotten curious so had gotten them online and had
found them to be some of the best games ever made despite them being from
older systems. Kyle preferred newer stuff and didn't get why James enjoyed
some of that older stuff.

	James thought about ignoring the kid but there was no one else in
the entire store at the moment other than the teens that were hanging with
Jill who clearly were trying to to hit on her.  So he walked over and felt
a little uncertain if he should bother the kid or not but he was curious
why a kid his age was looking at Super Nintendo stuff.  Noel had said that
most of the people that looked at that stuff were collectors in their
thirties or older who were trying to get back games that they had loved as
kids themselves or using them for online streaming. The store even sold
modded systems like the ones James had seen some online game streamers use.

	As James walked up he leaned a bit over the counter looking at the
boy and said, "hey need any help?"

	He was down with his legs under him on his knees his eyes roaming
over the cases.  His light brown eyes James decided were absolutely
beautiful. He was half biting his bottom lip as he studied the case of
games, "No, I'm good."  He had a sweet soft voice and James could almost
feel a response to it in his body but he had gotten good at ignoring that
kind of stuff around kids he found attractive.  He had a nice collection of
things on his computer, all legal stuff to help him release, stories,
drawings, pictures.  James had no intention of doing anything other than
seeing if the kid needed help with something.  He was still half biting
that bottom lip and James noticed that his lips both looked pretty full.
He had a small cut across the bridge of his nose and James noticed that one
of his palms looked a little scraped up along with his elbow.

	James sat up a bit and said, "well if you need any help just let me
know."

	He sort of looked up at James but then back down at the case.  It
was easy to tell that his eyes were going over the games, checking names
and the such then as James was about to walk to check on something else so
he didn't feel so creepy looking at the very beautiful young boy when the
boy said, "I want to get that one."

	James leaned a bit over and said, "which one?"

	He pointed in the case and said, "Legend of the Mystical Ninja."

	James opened the case from the back and had to look for a moment
before he found it and pulled it out.  It cost a few dollars and James told
him the price. The kid looked at him kind of strangely about that.  As he
was about to check him out at the computer Noel came over and said, "hey
there Aiden," he looked at the game and said, "this is Aiden, James, you'll
see him around here all the time. Let see," He looked at the game and then
said, "you sure about this one?"

	Aiden shrugged, "I don't know, I just thought the name sounded
cool, oh!" He reached into his back pocket and pulled out another super
Nintendo cart that James had seen many times, Super Mario World.  His older
half sister who was in her late twenties had been obsessed with the game as
it had literally been the only game his dad had still had left on his old
console.  The same console that James now used to play super Nintendo games
on.

	Noel took the game and handed him Mystic Ninja as he said to James,
"when its Aiden just type in the number 344-444-5555."  James typed it in
and the boy stood there patiently.  As the account pulled up there was a
lot of trade ins and purchases but they all had zeros by them.

	As that was coming up Richard came over and said, "Aiden little man
what's going on?" He gave the kid smile and put his hand out for Aiden to
give a high five but he missed and Richard said, "one day you've got to
speed it up man!"  Aiden just shrugged.

	Noel said, "so like any other account you take in the game he's
trading in." James nodded and took it in and it took the trade in at zero
and he almost said something but Noel continued, "then the only difference
here is when you take the other game out, go ahead and scan it."  He
scanned it and the system showed its price and Noel said, "then you change
the price to match the trade in."  James felt like he should ask something
about this as it was only employees that got game borrows but Noel went
over him and showed him how to change it, "and then you check him out and
hand him the new game."

	As it finished Noel handed Aiden the game and the kid smiled and
said, "see you tomorrow maybe, depends if I beat it or not."  he walked out
of the store and James tried his best not to look but he was damn cute.

	As he left Richard was leaning on the counter looking around at
some other teenagers that had come in playing a game.  James had a feeling
his eyes were on one of the girls in that group.  Noel said, "If its Aiden
you always use that account. He will always bring in a game from the super
Nintendo.  If he brings in a game no matter what our cost just give it to
him for the same price as the trade in.  Our system will always make the
trade in zero on that account and let you edit the new game to be zero as
well."

	James nodded and looking at the account saw that there was a trade
in nearly every two or three days sometimes more.  "Is all of that him?"

	Noel looking at it said, "yes, the employee account is the same but
its all 4's all the way across."

	Studying it James didn't want to pry but he was curious about the
boy a bit, "why does the system allow that for him?"

	Richard said, "Noel set it up, felt bad for the kid.  Tough little
shit but he's got it bad,"

	"Really Richard do you have to put it that way."  Richard shrugged
and Noel said, "its just him and his mom and she works crazy hours.  I
think he's picked on at school too but I never ask and don't want to
really.  When he first started coming in he paid and always had to find
games that cost less than five dollars. He always brought the game back in
though to trade it back in and get another one. I finally had enough, he
was nice and responsible and I decided to give him an employee account as
long as he brings the game back he gets another one."

	James nodded and said, "that is really nice."

	Richard said, "he's good too, I mean he just plays all that retro
stuff because its all that he could get system wise or all he had."

	Noel said, "you'll get it, its summer now, last summer he was up
here I think most every day.  You play all that retro stuff, maybe he'll
finally have someone to talk about it with.  I think the only game he
actually owns himself is the Zelda game, link to the past right?"  James
nodded and Noel continued, "well its the one that I told him to keep when
he kept taking it out every week.  I finally figured that it was probably
his favorite and we have like a dozen of them so I saw no harm in gifting
it to him for his birthday last summer."

	After that the rest of the afternoon went pretty quickly and then
James got to head home.  It had been an interesting first day and that
night as he lay in bed his did wonder exactly what the kid had problem wise
beside his mom.  He was small for his age, if he was nearly eleven which
sounded about right, being a bit below four and a half feet at that age
would put him slightly behind the curve.  That along with the fact that he
was probably pretty poor both led to him being treated badly by other kids
James was certain.  Kids especially boys at that age liked to pick on the
outsider boys, the ones that were quite and introverted.

	In a way it reminded James of himself, sort of a loner who hadn't
had many friends.  It was a different situation though.  James' biggest
problem had been the constant moving before his dad and mom had divorced
they had moved a lot for his dad's jobs.  Until his last two years of high
school he hadn't made any lasting friends and now he had Kyle, Dustin and
Lilly, he really only needed three close friends.  He had no idea though
that night that his life was going to take a twisting turn he had never
seen coming.




Two.



	The sound of something from behind him made Aiden run even faster
across the Miller's back yard.  He only knew who the Millers were because
they had this huge sign on the side of their front door saying that they
were the Millers.  He knew that they had three kids but they are all a lot
older than Aiden.  He jumped to the fence and climbed over it, falling onto
the ground on the other side and stopped for a moment, panting looking up
at the fence waiting.  He was in the back now close to a retaining ditch
that ran along the back of the subdivision.  After a moment when he didn't
hear anyone coming Aiden sat down on the edge of the ditch looking down at
the small trickle of water that ran through it.

	Sometimes when it flooded the entire ditch would get filled with
water and one time it had even flowed over into the back yards of the house
up against it.  His house was one of those.  He found a rock sitting close
to him and picked it up tossing it down into the water below.  His palm
still hurt from where he had scraped it earlier when climbing over one of
the fences, that had been when Kevin Laster and his gang had been chasing
him after he had gone to the Circle K to get a drink and a snack.  He had
lost his snack, of course that had been the first thing that Kevin had
taken from him as he stepped out of the Circle K.

	Then he had lost the drink after Kevin had pushed him down which
was when he had gotten the second scrape on his arm of the day.  He had
rolled away from that and taken off running with Kevin, Paul, Billy, and
Lane all chasing him through the subdivision in the opposite direction of
where he had planned to go after leaving the Circle K.  He sat up a bit and
pulled the game out of his back pocket just making sure that Legend of the
Mystical Ninja was okay in his back pocket.  The game had sort of reminded
him of a beat'em up, where you went around and used weapons to take people
down but you also had shops and level ups and there was kind of a story to
the game as well which had been interesting.

	He put the game back in his pocket and stood up.  The good thing
about Kevin and his gang was that they weren't really interested in Aiden
past a point.  If he could get a few miles away from them they'd loose
interest in him just as they had yesterday.  It wouldn't be a problem if
Kevin didn't live on the same street as him.  The slightly older Kevin
liked picking on Aiden because he was different and also smaller, and some
people were just bullies who liked messing with other people Aiden figured.
Aiden started walking along the side of the ditch heading to the end of it
where he could see the street. He wasn't all that far now from the main
street that fed into the subdivision that led up to Voltage Games at the
front of it.

	The Circle K was in the middle of the subdivision, it had been
built when Aiden was five which was also around the time that Voltage Games
had opened as well.  Though he had only found the place at the beginning of
fifth grade which had been shortly after his tenth birthday in July when
his mom had gifted him with a super Nintendo that she had found at some
garage sale along with a few games for it.  He had figured that he could
trade the three games he had gotten in for one game but he had actually
gotten two and then somehow after that he had started to become a regular
up there using whatever little money his mom gave him for allowance for
doing chores to buy games.

	Somehow though Noel had started letting him just return a game for
another game as long as he kept them in good condition.  He liked Noel, and
Richard too, then there was Jill and that guy named Henry that he saw
sometimes but only rarely. They were nice to him and there was honestly
very few people in his life that were nice to him other than well his mom
of course.  Some of his teachers though usually they were too busy with the
problem kids to really notice him.  Either the kids that had issues with
school work all together or the ones that caused problems like Kevin.

	He and Kevin were in the same grade, although Kevin had turned
twelve a few weeks before summer started as he had been held back in the
fourth grade for some reason.  Even back then he had liked to pick on other
kids, Aiden, Derrick who was the only black boy in their class, and Thomas
all pretty much got picked on by Kevin and despite the fact that he picked
on them all Thomas and Derrick also pretty much ignored Aiden as well
though he wasn't sure why.  He figured it was just because he was who he
was and didn't make friends all that easily.  It was easier too by himself
to avoid Kevin and his group as he was a pretty fast runner and had noticed
that Derrick and Thomas weren't.

	At the end of the ditch he got out onto the sidewalk that went
above it and headed up to the front of the subdivision.  Voltage games sat
on one corner, there was a restaurant on the other, some Mexican food place
called Victors that his mom had taken him to a few times for dinner.  He
walked into Voltage games. There were a few people inside, some kids
playing on the systems and it looked like Richard was hanging out with some
other kids over at one of the newer systems.

	He didn't see anyone else so he just walked right over to the super
Nintendo games.  For Christmas his mom had found him a Sega Genesis
somewhere and those games were okay but he hadn't chosen one in awhile.  He
was looking through the Super Nintendo games when someone said, "Did you
really beat that one or get bored with it?"

	Aiden looked up, the new guy, the one with the James name tag was
sitting up on the counter behind the display case.  He wasn't as young as
Jill, but Aiden figured he wasn't as old as Noel or Richard either.  He did
have an adult kind of look to him and feel but he was also pretty relaxed
and while not as skinny as Richard he wasn't big or taller than Richard
either.  Aiden shrugged, "I didn't beat it, but I didn't get bored either."
He had gotten frustrated though a little and had decided that he wanted to
try a different game.

	James got off the counter and opened the case as he said, "did you
like the town stuff? The story?"

	Aiden shrugged, he hadn't actually had anyone from the store before
talk to him about super Nintendo games. "It was okay, I think the stuff in
Zelda is better."

	James nodded and pulled something out of the case.  "here, I think
you should try this one and then tell me what you think about it."  He
handed Aiden the game, smiling and Aiden smiled back a little feeling
relaxed.

	"You know about Super Nintendo games?"

	James shrugged, "Sure I do, my dad loved the system and he gave it
to my sister and I to play when we were younger, but I really got into them
the past year or so.  If you like Zelda you might like this one too.  Its
got some side scrolling action but there's also some stuff involved with
building cities and the such." The cover Aiden decided was interesting, it
said ActRaiser on it and had lightning going across it.  "so willing to try
it?"

	Aiden shrugged and said, "sure."  He walked with James over to
where the computers were and waited as he was checked out and placed the
game in his back pocket as he said, "well thanks I'll probably see you
tomorrow."  Then he head out of the shop.  As he was leaving Aiden could
sort of feel James' eyes on him and he wasn't really sure why it felt
different than how it felt when Noel or Richard looked at him.  Outside he
headed back to his street.  The walk wasn't a long one as it was only two
blocks back from the front of the subdivision but he still walked a little
slowly hoping that Kevin and his gang weren't outside to pester him.

	The subdivision that he lived in was an older one, once he supposed
in the eighties the houses here had all been new but now they were older
and showed signs of it as well. A lot of the houses were lived in by people
who already had grown kids, but some of them were lived in by families like
his own with single parents. As he turned down his street he was relieved
to see that Kevin and his gang weren't outside so that he could get home
without getting bothered.

	He passed the Miller house which was the only two story on the
entire block and his house was four down from it. A small one story with a
red trim and three windows that looked out onto the front street.  Kevin's
house was across from his and down two more but it was close enough that he
could see if Kevin was out and he was grateful that he wasn't at this
moment.  Aiden headed into the house and kicked his shoes off by the front
foyer and went into the kitchen to get a glass of water and walked into his
bedroom.

	The house had three bedrooms, but one of them wasn't used, although
it was used when his grandmother came to stay sometimes though she hadn't
been out in a couple of years now.  His bedroom sat across from it with the
bathroom next to the guest bedroom.  AT the end of the hall was his mom's
bedroom with its own bathroom that sat towards his other wall In his
bedroom.  He walked into his bedroom and turned on his older television as
he took the cartridge out of his back pocket and popped it into the game
system.

	The game loaded and he pressed start laying down on his bed.  At
first he wasn't sure why James thought this was a good game.  It was just a
normal hack and slash, like Ghouls and Ghosts though it did look really
pretty.  There was some jumping and there was a big boss at the end that
you had to time your moves right or you died.  Aiden did die a few times
but he got the hang of it soon enough and made it past the first level.
Only to be greeted by a strange little floating cherub angel that wanted
him to rebuild the world.

	The game took on a whole different thing after that.  He had to
fight these little lairs of monsters and send people to seal them and then
he had to build more parts of the city and unseal things.  Suddenly he
found himself really interested. It was clear that the small town was built
a certain way based on what he unlocked but that was still pretty cool.  He
had to fight a second side scrolling level to beat the boss of the area and
that opened up even more.

	He was working on the third zone, getting the hang of the game when
his mom came into his room and sat down on the edge of his bed, "hey
sweetie how was your day?"  She stroked his hair a bit and kissed the top
of his head.

	Aiden paused the game and said, "Good mom."

	She studied him and he knew that she saw the new scrape on his
other elbow to match the one from the day before but she didn't comment on
it.  Sometimes Aiden got the feeling that his mom knew what happened to him
but she didn't know what to do about it.  It was why he didn't bother her
with it because he didn't want his mom to worry about him.  She stood and
ruffled his hair a bit, "That's good I'm going to start dinner in a few
minutes, want to help?"

	Aiden said, "Sure just let me save."  His mom left the room and he
saved the game before going out into the kitchen and helping his mom with
dinner.  It wasn't difficult to prepare, he just set the table and he
stirred the rice when his mom asked him.

	His mom was a very pretty woman, somewhere in her mid thirties as
she and given birth to him when she was twenty-four.  Aiden didn't know who
his dad was or where he was, the man had just never been in the picture and
that was enough for Aiden to know.  It didn't matter as he and his mom got
by together just fine.  As they sat down at the table his mom said, "was
that another new game you were trying?"  His mom didn't like games all that
much but she was happy to talk with Aiden about what he liked.  That was
the thing about his mom his interests interested her.

	"yeah, you've got to go through these levels and fight guys and
then you have to build back the towns and stuff so that people can live
there again... James recommended it."

	His mom paused a bit in eating as she said, "James, I don't
remember a James working up there being mentioned before."

	Aiden shrugged, "He's new but he knows stuff about super Nintendo
games so he just suggested that one to me because I liked another game."

	She nodded and said, "Well that's nice, so what other kind of
trouble did you get into today?"  Aiden knew that his mom was indicating
his new found scrapes.

	He shrugged, "I was climbing some fences and fell it wasn't that
bad though just some scrapes. I didn't' fall all that far."

	"You sure?"  Aiden nodded and his mom sighed, "well as long as
you're okay I suppose that's the important part."  After dinner she
insisted on him getting in the shower and after his shower Aiden put on his
pajamas and got back up on his bed to keep playing the game.  Around ten
his mom came in his room and he hugged her goodnight along with a kiss on
his cheek before she stroked his back and said, "Don't stay up too late."

	He agreed that he wouldn't but the game was so good that he kept
playing it. The last boss was difficult but around one thirty in the
morning he finally beat the game and watched the credits go.  That he
decided was a lot of fun so he was glad to see that James had been right.
He wondered what other kinds of games that he might suggest for Aiden to
play.  He turned off the system and the television before laying down on
his bed.  Aiden wished as he did most nights that he was older, or bigger,
being bigger or older would stop someone like Kevin from picking on him so
that would be nice.

	The doctor had told his mom a few months ago that he was in the
lower percentile for both weight and height for his age, not even four and
a half feet, but an inch below that and far too skinny too.  He couldn't
help it and his mom was worried about him not growing enough so she had
started feeding him more vegetables. Though he didn't really like them
Aiden wasn't the kind of kid to argue with his mom.  Since he had been old
enough to remember things it had just been the two of them.  He liked it
like that, but sometimes he thought there might be more out there for his
mom and for him too.  Maybe he could meet and make a real friend of some
kind...




Three.



	The first day of Noel's vacation was an interesting one.  Opening
by himself was a new experience for James but he handled it as best as he
could.  Jill showed up a few minutes after the store was due to open and he
had realized after a week working at Voltage games that was her usual
operation.  Noel had hired Jill because she was that rare girl that liked
video games James figured.  He liked Jill, she was actually pretty cool and
chill though he had no real sexual desire for her as she was just up there
above what he considered interesting in that way and also female.  Although
he could see the appeal.

	Around eleven he noticed the rain clouds and checked his weather
app and saw that they were definitely going to get some rain in the
afternoon.  Richard was there by then and there were a few teenagers and
adults that had stopped on their lunch breaks to buy things going in and
out of the store before the storms came rolling in.  Around two Jill headed
out as it was the end of her shift since she worked part time.  The other
two employees were off today so it was just Richard and James.  He let
Richard go on break around two since there were no customers in the store
and it was unlikely that anyone else would be coming in.

	Around right then when the rain had just sort of started James was
reading one of those companion books for D&D, mainly looking at the artwork
as they always had some really incredible stuff in there when he heard the
door chime.  He looked over at the front door and saw Aiden.  The boy's
dark brown hair had gotten a little wet some of the water dripping off of
it onto his shirt which was that same Zelda shirt he had worn the first day
James had seen the boy.

	The rain really started coming down about a minute after he walked
into the shop and James saw him put the game on the glass counter as he
started looking through the games.  The boy looked cute wet, he wasn't
soaked just some rain water on his face and arms and his hair.  "So?"  He
asked as he walked over.

	Aiden looked up, "it was pretty cool.  The side scrolling levels
were kind of just so-so but the city building stuff with the sealing of
monster lairs and shooting arrows at the monsters that came out and the
people giving you gifts and stuff that was all really cool.  It was a
little short though, I wish there had been more levels.  Is there more?"

	He looked hopeful James decided and he shook his head, "no, there
was a sequel but they abandoned the whole city building stuff because it
wasn't received very well.  There's some modern games that take some stuff
from it, there was a game on the first playstation that I used to play when
I was your age called Dark Cloud that I'd say was kind of inspired by it."

	Aiden sighed, "That sucks, I mean the side scrolling levels were
just not as interesting as the city building stuff."

	James smiled a bit and climbed up on the counter sitting there as
he said, "Noel said you liked Legend of Zelda a lot?"  Aiden nodded and
James said, "did you ever try Super Metroid?"

	Aiden shrugged, "no Noel said it was a platformer like Mario."

	James scoffed, "what?  Its got more in common with Zelda than a
platformer. I mean its a side scroller and there's jumping and shooting but
there's also item collection and lots of secret hidden rooms and power ups
that make you more powerful and you have to solve puzzles to get to some of
the hidden secrets on the maps."  He jumped down and went into the case and
pulled out Super Metroid, "you should give it a shot and Noel and I will
have a talk about what a platformer is when he gets back."

	Aiden smiled and James liked the boys smile, it was slightly
lopsided on his cute small face and went really well with the small dotting
of freckles on his upper cheeks.  He was about to go ahead and change the
games out for one another when the power went out.  The sound of thunder
rolled across the sky and Aiden looked up at the ceiling when the power
didn't suddenly come on.  James handed him the new game and Aiden took it
looking out the front windows.

	James from behind the counter said, "you shouldn't go back out
there.  You're welcome to stay here till it clears up."

	Aiden shrugged looking back at him and said, "yeah my mom would
kill me if I ran home in this and got sick."

	James smiled, "yeah moms are the worst.  I think I was about a year
older than you, ran home in the rain from school, we lived about two blocks
from the school and I thought I could beat the bus, got soaked and sick
too."

	Aiden said, "your mom probably got all kinds of mad."

	James said, "nah, she was at first but she felt sorry for me when I
got sick, she did keep reminding me why I got sick though."  He smiled and
Aiden smiled again before James said, "okay, lets get serious here."  He
came around the counter and said, "come on," He sat down in front of the
cases and Aiden studied him then sat down sort of next to him but with a
bit of space between them, "so," he pulled out his phone and pulled up a
list of super Nintendo games.  "Let's see how many of these you've played.
Noel says you've been coming in here for awhile..."

	Aiden shrugged, "Okay."  They started going through a list that
James had found about the top 100 games on the SNES and as he was reading
them off and showing Aiden pictures of the game if he didn't know the name
the boy would move in a little closer until they were sitting almost by
each other.  At one point his shoulder hit James' own shoulder and he
smiled a bit as the boy was almost leaning over fully.

	As they got to the end of the list James said, "so you've only
played one of the top four Super Nintendo games of all time?"

	Aiden shrugged, "But that's just one list."

	James smiled and pulled up a few other lists, "really?"

	Aiden studied the other lists, his finger scrolling on James' phone
as he handed it him and he said, "well they do change the order on some of
them compared to the others, what's a Chrono Trigger anyway?"

	James taking his phone back said, "its a game about a boy who helps
a princess out and she gets sent back in time so he has to go save her and
save all of history from Lavos a being fro outer-space that wants to
consume the planet. Its got robots, frog men, magic users, an epic score
and some really good artwork."

	Aiden thought about that, "is it a platformer? Or an adventure game
like Zelda?"

	James shook his head, "no its a role playing game.  You get
experience and build levels and get special techniques.  If I made a list
I'd put it first not Zelda, but everyone's got their own ideas on what game
is better, they're really probably pretty much tied."

	Aiden said, "do you have that one here?"

	James turned looking at the case that they were sitting in front
of, "no, or if they do its in the special case, its probably really
expensive too, not traded in a lot.  You interested?"

	Aiden sighed and said, "sure but if its rare its probably never
going to be traded in here.  Part of the reason Noel lets me rent the games
is that no one really buys SNES games anymore.  Or Trades them in."

	James nodded, "I can see that, but if somehow you could play it
would you be interested in playing it?"

	He saw Aiden thinking about it and then the boy said, "yes."

	James said, "then its a deal I'll let you borrow my copy tomorrow."

	Aiden looked up and over at him, "Y-you're sure, I would like to
play it and I'll be really careful with it and everything."

	James smiled, "I'm sure you will Aiden."  The rain was still coming
down outside and the power still hadn't come on.  James stood up and went
over behind the counter and grabbed a deck of cards that he had seen and a
bucket, "Okay, well I am officially bored, ever played card toss?"

	Aiden shook his head, "No.  AM I supposed to know what that is?"

	James sat the bucket down a little away from them at the counter
and said, "well the goal is the flick the card into the bucket."  He pulled
the cards out and took one and said, "you flick it like that and it
goes... well shit," He sighed as the card went flying towards the bucket
and then landed off to its left.  "You get the idea."

	Aiden smiled and took a card sort of tossing it and it landed about
half way to the bucket, "how did you do that?"

	James picked up another card, "you've got to flick the wrist like
this."  He showed Aiden with his wrist and the card went flying hitting the
bucket and then bouncing off of it.  "Kyle and I used to play this in our
free period senior year, he always won."

	Aiden tried to flick his wrist and said, "I don't get it."

	James said, "here, pick up a card, here," he put his hand on
Aiden's that was holding the card.  The fifth grade boy had small hands and
wrists he decided, and his skin was soft and warm too, but he ignored that
as he showed him how to flick his wrist and said, "but you have to do it
hard and quick, give it a few tries and you'll get it." As he let go of the
boys wrist.  That close he could almost smell sweaty rain wet preteen boy.

	Aiden got a little better on the next one and when he tossed his
third one and it went into the bucket he said, "Boo-ya! I got it!"

	James looked over at him and said, "cheater."

	Aiden smiled, "no way. I got that. It was all skill."

	James laughed and Aiden laughed too.  Just then Richard strolled
into the store and said, "well damn the power's out here too."  He stopped
when he saw them sitting on the floor tossing cards and came over sitting
on Aiden's other side, "what are you two doing?"

	James said, "tossing cards."  Richard took his turn and he showed
both of the up pretty quickly.  Around the third game the power finally
came on and the rain tampered off to a mere trickle around four in the
afternoon.  As Aiden started to head out James said, "I'll bring you that
game tomorrow."

	Aiden nodded and said, "cool, see you tomorrow then.  I got to get
home before my mom."  He headed out.  James tried not to watch the boy take
off at a run but he was so very nice to look at.

	As he took off Richard said, "cool kid a bit strange but pretty
cool."

	James smiled, "kind of reminds me of me at his age a lot."  Richard
just said cool and about then the final rush of people for the evening
showed up.  He hadn't been this attracted to a kid around Aiden's age since
he was in high school and had met Kyle's little brother who he hadn't
gotten past first base with.




Four



	Aiden felt strange as he ran back towards his house.  He liked
Noel, Richard, Jill, and Hank because they always let him hang out a bit
and try out other games and such and even sometimes told him if he might or
might like something.  James though actually knew about the games on the
super Nintendo and more than that he talked with Aiden about that stuff.
He often got the sense from Noel and Hank who were both a lot older than
him, somewhere in their mid twenties that they were just humoring him
because he didn't cause problems and was the only one playing the games
they had.  Jill just thought that he was cute like her little brother and
Richard just did stupid stuff like the fake high fives.

	James though hadn't done that stuff, he had actually talked with
him about the games themselves and when the power had gone out instead of
making Aiden maybe entertain himself he had sat with him and they had
talked more about the games that he had and hadn't played.  Then during the
card game when he had touched and held his hand and wrist to show him how
to play the game, that had felt somehow nice. No one had actually just sat
with him and talked with him like that other than his mom.  Which he knew
sometimes she feigned interest as she was a good mom and she loved him a
lot.  James hadn't feigned though he had actually been interested in what
Aiden thought about the games that he had played on that list.

	Back at his house his mom wasn't home yet so after kicking off his
shoes Aiden went into his bedroom and put the cartridge in his super
Nintendo.  The music he noticed first off as the stuff started was amazing,
and then the game spoke, saying that the Last metroid was in captivity and
the galaxy was at peace. Then stuff happened and he was soon trying to
escape a space station before it exploded.  For the next hour Aiden got a
feel for the controls of the game, it wasn't like any platformer he had
played before and he could sort of see the similar ways that this game and
Zelda were.  Instead of dungeons there were sections that were all
interconnected but you needed better weapons or suits to get further in the
game.

	He died more than a few times trying to figure things out and
around six when his mom got home with dinner for both of the he saved and
sort of felt an itch to get back to the game it was that good.  His mom let
him go after his shower and he plopped back down on his bed playing the
game some more.  It was really good and he managed to beat some big green
monster that went from small to big that he was pretty sure was the first
boss and from that he got a better suit and then an ice beam but by then it
was nearly one in the morning and he was falling asleep.

	The game was a lot harder than Actraiser and a lot bigger too.  He
saved and turned it off and climbed into his bed to get some sleep.  The
next morning he woke up and played it some more after getting some
breakfast and then he remembered that James said he was going to bring that
other game, the chrono one that had sounded really cool.  He got dressed
and headed out of the house.  He was thankful that he didn't see Kevin or
his gang as he walked down the street and headed up the other street to
where the game store was.

	He hadn't brought Super Metroid with him as he hadn't beaten it yet
which felt strange as he walked into the game store.  He had brought money
though as his mom had given him his five dollars for the week to spend on
whatever he wanted.  He hesitated a little as he stepped in afraid that
yesterday had been kind of an oddity or something and James wasn't going to
remember what he had promised.

	There were some people that James was helping so Aiden instead
looked over the games in the case and then those people were leaving as
James leaned over the case holding something out, "as promised one copy of
Chrono Trigger."

	Aiden looked at it, the front picture on it was of some strange
beast and a boy with red hair jumping at it with a girl putting fire on his
sword and a frog crouching down. It was a really cool front cover and made
the game look really cool.  Aiden took it and said, "I'll be careful with
it."

	James said, "I don't doubt you Aiden, and I can see you're eager to
go try it out."

	Aiden shrugged a bit, "I still haven't beaten the other one."

	James nodded, "well? Is it just a platformer?"

	Aiden shook his head, "no way, its got that in it but its also got
stuff like ice beams and it took me a full thirty minutes to figure out
that I needed to freeze those little brown things to climb up a certain
area to get the power item in order to go forward to another area, and
there's a whole bunch of upgrades and other things too that I haven't even
seen yet or know how to get yet."

	James smiled and Aiden felt as if he was liking that Aiden was
enjoying the game.  "Good, it sounds like you're having fun with it."

	Aiden said, "yeah, if I have fun with this one too is there
anything else you'd recommend?"

	James said, "but of course, there's Secret of Mana and Final
Fantasy Six both were in the top ten on those lists.  You like Zelda so I
think you'll like Secret of Mana and if you end up liking Chrono Trigger
then I think you'll like Final Fantasy six.  The Final Fantasy series is my
favorite series of games."

	Aiden said, "cool," Someone else came in and Richard was with a
customer. So Aiden said, "I'll let you help them and I'll tell you tomorrow
what I think."

	James nodded and said, "sounds good Aiden, its summer though so
don't forget to go out and have some fun too."  Aiden shrugged James was
kind of like his mom in that regard telling him to not stay in all the time
but it wasn't in a bad way, just in a I care about you kind of a way he
supposed. As James went to help the people that had come in Aiden headed
out of the store.  He walked back down the street but went past his street
to go up to the convenience store as he still had his five dollars so he
could get a soda.

	He was walking up towards the store when Kevin's second in charge
Lane stepped in front of him.  Lane had actually already finished sixth
grade and he was taller than Kevin and wider too.  "Hey there little shit,
been a few days since we've seen you."

	He looked around and saw that Paul and Billy were both there as
well and Kevin came walking out of the Circle K store smiling with a
mountain dew soda in his hand.  Aiden started to back away and ran right
into Paul who had moved up behind him.  Paul and Billy were in the same
grade as Aiden and Kevin, and like him they were bigger than Aiden and
really good at messing with him.  Of course he had been the second shortest
person in his class just Julia Pearson was shorter and she was a girl so to
the other boys that didn't count.

	He knew that one of the reasons Kevin picked on him was because he
was smaller.  Kevin slowly walked over as Paul grabbed his shoulders.  He
tried to escape but Paul gripped his left shoulder so hard that it almost
hurt.  Kevin smiled, "whatcha got for us there huh little runt?"

	Aiden swallowed, "N-nothing, come on Kevin I gave you money last
week..."

	Kevin stepped closer, he tried to escape again but Billy had moved
to one side and Lane to the other with Kevin in front.  "you think I give a
shit when you last gave me anything.  You going to go run home to mommy?
Tell her so she tells my mom again?"

	Aiden shook his head no.  He had only tried that once and it had
only made things worse.  Kevin wasn't going to stop being a bully
especially not now that school was out for the summer and he knew that
Aiden's mom worked during the days. That was why Aiden ran around outside
as little as possible.  He just wanted Kevin and his friends to leave him
alone but they liked picking on him because he was smaller and had no
friends.  Paul who was holding him from the shoulders spat in his hair as
Billy on his side said, "I think he's going to do it anyway Kevin."

	Lane on the other side said, "lets beat the shit out of him."

	Aiden swallowed and when Kevin started towards him the older boys
fist connected with his stomach and from inside the store one of the
workers stepped out and said, "what in the hell are you kids doing, move on
get out of here."

	The others turned to look at the man and Kevin went to say
something to him and that was when Aiden took his chance to slip out of
Paul's grasp by kicking backwards hoping to connect with the boy's shin but
instead he connected with his upper crotch area and Paul went down gasping
and holding his middle.  Aiden took off, running through the parking lot.
The other boys though weren't content with letting him go this time as he
had retaliated.

	Aiden ran back up the street hoping to head for the safety of his
house but as he crossed the street from the Circle K, Billy who was a fast
runner as well had caught up to him jumping in front of him and pulled him
down onto the ground leaning over him, leering and hit him square in the
stomach, then once on the face too, "you little piece of shit!"

	Kevin arrived with Lane, and a second later Paul came sort of
limping and moved over to kick Aiden right in the stomach as he groaned and
rolled over.  Kevin leaned over and picked something up off of the ground,
"Oh what's this..."  Aiden rolled over and tried to grab for it as he knew
it was the game.  Kevin studied it, "Want this back runt?"

	Aiden said, "Please, you can have my money, that's not mine I'm
borrowing it..."

	Kevin smiled, "Oh got a little friend.  Giving you games?  I bet he
won't be your friend anymore when it doesn't work anymore!"  Kevin tossed
the game to Paul, "seems fair, smashing game for smashed balls!"  Kevin
leaned over Aiden leering and spat on his face.  "You're a real shit
Aiden." Then Aiden watched as Paul threw the game to the concrete sidewalk
and stomped on the cartridge a few times before laughing and tossing the
two broken pieces on top of Aiden as the four of them walked past him, Paul
giving him one more kick as they headed up the street.

	Aiden sat up slowly and looked at the game that was in two
pieces. His stomach hurt, his face hurt a bit, he wiped the spit off of his
cheek and stood up slowly.  He could just never return to the game store,
then he wouldn't have to see it when James got mad at him.  He studied the
cartridge and wondered if there was a way to put the two pieces back
together, but there was some parts that looked broken as Paul had really
stepped on it.  Aiden sat down on the curb across from the circle K, he
hadn't gotten that far away from it.  His shoulders felt sore, there was a
scrape on his chin, another one on his elbow he could feel it. He'd
probably get a black eye too.  He had no idea how he'd explain that one to
his mom. Worst of all though the game had been destroyed.

	He was thinking about how James would probably be all mad at him
too, not believe him that someone had beat him up and broken the game.
Also he didn't want to tell someone that he had been beaten up, that wasn't
what you did. It just got Kevin in trouble with his mom or his dad and that
usually led to Kevin being grounded which would lead to Kevin picking on
him even more.

	Aiden was about to get up and start the walk back to his house when
a voice he knew said, "Aiden?" He looked up and felt fear go through him,
it was James, of course it was.  He started to move or something but James
looked concerned as he came over to where he was.  He had been leaving the
Circle K it appeared as he had a coke bottle in his hand.  He said, "what
happened to your chin?"  He leaned down a bit and said, "here, look up for
me..."

	Aiden shook his head and sniffed, he wasn't going to cry, "I-I'm
sorry I told them not to but..." He handed James the game.

	James looked at it for a second then put it down on the ground
before bending down and looking at Aiden. "look up for me."  Aiden looked
up not sure why and James seemed to study his chin and was looking at him
more, "whoever did this did a number on you huh?"

	Aiden sniffed a bit and said, "w-what about the game though, I let
them break it."

	James said, "fuck the game Aiden, its just a game. You're much more
valuable than a game don't you think?"

	Aiden shrugged, "I dunno, I just thought you'd be mad."

	James sat down next to him and said, "of course I'm mad, but not at
you."  He stood up and picked up the game putting it in the Circle K
plastic bag that had some kind of snack in it and said, "come on, Noel told
me you live close by?" Aiden nodded and James said, "well let me at least
make sure you get home safe, and make sure that those scrapes are taken
care of I imagine your mom has a first aid kit?" Aiden shrugged and James
said, "band-aids? Neosporin?"  Aiden nodded a bit and James said, "lead the
way."

	They walked up the street and then down the other where his house
was, walking past Kevin's where thankfully Kevin and his gang weren't
outside.  They might have been terrorizing someone else honestly.  He led
James into his house which felt strange since James was a virtual stranger
letting him into his house. James though was all professional and he didn't
seem like he was going to hurt Aiden.  In fact there was real concern on
his face and he was careful especially with the wound on his chin when he
applied the band-aid to it.


*


	James still wasn't sure what he was doing in Aiden's house.  He had
acted on instinct the moment he had seen the boy sitting there obviously
hurt.  It appeared as if he was going to have a black eye and that wound on
his chin might leave a scar but he wasn't sure.  His one elbow had been
bleeding and by the way he walked someone had probably hit him in the
stomach a few times.  The house was older, all of these houses were older,
probably built in the eighties, he had lived in a subdivision like this one
during one of his parents moves for a short period of time.  As they walked
down the street he saw four boys outside in front of another house and he
could tell by the way that Aiden flinched that these were the four boys
that had caused him harm.  He wanted to go over there and do something, but
he knew it wasn't the right time or place to do anything.

	Aiden's house was small, a little three bedroom one story that from
the outside looked like it had been built in the eighties for sure and the
inside looked older as well though it was pretty well maintained.  The
couch and other things in the living room looked worn and old but not all
that old, just something that someone with a little less could afford to
get.  It felt like a comfortable home though, as if the two people that
lived in it belonged there.

	He felt physically sick seeing Aiden beaten up.  He never could
understand why boys felt like they had to bully other boys, and they always
picked on the smaller strange and silent ones as well.  Like it was some
kind of right of passage or something beating up another kid and laughing
about it with your friends. After James was sure the bandages were applied
he pulled the game out of the plastic bag.  He had been heading home after
finishing work as Richard and Hank were closing and had stopped at the
Circle K because he wanted some M&M's, and that was when he had seen Aiden
sitting there looking like he was in pain.

	Aiden looked at the game, "Sorry..."

	James touched his shoulder, "don't be, it wasn't your fault Aiden
and I'm not mad."  Aiden nodded a bit and then he said, "the clips are
broken, but the actual motherboard system looks intact.  Nintendo built
these things strong.  Do you have any tape?"  Aiden got up and went over to
the kitchen looking through a few drawers and came back with a role of
scotch tape.  He watched as James applied to the sides and shook the
cartridge a bit before he said, "want to give it a try?"

	Aiden nodded and James could tell that he was uncertain as he said,
"my mom might not like you being here.. because you're... a stranger."

	James nodded, he was a little worried about that himself.  His
first instinct to protect and make sure that Aiden was okay had kicked in
so fast that he hadn't thought about what might happen if he was in Aiden's
house with him when his mom got home.  He had just wanted to make sure the
boy was okay because he had looked like he had gotten really hurt.  "Do you
think I should go?"

	Aiden shook his head and said, "no not till we test the game out
right?" James smiled and the boy smiled too before heading back towards his
room and James followed, he was curious what the boys room looked like.
His bed was unmade and had what appeared to be sheets with the design of
space and the galaxy on them. His television was an older one which was
actually the best thing to play SNES games on so that was pretty cool, and
he had a dresser and on top of it was a few different Link figures and
funco pops.  It looked like the room of a boy of ten or eleven who had a
mom who struggled to get by but gave everything she could to her son.

	Aiden popped the Metroid game out of his SNES which James noticed
was an SNES mini and then put the Chrono Trigger game in.  When the game
started he looked over at James and said, "I can't believe it works."

	James smiled, "SNES games are tough just like you."

	Aiden nodded a bit and said, "still I'm sorry that I didn't.."

	James interrupted him again, "don't worry about it Aiden, do those
kids pick on you all the time?"

	Aiden he could tell was uncomfortable.  "Ummm its no big deal."  He
shrugged.

	James just sighed a bit not sure what to do with that.  "It is, you
should talk with your mom.  She could help you with his parents."

	Aiden he knew didn't want to talk about it, "its okay really.  I
usually get away just today I wasn't fast enough."  James sighed but didn't
push the issue. There was really no way for him to at the moment, if ever.
They were walking back to the living room when the front door opened and
Aiden's mom walked into the house.  Aiden's mom was clearly where he got
his light brown hair, though the rest of him probably came from his dad,
though it was hard to say.

	She stopped looking at James and then Aiden said quickly, "this is
James he works at Voltage games, uh he saw me fall and I cut my chin and
elbow and he helped me back to the house."

	James wasn't sure what she thought about him as when she heard fall
she was looking Aiden over, studying his bandages and he could tell that
she didn't believe he had fallen.  Then she looked at James and said,
"thank you for for helping.  I really hope he wasn't a bother?"

	James shook his head, "no he was fine.  We thought that he might
have broken the game he borrowed but its okay too.  I'll see you at the
game store next time... and try to keep your eyes on potholes when
running."  Aiden nodded and James started to step out.

	Aiden's mom said, "go wash up Aiden, its almost time for dinner."
James heard the boy sulk and take off.  As he left James started for the
front door but Aiden's mom stopped him, "thank you for bringing him home.
I don't know how comfortable I am that you came in here without another
adult here.."

	James turned back looking at her.  Her eyes were filled with worry
but not about him coming into the house.  "he's a sweet kid.  I'm guessing
that these other kids that bully him do it more often than he admits. He
wouldn't talk about it, but that's what happened."  Aiden's mom nodded and
James said, "I see a kid in trouble I help them, might be my instinct since
I'm going to school to teach kids his age and we're already learning about
things to watch out for with bullying and the such."

	Aiden's mom said, "Fifth grade or sixth?"

	James shrugged, "Fifth, I take it Aiden's going into sixth?"

	She nodded, "Hes small for his age but yes, he'll be eleven in
August and I started him a year earlier because he was already reading and
ahead of other kids his age.  I'm Amanda by the way." She held out her hand
and he took it as she said, "it was nice of you again James for helping
Aiden get home."

	James nodded as he stepped out onto the front porch with her and
said, "I'm sorry for coming to your house, I just acted with a need to take
care of him.  I know if I was a parent I wouldn't be comfortable with
someone I don't know in the house with my kid either, goodnight Amanda."
She nodded once as he walked down the steps and down the street.  He was
walking to the end of the street when he saw a group of four kids playing
in front of a house.  If anyone had the look of bullies it was those kids.
James walked over to where they were playing with one another and stopped
before them.

	One of the boys looked up at him and James waited till the others
ones were looking up as well.  The first one, the biggest of them roundness
wise and probably the leader said, "what do you want?"

	James just smiled, "I'm not a parent, I'm not going to talk to your
parents, I'm just going to make this simple, if I notice that any of you
have harmed that kid again I will involve someone a lot worse than your
parents.  I don't play around with bullies, just think of me as that kids
protector and you're going to want to stay the fuck away from him or face
who I send after you. Beating up someone even another kid isn't something
the police look kindly on."  Threats worked better than violence.  He
walked off not sure if it worked or not but he could remember when he was
nine, his dad had done something similar to the two boys that James had
thought were his friends who had instead decided it was more fun to pick on
him.... So it might or might not work but in his calculations he figured it
was the best shot to stop them from messing with Aiden.  Kids could be
cruel though so it might only work for a little while.




Five.



	Chrono Trigger was awesome, from the moment that it first loaded up
with the cock ticking and he started a new save file with the opening
moments the game was amazing.  At first when he got into the first battle
he wasn't sure what to do but the game explained its self pretty well and
he got the hang really quickly on how to select attack or magic or items.
It was the story that sucked him in right away.  He played as a character
named Crono but you could change his name if you wanted to.  Aiden liked
the Lucca girl the most, the one that knew everything that was going on.
That was until he met Frog and instantly felt for that character.

	The game was so very good that he didn't want to put it down well
into nearly two in the morning.  He was falling asleep so he finally had to
stop playing the game and save before turning it off and climbing into his
bed to go to sleep.  In the morning when he woke up he started playing the
game again, it wasn't an easy game either, he figured out pretty quickly
how to learn techniques and that he needed to gain experience to level up
the characters so that they could handle attacks from the bad guys without
dying.  He didn't have an instruction manual so he just kept learning as he
played, figuring out for instance at one time that lightening hitting
certain enemies in the far past made them weaker and that made it easier to
take them down.

	The game was complex and interesting, the characters fun and the
story deep. He actually couldn't quite get his head around the fact that
this game actually existed.  He knew that SNES had a lot of games that were
truly masterpieces of their time but the fact that this game could hold
itself up even compared to games of now, that people who found it at his
age now would still find this game to be one of the most amazing surprised
him.

	At around eleven he decided to venture outside because he was
feeling kind of daring and wanted to talk to someone about the game.  He
could only think of one person to talk to so he put on some clothes and
headed outside.  At first when stepped out he thought that he might have to
contend with Kevin and his gang again but they weren't around so he felt
good and headed up the street. Then turned up the other street for the
short walk to the end of it and then up to where the video game store was.

	Walking towards the game store it occurred to Aiden that he was
nervous, but he wasn't sure why he was nervous.  The only thing that had
changed since yesterday was that James had been really nice to him.  James
had made sure he was okay and then he had given him a game to play as well.
He wasn't sure at all why he was nervous about seeing James again.  It was
more than that James had been nice to him yesterday and helped him and all
of that.  James had done the stuff that his mom would do but he had done
them differently.

	He arrived at the store and as he stepped in he saw that there were
a few customers, all teenagers that were hanging around Jill, he knew that
Jill was a high school student.  Sometimes he saw Richard looking at some
of the high school girls that came into the store at times.  Aiden wasn't
sure really why but he wasn't all that interested in girls, even ones his
own age.  He knew other boys in his fifth grade class liked girls because
he heard them sometimes talk about girls but he just didn't know if he
liked them or not, mainly because no one really liked him.  Boys or girls.

	As he walked in James noticed him, "well," He came around the
counter this time and studied Aiden, it took him a moment to remember that
you could probably tell that he had a black eye. Honestly he didn't even
remember one of the other boys hitting his eye but they must have.  James
was studying his face as he said, "not too bad I've seen worse.  How's the
game?"

	Aiden smiled a bit, he liked that James didn't press the issue.  He
didn't try to ask Aiden about what had happened again, he just went to the
game instead. "Its awesome, I mean the entire game but I don't know how far
I am.  I got to this one bad guy and I had to use magic to beat him but I
died a few times before I figured out that he was telling me when he was
going to attack me with a really strong attack.  I beat him but now I have
to go into this big castle..."

	James nodded and said, "so you're enjoying the game?"

	Aiden said, "yes.  There's this one part where you get a robot and
its so cool when Lucca fixes the robot, she's really awesome but I think
Frog is my favorite character."

	James smiled, "yeah Frog is pretty cool.  I think my favorite was
always someone that you haven't met yet but when you do you'll see why."
He looked at Aiden again and Aiden felt like James was studying him but not
in a bad way just in a way like yesterday before he said, "how are the
scrapes?"

	Aiden shrugged, "Not bad, nothing worse than I've gotten before."

	James didn't seem so sure but Aiden was glad when he didn't push
it, instead he said, "well I was about to go on break, I was going to go
across the street to Burger King if you want to talk some more about the
game?"  Aiden thought about that and sort of felt a bit of a flush to his
cheeks as James said, "Only if you think your mom would be okay with it."

	Aiden thought about that.  He knew what James was referring to,
that he was older than Aiden and that his mom might not like that.  Or that
James might try to make Aiden do something, but Aiden had a feeling that
James wouldn't and didn't want to.  James was just being a friend, Aiden
got that right away.  He really wanted a friend too.  "Sure, I mean she
won't be mad about that.  She'd only be mad if you wanted to take me
somewhere alone, like a private place, and I'd say no to that anyway
because I'm not supposed to be alone with people my mom doesn't trust, even
those that might be my friends."

	James smiled and said, "well come on then. Let me just let Richard
and Jill know that I'm going across the street."  After a few minutes they
were walking down the street again to head to the end and cross it over to
the restaurant.  At the crosswalk James said, "stay with me."  Aiden nodded
and walked right by James as they crossed the street and headed up inside.
In the line to order James said, "what do you want?"

	Aiden said, "Uh I don't have any..."

	James interrupted him, "don't worry about it Aiden, come on what do
you want?"

	Aiden shrugged, "A spicy chicken sandwich and some fries, oh and a
half tea half lemonade."  James nodded and at the front he ordered that for
Aiden and a grilled sandwich meal for himself.  The he led Aiden to a table
and they sat down across from one another.  Aiden said, "I'll pay you back
some day."

	James smiled from across the table, "don't worry so much about that
kind of stuff Aiden. If it was a problem I wouldn't have invited you.  Now
I think we were talking about Chrono Trigger?"

	Aiden nodded and said, "yeah, um are there any other two way or
three way techniques you can learn?  I mean I've seen a couple but there
seems like there's probably a lot more."

	James said as their food came, "sure, there's a lot of them that
you can learn, there's lists of them on the internet.  Though I prefer not
to know that kind of stuff the first time I play through a game."

	Aiden shrugged, "it doesn't' matter even if I did want to know I
don't have the internet.  I mean I don't have a phone and my mom and I
can't really afford the internet monthly costs so she just doesn't get it.
Its cool though I mean I get to play lots of super Nintendo games."  He
didn't want James to feel bad for him or something like that.

	James though if anything was a nice guy he didn't even bring up the
money stuff, just like with the food or the bullying he knew not to step on
that kind of stuff somehow.  "Well its better not knowing anyway, it makes
the game a lot more fun.  I will tell you that there's 14 different
endings, with some small variations to each depending on how each of your
characters end up."

	Aiden felt his mind sort of boggle at the idea, "fourteen? Wow, um
have you beaten the game?"

	James nodded, "more than a few times.  Its one of my favorite games
of all time.  After you beat it you get access to a new game plus as well
which lets you carry over your level so you can move through the game
faster."  As they finished eating James must have noticed that his drink
was empty as he said, "want more to drink while we walk back over to the
store?" Aiden nodded and James had them fill both of their drinks up before
they started walking again.

	As they walked back to the store Aiden said, "can I ask you
something James?"

	"Sure, anything."

	Aiden thought about that and rather or not he should ask his
question.  It was something that had been on his mind since yesterday but
he wasn't sure really how to address it.  "I know that the other guys at
the store don't mind me coming in and such but non one really ever talks to
me all that much.. I guess well I mean I guess I Just wanted to know why
you do?"

	James didn't answer right away as they finished walking across the
street back to the store, finally he said, "well there's a few reasons, the
first is that I know what its like to be you."

	"What do you mean?"

	James shrugged, "when I was in middle school I was a lot like you
are, I don't now if I should be honest and maybe I'm wrong but from what
I've seen I would guess that you don't have a lot of friends and you pretty
much spend your time playing games and being by yourself... stop me anytime
I'm wrong.  Or tell me I am. But its because of that, I see some of me in
you and I think that makes me gravitate to you."

	Aiden softly said, "you're not wrong, other kids just think I'm
strange and kids like Kevin like to pick on me because I'm small and an
easy target since I won't go to the teachers for help."

	James stopped turning to look at Aiden, studying him, he tried to
look away but James bent down a bit so that they were eye level.  He had
very nice eyes Aiden decided.  "Why wouldn't you go tot the teachers for
help?"

	Aiden shrugged, "because then my mom gets called and she gets all
worried about me and the last thing I need is for her to worry about me."

	James sighed a bit and stood back up, he touched Aiden's shoulder
and it felt comforting as he said, "I've been there too.  It is how I felt
too with my mom. I'll make a deal, you don't have to talk to your mom but
if you want to talk to someone you could talk to me."

	Aiden looked over at him, "like a friend?"

	James squeezed his shoulder this time, "yes like a friend."

	As they started walking again Aiden said, "so what were the other
reasons besides that I'm a lot like you?"

	James smiled, "oh so you didn't forget I said a few huh?"

	Aiden smiled too, "nope."

	James said, "Well the other would be that I like that you have a
similar love of older games.  Finding someone to talk with about games from
that era who aren't a lot older than me is hard.  The last one I suppose
would be that I am going to school to be a teacher and you're age its the
age that I am going to be teaching so I like knowing things about kids your
age, how you are, what you do, it will only help me be a better teacher."

	Aiden thought about that and said, "So you're kind of using me?"

	James laughed, "no, I really do like you Aiden, you're a good kid
and I really do want to be your friend. I don't know what your mom will say
about that though, maybe you shouldn't be my friend?"
	Aiden had an idea then, "well you could be my mom's friend too,
maybe ask her out..."  James looked at Aiden and he said, "yeah that's a
dumb idea huh?"

	James smiled, "its not, its just... I don't know if I should talk
with you about how some people have different... ideas about who they
should or would want to date."

	Aiden got it right away, "you mean that you're not into girls but
into boys?"

	"Yes something like that." He wasn't sure really if there wasn't
more to it than just that, he almost felt like he knew there was something
more to it than just that James wasn't interested in adult women.  Aiden
knew enough to know though what gay meant, he was ten almost eleven, he had
heard it as an insult a few times though he didn't quite get why other kids
used it that way.

	As they walked back into the store Aiden said, "is that why you
were bullied in school because you were into other boys?

	James looked over at him and then said, "I didn't know I was
different until I was in high school so no I was picked on in sixth grade
because I was the new kid and then again I was the knew kid in seventh
grade.  New kids always get picked on."  As he held the door and Aiden
walked in behind him the James said, "so what are you going to do for the
rest of your day?"

	Aiden shrugged, "go play more Chrono Trigger I guess."

	James looked around the mostly empty store, game stores even ones
with all of the back rooms that this one had didn't really have a lot of
traffic on weekdays. "well if you want to hang out some more I'm done with
game inventory and there's not much going on here, you ever play Magic
before?" Aiden shook his head and James said, "want to learn?


*


	There were two truths at play here for James as he sat with Aiden
and showed him how to play the game Magic: The Gathering.  The first was
that he was really growing to like the boy. In some ways he reminded James
of a younger him, a boy who was picked on by others, who was kind of a
loner and what friends he did have were few and far between.  The second
was his attraction for Aiden.  Try as he might to deny it being around the
boy was so wonderful a feeling.  Spending the afternoon with him, taking
him across the street and buying him lunch, then now sitting in the back
room teaching him the rules of Magic was wonderful.  He had done it out of
a place of kindness but also out of desire and he knew that.

	He desired to be close to Aiden and if he could find ways to do
that the he would continue to find them and take advantage of them.  He
wasn't worried about his desires, he could take care of those himself but
being able to sit with the ten year old hear him talk about things or laugh
when it was appropriate was nice.  Or like right now as he sat next to
Aiden to show him how the cards worked.  Richard who knew about magic as
well had agreed to join them for the game.

	Sitting this close to Aiden his arm had brushed the boys a few
times, and he could almost lean over and inhale the smell of the boy.  He'd
love nothing more than to feel every inch of Aiden but he knew better than
to do that.  Instead he explained the game.  "So at the beginning of your
turn is called upkeep and its where you can set down a land, like this
here," he plucked a swamp land out of Aiden's hand and sat it down on the
table.

	Aiden said, "I have more than one land though, couldn't I put down
the rest?"

	James shook his head, "nope, only one land type card per round.
Then you can look at your other cards. See the symbols in the top right?
The numbers and then the skull or skulls next to them?" Aiden nodded and
James said, "that's how much mana is required to play each card.  Your land
are your mana.  So see this card right here?"  He pointed to a black card
with just one skull.  "If you wanted to play that you could tap your one
swamp and put this card down."

	Aiden studied it and read the card as he said, "what's an instant?"

	James said, "that's an effect that happens immediately, it either
helps one of your creatures or hinders one of your opponents."  Aiden
nodded and they let Richard go.  After a few rounds of James showing Aiden
how to play the boy got the hang of it a little bit, he still lost to
Richard though as about halfway through James did let him start to make his
own decisions.

	They were about halfway through a third game when Aiden's mom
showed up, "how did I know that you'd still be up here when you weren't at
home."

	James looking at her said, "sorry, we were just showing him how to
play a game."

	Aiden said as well, "sorry mom I know I should have gone home, it
was just we were having fun."

	Aiden's mom sighed just a bit, "its okay, at least I knew where you
were. Come on its about time for dinner."

	They all got up from the table and Richard started putting the
cards away with James as Aiden said, "thanks for showing me the game!"  He
smiled and headed out with his mom.  James watched him go and really he did
try his best to not watch but Aiden was quickly cutting into all of his
other fantasies of young boys.  James knew that he was crossing boundaries
that he wasn't supposed to cross, things that he said he wasn't going to
do.  Well he wasn't a school teacher yet and Aiden wasn't one of his
students so he didn't really think he was doing anything wrong. So he was
becoming friends with the boy?  There was no harm in that and he had the
ability to go him and jerk off on his own to thoughts about the boy.

	That evening when he got home James sat at his computer and started
scrolling through his collection of animated drawings of young boys,
finally settling on one with brown hair almost to the shoulders, the
animated boy was naked, and being stuffed by a much older man.  James
jerked to the picture for a bit but then he closed his eyes and imagined
Aiden, picturing the ten year old boy was enough to send James over the
edge and he quickly grabbed a dirty shirt from his hamper and used it to
clean himself as he sat there panting hard trying not to think about Aiden
anymore.

	After he dressed he lay there in his bed telling himself that he
was getting too close to the boy.  Tomorrow he would need to distance
himself, find a way to do it naturally so as to not hurt Aiden's feelings
but also not have this hanging over him.  He wasn't sure he could be this
close to a boy Aiden's age and not start to let his desires slip out.
Being a teacher with dozens of students he could he knew from being a
student teacher earlier in the year handle it.  That was different than
this situation.  Teachers didn't get all that close to their students, this
was boarding on a real friendship and he was afraid of slipping up and
touching a boy that he was starting to really adore in an inappropriate
way.  Yes distance would be for the best...



Six.




	Aiden stayed up late that night too playing more of Chrono Trigger,
the thing that James hadn't told him was how hard the game got.  He figured
out though on his own that he could build up more levels and by using the
characters they got new techniques that helped make them more powerful.  So
he started working on that at some point that night.  He fell asleep with
the game on and in the morning his mom before leaving for work told him
that he needed to stop staying up so late playing games that he fell asleep
while playing them.

	It was raining really hard today too so Aiden just stayed in the
house playing Chrono Trigger.  He had gotten to a place in the story where
there was a magical floating city and that was where he learned the amulet
that the female character he had named Ace wore had come from originally.
Then the profit was revealed to be the one that was trying to get Crono his
other characters all thrown into jail or killed or something.  Again for a
bit he got stuck before finally figuring out how to beat that boss.  That
only led to him being locked out of that time and even more stuff happened
to get the seal undone and that lead to the revelation of who the profit
was and what happened to the magic kingdom and the game got really crazy
from there.

	Aiden had never played something like this, he had played a lot of
games but this one's story was so compelling, he couldn't believe each turn
as it happened. The story just got more complex dealing with needing to
find certain people and then suddenly the main character he had been
playing as for hours upon hours ends up dead and Aiden just sat there for a
moment looking at the screen reading the stunned reactions of the other
characters.

	He did pick up the game and start playing again after a moment this
time as the cave lady that had a tail and that was when he met Magus again
and this time he had the option to kill him or not.  Really there was no
point to kill Magus as his story had made Aiden feel kind of sad for Magus.
He saved him and then got him in his party and also learned that there was
a way to revive Crono so he wasn't dead forever!

	He was working on that when his mom came home and told him that it
was time for dinner.  Aiden saved the game in the over world since he was
just barely in a new dungeon and was a little frustrated anyway because he
had to now go travel around and get this Chrono Trigger to the right place
which he would do after dinner he supposed.  As he sat down with his mom
she said, "I am guessing that you stayed inside the house all day long
today playing a video game?"

	Aiden shrugged, "yeah sorry. It was raining all day though."

	His mom smiled a bit, "yes I suppose it was.  Just promise me that
tomorrow you will get out of the house some?"  Aiden nodded and she said,
"good, I don't want you to be inside all day long, its summer time Aiden.
I want you to go out and make some friends, there's lots of other kids in
the subdivision other than Kevin and his friends.  You should make friends
with some of those kids."

	Aiden shrugged and said, "I've got friends, there's Noel, Julia,
Richard and James!" he flushed a bit as he said the last one, of all of
them James was his favorite.  The truth was that the other guys did let him
hang out up there a bit but they had never actually hung out with him and
talked to him for more than a few minutes here and there.  James actually
liked him as a friend and that was the first time he'd ever met someone who
liked him as a friend.

	His mom sighed a bit, "those aren't the kinds of friends I mean
Aiden and you know it.  All of them are a lot older than you.  Its nice
that you get along with them, being able to interact with adults is a good
thing but you need friends your age Aiden."

	Aiden sighed a bit but his mom just gave him a look and he said,
"Okay I'll try mom."  She nodded and he helped her with the dishes before
taking his shower and putting on his pajamas.  He was working on the game
some more when his mom came in to say goodnight and made him promise not to
stay up too late.  Aiden promised but he immediately didn't live up to the
promise.  He played the game till about three in the morning and that was
mainly because he tied up the story line and made it to the final boss
which he immediately got frustrated at.

	After the third time of not being able to be Lavos he saved and
turned the game off.  He figured that maybe there was a trick to it that he
wasn't getting and that maybe James would know how to do it tomorrow was
Friday so he would just go up there and ask James how to beat the boss.
His mind though as he lay there in bed kept going back through the events
in the game, playing over it.  He had stuffed his head with the game as he
had been playing on it for hours now, he had over thirty hours into the
game in the last four days as he had spent all of his free time playing on
it.

	He drifted into sleep eventually though and he didn't wake up until
nearly noon the following day.  He got dressed and headed out of the house.
After locking the door he looked around for Kevin and his gang. Again they
must have been off terrorizing someone else as they were not in front of
Kevin's house.  The walk up to the game store wasn't a long one and it was
about one when he finally got up there.  It hadn't even occurred to him
that James might not be there, but he was there.  He knew that people had
days off from work, his mom usually had Sunday off and sometimes a weekday
unless she had inventory or something else to deal with.

	As he walked into the store James was talking with two kids who
looked to be a few years older than Aiden himself about something.  He
listened as James gave them suggestions on games for the xbox system and
one of the kids was interested in one of the games so James put it on the
system to let them all try it out.  As they were playing it he saw Aiden
and said, "hey, how was yesterday?"

	Aiden shrugged, "it rained all day so I stayed home, um how do you
beat Lavos?"

	He just asked right away and James laughed, "already made it to the
final boss?"

	Aiden said, "yeah I'm sure there's things I missed because the game
is so big but I'm at Lavos, I keep dying, I made it through two different
parts and I'm on the third part but that's where I keep dying."

	James thought about that for a moment, "so its this guy in the
middle called Lavos Core right? With two bits on either side?"  Aiden
nodded and James said, "the final boss is not the one you think it is."

	Aiden thought for a moment, "you mean that the core isn't the final
boss? There's still another one after this?"

	James shook his head, "no you're at the final boss, what happens
when you kill Lavos Core and the left bit?"

	Aiden thought about that, "the right one revives them, I tried
killing the right one first but nothing hurts it.  So I kill the left bit
and then the core because its defense goes down when I kill the left bit
but then the right one revives them both before I can kill it."

	James nodded, "Yup, that's because you're wrong, its not the Core's
defense that goes down when you kill the left bit."

	He let Aiden think about it, he didn't tell him the answer and then
Aiden got it, it sort of clicked in his head, "its the right bits defense
that goes down!" James nodded and Aiden said, "So the right bit is actually
the final boss?"

	James shrugged, "all three together are the final boss.  You have
to kill the right bit and then the core to finally win but the right bit
has the most hit points and if you kill the other two without focusing on
it you never win because it gives the core enough time to unleash some
really powerful stuff on you."

	Aiden said, "that's not fair."

	James smiled, "ah yes the old that's not fair argument on final
bosses, I have uttered it many a time.  It doesn't make the game play any
fairer."

	Aiden smiled too, "that's true!"  The other kids came back over the
two of them were somewhere in middle school as far as Aiden could figure,
one was a boy the other a girl and he let James talk with the two of them
and ring them out on the games before they left and it was just him and
James again.  Well Julia was there as well but she was off actually playing
a game.  "I'm going to go try and beat it now!"

	He started to go and James said, "so that's all I am a walking game
faq?"

	Aiden flushed and turned back looking at James and then looked down
at his shoes, one of them had come untied, "no, sorry I just got excited."

	Perhaps James saw that he felt bad because he laughed and actually
ruffled his hair which for some reason made Aiden flush even more as he
looked up at James. "That's okay I was just messing with you."

	Aiden looked up at him and said, "I could stay a bit I suppose,
maybe play more of that magic game?"

	James laughed again, put a hand on his shoulder turned him around
towards the door and lightly pushed the back of his shoulder, "Go beat the
game Aiden, you'll just sit here and get all antsy if you don't go do what
you want to.  I'll be here tomorrow if you want to tell me about the ending
you got."  Aiden smiled and did take off then just as some more customers
walked into the store anyway that James needed to help.

	Back at the house he lay down on his bed and started up the game
again.  This time armed with better knowledge he went into the final battle
again.  Of course the better knowledge didn't help him beat the boss this
time either, but he felt like he got closer than before.  He was working on
it a second time when the front door opened and his mom called out, "Aiden
come out here we need to talk!"  Aiden paused the game and headed out into
the living room.  He was surprised as he walked out there to see James
standing there with his mom.

	Had he done something wrong at the game store?  James didn't seem
like the kind of person that would want him to get into trouble.  "What's
going on?"  Was James going out on a date with his mom after all?  Hadn't
James said that he likes guys and not girls though?  Aiden knew enough
about that to know how it worked that some guys liked girls and others
liked other guys it wasn't really that big of a deal especially since Aiden
himself had no idea which one he liked.

	His mom said, "I tried calling Ms. Tillers but either she's out of
town again or she didn't want to answer, then I tried the Banks as they
live down the street and I know that you and Kevin aren't friends but his
parents are the only other people I could think of, but they're on
vacation."  So that was where Kevin was. "So the only choice I had was
asking James here as I know that I can trust him since he did help you out
that one day.  Anyway James is going to be your babysitter for the next two
days while I fly out to Cleveland for this emergency that the company ran
into."

	Aiden looked at James, and then said, "I could go with you."

	His mom laughed, "no you will not be, I am not going to hole you up
in a hotel room for forty hours with me.  You won't be able to do
anything. At least here you can go outside and play and I expect you to be
on your best behavior for James and listen to what he says just like you
would for me right?"  Aiden nodded and his mom said, "good, now I need to
go pack."  Aiden looked at James and was surprised to see the older man
looking a little uncertain. There was a bit of perhaps apprehension. He
figured that James probably hadn't baby sat a bunch of kids and that was
what was causing the problem Aiden figured.



*



	James was busy working on the final inventory for the evening
before leaving at five as Richard and one of the guys that he barely knew
were closing up the store tonight.  He was about to hand off the inventory
count to Richard when he was surprised to see Aiden's mom walk into the
store.  At first he thought that she might be coming in to tell him that he
needed to stay away from her son, that maybe she had tried to do it
yesterday too but hadn't seen him in the store.  She was dressed in womens
slacks and a blouse clearly having just come from work like the other day.

	As he walked over to where she was though he could tell that she
wasn't there to tell him that at all.  She was clearly frustrated and a
little angry but not at him.  When she saw him she smiled, "James, I was
worried that I might not find you here... I've tried every other avenue
even one that I didn't particularly like..."

	James said, "what's going on Amanda? Did something happen to
Aiden?"

	Amanda shook her head, "no he's fine, its my job.  I've got to fly
to Cleveland in," she looked at her watch, "three hours, I need to go home
and pack. You're my last hope for someone to watch Aiden till I get back on
Sunday."

	James swallowed and felt his entire body start to react, his mind
was actually fighting with itself already as he said, "you can't take him
with you?"

	She said, "I could if you can't watch him. I understand taking care
of a kid is a lot of work and you're a college student but..."

	"Its not a problem I just don't know how Aiden will feel about it."

	Amanda smiled, "Aiden likes you, he said you're a friend and while
I might not like that you're older than him I do appreciate that you took
care of him when those boys messed with him.  I tried my usual avenues and
then I even tried the mom of boy that I know is bullying him but none of
them were available. I could take him with me but he'll be stuck in a hotel
room in Cleveland for forty hours over two days."

	The real reason why James didn't want to watch Aiden was his own
fear over doing something inappropriate with the boy.  Touching him in a
way that Aiden didn't like or want.  That was where his hesitation came in.
Yet, the idea of being alone with Aiden, of the two of them actually being
alone, time spent together truly alone was so enticing to him.  He was he
knew becoming a little obsessed with the boy.  Not in a bad way either.  He
really liked Aiden, he knew of course that was partly because he was
attracted to boys Aiden's age but also really he did like Aiden.  "I can do
it if you can't find anyone else.  Is it a problem that I have to work
tomorrow from nine in the morning to five?"

	Amanda shook her head, "no, he's usually by himself from those
hours. Though I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to come up here with you
if that's not a problem?"

	James shook his head, "No its fine, let me just let Richard know
I'm leaving and I'll follow you up to your house."  He let Richard know he
was going and that he'd see him tomorrow before heading out.  He followed
behind Amanda's car though he knew where Aiden lived already, that was one
of the hardest things for him to do, not to go to Aiden's house even though
he knew the boy was by himself most of the day most days and he knew how
close the house was to where he worked.  He was a good guy though, James
wouldn't he knew no matter how attracted he was to Aiden take advantage of
it.

	Inside Amanda explained to Aiden what was going on and James
noticed that the boy hadn't changed out of his clothes from earlier.  He
still wore the same shorts he had on before, cargo shorts that went to
about his knees and were a dark gray in color with a tie on the front to
pull them tighter and a button to go with the zipper.  He wore the same
gray tee-shirt he had been wearing earlier as well that said: I Can't I'm
Busy Saving the World with a game controller on it. He wore socks that
stopped at the top of bottom of his ankles and were white with a little bit
of gray on them. His dark brown hair was a mop of a mess on his head, and
his puppy dog brown eyes bright and studying James a bit.

	Amanda was still packing as James said, "so did you beat it?"

	Aiden shook his head, "no, I'm still dying!"  James gestured and
Aiden smiled as he took off back for his bedroom.  The cargo shorts were
nice, not tight really on his little body but James still got a sense for
Aiden's bottom as he walked into the bedroom and saw that the boy had
jumped back up onto his bed and was laying on his stomach with the
controller in his hand.  He stood in the doorway not sure if he should go
in any further.  Aiden had hit the start button to unpause the game and he
saw that the boy was fighting the Core at the end.

	He was amazed at how Aiden concentrated on it, he could see the boy
getting a little frustrated when the right bit went down but the core still
managed to kill two of his three guys and he sighed in frustration as his
third guy died and he put the controller down as he rolled onto his back
and groaned.  The tee-shirt he wore rode up a bit and James could see the
boys flat stomach with his inward belly button. He wanted so badly to
tickle that stomach but he held back as he said, "I think I know your
problem but you're not going to like the solution."

	Aiden's brown eyes turned looking at James and he sat up as he
said, "what's the solution?"

	"You probably need to gain about ten more levels, the higher magic
spells make it a lot easier."

	Aiden sighed and said, "I knew you were going to say that."  Then
he loaded the game up as he said, "where would I go to do that though?"

	James from the doorway said, "you been to Geno dome? That's one of
the places I always go to grind." Aiden started to say but was interrupted
by his mom coming into the room.

	Amanda came to the doorway next to James then and said, "Okay I
Have to go now, you promise to be good for James?"

	Aiden got off of his bed coming over and hugging his mom who hugged
him back. Amanda was about five and a half feet, Aiden small for his age of
ten nearly eleven was about a foot shorter than her so almost to feet
shorter than James himself.  "I promise mom."  He pulled back and headed
over to his bed jumping back up on it and though he wanted to linger and
watch the boy James walked with Amanda to help her put her bags in the car.

	As he did she said, "again thanks, I don't know why but I know I
can trust you to take care of him.  It might be that day when the bullies
attacked him and you took care of him.  Most adults would have just walked
on by in todays world."

	James sighed but didn't disagree, "yes they would have, which is a
shame. He needed someone that afternoon."  Amanda nodded and then pulled
out something from her purse.  "I was going to give this to Ms. Tillers but
since its you it works as well. There's some money in there for food and my
phone number as well if you have any problems."

	James nodded and said, "Does Aiden have any food allergies or
anything like that?"

	Amanda smiled, "other than an aversion to going to bed before two
in the morning no he doesn't."

	James smiled too, "I've been there, though lately being up till two
in the morning has been because I didn't study all month and now I've got a
final to take."

	Amanda sighed, "you're my son."

	James laughed, "what do you mean?"

	She just looked over at him and said, "when Aiden's in college
he'll be you, the boy is a master at procrastination when it comes to
school.  He's so smart though that sometimes I'm not even aware he's doing
it.  So thats how I picture him in college."

	James smiled, "I'll watch after him.  I imagine that he's good with
pizza?" Amanda smiled in agreement and got into her car. He walked back
into the house and was surprised to see Aiden sitting on the edge of the
couch, on its arm rest looking at him as he walked in.  "What's up?"

	Aiden shrugged, "You didn't show me where to go."

	James laughed a bit and ruffled the boys hair he pushed the boy
gently from the back of his head making him slip off of the couch and back
towards his bedroom, "you couldn't figure it out for yourself?  You got all
the way to the end with very little help and you can't figure out where to
go for a side-quest?"

	Aiden walking ahead of him said, "what's a side-quest?"

	"it something you do in role playing games, like an extra quest.
I'll show you where to go but then we've saving and going to get some
dinner because we need to stop by my apartment so I can get some clothes to
change into."

	Aiden said, "cool, I could just stay here while you run home if you
want."

	James felt a little hurt on the inside that Aiden didn't want to go
with him, but he also understood the boy had a real itch to finish the game
and this was basically him being like Aiden's mom and stopping him from
playing it. Maybe Aiden's mom was right, maybe the boy was James.  He
probably would have done the same thing at ten.  "nope, you're coming with
me.  It'll do you good to get out of the house for a bit."

	Aiden sighed and said, "Now you sound like my mom."

	James smiled, "well I promise that if you want to when we get back
we'll both stay up until you beat the game.  I'll even give you pointers if
you need them."

	Aiden smiled at that, "okay that sounds like a good deal."  James
showed him where to go in the game and then he saved and put his shoes on
as James waited for him.  The boy actually bit his bottom lip a bit as he
sat on his bed and tied his shoes.  Then they were both ready to go on a
little adventure.  James figured that getting out of the house for a bit
would help him with his desires. He wasn't of course aware that things with
Aiden were about to get a lot more complicated this weekend.




End Part 1 of Summer Games


End Note: I hope to have the next part out in a few days.  As always thanks
for reading, and remember any responses on how you feel about the story are
greatly appreciated, the only real satisfactions I get out of writing is my
own Joy at creating and hearing from all of you that read this about how
you as well feel about this story or any of my other stories.  So again
thanks for reading and as always I can be reached at any time!

TO reach out to me jut email me at:  chaosmode00@tutanota.com

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