A Change of Pace

[Anastasia Elisa Hampton]

(ooc: U know what u must do D<)

Left. Right. Up. Up. Up. Down. leftRightLeftRight. Left and Right. Left and Right. Down and Up. Up Up Up. Right and Left hold........

Anastasia smiled happily as the screen on the DDR machine lit up as her and her challenger's points were quickly added up. In a moment, she was declared the winner, leaving her extremely happy and the boy who challenged her extremely depressed. 'That’s a problem when you play these things,' Anastasia thought, feeling a bit sorry for the boy, 'If you lose, you lose in front of everyone.

Anastasia had arrived at the Roller Rave with her sister Tatiana. They had skated for a while and soon both drifted to different parts of the huge building. Asha of course heading straight for the DDR machine, ready to take down anyone who challenged her to a match. When Asha thought about it, it was really lucky for her that this place had an arcade room; most of the ones she went to didn't have stuff like this. Anastasia was brought back to reality as a girl asked for a challenge. Asha happily accepted.

Once Anastasia had defeated the girl, she decided to play it solo for a few minutes. It was a bit fun though, Anastasia reasoned, beating opponent after opponent. Yet, it would always be more fun if there was someone besides her sister who could give her a challenge. Once her game ended, Anastasia thought to put her thought into action. While the game whirred on, counting her points she raised her hands and cupped them over her mouth. She called out a loud 'Hey' which got the attention of all the people in the surrounding area. "Anyone wanna challenge me to DDR?" she cried out. Anastasia did a full survey of the room, she saw that some adults had smiled at her outburst and walked away, while some kids her age either went back to what they were doing or debated with their friends whether they should challenge her or not. So, for the moment, Anastasia waited for someone to ask her for a match.

This post has been edited by Anastasia Elisa Hampton on May 2 2007, 07:56 PM

[Elouise Hayley Larton]

So, it was her first proper day out since she came here. Her first few days were just settling in and getting to know the place. Once her brother had seen the rink, he demanded to come here again. So Ellie being nice took him - as soon as they arrived, Chris scuttled off to the rink and she just sat around looking at the arcade machines. 'Maybe I'll try some skating later,' she thought to herself - she was quite good at skateboarding so this shouldn't be too hard. She smiled to herself, and took her cell phone out of her pocket to check for any messages - nothing. Not a surprise really, she hadn't had a chance to make any new friends here.

After sitting around for a while, Ellie noticed a girl beating everyone at the DDR. She'd played a few times before, but she wasn't all that good. She watched the screen and made the foot movements on the floor, she smiled to herself as she saw she wasn't too bad. She decided to wait a while before challenging the girl, but she soon shouted for a challenger after playing solo. 'Go on, this could be your chance to make a friend,' she told herself, she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to challenge this girl - she didn't particularly want to get beaten in front of about 30 people.

She stood up from her chair and wandered towards the machine - still uncertain about whether to play or not. "I'll give it a go - haven't played in a while, but I'll give it my best." She spoke just loud enough for the girl to hear her, and she stepped onto the platform next to her. "I'm Ellie by the way," she told her - well, it is good to know your friend's name, isn't it? 'This is definately going to be interesting....'

[Anastasia Elisa Hampton]

Anastasia waited for someone to make a move and approach her. It didn't take long before she noticed a girl raising herself from her seat and walking over to her. 'Excellent, She thought happily, Another challenger. Far away, it was hard to actually see what the girl looked like, but when she got closer, her features became clearer. She was very skinny and tall- about an inch taller than Anastasia. The girl had her long black hair pinned up leaving bangs to fall across her face. Her brown eyes were the most noticeable feature of the girl; being enhanced even more by the thick eyeliner she wore. Besides making the large statement that she was a Goth Girl, the air around the newcomer wasn't threatening or much of the sort, so Anastasia didn't classify her as threatning or spmething to be avoided.

The girl talked as she walked around to reach the platform. So, the girl hadn't played it a while? Well, it makes no difference, maybe she'll be like me and pick it up quickly. Anastasia thought as she remembered how when she first tried DDR she had been excellent at it. Once the girl stepped onto the platform she introduced herself. "Ah, hi Ellie. My names Anastasia, but please call me Asha." Anastasia replied, giving the girl a small wave. ”And don’t worry, DDRs’ like riding a bike, you never forget.” Anastasia clicked the button with a circle on it with her right foot and began to flip through all the songs.

[Elouise Hayley Larton]

She smiled when she found out that Asha wasn't there just to beat everyone - she didn't seem like such a bad person. "Asha, cool name." As Asha scrolled through the songs, Ellie tried to work out if she actually knew any of them. "I only hope that it's like riding a bike! I'll be a bit rusty - but I'll get back into it." So she was trying to make conversation, big deal. It was her first chance to socialise here.

Ellie ran some songs through her, almost testing herself to see if she could remember any of the routines. She couldn't - what a surprise. But how hard could it be - well, it's only tapping arrows in time with the music - but sometimes they can come thick and fast. Oh this really would be interesting and what a show it would be for anyone watching. Seeing a goth girl making a right idiot of herself - great entertainment, unless you happen to be the goth girl.

[Anastasia Elisa Hampton]

Anastasia smiled slightly on the inside at the small praise her name was given. Anastasia decided to go easy on the Goth girl like she did most people, it was very rare for her to go all out. There were few people besides her sister who were at Anastasia's level of DDR. Asha had scrolled through all the songs once and was just seeing which one she wanted to play with the girl first. Once Ellie spoke again, a noticeable thing became obvious to Anastasia. The girl was making small talk. How un...Goth-like. From what Anastasia knew, Goths and emos were mostly angsty people who loved dark places and talking about death and the hopeless-ness of life. Wow, what a stereotype I am, she thought surprised at herself.


After a moment of not answering - sine Anastasia didn't know how to answer - she finally spoke. "Okay, so you wanna dance to Centerfold, Come Clean, Fly Away, PEACE....I don't know, whichever." Anastasia let the question hang in the air. It didn't entirely matter what Ellie wanted to dance to, she was going to get beat either way. Just as long as she didn't choose "Dance Dance". Then they both would be humiliated in front of 30 people. Asha on the other hand, favored the song DOLL more than the others; it was one of the few that dared to mock her abilities at DDR.

She looked over at the girl, waiting for her to answer before she remembered something. "Oh, and by the way, I set the arrows to go twice as fast as they normally would. "

This post has been edited by Anastasia Elisa Hampton on May 12 2007, 09:12 AM

[Elouise Hayley Larton]

Ellie looked down the list of songs as Asha scrolled through - she didn't even know half the songs on there. She tried to remember how a song she thought she recognised went - she probably looked so out of place on the machine. She looked around the group that started to form around them - there's got to be about 20, maybe 30 people watching. Just adding to the pressure, and the humiliation, she would feel when she lost.

She looked back round to Asha when she spoke, "Oh, umm, anything will do. I don't really know any of the songs at all." She mentally scolded herself for even challenging this girl to a match - it was obvious she was going to lose from the outset. Oh, and another thing to make it dead certain she would lose - the arrows are going twice as fast, as if it wasn't going to be hard enough already. "Well, at that speed it really doesn't matter what the song is."

She looked around the group again - and she saw her brother walking up to the crowd. She could never live it down if she lost with her brother watching - he would bring it up all the time and laugh about it. She nodded quickly to him, and noticed that Chris was smiling - just another thing to add to the list of pressures.

[Anastasia Elisa Hampton]

Anastasia smirked as she sensed the doom overcoming Ellie. It was all she could do to stop herself from chuckling at her hopelessness. Yet, on the other hand... was it fair? Asha did a quick look around and looked into the expectant eyes of the people who had gathered around to watch and see who would win. She then turned her attention to Ellie and a horrible feeling came over her. Sympathy. She nearly smacked herself for even feeling it. In a third person's view, it was mean of Asha to completely humiliate this girl in front of 30 people, something she knew she wouldn't like if it was done to her. Yet, that’s where most of the fun is. To beat people, to prove that you’re on top. Anastasia had always felt proud and important whenever she beat people at things. Which happened a lot in her youth.

"Ah, well, I guess it doesn't I suppose." Anastasia replied to the girl's last statement. It was a moment of still unconsciously flicking through the songs before she decided to say something that might help. "Well, sorry if it’s a bit too fast, it's just that when the songs play at normal speed it’s too slow for me and I end up messing up. So I have to speed it up to keep a steady rhythm.” Asha shrugged as she gave her explanation. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the girl looking at a boy who had just walked up and joined the crowd of people. Anastasia presumed her words fell on deaf ears as the girl nodded towards him, and then Asha felt a whole new wave of sympathy. The girl obviously knew the boy, whether he was her boyfriend, brother, cousin, friend, etc. So when Asha beat her, it would be completely embarrassing. Anastasia took a deep breathe to clear her thoughts. She hated it when she was nice to people.

So, Anastasia would be a martyr. Not completely of course. So, instead of completely demolishing the girl at the game, she would make it even. ‘I’ll miss a few arrows on purpose and make a few slip-ups. Not enough to let the girl win! Oh goodness no, that would never happen. Just enough so it won’t be a complete landslide victory for me.’ Anastasia thought confidently. Of course no one who had been watching her for the past half hour would believe that she had tried her hardest. Some might think she missed some because she was tired, but that was just about as much as she would get out of them. Anastasia decided not to delay their game so she quickly flipped through the list to find a song she hadn’t danced to in a while. “So, how about “Centerfold”? Not really that fast, just a lot of arrows.” The song was already selected and Anastasia simply waited for the girl to respond a yes or no.

This post has been edited by Anastasia Elisa Hampton on May 24 2007, 12:05 AM

[Elouise Hayley Larton]

Ellie looked round back to Asha when she spoke, but she didn't catch a word of it. "Hmm? Yeah.... Whatever." She thought she got the general idea of what Asha was saying - it was probably like a warning or something. She looked back at the screen - she knew hardly any of the songs, so she'd make a complete fool of herself.

She calmed herself in her mind, but she didn't really see the point - she knew she was going to lose anyway. Oh come on Ellie - it's not like your risking your reputation here, or whatever. When Asha declared the song, Elie merely nodded and said a quick "Yeah, okay". Again, she calmed her nerves - she guessed it was because she didn't want to make an idiot of herself infront of her brother. He was the only one who actually knew her here. "Ready when you are," she stated, she was calm enough for now. If she was really going to take this seriously she would have made sure she could have a few practices first. Okay, I'm ready to look like an idiot. Even less of a chance for me to make friends now that they're all gonna see how unco-ordinated I am. She prepared herself again, this time for the fake congratulations from the crowd and possibly Asha. "Let's do this."