Stale Air

Inside the group that was yelling surprise was not just his friends. The make up of this crowd in the recreation room included people that Evan had gone to school with, his friends obviously, his mother, father and little brothers and sister. They all had truly surprised him with this, and the smiles that they all wore and the mood that they exuded was infectious. Evan could only laugh in response.

"What are all of you doing here?" he questioned with a happy face. "I was only expecting those knuckle heads," motioning at his friends.

The friends he pointed at all had slightly more mischievous tints to their smiles. One of them yelled over "Yeah like we were gonna let you be a sad sack just cause you were in the medical wing again. So we invited a few people to cheer you up!"

The one doing the yelling was clearly Alex by his voice, and Evan scratched his hair as he walked into the crowd.

"Well you got me by surprise that's for sure!"

The people he grew up with and formed bonds with surrounding him, Evan felt happier than he had ever been in his life. Tears began to form around his eyes as his smile got larger and everyone began dispersing just slightly to transform the recreation room into the groups private party room, even if just for an hour. Evan's friends walked through the crowd towards the young man and the two sides began to jab at each other playfully.

Evan looked over to his family, his parents seemed content with just watching and waved at him. The twins and Zack on the other hand were rushing over to the young man and his friends.

"Can we play with you guys?" Ollie asked the group.

"Yeah we made a new game and wanna try it with you guys!" Mary explained.

"Is it the one from earlier today?"

"Yup!"

Evan looked at his friends and shrugged, "I'm fine with it if you guys are."

Another of Evan's friends Joey stepped up "Yeah, why do ya think we invited them? Their games are wicked and I swear I'll beat them one of these days!"

"Oh you mean like the last time when you got thrashed after a 'best of 3, no wait best of 5, no wait...'?" a boy named Ryan retorted, much to Joey's dismay and the groups enjoyment.

Joey remained flustered but Evan came to his defense.

"I remember that game, and I seem to recall these two imps saying something about plotting a sure fire win when they made it."

Mary spoke up, trying to suppress her grin while doing so "Why we would never do that when making a game!"

"Alright you two lets set up, how do we play?"

"So first we each need a token to represent ourselves on the board..."

--

The group of 6 (twins included) played the new game two times, one to learn how to play, and the other for bragging rights. The winner was surprisingly not one of the twins, but Joey who had declared he would win earlier.

This victory led to Joey running around the recreation room as he yelled out, "YES, THE TYRANT TWINS HAVE BEEN DEFEATED! I AM VICTORIOUS! ALL BOW BEFORE ME FOR I AM YOUR NEW KING OF GAMES!"

His cries of victory were met with laughs and cheering around the room, as many had fallen victim to the twin's games before. It took quite a bit of luck and tenacity to beat those two at their own games. The twin's both shared a red face as they desperately kept recounting the totals to see if anyone had miscounted, which only sparked more laughter and cheering. Finally Ollie sat back in his chair and sighed in defeat, with Mary following suit shortly after.

"You all ganged up on us!" was the first excuse that Ollie gave out.

"And you guys don't do that too?" Evan laughed.

"N-no! We just play the game with the drive to win!"

Alex patted Evan's shoulder "So you all ready to head over to the next place?"

Evan smiled and nodded "You two stay here, go hang out with mom and dad"

"Awww, but we wanted to play with you guys."

"Yeah they could come with, it isn't a big deal to us." Joey said as he made his way back from his victory lap.

Shaking his head, Evan replied "No, they need to stay with my parents for now. We can always do this again tomorrow."

His friends shrugged, but with Evan saying he could hang out again tomorrow none of them were particularly against it.

"Sorry you two, next time." Ryan said as the group began to walk away.

Mary was pouting, but the two did go back to their mom and dad.

The group said goodbyes to everyone in the room as they left, and their march to the next destination. Their walk was towards a recreation room that was a decent length from their current location. There were closer physical recreation rooms, but to have more time to hang out they agreed to go to one of the more out of the way rooms. This one was smaller and had a different setup from other physical rooms, most importantly it wasn't very straining on Evan's body to use the facilities.

"So what were you in the medical wing for this time? I mean you were in there for a week, so it was kinda odd." Alex asked.

"Yeah, we tried to hang out on Saturday, but your mom answered and said you were in the medical wing for some sort of checkup." Joey chimed in, as he walked with his hands behind his head.

Evan gave a weak smile in response, "We can talk about it once we get there."

The mood dropped a little as the other 3 picked up on the fact that Evan didn't want to talk about it in the open hallways.

Ryan quickly changing the topic, "So did you see June today? Damn, she was looking good today. I even saw her sneaking glances over at me while we were playing with the twins."

"Dude everyone knows you two are basically married, just make it official already." Evan replied.

"Yeah come on man, it's not like the teachers didn't catch you two making out in the bathroom during our last year in school. Grow a pair and just marry her already." Alex laughed as he gave Ryan a continued verbal assault.

"I don't know man, June might have been cute but Ellie was givin my boy Evan here eyes." Joey said with a devilish grin.

"Everyone knows your sister has a thing for him, it isn't a secret Joey." Ryan returned fire at his friends."

With the mood now back to having a jovial air to it, the four friends continued walking to the recreation room. They decided to take a few detours here and there, one to grab snacks and drinks for the rest of the day. Before long though they reached their objective.

This recreation room was much different than the others in what it offered. The person at the front desk saw the group walking up and already got the equipment ready for them. The workers of this recreation room were very familiar with this group after all. Inside this facility was a flat roller rink that saw quite a few visitors. Not as many as the other rooms, due to the need of borrowing skates that were more difficult to use than just running around. But for those that knew how to skate, it was much more relaxing and easier on the body, which was perfect for Evan whose body was limited in it's physical abilities.

After they four thanked the person at the front desk, they put on their roller blades and moved onto the rink. It was well lit and in the shape of a circle, with the material used on the floor being a sort of linoleum that wasn't too rough on the body if someone fell. Evan wore full knee, elbow pads and a helmet to prevent any accidents while his friends with much hardier bodies wore nothing of the sort.

The friends enjoyed the rink for a couple passes around the rink before finally Alex brought up the topic.

"So Evan what did you want to talk to us about?"