I found the room, but it turns out I took too long to find it. And the game was already starting when I stumbled into the room. I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed at first, after all I'd been promised the leading role of the “Queen” piece. But a few minutes later a sense of relief washed over me. I quickly learned that when a piece was “Captured” it was given a cream pie to the face as a penalty, normally by the piece that captured it.
Anyway, the game was just getting started when I settled into an empty seat near the back of the room. I only knew a handful of the characters on stage, I knew the “Queen” piece that was acting for the white side was Princess Peach, or Princess Toadstool if you're an old school gamer like me, with the “King” piece being Mario of course. On the other side, the “Queen” piece was a girl who was cosplaying as Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda series, with her “King” being Link.
The other pieces, I had no idea, but I noticed a few bunny fellow bunny girls on stage. Now, I'm not going to go through the whole lineup. But I did notice somebody I knew from Benton. Standing in the front ranks, you know where the Pawns are was a girl I knew, she seemed a little embarrassed being up there on stage. Her costume was nothing really special, a pink Sailor-Fuku with white socks, and black leather pumps. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in two cute pigtails that were adorned with ribbons. She seemed to blush as she moved across the board.
It took me a moment, but then that tiny little light bulb above my head lit up. The girl wearing the pink school girl uniform was none other than Linda Bell, formally Linda Perry. I'm not going to lie, part of me wanted to get up and leave the room then and there. You see Linda and I have a bit of a history together. Not a good history mind you, there is a lot of water under the bridge if you will. See when I came out as Jamie about two years ago, there was some push back.
I guess there will always be push back when somebody comes out of the closet. Anyway, Linda was the driving force and the loudest voice that called for me not only to be kicked out of school, but also hinted that she was plotting to have some footballers take me out to the field house to be shown what being a girl was all about. Funny, Linda had been my older sisters best friend for most of their lives, well up till she threaten to have me kidnapped and gang raped.
Anyway things came to a head, Linda attacked me one day and slapped me hard enough that I ended up spending a few nights down at King Slaughters, the gruesome nickname we've given to our local hospital. After that she was removed from school and had kind of vanished from my life. Did I like Linda? Yes and no. I later learned that Linda's dad had a few screws loose in the head and had taken her off her medication. I'd also learned later that Linda's dad had lost custody once news broke that he had withheld her medications. Since then she has been living with her aunt and uncle in Vicksburg and the two had adopted her.
Good for I guess, and man that was quite a history lesson. Anyway, revenge is a dish best served cold. And while I'd forgiven her Linda, I'd still not learned to fully trust her. So sitting there, watching her fidget and play with her pigtails as she moved across the squares was delightful as slipping ice tea on the front porch during summer time.
And then it happened, a person cosplaying as Tuxedo Mask, who happened to be playing as a “Knight” piece cornered her and a moment later, he was smashing a paper plate that was filled with whipped cream into Linda's face. A girlish scream escaped Linda's lips a few seconds before the plate that was filled to the brim with cream smashed into her face, spraying cream in all directions. A few seconds later, the Tuxedo Mask, holding two places this time instead of one, gave Linda a classic pie sandwich.
Linda now looked like a human snow-globe, her face and hair were totally covered in cream. But the Tuxedo Mask cosplay was not finished yet, he spun around before smashing another paper plate that was filled with cream on the very top of her head. At this moment, Linda lost her footing and slipped on some of the cream that had fallen down on the floor around her feet, in true anime fashion her arms spun around like a windmill before she landed on her bottom, her short skirt flipped up, showing her white panties.
And as expected, the crowd roared with laughter. And I'm not even going to lie, I did too. I mean I felt a little bad for her, but I'm sure she knew what happened to the captured pieces. Unlike me, who would have been going into the thing blind as a bat.
After Linda got pied, nothing much really happened. I mean, I could see why they wanted me to volunteer, the whole rooster was nothing but guys, and not even cute guys at that. And it's not like I would have flirted with any of them anyways. Anyway, the game went on. And well, after a few more minutes of watching I decided to move on. In fact I did move on, I was just about to leave the room when the girl before came rushing up to me.
“Hey bunny girl!” She called out as she saw me starting to leave the room. The game was almost over now, the Black Pieces had totally pulled off a quick victory, each piece had fallen in quick succession. “Sorry we had to start the game without you! But if you can spare a minute I would like to talk about something!” She said as she rushed up to me.
I turned around and blinked and blinked again as I peered toward the girl.
“Sure.” I said blinking as I peered toward the girl.
“So! Like it's a total bummer you had to miss our game of 'Cosplay Chess' and normally I would invite you to try out for another game. But with this being only a one day convention, there was kind of a strict time limit. Anyway, if you want too, you could help us with another game!” She said, smiling sweetly.
I blinked again in total surprise.
“I'm not sure, I'm not keen on getting messy.” I said, rubbing the back of my head as I peered toward the girl.
“Oh don't worry about getting messy, see we're going to host a little charity event. And I need somebody to host it, there something about you. You just seem to ooze charisma, and self confidence, and you're charming too. Like the way you move about in those heels is just so graceful, so like, You would be a perfect hostess for this event we're going to put on in a few hours, once we get everything set up.” She said, “Really, girl you would do me a solid if you could host, I know I just met you and everything and this is totally crazy.”
I blinked again, once more in total surprise.
“No, its cool.” I said smiling. “Just tell me where I need to be.” I said grinning.
“Okay in the large meeting space down stairs, you see a sign that reads 'Cosplayer in Peril' two members of my club already volunteered to take part. They're boyfriend and girlfriend, so it's totally Kawaii.” She said.
“Adorable.” I said smiling, and for a minute I kind of wished I'd invited my boyfriend Ben to join me at this convention. But then again, it was peak fishing summer time and Ben alone with the rest of the boys in our group would be working, either working in the garden, hoeing snow peas, or clearing weeds away from corn or rows of cabbage, or working the early morning shift down at Sunflower.
“Totally!” The girl said, smiling. “OH girl! Wait a minute, let me get a picture of them.” She said reaching into her purse, she then pulled up her purse and after a moment of digging around she pulled out her phone, a few seconds later she was pulling up a photo. The photo showed a girl with shoulder length hair, her hair was jet back and she seemed to have a shy, demure smile on her face, a boy's arm was wrapped around her shoulder, he had short, golden blonde hair and had a goofy smile. I could tell the two were very fond of each other.
“Adorable. So what are they cosplaying as?” I asked as I peered toward the girl.
“The raven hair girl is going to cosplay as Hinata Hyuga.” The girl said. “Her boyfriend is going to cosplaying as Naruto Uzumaki.” She added. “So, here is what is going to happen. My friends and I built this like a home-made gunge tank, kind of like the one you see on Saturday afternoon's on Heather's House Party. Its made of plywood, that we painted to look like mahogany.” At this point the girl paused. “We use for fundraisers around the club.”
I nodded my head.
“Anyway, we'll be hosting the event in about a hour or two, say two hours and a half hours, we still need to clean up this mess.” She pointed toward the huge chess board that was now coated in oily cream. “Give out some prizes, oh that right, whoever volunteered to play gets like a small prize, like a light novel or something. Anyway, since you're hosting our next event.. How about we give you a 'Rascal Does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai' figure. We have a few of those, and it kind of fits, you're a bunny girl, the main girl a bunny girl. It's perfect.”
I blinked and blinked again, I was totally taken back by the spewing of words that seemed to rush from the girls mouth. She seemed to vomit the words up, and she spoke with a quick fired accent too, an accent we down here in the south call a 'New England' accent. See southerners talk in a slow, measured, manner, there often a gap of a second or two between each word. We believe conversations should be cherished and drawn out.
“Okay!” I said smiling.
“Great, you're a total life saver, remember to look for the large meeting room on the bottom floor. It should have a sign that reads 'Cosplayer in Peril' taped to the front of the door. The event is going to take place in about.. say three hours.. so around four in the afternoon. But since you're the host, I kind of want you to be there beforehand, just to see how things are set up, meet the cast, and let me go over a few things with you. Sounds good?”
“Sure.” I said smiling.
“Oh what's your name bunny girl?” She asked as sudden, but pressing after thought.
“Jamie.” I said smiling. “Jamie Sarah Potter.”
“Melody.” The girl responded. “Melody Harbor,”
“Okay Jamie, hope to see you soon. And remember to be on time this time. Or I might toss you into the gunge booth myself!” She said winking as she skipped away. And with that being said Melody Harbor vanished into the sea of people.
