The Cheaters

Microwaved pizza, dried beer and mildew. a familiar aroma to any who frequented Old Fud's Arcade and Bar. Nowadays this would be called a Barcade, but I don't think Fud had left this place since 1991.

I bought a beer and asked Fud if there was anything new

"Adler there ain't been anything new here since before you hatched."

Figures.

I broke a ten and Fud gave me an old plastic cup, the kind you get at a leadership camp. The printing was peeling off, and someone had presumably made the word "Class of 2001" say "Ass of 2001"

CLASSIC.

I made my way to the far end of the place.

"Yo Adler is that you?" a familiar voice rang out. Buizilla ran out from behind a row of machines.

"Hey! woah what! What are you doing here?" I replied giving him a hug.

"Oh, I come down here every so often. I love Skeeball."

"Yo, let's play!" and I started to make my way toward the machines.

"Well, that's just it, there are only two machines, and one just eats quarters. It ate my last one!" Bui was tagging behind a bit.

"Hmmm, well let's see." I put a quarter in the machine on the right. The machine made a click, and a timer started above the target, but no balls rolled down. "Dang you're right. I wonder if the other machine just has all the balls." I put a quarter in the second machine. The balls rolled down.

"Oh yo I didn't think of that. Let's go!" Bui grabbed a ball and started playing. I grabbed a ball from his machine and gave it a toss. It rolled right into the 300. I'm great at this. We played and split the balls up until the timer was over.

"God that was fun, wanna go again Adle-WOAH." Bui stopped, and dropped his soda.

"What?" I replied. "Sad you aren't ever going to get as high of a score as me?" I looked at the score, and it was eye level, in fact, I could see over most of the machines. I don't remember that before.

"You're bigger! like, you GREW! Did Fud put something in your beer?" Bui said running up closer.

"Nah, why would he do that? I've been here dozens of times." I said, noticing now my voice was also lower. I realized while looking down that my muscles had also grown, and I had to lean over a bit to see Bui.

"It must be this machine!" Bui said pointing at the formerly busted Skeeball machine "It's my turn now!" he grabbed a quarter out of the ass cup and darted for the machine. I stepped in front of him before he could get there. "Not before I go again, little guy"

"HEY that's not fair!" He said pushing to get past. I was far bigger than him at this point however.

"Hey life's not fair sometimes, now hold this." I handed him my beer. "Oh, and this" I grabbed my shirt, and effortlessly ripped it off.

I put another quarter in the machine, the balls rolled down. I stood on my tiptoes to see over to the main counter. Fud was asleep in his chair with Wheel of fortune playing on an old CRT. I threw the first ball expertly into the 1000 hole. Waiting a bit, I noticed a decent bit of growth.

"Oh hell yea" I climbed onto the machine and put the next ball right into the corner 10,000.

"Adler what are you doing?" Bui whisper yelled

"I'm cheating that's what I'm doing. hand me the rest of the balls." I reached out to Bui to toss me the balls, but the next growth spurt hit, this time I really felt it. Like a cool glass of water going down your throat on a cold day. the sensation flooded through my body as I grew.

"Nevermind I can reach now." I grabbed the balls from the tray with one had, and started feeding them into the machine.

I couldn't tell if Bui was nervous or excited about all this. I got my answer however when I felt him crawl up onto my back.

"Do it! Do it!" he handed me more balls with the widest grin I had ever seen.

Ball after ball, we cheated the game. The feeling was amazing. Eventually, the balls went from being baseballs, to golf balls, to ping pong balls, to marbles. a click was heard and the round was over.

I looked around. Standing on all fours I could see well over the arcade. Fud, was still asleep in his chair.

An alarm. AN ALARM. The Skeeball machine was flashing with a large red light on top, and a ear piercing bell was ringing. In a Panic, I reached to cover up the machine.

crunch.

The machine was squashed. the bell slowly stopped ringing.

"Oh god Bui I killed it." No response. "Bui?" A light muffled sound. "Bui!" I laid down on my stomach, and a gasp of air was heard "Oh I'm so sorry did I crush you between my back and ceiling?"

Catching his breath, Bui replied "Ungh, uh yea but that was. OOOF that was nice." He lowered off the side.

Carefully, I rolled over, bumping cabinet machines on the way. Laying on my back now, I realized I that the machine had also made me bigger in, other ways.

"Woah dude... uh.. dang.." Bui said, startled at the sight.

"What! Okay yea sure! I've got a boner! So what you would too ya little weirdo!". I whispered, again noticing how low my voice had gotten. "Fud is going to be so mad, we gotta get out of here."

Bui, looked up at me. "Well, you aren't going anywhere until, you know" Bui smirked.

"Yea I know, Bui, I know, I have to get off. But we have to do it quiet, we can't let Fud hear and wake up." I said, crossing my arms.

"When I'm done with ya I don't know if you'll be able to BE quiet"  Bui said crawling up my side. "Let's do this."