Chapter 1 – Four Square
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“Hey Jack! Have you decided on an afterschool club yet?” An eighteen-year old youth with clear brown eyes and a noticeable buzzcut flung his arm around a young man of one year younger.

 

The young man had short black hair and dead-fish eyes, mostly from gaming all night. He sported a small pot belly as well as a half a double chin. That young man was me.

 

Hi! My name is Jack Chen. I’m an American-born Chinese…an ABC if you will. My parents, however, were from China. Having taken a deep interest in my family’s culture and homeland, I decided to study there, specifically Tianlong University with a major in Game Design.

 

What I didn’t expect was that Tianlong University required all students to join at least one club. Now, initially, I wanted to join the Computer club. However, those members were all boringly talking about coding…not something I would want. It’s like attending an extra class.

 

The youth who had his arm around me was Zhou Ming, majoring in Physical Therapy. He’s my roommate as well as the first friend I made in this country. Like me, he also didn’t find a suitable club to join yet.

 

“No, I haven’t seen any that I liked.” I shook my head as I uncomfortably shrugged off Zhou Ming’s arm.

 

“What are you waiting for? The deadline is tomorrow. If you don’t join a club by then, you won’t get the benefits that come with it.” Zhou Ming impatiently nudged at me.

 

I swatted away his elbow and countered. “What about you? You haven’t found a club either, have you?”

 

“Actually, I have.” Zhou Ming thumped his chest with confidence. “I’ve joined the Swim Team.”

 

“Swim Team? But last I recall, you can’t swim.” I retorted but I could also guess the reason why my roommate joined.

 

“Ahem…as a manager to the women’s team.” The eighteen-year old coughed with embarrassment, confirming my thoughts on his decision.

 

“I knew it. Should I just tell them the real reason why you joined?” I grinned evilly.

 

“D-Don’t! Anyways, hurry up and find a club. If you can’t find one from the Computer Science Department, why not join a sports club.” Zhou Ming grabbed my arm and urged.

 

“Alright, alright! I’ll keep looking. Get off me and stop acting like a kid. Besides, today’s the first day of class. Don’t want to make a bad impression by showing up late, now do we?” I shook off Zhou Ming and made my way to the Intro to Game Programming class.

 

*****

 

The class was terribly boring. Although there were a lot of new things to learn, the professor of the class taught with his back turned towards the students. He never even bothered looking at the students the entire hour and a half.

 

Thus, I decided to take a nap. I hadn’t slept well last night since I was besieging Castle Malika with my party. For those who don’t know, Castle Malika was the final dungeon from the game – Dungeon Smashers. But enough of that…so I went to sleep.

 

DING DONG DANG!

 

The bell rang, signifying the end of class. I woke up from the sound and looked around groggily. Fortunately, the professor still had his back to the class, but the girl sitting near me gave me a funny look. Did I snore in class? But then, I saw her motioned at her face and realized that I had drool on my face.

 

Embarrassingly, I wiped my face and left class in a hurry. As it was near lunch time, I made my way to the cafeteria, however, I made a wrong turn and found myself in front of a dusty old door.

 

Nailed to the door, hung a dusty sign that read ‘4Square Club’. 4Square Club? I’ve never heard of such a club before. In fact, I don’t recall seeing it under the list of available clubs. Unless…I’ve heard rumors about these…could this club be an ‘Abandoned’?

 

Abandoned are clubs that have the minimum required members but none of the members show up due to lack of interest. Because the members don’t disband their clubs, the clubs become abandoned…hence the name.

 

Backing away, I tried to leave. But just as I moved back a couple of steps, the door opened and revealed a chubby guy sporting a mohawk and sunglasses. Hanging on his lip was a unlit cigarette.

 

Was this the infamous ‘delinquent encounter’ I’ve read so much about? Before anyone could say anything, I turned around and bolted. Or at least I tried, but I found myself unable to move. No…that’s not right. I found myself swinging my legs like crazy but I was stuck in place. I turned around and saw a massive right hand clutching at my shirt collar. I had been lifted off of the ground. What strength!

 

“L-Look, I didn’t mean to come here. I was just trying to go to the c-cafeteria.” I started spouting  as I tapped the man’s arm to let go of me.

 

Eventually he did. But before I could run, he clamped both hands onto my arms and shouted. “Are you interested in joining the 4Square Club?”

 

Huh?

 

“Are you interested in joining the 4Square Club?” The man repeated as he let go of me.

 

“N-No. Isn’t y-your club an A-Abandoned?” I stammered at the sudden offer to join the club.

 

“Who said that? Just because our members don’t show up during club meetings, don’t mean they aren’t in the club.” The chubby man stomped his foot.

 

“Isn’t that what an Abandoned means?” I backed away, fearing that the chubby man might unleash his wrath towards me.

 

“No. An Abandoned is a club that is inactive. Our club still participates in tournaments.” The fat guy retorted with a sniff. “Why don’t you try it out for a few days? If you don’t like it, I won’t bother you again.”

 

“If it’s trying…fine.” I nodded. What was there to lose? If I don’t like it, I’ll immediately leave. From the way this guy speaks about the club, could 4Square be a type of sport? “So, what is 4Square?”

 

“It’s something really fun!” The chubby man waved his hands in excitement.

 

“I’m sure it is…but what is it? Is it a sport?”

 

“Not really, but a ball is involved.”

 

“Then, is it a game?”

 

“Not exactly either, but people from all ages can play it and the game is team-based.”

 

“So it’s something in between?”

 

“Yea! That’s a good representation.”

 

“I’m sorry, what was your name again?”

 

The chubby guy looked at me in shock as if I should know what his name was. “I’m Wang Yu! You know? Ah, forget it. Just call me Fatty Yu.”

 

“Alright, Fatty Yu…you mentioned that there are tournaments? Like actual official tournaments or a community game you would set up with other people?” I questioned. This was the main point. If I’m going to join club that participates in ‘tournaments’, then I’d at least want to join a club with official tournaments.

 

“Naturally! You can count on that.”

 

“Alright, enough of that. You still haven’t told me what 4Square is.”

 

“Ah yes, let me see….” Fatty Yu murmured as he pulled out a small notebook. “4Square is a team-based, game-styled sport. There are usually five people per team, but you can also participate with four players.”

 

“Why four to five people?” I asked, a little confused at the lenience in number of members for a team.

 

“Well, the objective of 4Square is to eliminate opponents and occupy all four squares with your team, hence the four players. Now, the fifth player is just there as a reserve in case one of the other four gets hurt during the game.”

 

“Wait! People get hurt playing this?”

 

“Y-Yes.”

 

“How?”

 

“Um…when you receive the ball, opposing players in squares next to you will try to knock the ball out of bounds or out of the Outer Court. This is called Interference.”

 

“Interference?”

 

“That’s right. They cannot attack you, though, because that results in their elimination but do remember, some cheaters will still do so. Because players had entered your square, though they cannot do anything directly against you, you can however do things like pushing and blocking directly against them.”

 

“Okay. I understand.”

 

“That’s great!” Fatty Yu swung his arms up in a huzzah.

 

“Can players in the waiting line interfere?”

 

“Players in the waiting line cannot touch the ball either. In addition, the ball is considered free play after the ball has been hit by a player and before the ball touches the ground next, so be careful if an opposing teammate changes the ball direction or add extra force to the ball.”

 

“I see. Anything else?”

 

“When passing the ball, you must make sure to hit the ball within the Inner Court. When receiving the ball, you must make sure that the ball first bounces only once in your square. If the ball bounces more than once, then you are eliminated.”

 

“Huh…so, tell me a bit about this ‘elimination’.” I waved him to go on.

 

“When a player is eliminated, he or she moves to the back of the waiting line and every player at a rank below the eliminated player moves up a rank and the first person in the waiting line enters the Jack square.”

 

“Jack square?”

 

“So, a six-meter-by-six-meter plot of land known as ‘The Court’ is divided into two parts – the ‘Inner Court’ and the ‘Outer Court’. The Inner Court consists of four, two-meter-by-two-meter squares. Each square is represented by a letter – J for Jack, Q for Queen, K for King, and A for Ace with Jack being of the lowest rank and Ace of the highest rank. The Outer Court is basically the remainder of The Court that surrounds the Inner Court. And then anything outside of that is out of bounds.”

 

“I see. Anything else I should know about elimination?”

 

“Hmm…ah yes. So, you can hit the ball with your hands, arms, legs, feet, and head, but you have to keep the ball going. You cannot hold onto the ball or hit the ball with other parts of your body. Doing so will result in elimination. Naturally, you can’t bring other props in to hit the ball.”

 

“Ah…that reminds me. All these talk about passing, how does the game start? Is there a serve like in volleyball?” I joked but Fatty Yu’s next response made me gape in disbelief.

 

“There is a serve, not like in volleyball though. The Ace always serves the ball and the ball is always served towards the Jack. The Ace must bounce the ball once in his or her own square before hitting it at the player in the Jack square.”

 

“Wow, all that pressure on the Jack player.”

 

“Haha. Fortunately, during the first serve, the player on Jack is allowed one mistake called ‘Fault’ which he or she is then allowed a second serve. If the player still makes a mistake, then the player is eliminated.”

 

“Oh, that’s good. So, this tournament will just be a continuous game following these rules?”

 

“Well, during tournaments, there are two types – Duel and Battle. In Duel, a game is conducted between two teams. In Battle, the game is conducted between four teams.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Any other questions?” Fatty Yu took a sip of water to clear his dry throat.

 

“Nope, I’m good.” I shook my head after listening to Fatty Yu’s long explanation of the game and of the rules. “When can I start?”

 

Of course that was a sarcastic remark…but Fatty Yu thought otherwise.

 

“Oh the other members will be practicing after school. Why don’t you join us for a practice round?”

 

“O-Okay. I’ll be there.”

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