Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Highschoolers

“Sit down!” yelled Gerard. “It’s time to play.”

Ray was staring at the game curiously. “What is this?” he asked.

Gerard gasped in horror. “You’ve never played Life?!” he screamed. Ray shook his head. “It’s the best thing ever!” Gerard informed him. “You will love it!”

“Can Laurence play?” Ray asked softly. Gerard just stared at him, eyebrows raised. He stared until it started to get awkward, at which point Mikey spoke up.

“We only have 4 cars,” he said, touching Ray gently on the shoulder. “We lost the rest…”

“Oh well.” Ray shrugged. “Laurence can be on my team…”

“I love games!” exclaimed Frank. “I’m green!” He snatched up the green car and set it on the starting point for the game. Gerard took yellow and threw the red one at Mikey, leaving Ray with the blue one.

“Oldest goes first!” Gerard chortled, gleefully spinning the spinner. “I’m goin’ to college!” He guided his car along the college path, picking it up and setting it down each time on every individual square. He read the text on the stop he had stopped on. “Make new college friends?! Sweet!” He snatched up a Life tile, giggling happily.

Next it was Ray’s turn. “Um. I don’t know how to play,” he said.

Gerard hissed impatiently. “Just go!”

Ray shrugged and spun the spinner. He opted out of going to college, and went straight into the main path. Mikey and Frank also choose not to go to college.

“You’re gonna regret that!” laughed Gerard. He was sure that by going to college he was already set to win the game. Mikey glanced at him nervously. Gerard loved playing games, but he was kind of a sore loser. He locked himself in the bathroom for a day after losing a game of Go Fish once.

Next, it was time to pick jobs. Mikey was the first to land on the jobs space, and had to pick new cards twice until he got one that wasn’t degree required. It was Teacher. Next, Frank picked Athlete. Gerard landed on the jobs space after him, and eagerly picked up three cards. His eyes glowed when he saw that one of them was Entertainer.

“I’m going to be an Entertainer!” he said.

“But Gee… You could be the Accountant, or the Lawyer… Entertainer isn’t even degree required,” Mikey said, frowning.

“Don’t care,” snapped Gerard.

“What was the point of even going to college then?” Ray asked.

“I wanted to!”

Ray just shrugged again. When he finally made it to the job space (he had been landing on all 1’s), he choose to be the Police Officer.

Onward they progressed through Life. Frank quickly became the most wealthy in the game, as he had the highest salary and seemed to land on nothing but Life tiles. Mikey, on the other hand, was landing on every ill-fated space on the board, but he didn’t have enough money to buy insurance. Ray lagged behind, still spinning low numbers, and Gerard worked to pay off that college education.

When it came time for buying houses, Gerard was the first one to pick. He decided on the Split Level.

Mikey whimpered. “I always get the Spilt-Level…” he said.

“Tough,” said Gerard. “This is Life.”

Mikey hung his head. “I don’t wanna play anymore.”

“Me neither,” Ray agreed. “No one even told me how…”

“Nooo,” Frank said. “No quitters!”

“Fine,” Mikey said, sadly choosing the only other house option cheap enough for him: the trailer.

“Hey!” Gerard yelled suddenly, bouncing up and down in excitement. He pointed at Ray, who had just spun. “You got an 8!”

“Yeah…” Ray said, failing to understand why that was so great.

Gerard read off his card. “If two 8s, 9s or 10s are spun in a row, player replaces his or her salary card with the yellow salary card!!” He snatched up the yellow ($100,000) salary card triumphantly. “I knew I was gonna make it big!”

However, Gerard’s dreams were crushed when Frank spun next, landing on a space that instructed him to switch his salary card with any player. He replaced the $100,000 one in Gerard’s hands with his own, grinning.

Gerard’s face quickly became a dangerous red. The room went silent. Frank glanced around nervously. “Oh… no… you… didn’t…” Gerard hissed out.

Gerard opened his mouth for a scream of rage, but at that moment the bedroom door opened. Everyone turned to Gerard and Mikey’s mom, who was standing with hands on her hips in the door way. She flipped on the bedroom light.

“Mom! Don’t!” said Gerard. “You know I burn from that.”

But his mom was in distress. “Gerard, Mikey... I just got a call from your principal, informing me that you two were causing trouble today. Is this true, boys?”

Gerard and Mikey turned their heads to look at each other.