"And it's a G O A L!!!"

I could hear the announcer's voice boom over the loud speaker. I was at a hockey game, Vancouver Canucks vs. Chicago Blackhawks. If the Canucks lose it will be the last game they ever play at the Pacific Coliseum. I'm here with my best friend, Emily Stryker. Her family somehow got tickets to a box for the game and she invited me along.

Guess which team it was that scored the goal. Canucks? I wish. It was starting to become obvious the Canucks were losing so Emily and I decided to go get something to eat and maybe play a few rounds of whatever video game we could find. We both got slurpees and set out to find an interesting video game. We walked halfway around the arena and finally stumbled across a Mortal Kombat game. It was a two-player game...perfect. Unfortunately there was already a kid playing.

He looked around our age and had shoulder-length blond hair. He was very immersed in the game. He kicked the machine in frustration as the screen flashed "GAME OVER."

We approached him. Emily didn't really like playing Mortal Kombat so she suggested that I challenge him.

"I challenge you to a Mortal Kombat, do you accept or do you yield?" I said like they did in the movies and I could hear Emily trying not to crack up.

He looked me straight in the eye and said, without a trace of a smile,

"I accept."

As we did this Emily just stood there trying not to break down laughing. As she had seen the Mortal Kombat Movie with me before.

We chose our characters and we started in. I won. . . seven times in a row. We had spent this time concentrating on the game, totally silent with only the occasional cheer from Emily when he landed a punch/kick. I guess she thought that he needed the encouragement or maybe after all the times I'd beat her at the game she just wanted to see somebody else win for a change.

Nearing the end of our fifteenth game, we had been concentrating hard on the game didn't notice when another guy walked up. He stood back and watched us for a few minutes. It was weird cause I don't think he was really watching us play, it was more like he was watching us.

I shot a glance at the guy beside me. He was starting to look frustrated. Being the chicken that I am (I thought that he was getting really mad) I backed off a little. To make a long story short, he won.

As "RAIN WINS" appeared on the screen, the other guy approached.

"Zac, everybody's wondering where you are. And we gotta get back to the hotel before the scream squad figures out where we are!" he said urgently to Zac. None of us had really noticed, but the hockey game had long since ended.

"Okay. Hey what's your name?" he said turning back to me.

"Nikki, and this is Emily," Emily gave a small wave. "What's yours?"

"Zac, and the freak of nature over there is Taylor. I had fun playing against you, you're the first person that's ever beaten me before."

I laughed. "Are you sure? Maybe we could get together sometime to have a re-match."

He fished through his pocket and came up with a pen. "Do you have e-mail?"

"Yep." He then took my hand and proceeded to write his e-mail address on the back of it. He then handed me the pen and I wrote mine down.

"Zac, hurry!" Taylor butted in.

"E-mail me, okay?" Zac said, putting the pen away.

"'Kay"

"Zaaaaaaaaaaaaaac," Taylor whined. You could tell he wanted to get out of there. A look of thought washed across his face. "Did you guys notice how much you look alike? It's almost scary."

Zac and I looked at each other oddly as we parted ways.