Two best friends spend time together while off campus at the time. While they are high school students, they still have lives of their own.

Girls' Night Out

"Come on Aubree, you promised we weren't gonna be late!" Trying to pull her best friend away, a green-haired girl tugs at the arm of a redhead girl, trying her best to get her friend moving.

"Just a moment, Alice! I'll be right with you! This is only gonna take a quick moment!" Aubree was busy finishing up a streaming session on Twitch when Alice began pulling on her shoulder. The greenhead was finally told to wait once the redhead finishes up.

Once Aubree is finally done, Alice grabs Aubree by her wrist and pulls her up, not even giving any time for Aubree to fully wind down. She squeaks, "Alice, wait! I gotta take my headphones off!"

Once Aubree removes her headphones and begins clearing off her work, she joins Alice and asks her, "So where did you want to take me? I'm done with my streaming now."

"I wanted to go to this new arcade and try out a few games. Then we could stop and grab a bite to eat before heading home." Alice shakes in excitement and squeals, "It's that new video arcade by the pier! I saw the advertisement yesterday and it looked so cool! We have to try it out!"

"Wait, 'we'?" Turning towards their library and back, Aubree ponders, "Alice, what's so special about this brand new arcade place? We have plenty of games here."

"True, but this place has a mix of old and new games! Games like Pac-Man, Dig Dug, APB, Time Crisis, games like those." Alice listed.

"Hmmm, I'll check it out. But if there's a legit racing game, I'm jumping on it!" Aubree declared in return.

~~~~~

Having just exited off the bus from the long ride to the new arcade, the two best friends make their way to the front entrance while a whirring motor is heard in the background, courtesy of a blue Proterra ZX5 40' electric bus taking off.

The moment the two enter, Alice makes a beeline for one of the cabinet arcade games: Space Invaders Part II. Upon first glance, Alice squeals, "I love this game! Played it since I was little and I managed to rack up a high score!"

"You brought quarters with you, right?" Aubree reminded her.

"Quarters, tokens, whatever. I brought my purse with me. Two-player game, you're on!" Alice challenges her best friend to a match while fishing out a pair of tokens from her purse, handing one to Aubree to insert into the machine.

What follows is a competitive turn-based two-player battle for the highest score. This lasted several rounds until both players used up all their lives. Following this is another Space Invaders game known as Frenzy. Instead of playing competitively, Aubree and Alice did co-op play, working together to achieve a combined high score. Between Alice's frantic shouting and Aubree's focused, relaxed concentration, the two were able to make several bonus rounds until a series of tiny invaders zipped and lambasted them, thus ending their game. From looking at their score alone, Alice cheered wildly, grabbing her friend in a sudden bear hug.

Moving on, Aubree and Alice moved onto a racing game that captured Aubree's interest this time: Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5. After obtaining a card and snagging a Mercedes SLS AMG, Alice grabs the Nissan GT-R and the two engage in a split head-to-head race along one of the routes.

Time passed by pretty well during their gaming session. After their head-to-head match on Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5, Aubree and Alice kept their cards. They later transitioned to a Flamin' Finger arcade game where instead of tickets, real money is collected with a jackpot prize displayed. The two friends look at each other and back at the machine when Aubree harrumphs, "Let me do it! I'll ace this machine!"

After a few tries and misses, Aubree manages to clear a maze with very little time left to spare. And after collecting the jackpot prize, the girls turn their attention to another arcade game inside the place - Alice was primarily fixated on the final game she drags Aubree to, which is Mega Stacker. Upon seeing this, the redhead facepalms, "I absolutely hate Stacker. I'm not even gonna play it. Don't entice me, Alice."

Too late - Alice tauntingly remarks, "If I win a prize from this, you'll want one too! It's not that bad as compared to the last one."

"Flamin' Finger? But that game cheats in a way! Not only does the timer run down faster upon reaching the finish but the amount of friction the screen produces makes your finger hurt!" Aubree explained in worry.

Alice only nudges her best friend, reminding her, "But you still won, right? Despite the difficulty, you still beat the game."

"Yeah, but this one is completely different. You're at the very end with a very hard margin for success! Trust me, I have played Stacker before several times and not once have I ever completely beaten the game." Aubree grunted in annoyance. Undeterred, Alice strolls over to play the Mega Stacker game, informing her best friend, "One turn each; we take turns until we use up all our tokens or get tired of playing."

"Alice, how can you be this enthusiastic over a big skill game like this? You were more enthused about pinball than this. I don't see how anyone can win at this." Aubree complained.

Alice cracks her knuckles, "We'll see about that, Missy. You and me, on another turn-based run!"

~~~~~

Following several rounds and tries from the girls, they did win a lot of tickets and extra tokens, but out of those tries, only a combined 4 chances from the two were actually successful. And as a result of those four successful chances, the two girls walked away with four different prizes, two each. While Alice carried a Nintendo Switch and a $25 gift card, Aubree possessed a Nintendo DS and a $10 gift card. And when they left the arcade later on in the day, the pink background only provided one single clue to the girls: the sun is setting.

"The sunset sure is beautiful. It reminds me of the sunrise whenever I wake up in the morning." Aubree stares up and out at the colorful sky, commenting on the sunset.

Even Alice concedes agreement with her best friend, adding in her own two cents. "A new day always brings the most wonderful colors. But it also reminds me of something else too."

"Yeah? What is that?" Aubree pulls out her bus card and proceeds to the bus stop, conversing with Alice on the topic where the greenhead states, "The rainbow; they are so beautiful to view after a rainstorm - hey, the bus is coming!"

Aubree has no time to react when Alice suddenly dashes off, alerting her redhead friend to an approaching city bus. She was more immersed in the conversation on the natural day/night cycle until she happened to glance over her shoulder for herself before rushing to meet her friend, having spotted an incoming New Flyer DE60LFR approaching. Her friend shouts, "Hurry up, Aubree! You're gonna be late!"

"I'm coming! Don't take off without me now!" The teal-painted bus pulls up to the bus stop with Aubree rushing to catch up while her friend climbs aboard. While Aubree reaches the bus and climbs aboard, a door announcement can be heard in the background:

"Route 22 - southbound to Devon Terminal"

Once both girls have boarded and settled down, the diesel-electric articulate pulls away, meandering down the road.

~~~~~

Aubree and Alice belong to Apocalyptic_Matcha from ToyHouse in this short-length story commission!