Aru Shah Oneshots

XII- Tournament

Aru sat on her respective chair and inhaled deeply. It was Sunday: the day of the tournament and the callbacks and here she was, ready to compete with her fellow opponent in a game of chess. 

Aru looked at the name tag of the girl in front of her. Nike, it displayed.
Aru had read somewhere that the Greek goddess of victory was called Nike. How wonderful! Her opponent was literally named Victory. To many people, it could've been a simple coincidence but to Aru, it had been a way her brain manipulated her self-esteem. She forced herself to conclude this instance as a simple coincidence.

  I am Aru Shah, she told herself. And I can do anything. That had helped. She put on a grin and turned towards Mini who was seated two tables away from her. 'All the best!' Mini mouthed. 'Same to you,' Aru whispered back, lifting two thumbs.

An announcer tapped the mic. It let out a deafening screech. Aru winced. The announcer continued. 'Good morning one and all! Today have gathered here to witness the grand chess tournament.'

'The game will begin in 10 minutes. Until then, we will go through the rules again...'

Aru didn't feel like concentrating. She had already gone through the rules a billion times(props to Mini).
 Instead, her mind wandered to the day her mom had introduced Aru to chess. That day, the rain had been pouring outside and her mom had to cancel her trip to an excavation site in Morocco. It was ages ago but Aru held the memory safe and sound.

"Chess is an ancient and magical game," her mom had told her. "Do you want to hear the tale of chess, beti?"

Aru had nodded then, curious about how a game could have a story. 

She always adored stories. Especially the ones her mother had told her. Her mother had described each story so vividly that Aru fell in love with them. Each story ignited a spark of imagination in her heart. It gave her the motivation to move forward. So did her memories. 

Aru snapped to the present. Now, the anchor was praising the host school...maybe a bit too much. His co-announcer nudged his shoulders. The co-announcer snubbed him, 'Oh! Neeks, it seems like we are running short on time. The tournament shall commence in 5 minutes!'

'No we're not, Sebastian.' the person called "Neeks" said through gritted teeth. Then he whispered something in the Sebastian guy's ear. It was most probably related to "Neeks". 

Sebastian let out a nervous chuckle. 'Alright. To reiterate, each team over here will have a blitz game. Only 3 will be qualified for the state-level championships.'

 'Best of luck to all the participants!' he concluded.

Aru looked at her opponent. 'May the best player win,' she told her. It was something that was in several movies she watched. The line gave out I'm-really-wise-and-serious vibe. It also provided her a little more confidence. 

Nike flashed a smile. She shook Aru's hand and nodded. 'Sure,' she said.

***

Aru was so engrossed in the game that she had forgotten about the callbacks. In 32 moves,  she had won the match and moved forward to the second round. Nike had not been happy when Aru exclaimed "Checkmate!" into her ear. Especially because Aru tricked her into believing that she was gonna use the queen...Instead, she used a horse to overthrow her opponent's king. It was a total Slytherin move. 

 Each arbiter had three teams to take care of and thus was busy with the other team. Aru and Nike informed their arbiter about the game. He congratulated Aru and asked Nike to sit in the row of chairs beside the audience(which were like 12-15 people).

Aru went to Mini who was beaming at her victory. She proceeded to tell her opponent a few words of advice and a vote of thanks which Aru found a little unnecessary. 

They elbow-bumped and stood aside. 

'So, it seems that our contestants have performed really well,' 

'Yeah, Ne- Nicholas. Now, we shall announce the winners!' 

Nicholas stared at him. He moved on and proclaimed, 'Our three winners are...A-roo Shah from Augustus Day. Stephen Roll from Atlanta Public School and Ye-mi-ni Lopez from Augustus Day!' 

'Congratulations to all the winners!' Sebastian added, 

Aru beamed at her peers. She did a happy dance in her head.

***

Aru rushed outside the building to find Aiden seated in his car, ready to move. 'Congo,' he told Aru.

'Thanks,' she replied. 'Now, floor it.'

A/N Ehh, yeah. I don't feel like the chapters are coming out well lately but eh...it's fun.

I'm gonna be inactive for a while starting from tomorrow. Sorry about that. 

Aaand, how's the chapter?

Aight, gotta go, Bye!