Let the Game Begin (open)

[qwerty]

It had been a week since the Dayves moved into the new, little home, and it was about time to get the city to see the newest game out there: Shayne's Beats. Shayne had been walking around the bustling streets for a few days now, ever since they first entered city limits to try and find the perfect populated area to earn some change. today, she felt like wearing her normal jeans along with a teal tanktop underneath a black jacket, halfway zipped up. The sky was cloudy, but every once in a while the sun would poke it's rays out and hit the city, but then disappear as quickly as it came. She was happy to know that her home, this small thing that was still a bit messy from all of the cardboard boxes, was decently close to the street that she chose as her official game area.

As she walked the streets to her deignated area, many people stared at a small, American girl with a snare drum. It wasn't something normal, but sooner or later, they were gonna have to get used to it. Along with the drum were her sticks and 2 one dollar bills. she never brought a lot, cause she knew no one would be getting those.

Across a few stores, and luckily one of them being a music store, was just a sidewalk with a few benches next to an abandoned building that was just there. She chose this area because of the surrounding environment, it would echo her beats just a bit. No, it wasn't ripping off anyone when the game began, but just confused that person. after all, ther is no way there was a place on the earth where echo didn't exsist.

On the bench, she actually sat on the back on it, making her taller. Her drum had a stand, so she poked the stand inside the openings of the seat of the bench, and opened the stand legs so it could balance. Shayne then rose it so it was perfect height for her, then started yelling.

"ALRIGHT, WHO WANTS TO PLAY A NEW GAME THAT'S SWEEPING THE CITY OF SAN FRANSISCO?! SHAYNE'S BEATS! COUNT THE BEATS THAT I MAKE AND EARN SOME MONEY! THE PRICE IS 50 CENTS AND IF YOU WIN, YOU WIN DOUBLE!!!! ONE WHOLE DOLLAR! SEE IF YOU CAN COUNT, CAUSE I ASSURE YOU, IT AINT LIKE NOTHING YOU'VE PLAYED BEFORE! - YOU! WEIRD LOOKING GUY WITH THE 'FRO! HOW'S ABOUT PLAYING THE NEWEST GAME? HEY LADY, WANNA TRY AND EARN A DOLLAR? HOW 'BOUT YOU?-"

Shayne continued to yell until she got an audience, and the minimum was 5 people. most of which were young, or in their 30s, but it was considered a crowd to her. Finally, she chose this 20 year old guy who had a mohawk and a few piercings here and there.

"Alright, dude, here's how it works: I hit my drum as fast as i can and you need to count how many times i hit it. get it right, you get one dollar. get it wrong, even if you're off by one, you're outa here, unless you wanna play again and no ones starts yelling at you to move your ass so they can play. get it? got it? good."

She set her drumsticks in her hands and prepared to hit the drum. Before she did however, she closed her eyes and nodded her head a few times, trying to get a rhythm to follow. she liked doing that because it did help her focus on making the beats even, but also, it was to throw the player off. how fast did many people think a small 15 year old who was confused with a little 12 year old could go? She got the beat and suddenly, without warning, hit the drum and went at such a fast pace that it was marvelous. People across the street were looking at her, wondering what the noise was and who the hell could play that fast, but Shayne didn't see them. She herself was counting the number of times she hit the drum, but she didn't have to count one by one. She had her own method of counting that was always easier. She knew what 8 hits sounded like, no matter what the speed was, and all she had to do was count how many times she heard 8 counts, then multiply. it was much easier. although she knew no one would think of that. they were too busy thinking of how fast a little kid could go.

Her number was 142. once she was done, she opened her eyes and stared at the man, awaiting his guess. his eyes screamed "how many did she do? and how come she is so fast?" all over the place. with that, Shayne smiled and asked for an answer.

"i'm gonna say 124"

She smiled even more. a wrong answer, as usual. slowly, she shook her head and looked down at the guy.

"i'm sorry, but that is wrong. thank you for playing, SO WHO ELSE?"

[Kit Lee]

Kit walked out of the music store, disappointed at their lack of chinese music. A shouting female voice emitted from nearby. Shayne's beats? Kit walked towards the girl who sat upon the back of the bench with a drum in front of her to find out what she was talking about. It appeared that the girl was hustling folks for their money. She would drum a certain amount of beats and the person who was playing her game would guess how many times she hit it. As she got her first victim, Kit noted the speed that the girl had drummed at. It was certainly impressive but it was not something Kit was not use to. Kit needed beats to dance to and he had danced to relatively fast beats before. Each breakdancing move he pulled he would always consider the amount of beats, keeping in check that he would shift into a move at the right time. The right time would be determined with an even spacing of beats, and it would change should he need to pull a move that lasted longer.

At any rate, Kit hoped that the man who was guessing now would guess it correctly so he could see whether or not the girl was a hustler. 124 the man said. Wrong Kit thought in his mind. The word echoed from the lips of the drummer, who Kit assumed to be Shayne. Guess he would have to see for himself. If she was not a hustler, he could make a decent load of money here, assuming she did not shoo him away after he won.

"I try to play," Kit said, shuffling through his pockets for some change. Handing her two quarters, he gave a smirk and said "I expect 1$ back."

[qwerty]

ooc: sorry for the wait!

Shayne looked at the new guy. he looked confident, and sounded confident, too. this could get interesting for her, now that she found some competition. 'knowing his kind,' she thought, 'he'll get REALLY close, but i'll make sure he doesn't get it on the dot...' Shayne reached for the quarters and placed them into her pocket, right next to the few dollars that she brought herself.

"alright, tough guy. think you can beat me?" she giggled, although it didn't sound as friendly as it should've been. "alright, i guess you know the game. count teh beats, and guess. if you get it on the dot, you get double your money. lose, it's all mine. ready? GO!"

as soon as she said go, she already had a beat in her mind and she intended it to be faster than the last guy. shayne had a way of leaving some space to speed up incase someone, like this new dude, came along and could handle the speed. Shayne's drum rat-a-tat-tatted to the point of where you would get confused on where she actually hit the drum, but no matter what, the hits were equal.

'1...2...3...4...5...6..........14...15...16..17... and 3 beats' she stopped, and held her drum sticks in her hand, letting her hands take a break. quickly, she multiplied: 17x16=272. 272+3=275. 275 beats. her eyes were closed, making sure she didn't forget the number, then opened them to see eyes staring right back at her. her hands were slightly shaking, but it was nothing she couldn't handle, just a bit soon for the speed that she did.

"alright, you got the number? we don't have all day for you to guess..."

She spoke with confidence and glared at the man, curious if he would make it. if he did, then she would be amazed, but wonder what would happen afterwards. besides, if he played again, she had only $3, 2 if he gets it correct. but she knew he wouldn't. no one had. And Shayne wasn't about to let that winning streak fade away.

[Kit Lee]

As soon as Shayne said go, Kit closed his eyes, and held his hands in his back. He would feel every four beats that she would hit, as a four beat count was the easiest for Kit to count, and he would use his fingers every ten times he counted four beats. When the girl was done, Kit had 6 fingers held behind him, along with the number 8 and 3 in his head. This meant there had been 68 sets of 4 which was 272 and three beats that could not be included in the set adding to a total of 275. Kit nearly forgot the number as Shayne said "Alright, you got the number? We don't have all day for you to guess..."

"275," Kit said. The girl had a really fast beat, not something Kit would be able to dance to for sure, but he could count it just the same. If Kit were to pull off moves in the obscene speed the girl played at, he would probably have to pull off a move at every sixteen beats or so, which would be really confusing since he would eventually lose track of the amount of beats as time progressed. He was only able to keep exact count this time with the use of his fingers as well as the fact that he was using every four beats. Four beats in her pace would be impossible to dance to.

Kit stared into the girl's eyes to see whether she would lie and hustle or tell the truth and pay up. "If I'm right, I want to play again," Kit added.

[qwerty]

Shayne couldn't believe it. he got it. no one has ever gotten it, and he did. for a moment, she just stared at the guy. and she truly had no idea of what to do. should she lie and say it was a beat off? no, the chances were too large for him to get it right, meaning he had to know the answer. should she say ok, you win and let him win again? she only had a limited amount of money and she needed to keep making it so her mom could spend some of her money and not her dad's. she had to find a way out of this, but she didn't want to look weak on her first trip on the streets to show off her game. and besides, she had made a nice crowd already. she was thinking as fast as she could, thinking of ways she could keep the money, get the dude who won to not take her money, and make it outta there without looking like an idiot with a game that was a rip-off. she had an idea, but she really wasn't all that comfortable doing it, but had hardly any other choice.

quickly, she took out her cell phone and looked at the time, which wasn't that late, but she was thinking of excuses by the ton. she had one finally and went along with her idea

"uh-oh. look man, i hate to break it to you, but i need to go. my dad needs me at home and honestly, he doesn't really trust me out here that long. walk with me and we can talk for a second. k?"

Shayne looked as innocent as she could, trying to make her lie work. she new the tricks. keep eye contact, feel like it was not a lie (as in, feel like her dad was forcing her home... and it feel real), and slow her talking down and breathe. she started packing up and slowly, the crowd dispersed. it was a bit slower than what she wanted, but it did and as she wanted, the man stayed, most likely waiting for his money. the crowd was far enough when she stopped lying. she went instantly into what she truly felt: anger and curiosity.

"how the hell did you know that was the answer?"

she whispered it through her teeth glaring at the man that intrigued her entirely. there had never been a man who had guessed it and she was certain he knew he was right. but how? as soon as she was packed up, if you call practically dragging a drum around packed up, she took her free hand and dragged the man along, but only for a short while to give him the idea to follow. her voice and face expression calmed down a bit more, but was still in a way, angry.

"tell me how you did it now. no one has ever beaten me and i want to know how you did it."

[Kit Lee]

The girl seemed to be a hustler as she came up with an excuse that she had to leave immediately and she also did not pay Kit the money he had won. Not that it was much, but a dollar was a dollar. And a lie was a lie. At any rate, he stood there as she packed up, the crowd dispersing. Then, her true face showed as she whispered "How the hell did you know that was the answer?"

Before he could answer, she finished packing up and dragged him off a bit, finally letting go after a while. Kit decided to follow as he wondered what would cause this girl to hustle on the streets. When she finally came to a stop, and repeated her question, Kit decided to answer.

"I answer only if you tell me why you hustle on street," Kit said as he stared back into her face that still had anger within it. "See, I dance to beats generally in music for breakdancing. Every time there a beat, I pull off move. In case of many beat song, I do a move every multiple of four beats, such as every 4 beats, or every 8 beats, or every 16 beats, you get point. So when I count your drumming, I count every four multiple of beat as well except since I not dancing, I concentrate to able to count beats in your crazy fast speed. So fast I had to use finger to keep track also."

Kit shifted his weight over to one leg as he followed his explanation with the question. "So, mind tell me why hustle on street? If need money why not work? Hustling lead to trouble." Kit had needed money in the past and though some of the people he knew had hustled for their money, bad things usually happened to them eventually. Kit never obtained his money by hustling, and had always worked odd jobs. He would not steal either. He had always focused on a legitimate way of obtaining money.