The circle of teenagers stands around, but Eric stands slightly aloof. He is not really interested in rolling the dice. “I don't really care for things I don't have any control over”. Eric is keen on computers, but he wants to decide what to focus on. Gaming or hardware.
When his Mum asks him what he will do with his future he gives her a few buzzwords. I'm going to work in IT, might have my own website. His Mum doesn't even know how to turn on a computer, so she doesn't question anything. His Dad, he's nowhere to be seen. He left the scene a long time ago.
Eric sits down and starts to play a game. After playing for three hours and shooting his way through a range of oppositions, he sits and thinks – I'm pretty good at this, maybe there's some kind of competition for it. He jumps online and finds out there's one coming up, just three weeks away.
His Mum comes in and asks “shouldn't you be doing your homework Eric”? “Oh yeah Mum, just doing some research for the next assignment. By the way, can you drive me somewhere in a few weeks?”
She isn't listening as she's walked out the door already. Eric spends the next few weeks pestering his mother to get a lift to the tournament. One day she says, "alright, I'll toss a coin to decide".
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