To the arcade

Zander's friends had invited him down to the arcade to blow off some steam. The arcade was a bit run down, but it had the essentials; Dance Dance Revolution, Pacman, Time Crisis, etc...

His friends Ryan and Alex met him there. Ryan was a bit of the classic nerd he had short brown hair and black rimmed glasses. He wore a striped collared shirt with a pocket protector. Some would call him a hipster if it weren't for the fact that he had terrible acne and was so unhip that he probably was born without one. He was the brains of the group.

Alex on the other hand was on the same spectrum for geekdom. He was wearing a Naruto T-shirt and sporting a few arm bands with various anime logos. He was a bit chubby, but other than that he was a normal dude. He was the comic relief.

"Hey, birthday boy," Alex said, "What took you so long?"

"You won't believe me if I told you," said Zander.

"Try us," said Ryan.

Zander went on to explain what happened with his mother and his family curse.

"Seems like hogwash to me," said Ryan as he went over to check out one of the holodeck arcade booths.

"Makes a weird sort of sense though" said Alex, "Think about it. Your mom is an international pop idol. I remember you mentioning that your cousin Blake had a harem of girls going after him when he was 18. Doesn't that seem a bit odd?"

Zander pondered this for a second. It was true he had an eclectic family.

"Preposterous!" Ryan exclaimed, "If that were the case someone would have figured it out by now."

They laughed a bit about it, but Zander still felt something was off. Turning around he saw a black cat with a ruby in the middle of its forehead staring at them from the rafters.

"Do you guys see that?" Zander said pointing at the cat.

Immediately the cat pounced on him. Bringing him to the ground. It ran off through the back exit.

"It went into the alley," Alex said.