Chapter 20 - New and Old Friends (1/2)

Gray and Jono returned to their suite before the promotional video would be released publically and in front of everyone at the game conference.

Although Gray normally doesn't like to stand out, receiving some recognition was nice once in a while. Seeing his team being displayed for everyone to watch was a good feeling. Gray noticed that not only his name was shown for his team, but so was Caleb's name.

"Caleb must be here somewhere then" Gray thought.

Assuming the other VIP suites were filled with other teams that were invited today, Gray looked at the other balconies and saw that all of the others had a lot more people than his balcony.

"Do other teams share suites? Why am I the exception?" Gray thought as he looked at the large suite just for Jono and himself.

A knock was heard on the door and Gray heard a familiar voice.

"It's my suite too baby cakes, no need to knock" came from behind the door with a slightly nasal and arrogant voice.

Gray thought that the voice… sounds like Caleb, but the way he talks is nothing like him. The door opened and a fairly short guy in his early 30s wearing old 20th century glasses sauntered in being followed by a slightly stressed looking Felicia. Gray was happy to see her again but this happiness was interrupted by this guy. The guy turned to Felicia and said "Thanks babe that will be all!" and Felicia made a quick departure. Gray almost half expected the guy to pinch her butt or something like that.

"So, I'm guessing you must be Gray." Said the guy as he looked directly at Gray.

"Correct, and you must be Caleb! This is my friend Jono" Gray replied while introducing Jono also.

"I'm guessing you figured out it was me from the name in the video?" Gray asked Caleb.

"Indeed, and the 4 teams used in the promotional video were provided with a suite for each of them. Since you and Geoff are the only other male members of our team, it was safe to say that it would either be Geoff or you, Gray, that would be in this suite."

"Yeah, you definitely sound like Caleb now, so how come you knew it was me and not Geoff and couldn't Jono have been Geoff?" asked Gray

"You and Geoff are similar, if one of you had opted to have yourself high-lighted, the other would too. Since only your name was visible in the video one could deduce that Geoff is not here. As for why Jono is not Geoff, he doesn't have a VIP badge."

Gray felt the urge to rib Jono more about the VIP badge, but frankly the joke was getting old. He'd wait until later when Jono started to get over it.

"You didn't talk to Yurika and Stacia like that though in game, what's up with that?" asked Gray to Caleb.

"Team cohesion, creating a disturbance in the team would be detrimental to our cooperative relationship thus maintaining proper etiquette is imperative."

Jono whispered to Gray "Does he always talk like that?"

"Yes, he's one of those types that likes to flaunt his intellect by using big words to hide his insecurities." Gray whispered back to Jono.