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This particular story chapter was getting very long, so I decided to split it off into two parts (Like the last Harry Potter movie, *chuckles*). Anyway, This chapter is clean to read but may have a few PDA's of a homo erotic nature. Reader discretion advised if you are not legal age.

***

It has finally come. Pine View chess had trained for this moment all year long, and now we were going to make it pay off big. The State Chess Championships were finally upon us. Only those who were dead serious about chess were coming along. That meant Lucian Snow, Lucian Equinox, Alduin, Adair, Jake, and myself were going. Morrell was coming along as my guardian, and Coach Sundin was going to drive us. That made eight people. The school was nice enough to rent us a nine-person shuttle, which fit that many people plus their luggage, assuming everyone only had one suitcase worth of luggage. I had some clothes, and my chessboard. Morrell had a hand held video game system with his clothes.

"We weren't always so lucky," Coach said, "there were times where we had to drive ourselves up in our own cars. I'll tell you what; it's hell scrambling something like that at the last minute." Everyone planned to go up the morning of the tournament, to save expenses on overnight stays. The school also approved that after all the parents signed permission slips. The tournament was scheduled to start at 3:30 PM the Friday afternoon, and go on for three one-hour rounds into the evening. The next day would feature the last four rounds. The first two would be one and a half hours long, the last two would be two hour long matches. Also in between each round, there would be a separate speed chess tournament called Blitz Chess. Blitz chess would be the first two rounds non-elimination for seeding, then bracket style elimination rounds until there was a winner. All of us registered into the blitz tournament, and obviously the regular tournament.

The regular tournament was a seven round Swiss system, which meant absolutely everyone played every round. Each win gave a person 1 point, 0 points per loss, and 1/2 points per draw or tie. The person with the most points wins overall. Teams work by combining everyone's final scores to make the team final score. Only the top 5 player's scores count to make things fair. If two teams tie, the next person's score on each team is counted for use of a tiebreak, and the pattern continues until a winner is decided.

This meant that we had 5 top boards and a tiebreaker. I was considered Star Player, with Alduin captaining and the rest proving strong competition. The night before we were going to leave, We all met at Coach Sundin's house to make the finishing touches and send our registration information.

"Do we have everybody who is going to play here?" Coach asked and we all nodded. But Morrell raised his hand.

"I actually, was wondering if I could play on the team," he said, "I know I'm not that good, but I could do my best as a 7th player right? Who knows, maybe I could try to be an extra tie breaker." I was surprised. I knew that I had taught him how to play chess, and that he was getting it, but I didn't know that he wanted to play it for real.

"I have no objections," Coach said, "all in favor." Everyone said Aye, including myself, who gave the big strong orca a hug. He flushed and Coach put in his name.

"Want to play in Blitz?" Coach asked the orca, "if you do it'll cost you 2 dollars." Morrell paid the money wanting to play, and Coach typed the information and sent the email.

"All right," Coach said, "we're all registered. Everyone meet up in front of the school tomorrow at 8 AM got it? It's a 300 mile drive up, and I would like to be up there by 1 or 1:30 so we have time to settle down and rest before the first match. We all agreed and Morrell's mom drove us home. I just had to ask.

"Why did you want to play big guy?"

"Well, I guess I wanted to see what it was like with you playing chess you know? Besides I never was a good cheerleader." I chuckled and hugged him.

"That's a very valiant thing you did."

"Yeah, but who knows, I might not even win any."

"I don't know," I said, "according to coach, the players on the low rung don't even know what they're doing half the time. You not only knew the rules of the game, even en passant, but you also have shown me use of basic strategies, I think you'll do fine."

"Thanks honey," he gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

The next morning we all met up with our luggage in hand, packing it into the van as Coach pulled up. He was joined with a new face. He was a black fox, with bluish gray eyes, slim with lots of muscle, T-shirt and cargo pants. He seemed to be just a few years older than us, I imagine roughly 18 or so.

"Guys," Coach said, "This is my nephew. He wanted to come along with us and support the team. He's not from around here, but wanted to come up and watch us. This will give us a full load of people, so things won't get boring." We nodded and greeted him once all of our luggage was set.

"Hi," I said, "what's your name?"

"My friends call me Warrior Scribe," he said, "I don't know much about chess, but I can watch that's for sure." I nodded and we shook hands. Everyone got into their seats. Alduin, Coach Sundin, and Warrior Scribe were sitting in the front. Adair and the two Lucian brothers were sitting in the middle, which left me sitting in the back with Morrell and Jake. Both horny football players, this could be interesting. I got the left seat with the window, Morrell sitting next to me. He gave me a knowing evil smile and I shook my head. Some of our other friends were waving goodbye to us as they walked off to class. This was it, the first step in our out of town journey up north to our state capital, Salt Lake City.

After another quick minute we were off on our way. We had a full tank of gas and all the emergency stuff in case something happened. Everyone was good with wearing seatbelts so that wasn't an issue at all either. We were out of town within ten minutes, the outside glistening only in the beautiful scenery of the February desert. We hardly ever got snow in winter. Since this was a desert community, there wasn't much chance of it being too cold. Occasionally I would forget that it was still winter here from the warmth.

"Unless someone says we're going to the bathroom I'm going to plow through ok?" Coach said, and everyone agreed. I spent my time contemplating strategies to use against my opponent. I used a small pocket sized magnetic board to show Morrell, giving him ideas he could use in the opening. Occasionally he would be a little naughty out of everyone's vision, and he would rub his hand across my groin to tease. Jake could see, but merely smirked and looked away, enjoying the scenery. There was one time where Morrell would slip his hand behind me and finger me for a bit. Once a naughty orca, always a naughty orca eh?

We stopped in a small rest town called beaver for a post breakfast snack, and gas. We didn't spend long, as it was 10 AM and we still had to cover a little less than 180 miles in 3 to 4 hours. We stopped once more in Fillmore for lunch. We decided to eat a couple hours before the first game, so that we wouldn't get too full or sleepy too close to game time. From there we only made one more stop in Murray before finally reach Salt Lake City. Throughout the trip, Alduin was talking with Coach about West High, our main competitors. Adair and the Lucian brothers were all sleeping, to make sure they were extra rested for the day's challenges.

The high school we were destined to perform at this year was called Cottonwood High School. It was the same high school that my mother had went to when she was my age. I promised her I'd take pictures to see how much it had changed. We arrived there about 1:45 PM, not too much later than we aimed for. Doctor Martin was there already, helping set up, and got all the Southern Utah schools a nice rest area in the back corner of the waiting room. Snow Canyon had almost five more players than we did, but what we lacked in size we made up for in skill. Dixie High School only had two players. Not enough to make a full team but enough that they could score 14 points if they won all their matches. Hurricane, Canyon View, and Cedar High all didn't have a team, and didn't show up.

We all set up our boards on a table draped in our school colors, which were a nice touch. We also checked in at the front counter to confirm that we had made it in attendance. That went by smoothly enough, but as I looked around, I saw our enemy team, West High School. They had a whooping 15 players, more than twice our amount. They're star player was Tony Chen, exactly my age, and rated slightly higher than I was at that current time. He gave me a cold stare as he sat down with his team. He was sitting next to what looked like his personal coach. Tony was human, but his coach looked familiar. He was a wolf wearing glasses, and carried a sketchbook with him.

I sat down at my seat, discussing chess strategy with Alduin and Morrell, while Coach and Warrior Scribe was checking up on the list of schools and their players. There were other schools with extremely good players. West had Tony Chen and his two sisters Janice and Alice. East High had Tyler Mc Intosh, another strong chess family. Adam Milke played for American Fork High, who would in later years play for West. The list goes on, but they were the toughest.

By roughly 3 PM we were greeted by a loud announcement from the tournament director holding a microphone. He called our attention, which was loud since he spoke like right where we were sitting.

"All right," he began, "first off I'd like to thank all of you for coming to this year's state chess championship. The first real round will start in just about thirty minutes. People who have official ratings will be seeded appropriately into the ranking to start. Also a note about tomorrow. The two non-elimination blitz rounds will be right in between round four and five. From then, we will split up the number of needed matches evenly in between each round, and after the final round of the regular tournament. You should all be familiar with tournament rules as well as game rules. If someone has a clock and wishes to use it, you must use it. If you don't use one, and you take too long, a timer will be forced on you. This is to keep the rounds moving. Thank you, and sit tight for your pairings."

We all made final minute strategies throughout the last half an hour. Though some of my teammates were feeling a little nervous, I was as cool as can be. This was nothing new to me, having played in tournaments all my life. But poor Morrell was sweating bullets. I ushered him into the hall to talk.

"Deep breaths Morrell deep breaths," he eventually calmed down and hugged me.

"Oh Ryan," he said, "I'm just worried that I'll let everyone down."

"Morrell, listen to me," I began, "you're going to do fine, and you're with friends. No matter what happens, you'll always be appreciated, and I'll always be your boyfriend. I will be proud of you, even if you do lose every match."

"Thanks Ryan," he said taking another deep breath, "that means a lot. If this was football I'm sure this conversation would have reversed roles huh?"

"Of course," I said and we hugged and kissed a bit.

"Pairings!!!" One parent shouted out loud. We walked to our table to grab a score sheet, pencil, and timer. I had taught Morrell how to notate games, which would only be necessary for higher tiered matches in case of a discrepancy.

"So how do I tell who I'm playing?" Morrell asked me. I pointed at his name.

"Match your name with your opponents on the same line. If your name is on the left you play as white. If on the right side, you play black. The number on the far left of that line tells you what board you play on. Write all that information down correctly on your score sheet." I explained and he did so and hurried off to the library, where the official boards were set up. I looked at mine, I was playing someone near the lower middle of the rankings. I got to the appropriate board and sat down. My opponent was a semi confident wolf. He was from a school I hadn't heard of, and he said he was the only student from there. Morrell was a couple tables down from me, sitting next to Jake. I saw the rest of the teammates who gave me a thumbs up.

The tournament director came up to the microphone and explained the rules again to everyone. When he was finished he gave to go ahead.

"Alright then," he said, "shake your opponent's hand. Good luck, and start the clock." I did just that, and the first round had begun. The room was dead silent after that, I was white for my first match, and played a different opening than I usually did. My opponent knew just a little bit ok, but he only did well the first few moves. I found him checkmated in seven moves. I felt good and went out to relax after we reported to the results desk.

"That was quick," Coach said.

"Add one point to our roster," I said smiling, "we're doing good." No one but the tournament directors were allowed in there if a person wasn't playing. My opponent walked up to me after a while asking if he could go over what he did wrong, and I was all too happy to oblige.

I finished showing his errors as one of the teammates came back. It was Adair, and he gave me a thumbs up.

"Way to be Adi," I said. We spent a little time going over the game with coach. The Lucian Brothers had come back, both with wins, which left us with four points to start. Jake cam back roughly 30 minutes in, with a loss. He shrugged it off rather quickly thought and mentioned getting him next time. Alduin came back with our fifth victory, giving us a perfect five points for the first round.

"How is Morrell doing?" I asked the smiling cat as he walked to us.

"Not so well," he sighed, "I don't think he'll pull through." Sure enough, Morrell came back, holding his head down. He tossed his score sheet in the trash.

"Morrell?" I asked, "what happened?" I pulled his score sheet out of the trash and took a quick look.

"I was fine until I lost my queen in a fork," he said, "It just fell apart there."

"It's ok honey," I said hugging, "you'll do better in the next match."

"Yeah I hope so," Morrell said taking a seat next to Jake. A loss to a new player is rather discouraging. I should know, I've had more than my fair share of losses. The next round came within 20 minutes. We were losing by tiebreaker to West right off the bat, as they had 8 players win. I was winning so I was expecting to play up, which meant a harder opponent. Morrell and Jake should both get easier opponents hopefully.

My second opponent was a rather timid feline in glasses. She didn't care much about being there, and she didn't like thinking so much on her moves. She'd probably do better in the blitz tournament. I looked to see if everyone made it to their seats just fine. When they did, I waited for the ok to start the clock. Adair was going up against Tyler Mc Intosh, so he was in for a tough fight.

My match lasted longer than the last one, but I was still the first person on my team to finish the game. Within a swift 25 moves, my opponent surrendered with a clear disadvantage. She looked down, and I smiled.

"Hey cheer up." She looked up at me surprised; "you played a really good game." We shook hands and reported our scores to the result desk. I took a quick look at everyone's games closest to me. Adi was down two pieces with a static disadvantage, which was too bad. Morrell looked like he was up a piece. I smiled and left without looking at the others, to give my boyfriend space as well as not get in trouble for hanging around.

I had a little time to spend with Warrior Scribe, so we got to talking.

"So tell me a bit about yourself Warrior," I said politely. He smiled and chuckled.

"Well let's see," he began, "I'm 18, bi, I like to play a game called Warhammer 40K. I like people who trust me, but I also believe that trust is one to be earned."

"That's really straightforward of you," I said bluntly. He smiled and punched my shoulder lightly.

"I don't like going into too much frivolous detail," he replied.

"Close enough," I said. I asked him a little bit about him being bi.

"I've been that way for a couple years. My family is tolerant of it, but they would rather I get with a nice girl when the time comes. I'm still single, but that may change eventually."

"Have any interests?" I asked chuckling.

"At the moment," he pondered, "no. Although you have some good looking teammates."

"Sorry to break it to you," I pointed out, "they're minors."

"I know," I said, "but your captain isn't. He's 18 like me." He gave me a wink and walked off. Well, I guess it's better the good-looking cat than a total stranger right?

Morrell came back from his match first. I smiled waiting for the good news as he walked up to me.

"I lost again," he said. My face changed to a sad one and I embraced him.

"But how?" I asked, "you were winning."

"I blew it again," he said, "I got out of a check incorrectly and he check mated me."

"It's alright man," I said, "hey you'll get to play down again, you'll get better." I said. We hugged again and I went to teach Morrell some extra strategies. Adair came back next with a loss. He was brutally murdered by Mc Intosh in that game, and he wasn't ashamed of it. The rest of the gang came out with a win near the end of the hour. This left us with 9 points up to this point, once again tied with West. Surprisingly only four of their top boards won, leaving them tied to us as far as the first tie breaker. Morrell's loss once again put West ahead, but I was careful not to let the downed orca know that.

"The heat is starting go up against West guys," Coach speeched, "Each win is crucial, but don't let it get to you. Just get in there and concentrate on playing." I knew that if I won the next match I'd have a perfect win streak evening. But I was about to find out how hard I'd be fighting for that victory.

When the next set of pairings came along, I was paired up against one of the tough ones.

"I got Adam Milke," I said, "he's rated over 1800."

"Well I got a girl from West," Alduin said, "which if I win, will gives us a double win over them."

"Best of luck man," I said. Adam Milke was a wolf, who sported sagging jeans and the cocky attitude of someone who listened to too much rap. His looks were misleading to his skill. He was tough, and had beaten me a few times when I was a kid. I sat down on board number 4, which was right near the top. We both shook hands, but he gave me a smirk. Alduin was sitting right next to me, with Lucian Snow playing another five boards down. The match soon began again.

This was the last match of the night, and one thing was for sure, everyone on the top boards spent as much time as humanly possible. After the first 25 minutes of the game, I was barely up on time, and only 8 moves in. I looked at Morrell for a second as he walked out of his match. He shook his head at me and I felt very sorry for him. He didn't win a single match today, this will really hurt his spirit. But I didn't put much attention on it for long, I had a match to win, and by golly I was going to win it.

We made it to forty minutes, our queens were exchanged 17 moves into the game. We both had ten minutes left on the clock, and the position was dead even. No one had an advantage or disadvantage in it. Another ten minutes and we stopped notating. We both had only five minutes left in the game, which implemented sudden death rules. Basically we don't have to notate if we're running that short on time. We were 22 moves in, right at end game and started playing it out at a faster pace. If I was good at any part of the game, it was the end game. Fortunately, Adam wasn't so much, and with both of us down to the last few minutes and 50 moves in, I was up a rook with an unstoppable queen. Needless to say he surrendered. I was now 3 wins strong, with 4 rounds following the next day.

I got an update when I walked back to our space, everyone had cleaned up already, ready to hit the hay. Alduin won his match, much to our delight. Snow also defeated a top board West player, which put us up ahead on the scores. Adair and Jake won their matches, leaving Equinox and Morrell with losses. We had 13 points with a 2 point tiebreaker. West had 12 points total, which put us just barely ahead. This round was crucial indeed, but it's not over yet.

"I can't believe he duped me like that," Morrell said, "he told me Bishops can't move backwards. I can't believe I believed him and moved that other piece. That cost me big time."

"Hey," I said consoling him gently, "it's ok. Forget about these games tonight and get a good night sleep for tomorrow."

"Alright," Morrell said and hugged me, "thanks for being so supportive. At least you're doing amazing as always." We left the school and were driven to a hotel roughly 20 minutes away. We were given three to a room. Alduin, Coach, and Warrior all got one room, Adi and the Lucian brothers got another, and that left me with the horny football players. Oh woe is me, just kidding. To celebrate our victories, Morrell and I walked to a restaurant on the other side of the parking lot, to have our own little date before bed.