Excerpt from This Starfinder
by
King Grossman
Prologue
John Rey counted his chips. Ten thousand dollars in all: five black chips at $1,000 apiece, five red ones at $500 apiece, and a handful of green and white ones that made up the difference. He began fingering his property chits. This is like playing Monopoly without being stuck buying property on the roll of dice. A sharp glance at the other players. No game of chance with you suckers. His heart raced as Mr. Schmidt, his sociology teacher, counted down the start of the game.
“Five seconds, four, three, two, one, begin.”
Starfinder was in play.
John stood up from his school desk quickly, wanting to make his first trade. Then he hesitated and self-consciously looked down at his threadbare corduroys, which used to be dark green. Now they were a faded olive color, another hand-me-down from his older brother, Jeremy. John felt the familiar anger overtaking him, making him want to hurt someone. It was deep within him and he didn’t know where it came from. Every one of his classmates’ families seemed to have more money than his.