Chapter 26

Vote for Pedro

[ Relationship level up!

Darcy + Angelia Level 0 -> 1: Friends! ]

“Friends? Fuck that. Darcy, Stephen, if you so choose, I would be honored to be your partner in persuasion.”

She stood up on the booth seat and held out both of her hands to us. As usual, I was ready to jump in but Stephen just stared at her hand.

“Come on Stephen, you really think we can do this on our own?”

He considered. “Definitely not.”

We both took her hands at the same time. We shook, sealing the deal.

[ Relationship Level Up!

Darcy + Angelia Level 1 Friends - New Branch Chosen: Partners.

Level 1 -> 2: Partners. ]

[ You have never had a Partner before! ]

Damn, Interverse, rude.

[ Explanation of Partner Perks:

> Experience boost while in a Party! x5% per Partner toward relevant Stats

> The Individual Effects The Whole

( In the chosen Partnered field, success and failures are shared. ) ]

[ Choose Partnered Class ]

“Hey, I’m really new to doing anything with uh, anyone.” I said, throwing up my menu. “What does any of this stuff mean?”

“I can guess at what it means,” Stephen said. “But in practice, yeah, I’m just as lost.”

Angelia plopped back down. “No biggie, that’s why you guys got little old me! Okay, so, the boost stuff is obvious. Since our goals are going to be social, any success we have will boost you guys' social stats.”

I shook my hand in front of my face. “Wait, wait. I know we need to be more social to accomplish this. But I don’t actually want to, like, change my personality or something.”

Stephen answered this time. “You can’t. Well, technically you can change personality traits but it usually happens in negative ways. Like, for example, if you took a normal social kid and then took him away from his peers and left him on his own for a long time–that would change his personality quite a bit.” That seemed like an awfully specific example and Stephen could tell I’d picked up on that. “You know, I guess…”

“No, you’re right,” Angelia said. “Negative traits are a lot harder to get rid of. They kind of always linger on you. But they can be overcome a lot. But, before you say anything, being an introvert is not really a negative. It’s just a way of being. Totally valid. Everything we do will just make it easier for you to come out of your shell and talk to people. You will still not like it very much and still need that classic introvert alone time recharge.”

“Okay, then I’m in.” I shook Angelia's hand again for good measure and she giggled.

“Then we need to establish what we want to do. One second…” Her eyes got far off and glowy as she went through her menus.

“What’s she doing now?” I asked.

“Finding a Classification of our Partnership. Basically, it’s like a contract. What we are going to work on together. She needs to find a Classification that deals with all the Stats we want to raise.”

“Bingo,” she said, agreeing with Stephen and also finding what she was looking for at the same time. She threw her menu at us.

“‘Class President’!?” I managed to choke out in the midst of my laughter.

“Let me see that,” Stephen said, moving the menu closer. “Surely there are better Classifications.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Nope. I checked. Read it yourself, it fits.” She leaned back, mindlessly playing with her hair again.

I wrestled with the menu enough for me to get a view of it over Stephen’s shoulder.

[ Class President Explanation:

Partners in this classification have the joint goal of electing a leader or multiple leaders of a body of mostly children, young adults, or “young at heart.”

The Stats focused on are (but are not limited to):

> Sociability

> Confidence

> Persuasion

> Sweet Talking

Stat gains are linked between Partners. The gains of one give slight boosts for the others. The closer in Stats they are the more boost is shared.

So go out there and win over your classroom, future Class President! ]

I zoned back in from the pile of information.

“You’re right,” Stephen said. “It totally fits.”

“It does, but I don’t think our fellow strugglers would be very amused by it,” I said, stuffing a laugh.

“Strugglers?” Angelia asked.

“That’s what our teacher started calling us with this death mission.” I said, becoming so accustomed to using the word that I forgot that it wasn’t our official title.

“I love that. We need to refer to everyone in that manner, that alone will give us a boost in public perception.”

“But why?” Stephen asked.

“Cause it sounds fucking rad as hell,” I said. “It doesn’t immediately give you an image in your head of some badass warriors fighting off a god?”

Angelia and Stephen laughed.

“I’m serious!” I banged the table with my hand. “Come on. Tell me I’m wrong.”

“No, it does, I’m laughing cause you’re so right,” Stephen said.

“Suuuper right," Angelia said when her laughter died down. “The kind of people who partake in battle royales are going to be all over that terminology.”

“Sweet. Thanks, old man, I guess. He will be so glad to know he came up with a term that pre teen boys dig.”

She laughed again and waved her hands in front of her in an X shape. “Stop, stop, no more jokes. I’m trying to lay out our battle plan. I think I’ve laughed harder tonight than I have in years.”

“Darcy had that effect on me too.” Stephen met my eyes, smiled, and then looked away.

“Aw, what? You guys are too nice to me…” I felt my cheeks turning red and pretended to look through my menu for something.

Angelia, with her mad social skills, picked up on my embarrassment and graciously steered the conversation away from it. “So, let’s say we do get everyone on our side. What’s the plan then?”

I exited out of the menu, coming back to the conversation, my blushing diminishing as I pondered that.

“We don’t really have a plan,” said Stephen. “We just know we don’t stand a chance alone.”

“Hmmm… that will be an issue. We could get pretty far without revealing that we don’t have a plan but, eventually, they’ll find us out. And not be too happy.”

“I think our teacher has a plan,” I said. “He is preparing us to do something, we just don’t know what yet.”

“You’re sure he’s trustworthy? Why won’t he just spell it out for you?”

“Not sure… but he is trustworthy. Stephen at least has known him for a long time.”

He nodded. “He’s sort of my therapist.”

Angelia laughed. “A therapist is your combat teacher? You guys sure are weird. And I mean that in the best way.”

“Yeah, we know,” I grinned. “But we’ve already made progress in just our first full lesson. We’ll get there, we will have a plan.”

“Okay. But make it fast, if they find us out before we have everything in place our entire presidential run will collapse on itself.”

Sobering words. I made a mental note to tell the teacher that. Hopefully it would speed up his reveal of what exactly our end goal was.

A horrible rumbling noise shook the table and I about dived underneath it, fearing an earthquake.

“Ooh, sorry. That was me,” she said, rubbing her belly. “I’m starving. And I don’t think I can handle bar food.”

“Coffee shop,” Stephen pointed out.

“Writer shithole,” I said.

Stephen glared at me and Angelia died laughing. But then her stomach rumbled even louder. “Ouch, so hungry… Okay guys, I think I gotta peace out. I would offer to go out with you both but, if you can believe it, I have a family dinner tonight.”

“Wow, congratulations,” Stephen said, for some reason, making her laugh even harder.

“You two are a riot. I look forward to working with you. This is going to be the beginning of a beautiful partnership. We will make you both class presidents.” She saluted. “Laters!”

And just like that, she was gone. Teleported away to a family meal, likely in a mansion that really did make this writer’s nook look like a shithole.

As she left, a message popped up:

[ Make a Friend - Quest Complete!

Make friend 1/1

You feel slightly more social!

Sociability Level up! 12 -> 15 ]

“Sweet, level fifteen!” I fist pumped the sky.

“Level fifteen?” Stephen raised his eyebrow. “That’s all? Wow, you really are a shut-in.”

I glared at him. “Okay, what do you have then, Oh Great and Sociable One?”

He smiled. “...sixteen.”

I smacked him on the arm and we both lost it laughing.

“We really are hopeless, huh?” Stephen said.

“We found each other. And somehow we made a friend today, one way more equipped at this kind of thing than us. I say we’ve done pretty good for ourselves.”

“Or we’re just lucky,” Stephen said.

“If only we could see that Stat,” I sighed. “We’re still just at the very beginning of this thing. But we have a shot now. Two anti-social weirdos are gonna unite the kiddies, become class president, and take down a monster!”

I held out my fist and Stephen bumped it with his own, sealing the deal, ensuring our future.

Six days remain.