As it turned out, Mika and the others were barely a minute’s walk (well, a minute’s slow flight in my case) in from the city gate we were out of, and they had an extra person with them.

“Oh, look, Jazmyn, our little fairy’s all grown up,” Mikachu said, shooting me a winking emote via text as Ka’Moni, Ace, and I approached.

“Uh-huh, uh-huh, coming back to hang out after a long day of romance,” my older sister replied.

Even Noa got in on the teasing, “You’ve been one of us girls so long, Rie, that we were starting to wonder a little.” The centaur winked and gave me a coy look from above the tops of her twin fans.

Ette’s crystalline face was unreadable but her eyes sparkled with mischief. “I’m going to have to learn how to craft rings, aren’t I?”

My cheeks were no doubt brilliantly blushing, but I took it in stride. “Gals, let’s save the teasing for outside the game, okay? I promise, at lunch tomorrow, you can all have at me all you want, but ….” One finger went up, “... you should at least wait for introductions before you start teasing Ka’Moni.” The second finger went up. “Also, not everybody knows everybody here, so we don’t want people to feel left out, do we?”

I nodded to the group of five, “Most all you all know Jenna’s and my youngest sibling,” I stressed the gender-neutral term, “Ace, here, is their character. Ace is a golemancer, and while their summons are still pretty basic, their little wooden golems did a fantastic job yesterday.”

Ace bowed with a flourish, and a split second later, their six golems appeared and copied the bow. My new ability was still active, giving Ace an additional SP to summon with, thus the six instead of five.

“Ace Arrow, at your service,” my younger sibling said, “And thank you for inviting me to be part of your group.”

“Of course!”

“Welcome aboard.”

“Glad to have you.”

“What did you think of Rie’s unicorn, Ace?”

That last was Jazmyn, popping over and giving Ace a hug. Then in a lower voice she continued. “And I’ll do my very best to remember ‘they’ and not ‘she,’ but please have patience if I mess up, Ace. I’ve got thirteen years of habit to break.”

“Th-thanks, Jen-- Jazmyn!” Ace hugged her back.

“That’s my older sister, Jenna. Jazmyn, here,” I explained to Ka’Moni. “She’s our mage and will probably be very glad to have your help in actually doing damage, something the rest of us are a bit deficient on.”

Then I figured it was time for a little light teasing of my own. Raising my voice a little, so both Ace and Ka’Moni could hear, I pointed out the rest of my group. “The overgrown red chicken is Mikachu, and one day Mika will have a different name in a game and we’ll all die of shock.”

“Chicken!” Mikachu’s voice was indignant, but she sent another winking text emote.

> That makes you a hummingbird. ;)

“And the off-brand My Little Pony there is Mika’s sister. Call her Noa, here. If you ask nicely, she might give you a ponyback ride, but I wouldn’t count on it. She doesn’t really horse around.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Noa just rolled her eyes. Like Mika and Jenna, Naomi had no problem being teased right on back.

Susie, however, I had to be a little careful with. She could dish it out, but really wasn’t great at taking it in return. “And last but not least is our Rockette scientist, but just call her Ette. She’s the brains behind our group, and that must say something about the rest of us if someone with literally rocks for brains is the smartest of us all.”

That got laughs all around, even from Ette. “Okay, I can’t even be mad about those puns, Rie,” she said. Then the blue glows of her eyes narrowed slightly. “If you’re the little sibling,” she looked first at Ace then turned her attention to Ka’Moni. “Then I guess you must be the love interest?”

Bwah. What?

Noa whacked Ette over the head with her fans. “Knock it off, Suze. At least let the poor girl introduce herself first!”

Ka’Moni laughed, though it was a little bit forced. “It’s only been one date. It’s waaaaay too early to be using heavy words like that. Yet. But, yes, I’m Monica, but call me Ka’Moni here. Thank you for letting me be a part of your team.” She struck a dramatic pose, almost like she was preparing to launch into one of her little cheer routine buffs. “Justice and Teamwork prevail! And is that you, Chels?” She shaded her eyes and peered toward the fifth girl, the other newcomer to the group.

I also shielded my eyes and took a closer look at the fifth girl. Sure enough, she looked like Chelsea, though glammed up a little, just like Jazmyn looked like a slightly more glamorous version of Jenna. That was the Path of Self in action.

Mikachu, however, answered for the girl. “This is Nona Verthandi, who like Ette is going to be a crafter. I figured we could try and help power-level her a little so she can get more of the skills and abilities she’ll need to really get rolling on her crafting. She is a little shy, though.”

“Ah … I don’t know how well we can power-level anyone when we’re all still pretty low-level ourselves, but we can certainly help you. Welcome to our little band, Nona.”

“Th-thank you for having me.”

“Well ….” I looked around. “So, who’s leading this merry expedition today? Plans?”

Most of us glanced at Ette, that is … Mikachu, Naomi, Jazmyn, and I did. The others didn’t quite have our level of experience with her.

But Ette shook her head. “Not me. Since I’m a crafter, I won’t always be with you when you go out of town. I think the leader should be relatively consistent from day to day, so that rules me out.”

“Hmmm. Well, Noa? What about you?” She was the other brains of our little group, and as a Tactician, her class seemed suited for leadership.

But the centaur also shook her head. “A Tactician advises but doesn’t lead.”

Before I could turn to the third in line, Mikachu, she spoke up. “I think it should be Rie.”

Me?

But before I could voice my doubt, my best friend continued, “Not only is a healer usually the one with the most situational awareness, having to keep an eye on everybody and their health, you know, but if you think about it, there’s three little circles here, and Rie’s part of all of them.”

“Um, circles?” I asked.

“Yeah. There’s us five, of course,” Mikachu said, “that’s one circle. But there’s also you, Jenna, and Ace. That’s another. And finally there’s the four of us from gym class.” She indicated Nona and Ka’Moni.

I wrinkled my nose in protest, but of course with my diminutive stature, my expression didn’t carry very far. “Well … okay. We’ll see what happens long term, but if I spend too much time arguing today, then we’re wasting leveling-up time.”

As I was speaking, I sent out a flurry of group invites -- and a friend invite to Nona.

“Well, welcome aboard, everyone,” I said.

I had been thinking we were gonna skip the tutorial zone today and go out to a regular instance. After all, it seemed that even with competition for spawns, we’ll get more experience out in public. Else why would so many of my classmates and others at school be thinking of reaching level five tonight?

But, with everyone, I had another idea. “Let’s try the tutorial zone today. If we get everyone a level or two, how do you feel about taking down that big rat?”

That got cheers of assent from most of them. Ka’Moni joined it, but Ace and Nona looked confused.