“Do I look like Susie?” I demanded, hands on my hips and wings fluttering a bit faster.

“Well …, no,” they both said in unison.

“But if you’re not Susie,” the centaur continued, “then you must be James.”

Before I could nod, Jenna asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Because Mika was going on and on about how she’d protect everyone just like she always does, and I can’t see any way a little fairy could be an effective shieldwall.”

A little reluctantly, I nodded. “In the virtual flesh, at your service,” and bowed with the same flourish as I had given Desi.

Again, the two girls simultaneously spoke. This time, however, their words were different.

“You must’ve got a really good class,” Naomi said. But she was drowned out by my older sister.

“Oh my gosh! You are SO CUTE!” she exclaimed. It wasn’t quite the squeal of a young girl who just found the toy aisle or candy store, but it was close. I fluttered higher and then darted behind Naomi as Jenna made to reach for me.

“Jenna! What are you doing!” I nearly shouted.

“Hey, just because I outgrew playing with dolls several years ago doesn’t mean I don’t like them anymore,” she protested, “And you’re like a living, flying doll. Just the right size and cuter than Tinkerbell and more poseable than Barbie. Jocelyn is going to be soooo jealous. I’m sure there’s got to be a toy store in this city where we can find you some dresses and other outfits.”

“Jenna,” Naomi smothered a laugh, “you’re not going to play dress-up with your brother!”

She pouted, “Well, when you put it that way. Still, look at him and tell me he wouldn’t look fantastic in one of those Holiday Barbie dresses or something similar. A dark green, velvet gown like the one in the display case in your room ….”

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Naomi just shook her head. “Yes, he would. Or she.” She looked over her shoulder at me, since I was still keeping her between me and Jenna. “I suppose you gave yourself a different name?” she asked.

“Well, yeah. I thought everyone was, except maybe Jenna. It’s still a game, even if it is virtual reality and has real world stuff attached to it. So this is still a character, even if I’m piloting her without using a keyboard, mouse, or controller. I called her Rie,” I said, giving the name the two-syllable, Japanese-style pronunciation, rhyming with freeway rather than sounding like rye bread.

I … honestly hadn’t spent a lot of time on the name of my character. It was really just based on an alternate spelling of fairy, f-a-e-r-i-e instead of f-a-i-r-y. Then chop off the first half and give it a slightly more exotic sound than just “ree” by itself.

“No letter ‘J’? Wait until Mom and Dad hear,” Jenna said. “But it’s still a cute name. I like it; it’s a very fairy name. And maybe you don’t think I did, but I did choose a different name than using my real name here. After all, Jenna can’t cast magic spells, but Jazmyn Morgana Starbreeze can. Or, at least, I think I can. I haven’t tried, yet. I have to figure that part out, still.”

While Jenna was talking, a little system notification popped up in front of me, looking quite a bit like a tiny, intangible butterfly with an exclamation mark hovering above it: “Incoming social request: Noa Leafdancer wishes to add you as mutual friends. Approve/deny?”

I glanced at Naomi, and she nodded. Then she poked Jenna and said, “Don’t forget to send a friend request to your brother if you’re done fangirling over his fairy character.”

My sister blushed, “Oh, yeah, let me see where that is again.” But before too long, another little butterfly appeared with another little incoming social request.

I accepted them both, of course.

“So, Nao– Sorry, Noa, what class did you get? Jazmyn’s a mage of some sort, but what about you?”

She shook her head, “Not a Lancer like Susie thought I was likely to get. But don’t you think it’s best to wait until we’re all here and just explain our classes all at once? I’m pretty sure you’ve got to have got a really good healer class, otherwise it’s not very likely you’d be a fairy, but Susie and Mika are both going to want to know, too.”

I nodded, and Naomi, Jenna, and I made small talk for a few minutes while we waited for the other two members of our group. Well, Jenna and Naomi made small talk, and I answered a question or two here or there while I continued to practice flying. It was much more work to fly slowly than it was to zip across the city. Hovering in place wasn’t that tiring, though, and that was an advantage I had over most birds and other natural winged creatures.

We didn’t have to wait too long though. Mika and Susie arrived almost simultaneously, homing in on Naomi’s centaur just as I had, and their entrance and appearance completely overshadowed my own.