Today is going to be a good day. Last night I didn’t even have any nightmares… well, sorta. And I have a surprise for Nile that he’s gonna fall all over himself for.

Dom smiled as she imagined his reaction when she handed him her little present. To say that he was going to flip would be a dramatic understatement.

A soft ping echoed in her mind, and a translucent notification slid into her line of sight.

Quest Unlocked: Give Nile the Surprise

Objective: Deliver the gift to Nile.

Reward: +50 relationship points (Nile), Potential reaction boost.

“Damnit, not again,” she muttered under her breath, the words feeling heavier than she wanted them to. The system notifications had been plaguing her ever since the nightmares started—uninvited, intrusive, and unsettling in their precision. She hadn’t told anyone about them, though. It was easier to pretend they didn’t exist. After all, this wasn’t some isekai adventure or system apocalypse…

Yeah, right! she mentally scoffed.

She shook off the thought and turned off the engine of her bike.

It was a matte black with red trim, a fully customized Agusta Brutale 675.

Dom liked to call her, Suzie.

Taking off her helmet she shook out her mid-short length dark hair and checked her reflection in the little side mirror. The tiny image revealed a youthful looking girl with a light, naturally tanned, oval face. She had slightly peaked eyebrows, long lashes, and stunning opal like eyes that danced between being golden and dark green. No contacts here people.

Doing a quick makeup check, she tilted her head to one side and contemplated her strong jawline and pursed semi-full lips that only pouted when she wanted them to.

Hmm not bad. She’d cut her hair short to accentuate her face, but the bike helmet pretty much ruined any attempts she made of putting order in on the chaos as her hair did it’s best to levitate away from her head.

Ugh, helmet hair for the lose. She took a moment to peel away the leather gloves from her hands before she ran them through her messy hair.

Achievement Unlocked: Helmet Hair Mastery – No amount of styling will tame the beast.

Effect: +5 Wildness, -10 Grooming.

Dom blinked and the message faded as quickly as it appeared, another one of those annoying system notifications that had become an almost routine nuisance. She shook her head, trying to ignore the sensation of the unseen system tracking her every move.

At least her hair was silky today. Seeing that she just wasn’t going to be getting anywhere with it, she gave it up for a loss. Maybe the wild and messy look is in today.

She laughed at herself, shaking off the weird feeling the notification left behind. If Jacky and Nicky saw her they’d drag her into the nearest bathroom for an emergency makeover. Of course they would have no room to complain about her outfit because today she was wearing her brand new skin-tight Versace knock-off cropped leather biker pants and her studded calf-high heeled boots topped with a fitted leather jacket with plenty of zippers and studs and underneath that she wore a sheer lace long sleeved top.

It may not leave much to the imagination, but a girl has to make a good impression on her first day back from vacation. And besides, she had a reason to dress to impress.

And his name was Nile.

Dom made for the quad and she saw Nile sitting at their usual spot. He had his stuff laid out on their usual table as he was busy fiddling with a new phone which was attached to his laptop-tablet hybrid. It looked like he was trying to hack into it.

As usual.

He liked to do things like that and she’d learned early on that if she didn’t want something hacked and modded that she couldn’t leave it unattended in his company. He just couldn’t help taking things apart to see how they ticked, though fortunately, he always put them back together again, and more often than not he’d somehow manage to reconstruct them better than they were originally. It was why he worked as a computer repair geek and sometime mechanic in his spare time; they helped to feed his addiction. He didn’t even seem to notice when she came up next to him, so engrossed was he in his latest toy.

He had his homework laid out on the table next to the computer, Chemistry and Math. She was supposed to be tutoring him on it. For some reason in Chemistry and Math classes, Nile was failing and it turned out that he may not graduate if he couldn’t pull off a miracle. He’d asked Dom to tutor him, and she’d agreed. And so they found themselves here every day during their free periods.

While tutoring him, she’d puzzled at why he’s so good at practical applications of the subjects, but in class he’s always been so slow. It’s been that way as long as she’s known him. Even from grade school he just never seemed to do well in those subjects. She knew that he was a genius and it just didn’t make sense.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

She’d seen him in class just messing around and she’d seen him use advanced formulae that she could barely even get an angle on but he’d understood it with no problems whatsoever. His intuitive grasp of the subjects was astounding but the academics of it failed him. He was one of those kids that jumped to the right solution without navigating the intervening steps. He’s never been able to show his work correctly. Yet when you put a problem in front of him he’d snap out the answer like it was nothing. It was just one of the many mysteries of the boy called Nile.

As she studied him she grinned to herself, oh good, I’m not the only one who’s having a bad hair day. His hair was wild and messy too, but for some reason it looked good on him. He had on the textured gray hoodie that Dom had gotten him as a late Christmas present. That looked good on him too.

As if hacking into a phone wasn’t enough, everything from his tight jeans and his zombie apocalypse ninja t-shirt, to his custom designed Converse sneakers, practically screamed nerd alert. But instead of looking dorky, he pulled it off effortlessly, making it appear as if it were the cutting edge of hip.

Dom slid into the seat beside him, the corners of her mouth twitching as she watched him work, already imagining the system’s next snarky notification lurking just beneath the surface, waiting to spring on her.

“Hey, move over.”

Dom shoved Nile aside, and he was forced to catch his phone as it threatened to slip off the table. Claiming the seat he had so recently occupied, Dom threw down her backpack and reached over to claim her prize as queen of the hill, but Nile grimaced in annoyance, deflecting her attempt to steal a French fry.

A notification flashed in Dom’s vision:

New Objective: Steal Nile’s Fries

Success: +1 Fry (Nile’s Patience -5)

Dom smirked, the system’s cheeky input almost making her break character. She grabbed a fry, leaning back as if she’d just won some grand prize.

“So, how are you doing? Are you okay?” Dom asked, her voice softening as she looked at Nile with genuine concern. Nile’s dad was still in a coma after the accident, and even though she’d known him long enough to understand that he would deal with it in his own time, it didn’t hurt to check in. That’s what friends did. They cared.

“I’m fine. It’s rough, but I’m okay. How are you doing?”

“Oh, I’m doing just peachy,” she replied.

Before Nile could react, Dom reached over again, this time successfully snagging another fry. She made a show of chewing it slowly, rolling her eyes in mock ecstasy while sneaking a glance at him.

Another notification popped up:

Quest Completed: Steal Nile’s Fries

Reward: +50 Satisfaction, -20 Nile’s Patience

Nile glared. “Dude! First my seat, and now my fries? Don’t you have your own?”

Dom shrugged, her manner relaxed, playing along with their regular banter. “Nile, chill. You know I don’t like sitting on a cold seat. Thanks for warming it up for me. You’re the bestest BFF evar.”

Nile opened his mouth to protest but didn’t get the chance, because in the same moment, Dom accidentally dropped a flash drive. With a theatrical flourish, she picked it back up, dusting it off, and presented it to him with a mischievous grin.

“Tada! It’s something to cheer you up!”

Nile’s eyes immediately locked onto the flash drive, all thoughts of fries vanishing as he zeroed in on the small object in her hand. His expression shifted, intense curiosity lighting his face.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Dom popped another fry into her mouth, enjoying the suspense she was stringing him along with.

“Mmmhmm, you bet it is.”

“How in the hell… Dom, how’d you pull it off?” Nile’s voice had the kind of awe usually reserved for top-tier loot drops.

Dom let him stew for a few more seconds, snatching another couple of fries just to savor his rising frustration.

“That game isn’t even supposed to hit the closed beta for at least six more months. All of the e-board junkies are salivating over the idea of getting in. How did you manage to snag a copy?”

Dom laughed, leaning back as she tossed him an exaggerated wink. “Jeez, you nerds are all alike. No tact, no manners, just demands. Maybe I should just shred this and forget about it.”

She pouted dramatically, her oval face and slightly upturned nose scrunching up in mock offense, but Nile wasn’t buying it.

Nile quickly adjusted his tactics, softening his tone. “Aww, Dom, you know how much it means to me that you were able to get it. I just want to know how much trouble we’re getting into this time when the authorities come knocking. You know they will, right? This is, like, a higher-than-high crime.”

He leaned closer, his voice dropping conspiratorially. “I mean, the security alone is intense. They have regulations on how every single data storage device has to be registered, scanned, and rescanned before leaving their facility. They take their programming very seriously. If what you’re holding is real, you could be in some serious trouble.”

Dom made a show of looking panicked, her eyes going wide as she mimicked tearing the flash drive apart with her hands. “Wow, serious? I had no idea… what do we do? I have to dump this immediately!”

Another system notification flashed in front of her:

Quest Update: Keep Nile on Edge

Success: +50 Amusement, +5 Nile’s Anxiety

Nile, in genuine panic now, snatched the drive from her grasp, a pained expression crossing his face. “Now, now, now, let’s not be too hasty. Let’s think about this before you do something we’ll both regret.”

Dom barely managed to hide her grin as she nodded, adopting an exaggeratedly serious expression. “Right, of course. We don’t want to be too hasty,” she said, barely able to suppress a giggle.

She finally broke and told him how she got the game.

“And that’s why being a girl has its advantages. All I had to do was flirt a bit, give a few come-hither looks, and flash a little skin, and I was in like Flynn.”

Dom tried to demonstrate her technique, giving Nile a playful mock flirtation, but he was completely oblivious—utterly transfixed by the drive in his hands. However, her little performance didn’t go unnoticed by a group of kids at a nearby table, classic geek attire and all, staring wide-eyed at her.

“See, all nerds are the same. Piece of cake.”

Dom winked at the kids, who hastily looked away, fumbling with their phones as if they’d suddenly found something very important to do.

Achievement Unlocked: Nerd Mastery – +10 Effectiveness in Flirting with Geeks

Effect: Geeks will now automatically look away in awe.

Dom smiled at the notification and popped another fry into her mouth.