I had to stop him after his elevator pitch got me a bit too into it.

"Look I understand the value that you're bringing to the table. How are the kids getting this message?"

Several people passed us by and he waved. He had two people working with him that were answering questions.

He gave me a wide smile. "They're getting it from their peers. True leaders don't make followers... They make more leaders."

"I swear if you're about to make me sign up for an MLM about coaching high school boys, then I will be finding my way out post haste," I said.

He bowed, and introduced a thoroughly period piece accent. "Milady, I would never presume that you would be interested in such rapscallions as those I choose to deal with."

He had clearly been looking for this sort of opening and I played right into it.

"Your lordship," I said matching his tone as evenly as I could. "The powers that be do call me back to the front on such a short time. Perhaps thy plans for luncheon have not been set in stone yet?"

It was a bit forward but he caught on fast.

"Why, that would be marvelous! Prithee join me for a small meal that we may fight off the scourge of hunger once more."

"Diner?" I said.

"Quite so," he said.

We had one more game before lunch. This one was going to count.

"Perhaps milord would care to view part of the festivities? It's being live streamed, should you care to partake."

He smiled.

We would have one game before lunch and then potentially one or two games after lunch. Based on the brackets, I wasn't entirely sure how things were going to shakedown in the Allstate version, but I was ready for it.

"Our next competitor is Hudson County and then most likely, Essex," I said.

"Essex is the one with the two brothers, right? I've got to speak to their manager. Getting them into my program would be great social proof of what we're trying to do."

"I believe that they're brothers," I said. "I can neither confirm nor deny anything about them."

My phone buzzed. I had lost track of time on the exhibition floor.

"Apologies," I said. "Duty calls."

"Good luck!"

I wanted to tell him that there was no luck It was all skill but instead I just gave him a little smile and head out. He texted me two options for lunch and told me that he'd preferred one. Then he said based on my timeline that he would order us both something and asked if I had any preferences.

I was really happy to say that this was exactly how a queen deserved to be treated and I was digging it. Now I just needed the rest of my subjects to bow down in the appropriate manner.

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It was Hudson again and I shook the manager's hand before I got rid of to completely eviscerate him. It wasn't that it was a bad man. It was that he was my opponent and I tended to crush my opponents. Right off the gate, I wasn't sure why they were there but it looked like another one of the teams had dropped out and they were in the mixed North Jersey bracket with us. The two of the main brackets were the Central and South Jersey brackets. I had debated about wearing my central jersey doesn't exist shirt that I had gotten from my friends as Stacy and her beau arrived.

"Game two! You excited?" she said.

"You know it!" I said.

The team was all ready to go. The short break was just enough to swap out the kids from the South Jersey brackets and they looked rough. The way that the single lamination tournament works, there was a bracket for North Jersey, South Jersey and Central and because they'd accepted slightly more than that, there was a bracket for overflow. Each of those combined to give us four finalists then two and then the one winner.

It was a fun little exercise in how do we do this? We could definitely lose the first round potentially but I was hoping to make it out of the north jersey block. We might win it all.

I had spent way too much time sizing up the amount of people that were playing. I had gotten several surprises, especially among students that had to be fourth years at different colleges. Several were professional level just looking like they were about to debut on the world stage.

I was so glad when they wore the jersey of a four year college, not a community college. It was refreshed that Racquel could still find some colleges to speak to there as they were recruiting, especially women.

For some reason there weren't many women in the sport. I might work to change that if I got a chance.

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We arrived at the final game of the day, our path ahead secured. If we got this, it would be done.

I already felt like we had made it which is saying a lot. I used to have this drive to go after the next degree or the next certification. After some time, you probably know what I’m going to say… it felt empty. It felt like I was going after achievement for achievements purpose only.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

That was never how I meant to live my life.

I wanted to be more intentional.

That was what my mom meant for me. The community I had grown up in, the little insular first-generation immigrant. She put it on my to do my best because she was stuck in place. She had this whole world that she grew up and understood, but here in America? Things had been changing around her. I embraced it even as she stuck to what she knew.

There had been so many times that she had put something on me that I couldn’t live up to. But that was my experience, the real deal of living with a mother that was never satisfied.

She hadn’t been satisfied. I had to figure out how to find my own satisfaction, even as she was trying to relive her childhood through me.

But this?

Seeing my students play a game and win through some mystical powers that I had worked through them was just a whole different feeling. I hadn’t found that satisfaction before and feeling it put me in the right mood.

No matter what happened we had arrived here fully ready to win.

“You’re glowing,” Gus said.

“Oh yeah,” I said. “I’m just happy.”

I thought about how this could play out. I realized that I was overthinking it.

“You think that you can teach me how to play?”

“I think we can handle that.”

"Ask me after the last match."

"I sure will," he said.

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Essex county wasn’t prepared for us. Halfway through our game we were at an uneasy stalemate. With one kill on each side, the match could go either way.

Our guys were barely keeping the brothers in check. For as much work as we had put in, they had put in a similar amount. I was wondering how they had kept up. I kept remembering that they had to stream their games to keep up their audience engagement. They played for several hours each day. It had to be a lot in comparison with how much schoolwork they were doing.

We got our break at the fifteen-minute mark when they went for dragon as a team, or they tried to.

“They’re out of position!” Rachel said.

“Take advantage,” I said.

Esther and Rachel met their bottom lane and support at the right place for us and the wrong time for them. All of a sudden, their attempt to get a freebie turned into a minute long back and forth, where we traded two kills for dragon. They easily finished dragon. We locked down their lane, destroyed a second tower in the bottom lane and kept up the snowball.

That about ended them there. Had it not been for their skill matching ours, we would have completely had it in the bag.

Their moxy clashed against our practiced team in the epic struggle that was little avatars in a computer simulation. Would our numbers beat theirs?

I was silently crossing my fingers.

My priority was getting the kids through this and seeing them to the end. It was also to get a few drinks at the end of the day.

Just because they couldn't drink didn't mean I wasn't going to pay for dinner. It was refreshing to be able to enjoy some virgin drinks before the final bout. The open bar affiliated with the hotel was sounding better by the hour.

Look, I'll admit it, I trusted Rachel and Esther to manage a team in my absence. That didn't mean I wasn't fully invested. It just meant that I had developed them to a point where I didn't actually need to be there and if I wasn't managing and getting all my points, then maybe I was going to be all right. Maybe the team was going to be all right without me but last match. Maybe, but I still wanted to get those points.

I snapped back into their dominant position. I had the urge to check my school email, but I pushed that deep down.

This team had given me a chance when nothing else in my life was nearly as exciting and I was so happy that we were at the end of the semester and then I wasn't dealing with emails from students who had completely missed my classes the entire time.

I promised myself that I wouldn't check my email today.

There was too much going on.

This meant that for the first day in about a week and a half since finals ended I wasn't trying to follow up with things. The school knew that I was down here in Atlantic City. They didn't care. They had a deadline upon which we had to enter our grades in, but other than that, all they asked for me was to respond within recent meal time frame to student inquiries.

I already gotten several questions about next semester's courses and I was happy to see that many people were actually looking up the requirements for their associate's degrees and picking my course.

I got a little thrill every time I got a new convert who had heard good things about me through another professor and then decided to reach out to me after they registered to see if they could get some read ahead or something. They were brown noses for the most part but they were also good people who just were trying to make their way through this world and I only really dealt with the top students and the bottom students.

That's something that they don't tell you, the best students email you or come to your office hours because they want to get better. The bottom students come to you because they want to pass. And then you were there in the middle of these two groups and you're like trying to tailor your lectures for a third group, the silent majority of students that you get who are just content to go show up to class. Do the work hand it in and get a okay grade and before they leave your life forever.

Or they come back to you next semester for the more difficult class. Or for the next season.

But as I saw them closing in on the enemy's base? I could only feel like I was happy for them.

"Kelly?" Gus Johnston, the ninja arrived without making a sound.

"Yeah, Gus."

"Are you crying?"

"No," I sniffed. "I'm just allergic to bullshit."

The team stood up. I had forgotten about everything for a second

The game? My emails? Forgotten. That sexy ninja in front of me had my attention. And he was looking at the game.

He smirked.

"They won?" He said. "They won!"

I was speechless.

Rachel and Esther were jumping up and down.

This was it.

The girls were hugging Murph and Bob and they couldn't stop grinning. I might have gotten them here, but this was their moment.

"Congratulations," he said, handing me a tissue. "You have got to be proud."

"Yeah, I uhh..."

A wave of students hit me full force, nearly tackling me off my feet. All of a sudden I was up in the air being tossed around like this was some obscure wedding celebration.

"Best semester ever!" Racquel yelled.

"Kelly! Kelly!" The team yelled.

I couldn't stop the full body blush as they carried me around for all of ten seconds while Stacey and the Johnston brothers got a good video of my triumph before they set me back down.

"You guys did great!" I said.

"Professor Thomas you really helped us out this semester," Esther said. "And I wanted you to have this as a token of our appreciation."

She held out a wrapped gift in red black and white. It wasn't heavy.

"Guys I wasn't expecting anything. If anything I was going to pay for the drinks but..."

"Open it," Rachel said, wrapping her arm around Esther. "It's from all of us."

"Ok, let me just..."

I ripped open the package with my shaking fingers.

"Anime on the cover. Is this a manga?" I said, tracing my hands over it. "I was reborn as the level 99 eSports professor? Who wrote this?"

I gasped.

"Told you she would do that," Rachel said.

"Esther Kim? You wrote this?"

She beamed back at me. "You made me think that this was possible so I uh... Made it happen. It's nothing big. I made it myself. The girls helped."

"Damn right," Racquel said.

I flipped it open and it sure was a light novel.

"Guys, this is amazing. I am sure that I have never gotten a better, more personalized present from anyone, ever."

"Alright," Esther said. "But you didn't tell her the good news Rachel."

Rachel looked like she was about to melt.

"You got more customers, didn't you?" I said. "I happen to know a vendor here. Maybe you can meet him."

Gus waved.

The kids took some time to calm down but then it was just me and my friends and Gus.

“So, about that game,” Gus said.

I smiled.

"I would love to."

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The end