It had a full half an hour from when she’d left the room until Nathaniel had come out of it, grinning. She had, of course attempted to ask him about why he was grinning, and he’d just responded with an attempt at a mysterious smile and “you’ll see soon.”

Which wasn’t a good sign, to her mind, but frankly if it was some sort of prank, she’d be able to get him back much worse for it anyways.

So that was fine.

But it did, also, distract her from lording the team offer as some sort of mystery over him.

Ugh. Did he really manage to out-mysterious her?

Wait.

Nathaniel didn’t usually hide things from her. Which meant there was some reason he was doing this. Did he notice that..?

They’d finished setting the table, their parents only a few minutes away according to the app that pinged their phones, when she finally convinced herself to ask.

“Turnabout or did you come up with it on your own?”

“Former, obviously.”

“Ugh. Well, there went that plan.” Jade said, disgustedly. “How did you figure it out?”

“You were sitting in the wrong chair so you could watch for me.”

“And?”

“And that book was too small to hide your face.”

“Damnit! Okay, That’s just a fuckup. Did that math work out?”

“A bit too red, but that’s fine, and fixable by me. Actually, I have an idea I want to test out, and probably want your help with.” Nathaniel replied, rapping three of his fingers against the counter.

“What’s that?”

“It’ll give away the secret.”

“Okay?”

“So I tell you mine when you tell me yours.”

She made a face at that. It wasn’t like she could get away with not telling him, when that was a fairly significant part of the reason it was a thing in the first place.

“Gotta tell you and the parents anyways, so at dinner.”

“Oh, mine’s just an abilities thing. I wanna spend our second sets on something.”

“Good idea or dumb one?”

“Incredibly dumb. But fun.”

“Obviously I’m in then,” Jade answered, intending to continue when the sound of the front door opening started. Click-click-turn no final clack, so it would be mom.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

“Hey, mom. You’re back before dad is.”

“Yes, saw that on the app. You two have dinner ready, right?”

“Nearly,” Nathaniel cut in, “Jade’s got something to tell both of you, so we put it back until dad would get home.”

That had absolutely not been the reason, given that mom had updated her ETA much later than it would have been possible to change the 6-hour cook time for, but that wasn’t likely to go over well. She wouldn’t recognize that they’d done a slow-cooker recipe, even if dad would. Not that he’d say anything about that, luckily.

And he was much better at making that kind of lie palatable than she was, anyways.

“Oh? Something about school or all that money you keep turning down?”

She wanted to make some outward sign that she was annoyed, but it was much easier to just let it pass. “The… let’s just wait until everyone’s here.”

Their mom asked a few questions about how their day was, but quickly retired to her room to change. It only kind of made sense to her, given that her mom’s work clothes were plenty comfortable, but she wasn’t going to ask too many questions.

Usually she only got basic answers about a work uniform early in her work life, and nothing else.

Both she and Nathaniel had learned that it was pointless. They didn’t ever get any actual answers, just deflections, but they’d pieced together that something had happened, back in the early ‘00s, and never bothered to ask again.

Dad was a little bit better about telling them things, but…

Click-click-turn… clack.

“Hey dad. Dinner’s just plating.”

Nathaniel popped his head out of the kitchen for a second. “She’d say bowling, but that’d mean something else entirely. Stew.”

“Knew you kids were up to something with that list. Give me a sec to wash up.”

When everyone was finally seated and had started eating, and Jade decided that they’d eaten enough not to say anything weird, she finally spoke up.

“So, you all know that all the teams have been turning down my conditions–”

“Which you still won’t tell us what they are.”

“Mom, let her finish please.”

“If she won’t tell us what her conditions are, how does she expect us to get them for her? Honestly.”

“I don’t expect, or want, you to get them for me!”

“Yes, well, how has that been working out for you?”

“Fine, actually, because what I wanted to say here is that someone made me an offer!”

“Huh,” her mom said, then sat there in silence. Jade gave her another few seconds to expand on that, but it didn’t look like anyone was taking the bait.

“Specifically, they’re actually offering me to lead my own team.”

This time it was her dad. “You don’t really seem the leadership type.”

She was seconds from yelling at him, too, but Nathaniel cut in, like usual. “That’s pretty interesting. You probably don’t own it, but what are the conditions?”

That was a partially incorrect assumption, but she wouldn’t be correcting it in front of the parents. She did sign w, then a on the table, but they wouldn’t notice.

“I need to put together the whole team on my own, and do well in a few tournaments. They’ve assigned a coach though.” She turned to grin at Nathaniel. “And it’s Rayne K.”

“Wait, Rayne? I thought she was retiring after–”

“No game talk at the table, please.”

“Anyways, I don’t need money or anything but I’m going to need you to sign some forms. Some for the team leader stuff, some for playing, and a few for Nathan playing.”

Her dad looked between the two of them, then shrugged. “I guess it has gotten easier to do the whole ‘pro gamer’ circuit. I can do the signing tomorrow if you get me the paperwork.”

After that was done, both she and Nathan basically tuned out of the conversation as it moved on. There was a strict no-game-talk rule at the table, and they talked about the other stuff when it was relevant instead of waiting around for a few hours beforehand.

Not that that helped their case, as their parents made fun of them for being quiet, as usual, but that wasn’t exactly difficult to just grin at them through.

They did answer completely when asked about their days, but that was mostly just a matter of walking them through basic schoolwork. Some bits of workout, too, but that was mostly an individual thing anyway,

When they finally got away, having cleared the table and put the leftovers in the fridge, she was finally able to push Nathaniel on what he’d been hiding.

It was absolutely a stupid idea.

And she was here for it.