Wednesday morning continued along pretty decently until I got to school. If you have to ask me why, you probably haven't been paying attention. I mean, it started off pretty normal at first; Ty flicking me as we parted ways in the hall, me opening up my locker as usual. And then--

Ka-bam! Went the fist against my locker door, shutting it. I turned to my right. There he was, the poster boy for gleeful idiocy.

“You know, if you damage that door, you're gonna end up paying for it.” I told him calmly.

“Will I have to pay for you if I damage you?” he returned with an unusual wit.

“Kind of like how your mom had to pay your dad to make you, I guess.” I retorted at once.

It got so quiet at that moment, it felt like the air was being sucked out of the room. I could see some of my classmates looking absolutely flabbergasted that I had actually said something like that, and I could hear someone trying to stifle their laughter and just barely succeeding.

“Say that again... punk.” Justin said as he leaned down towards my face.

“Justin!” a female voice rang out.

He turned around in surprise, as did the rest of us. It was Mary Robertson, the principal's daughter, senior class president, and the one most likely going to be valedictorian for her class this year at graduation. Tall, dark, and ugly seemed capable of picking up some kind of hint as to why she was here, and simply left the scene. Mary fixed her gaze on him until he was gone, then came over to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Dad knows.” she said to me with a gentle smile. I nodded back, and she patted my shoulder before returning to her own class, two of her friends following after her. Rachel then placed her arms around me from behind, not letting go for several long moments.

“Hey.” I said to her softly after some time had passed.

“Hey.” she said to me, letting go so we could get our books for morning classes. “You think he'll get a stronger warning today?”

“Hope so.” I said as I sorted out my books and shut my locker--gently, I might add. “This locker door might break off the next time he tries to start something.” I remarked with a look of sympathy towards it as we headed in for homeroom.

“True.” Rachel nodded in agreement. As we got to our seats and sat down she looked back at me with a smile. “You really like to play dangerously with those comebacks.” she said quietly; it took me a second to remember, and then I grinned.

“That's true,” I agreed.

Morning classes went pretty well--even the ones we didn't like. As usual, Elisabeth showed up for lunch, and boy did she look excited. We unpacked our food and drinks on my (our?) desk, and at once she began talking.

“Girl, we made a friend. Timidator's promised to help us whenever we need it.” she said, and Rachel blinked in confusion for a moment before she smiled.

“That's right, the tank!” she clapped her hands.

“But enough about the game; do you know Lana in real life? I was thinking about having a girls afternoon out when school gets out and I'd really like to invite her along.” the older girl said.

Oh, snap, how's this gonna go? I thought to myself as I maintained a straight face.

“I do...” Rachel began in a hesitant way, “But... she's not really someone who likes social-outings and such in real life, at least for now. Maybe someday.” she continued in a more convinced tone of voice.

Yeah. I don't deserve you. At all.

“Hmm? Too bad,” Ellie sighed. “By the way, I thought about it, and it's confusing. Call me Ellie here, and Lizzy there. But anyway,” she continued as Rachel nodded. “So yeah, if it's cool with you we'll leave right after school and go to the mall or something? I drive, you know.”

“Oh wow,” Rachel returned, looking over at me. I shrugged, a helpless smile on my face.

“I don't want to monopolize you or be one of those boyfriends. If she says it's a girls outing only, go for it.” I told her sincerely.

Not *exactly* how I feel about it, but hey. I really *don't* want to be one of those possessive twerps who drags a girl down.

“I'll send you pics to tease you.” Rachel told me with a grin.

“I know you will.” I said to her.

“That just leaves my mom... she'll be fine as long as I tell her.”

“Great!” Ellie said. “Oh! My friend Andrea's the other one coming; I've been talking her into trying Panarena too, so maybe you can help me with that a bit. I'm sure she'd love it, she's just not very sure of herself when it comes to these sort of things.”

“Andrea? Oh, right! Andrea Summers!”

“That's the one!”

“She is so sweet; I can imagine it would be hard to talk her into something like a game,” Rachel smiled.

“You have no idea,” Ellie smirked.

I'm starting to wonder if I should just go to the cafeteria from now on, I thought to myself as I took a drink, my expression unwittingly growing disinterested and distant.

“Oh, lover-boy!” Ellie then said, and I snapped back to attention. “Stop poking the beast, will you? I heard that neanderthal was going on in a corner somewhere with his buddies about how he's gonna clobber you.”

“I know you've known him longer,” I said to her, “But I don't think you get him. It doesn't matter what I say or don't say, he's just gonna be that way.”

“Well,” Ellie began to reply, taking a bite of her sandwich first, “Eh, I guess you're right about that.” she remarked with a shrug.

We didn't really talk too much after that, and when lunch was over the three of us went to get our books for the afternoon. The next three classes passed by almost too swiftly, and then Rachel and I were back at our lockers packing up to go home. We had just finished doing so when Ty came around the corner and made a bee-line for me.

“Yo, Dans, let's go, now!” he said, tapping my shoulder as he continued walking; the two of us fell in step with him at once. “QB's blabbing about how he's not gonna wait; some of his buddies are holdin' him back, but we need to get to the bus, now!” he told us.

“Heh?” I returned blankly as we marched through the halls to the door.

“I don't like his style, man,” Ty said. “If you're gonna pick a day for a fight, pick it and stick with it. Don't go sneak-attacking people for no reason,” he continued.

“I guess that makes sense,” I agreed.

“Thank you for doing this, Ty.” Rachel said as we exited the door.

“No probs; just wanna be clear that the only one to get this fool in trouble for fighting is me.” he said with a rare but fierce grin, patting my shoulder before he headed to the bus. I affected a wry smile at those words, and Rachel gave me a hug.

“I'm gonna meet Ellie at her car. Love you!” she said as I hugged her back.

“Have fun; love you too, Rach.” I told her, and then we parted, me for the bus, her to the car.

As I took my seat on the bus next to Ty, I gave him a curious look. We had been rivals for a while, true... but lately, it was more like...

“Hey, Ty... are we... friends?” I asked him. He looked over at me with a blank surprise.

“Sure as hell ain't your enemy.” he said after a moment. “Yo; if he comes at you with his friends, I'm stepping in--but if it's just him I ain't doing a thing.”

“I wouldn't expect any less or more from you.” I said as I sat back in the seat. A second of those rare smiles came to his lips.

“Ain't nobody beating you 'cept for me, Dans.” he said, gently pounding my shoulder with a fist, and I shook with silent laughter.

A car passed us by as the bus got moving; it was Ellie and the girls. The driver herself stuck her tongue out as she caught sight of me, but Rachel waved. I waved back as they passed us, and another figure--I guess it was Andrea--waved as well. I let out a quiet sigh.

Have fun!

After my usual afternoon-slash-early evening routine, I checked my phone. There were quite a few pics of Rachel and the other girls having fun, with the promise that they'd try to be in the game later that night. With nothing else to do, I typed back a warm reply and then headed into Panarena myself.

***

Come to think of it, I was initially planning to go solo in this game when I first logged in, I thought to myself as I loaded up in Cloverbell, looking around. I checked my stats, my inventory, and my quest log; nothing jumped out at me. Maybe I'll do some exploring. I'd rather explore with Ari here, though... it's amazing how you can suddenly grow to depend on a person being with you, I continued internally as I geared up and made my way out into the Aldholt. I practically trudged down the now familiar road that led into the forests, taking a different turn-off this time for my exploratory ramblings.

Anyway, why is that over-sized monkey waiting around for Friday anyway? What's the point of waiting around so long? Just come at me already! I grimaced with disgust as my mind brought up the issue of our local jerk. Come to think of it, there was something happening on Friday at school... what was it? Oh, right, there was a meeting for the teachers and faculty going on. Eh? Ehh?? Snap, he might actually have a brain! Justin Shrivers, whose actual grade average should have kept him in preschool for the past fourteen years, had chosen a day when most of the faculty and staff at the school would be occupied after school let out. Tch, how do I get around that? I wondered as I wandered, looking around at the sights of the Aldholt and eventually forgetting about real life to become absorbed in Panarena.

It was only after I got an alert from outside the game that I found out I had been exploring for nearly three hours. This, by the way, is a handy feature of the game: you can check and receive emails, phone-calls, texts, and social-media alerts from the Dream Machine's link-up feature, which comes in handy for heavy users or students. The message was from Rachel.

--Hey!! I'm so sorry, we *just* got back and now we're stuck doing homework >.< -- I'll make it up to you sometime, promise. I love you.

I sighed again. Oh well; can't have things my way all the time, I mused to myself with an unusually wise perspective.

--Hey--no worries, honest! We'll have plenty of time this weekend. Watch those math problems by the way-- they're pure evil. I love you.

--<3 <3

--<3

Well, now what... I wondered after our text exchange. Might as well head back and log out; I'll have to remember that grove of silver oaks, though, I noted to myself as I began turning around. And then I saw him.

He was a Memphite, one of those fairly tall and dark of skin warrior peoples in the game's lore that hailed from Memphia, a tropical and desert kingdom on the other side of the map. For the most part he had seemingly mismatched gear, but it was all of pretty good quality. What caught my attention most was the bagh nakh--the tiger claws--that he wore.

Daang it, he'd be dangerous in a close fight, I quickly estimated. He caught sight of me, and held up his hands in a sort of salute as he came closer. Lucky me, looks like he only wants to talk.

“Yo, you know where this dumb@$$ cave is?” the guy said to me.

That voice, I mused as he pulled up his quest-log to show me. Briefly I noted his character name at the top of the panel: Tyman. No way. No freaking way. But anyway--his quest log mentioned a dungeon, Temple of the Jaguar, a lost ruin from a people that had lived here before the ones that now lived here, according to game lore. Wait, had I passed something like that?

“Hmm... I think I maybe passed it back that way,” I said, pointing in the direction I had come from. “There was a cat statue of some sort near a big sycamore tree, anyway.”

“Got it; 'aight, thanks.” he said as he closed the panel and began heading off.

“Watch for outlaws.” I said to him, and then he stopped. He turned around, and gave me a strange look.

“On second thought, you come with. Anyone tries to jump us, it's better that way, huh?” he said after a moment, and I nodded.

“Sure.” I agreed, and we fell in step together.

He obviously doesn't know it's me. The voice-output is insanely good here; and he'd never connect someone who looks this cute with the usual me. Daang it, I had no idea he was in to this sort of game. That's... kinda cool?

“You one of those, the hell they call 'em? Silvernight Twins, right?” he said to me then.

I stand partially corrected. He knows about Lana.

“Ah-heh, that's me.” I said with a smile.

“Where's your twin?”

“She had real-life stuff to do.”

“Huh.” he remarked with a nod.

After that, neither of us really said anything. There were no outlaws in the woods tonight, however, and about an hour or so later of Panarena-time we had reached the place I remembered. The cat statue--or jaguar statue, I guess--loomed before us.

“Yep, this is the place. 'Aight, I'mma do this alone, or I won't get what I want; that's what those forums say, anyway. You take care.” he said as he made his way towards the now visible temple.

“See ya.” I said, and when he had gotten inside I made my way back to a wayport I had seen for a quick ride to Aldholt City.

Wayports are handy little things scattered across Panarena; mostly they're for quick transit to get from one major city to another, so long as you've found them, but some you can find in places like this giant forest. Some people call them tele-pads, but wayports sounds a little cooler to me.

Anyway. I made my way back to Cloverbell without incident, and then logged out for the night once inside. I curled up after that, and went straight to sleep.

In the morning, I casually read the forums about the Temple of the Jaguar; apparently, once you mastered the tiger-claws to a certain proficiency, you were then given an opportunity to do a quest for a specific pair of your choosing. There were twelve quests for twelve different pairs of bagh nakh, each with their own special features. Those from the Temple of the Jaguar were appropriately called Fists of the Jaguar; they were razor sharp, gave a strong boost to Strength, Dexterity, and Agility, and they also had a twenty-five percent chance to leave behind a massive bleed-effect on striking a target. I let out a whistle at the thought.

Those'd be nice, if I'd gone that route. But man, those things just aren't my style. I wonder if that guy really was...

Anyway. After reading a bit more I went down for breakfast, got my things ready, and then went to wait for the bus. Ty and some others were there too; it wasn't until we were on the bus itself that I noticed he looked a little more tired than usual.

“Late night?” I asked him casually.

“Yeah. Was in this cool-@$$ game I picked up a few weeks ago, and got a quest to get some special rare weapon. Man, them things were worth it, yo.” he said.

“Nice.”

“Surprised I ain't heard about you in there; people say you're into games like that.”

“I'll have to try it sometime, I guess.” I returned with a shrug, and he nodded back.

Yep, that was him.

The rest of the bus ride passed in silence for the two of us, until we got off at school and, as usual, he flicked my shoulder.

“Watch out for that dumb@$$ monkey.” he told me, and I grinned back.

“Will do.” I replied as we parted ways.

Well needless to say, it didn't take long for the object of our conversation to turn up. Bam! Went the fist against the locker as an unwanted visage appeared in my sight. I was about to try and make some sort of snarky comment when I suddenly got pushed to the ground by the boy in question, much to my surprise. I then saw his leg pull back for a kick as other students around started getting either excited or frantic; ehh, what do I do here... should I evade it and wait for a teacher, or let it hit me and get him in *real* trouble?

But before Shrivers executed his would-be kick, another figure came up behind him and placed a strong, firm hand on his shoulder.

“Shrivers: my office. Now.”

Everything went silent. There stood Dr. Thomas Robertson; he wasn't tall or lean, but boy he had a presence. Even the dimwitted quarterback was taken aback by this sudden surprise. He slowly stood down, and then he was nearly frog-marched to the principal's office by an aide. The man himself came over and helped me up. I managed to say thank you, or something along those lines, and he gave me a pat on the shoulder.

“Don't worry, son. You won't see him again.” the principal said, and then with a nod he made his way back to the office. Activity started up again as he left, and I mechanically began opening my locker to get ready for morning classes, still not registering what Dr. Robertson had just told me.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You okay?” a voice I definitely wanted to hear said to me as the owner of it slowly opened her locker. I dropped whatever was in my hands and turned to give Rachel a hug. She hugged me back tightly. I could almost feel the smile lighting up on her face.

“Now I am.” I told her, and I felt her body gently shake with laughter.

“Good.” she replied. We let go after a few moments and then got our books before heading in for homeroom. “I am so sorry about last night by the way.” she said as we sat down.

“Hey, don't worry about it. I just did some exploring and stuff, and helped this one guy find a dungeon he was looking for.” I said with a smile, shrugging it off. She smiled back.

“Anyone we know?” she asked half-jokingly.

“I think we actually do,” I returned seriously, and Rachel looked at me with surprise.

“Really? Who?”

“Ty.” I replied, and she looked about floored.

“Wow! Did he recog--well, I guess he wouldn't,” she remarked with a goofy grin. “How'd you know it was him?”

“Well, his character's name is Tyman, for one,” I said with an equally bemused smile, “And this morning he seemed really tired; told me he was up playing a game last night.”

“Oh nice.”

“Still...”

“Yeah... he didn't seem like a gamer to me, either.”

“Right?” I returned, and we both laughed.

Nothing really notable happened the rest of that day. Well, except for one thing. By the time afternoon classes were over the news was all over the school: Justin Shrivers had been kicked from the football team and placed on suspension from school.

***

In Panarena that night, the three of us spent most of our time working on our crafting skills. I mean, we'd been hoarding resources and such for about a month already. Now, most of the time, crafting is never as exciting as adventuring. Sure there's exceptions. And there's more than a few games where crafting is the goal of the game. Survival games, for one. The company that made “Age of Hyperborea” was rumored to be making one of those for the Dream Machine software, but it was far from being done.

But anyway. Crafting in Panarena was far from dull; the crafting panel and the experience for crafting is separate from a player's experience for skills and stats. Yet certain stats, as I may have mentioned before, are conducive to crafting. Five of them, to be precise: Intelligence for scholarly and engineering crafts, along with alchemy (potion-crafting) and cooking (which is apparently a big thing in Panarena not just for player-made stat-boosters, but because the food and beverages also tasted amazing); Wisdom was also useful in that regard. Strength and Dexterity for working with metallurgical professions, leather-working, wood-working (which includes fletcher, bowyer, pole-turner, and other wood-using crafts), or jeweller proficiency. And Luck, as you might believe, also has an effect on crafting pursuits. I mean, it's not necessary, but it helps, according to the forums and the guide.

So Lizzy spent the night working on her smithing and leather-working while I fiddled around with fletching and poisons; and Ariana focused on more benign and beneficial alchemy and cooking pursuits. She was also planning to work on the scholar-craft to create more powerful skill or stat boosters, but she wanted to try the others first, having an intuition that doing so would be more conducive for learning the others. I'm sure that, somehow or another, she was right, even if I didn't quite see it.

By the end of the night we felt quite satisfied with what we had accomplished; I had gotten Fletching Ten and Poison-maker Seven, Ariana had reached Alchemy Twelve and Cooking Five, and Lizzy had maxed out one of her specializations in leather-working. She'd been here for at least three months longer, so that was a given.

Now by the way, it's not like we can just up and make anything we want. That'd be over-powered and ridiculous. We can only make what we want within the scope of the game and within our proficiency levels (by the way, this logic also applies to player-made skills). In other words, a level-fifteen can't make an apocalyptic death magic, and even the best engineers in the game couldn't replicate a nuclear bomb or a jet plane or something like that. The best one can do is to create a steampunk-zeppelin that drops primitive gunpowder bombs; but again, that's some high-level stuff and certainly no one in the Aldholt is around that level. Those sorts of things are concentrated around the border of Harmonia and Onyxus, according to the forums.

After we had a couple drinks to celebrate our recent victories and our successes in crafting thus far, Ariana and I ended up sitting together on the sofa while Ellie went to sort her materials again. It was moments like these that reminded me of why I truly enjoyed being with her in Cloverbell. You could hear the faint sounds of water from the hotspring, crickets and frogs, an owl or two; there were no city lights, no people outside yelling, no sounds of cars or buses or trains or any other kind of vehicle; it was peaceful, like my grandparents' home. They didn't live there now, but the property was kept up by us for those times we had a family holiday. The two of us were almost asleep, our heads leaning together, our hands clasped, and then the fire in the hearth popped. Ariana started awake again, and poked me.

“We should probably log out too, if we're just gonna fall asleep here.” Ariana said to me.

“True,” I mumbled sleepily, and then yawned. “Though the system would actually kick us off anyway if we did,” I added.

“Still, I'd rather not fall asleep in this helmet-thing.” she returned, and I smiled.

“There's that.” I agreed. “Ellie--ah, Lizzy, I mean, probably left too. Let's head out,” I said. We then stood up, and were about to share a kiss when Lizzy reappeared.

“Hey! I'm heading off--what in the...?” she said as she saw us. Fortunately, we weren't actually in kissing position yet, but it was still an awkward pose--which we got out of at once.

“Ahh--” Ariana began, but then Lizzy shook her head.

“Never mind, I was just teasing you. Good night!” she said, and poofed for the evening.

“Ah-heh...” I remarked, and Ari looked over at me with a bashful smile. We settled for giving each other a hug, and then logged out for the night.

As I fell asleep (this time for real) that night, I had the nastiest feeling I was forgetting something, that there was something I was supposed to be alert for. I couldn't think of what it was, though. S'pose I'll figure it out tomorrow, I thought, and then I was conked out.

***

Friday was a day of rain. I lifelessly began my morning routine, and then twice as lifelessly made my way to the bus. The rain continued all the way to school, and began picking up as we headed inside. Ty was apparently tired as well, because he didn't even flick me as we went inside.

Rachel and I exchanged greetings as we gathered our books, and made our way inside for classes. She turned around once we had sat down and let out a sigh.

“I hate rainy days.” she said to me softly.

“They're not fun on school days, for sure,” I returned.

“Right? It makes school feel like it's going so slowly!”

“Huh, that's true...” I realized with a thoughtful look as she said it. A brief moment passed us by, and then she spoke again.

“Think we can make fifty or so this weekend?” Rachel wondered.

“Maybe,” I told her. “Might even get to fifty-five or so with Ellie helping.”

“True! I wonder if Andrea will turn up in the game soon as well... we'd have to stay back and help her a bit, of course.”

“That'd be fun. She didn't say anything about it Wednesday?”

“Eh, I feel like she was gaining interest, but it's like she was playing it low-key so we didn't get too into convincing her.” Rachel said with an amused smile.

“Nice.” I nodded back. Mr. Jones then called class to order, and we spent the next three hours and forty-five minutes going through the “essentials” as usual before morning classes ended for lunch.

When Ellie came over for lunch she had Andrea with her. Andrea was shorter than her, about my height (oh, yeah, Ellie's taller than me--us--in real life too), with red hair, freckles, and green eyes behind a pair of brown-colored glasses. We opened our lunches (guess on whose desk?) and began chatting away.

“She got it.” Ellie said to Rachel, and Rachel smiled.

“The game?”

“Yep!”

“I mean, I read about it a bit, and decided I wanted to try it out after all,” Andrea herself said with a faint smile. “But I'd rather be like a healer or something; being a fighter really isn't my style,” she added.

“No problem!” Ellie said to her. “We can work that in, can't we?”

“I'm pretty sure,” Rachel agreed. “And S--ahh, Lana would be happy to help her figure it out too, I'm sure.” she remarked, almost slipping. There was a brief pause. The other two girls didn't notice it, but Rachel and I were exchanging silent glances.

I'm so sorry! I almost goofed!

N-no no, it's okay, really! I don't think they noticed!

“Lana seems like a real character, especially when Rachel talks about her.” Andrea said with a smile. “I'd swear they were a thing if I didn't know about you, Sean.”

Heh. Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh...

“I feel like I keep hearing that this week,” I said with a mild grin.

“Did you almost trip over Lana's name just now?” Ellie then asked Rachel. “I feel like I definitely heard a 'sh'-sound...”

“I derped out for a moment! It's the rain, it's been making me tired.” Rachel quickly said.

“Gotcha.” the older girl said with a grin, but I felt like she was gleaning more than we thought.

“I did start my character last night though; she's in a place called Seacrest.” Andrea then said.

“Oh nice! We can meet you there and start questing with you if you want?” Ellie told her.

“I'd love that!”

“Seacrest?” Rachel wondered.

“It's like west of Ipping Forest, south of Aldholt proper.” Ellie said.

“Oh cool!” Rachel nodded. “Yes, we can definitely meet you there; and then you can meet Lana also,” she said to Andrea with a smile.

“I'm looking forward to it!” the other girl said. We ate in silence for a moment after that and then Ellie looked over at me.

“So how's it feel without your 'buddy' to greet you at the lockers?” she said with a smirk.

“Shaddup.” I said with my own smirk, and she laughed. “I do feel a lot better though,” I admitted.

“Principal Robertson himself came out and stopped him,” Rachel remarked with a certain awe in her voice, and Ellie let out a whistle.

“Daanng it, he's screwed,” the blonde girl shook her head. “I mean aside from being kicked off the team. If Robertson's taking him seriously now, I don't think he'll last.”

“Totally agree.” Andrea nodded. “He should've been kicked out last year, remember that?” she said, and Ellie sighed.

“How could I forget?” she said. “He got into this huge fight with a player from another school's team, but the coach wrangled him out of it somehow and the whole fight got hushed up.” she remarked with disgust.

Wow, I thought to myself with disbelief.

“That's so stupid!” Rachel said, a dumbfounded look on her face.

“Like really. But hey! Good riddance!” Ellie said with a more animated expression. “And we owe it all to Karate Kid here getting himself knocked to the ground.”

“If I fought back, the school would clamp down on me, too,” I returned with a grumble, and she laughed.

“I know, I know. I just think it's funny that he caught you of all people off your guard.” she said with another smirk.

“It was the rain. Got me sluggish.” I shrugged.

“You two are pathetic.” Ellie quipped. Rachel and I exchanged a glance, and then stuck our tongues out at her. The blonde girl looked at us with mock indignation while Andrea giggled.

When lunch ended we readied ourselves for the afternoon, and when those three classes were over we made our way to the lockers and got ready to head home. The two of us were almost to the door when Ty suddenly popped back into the school and held up his hands.

“Yo, Dans, he's out there.” the other boy told me.

“Eh? Huh?” I wondered immediately.

“I said the QB's out there, man, and he's spoiling for a fight.” Ty repeated. I went to look for myself, and at that moment Mary also appeared.

“Sean, don't go out there. He's already in violation of suspension--” she started to say, but I interrupted her.

“He's across the street. He's technically not on school grounds.” I said, and the other three exchanged glances with each other. Andrea and Ellie then came up behind us as well.

“Hey! Want a ride home instead of the--whoa, what's this now?” Ellie wondered as she registered the fairly unusual group of us at the door.

“Shrivers is outside.” Mary told her.

“What!” Ellie exclaimed in disbelief.

“I'm sick of this,” I said, setting my pack down.

“Sean!” Rachel said, grabbing my arm.

“Rachel, trust me.” I said to her with a faint smile. She looked at me intently.

“I trust you.” she said, letting go of me and picking up my pack as I headed out. The others followed me outside as well.

It had just stopped raining, but the clouds were still in the sky. I made my way to the edge of the curb; across from me, out of uniform, was Justin Shrivers. I felt like I was in a western, like one of those old Don Payne movies.

“You ready for a beating, punk?” he called over to me.

“You know, the irony of you calling me a punk... well, I'm sure it's over your head.” I said to him, and some of the others behind me giggled.

“Shut up!” he thundered back. “Once I'm done with you, I'm gonna teach those &!tches behind you a lesson as well!” he threatened.

That does it.

“No one's gonna hurt my friends while I can still stand,” I said to him confidently.

“Huh?” I heard Ellie say behind me. I didn't have time to wonder why. Like a bull for the matador, Justin Shrivers came charging towards me.

I couldn't believe it. He was actually gonna defy suspension rules just to try and beat me up? He picked a fine day to do it, too. Most of the faculty and staff were busy at a meeting... most of them. As he came towards me, fists swinging, I evaded him and began walking backwards. I heard Ty telling everyone else to back up or get to a side. He probably knew what I was doing.

“Stand and fight!!” Justin said to me.

“Come and make me!” I said as I quickly jumped away from him as he took another swipe, and then I dashed into the school. He followed me in without a second thought.

Ugh, this is too easy.

I ran through the halls, zigzagging to keep his little brain from outfoxing me. There had been at least one adult I saw out in the halls who was not at the faculty and staff meeting. I continued leading my pursuer through the halls, wondering where she had gotten to. As we got near to the main entrance, I saw what I was looking for: a mobile mop bucket, complete with mop. I smiled, picking up my speed. But Justin Shrivers was equally fast. Betting on the hope that my reflexes were better, I nimbly jumped over the bucket and skittered away. Justin, without thinking (not thinking is about his only strong point), simply blundered into the thing and fell down as he knocked it over.

The sight of that jerk lying on the ground covered in mop-water sent practically everyone nearby into a fit of laughter. Our custodian, Margy Porter, stepped out of her supply closet and suddenly espied the unfortunate fool on the ground.

“Shrivers! You're on suspension! Oh, I see, trying to start a fight again, are we? Let's call Dr. Robertson down here and just see about that!” she said to him with a no-nonsense tone. A round of applause actually broke out, and then the crowds drifted away back to their rides home. Ty came over and gave me a pat on the back.

“Damn, squirrel.” he said to me, and headed off back to the buses. Mary then came over to shake my hand, smiling at me.

“Well done,” she said. Some of her friends did the same, and then they made their way out as well. Rachel then gave me a hug. The two of us had no need to say anything.

And then there was Ellie. Oh, and Andrea. But Ellie had a smug look on her face, while Andrea simply looked pleased.

“So... Lana...” Ellie said to me, and both Rachel and I suddenly jerked at hearing the name. “Wanna explain?” she said to me with a knowing expression.

“Hmm? Hmm?” Andrea wondered with confusion.

“Ah... eh... but...” I stammered.

“Buses are gone by now. Or didn't you notice Ty sprinting away?” the blonde girl remarked. “Come on, let's get some ice-cream.” she said, twirling her keys on a finger. Rachel then looked at me, and smiled.

“Come on.” she said, and I had to admit defeat.

“Right,” I nodded, and with that we were on our way to Ellie's car.

And after much explaining and a delicious ice-cream snack, Ellie was laughing heartily while Andrea looked at me in surprise.

“You're Lana? You're Lana?!” she said to me, but then smiled and shook her head. “No, it makes sense; Rachel uses the same tone of voice when talking about you as she does for Lana.” she said. Rachel blushed, but she did squeeze my hand.

“And that slip at lunch; you were about to say Sean, weren't you?” Ellie said with a smirk.

“Ehh...” Rachel said with a bemused smile.

“And you--I should've guessed when we went through the Vale of Stingers, not to mention all the other little things I saw,” Ellie said to me. “But did you have to use the exact same words on Justin that you used when taking down Blackwood?”

“Did I?” I wondered suddenly.

“You did. No one's gonna hurt my friends while I can still stand, remember?” she said again, continuing to smirk.

“Ah... I guess I did...” I said.

“I think it's cute!” Andrea said, giving Ellie a little flick on the shoulder. “Now I definitely want to play this game.” she added.

How the heck am I supposed to react to *that*?! I wondered.

“I didn't say it wasn't!” Ellie quipped, flicking her back. “It really is cool. I'm glad it is you though; now I don't have to worry about Rachel having an affair.” she added.

“Ah-heh...”

“And having a guy that can at least empathize with girls, especially online, is a plus.” Andrea remarked.

What kind of hole have I dug myself into?

“I wouldn't say I understand everything,” I replied hesitantly.

“True.” the blonde girl nodded. “But anyway. What's your address? I have to take you home, after all.”

“Ah--oh, right... address.”

And so, once again, my secret had been found out. At least it was more or less a “family” secret, so to speak. We were taken home by Ellie, and then after we had gotten through our homework, chores, and suppers, we met up again in Panarena Fantasy Online.

***

We found Andrea as her avatar Healina after a surprisingly swift journey to Seacrest. Healina was a Sea Elf with platinum-white hair and sea-blue eyes; we waved at her, and she smiled at us.

“Hey!” she said to us; we added her to our party, and sat down to chat for a bit.

“So what do you want to do first?” Lizzy asked.

“Well, I just finished with all of the tutorial quests and stuff... now I'm not really sure what to do, and I feel like it would be hard to catch up to you guys at your levels.” she replied.

“Don't worry about that, we'll find something to catch you up.” our Nordian friend winked at her.

“I'll trust you on that.” Healina nodded back. “So like I said this morning I want to focus on being a healer or some kind of support.”

“That'd fit in pretty well,” I remarked. “It's not hard to level up healing skills with the right team, which you definitely have; and Ari prefers being an attack mage more.”

“That is too good. If I hadn't found out today I would have no clue that's you!” Healina said to me, and I affected a sheepish smile.

“Ah-heh...”

“So that's definitely in? What else could I do?” she asked.

“I think maybe tamer or summoner would be up your alley.” I said to her. “You can tame beasts or birds and stuff to help us, or summon up other kinds of creatures with magic.”

“Oh wow!”

“Definitely thinking Mountains of Night then.” Lizzy remarked. “There's so many things in that region that would work to help level those skills--if you want!” she turned to Healina, who nodded.

“It sounds like a good idea! But... the Mountains of Night...” she made an uncertain face. Rachel then picked out a spot on the map.

“What's this? The Lightqueen's Tomb? It looks like a special dungeon, like the one we first messed around in.” she said to me.

“Oh, like the Grotto, you mean?” I said as I looked over it. “Sure, we could try that one first; might have some good gear in it for her, and she'll get some levels out of it too.”

“Lightqueen...” Healina repeated to herself. “She sounds nice!”

“Shall we, then?” Lizzy nudged her, a grin on her face.

“Let's do it!” the other girl nodded in agreement.

“How far away is it?” I wondered as we stood up and began heading out of town.

“It's pretty deep in the forests from what I can tell,” Ariana replied. “Looks like Healina's getting a crash course for this game!” she added, and we laughed.

“We should form a guild already with this group.” Lizzy said.

“We probably could,” I agreed.

“Well there was something about getting a bonus of some kind if we do it by this weekend, so let's get on it!” she told us.

“Bonuses sound nice.” Healina said as we passed through a market.

“Look! The Silvernight Twins!” a random person in the crowd said. Heads turned, people started whispering; it was nothing new for Ari and me, and Lizzy was getting used to it too, it seemed.

“Silvernight... silvernight...” Healina repeated to herself.

“I think we're getting our name picked out for us,” I said to Ari as the other two got ahead of us a ways.

“Possibly!” she agreed, taking my arm in hers.

“Come on, losers!” Lizzy called back to us, and we hurried to catch them, heading out for our next big adventure in Panarena Fantasy Online.