My Saturday began… relaxingly.

I slept in, getting out of bed only at the crack of noon.

I tied my hair up, and went on to have a nice late breakfast.

I then proceeded to spend a portion of my afternoon doing yoga in the living room. Stretching. Breathing in. Stretching a bit mooore… then breeeaaathing in…

Mom seemed surprised to see me in such a good mood. And why wouldn’t I be? For the first time in a while, I was feeling more… calm, relaxed. In peace.

Maybe it was the talk with Morgan, maybe it was the weekend finally hitting, but I just felt a little bit more free. At least for now.

Morgan was right, I was overthinking some things. I was still Penny. I was still me. Frankly, I still wasn’t sure how to process all the things that were said, but it felt good to let things out anyway and hear someone say that.

Today was a new day. A good day. One where I was going to take it easy…

 

…and be prepared for the Smash tournament later tonight.

You know, normally when you’re invited to something like that and want to prepare, you’d actually play the game and practice. I mean, I had the game installed in my room and everything. But the others wouldn’t know that! 

Even if she secretly booted up the ol’ console every once in a while, Penny wasn’t known to be an avid gamer or anything. Hell, I had already basically told Adrian as much. If I was going to show up there, I should be avoiding it if anything, just to make sure my skills are less honed and it's harder to realize I'm a veteran. Really, not playing the game *was* my practice. It only made sense, it was the smart thing to do when you think about it. Especially when I'd already told Adrian I didn't play, I wasn't going to get caught in a lie that awkward. If anything, I'd be actively trying to hold back. 

No, the thing more worth preparing would my appearance there. Penny Bridges was going to show up and the people there would notice. It’s not like I wanted to stand out, but naturally it was a bit inevitable. I’d be my ordinarily graceful self, looking cute for this quick social gathering that I’d just be entertaining for tonight. There would be nothing out of the ordinary about me, I was just some normal girl helping out my biology partner.

It was going to be a piece of cake. I show up, I play the game, maybe help Adrian out if need be, and then I’m done.

And I was going to be super calm and collected the whole time! The epitome of grace!

Breathe in… breathe out…

I was gonna go full zen! Zen Penny! Zenny!

Nothing’s gonna get in my way!

 

---

 

Okay, a little rain is annoying, but I had an umbrella. They were made for this exact type of scenario where you didn’t want to get wet! I wasn’t exactly ‘dressing up’ for this, but I was still trying to look good. I got my hair looking nice, and I wore a green V-neck loose casual and some black jeans to go along with it. I even had a cute black purse just for the style points!

When Mom had asked about where I was going, I’d naturally just said I was hanging out with the girls, not wanting to fill her in on any of my recent shenanigans. Though I did also make sure to mention that I might be out late, just in case. I'd also be safe and yadda yadda. I'm sure I could get a ride home in the worst case.

The event was supposed to be at school, so it wouldn’t be a *long* walk or anything, and the sun wasn't setting just yet either. It was a pretty comfortable walk, all things considered.

But anyway, so there I was, fashionably circa 5 minutes late. The halls were even emptier than usual, which figures. Weekend evening, with apparently just the school cafeteria borrowed for a little event that one of the seniors had planned.

Entering the cafeteria, I got to see how the room was being fitted. The tables I'd grown familiar with had been moved to the side, creating a bigger open space where people had strewn about. On one of the walls was a large blue square, being projected by a… well, a school projector. Guess they got to borrow that, too.

Whatever the case, some guy appeared to be fiddling with it, and next to him was a girl.

Wait, I knew that girl…

As if on cue, she turned, and saw me. It was Nora. 

Not sure why I was surprised, it figures she’d be here. She mentioned her brother was the one to organize this and all, maybe they were teaming together?

But before I could go and say hello, I’m verbally assaulted by a completely different girl.

“Woah, finally another girl!” She says, quickly grabbing my hand to shake it. “Hi, it’s so nice to meet you! Like seriously I knew video game stuff like this would prolly turn out to be a total sausage fest, but sheesh!” She spoke fast enough to where I only barely recognized her words.

I looked at her, blinking. “Umm yeah, guess so.” I answer, pulling up a polite smile. “Happy to balance things out.”

I do another quick scan of the room. Now that she mentioned it, she was right. I mean I guess it figured, but as far as I could tell, pretty much everyone here looked like a guy. The only girls seemed to be Nora, myself, and… the one I was talking to right now. 

Oh, and there’s Adrian in the corner! Though before I could think, the conversation continued.

She pulled her hand back bashfully, “Woah, sorry, probably a bit too quick there, heh…” She smiled and laughed bashfully with some semblance of a blush on her face. “I see a pretty girl and I guess I just get too excited...”

"Um, it's okay." I assure her. "I think we can all be a little bit awkward meeting new people!"

The girl nods, “That's so true! Anyway, I’m Lexie! Technically short for Alex! Which really you could say is short for Alexandra!” She continued. “What’s yours?”

“Oh, I’m Penny!” I’m not sure how to match her energy, or if I even can. But that’s okay, because tonight… I was in Zen. My composure could not be trifled. “Which... happens to be short for Penelope!” I continued.

No longer completely overwhelmed by her swift introduction, I looked Lexie up and down to get a better sense of her. Her brown hair was in a low ponytail, and her youthful face was framed by red rimmed glasses. She wore a simple t-shirt and jeans, nothing special. Though she definitely still had an awkward look about her, with a lot of loose hair strands and some acme on her face. Come to think of it, she was also a few inches shorter… was she a freshman?

“Nice to meetcha, Penny!” Lexie then greeted. “Oh, whoops guess I already said that, didn’t I? Well, looking forward to playing against you! We’ve been training our butts off today, me and-” She paused, head quickly turning to the left and right in quick succession, eyes in a panic. “Crap, I lost him! Where did he go?! That scatterbrain…!”

She… lost her friend? The one she’d be playing with? Like, a whole person?

“Well anyway, gotta go, catch ya later!” She heads off. “I’ll introduce you some other time!”

And like that, she was gone with the wind. Talkative, that one. Feels like I barely got a word in.

Whatever the case, I decide to quickly go and find Adrian. He was still standing off in that corner, leaning up against the wall and scrolling through his phone. 

“Hey there!” I greet, deciding to lean against the wall right next to him. “You excited? This has been a whole week coming, hasn’t it?”

Adrian looks up, apparently not even having noticed me before. “Oh. Oh, yeah. I’m uhh… excited to get things started, at least.” He looked over the scattered crowd.

I looked as well. It felt like people were keeping to themselves, mostly. There were, what, 10-12 people total? Nora and who I assumed to be her brother were fiddling with a Nintendo Switch next to the projector now. I spotted Lexie excitedly talking to some guy wearing a hoodie, her scatterbrained partner I expect. Then a couple more guys strewn about. A pair of them were together not that far from us, sitting on top of one of the lunch tables. Looked like they were laughing about something as they looked at their phones. 

“Not gonna talk to anyone?” I asked. 

Adrian shrugged. “Nora seems busy, the rest…” He nods to the rest of the room. “Looks like they’re keeping to themselves.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong, but still. Go figure, most of the guys here were probably some variant of introvert, not exactly going to walk up over to anyone to chat instantly.

“I talked to that girl over there,” I nodded towards Lexie. “She seemed nice.”

"..."

“Ooooorrrrrr…” I continued. “...Those guys over there. We could try talking to them.” I nodded this time towards the two guys at the lunch table, the ones that were relatively close by.

Adrian raised an eyebrow at me, as if regarding my words with suspicion.

“What?” I looked back at him. “We’re not just here to play a game, right? You were going to get out there. That's the whole reason you dragged me here!”

“Yeah, but…” He paused, looking over at the two again. “Dunno, just get bad vibes.”

I frowned, “Oh hush, you. If you’re not going to say hello, then I will.” I begin walking off.

Adrian stops leaning on the wall, “Hold on-”

But I was already on my way. 

I’d taken about five or seven steps or so when one of them looked up and noticed me. After nudging his friend, the other did so as well.

“Hello there! Excited for things to start?” I politely greeted.

One of the boys scoffed, “Yeah, sure. Not like there’s gonna be much competition though.”

Okay, rude. It was just a little social event, he did not need to have that kind of attitude.

“I mean seriously, do you even play the game?” He continued, raising an eyebrow at me.

“Umm, what do you mean?” I ask, still plastering on my polite veneer. 

The other guy rolled his eyes, “Most girls don’t play video games. Especially not *your* types.”

Zen Penny, Zen Penny…

“Oh, is that so?” I answered. Trying not to show the crack in my face that was ready to form. I already did not like where this was going.

“Yeah, it’s like…” He pushes up his glasses. “You know like the Atari? No, you probably don’t, it’s like this really old console basically. They kept making a lot of bad games for cheap for it, and it led to the video game crash of 1983.”

“Right.” His friend nodded.

Uhhhh…

Before I could find a space to interrupt, he continued. “Video games were basically dead around then, and that’s when Nintendo, this other video game company, took a huge risk by making their next console. Except there weren’t video game aisles or anything back then, so they had to put it with the toys.”

Was he actually trying to explain video game history to me? I know I’m pretending not to be a gamer, but isn’t this a little…?

The other guy jumped in this time. “But toy aisles were always split between the girls and the boys, and Nintendo couldn’t go in between. So they had to pick who they wanted to market to if they wanted to have any success. Well in the end, they picked the boys, and decided to just market everything and make games for them instead.”

Oh my god, this was actual mansplaining. They were actually mansplaining to me. I was being mansplained to about why video games were for boys. What is this reality I'm in? Are they in any way self aware right now? I don’t think I even told them I wasn’t a gamer yet, they're just flat out assuming I don't know anything and not giving me the chance to talk. 

“Basically, the whole industry’s been marketed to guys ever since.” He finished. “It’s been pretty locked in cuz of that. Don’t see a lot of games meant for girls. Unless you mean stuff like, Animal Crossing or something.”

I grit my teeth, still desperately trying to sound polite as I speak. “Are you sure? There are probably plenty of girls who play action or fighting games and stuff, right?”

“I mean yeah, but we’ve seen it before. Always feels like most of them just tag along to gaming stuff by streaming on twitch or playing with their boyfriends to try to get attention or whatever. More worried about their hair or nails than any important stuff.”

It was taking a lot of willpower to keep my smile up at this point, “I see…”

I glanced at my nails. They *were* nice today, and decently manicured… Dare I say it, you could even argue they were a bit sharp, which could make certain things more convenient…

But before I could debate on whether or not I was willing to commit to life on the run, I felt Adrian grab my shoulder. “Come on let’s go, we don't need to say hello to everyone.” He had probably only just now walked up after me, I wonder how much he'd heard.

“Now, now, I’m just trying to keep polite conversation.” I tell him with a very forced smile. Safe to say my poker face is currently doing far from a good job.

One of them piped back up, “Don’t even bother, we’re pretty much kings at Smash.” They fist-bumped each other. "It'd be a better use of your time to go home and do whatever girls do."

My head snapped back to glare at them, “A… better use of my time, you say?” I genuinely can’t tell if they were malicious or if they’re just genuinely that clueless in their blatant sexism.

Adrian starts trying to pull me away. “Hey, let’s go.”

“No, I’m thinking I need to share with them a little piece of my mind,” I try to say calmly.

One of the jerks chuckled, nudging his friend as he whispered something. I couldn't catch everything, but I could just barely make out the phrase 'OnlyFans.'

“THAT’S IT-!”

Right as I start feeling like punching them, I’m forcefully dragged away by the arm.

Once a safe distance away, I manage to shake myself from Adrian’s grip. “What are you doing?! Were you listening to those jerks?! I’m-!”

Adrian grabs my shoulders, looking me dead in the eye. “Penny, calm down. If you fight back or make a scene, then you only give assholes what they want.”

“...” I look down, a bit embarrassed, but still also pretty bitter. “...Fine, whatever.” I answered, crossing my arms.

…Suddenly, a small blush encroaches up. “You… can stop touching me now, by the way.”

Adrian seems caught off by the remark, visibly a bit embarrassed. “O-Oh, right, sorry.” He lets go and moves his hand elsewhere to scratch his chin.

“I just…” I let out a huff. “You were hearing those guys, right?! What’s their problem?! I was literally just standing there and they start spouting some weird… sexist shit!” I complain.

He nods. “Yeah… I figured, I got bad vibes. They were giving that other girl some weird looks earlier, before you showed up. Think they were checking her out.” 

He looks elsewhere, and my eyes follow. Lexie’s shaking her friend like a ragdoll while talking to one of the other teams. Guess he’s talking about her.

I grimaced. So that was it, they were probably just some pests.

“I knew there were shitty guys like that out there, but this is the first time I’m actually seeing it.” Adrian added. “Probably should have said something earlier…”

I looked back at him. “What? No, you were telling me not to go talk to them, you tried. …Just, try not to physically grab a girl like that.”

“Right, sorry again.” He responded.

I nodded. It was okay. I knew he was just trying to get me out of trouble. I guess I was being kinda stubborn, but...

I look back at the two jerks. They were already off laughing about some other thing on their phones. Ugh, I was still mad!

“...I still want to give them a piece of my mind though.” I add, frowning.

Adrian shakes his head, “I’m telling you, you’ll just stand out more.”

I put my hands on my hips, “I already stand out, there’s like three girls here.”

He sighed in response, “And I guess the way you dress doesn’t exactly help.”

My eyes blink in shock. “Excuse me? What’s that supposed to mean?!” 

My friend arched a brow, “Huh? You know, your… you.” I just glare at him blankly for a moment. After a pause, he continues. “...Look, you know what I mean. Don’t you think you’re a little bit..." He cups a hand over his mouth. "...overdressed?”

I look back over myself. I thought I looked cute, but… “Ugh, I can’t believe I’m hearing this.” I complain, facing away from him. Right after the jerks just practically insulted and stereotyped me earlier too.

Because, in a way, that was probably how they saw me. This vain attention-seeker. Just because I liked dressing super feminine.

I thought back to my conversation with Morgan. Overperforming gender… that was the term they used, right? Was I overdoing it? 

I rubbed my arm, starting to feel a little self-conscious.

“...Hey, I’m… not trying to shame you or anything, just to be clear.” Adrian finally said.

“...” I didn’t want to respond. He wasn’t making it any better.

“It’s… I just think it’s so like you.” He continued. “Your style’s very ‘Penny,’ it’s just who you are. Does that make sense?”

I turn back to face him, unsure how to feel. “You mean that I’m weird.”

“What? No.” He rebukes with a confused expression. “It’s just your style. You like dressing up even when you don’t need to. There’s nothing actually wrong with that.”

I cracked a witty smirk, crossing my arms. “Even if it makes me stand out?”

“...Okay, got me there.” Adrian scratches the back of his neck. “But… that’s probably just how I feel. About myself.” He looks down. “I have bad experience with that type of thing, drawing attention to myself. So I guess I just don’t get your… thing.”

I look down in thought as well, though I eventually sigh. “Look, it’s okay.” Thinking back, Morgan had said something similar. I was just me. No need to be self-conscious about something like my femininity, even if it was a bit extra compared to how a lot of other girls approached it. “You were only worried that those assholes were gonna keep being assholes to me, you weren't blaming me or trying to make me feel bad. I was just being dumb and overthinking things.”

“...No, it was a dumb thing to say, I'm sorry.” He finally said, a guilty look on his face. “You barely even want to be here anyway. I don't want you to feel unwelcome, and you don’t need to get yourself into any trouble with those types.”

Though after a short silence, he smirked. “But hey, no crime in overthinking things. Being an overthinker is actually the best kind of stupid, if you didn't know.”

…Okay, that last bit almost got a chuckle out of me. It was a good line. But it also felt sweet and nostalgic to me. I actually remember him telling me that once before, way back.

“Hmph,” I smile confidently, leaning against the wall and flipping my hair in an exaggerated manner. “I can handle myself just fine, I’ll have you know. After all, if I’m the best kind of stupid, then any other stupid person here clearly doesn’t stand a chance!”

Adrian bust out a sudden laugh at that, “So wait, we’re gonna play the game later to see who’s the last to kill themselves?”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh of my own. “Look, I’m just saying. Technically everyone’s a little bit stupid, so I’ll just out-stupid them!”

My partner shook his head, though I could tell he was having a hard time wiping the big grin off his face. I couldn’t blame him, the same went for my own expression.

“Seriously though,” I continue. “We’re totally gonna trash those two later, right?”

Adrian looks at me. “I mean… it’d be hard. I’d love to, but it’s basically gonna be a 2v1, remember? You haven’t suddenly decided to start practicing or anything, have you?”

Oh. Right.

I shake my head. It was a truthful response to his question, I still hadn’t touched the game in months, I don’t think. I was still set on the plan of pretending to not know how to play, but still…

“But…” I add, “You’re super good anyway, right? And I can still do my best to support you.”

He gave me an incredulous look. Okay, fine. It was easier said than done for a supposed newbie. 

“Look, we’re gonna try to win at least *one* game.” I tell him, putting a finger up. “Can’t be that hard, can it?”

His expression was unchanged.

“...Am I not allowed to be optimistic?” I ask.

“I mean, if I had to bet I could probably pull a game against most people in a 1v1, but it’s not like I know how good any of these guys are.” He explains, before pausing to think. “I'm asking you again, you haven’t touched this game at all? Like, nothing at all? Never?”

I shake my head. Okay, this time it was a bald-faced lie.

Adrian sighed, “Okay, so basically…”

What followed was an in-depth explanation of the very very base mechanics of Super Smash Bros. What the game would look like, which buttons did which, that type of stuff. I don’t know how much an actual newbie would process from this, but I nodded and smiled anyway throughout. For all he knew I hadn’t touched a game controller in my life, so with that in mind he was doing his best.

Though he didn’t get too far, as right when he was about to explain the concept of ‘B-Specials’, a voice rang throughout the room.

“Alright everyone, sorry for the wait while we were setting up!” A guy called out over in the middle, next to the projector. The guy who I assumed was Nora’s brother. “We have six teams, so the setup and brackets are gonna be a bit complicated. I have it all on a poster though, so come on over and I can explain how it works!”

Adrian sighed again, “Well, that’ll have to do. Did you get most of that?”

I nodded with a wide smile, “Uh-huh!”

The look on my partner’s face told me that he didn’t seem to buy it. “...Nothing to be done. We’ll see how things go.”

I nudged him, “Hey, cheer up. Worst case, we’ll just try to have fun, okay?”

Quietly, he nodded, a small assured smile forming on his face. 

…Yeah, things were gonna be alright.

Well, here goes nothing!