I had barely closed the car door when I felt myself being pushed back into my seat. Lizzy took a sharp turn, almost causing me to fall into her. The car might have been familiar, but her driving style certainly wasn’t.

With a wide-eyed smile I looked at the tiny driver, and said. “Thanks, Lizzy, for getting here so early.”

She saluted back. “Elizabeth Green Transportation, at your service!”

“I mean it, you’re a lifesaver.”

“Don’t look at me. Thank Ray for letting me borrow her car. This baby’s got some impressive kick,” she said before accelerating slightly past the speed limit.

I grabbed my phone, simultaneously responding to Lizzy, “You’re all amazing.”

“Girl, this is so much fun. Kidnapping my friend from their shitty parent? Sign me the hell up.”

I chuckled. “It’s good to know you’re having fun.” My phone still in hand, I scrolled down to my contacts and rang Kelsey. As soon as I put the phone on speaker, Kelsey’s voice came through.

“Hey, Emily, you got the app on your mom’s phone?” she said, straight to the point.

“Yes, now explain to me one more time, what do you need me to do?”

It took about 10 minutes of mobile tech support, but eventually, we got it done. I had given Kelsey remote access to my mother’s phone. From there, we used an app that allows my mother to keep track of my grades and told the school that I was sick today. This meant she wouldn’t get an email or call today indicating that I was gone, keeping her off my trail for a little longer.

“You’re a wizard, Kelsey,” I said right after we got done.

“Any tech-savvy teen could have helped you with this, but I’ll take the compliment. I’m more worried about you, though. What happened that made your mom suddenly forbid you from going to the tournament?”

I bit my lip. I wanted to tell her, to release the pressure, but I knew this was not the time. I needed to keep my eye on the prize. No more drama until the tournament trophy was in my grasp.

“It’s nothing, just make sure you get to class on time, see you tomorrow,” I said, not letting her answer before hanging up. I allowed myself to fall back in my seat; I felt like for the first time in a while, I could finally relax. My mother would assume I was in school right now, giving me plenty of time to keep her off my trail for at least the weekend. Who knew how I was going to deal with the consequences afterward, but right now, this felt like the right thing to do.

I closed my eyes for a bit and tried to think about just the tournament, but i couldn’t. All the stuff with my mother, with Riley, was still eating me up inside. Why were they both so blind? I had told them the truth, and still, they couldn’t understand me. Like they weren’t even trying to.

We had just gotten onto the interstate, giving Lizzy fewer opportunities for reckless driving, when she turned to me. “That bandage looks pretty metal; did you punch someone?”

“I wish.” I opened my eyes and straightened out my posture. “No, just me being an idiot.”

“An idiot how?”

“I got angry at someone, and instead of punching someone, I made a glass shatter in my hand.”

“Wow.” Lizzy raised her eyebrows; she looked concerned. “Does it hurt?”

“It feels fine now, as long as I don’t move my fingers too much.”

Lizzy only had one eye on the road as she started laughing. “I would have loved to see that. Angry Emily? That must have been so adorable. Who were you mad at? What could they have possibly done to rile you up that much?”

It almost felt like I was back to that first night at the boot camp, getting interrogated by Lizzy like this. That girl just couldn’t help but stick her nose in any bee’s nest she could find. I didn’t want her to get too involved in this yet, however; the full focus should be on the tournament; all this social drama can be dealt with later.

“It’s nothing, just a stupid argument that got a little heated.”

“Ah… Come on, spill the tea, sis.”

I pressed my lips together; it would feel good to get it off my chest. Her giant eyes were drilling down into my soul. But no, this wasn’t the time or place. I pointed at the road.

“Can you please just watch the road before you spill our guts?”

 

***

 

All our towers were destroyed, and the opponent’s carry was about to bear down on our Ancient. Glancing down at the Minimap, I reminded myself of the current situation. Both sides were down to only their Ancient, the game was about to end, but it could still go both ways. The cooldown of my crucial skewer spell ticked down to zero. Pain shot through my hand as I pushed down on my left mouse button a little too hard.

I tried to ignore it, but the pain had already thrown me off. Before I could stun my opponent, he activated his BKB item, giving him magic immunity. He took me down within the five-second time frame, knowing that there was nothing left to stop his assault. He took down our ancient, and in giant letters, the word ‘DEFEATED’ appeared on my screen.

I sighed heavily and allowed myself to fall back into the giant gaming chair. Illuminated by the LAN café’s colorful RGB lighting, I picked up my face-down phone from the desk. Immediately, I spotted the symbol indicating I had a missed call.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be three missed calls from Jade. Embarrassment now flowing through my body, I checked the time. Yup, 3:46 p.m. Jade must have been waiting for more than 15 minutes already. I swiftly closed my account, grabbed my bag, and made my way outside.

Coming through the door, I was initially greeted by the overwhelming sounds of cars driving by. My eyes needed some time to adapt to the light. After a few seconds, I spotted Jade; she was leaning against a lamppost only a few feet away, her face not coming across as annoyed for some reason.

“Hey, Emmy, how’ve you been?” she said casually.

Trying to keep it light, I said, “I could be better, just lost another 25 MMR.”

Jade pushed herself off the lamppost and smiled. “Whatever, just blame the forced fifty, right?”

I couldn’t help but return the smile. “True, and I didn’t have my favorite position 4 to help me win the lane either.”

“Well, you should introduce me; they might be able to teach me how to win a lane for once.” She turned around, gesturing in front of her. “Come, my place is only a fifteen-minute walk from here.”

“Thanks,” I said to her as we walked past the many stores downtown Battingham had to offer. “Thanks for letting me stay over. Rachel really got everybody involved in this, didn’t she?”

Jade’s face looked relaxed, her way of speaking soothing and slow, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. “My parents won’t be back from LA until Sunday. So, like, they won’t even know you were ever here.”

The neighborhood we walked through kind of reminded me of Chelsea, where my dad lives. Only over there, space was very limited, and the townhouses were tightly packed together. Here in downtown Battingham, the homes were positioned much farther apart. The wood paneling was also painted in a wide array of different colors; it felt non-conforming, in a good way.

Jade pointed at a bright yellow shack that seemed to function as a small supermarket. “It’s just behind there.” Plastered with old posters and graffiti, the shack looked kind of run-down, but who was I to judge.

Jade’s home was on the third floor of a baby blue townhouse. It felt cozy and snug; the small space was tightly packed with furniture. Even Jade’s own room was small. It had just enough space for her single-sized bed and the small wooden desk. Below the desk stood an ancient computer, and her peripherals looked to be from a similar era.

“Mi casa es su casa,” Jade threw up her hands. “I’m just going to pop down and get a few things from the shop for dinner, anything in particular I can get you?”

I shook my head. “I’m good.”

I sat down on the couch. My mind was occupied with all that had happened over the past 24 hours: my pity-filled conversation with Rachel, Riley’s inability to apologize, and of course, the conflicting feelings I felt towards my mother. I didn’t hate her; she is and will always be my mother. She obviously cared for me, but that wasn’t enough. I needed her to understand me, to listen to me for once. It didn’t matter that her intent was good, if the way she went about it was hurting me this much.

I got up from the couch, choosing to stroll around the living room instead. One of the walls was full of picture frames. I scanned the collection of photographic memories Jade’s family had on display. Four people showed up in them again and again. Obviously, Jade was there a bunch of times, playing on the beach, picking oranges, tiny Jade always looking incredibly cute wherever she was. Jade’s mom looked like a carbon copy of her daughter, while her dad’s large posture and ink-black hair contrasted massively with the woman of the family. The last person in the pictures, I assumed to be her brother, his hair a similar blond to their mother, his posture as large and muscled as his dad. He looked like the perfect mix of both parents.

I couldn’t help but think how different my life would have been if I grew up in a different family. A family where I might have a brother or sister, where parents didn’t hate each other’s guts. Looking at these pictures, their family looked happy, always smiling, always sunny.

Suddenly, I heard a door close behind me. Startled, I looked over my shoulder. It was Jade, plastic bags in hand, her eyebrows arched. “Are you okay?”

I rolled back my shoulders. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just didn’t hear you coming.”

“Oh no,” she put down the bags on a table and looked at the picture wall. While facepalming, she said, “You already found my embarrassing family pictures.”

“Embarrassing? No way, these pictures are way too cute to hide.”

Jade stood up against the wall, attempting to block out some of the pictures. Her lanky body, however, only obscured about half of them. “That’s not what cute looks like! That stupid palm tree of hair! They styled my hair like that all the time. It should be ground for child abuse.”

“Oh, please,” I laughed at her. “I only see a smiling little Jade in all of these. It looks like they did a pretty good job raising a happy daughter.” I pointed at a picture of a boy dressed in a cute little baseball uniform. “Is that your brother?”

“Yup,” she nodded, a slight bit of annoyance slipped into her voice as she continued. “That’s the one and only Max Newman. One of our nation’s most promising baseball prodigies.”

“You don’t sound too thrilled about your brother.”

“Nah, It’s fine. It’s just that with him being the oldest and all, it often feels like I’m a bit of an afterthought. If it wasn’t for him, I would still be enjoying the California sun, you know?”

“You guys moved here because of him?”

“Okay, first let me say that he’s a good dude. It’s just like… he got into the Boston College baseball program, and my parents couldn’t deal with the idea of their little boy being on the opposite side of the country. They decided to move here, so the family could still be together. I wasn’t even in the conversation though. They assumed that since I was just about to start High School, I wouldn’t care as much.” She looked out of the one window that broke up the wall of memories. “Even though it’s been years now, I still miss LA.”

“Are you really saying you hate the fact that your parents wanted to keep the family together? Look at this.” I pointed at what looked like a recent picture of her and her family smiling and posing in front of some giant steam liner. “I could only imagine being this happy, being part of a family that supports each other. Even if sometimes that means making sacrifices.”

Jade’s gaze moved from the window to the picture I pointed at. “I know, they can be annoying, but in the end, I know they will always be there for me. Even Max, not that he would ever admit to that though.” She chuckled. A short pause followed before she looked at me. “I’m assuming your family isn’t as close, especially with the whole needing to get away from your mother and all?”

“Not quite,” I felt my muscles tense up. Multiple instances of my parents fighting flashed before my eyes. My mother crying, my dad walking out; there had been some rough patches. Just thinking back to those days did things to my body I didn’t want to experience right now. I tried to shake it all off before answering Jade. Faking a smile, I said, “That’s a story for another time.”