filter.
His face was a lie, and I’d had my share.
“I’m fine.” I tucked my legs away from his reach and pressed my dress down.
I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d said that lie.
Before the game, I’d said it after I was locked in a dark janitor’s closet. I’d said I was fine after I found dog poop at the bottom of my bag. Every day for five years, I’d lied and said I was fine, and that those names they called me didn’t bother me. I’d said I was fine after a jerk named Seth made me his pet victim, and every teacher I’d told let him get away with it.
He tortured me, and everyone looked the other way. He was smiles, good grades, and trophies for the case by the office, and I was the girl who yelled about the patriarchy and argued with my teachers about incorrect history in the textbooks. I was the girl who wore the wrong clothes and showed cleavage in a tee shirt. Maybe I distracted the class with my body, so wasn’t it my fault when boys picked on me?
But I was fine. I was a fat girl who liked herself. I was a girl who took up space, and would not shrink to make others more comfortable.
I was the girl who took first place in an eSports competition and won a chance to be among the first to play an incredibly immersive game by my favorite developer. I was the one who walked alone out an empty hallway while a school full of people cheered on our third-ranked 2A football team after another preseason loss. I closed that door, and I didn’t think once about those people who would never like me.
That was fine. They couldn’t hurt me.
I was fine.
Outside the doors of my high school was an entire world full of people who wanted this chance I’d won. I could play in a shared world, learn magic or how to be a warrior, or play the game of politics and strategy as we tried to put the true heir on the golden throne. When we chose our characters, I chose the body that looked the most like mine.
Because I was fine with who I was, and if I said it enough, maybe that lie would become the truth.
A faint purple diamond floated above Ryo’s head. I squinted and the diamond light brightened.
“Would you share your thoughts aloud?” Ryo asked. “I’m having a devil of a time reading your expressions.”
I reached my hand into the diamond of misty purple light above his head. He leaned away and the diamond moved with him. It wasn’t a diamond, it was a player indicator.
I stood.
“What?” His eyebrows dipped and he leaned away. I took three steps back and squinted at him. Above the diamond of light were small light squiggles, like the spaces between the shadows of leaves. Only … No, they were numbers, not squiggles. 1,240. Lv.4. One heart shape and a long rectangular bar edged with numbers. 97%.
A stats bar! He was at 97 percent health.
That was why he came back to life. He must have had extra lives.
But there was no indication that he had any more. Or that I had any extra, for that matter. Most RPGs only give you one life, and death means a restart.
A chill ran up my neck. If the pain receptors were damaged, what happened at game over?
I looked above me, and there was a diamond over my head.
I grunted. “Pink. ’Cause I’m a girl, right? Might as well tie me up with bows and call me Ms. Pac-Man.”
Ryo pointed at my dress, which happened to be tied with several small bows.
“So I like ribbons!”
He chuckled. “I happen to think pink is a fine color.”
I grumbled under my breath and looked up. Could I adjust my view so I could see behind me? As I stared at the diamond hovering over my head, I made out stats at the corner of my vision. My health was at 89 percent and my points were more than double Ryo’s. I was listed as a Trader class, with high levels of Intelligence and Constitution. The word abilities appeared, and as I stared, the image shifted to a short list.
Pathfinding
Trading
Would you like a tutorial?
Why yes I would.
“Are you having a fit?” Ryo asked. “I’ve never seen anyone make that particular expression before. Are you about to make sick?”
Ryo’s confusion, hilarious though it was, would have to wait.
“No. Shut up