My classes dragged on painfully slow. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes felt like hours, and the hours became mangled messes of an eternity. When my science teacher drew out her final instruction to clean up our lab stations, I let out a sigh of relief. I rinsed the vials in the sink and transferred them over to the holder. My lab partner stood off to the side, allowing me to handle the mess. It may have appeared unfair from an outsider's perspective, but it was for the best. The last time Josh took charge of cleaning up, he shattered three of our vials and we had to redo the experiment after school. 

Apparently, my pace was too leisurely, though, because Mrs. Barr lectured me on how being slow during the end stage of a lab can be just as dangerous as hurrying through an experiment. That sounded incorrect. I nonetheless muttered an apology and picked up the pace a little. Our teacher made a show of checking her watch, more concerned about her lunch hour than safety regulations. She should have become a gym teacher if she was all about speed and efficiency. 

I gave her a half-hearted goodbye, which went unreciprocated. Josh didn’t even bother. Instead, he grabbed his guitar from behind her desk, and we headed out the door. I considered grabbing lunch from the cafeteria before heading over to meet Rika, but my stomach groaned in protest, the last incident too recent a memory to risk it. The food the lunch ladies served that day appeared appetizing enough. It was only once it started spewing out both ends that I was forced to rethink my life decisions. 

"You hear the rumors about you?" Josh asked. 

I turned to face the stocky boy. "No, anything good?" 

"They're pretty great." He shifted his guitar case to his other hand, bumping my leg with it in the process. "You, Rika, and Ethan are in a love triangle with Amelia and Nora too." 

I blinked at him in confusion. "Isn't that more of a pentagon?" 

"I suppose it is. Not like a lot of these idiots would know the difference though." 

Couldn’t argue with that logic. It took a special kind of stupid to believe such an impossible rumor in the first place. 

"Have you talked to Ethan about it?" I asked. 

"That guy couldn't stop laughing his ass off. I'm pretty sure he's the one encouraging the rumors." 

We swung right at the bulletin board outside the principal's office. While the board had been bare at the beginning of the school year, it was now full of posters and flyers. Josh slowed in front of it. "Mind if we stop real quick? I lost the band flyer I was supposed to make copies of. There might be another one here." 

Shrugging my shoulders, I answered him. "Sure." 

With his free hand, he sifted through the papers. He read through one before grunting and continuing his search. Eventually, he shook his head and stood next to me. "It's not there. Let's go." 

He moved his guitar case closer to his body in anticipation of the large crowd of students mingling about the outskirts of the cafeteria. Some of them were waiting in line for food, while others were there for the company. Fortunately, some girl made space for us in the line to slip past, saving us the hassle of trying to squeeze our way through. 

"Seriously, this is stupid. Everyone just needs to go sit down and get out of the way." 

I nodded in agreement. "You headed to the music room?" 

"Yep, we got a concert coming up. Tons of rehearsals and all that jazz. I'll catch you later." 

"See ya." 

We parted ways, and I trudged onward to meet up with Rika. 

____________ 

"Sorry, we're not who you were expecting." Ethan clapped a heavy hand upon my back and guided me away from the door, careful to avoid stepping on the conspicuous black bag in the center of the room. "This is a good chance for us to talk though." 

I stumbled forward, brushing against the railing. That thing is littered in cobwebs, so I flinched away, hoping to avoid getting them on my sweatshirt.  "Where's Rika? And what are you"–I nodded toward Amelia and Nora–"and them doing here?" 

The girls were sitting on the stairs and had yet to acknowledge my presence. In fact, I doubted they realized I was here. A virtual reality visor covered Amelia’s eyes and her brows were furrowed in concentration. Two steps above her, Nora had her legs crossed, chin resting on the palm of her hand while she observed the wall with a blank stare. 

"Rika blabbed to me about your little meet-up, so I convinced her you had lunch detention. She's probably eating with Chloe in the lunchroom," he explained. "And they're here because I'm sick of having to choose between hanging out with you or them." 

So, that was what this was? He set this up to try to get us to be friends or something. I wouldn’t fall for it. 

I edged towards the doorway, wondering if I could make a break for it. Ethan noticed and mirrored my movements. "You don't have a chance." 

He was right about that. Being a head taller than me and a lot heavier helped in that regard. My scrawny frame would never allow me to bully my way past him, not to mention if he decided to sic Nora on me too.  

He slung an arm around my shoulder and pulled me in closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Look, man. I get some shitty stuff happened to you last year, but you're taking it out on the wrong people. I had nothing to do with it." He motioned to the girls in front of him. "And they definitely didn't have anything to do with it. So, let's all try to get along. Ok?" 

"And what if I refuse?" I grumbled, shoving him away from me. 

"I'm glad you asked." He wore a vicious grin. "If you refuse, I might have to send some people a link to that novel of yours. Specifically chapter one-hundred and ninety-seven." 

A chill shot up my spine. He was going to hang that over my head? I never should've shown him my novel all the way back in junior high. I sort of lied about modeling the new character after Rika. It was more like I based it entirely on her. From her physical features to her personality, even her age was the exact same. And the name Erika hardly passed as a reasonable pseudonym. 

If she read it, she'd know right away that Erika was her. Would she think I was weird? Not to mention what other people would say. What little social standing I did have would be completely destroyed. 

I gritted my teeth. "Fine, I'll play along, but you realize you can’t keep manhandling and blackmailing me." 

Even if, from his point of view, it was technically for my own good.

"Can and will. Now, take this VR headset." 

Annoyed, and a little confused, I did what he asked of me, slipping the headset on he handed me from the black bag. I watched him turn to Nora, the visor washing everything in a weird green hue. 

"Nora, can you get Amelia?" 

That snapped the girl out of whatever trance she was in. Nora went to work right away, pinching the other girl’s bicep until she gasped. Amelia pulled the visor off and glanced up at the other girl. “What’s wrong with you?” 

Prior to Nora getting a word in edgewise, Ethan spoke up. “Sorry, I asked her to get your attention. Just assumed she would be a little nicer about it.” He mumbled the last part to himself more than them. “Are you all set?” 

"I am. I’ve played through the tutorial and created my character." 

Nora snorted. "Your character probably looks like a bimbo." 

"Does not! She's an elegant high elf." 

"No arguing. I told you two we're here to have fun, not be at each other's throats." He pulled the headband over his forehead, adjusting the headset over his ears before smiling. "Let's play some Monster Slayer, everybody!"