DPS = Damage Per Second = shorthand for classes that are damage dealers. Their most important attribute is their ability to do as much damage to monsters as possible in least amount of time, so they have to have a high Damage Per Second. I sometimes think more of them as “those who can’t tank or heal”, but I’m biased, I prefer being a tank mainly and a healer secondary. I’m no good as a DPS class.

“Was that a stupid idea?” I lean back against the bed in Troy’s room, my laptop next to me as I stare out of his window.

“Asking Fleur to come to the meet?” His answer is slow, he’s apparently actually doing his homework, something I’ve been trying all afternoon.

“Yes.”

“You’re asking me this, again. After I’ve given you an answer six times already?” He now turns to me, frowning.

“Yeah?” I have asked him that often? I thought it was only twice, maybe. Hmm.

He rolls his eyes. “Asking her was fine. She can choose if she wants to come herself. Just, don’t get your hopes up too much.” He turns back to his desk.

“Why?”

“You may have fallen head over heels, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same for her.”

“I know. I know.” It’s not like I’m not aware of that. It’s just... Meeting a girl like Fleur and having her be a healer that matches my play style and she just sounds so sweet and she’s like… sexy smart. I guess it’s the perfect recipe for me.

“Now. Do your homework or you’re going to get written down. You can’t have that happen in the final weeks. Not after being good all year.”

“Fine, fine.” I grab my laptop, searching for the assignments we have for the week. It’s not much, it’s the final weeks of the school year and all, only two weeks away from exams. But still, the weather is so nice, I don’t want to do my homework. I wish I was better at making the jump from knowing what I should be doing to actually doing something. When I open the assignment I look up for a moment, out the window. “Do you think the weather will be good at the meet?”

“Alex...” Troy turns back to me. “Go do your homework or at least let me do mine. If I get written up, you know my mom isn’t going to let me come to the meet, which means, no showing up for you either.” He looks at me flatly. “So, whatever, but just let me do this, yeah? You promised you wouldn’t distract me if I’d let you do your homework here.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I push myself up, standing up and taking a few steps around the room. He’s right. I tried doing homework at home, but it didn’t work, so I begged Troy to let me do my homework here. “It’s just...” Hard to concentrate. Different from normal.

“I know.” Troy’s been my best friend for years, the only reason he puts up with me is that he knows I kick his ass at videogames that he rocks at otherwise. “But don’t let this year fall into the gutter just for that. Yeah? You can talk to Fleur later. But you do have to pass this year or we’re going to have to find another tank for raiding.” He turns back to his work. “And you know how hard that’s going to be, especially because I don’t know if Fleur will want to stay in the guild if you’re not there.” I can hear the tease in his voice, but apparently that’s what I needed to hear. Because I sit down, grab my laptop and scan the assignment for next week. I can do this.

I hope...

***

BelleFleur: I asked my mom, but I’m still not sure if I’m allowed.

I frown at the screen. It’s only one week until the meet. One week of exams every day until the guild meet. And one week until Fleur will or will not show up. I get it, she’s a year younger than me and even my mom won’t let me get to these meets on my own, but it’s still annoying that I won’t know if she’ll be there until she’s actually there.

I wish I could make it easier on Fleur, but I know that talking to some random person won’t help her parents feel safer about her going. At least I have Troy. Somehow, having a boy with me would make it safer. Though... I don’t know if it has to do with me being a girl, or my slight issue with hyperactivity and a lack of impulse control. Maybe they’re just scared I’d get lost. Which... I don’t know. I’m more likely to have to get Troy out of the middle of nowhere when he’s lost than the other way around. But with parents... you never know.

AlexTheDestroyer: Well, we’ll just have to hope.

Right? That’s not weird? I don’t know anymore. How do you talk normally to a girl you’ve just met? Because I’m sure that I haven’t had to deal with that in a long time, at least not one who gives me butterflies like this.

BelleFleur: Yeah.

BelleFleur: You also got exams next week, right? Your parents letting you play the game during the week?

Like they can stop me. I almost say it, but reality is, they can… If I don’t pass my exams… Well, Troy was right, my parents would very likely do something to prevent me from playing this summer and probably even next year. Which means, they’d have to find a new tank to do raids with…

AlexTheDestroyer: They don’t care as long as I get good grades.

Better answer and still the truth.

BelleFleur: I wish it was that easy for me...

BelleFleur: But at least they’re letting me on in the evenings. So we can still play.

AlexTheDestroyer: Good.

But the butterflies in my stomach do a little dance. Playing together with Fleur in the evenings will be a nice reward. Which I’m going to need, especially since I’ll be all over the place in the evenings. Knowing that we’ll be playing together will keep me motivated, I hope.

BelleFleur: Well, hit that queue button so we can go play.

AlexTheDestroyer: Sounds like a plan.

I click through a couple of menus and sign us up for a random dungeon to run. I can use the distraction because I really don’t want to think about the exam I’ll be having in about twelve hours. I just hope I prepared enough for this, because it’s not going to be easy. Last exams before my final year, so next year will be what everything counts on.

A screen pops up and I click to accept the invitation for the dungeon. Okay, game mode back on.

Nothing but the mobs, the bosses and the other players from here on out.

One last night before the real stress starts.

***

“Alex?” Aaron’s voice pulls me from my thoughts as he suddenly speaks in the group voice chat.

“Yeah?” I stare at the screen in front of me. I’m looking over some exam notes for tomorrow while hanging out in the voice chat since I bore easily.

“You’ve got everything set up for the meet, right?”

“Yes. Got the venue, got people’s payments, got all I need, I think. Why?”

“Dunno, bored.” He sighs. “There’s nobody here.”

I look to the side, to my phone. “It’s three in the afternoon. Everyone is studying, taking exams or working.”

“Ah, maybe.”

“No, not maybe. Pretty definitely.” I laugh. “Go make some triangle flag banner things or whatever if you’re bored.”

“Really?”

I shake my head. Why is Aaron so surprised by my idea? “If you want to. I’m not going to carry it for you though. You can do that yourself. But yeah, if you’re bored, go make banners or something game related to put on the tables or whatever.”

“You studying French?”

“Oui.” I grumble.

“Ah.” Sounds like that solves his surprise.

“Why?”

“You get grumpy when you have to do French.” I can hear him move around. “Okay, fine. You go study, I’ll entertain myself until Troy comes on.”

“He won’t be for a few more hours.” I can’t help but snicker, Aaron isn’t that good at entertaining himself.

“Why?” This time it’s Aaron who sounds suspicious.

“He’s got an exam until five and then has to do stuff with his family.”

“Fine. I’ll wait for someone else then. You go study your French.” I see him log out of the program and get back to my notes.

Why my parents want me to study French, I don’t know. This was one that my parents thought would be a good idea for me for some reason...

I grab my book and start walking through my room, trying to memorise the words on the page, but I still feel like it’s not going to work and that makes me feel even worse about French because I just want to pass all my classes, even this one.

When my phone rings, I put the book down and pick the phone up, seeing it’s Cerise. “Hey.”

“Oh, you sound relieved.” Cerise laughs. “Still studying?” Cerise is one of our DPS in the guild, she’s a mage, like Owen, but she isn’t around as often since her college classes and her part-time job kind of make it harder for her to be on all evenings.

“Yeah.” I grumble, letting myself fall onto the bed. “What’s up?”

“Just checking up on you. Making sure you’re actually working.”

“And you’re interrupting my study time for that?” I side-eye the book I just dropped.

“Yeah, you can’t study for hours on end anyway. You’ll need a break.”

“Okay, so, what was so important for you to break my study session?” I make myself comfortable. I like talking to Cerise, she makes me feel more included than the guys sometimes do. The guys can sometimes be a little... brute-ish.

“Well. I was thinking...”

“Hmm, hmm.” That’s never a good idea when she starts like that.

“You know that it’s my birthday in like... two months, right?” Cerise’s voice goes up.

“Yes...”

“And you know that I usually don’t really celebrate it, right?”

“Yeah...” Normally we just exchange gifts at a guild meet or something like that, my birthday is also over the summer, so it’s easier.

“Well. I was thinking... Since we’ve gotten to know quite a few new girls in DoE, maybe we can do like a girl’s night, or a girl’s weekend or something? What do you think?”

“Ehh. What did you specifically have in mind?” Because in my mind, there’s just pink and nail polish and stuff like that when I hear “girl’s night”.

“Well. I have a good internet connection, I can get my parents to give me the house for a night, and you’ve seen how many people we could house on the dining room table...” She lets out a laugh. “I could, of course, add pink to it and we could do a face painting competition who can make themselves look the most like a game character...”

“Very funny. But I like the idea.” I shake my head. “Of the party, not the face painting. Though, you can go ahead if you’d like to.” I shrug, though I know she can’t see it. “Were you thinking a shared party?”

“Yeah. If you’d like. It’s not like I’d invite people you don’t know, it’s just gonna be the girls from the guilds. Unless you already planned something?”

“I’d planned not to do much at all, really. It’s not like it’s going to be important for me and with the guild meet and stuff. This sounds way better.”

“Good.” I can hear the smile in Cerise’s voice. “We’ll talk specifics at the meet. I need to go now. There’s people expecting stuff of me.” She lets out an exaggerated sigh. “And, hey, did I remind you yet that Fleur may be at the meet this weekend? Just, you know, to stress you out. Bye!” And she quickly disconnects the line, but I can still hear her laugh before she does so.

She’s so evil, so mean. Like I need the reminder. Like I don’t remind myself of that every moment. I’ve talked to Fleur a few times this week, we’re both so busy with exams that it’s not easy. But even though it’s annoying for me, at least I know I’m going to the meet. And no matter if Fleur is going to come, it’s going to be a fun day anyway.

But for Fleur... To not know if she’ll be able to come or at what time... I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be for her, but at the same time... Yeah. Parents...

I just really wish this was easier. I wish I could just talk to her or meet her. But for now, it’s all just been in game and it may have raised my hopes a little too much...

Maybe.

Probably.

Arg!