Page 17 of Dungeons and Drama

I shrug. “I mean, it would be good to try something new while I’m here?”

I don’t sound particularly confident, but Lucas nods encouragingly.

“Well…” Dad frowns. “It’s nice to have two people at the register on a Friday night…but Curtis has been handling it for months on his own, so I don’t see why he can’t keep doing it. And Iwouldlove to get you more involved here.” He grins. “All right, sounds like a plan.”

“Awesome!” Lucas high-fives Dad and they beckon me toward the back room, seemingly forgetting that I’m still in the middle of stocking shelves.

“You’re going to love it, Riley,” Dad says. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before, but D&D is perfect for you. Just think of it as acting practice.”

“Acting?”

“Yes. You’ll be playing your own character—deciding how they’re going to speak, what they’re going to wear, who they’re going to kill. It’s all up to you!” He beams at me. “I have a good feeling about this.”

“What’s going on?”

I turn to find Nathan, his face barely visible behind a stack of five board games.

“Riley is going to join your D&D game!” Dad exclaims. “Put those down. I’ll take care of the rest so you all can start.”

Nathan shoots daggers at me as we follow Dad and Lucas into the other room. “Seriously?” he whispers. “I leave for five minutes, and you weasel your way into my game? I never agreed to this plan of yours.”

“I did notweasel my wayinto anything. If you’re looking for someone to whine to, find Lucas. It was his idea.”

As if to make my point for me, Lucas hurries over to thetable where the other guys are waiting. “Hey, guess what? Riley is going to start playing with us!”

John barely glances up before returning to hisD&D Player’s Handbook,but Anthony whips his head toward me. “What? Excellent!”

Nathan’s face scrunches in annoyance and it brings me a perverse pleasure. I pull out a chair. “Yep. I thought it would be a fun way to practice my acting.” I smile around at the table.

Dad grins bigger than I’ve seen in quite a while. “Great! Have fun!”

Nathan looks over his shoulder as Dad retreats before saying quietly, “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.” I spin and smile sweetly up at him. “What do you need?”

“In private,” he growls.

I waggle my eyebrows suggestively at him. “Mmm, yes. Let’s do that. Inprivate.”

Nathan storms off and I stand. “We’ll be right back.”

I follow him to the corner of the room where the bathrooms are. We’re partially hidden by a woven screen that Dad has erected in front of the bathroom doors, but it’s hardly private.

“Way to be dramatic back there,” I say.

He glares at me, then sighs. (Again, dramatically. Who says drama kids are always the dramatic ones?)

“Riley, what are you doing? You’re in my D&D group now? Really? You hate D&D. Please don’t ruin the game for me. You may think it’s stupid, but I love it.”

“I’m not going to ruin it. And it wasn’t my idea. Lucas and Dad got excited about it, and I didn’t want to turn them down, especially if you agree to my proposal. Plus, I get out of work during the games.”

He rolls his eyes. “Of course that’s your motivation.”

“If you don’t want to go along with my plan, then fine. Obviously I can’t make you—although I stand firm in the belief that it would work. Sophia would be eating out of your hand if she realized you weren’t interested anymore. But whatever. You do you. Let’s just try to get through the game tonight without murdering each other.”

Nathan takes the tiniest step toward me. “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in the plan.” His voice has lost the sharp edge it had a moment ago.

“Oh.” I blink in surprise. After how angry he was, I figured that was definitely off the table. “Well, great. I figured you hated the idea.”

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