Page 10 of Dating and Dragons

I smirk. “That’d be your funeral. She’d role-play you all under the table.”

The others laugh.

“No decisions are being made yet,” Sloane says slowly. “But we’ve wanted to add another player, and no one else we’ve talked to can commit to our guidelines.”

“We’re doing a session zero on Wednesday after school to plan our characters for the next campaign. Why don’t you come?” Kashvi asks me. “We’ll tell you about how our groupworks, you can think about what character you’d want to play, and we can all chat more about whether it makes sense.” She cuts her gaze to Logan.

If I’m being honest, this whole thingisintimidating. I love D&D, but I’m more of a casual player than an expert. I was hoping for an informal game. But today is the first time since we moved that I’ve had real hope that I can make new friends here. I don’t want to quit before giving this a shot, no matter how obnoxious Logan is about the whole thing.

“I’ll be there,” I reply confidently. “Wouldn’t miss it foranything.”

Chapter Five

My stomach is twisted with nerves when I arrive at Kashvi’s house after school Wednesday for our “session zero.” I remind myself that this isn’t the first time I’ve made a character for a D&D campaign, but it’s abundantly clear that this isn’t going to be like my other experiences. Luckily, Kashvi is waiting for me at the door this time.

“I’m glad you made it,” she says, and beckons me inside. “I was worried you might back out last minute.”

“Definitely not. Though right now I’m equal parts excited and terrified.”

“I’m sorry Logan was weirded out by the idea of you joining. I don’t know what was going on with him. He usually isn’t like that.”

“Maybe I should have let Grandma run him over in the parking lot that first day,” I mutter at the reminder of him and his whiplash behavior last time I was here.

“He’s very into D&D. Like, I think of myself as a biggamer, but I’m nowhere close to him. He probably just got used to thinking of our group in a certain way and needed to process the idea of someone new joining. Don’t worry about it.” She gives me a once-over and nods appreciatively. “Nice choice of outfit for today. You’re giving witchy-paladin vibes.”

I look down at myself, confused about why she thinks I look like a paladin, and then remember I’m wearing sun and moon earrings and a blue shirt with a large sun on it. Since paladins can worship sun deities, I guess that makes sense.

“Thanks, I actually made these.” I point to my earrings.

“Wait, youmadethose? No way, I love doing that stuff too! I made this.” She holds up her wrist to show me a bracelet made of six-sided dice interspersed with beads. I have no idea how I didn’t notice it until now—it’s so cool I’m tempted to barter my own jewelry for it. I tell her as much and she laughs loudly.

“We totally need to get together after school and make jewelry together. What do you think?”

I have to bite the inside of my cheek so I don’t screamYESin her face. No need to scare her off.

“Yeah,” I say in a fairly normal tone of voice. “That would be awesome.”

A small cheer goes up when I walk into the room. “You actually came!” Mark says, while both Sanjiv and Sloane wave.

I can’t stop myself from glancing over at Logan, who islooking carefully neutral as he flips through a manual. “I don’t scare easily.”

“Glad to hear that,” Sloane says.

“Session zero might be one of my favorite days,” Kashvi says. “Plus, my mom bought us pizza! Help yourself.” She points to a folding table pushed against a wall with multiple pizzas stacked on it, along with some half-opened bags of chips.

“But don’t eat all the veggie pizza. It’s my favorite,” Sanjiv adds.

At least there are snacks, so this isn’t completely unlike my other experiences. I take a slice of pepperoni and sit at the open seat at the table, which is next to Kashvi and directly across from Logan. He hasn’t made eye contact since I arrived. Maybe that’s how this whole campaign will go…assuming they’re still on board with letting me join after today. I guess it wouldn’t be horrible to have him ignore me, but it doesn’t feel great knowing someone is actively against my joining. I give him a peace offering in the form of a little smile, but rather than smiling back like a regular person, his lips press together in a line like he’s an annoyed emoji.

“Okay, we should get started,” Logan announces, and the others immediately quiet down. I guess he really is the leader here. “If we want to increase our viewer numbers, then we need this next campaign to be even more amazing than our last one, and that means we’ve got to bring it with our characters. What’s everyone thinking?”

“Are you ready for this? I’ve chosen my name….” Mark puts out his hands. “Rolo.”

There’s a beat of silence. “Rolo?” Sloane asks. “Um, can you give us some context here?”

Logan starts laughing, quietly at first and then louder. “That’s actually perfect for you.”

“Right? Because I…roll…low?” Mark sits back dramatically and flicks a candy with the same name into his mouth.