Page 49 of It's in the Contract
Myself. What a novel idea.
When I don’t say anything, Zeke raises an eyebrow. “You promised. You signed. Do you need me to get out your pink notebook?”
I laugh. “Okay, okay.”
Zeke places his fingers over the controller in my hands. He moves my thumbs into place, and I can’t help but notice each touch of his hands to mine.
Zeke turns on the camera phone, and we’re live.
“Hello, my friends!” Zeke says in an upbeat, confident voice. “Today I have a special treat for you: we are playing a gameeveryone loves, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and I am joined by none other than Callie Carter.”
I smile and wave, feeling shy. Zeke makes this look so easy.
“You all know Ben Carter from his Marvel movie, ohmygosh that was good, but did you know that his daughter is a video game freak?”
I gasp and punch Zeke’s arm. “I am not. I’ve never played in my life.”
“Don’t listen to her, folks.” Zeke grins. “She is a nerd at heart, but you’d never know it. Gorgeous, smart, and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, none of that compares to her epic video game talent. Behold it!”
My cheeks heat. Did he mean all that? Or is he just performing?
Zeke gets me started on the game, and the opening “cut scenes” come on.
“Why doesn’t Link have any clothes on?” I ask.
“He just woke up from a hundred years of hibernation!” Zeke says. “And he’s wearing boxers. Give him a break.”
The controls take some getting used to, and at first, I run around aimlessly.
“Watch as Callie chooses a weapon to fight a bokoblin,” Zeke says. “Ooooh a stick, excellent choice.”
It’s hard to say how the audience is liking it, but the heart button at the top corner of the screen flashes, showing that we’re getting likes. Comments scroll up the right side of the screen, and Zeke engages and responds.
The bokoblin kills me. I fall off a cliff. I freeze to death on a snowy mountain. But Zeke makes each of my deaths seem like the grand act of a master player, and soon I’m laughing and joking along with him, forgetting that we’re on camera, forgetting that many of his subscribers are watching right now, including people at our school.
People that know me personally and hold my future in their voting hands are watching me right now.
The thought makes me freeze up for a second, and I have to take a steadying breath.
“So Link and Zelda are a couple, right?” I ask while I make Link climb a cliff, keeping one eye on my stamina wheel. “He’s saving her because he loves her.”
“Not exactly,” Zeke says. “He’s like her . . . bodyguard?”
I whip my head towards Zeke. “You’re telling me that they’re not in love? Not even a little bit? Don’t they kiss at the end?”
“It’s not a romcom, Cal.” Zeke’s eyes sparkle.
“And why does he never talk?” My stamina wheel is almost empty. “Is he a mute?”
“Eat some food, Callie!”
“Do what?”
Link plummets to the ground and lets out an “Ahhhhhh!”
“Uhhh . . . Callie Carter, my friends! A woman of the people.”
I laugh and do an awkward seated bow. That was fun. I actually . . . enjoyed myself. The thought surprises me.
