Page 3 of How We Play the Game
“Whew.” Ivan grinned. “Can’t believe that worked.”
Zora wasn’t grinning. Her hood had fallen down, and the boiling-water glare never wavered as she walked over to a discarded lump of ribbon and plastic on the floor near the doors. She picked it up, shook it out, and held it up like a show-and-tell presentation. It was a VIP player’s lanyard, which she lifted above her head to work the fabric loop over the volume of her shoulder-length curly hair.
“It’s bad enough I had to wake up at the crack to get here and that it’s negative screw-you degrees outside,” she said in a tone that suggested she was speaking to herself instead of Ivan, even though he was standing right there. “But yeah, no, sure. Let’s throw in a washed-up eboy sneaking me in like an imperial concubine when I belonged here on my own.”
“Washed-up eboy?” Ivan didn’t love the sound of that. Also, who used phrases like “imperial concubine” in any situation, ever? “That’s what I get for doing you a favor?”
“What favor?” Zora asked. Ivan got the feeling she meant it as a real question. Her face was calm. Passive. Uncharmed. Whatever Ivan had wasn’t working on her. That made him nervous all over again.
“I thought you just wanted to get in early like a VIP,” Ivan mumbled. “Figured I’d help you out.”
“Why did you think I wasn’t a VIP by myself?” Her tone was matter-of-fact enough to make Ivan see and more acutely feel where he’d gone wrong this time.
“I just assumed—”
“You assumed,” the girl said, putting a premature period at the end of his thought.
Instead of berating himself and overthinking his words like he had in front of the theater, he dug his heels in. “Look, I’ve clearly touched a nerve here,” he began. “But don’t you think you’re kind of overreacting?”
“Overreacting?” Zora’s thin eyebrows leaped up toward her hairline. “You humiliated me in front of everyone! I fought my way through the preliminaries and earned my right to be here on my own, just like everyone else.” Zora’s hand went to the front of her neck to unzip her puffer coat, then appeared to think better of removing her protective outer shell, however fluffy. “And you told him I was yourcheerleader?”
“Almosteveryone else. And Frank said that, not me,” Ivan responded defensively. This girl was a piece of work. Normally he wouldn’t flex, but Zora seemed intent on seeing the worst in him regardless. “Do you know who Brian Juno is?”
“Of course I know who Brian Juno is,” the girl hissed. “What kind of question is that? He literally cofounded Wizzard.”
“Yeah, he personally invited me to play today,” Ivan continued. “You had to play in preliminaries?” He clicked his tongue. “Yikes.”
Zora took the bait, but not in the way Ivan expected her to. “You know that’s not something to be proud of, right?”
“Why not?” Ivan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter how I got here, as long as I make it into the top two in the battle royale. And I will.”
That made Zora snort. “You sure about that?”
“I am,” Ivan reassured her.I have to be, was the unspoken corollary. A top two placement today was the only thing that would get him back in the game, literally. He had to prove he wasn’t the bad guy he looked like last time he left. That was what gave him his next brilliant idea.
“Hey,” he began in the voice he used to adopt on stream when he needed to come off vulnerable and earnest. “I screwed up here, that’s obvious. Is there a way I can make it up to you?”
“No,” Zora said. Her tone was blunt, but not necessarily angry this time. Ivan hoped that was a good sign.
“How about this,” he said. “I’m going to make it to the top two of the battle royale today.”
“Yes, you mentioned that.”
“I can make sure you’re in the top two too. Wow. It’s so weird when you have to say ‘two’ and ‘too’ like that. You ever notice how weird it sounds?” Ivan made one last-ditch effort to build any kind of rapport with this—honestly—super pretty girl with the personality of a scorpion.
“How would you make sure?” she asked, looking almost amused. The almost part made Ivan feel like he’d passed a high Charisma check inDungeons and Dragons.
“Right. Yeah, so I know we’re all against each other inGuardians League Royale, but there’s nothing in the rules that says I can’t watch your back in there.”
“Excuse me?” Zora stepped back, her eyebrows once again high with disapproval.
“I just meant, like, if you need some help in there.”
“Why would you do that? For me or anyo—”
“Because you remind me of someone,” Ivan answered quickly. “Someone I should have protected. This girl … anyway, I’m different now. You can trust me.” There really had to be a better way of putting that. And if there wasn’t, Ivan was going to have to invent it.
It seemed to mark a change in the way Zora looked at him, though. “Trust you,” she said under her breath. Then again. “Trustyou.” Then, as if the muscles in her face finally thawed, her expression softened.
