Page 2 of How We Play the Game
“You just let me in ten minutes ago. You saw my face. I had a lanyard then.”
“Don’t remember,” the guard said dismissively.
“How about Imakeyou remember?” she asked viciously. Ivan snorted. The girl earned points on ballsiness and lost some for having no idea what it really took to sneak into VIP areas. The snort caught her attention, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Ivan waiting, and for an unusually long moment their eyes met, locked, and perceived each other equally.
Everything from the girl’s neck down was obscured by a long black puffer coat that gave the appearance of a lumpy,half-escaped cocoon with a pair of combat boots sticking out the bottom and one of those expensive furry microphones jammed on top. When she turned to look at Ivan, the tan fuzz of her hood framed her face like a cartoon lion and made her narrowed black eyes stand out against her dark brown skin. It also prevented Ivan from seeing if she had any hair, but she had the wide cheekbones and smooth skin of a girl whose face card had more than enough credit to pull off a buzz cut, had she wanted one. Her thick lips, one slightly pinker than the other, had the sticky, matte quality of medicated lip balm; as far as Ivan could tell she wore no makeup, not even the mascara his fellow streamers insisted was a requirement for their eyes to really “pop” on camera.
“I don’t see the problem.” The girl returned her attention to the guard. “You have my name on the list. It’s Zora Lyon. L-Y-O-N.”
Weird name, Ivan thought. It almost sounded familiar?Cute girl.
“Can I—” Ivan was about to sayget by, please, since this Zora Lyon showed no signs of letting him step in front of her while she argued with the guard.
“Give me a second.” Whatever the girl saw in Ivan while he was checking her out, she didn’t seem impressed. She held her finger up to keep him beyond arm’s length.
“Miss, you’re holding up the line,” the security guard intoned.The same line that just let me skip to the front for no reason?Ivan scoffed internally.
Zora jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The line that just let that guy skip for no reason?” She echoed his exact thought, which was kind of wonderful.
Her mention of a guy made the guard look up from his clipboard and notice Ivan for the first time. Ivan pinpointed the second the guard clocked him; his posture became less rigid, and his face relaxed away from the scowl he’d kept up to intimidate Zora.
“Hey, look who’s back!” the guard called out. Ivan didn’t recognize him. Should he? “What’s up, Ivan?”
“Hiya …” Ivan dipped his gaze to the man’s chest and saw his name tag:Hello, My Name Is Frank.“Frank.”
“Yeah, it’s me, Frank!” Frank looked incredibly pleased that Ivan remembered his name.
“Of course! Good to see you again.” Ivan chanced a glance at Zora and saw her gaze drift down to Frank’s name tag. When she looked back up at Ivan, she rolled her eyes.What? This is how you bullshit correctly, Ivan thought.Take notes.
“Sorry about her.” Frank gestured to the girl. “We’ve been dealing with player imposters all day.”
“Imposters?” The word hit the girl like a physical blow. Her shoulders slumped, and her voice lost its punchiness in an instant. “All I did was drop my lanyard. I just wanted to get some air. I—You really don’t recognize me?”
The incredulous, defeated tone reminded Ivan of someone he’d met before. Someone who was also told they didn’t belong in the elite tiers of Wizzard’s esports empire.
And just like that, Ivan knew how he was going to play this. He checked behind him. VIPs and fans alike held their phones directly in front of their faces, giving Ivan the dystopian feeling that everyone’s bodies ended at the neck and their heads were nothing but shiny rectangular boxes that occasionally flashed white from one corner.They could be postingthis everywhere, he thought, and for the record, they were. Now, to be the good guy.
It began with shifting closer to the girl and sharing a sneaky smile with the guard. “Hey, Frank?” he asked. “I feel bad; this is kind of my fault. I was supposed to get here before, uh, Zena here.”
“Zora.”
“Zora here,” Ivan corrected. “She’s with me, if you get what I mean.”
“What?” Zora exclaimed and took a step away from Ivan, but he reached out and gently pulled her back so they were standing side by side.Just go with it, he willed her to read his mind.I got this.
“Aha.” Frank nodded conspiratorially. “I see. Brought your own cheerleader for your big return, huh?”
“You know how it goes.” Ivan finished the charade off with a wink. This time, Zora succeeded in pulling away from him, and the look on her face made it clear he shouldn’t try again. Luckily, Frank didn’t seem to notice.
“Well, that explains why your name is on the list but no lanyard,” Frank said to Zora, while looking at Ivan. “Those are only for players, you know.”
“Wait, are theplayers’ lanyardsonly for players?” Zora asked sarcastically. Frank missed the tone and answered in earnest.
“Only for players. You two can go on in, though.”
Zora shot Frank a look that could have boiled water and stomped through the doors without looking back. Ivan turned around one more time, waved at the crowd and the VIPs alike, and followed Zora in.
Front of house at the Wizzard Theater was a stylish, high-tech lobby with multicolored strips of LED lighting forming zigzag patterns on the dark black walls, and a smooth floor of seamless marble that must be absolutely lethal when it rained. Despite the sounds of setup coming through the open doors that led to the floor tier of seating and the occasional ding of the elevators in the back, there weren’t a lot of people in the vestibule itself. The better to get to know this Zora person.
