Page 26 of Didn't See That Coming

I can’t look him in the eye as I stand and head for the door.

The receptionist looks up from her e-reader and smiles at me, but I don’t even have the energy to muster up a smile for her as I slump out.

CHAPTER 7

When I get home, Mami calls out, “Kiki? Is that you? I’ve got some madeleines from that new bakery—”

“I don’t want any!” I snap, and rush up the stairs. I lock my bedroom door and lean against it, breathing hard. God, Mami better not come up here and try to talk to me. I listen through the door for a bit, but I don’t hear her footsteps coming up the stairs. Good. With a sigh, I park myself at my computer and fire upWarfront Heroes.There’s no other way to describe how I’m feeling aside from completely destructive. I’m angry. So freaking angry. My talk with Principal Lin keeps resurfacing in my mind, and each time I get a flash of his sneering face and patronizing tone, the rage inside me burns hotter, licking at my flesh and consuming all of me. And the feeling of helplessness on top of it only makes it even worse. I want to scream. I want to grab hold of the fabric of society and yank hard, watch everything come tumbling down.

And so I log on toWarfront Heroes.Sourdawg isn’t online; he doesn’t usually log on until after ninep.m. I join the queue fora round at Silmerrov Gulch and choose to play as Heartcrusher, an elf who dual-wields a sword and an axe. The next fifteen minutes are spent stabbing and slashing away with abandon at the enemy group, and by the end of the battle—which my team won—I’m feeling ever so slightly less murderous. But all that replaces the rage is bitterness. I don’t feel satisfied. So whatif I’ve taken out my anger on a stupid online game? Sowhat ifmyWarfront Heroesranking has just risen by a point? None of it matters. I’m still at the bottom of the hierarchy at my new school. My principal is still a misogynistic, patronizing ass. And my classmates are still under Jonas’s spell.

Jonas. The thought of him makes my upper lip curl with revulsion. Ugh. I can’t remember the last time I despised someone as much as Jonas. I think of his smug smile and his obnoxious voice, and that’s when I recall the Titanimus sticker on his notebook, along with hisWHhandle. What was it again? It was something so very Jonas. Like BigDick or HugeAsshole or…GoldenDragonLord. Yes! That’s it.

I go into my Socials tab and type in GoldenDragonLord. And there it is. TheGoldenDragonLord, location: Indonesia. And the dot on the left side of his name is green. My heart rate increases dramatically. Jonas is currently online. An evil grin takes over my entire face as I move my cursor over to his name and click on the heart icon to its right. Liking TheGoldenDragonLord means that I enjoy playing with him, which would encourage the algorithm to increase the likelihood that TheGoldenDragonLord and Dudebro10 would run into the same battles.

With that settled, I join the queue for another round of Silmerrov Gulch. Heh-heh. I rub my hands together and twirlan imaginary evil mustache as I wait to be logged on to a battle. The moment I’m on, I quickly open up the list of players and scan it for Jonas. Damn it. No stupid dragon lords in this round. I log off the battle, go back to the home screen, and join the queue for a different round. It takes me a minute longer to get into a new battle this time, because the algorithm doesn’t like quitters; the more you quit, the longer you have to wait to join the next game. But it’s worth it.

This time, when I call up the players list, his name leaps out at me as though it were written in all caps and neon colors. THEGOLDENDRAGONLORD. My grip on my mouse tightens, and I bare my teeth at the screen. Maybe I’m grinning, maybe I’m growling, who knows? Jonas isn’t even going to know what hit him. I choose my character: the Shadow Stalker. Heh-heh. My primary weapons are two short daggers, because I’m going to kill Jonas at close range. I want to see thelook on his face when I—well, okay, I won’t be able to seethe look onhisface, because this is just an online game, yada yada. But I like the idea of stepping very close to Jonas right before I kill his character.

Unfortunately for Jonas, the new skin that he’s just spent a buttload of money on is very, very flashy. Titanimus is a huge warrior with shoulders as wide as he is tall, and his new armor is a painfully shiny gold plate. It’s very impressive. It also means I easily spot Jonas within the crowd of players from a mile away. Heh-heh. As soon as the battle begins and everyone charges forward and clashes in the middle of the battleground, I guide my character to the periphery, away from the main action. Halfway through, I engage my character’s superpower:the shadow stance, which is a partial invisibility skill. I’m not quite invisible, as that would make me overpowered, but I fade into the background like a shadow, and only players who are looking out for me would spot me.

I move silkily, past fighting bodies, following the beacon of shining armor that is Jonas. He’s waving his giant sword around and making all these showy moves. I creep up until I’m right behind him, then I disengage the shadow stance. There’s a beautiful moment where Jonas’s character stops moving, and I can practically see Jonas behind his computer going, “Oh, shit.” Then I plunge my dagger into the back of his neck, at an exposed sliver of flesh between his helmet and his body armor. Just in case that doesn’t do the trick, I press a couple of keys, bringing up my other dagger and slashing his throat with it. The words “No. of Kills: 1!” pop up onto my screen, and my grin is so huge that my cheeks legit hurt. I watch as Jonas’s character tumbles onto the ground and slowly fades away.Mwahaha!

It takes thirty seconds for a character to respawn after they die, so I quickly engage the shadow stance once more, before Jonas’s teammates can get to me. Luckily, they’re all still distracted by the fierce battle around me. I walk past them and straight to the enemy quarters, where Jonas will respawn, andI wait patiently. Just as expected, there’s a flash of light, and Jonas’s character appears at the respawning station. I don’t even let him take a single step before I rush forward and stab him multiple times. He crumples to the ground and disappears just as the words “No. of Kills: 2!” appear on my screen.

This time, the chat window explodes with a stream ofexpletives.

TheGoldenDragonLord:WTF??!! WHAT THE F***??!!!

Warfront Heroesautomatically censors swear words, but I got the gist. Still smirking, I type out a short and sweet response.

Dudebro10::)

TheGoldenDragonLord:F*** YOU, DUDEBRO, YOU F***ING LITTLE S*** I AM GOING TO REPORT YOU

Dudebro10:Why are you so sensitive? It’s just a game.

I notice a flicker at the respawning station and bite my lip to hold back from laughing, because here is Jonas, about to reappear. It’s almost too cruel. Almost. I giggle as I kill him for the third time.

TheGoldenDragonLord:F***!!!!!!!! YOU F***ING USELESS TEAM WHERE THE F*** ARE YOU ALL I’M GETTING GRIEFED BY SOME F***ING COWARDLY BACKSTABBER COME HELP ME YOU A*******!!!!!

Dudebro10:Wow, is that how you talk to your teammates? No wonder they won’t help you. You know, you catch more flies with honey.

TheGoldenDragonLord:I REPORTED YOU FOR GRIEFING ME, YOU C***

Wow, he used the C-word. He must be really angry. I click on his name and select the Report button. When a windowopens up, I copy/paste Jonas’s chat message and hit Send.Two of us can play the reporting game, Jonas.

MMPlayer:Hey, guys, stop f***ing around and join the actual battle. DragonLord, we rly need a tank here.

TheGoldenDragonLord:HAVE YOU NOT BEEN LISTENING, I’M TRYING TO GET TO THE BATTLE BUT THIS LITTLE S*** IS CAMPING ON THE RESPAWN STATION

AryaStarkFan:Uhh, so kill him. He’s a little Shadow Stalker. One hit from your hammer will destroy him. God, you suck

Dudebro10:Arya is not wrong. ;) It takes me a few stabs to get to you, but you could easily kill me in a hit. I guess you just suck at the game

TheGoldenDragonLord:F*** ALL OF YOU

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