Page 49 of Don't Hate the Player
BobTheeQ: Jake, I don’t know what Muddy’s talking about but you’ve been quiet on KNOX all week. Is there anything I need to know about?
JHoops: nope
BobTheeQ: Penelope . . . IDK, you good?
ElementalP: i mean i’m breathing
BobTheeQ: Mics down, we’re going back in. This is important, so take a few deep breaths and get in the game. Muddy, swap from Balor to Nero so you don’t get caught up with the fire weakness. Ki stay on Doctor Jack for the ice attacks.
BobTheeQ: Healers are fine on Pythia and Castor, I’m swapping Fabella for Reigh.
Shineedancer: on it
MUDD: I can def do nero
BobTheeQ: We’ll only run Pygon one more time before bed. Jake has to be up early for the bus.
[Team Unity is queued for battle]
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Emilia, Saturday, Round 2
I’VE NEVER FELTmore like a ninja than I do right now, pulling slowly into the parking lot of Hillford’s second and noticeably crappier Dunkin’. It’s not a bad feeling, and it’s certainly not a new one relating to the tournament, but knowing I’m here to pick up Jake before engaging in furtherGLO-related subterfuge adds a little extra thrill to the usual proceedings. A thrill garnish, if I may. Thrarnish.
That thrill is of course 100 percent related to Jake’s status as my competitor in this competition, naturally. The fact of it being him specifically is a nonfactor. Byunki would be furious with me if he knew I was fraternizing, and I don’t know what Jake’s team would do if they caught us together (knowing what I do of Team Unity, they’d probably kiss him on the forehead and give him a kitten), but I simply and purely do not care. Giving Jake a ride is the right thing to do, and surreptitiously flipping Byunki the bird might be the only thing that gets me through another day at his hypercompetitive mercy.
My phone rings through my car speakers as soon as I put the car in park. Penny’s name and all-American photo from her campaign poster pops up on the screen (unlike Connor’s photo, I put that one in myself). This is the second time she’s called me in two weeks, and I gotta say, as much as talking on the phone is the realm of the elderly, it’s actually a pretty good way to quickly communicate information. Go figure.
“Pen! It’s 6:45 in the morning.”
“Hi to you too.” She sounds grumpy, which I read as tired. I’d sympathize if I hadn’t been up past midnight every day this week.
“Sorry, hi. Good morning. What’s up?”
“I”—she doesn’t bother to stifle her yawn—“got up early because I’m afantasticperson and wanted to say break a leg. Or wish you good luck? Smash a . . . ?controller thing. I don’t know what you people say.”
Her delivery could use some work. I’m still touched.
“Thank you. I think it’s good luck? No one’s ever said it to me before, about this kind of stuff.”
“Like I said, fantastic person.”
“You really, really are.”
“Are you alone?”
That’s ominous. “Yeah, I’m waiting to pick up Jake atthe location.”
“Aha. Can’t forget Jake. Like any of us could forget Jake,” she replies. Her sarcastic tone is duly noted. I may have developed a teeny, tiny case of the mentions about Jake in the latter half of this week. Only around Penny and Matt, of course, but they were curious about the tournament and I couldn’tnotbring him up. Especially since I’ve been good about not looking or talking to him during school hours.
Okay, I maybe look at him a little during school hours.
And I have been talking to him after practice for the past three days.
And that might be the reason I’m even more sleep-deprived than usual because Fury stuff wraps at 11:30, but the Jake stuff wraps whenever one of us is about to fall asleep. Or whenever one of us does fall asleep, like I did Thursday night and Jake had to sing the “Funkytown” beeps over voice chat to scare me awake.
“I can’t forget Jake because he doesn’t have a ride without me.” The defense is crappier than this Dunkin’, and I know it. Penny apparently knows it too.
