Chapter 1:

  Harsher than any tundra and crueler than any barrens was a place long feared for its savagery, middle school, and in the far corner of the playground, two eighth-grade boys sat side by side on the swing set, chatting away the last few minutes of their recess.

  “Did you hear?” asked Hurley. “Finn got Enix already.”

  Nole readjusted his glasses as he swayed next to him.

  “Already?” he replied. “I didn’t know it was even out yet.”

  “It came out this week,” Hurley went on. "He even missed class to make sure he got a copy."

  “Man, he always gets everything first," Nole insisted. "What about you? Are you getting it?"

  “I want to,” Hurley shrugged. “My mom said maybe. So, we’ll see.”

  Nole shook his head, smiling.

  "I want that game so bad," he admitted.

  “Yeah, dude, it looks sick,” Hurley added. “Especially if we all get it.”

  "Right?" Nole laughed. "The three of us, playing online with thousands of other people."

  The pair began to gaze skyward, daydreaming of such an opportunity.

  “The day I get Enix is the last day anyone sees me,” Nole insisted. “I’ll camp out on the toilet with a laptop.”

  “Bathroom’s closed indefinitely,” Hurley joked. “Due to slaying monsters with the boys.”

  “Mother, please,” Nole laughed. “I’m having important dealings with the wenches in here.”

  “Hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Hurley argued. “But girls don’t exist on the internet.”

  “Cyber wenches, then,” Nole replied. “I’d settle for cyber wenches. Maybe I can actually get a girl to talk to me if they’re part of the video game, like a non-playable character.”

  “That poor NPC,” joked Hurley. "She’s just trying to do her job, reading you the quest text, while you’re romancing her.”

  “Exactly,” Nole laughed. “She's telling me about some dragon I need to defeat, and I'm like, Mom, come quick; I finally met somebody. She’s right here, on the computer.”

  The bell rang, marking the end of recess. Every middle schooler in the yard buzzed back into their classrooms like busy little bees. From the look on their faces, you couldn't tell if they were bracing to resume school or an ice plunge.

  Math class was silent, except for the scribbling of pencils as Nole held his forehead in his hand. It'd taken all the motivation in the world to copy the problem off the board and onto his paper. The lines and shapes of the algebra that awaited him blurred together, making less sense the longer he stared.

  "Psst," whispered the girl in the seat ahead of him, turning around in her chair. "I need help."

  Her genuine smile was sunlight on his skin. Nole looked up, almost confused for a moment. She was the new girl, having transferred here only this week.

  "Lemme see," Nole whispered back, leaning forward as they looked over her paper together.

  She was cute. She seemed friendly as well. Nole hadn't even begun on his own paper, but the moment she asked, he became a mathematician.

  “You’ve gotta solve for x,” he pointed out. “You wanna get this all by itself on one side, right? So divide this on both sides.”

  “Oh, right,” she nodded. “Thanks.”

  She was either the quickest learner alive, or this was an excuse to talk to him.

  “Yeah, anytime,” Nole assured her.

  “I’m Briana, by the way,” she added.

  “I’m Nole,” he replied.

  “Thanks, Nole,” she smiled, turning back around.

  "Anytime, Briana," he blushed, holding his head in his hand again. This time to hide the redness.

  Half an hour later, the bell released them for lunch. Nole went to his usual table, where his friends were already seated. His roller backpack could be heard from a mile away, slapping the cracks in the walkway as he approached.

  “Hey, you guys wanna meet up after school today?” Nole asked as he sat down across from them. “Play some video games or something?”

  Hurley and Finn were already digging into their school-bought lunches, which always seemed more appealing than his own, and Nole eyed their burgers and tater tots with subtle envy. After digging around in his backpack, he shortly placed a crumpled-up brown paper bag in front of him, crossing his fingers for something more than ordinary.

  "Actually, I, uh, can't today," Finn remarked with a big shit-eating grin.

  Nole pictured Finn at home, unwrapping his fresh copy of Enix to play all night. Knowing him, he'd miss school the next day, too. That's what Nole would do if he had the chance.

  “I’ve got band practice today,” Hurley declared, strumming invisible strings. “Gotta slappa-da-bass later, you know.”

  "All good," Nole replied, feeling his heart sink. He peeled his lunch in hopes of something uplifting, but the same tinfoil-wrapped tuna sandwich as always stared back at him.

  Hurley bit into his burger. But as tasty as it looked, he cringed shortly after and began dissecting it.

  “Gross,” he shook his head. “Pickles.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  "Ugh, I can't stand pickles," Finn noted, now checking his own burger.

  Nole deflated in his seat, watching his friends trim the fat from their meal. Take the pickles out of a burger, and it's still a burger. Many argue that it's better off. Hurley and Finn were like the classically appealing parts of a burger, boasting their tan skin and skater physiques. Nole felt way more like those less exciting pickles, plucked out and tossed to the wayside.

  Later that day, the final bell rang, letting everyone out to go home. Nole tied his sweatshirt to the handle of his roller backpack and put the hood on his head. It was his own silly invention, letting him drag his stuff around without using his hands.

  "Oh my!" said the elderly crossing guard, cracking up at the sight of him. "That's a new one!"

  The man smiled and met him in the street, shielding them from traffic with his handheld stop sign.

  “No hands!” Nole joked.

  "I love it," replied the crossing guard as he escorted Nole to the other side. "You have a great day, you hear?”

  "Thanks, you too!" Nole exclaimed, waving with both arms.

  The house was empty when he got home. He left his backpack by the door and drowned out any peep of his conscience that suggested homework. With a mouthful of potato chips, he planted himself on the couch with pencil and paper. For the next few hours he watched cartoons and sketched drawings during commercial breaks.

  That night, Nole lay in bed, refusing to sleep until he finished what he started. Beneath the amber glow of his bedside lamp, he added the final touches and wiped away the eraser shavings.

  He finished it. Nole paused, admiring his work. A heroine, clad in battle armor, drew the string of her bow with long hair blowing in the wind. She coincidently resembled the new girl who sat in front of him.

  The next day in math class, Nole couldn't focus, but this time, it was because of anticipation. Pencils scribbled around him. He couldn't wait, like a loaded spring, ready to leap. He preemptively looked up, prepared to meet the new girl’s eyes as soon as she turned around and asked him for help.

  But she didn’t. Eventually, the lunch bell rang. The walkway cracks put up more of a fight today as Nole rolled his backpack to his friends. Hurley and Finn were in their spots as Nole sat across from them.

  It was corndog day, Nole's favorite. Their trays looked delicious, while the tuna sandwich in his bag seemed inedible.

  “So, uh…” Finn began, chomping at the bit to get something off his chest. “You know that thing I had to do yesterday?”

  Nole’s eyes were glued to Hurley, watching him dip his corndog in a pocket of ketchup, but he humored him all the same.

  “Oh yeah?” he replied.

  “I went on a date with Briana,” Finn admitted, bouncing his feet.

  “The new girl?” Hurley laughed. “You dog, you."

  “Hey, get ‘em while they’re fresh,” Finn joked.

  “She’s been here for what, three days?” said Hurley. “You don’t miss a beat.”

  “She’s cute, right?” Finn proposed to the table.

  “Yeah, she is,” Nole admitted, feeling defeated.

  "For sure," Hurley replied. "How'd it go?"

  “It was awesome, dude,” said Finn, dying to reveal all the juicy details. "We listened to music and watched the sunset under the pier. Then we made out a little bit afterward."

  "That's what I'm talking about," smiled Hurley, bumping his fist.

  Nole forced a smile as he crumpled his lunch shut. He wasn’t hungry anymore. Hurley and Finn went to the handball courts at recess, but Nole took a detour.

  Over at the swing set, he found himself going just high enough to see over the fence. If he let go at the right time, he could soar over it and land on the other side. No one would even notice he was gone.

  Nole rose and fell a few more times before his momentum settled. He swayed gently, watching his shadow as the sun beat pleasantly on his neck. But the footsteps of two girls soon approached, stealing him from his daydreams.

  "Hey, Nole," said Beryl and Dani as they stood over him.

  He slowly lifted his head, blinking at them.

  “Hey, what’s up?” he replied.

  “How’s it going?” they asked immediately.

  “Uh…” he began, a little caught off guard. “Good? How about you?”

  “Good,” they replied.

  “That’s good,” he insisted, scratching his head.

  "Hey, Dani has something she wants to ask you," said Beryl as they sat cross-legged, cornering him.

  “Okay,” he shrugged. “What’s up?”

  "Do you… wanna go out with me?" asked Dani, tapping her foot anxiously.

  Beryl quietly clapped her hands over her face, hiding her excitement. Nole looked from one to the other, confused as he processed what was happening. He almost smiled before the truth cut him off.

  "Please say no," whispered Dani.

  Nole tilted his head at her. He turned to Beryl, who was struggling to contain the laughter behind her. It all gradually made sense.

  “It’s a dare,” Dani whispered again. “Please say no.”

  “Um, no," Nole eventually replied, feeling his heart crumple into a ball like his lunch bag.

  "Oh, thank you!" Dani assured him, jumping to her feet in relief.

  The two girls stumbled away on the blacktop, leaning on each other and giggling as they returned to the group of popular kids who'd orchestrated it all. A sour pill grew in Nole’s stomach. He felt low.

  He got up to leave. But after no more than a few steps, he tripped on his loose shoelaces. The kids howled with laughter, seeing the whole thing. He couldn’t even feel his scraped knee over the sound of them.

  It was like a bad dream. Nole ran, but it felt like he was moving in quicksand. He took shelter in the end stall of the restroom for the remainder of lunch.

  Nole took his glasses off. They were too foggy from crying to see anyway. He hated his glasses because none of the other kids needed them. He hid his head in his shirt, but the sight of his stomach rolls only made him more upset. The other kids didn’t have these either. He pinched the thick parts of his belly, wanting to tear them off like gobs of dough so he could look like everyone else. He curled over and buried his head in his forearms until the bell rang.

  The rest of his classes were a haze. By the time the final bell let everyone out for the day, he was a zombie. He tied his sweatshirt around the handle with the hood on his head and slumped home.

  There was a different crossing guard today. She had the body of a pear with a mean face like she was sucking a lemon. She met him halfway in the intersection, giving him nothing but side-eyes.

  Upon arrival, Nole's house was empty. He left his backpack by the door and went straight to his room, planting himself face down on his bed. Later, when his family trickled in, he was still belly down with the lights off.

  Around dinner time, the search party finally came looking for him. The sound of his dad's sandals slapping the wood floor was unmistakable down the hallway toward his room. The last thing Nole wanted to do was talk to somebody, but his dad’s voice was inevitable.

  “Knock knock,” said his dad, peeking his head through the doorway.

  “Hey,” Nole replied, his face still buried in the pillow.

  "You doin' alright?" asked his dad.

  "No," said Nole.

  "Rough day at school?" his dad insisted.

  "Mmhmm," Nole nodded, burying his face deeper.

  "I’m sorry, that sucks," his dad replied. "I might have something that'll cheer you up, though."

  “I doubt it,” Nole pouted, turning away.

  "I'll just leave this on your desk," said his dad, setting something down before he left the room. "There's dinner in the kitchen when you're ready."

  "Thanks," Nole replied through the cushion.

  He wallowed for as long as he could, but little by little, curiosity got the better of him. Eventually, Nole poked his head up and looked around. When he finally saw what his dad left for him, he jumped out of his skin. It was a copy of Enix. Nole’s cheers of excitement rang from his bedroom to the dinner table where his family was seated.