“I say whoever’s concept wins the vote gets to be captain,” Jayden said.
I glared at him. “I say whoever is an asshat for no reason gets booted from the group.”
I cringed. Maybe I shouldn’t be calling him an asshat with MissZhao right there.
Jayden raised one brow and sneered. “I don’t think you’re cut out to be captain. You’re much too emotional.”
I gritted my teeth. “No one is forcing you to be here, Jayden.”
Aimee put her hand on Jayden to calm him. “Chill, guys. I think voting for captain is a good idea. What do you think, Cass?”
Cass, and pretty much everyone else in the room, all started talking at the same time again. Eventually, I managed to shush enough of them so we were able to have a functional conversation. We eventually agreed that anyone who had a viable idea could present it to the others here in two weeks. We’d then vote on the concept and captain.
I had a massive headache by the time we were done.
As I was putting on my backpack to leave, Jayden came up to me. “No hard feelings, Samaya? I just want to make sure our team wins this competition.”
I nodded because what else could I do? I wanted to tell him that he was as transparent as glass right now, and I knew that he was only beingan ass to me right now for retaliation for ... actually I didn’t know for what. Not playing in the guild? Not being Devin’s girlfriend? Posting those pictures with Daniel?
Was all this just to make sure I knew my place?
“Oh, by the way,” he said, leaning on my desk, “Aimee told me you have an Obsidian Staff. With that, we should finally be able to do the diamond egg run.”
The Diamond Egg quest was this ridiculously hard quest that needed, like, twenty players to finish. Jayden had been trying to get the guild to try it again for months. We’d tried last winter and all died. Badly.
I shook my head, narrowing my eyes, suspicious. Did this have anything to do with him being such an ass to me at this meeting? “I don’t really playDragon Arenaanymore,” I said.
He shrugged. “We need a decent Light Mage, and you’re good. I’ll be having a gaming party soon. Your new hookup plays, too, right? You can bring him.”
Jayden had a few of these gaming parties last year. Basically, we’d all bring our computers to his basement and do a quest with us all in the same room, so we didn’t have to type in the chats. Theywerefun when Devin and I went together. But there was no way I’d go now. Or bring Daniel to one. Namely, because Daniel didn’t actually playDragon Arena. Also, Devin would be at Jayden’s party. I shook my head.
Jayden smiled. “Too bad. Planning the diamond egg run would have taken up so much of my time. I wouldn’t have had any spare time to work on a game proposal.” He had a smug, punchable expression. “Hey, Aimee, we still getting coffee?” he called.
Aimee was still sitting at the table with Cass, Omar, and Hana. She grabbed her bag and headed to the door. I didn’t think she heard what Jayden said to me, but she turned to give me a sympathetic look before leaving with him. “We’ll talk tonight, okay, Samaya? I’ll totally do concept art for your proposal.”
At least Aimee would still help me, even if she had terrible taste in guys lately.
After everyone except Cass and I had left, MissZhao came and sat on the edge of my desk. “That was rough. That boy seemed to have it in for you.”
I snorted. “Feels like everyone has it in for me, lately. I’m pretty sure he’s doing this so I’ll play in hisDragon Arenaguild again.” I frowned. “Or maybe he just doesn’t want to be led by a girl in a game-dev team.”
MissZhao sighed. “That’s probably part of it. It’s still so much harder for girls in tech.”
“Why didn’t you step in and help her if you knew they were being sexist?” Cass asked.
“I’m supposed to be an adviser here. It’syourteam,” said MissZhao. “And the rules for this competition are quite strict—students must manage the teams and do all of the work themselves.”
“It’s fine,” I said. If I was going to use the game-dev team on my scholarship application, I’d need MissZhao to give me a reference. She needed to see me handling this. “I’ll put together the concept this week.”
As Cass and I walked out of the tech lab, Hana was waiting for me right outside the door. Ugh.
“Hey, Samaya! I love the RPG idea.” Hana was wearing high-waisted blue jeans and a floral sweatshirt. It looked like she’d been getting fashion tips from Tahira’s Instagram. “You’ll have my vote.”
I raised a brow at her. She seriously thought we were still friends. “Uh, thank you?”
Her smile looked forced. “I ...” She hesitated. “We’re good, right? Still tight? I mean, you have that new guy now, so you’re fine.”
I didn’t know why she cared. Did she feel guilty, like Devin did? I shrugged. “Sure, Hana. We’re good.” We weren’t, but there were enough people around that I needed to pretend. I mean, my whole fake-dating plan was so I’d look like I was fine—about everything.
