“Yes.”
“I’ll be baking at the shelter after school. Can they get me there?”
“Sure.”
“But first I need nerd lessons?”
“If you don’t want to go, that’s fine—”
“No, of course I’ll go. I’m just messing with you. I promised you three dates.” I could hear the smile in his voice. “Turn me into the nerd of your dreams, Samaya.”
Our first order of business had to be his clothing. Every self-respecting gamer-nerd needed a shirt that broadcast his fandom of choice. I had a fewDragon Arenashirts, and some math-themed tees, but there was no way Daniel would fit into them. And neither Cass nor Aimee had anything that would work.
Any decent shirt had to be mail ordered, and we couldn’t get it by Friday. But thankfully, getting shirts quickly was one area where I had an advantage. I had a fashion designer sister who’d had her own little T-shirt e-commerce store for a year now.
I went searching for Tahira later that night and found her sewing in her room. I sat on her bed and hugged a pillow to my chest. “I have a T-shirt emergency.”
She barely looked up from her machine. “Finally realizing that you need at least one shirt without a pun on it?”
I looked down at my shirt. It was a programming shirt that said{!FALSE} (IT’S FUNNY BECAUSE IT’S TRUE). It wasn’t my favorite shirt, but I thought it was witty.
“It’s not for me, it’s for Daniel.”
“Your fake boyfriend. Aren’t I already getting him a suit for your dance?”
I nodded. “Yes, and you’re the best sister in the world and I appreciate you, but I’m also bringing him to a party on the weekend and Ineed him to look the part. All his clothes are, like, hockey jerseys. Or other sports crap.”
Tahira laughed and turned her chair to look at me. “Yeah, I don’t think anyone would buy you dating a sports nut. Go to the mall and get something nerdy.”
“But I need him to have some real credibility—no local stores have any goodDragon Arenamerch, and there isn’t time to order online. Can you make a rush custom shirt that saysCOME TO THEDARKMAGESIDE...WE HAVE OFFENSIVE MELEE SPELLS? In like,Star Warsfont.”
Tahira frowned. “Are you sure you and I are related?”
“C’mon, Tahira. You’re the only one I know who can do this. Hana’s party is on Friday, and everyone will be there.”
“Why are you even going to your ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend’s party?”
“To figure out who was catfishing me inDragon Arenaall summer.”
Tahira shook her head. “Samaya, did it ever occur to you that maybe you spend too much time focusing on things that aren’t really important? Imagine what your grades would be like if you put all this energy into your schoolwork instead.”
“You sound like Mom. Plus, I’m a high-nineties student—how high do you want my grades?”
She shook her head. “I just don’t get why he can’t be himself for your friends to approve of him.”
“Yeah, maybe if we were really dating he could, but we’re not, so what difference does it make if he’s pretending to be someone else?”
Tahira sighed. “Fine. I have some yellow iron-on sheets for the printer. What size does he wear? Wait, this is the guy from your Insta, right? Those muscles need a large-size shirt. He’s going to be the buffest gamer in existence.”
“Hardly. Henry Cavill is a serious gamer.”
“Yeah, but he’s also Superman. Leave this with me, Samaya. I’ll have a T-shirt for you by Friday.”
Okay, step one of Daniel’s makeover was done. Next up: teach him enough aboutDragon Arenaso he could carry out a conversation.
I wasn’t too worried about math conversations. Yeah, most of my friends were into math, science, and computers, but it wasn’t like we talked about functions and the Pythagorean theorem at parties.
But conversations aboutDragon Arenawere most definitely going to happen at this party. There was no way there was enough time to teach Daniel to actually playDragon Arenawell enough to convince the others he’d been playing for close to a year in a few days ... but maybe I could stream for him while I played so he could see how the game worked?
