I frowned but didn’t say anything. Our parameters had a strict number of pictures—if others took pics, would I have to subtract them?
During the twenty-minute drive to Hana’s house in the posh Beach neighborhood of Toronto, the three of us gave Daniel as muchDragon Arenabackstory as we could. Then Cass and Aimee took turns quizzing him on the kind of questions they expected he’d be asked at the party.
“How did you and Samaya meet?” Cass asked.
“On aDragon Arenamessage board,” Daniel answered. “I was looking for a level thirty to thirty-five Light Mage to do a Purple Topaz Dragon Egg questline with.”
“You sound like you’re reading from a walk-through. Call it a Purple Topaz run,” Cass suggested.
“What level is your Dark Mage now?” Aimee asked.
“Fifty. But I haven’t played much since school started.”
We knew people would want to look up Daniel’s character in game, and obviously, he didn’t really have a level-fifty character to play with, so this was our solution. There was no way to look up a player unless they were online at the time. Daniel could say he rarely played during the school year, and if pressed, he could claim to have given up the game altogether.
“What’s your character’s name?” Cass asked.
“IceMagic, because it’s my preferred magic class,” said Daniel. It was dark, so I couldn’t see his expression, but I could tell he was proud of that name.
“Nice,” I said. “I assumeicefor hockey?”
“Yup.”
“Love theStar Warsjoke on your shirt. What’s your favStar Warsmovie or canon story?” Aimee asked, moving on to non–Dragon Arenaquestions.
Daniel shrugged. “Not a fan of the prequels, but the original trilogy is great. I don’t acknowledge the existence ofThe Last Jedi.”
I gave him an impressed nod. He’d done some research. “Well done,” I said.
“I’m more into the MCU,” Daniel added.
“Oooh, that’s good,” Cass said. “What’s your fav?”
We passed under a streetlight, so I saw the ridiculously pleased grin on his face. “Thor: Ragnarok.”
Cass laughed at that.
I shook my head at Daniel, grimacing. “No.”
Daniel frowned. “Something wrong withRagnarok? I thought it was hilarious.”
“It was good, but it wouldn’t be arealfanboy’s choice,” Cass said. “It’s too silly. Not epic enough. EitherAvengers: Infinity WarorEndgameis your answer.”
He frowned. “I haven’t seenEndgame.”
“I thought you were going to do homework?” I asked.
He glared at me. “I did. I looked up all the movies and characters. But I didn’t have time to actually watch them because I had hockey practice and was baking twice this week.”
I noticed he didn’t mention the mysterious thing that made him cancel on me last night. I sighed. He was right. I couldn’t exactly expect him to be, like, an MCU expert already.
“It’s fine,” Aimee said. “We can deflect any convo that’s headed in the wrong direction. Do you have a favorite video game? Other thanDragon Arena. We can try to steer conversations to things you know.”
“HockeyStars 2016. Not a fan of any of the more recent versions, but I play 2021 onlin e with my friends.”
I raised a brow. “Why is your favorite the old version of the game?”
“Because that’s the season Matt Dumba scored ten goals and sixteen assists.”
