Gamer Girl (19 page)

"Sounds
good," I said, without much enthusiasm.

Mom exited my
room, shutting the door behind her. I thought about Caitlin and the
gang, in the ski lodge waiting for me at our meeting spot right this
very second. How long would they hang before they realized I wasn't
coming? There wasn't even a way to contact them, seeing as the cell
phones didn't work in the mountains.

This sucked.
Sooo bad. I rolled over to my side and pulled my knees up to my
chest, fetal position. Then I pulled the covers over my head, wanting
to hide from the world. Might as well go back to bed--nothing else
going on today. All I could say was, Dad better have the freaking
plague to let us down like this.

I lay in bed
for a few minutes tossing and turning restlessly, but my mind refused
to calm down and let me sleep. There was too much to think about. The
manga club. The

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Haters. Dad.
Fields of Fantasy. Sir Leo. Matt maybe being Sir Leo.

I hadn't logged
into the game Thursday night like I was supposed to when I got home
from hanging out with Blackie, Chad, and Matt. I was too upset about
the possibility of Sir Leo actually being Matt Drewer and didn't know
how to face him. I tried to tell myself it wasn't a bad thing to have
Sir Leo turn out to be a nice normal guy and not someone horrible
like Billy or something. Matt was funny. Smart. Interesting. I should
be happy to have him be Sir Leo.

But I wasn't.
Not by a long shot. In fact, I was downright miserable. Because let's
be honest here. I didn't want Sir Leo to be just some random funny,
smart, interesting guy. I wanted Sir Leo to be my knight in shining
armor. A guy who made my heart pitter-patter like crazy when I laid
eyes on him. Like Chad did. I wanted to swoon like the heroines in
Grandma's romance novels were always doing. I wanted to close my eyes
and feel his sweet breath on my face as he leaned down to press his
soft lips to mine.

That wasn't
going to happen with Matt. It just wasn't.

Still,
an inner voice nagged,
don't you think you're being a little
unfair? Sir Leo's been your loyal and faithful friend for a while
now. It's not right to ditch him simply because he's not a love
connection.

It was a good
point. And what else did I have to do but waste time on the computer,
now that my weekend was shot? I got out of bed, signed into the game,
and did a search for Sir Leo.

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He wasn't on.
But someone else was. Someone who was supposedly sooo sick he
couldn't take his two darling daughters to the mountains.

[Allora]
Dad?

[RockStarBob]
Oh, hi, sweetie. How's it going?

I narrowed my
eyes as I read his words. That was it? No apology? No "I'm sorry
I let you down. I'm a miserable excuse for a father. Please forgive
me and I'll make it up to you with many, many presents in the near
future"? Just an "Oh, hi, sweetie," as if he hadn't
ruined my whole weekend? I had to get to the bottom of this.

[Allora]
I'm fine. You know, for being stuck at home and not snowboarding.

[RockStarBob]
Um, yeah. Sorry about that. I wasn't feeling well.

[Allora]
I heard Mom say you were sick...

[RockStarBob]
Right. Been throwing up all morning.

[Allora]
Ugh. Way TMI, Dad.

I took in
breath. Well, that was good, right? I mean, not that he was suffering
from food poisoning, of course, but at least he had a real excuse. I
wouldn't want to drive two hours north to ski country if I was
barfing either. Couldn't really blame him for that, I supposed.

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[Allora]
Well, did you want to play then? I mean since we can't hang out in
person.

I waited for
his response, but none came. At first I thought he might have
disconnected, but then finally his IM popped up on my screen.

[RockStarBob]
Um, sorry, hon. Not right now. I'm supposed to do this huge raid with
a bunch of guys. We're going to infiltrate the enemy city of Kalgar.

[Allora]
Oh.

[RockStarBob]
Sorry, sweetie. We've been planning this for weeks.

What?!
What did he just say? He didn't say that, did he?

[Allora]
Planning it for weeks?????????

There was no
immediate answer. Not shocking, I supposed, seeing as he'd just been
totally busted. Suddenly all the puzzle pieces fit into place. He'd
blown off our real-life plans to go skiing because his online friends
wanted him to raid. Evidently disappointing his daughters was a lot
easier than letting down his gamer buds.

What a jerk.
What a total jerk. I glared at the computer screen, trying to resist
the overwhelming urge to put my fist through it. If there was a way
to do it and hurt him on the other side, I would have definitely
tried.

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[RockStarBob]
Er, right. What I meant to say is that we'd been planning to raid for
weeks. Not necessarily today, though. It just ended up working out
that way because I was home sick.

Bastard. He was
a total bastard. How could he do that to us? Stand us up? Leave us
hanging? He didn't even have the nerve to cancel. Mom had to track
him down to get the scoop. He'd probably stayed up real late and had
forgotten to set his alarm--after all, he'd never planned to make the
ski trip to begin with.

I ached as I
thought about Emily's sad face. Mom's fury. My friends, wandering the
resort, wondering where I was. Me, missing out on that last chance to
keep some connection with them.

So selfish. So,
so selfish.

[RockStarBob]
Are you still there, honey? You're not mad, are you?

[Allora]
I'm fine.

[RockStarBob]
Cool. That's my girl. I knew you'd understand--after all, you're a
gamer, too! So I'll TTYL, kk?

I gritted my
teeth in frustration. A gamer. Please. A real gamer understood when
it was time to shut down the game. A real gamer knew when life came
first.

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Yes, I was a
gamer. My dad, on the other hand, was merely a computer addict. His
precious online world had become more important to him than his
day-to-day existence. And he'd proven time and time again that he'd
abandon those who needed him if it meant more time in front of the
computer screen. No wonder Mom had left him.

I switched off
the computer without bothering to answer or say good-bye. Not that
he'd notice.

I pulled out my
manga project and started drawing furiously, pouring my heart and
soul out into my art. I sketched the scene. Allora, back in the real
world, back in school. The bullies who once plagued her relentlessly
catch sight of her and stop her in the hallway, jeering and calling
her a freak, just like they used to before she went into the game.
They throw spitballs at her and pull her hair and rip her dress. But
this time Allora doesn't cringe and cry and try to run away like she
once would have. This time Allora simply stretches out her arms and
raises her hands. Suddenly bolts of lightning shoot from her fingers,
crackling into the air. The bullies scream, wetting their pants with
fear before they turn tail and run away. The other kids cheer. She's
their hero. Allora nods smugly. She knows it's good to be Gamer Girl.

I smiled down
at the drawing. My sad, helpless freak girl had put her newfound
powers to use. She'd become confident and not afraid to face life
head-on. I was proud of her.

I looked over
at my abandoned snowboard still leaning by the door.

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What would
Gamer Girl do in a situation like this? It suddenly seemed very
obvious.

Minutes later,
I was downstairs. "So, Grandma," I said, smiling. "Can
I ask you a favor?"

I'm not going
to say it didn't take some pretty pathetic begging and pleading, but
not a half hour later, Emily and I were in the car with Grandma,
driving toward the mountains. She had been surprisingly agreeable to
the suggestion. Well, after I offered to dust her entire unicorn
collection, anyway, which was going to take me years to finish. But
it'd be worth it-- especially after seeing Emily's ecstatic face when
I told her we were going after all.

We arrived
around lunchtime and found my friends in the lodge, surrounded by
piles of food. They screamed and squealed when they saw us and
immediately plied us with hot chocolate and pizza. (Much to Emily's
delight.) We found Grandma a cozy armchair by a fireplace and she
settled in with a romance novel while we hit the slopes. Emily joined
other eight-year-olds for a lesson and my friends and I headed over
to the park, navigating the jumps and rails as best we could. Caitlin
was still learning, so she took the side routes, cheering us on as we
attempted various tricks.

"It's good
to have you with us again," Caitlin remarked as we rode up the
chairlift together. "I've missed you, you know."

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I rubbed my
mittens together to stay warm. "I've missed you guys, too."

"So is
your new school still totally lame?" Caitlin asked. "I bet
all those Aberzombies make it completely unbearable."

I started to
reply, then thought about it for a moment. "You know," I
said, surprising myself. "I think it's growing on me. The
school, that is. Not the Aberzombies."

Caitlin laughed
appreciatively. "Well, that's good."

"Yeah."
I nodded. "I mean it's not as good as Boston Academy by any
means. But it's not all bad either. I actually started a manga club
last week and a ton of people showed up. It was pretty awesome."

"Really?
Like we were doing before you left?"

"Sort of.
But this one's an official school club. And I'm the club president."

"That's so
cool," Caitlin squealed. "I tried to get our club approved
by B.A. after you left, but the principal totally denied us. He said
we should start a Shakespeare club or something instead."

I started
laughing. "A Shakespeare club? For real?"

"Uh, yeah.
I couldn't make up something that lame if I tried." Caitlin
shook her head mournfully. "I'm totally jealous you got yours
pushed through."

"Yeah,
it's pretty great," I agreed, thinking back to our first
meeting. "And it's got a lot of potential. We're even talking
about a club trip to New York Comic Con."

"Wow,
that'd be amazing," Caitlin said. "I'm going to have

190

to stow away in
your luggage for that." She looked over at me and smiled. "I'm
so happy for you, Maddy. You seem much better, too. Less ... I don't
know . . . emo, or something." "Yeah," I admitted. "I
guess I am."

Mom had
steaming bowls of clam chowder waiting for us when we got home. She
and Grandma sat at the table as we ate them, asking about our trip.
We gave them play-by-plays, laughing at the misadventures.

After dinner, I
headed up to my room. I considered working more on my manga, but I
was too exhausted. I decided to sign on to Fields of Fantasy instead.

As soon as I
signed on, I got a whisper from Dad.

[RockStarBob]
Hey, sweetie! Good to see you back. I'm done raiding now if you want
to go do something.

I frowned. Ah,
now it was convenient for him. So I should just forgive and forget
what happened earlier, right? Whatever. I ignored him and messaged
Sir Leo instead.

[Allora]
Greetings, Sir Leo. How dost thou fare this fine evening?

[SirLeo]
Very well, m'lady. Even better since you are here!

I sighed. The
thrill I used to feel when he said such sweet things had totally
evaporated. Now I could only imagine

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them coming
from Matt, which did nothing for me whatsoever except make me feel
guilty.

Ugh. What was
wrong with me? Why couldn't I accept that my knight was a real-life
really nice guy? I should be psyched. And yet all I could feel was
shallow and selfish and totally not into Matt.

[SirLeo]
(How was skiing with your dad?)

[Allora]
(Actually my dad didn't go.)

[SirLeo]
(??)

[Allora]
(Yeah, he's too much of a video game addict to get up from the
computer and go outside. Sun might kill him or something.)

[SirLeo]
(Aw, that sucks. I'm so sorry. I know you were really looking forward
to that.)

[Allora]
(Yeah, Iwas. So we went without him. Had to bribe Grandma, but it was
totally worth it.)
[SirLeo]
(Nice. I'm so glad you still got
to go.)

[Allora]
(Me, too.)

[SirLeo]
(What did you say to your dad?)

[Allora]
(He messaged me when Ifirst logged on, but I

ignored him.)

[SirLeo]
(Hmm.)

[Allora]
(?)

[SirLeo]
(You should probably talk to him, you know.)

[Allora]
(Heh. Yeah.)

[SirLeo]
(I'm serious. Otherwise, this kind of stuff may start happening all
the time. And you don't want that, do you?)

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[Allora]
(Definitely not. You're right.)

[SirLeo]
(LOL, I'm always right. Haven't you learned that by now?)

[Allora]
(Yes, yes. LOL.)

I considered
his words for a moment. Maybe I
should
confront Dad. Let him
know how selfish he was, and how it felt to be ditched. Maybe he
didn't even realize it was such a big deal.

[Allora]
(Well, thanks for the advice. Maybe I'll do that. What are you up to,
anyway?)

[SirLeo]
(Well, this morn I hit the comic book store and got the latest
X-Men.)

[Allora]
(Nice.)

He went back to
the comic store again? After we saw him there on Thursday? Wow. He
was hard-core. Or maybe we'd interrupted his shopping with our food
invitation and he hadn't picked up everything he'd gone for.