Pwned (19 page)

22. /G Quit

I knew it was impossible for everything to work out perfectly when there were so many loose ends to tie up, but besides being forced to do community service with the rest of The Squad, everything actually ended up much better than I could have hoped for.

Because I had turned myself in and had given the police the evidence linking the rest of The Squad to th
e crime, I’d gotten fewer community service hours than the rest of the girls. I would've felt guilty about that fact, but helping them get away from Tawny’s controlling clutches more than made up for it, I thought.

Tawny had
managed to get c
ommunity service inside of a nice office building rather than picking up trash on the side of the road like the rest of us. I was sure her parents had something to do with that arrangement, but I was completely fine with it. It meant that, thanks to a rather fortuitous development, I’d never have to see Tawny again.

For all of the time I’d spent stressing ove
r how Tawny would treat me when I got back to school, I hadn’t expected her parents to pull her from our school and transfer her to a private boarding school, claiming that the influence of The Squad wasn’t good for her delicate young mind.

That was a huge lie
, but I didn’t protest it in the slightest. Anything that got Tawny away from me and the rest of the student body was definitely fine in my book.

Another huge perk that I hadn’t quite expected was the disban
ding of The Squad. Our principal was shocked by the many years of hazing details I’d saved up to tell him, and he immediately suspended the cheerleading program indefinitely.

This was m
y final gift to the students I had tortured for so many years. I could say I was sorry all day long, but until I did something to make up for my horrible behavior, they were just words. Luckily, getting rid of the league of extraordinary plastics was high on everyone’s priority list, and I became something of a hero for being the person responsible for the end of an era.

I was fine with that.

It was much better to be loved for being a good person than to be sort of respected because people were scared of you, right?

Parker and I had gotten past all of the weirdness that accompanied my big reveal (after several long talks and me repeatedly promising him that there were no more skeletons in
my closet) and now we were happily gaming together, not caring that we were probably the world’s biggest nerd couple.

Since we’ve been being mo
re honest with each other . . .
I began, letting my text box fade away.

If by
“
being more honest” you mean revealing your inner stalker and completely giving up your pride to date a nerd?
Parker asked.

Yeah . . .
that,
I responded with a laugh.
I want you to know that I like you. A lot,
I finished, sounding like a five-year-old.

It wasn’t like it was a huge se
cret that we liked each other, especially now that we were dating, but I wanted to tell him outright. I wanted to put it into words after making his life miserable for so long.

Well
, I like you too
.
But I don’t love you, because love is for girls and girls are dis-gus-ting!

Did you really just quote
“
Drop Dead Fred”
to me?
I asked.

You bet I did!

You really know how to woo a girl, don’t you Parker?
I asked sarcastically . . . not that he could really sense sarcasm through text, but I was sure he’d get my point.

Hey
, if I can snag Elite Cheerleader, then anything is possible, right?
he asked, still using the nickname even though I had told him it was officially retired.

That didn’t stop him.

He’d call me Elite Cheerleader all day at school, earning me odd looks from his group of nerd friends I was quickly growing to like. They had been a bit wary around me at first, not sure that a member of The Squad could change camps so quickly, but Parker explained that I had always been on their side, and that I had been on a super-secret quest to infiltrate the ranks of the plastics. They seemed to accept this explanation without question, for which I was grateful.

So
, you’ll never guess what happened
, Parker typed.

Would you just get on the voice chat channel? No one else is logged in,
I typed, tired of not actually talking to him.

We could
just call each other, but it somehow felt like that was violating some gaming rule.

“Is
this better, Your Highness?” he asked.

“Much,” I answered. “So
, what is this shocking news?”

“
Sovay left the guild,” he said.

“What
? Why would she leave? That’s bizarre.”

“I thought so too
, so I hacked her account.”

“Parker!
You can’t do that! I’m pretty sure you’re going to get permabanned for that.”

“Not if they don’t find out . . .
I’m talking about
you
, snitch,” he joked.

“Hey
, I’m only a snitch when it helps other people! Anyway, what did you find out? Is she actually a celebrity or something?”

“Well . . .
sort of . . . if Tawny is a celebrity.”

“Wait
, what?” I asked, too shocked to actually believe what I had just heard.

“
Sovay’s login is Tawny’s e-mail address,” he said, completely dropping a bomb on me.

“There’s no way Tawny plays
Voyager’s Quest
. I mean, absolutely no way,” I said, trying to emphasize every word so that he knew how crazy the idea was.

“Trust me, I didn’t believe it either
, but it kind of makes sense.”

“How does that make
sense?” I asked, trying to remember if there were any clues that would suggest Tawny was just as much of a nerd as me.

I guess Sovay was never on when I knew Tawny was out
and about, so their timelines matched up, but I couldn’t believe that she played the game.

Not just played the game,
in fact, but played it like a pro.

She had a character at level cap and understood every i
ntricacy of raiding. That kind of game knowledge only came from someone who spent a great deal of time online.

“Didn’t you say she had some sort of personal vendetta against me?” Parker asked.

“She definitely went after you more than she’s ever gone after a nerd before,” I admitted.

“I think she knew who I was when I moved to the school and she was afraid I’d out her,” he said gleefully.

“Just like I was?” I asked.

“Exactly!
But you weren't as evil as her so you didn’t do anything about it, whereas she tried to get me out of the school by torturing me.”

As weird
as it was to admit, Parker had a very good point, and suddenly I could see the scenario becoming more than just a far-fetched idea.

Tawny was a total nerd gamer!

If only she didn’t care about her reputation so much, we could all actually get along!

“That kind of explains why she was so freaked out about me not hating you. Maybe she thought you had told me her secret and we were both going to bring her down together,” I suggested.

“She was pretty mad at you for no apparent reason. I bet that was it.”

“Do you think she’ll try to
contact us in game?” I asked, wondering if I had seen the last of the evil Tawny after all.

“Probably not,” he admitted. “But if I ever see her in a city
, I’ll /wave at her. I’m not a completely heartless monster.”

“How
noble of you,” I joked.

“I’m nothing if not nob
le. It’s in my character’s backstory.”

“You’re such a nerd,” I told him. “And I don’t know if I’ll ever believe that Tawny is a gamer who just happened to be in our guild. I mean
, really? What are the odds?”

“Pretty slim, but the evidence speaks for itself,” he said with assurance in his voice.

“I hope she is, because that would be poetic.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know—it would make her seem more human,” I said, as my character jumped from mountain ledge to mountain ledge, trying to follow Parker’s avatar to the cabin on the mountaintop that was supposed to be impossible to get to until they enabled the use of flying mounts in this zone in the next expansion.

“We have to get a screenshot of us up here so Kaydinn will finally believe me when I tell him I can get to the top of the mountain,” P
arker said triumphantly when we finally reached the top.

“We definitely will,” I assured him as I glanced at the picture of the two of us at the Lights concert that I now had framed on my desk.
We were both grinning like idiots and trying to keep our cool around the amazing singer, and seeing the photo made me smile.

It was a nice reminder that I was happiest when I was being myself rather than caring what everyone else around me thought.

“Parker?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m glad my boyfriend is such a nerd.”

“Well
, I’m glad I ended up with Elite Cheerleader. Best. Loot. Ever.”

About the Author

Shannen Crane Camp was born and raised in Southern California, where she developed a love of reading, writing, and anything having to do with film. After high school, she moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University, where she received a degree in Media Arts and found herself a husband in fellow California native Josh Camp. The two now live in either Utah or California. They can’t ever seem to make up their minds.

Shannen
loves to hear from her fellow readers, writers, and gamers, so feel free to contact her at
[email protected]
or visit her website for more information: http://shannencbooks.blogspot.com