"Oh? Wow, that's pretty cool I guess," I responded, trying to temper Rachel's enthusiasm. "I am not sure I will be able to join though. It's quite far away and all."

"Oh no, you are not going to get out of this, Emily. I will personally come to your house and drag you out if necessary," she adamantly responded. I couldn't see her facial expression right now, but this tone of hers was very familiar. This is exactly how a determined Rachel sounds, and once she gets into this mindset, it is incredibly difficult to get her out of it.

"You know I'm really busy with school and everything right? College applications and all are coming up, and I need to make sure to land a good one," I tried to put up an excuse. But it wasn't looking like Rachel was buying it at all.

"Yes, of course. That's why you have by far the most solo queue games out of all of us every week. If we want to win the LAN, or even qualify for it, we need to be a tight team. That's what always made our team stand out, us girls being friends who knew exactly what to expect of each other. And if we can get you properly linked up with the rest of us, we can beat anyone!" As the game got underway, Rachel just kept rambling in an effort to convince me of the necessity of this whole bootcamp ordeal. So, with both of our minds completely unfocused, we quickly lost our lanes and the match as a whole.

"Hey Rachel, I think I'm going to sign off for the night. I'm not really feeling it," I said in an effort not to lose any more ranked games today.

As I was about to disconnect from the voice channel, she quickly reminded me, "Yeah, that's fine, just don't forget to keep your weekend free two weeks from now! The bootcamp is happening, and you will be there! It is incredibly important to make sure our teamwork is top notch."

With that, I left the channel, shut down my computer, and grabbed my phone. Before I knew it, I was in my bed, wasting my time being swallowed by the YouTube algorithm, and slowly drifted to sleep.

***

The next day at school, I was still thinking about this whole bootcamp situation. I was pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I don't show up, I might be kicked from the team because I don't have enough commitment to the team. If I do show up, I could be kicked from the team for not being a girl. There really was no winning here.

"Hey,"

So, I definitely have to tell them I am going to the bootcamp. Between the moment of telling them I am going, and it actually taking place, something needs to happen making it so that I won't be able to be there anymore. Maybe... a funeral, somebody died!

"Hello? Jason?"

They don't know that my grandfather died three years ago, I could tell them it just happened! But wait, then it would be about the same date as the funeral, which would just be one day. And knowing Rachel, she would somehow manage to move it to allow me to still come. So what else could happen... Of course! An accident! What if I...

"Jason! Wake up, you dimweed!"

"Ouch!" Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my shoulder as somebody punched my shoulder. Looking up at the culprit, it was my friend Riley, looking at me with her signature grimace. Framed by her long blonde hair, the grimace slowly mutated into a slight smile.

"Flipping hell, man, you looked like you were on the other side of the universe! What kind of weird Dotur strategy were you cooking up this time?" she jokingly said.

"First of all, it's Dota, you know that. Second of all, no. I'm just tired because I barely slept last night," I barked back at her.

It might not seem like it, but Riley and I have been best friends since forever. She lives in the house across from mine and ever since kindergarten, we have pretty much done everything together. People say she has a bit of an abrasive personality, and honestly, they have a point. While I have learned to deal with this part of her, others haven't. So, she was never really able to build a decent social circle. Even though her looks should have made her one of the most popular people in the school, she was pretty much just stuck with me. I honestly think a lot of people find her quite intimidating. Her big blue eyes, shiny golden locks, and an immaculate fashion sense were simply no substitute for good social skills.

As she stood next to me wearing a black pleated skirt and a pink top divided by a black belt with an immaculate silver buckle, she put down her lunch tray and snapped at me once again. "I don't buy it. I didn't see you online on Steam anymore after 21:00. So, either you have found a different way to spend your time apart from no-life gaming, which I highly doubt. Or you pulled your classic, let's hide from my life by rolling up as a cocoon in my bed sheets move. My money is on the latter."

"You don't even have any money," I said, trying to avoid giving an actual answer.

"Don't change the subject, you dingus!"

She really isn't going to let this go, is she? I thought to myself.

As the muscles on her clear face constructed a shape similar to a duckface this awful baby voice escaped her red lips: "Come on... Tell Mommy Riley what's wrong with little JJ. I need that giant brain of yours. And right now it looks like it's out of commission."

I hate it when she starts using this tone, and she knows that. I already see heads turning around the cafeteria, so with my head slowly turning red, I start bargaining with her. "Fine! I will tell you, but not now!"

"Great! In that case, you will be coming to my place after school. So I can help you with whatever mind spiral you got twisted in that gray matter of yours. And you can help me not flunk that math test on Friday," she said as a big smile appeared on her face.

As I raised one of my eyebrows and looked up towards the 5'11" girl sitting next to me, "It doesn't sound like you're giving me much of a choice, does it?"

She put her hand on the top of my head and started wildly stroking my shaggy hair. "Ah... you know me so well, JJ."

"Stop it!" I exclaimed while trying to wrestle my head free of her grasp. And as I regained my composure, I saw her hand move down towards my lunch tray and grab a hold of my chocolate muffin. Before I could even respond, she snatched it away, and in one swift motion tossed it into the garbage can on the other side of the table. "Hey!" I shouted angrily. "What did you do that for?"

Raising her chin proudly, Riley stated, "It's not like you were going to exercise those calories off that little body of yours. I'm just protecting you from bad food choices."

***

By the time school finally came to an end, I was still stuck. Every plan I thought of to get me out of this whole bootcamp predicament had so many problems attached to it. Running the scenarios through my head, there was always something that could go wrong. But it's two weeks from now. Surely I will be able to come up with a plan by that time. Yeah, I'm just going to hang out with Riley this afternoon, and all will be good. I opened the backdoor of Riley's home and instantly my nose was overwhelmed by an assault of all kinds of unpleasant smells.

"Wow, what died in here, Riley?"

“That dead rat you call a haircut” I heard her voice say from the other side of the room. Looking up from her laptop, Riley turned her head to me and stated, "Yeah, my folks have been really busy lately. I think it's just trash that needs to be taken out. You will get used to it before you know it. I don't even smell it anymore."

Riley and her parents live very differently from me and my mom. While I'm used to someone who demands the absolute best from herself and her son, doing everything in her power to do what you are "supposed to do" according to upper middle-class standards, Riley's parents could have come straight from Woodstock. They both have pretty well-paying jobs as art directors or something, allowing them to afford to do pretty much whatever they want with the money. So, you never knew what you were going to find inside that house of theirs. Sometimes, I'd get in there, and there would be Chinese tapestries and gongs everywhere. Another time, it was almost like walking into a postmodern gallery. Today, it seemed like they got all their old decorations from the attic and just threw them around the living room. Carefully moving past a tower of stained-glass vases, I eventually arrived at the brown leather couch where Riley was seated.

"How do you guys live like this? I don't think I can even see the floor anymore!" I joked.

"Don't be so dramatic, JJ. At least we have fun. Instead of that lady that owns your house with that giant stick up her ass."

As I raised my finger and was about to make a counterargument, I quickly changed my mind and put my finger down again. We have had this argument a million times, and I'm not really feeling like defending my mom right now.

Riley had definitely noticed my change of heart though. As she closed her laptop and looked me straight in the eyes, "Damn, Jason, you must be feeling down about something. Normally, you would come up with a quippy response instantly. What's going on, buddy?"

This was also Riley. Once you passed those Constantinople-style walls of hers, she really did care. But I'm not sure if I should tell her about what I have been doing in the last few months and the dilemma I'm in right now. I mean, if I can trust anyone, it's Riley, right?

As I explained to her my problem with the bootcamp and the Dota team, her grin was growing bigger and bigger. Eventually I was done with my story and just asked her outright. “So, what do you think I should do?”

But instead of answering me she just screamed loudly: “OH. MY. GOD. This makeover is going to be so much fun!!!”

Confused, I asked, “Wait what? Makeover? What are you talking about?”