Danny was your typical Freshman American boy. He lived with his parents and an older sister, he got decent grades, he had a few close friends, and he enjoyed all the typical hobbies a boy his age would like video games and riding his bike. He also never liked to party and hated to be the extrovert type with all the attention. Instead, he enjoyed the more simple, quiet life just taking everything one day at a time.

During a weekend afternoon, Danny's sister came knocking at his bedroom door. Sighing, Danny answered her despite knowing that she'd pester him. Jenny, his sister, was a bit older than he was but was an absolute pest. She was the total girly-girl stereotype and was always happy, bubbly, and such an annoyance. "Yo, bro. Can I come in and hang?", her voice coming from behind the door. He reluctantly agreed, knowing that she was probably looking to annoy him. However, he didn't want to start a fight with her and get their mom involved so he reluctantly let her in.

“Whatcha playin’?” she asked as she sat on his bed and towered over him as he sat on the floor.

“Smash bros.”, he said as he concentrated on the game.

“Oh. I’ve heard of that one”, she remarked bluntly.

“Yeah, probably”, he replied, “it’s pretty popular.”

He then got through a few rounds with them both sitting quietly in the room. He almost forgot his sister was sitting behind him. After a few games had passed, however, Jenny asked, "Can I try?" Danny turned back in surprise, giving her a confused, "What?", in response. She beckoned at the screen and asked again. Danny just paused, rolling this in his mind. His sister never liked video games as she's more into reality TV or browsing TikTok than anything else. So it's a surprise that she actually wants to play with him instead of calling him lazy for gaming. In fact, it's been a long time since they've last played together.

Danny looked at her for a few moments before shrugging and pulling out his spare Joy-Cons. "Yeah, sure, I guess", he replied. He handed the controllers to her and she turned them around in her hands, asking Danny how to play. For the next ten minutes or so, he goes over the basics of the controls and mechanics of how to play the game. She seemed confused by the whole health percent aspect of it, but he figured that she'd understand it with a quick practice round.

After a few minutes in the practice mode to help her understand everything, she said that she finally understood how it works and thinks that she's ready for a game. So, Danny went over and started up their first round together. He placed them on a team together and set the character difficulties to their lowest despite Danny always playing them at their highest. The first game ended up not being so terrible. Jenny didn't do great, but she wasn't button-mashing much, either. He thought that she could actually handle herself a bit well considering she never plays. Though, he did laugh a little at the unsurprising fact that she had picked Daisy.

Unbeknownst to Danny, though, Jenny had actually played. She has played a lot in fact. Her recent ex-boyfriend was an avid competitive Smash player and he taught her everything there is about the game. Everything from the best “meta” to helping her practice different edge guarding techniques. Her plan was coming into play as she was about to hustle her brother hard.

A few rounds go by and he's now upped the difficulty past what he'd consider "easy" rather than “beginner” and that's when she seemed to start to struggle. Danny could hear her grunts, growls, and screams as she lost to each encounter with the NPCs. He laughed each time, watching her getting more and more frustrated and angry each time she was tossed off the stage. He laughed even more as she called the game "stupid" and claimed that they were "cheating".

After their match ended, Jenny tossed the controllers onto the bed, "Bro, this is stupid. How can you even enjoy these things".

Danny just gave her a shrug and told her, "That's why I enjoy gaming, it can be tough."

"It's not that tough", she said as she rolled her eyes and acted as if she wasn't just struggling to beat two medium-leveled characters.

"Looked tough for you. They weren't even that hard and you were struggling."

Jenny just scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, they were cheating." Danny started to crack up, asking how they could possibly be cheating and she just sat there, unable to answer.

After a few moments of allowing her brother to tease her, Jenny got a great idea. "You know, I bet I could beat you on your own." Danny stopped and gave her a dead-pan look, giving her a sarcastic, "What?". "Yeah," she said, "I bet I could beat you." Danny roared with laughter as he said, "There's no way in hell you could beat me!" Jenny just rolled her eyes and scoffed even more before giving him a dirty look and saying, "What? Are you scared or something?" Danny just laughed at her trying to sound tough and intimidating, but gives in. "Alright, we can do a 1v1 if you want. But I'm warning you, I won't hold back." Jenny rolled her eyes once more and agreed to it.

Danny cleared out the NPC characters and picked his main character this time, Minecraft Steve. Jenny, of course, picked a the stereotypical “girly” Princess Daisy. Danny was even kind and let her pick the level as well, with her picking Yoshi’s Island — bright, colorful, and cheery. Naturally, of course, Danny smoked her. He had put the stock at five, and he had only died once. He’d laugh, but this was too pathetic to laugh at. He was even holding back for her, too. When he turned to look at her, Jenny just scowled and didn’t say a word.

“So? You think you can still beat me?”, Danny said matter-of-factly right to her. She just rolled her eyes once more. “You got lucky.” That got elicited a chuckle out of him, saying, “No, you just suck, Jen.” That one sent her over the top. “Fine! If you think you’re so great, then how about you put your money where your mouth is?” Danny just laughed some more, “What do you mean?”. Jenny gestured to the TV, “How about up the stakes and make a little bet?” Danny laughed, thinking that she couldn’t be serious. “A bet, really?”, he said. “Yeah,” she exclaimed, “we play for money or something.” Danny gave a chuckle and looked at her, “Well, I’m broke, so that ain’t gonna happen.” Jenny huffed and paused, thinking for a moment. “All right, how about we do something else then?” Danny gave her a puzzled look, not knowing what she could be planning. Jenny looked right at him with a serious tone, “How about instead of money, we instead have to do something the other person says. Like a dare.”

Both Danny and Jenny know the stakes, and they know them well. Their dad is a lawyer, and in order to help teach them to be responsible and understand binding contracts, he has set the rule that any deals, bets, or dares have to be followed through. The person has to complete them, no matter what, so long as it isn’t anything dangerous, gross, unhealthy, or anything else too unreasonable. This has landed both of them in hot water in the past as they’ve grown up. If they try to tattle and get out of it, they get punished, and Dad does not go easy on the punishments, either. In the recent past, Jenny picked moving the whole woodpile over going to school with messy hair and no makeup before.

Danny gave a slight pause knowing what this could mean for him if he did lose. However, he also knew for sure that he could cream Jenny to the point where she goes running off, crying. He also imagined some of the things he could get Jenny to do, like take over his dishes night, embarrass her in front of her friends, or maybe even get her to stop blasting her annoying music. With little thought and beat, Danny jumped at the opportunity. He knows this will be an easy win. “All right, sure”, Danny exclaimed, sealing the deal. Jenny shuffled with a bit of pride, knowing her plan was working before saying, "All right, But we have to pick different characters and levels this time, OK?” Danny chuckled and agreed. It only took a moment to think of a way to embarrass his sister. He picked up his token and dropped it on Daisy. His sister, however, knew the “meta” and picked up her token and placed it on Steve, effectively swapping their characters. Danny also let Jenny pick the stage again, and she picked “Small Battlefield”. He then hit “start” and the match began.

Jenny made it look not so obvious at first, letting her brother get comfortable by throwing her first two lives away. However, this is when she ramped up and went in for the kill. Danny, having gotten used to his sister’s softer playstyle was suddenly thrown for a loop. He struggled hard to get his hits in. His sister was expertly shielding and dodging everything and he could barely get anywhere near the ledge. He only managed to get one more kill before he was greeted with the loss of his last life.

Danny held his arms out toward the screen in total shock. He turned to his sister and just gaped at her, letting out a, “What the heck?” Jenny rolled over in laughter, declaring loudly, “I win, bitch!” Danny could do nothing but stutter and stammer, completely taken aback by what just happened. The only time he’s ever seen people that good is when he plays online or at tournaments. Jenny just looked at him as he sat there, dumbfounded about what had happened, and finally explained everything.

“Remember Brian? My Ex?”, she said.

“Yeah?”, Danny replied with a nod.

“Well,” Jenny beamed, “he plays competitively and taught me how to play. In fact, he’s a pretty big streamer apparently.”

Danny’s jaw dropped. There’s no way that could be true. They had been dating for a year and he barely knew the guy, but there was no way that she could have picked up the game that fast, or even taken an interest in it. Jenny just howled some more at the dumb look on her brother’s face. Yeah, she didn’t enjoy playing, but playing with Brian wasn’t so bad, especially when he was teaching and engaging with her.

“So, bro,” Jenny said, “Looks like you owe me, eh?” Danny’s expression quickly changed, almost to that of a pout. “What? No, you tricked me”, he said. Jenny laughed, “So? Not my fault you got played.” Danny scoffed and stammered as he looked at his sister, trying to find a way out of it, but there was nothing he could do and he realized got hustled. His mind reeled at the thought of what she was going to make him do. Whenever they make a bet, it’s always picking up her chores, usually doing the tougher things like raking the yard or washing the car. Jenny laughed a little more before getting up and patting her brother condescendingly on the head before saying, “Well, I’ll take an IOU on this. There’s something special I have planned and it’ll have to wait.” Danny just let out a sigh and glared at his sister as she walked out the door. Having enough of the game, he turned off Smash and slumped into his computer chair to mindlessly scroll through the internet for the rest of the day as he brooded over his bruised ego.