The Twin Wolves mall was a regur fixture for my birthdays growing up. There was a toystore that had the best Raina Starlight stuff, and it had one of the biggest bookstores in like the whole world. As Stel left to go park with a brief goodbye and a long grumble about traffid some medium-length instrus on how long she was going to be shopping while we were in line, Kalei sent a text that just said, “firm arrival.”

  I asked her where she was as Oka stared up at the big giant statue of two wolves at the ter of the parking lot.

  “Hey, Zeta,” Oka said. “We should take a picture to celebrate this!”

  “Like whech up to Kalei?” I asked.

  “Naw, just you and me!” Oka said. “We get pictures with Kalei when we’re with her. I wanna remember this part of the day too.”

  My hands were shaking intensely as I held the camera up and tried to lihe shot up to include us and the big wolves behind us. I gave an awkward wince smile in the picture and I looked so dumb.

  “Perfect!” Oka said. “Send that to me. I’ll have a pho some point presumably. Or send it to my school at thing. I want it. Or print it!”

  “Before you send anything,” Someone said near us. “I have a simple request.”

  I looked around but didn’t see anyone.

  “Up here,” I looked up at the statue to see Roux sitting atop one of the wolf statues.

  “Why are you here?” Oka asked.

  “Like I said earlier, I’m recruiting,” Roux said. “And anything to take away from Koridia’s team, the better.”

  Roux was talking pretty threateningly, but she lost a lot of menace as she very slowly climbed dowatue.

  “Don’t you have to go to that sole un Anesville?” I asked.

  “My minions of the night are colleg my other preorders,” Roux said. “And I pn to resell them for a hefty price.”

  “Alright,” Oka said. “So you came all this way to wait for us in a parking lot? How’d you know we’d e this way?”

  “I wasn’t just waiting for you,” Roux said. “I have many potential didates, but you two were my maionight.”

  “This is giving me a headache,” Oka said. “and it’s pretty chilly out here so we go inside maybe?”

  “Humor me for a moment, friend of Koridia A.” Roux said. “I want to test your skills, and I guarantee I get you to take my challenge.”

  “Fine, whatever,” Oka said.

  “First, let me make sure you uand the majesty of the eGame 3.”

  Oka and I sighed.

  “It’s got ray cell drive teology,” Roux said. “Ray cell drive teology.”

  “Uh huh,” I said.

  “It’s like, really powerful and stuff,” Roux said. “It’s a true leap forward in teology.”

  “Sure,” Oka said.

  “Are you following this?”

  “Wait…yes,” I said. “No. No I am not.”

  “No matter,” Roux said. “You two have shown a devious level of hiding your skills.”

  Roux pulled out a handheld game system that I’d seen Kalei pying al lthe time.

  “The eGame 2 isn’t as powerful, but it is valuable in its portability.” Roux said, pg the tablet on the base of the statue and taking two trollers from it. She handed oo Oka and I.

  “I want you both to py a round of Before Talon,” Roux said. “I’m recruiting for a pro team and taking away teammates of Koridia only be me.”

  “You’re joking,” I said.

  “Not going to py?” Roux said.

  “I uh,” Oka said. “Don’t want to.”

  “I figured that would be your first response. But I had prepared for that. I have one of my team members ready and waiting in lih Kalei as we speak. The moment Kalei leaves the store with her eGame 3, he will find a way to knock it from her hands aroy it unless I send him the code not to.”

  “No way,” I said. “That’s…cartoonishly vilinous.”

  “I’m not lying, friend of Koridia B,” Roux said. “You may even know this agent…he goes to our sibling school…”

  “You don’t mean Syval, do you?” Oka asked. “Because he’s literally the only guy Zeta and I know from there.”

  Roux gave a slight smug grin.

  “Aw man, I thought Syval was kinda cool,” Oka said.

  “He was at least tolerable, but he’s willing to do this?” I asked.

  “I did give him a reasonable fee of twenty dolrs for this,” Roux said. “Now, if you simply py a round of Before Talon against each other and perhaps sider my offer a bit more, then I will send the code to Gatia to not sabotage Koridia’s eGame 3.”

  I looked at Oka. As absurd as the situation was, if Syval did wreck Kalei’s new eGame, it’d destroy her.

  “You’re on, Roux,” I said.

  “Excellent,” Roux said. “I have already ected the system to the mall’s wireless fidelity work. I look forward to seeing your abilities.”

  We all crowded around Roux’s system. It retty hard to see the s as is, and it lit in half for both Oka and I, making my view even smaller. I wasn’t sure how to hold the little troller either. Before Talon was a shame, and Roux had already started a match between Oka and I. The tdown musi the game had Oka boung around a bit, which was dangerously adorable.

  “I will so win this, Zeta,” Oka said. “I’m feeling my petitive side take over.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked. “You haven’t even seen my petitive side yet.”

  The game’s tdown ended, aarted furiously mashing the buttons as the round started.

  Oka’s character looked straight up in the sky as she ran around in circles, and I couldn’t figure out how to reload and I got stuck behind a crate. It tinued like that for about two minutes until the round ended.

  “Oh,” Roux said. “I thought Koridia was trying to throw me off earlier, but you really are terrible at this.”

  Roux took the trollers back.

  “I’ll…send that text now,” Roux said. She quietly texted Syval, who was listed as “Dangerboyeee25232” in her tacts. I did catch a glimpse of her tact list, and it was even shorter than mine, which was really sad. “OK, he won’t break the system now.”

  “And you’ll leave Kalei alone now about this?” Oka asked. “Or was that in the deal? I fet.”

  “I don’t remember,” Roux said. She sighed. I suddenly felt a bit bad for her. She looked genuinely disappointed by this.

  “Maybe you could teach us sometime how to py?” I asked. “I actually kinda liked the look of it and stuff.”

  I tried to tell Oka with a shrug what I was thinking.

  “And I still have to beat Zeta at this, but like, for real!” Oka said.

  Roux’s ears perked up a bit.

  “Maybe,” Roux said. “e find me once we’re back at school.”

  “Oh, let me have your number,” I said. At least I could add my owry to hers.

  We exged numbers and Roux took off in a huff but stopped a few steps away from us. I could tell she liked to at least pretend to be dramatic.

  “Kalei friend A,” Roux said, pointing at Oka.

  “Y-yeah?” Oka asked.

  “You’re the Kinder adoptee, correct?” Roux asked.

  Oka nodded.

  “I uh,” Roux said. “I e from mooo. But I usually have to pay people to spend time with me or do what I ask. So. I’m…not used to…”

  Roux’s voice cracked every other word as she gave us finger guns and said “Oh and uh, tell Kalei to get on Talht away. And uh, smell ya tomorrows, goofuses.” She jogged off and Oka and I sto to process all that for a while.

  “I’m so fused,” I said. “Did we just bee friends with her?”

  “Maybe,” Oka said. “But she might not be so bad. Or I dunno, maybe she is.”

  “We should probably make sure Syval didn’t wreck Kalei’s system though, right?”