Pwned

by Shannen Crane Camp

  Since we’ve been being more 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 secret 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 intricacy 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 noble. 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,” Parker 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 Shannencbooks@hotmail.com or visit her website for more information: http://shannencbooks.blogspot.com