by Joanne Levy
“Okay. So it’s about . . .” She looked at me and raised her eyebrows, waiting.
Seriously? “Slashing Zombies.” I mean, it’s right there in the name.
She sighed. “What do I do?”
“Let’s start by making your character,” I said.
Thirty minutes later we’d only just put the finishing touches on her pink-armored, blond, but very kick-butt character, when the doorbell rang: pizza.
“We’ll come back after dinner,” I said, putting down my controller and getting up.
“That was fun!” Olivia said, a big smile on her face.
“All we did was make your character.”
“I know! I love that I got to choose what she looks like and wears and everything. It’s so cool that you can make your character just like you, you know? I’m going to really like Zombie Slashers!”
I wasn’t so sure, but at least she got the name right this time.
“I HATE Zombie Slashers!” Olivia announced only five minutes into the game. I had her on the easiest level, and she still couldn’t seem to get the hang of even just moving her person around the training arena, let alone getting to where she could start fighting. Maybe this hadn’t been such a great idea. I was just about to turn it off when a tall knight with a giant broadsword came up beside us.
Uh-oh.
“Who is that?” Olivia asked. “He doesn’t look like a zombie. Or is it a trick?”
Shaking my head, I paused the game and reached for a headset, flipping the switch to turn it on and sliding it into place, adjusting it over my ear. “Hi, Ty,” I said into the mic as I looked at Olivia and watched as she clued in, her eyes going wide.
She pointed at my mic and then at the screen, a question on her face as though she had said out loud, Is that really him?
I nodded.
“You ready to get your butt kicked?” Tyler asked through the headset, and I could tell from his voice that he was smiling.
I couldn’t help but smile back. “As if that’s going to happen,” I taunted, eager to show him my new moves. I’d been avoiding playing with him since he’d returned from camp, but playing with him this way—from different locations, so I didn’t have to be all nervous sitting next to him—felt really good. Maybe I could do this. Maybe I could get over my nerves and get back to how we had been.
“Uh, Kat?” Olivia whispered, suddenly reminding me she was there. I passed her my sister’s headset, knowing Laura wouldn’t mind since she almost never played games anymore, and turned it on.
“Right. Yeah. So Olivia’s here, too.”
“Oh,” Tyler said. “Hi, Olivia.”
“Hi, Tyler,” she said back in her sweet voice. “This is so fun!”
“So you play Zombie Slashers a lot?” he asked, sounding doubtful.
Not hardly, I didn’t say out loud.
“All the time!” Olivia said.
What? “All the time”? I stared at her, and she smiled back at me like it was no big deal.
“Especially this past summer,” she said. “I’ve been playing a lot in between dance-team practices.”
“Hold on, Ty,” I said. “My mom needs something.”
I muted my headset and then reached over and did the same to Olivia’s before I said, “What are you doing?”
She shrugged. “You said we should have more in common and that I should know about stuff he likes.”
“Knowing about,” I said, “is not the same as playing all the time. You haven’t even played once!”
She put her controller in my hands. “Then you’re going to have to play for me.”
I looked down at the controller and then back up at her. “What?”
“Pretend you’re me and play with him.”
“I don’t think so.”
“And be good. I want him to be really impressed,” she said like she hadn’t heard me. Or had chosen not to.
“Livvy . . .”
“Kat. Please! Dancing is what I’m good at, not video games. I really like him a lot and I want him to like me, too. Please won’t you help me with this? It’s just a video game; it’s not like you’re cheating on a test or something.”
I thought about that. She was right. But it still sort of felt like cheating. “Fine,” I said.
She picked up my controller. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m going to play as you.”
I laughed at that. “Sorry, Livvy, but he won’t believe I’ve gotten that bad over the summer. No offense.”
She frowned but then nodded. “I guess you’re right. What am I supposed to do, then?”
“Just watch and learn,” I said, and then unmuted my headset.
She nodded and leaned toward me so I could unmute hers, too.
“Sorry, Ty,” I said. “You there?”
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“Oh, nothing. Mom just came to get the plates from our pizza.”
“Pineapple and mushroom?” he asked.
“Of course!” I said, glancing over at Olivia. “At least on my half.”
“That’s the best,” Tyler said.
Olivia made a face, making me laugh. I stuck my tongue out at her and then unpaused the game and moved her character over beside Tyler’s.
“Let’s play!” Tyler said. “Come on, Kat. Catch up with us.”
“Oh, uh . . . ,” I said, looking at Olivia because I hadn’t worked out why “I” wasn’t going to be playing.
“She shut her thumb in the door,” Olivia said before I could even think of anything. “So she’s just going to watch us play.”
“Oh, but I can see you on the screen . . .”
“I was trying,” I said. “But it hurts too much. You two go ahead.”
“Okay,” Tyler said. “Let’s annihilate some zombies!”
“Yeah!” she said, clapping her hands, which I guess didn’t matter, since I was the one with hands on her controller.
After about an hour of zombie annihilating, I was thirsty and my hands were legitimately getting tired. I did a quick mute of my headset. “I need a break,” I told Olivia quietly so Tyler wouldn’t hear me through her microphone
She nodded. “Tyler, we’re going to take a break to get some snacks.”
“Why don’t you come over and play here? I’ve got cheese popcorn, and my mom just made some brownies.”
Playing with him over the past hour had finally felt just like old times—precrush times—even though I was pretending to be Olivia. Getting into our old routine of hunting down and killing (or rekilling) the zombies felt good, so the thought of going over there, sitting with him, and continuing the game sounded good to me. Not to mention, Mrs. Lot’s brownies were awesome.
But going over there was obviously impossible if we were going to keep up our story.
“Thanks, but we’re already in our pj’s,” I said.
“Okay,” he said. “And, um, hey, maybe tomorrow you guys can come over?” He made it like a question. Like he really wanted us—both of us—to come over.
“That would be great!” Livvy said at the same time as I said, “We’re busy.”
I looked at her, because how could that happen? She smiled and shrugged at me.
“We’re going to the mall tomorrow,” I said, because it was the only thing I could think of.
“Right!” Olivia said. “To look at dresses for the upcoming Fall Ball.” She said the words slowly like she really wanted him to pay attention to her talking about the dance.
“Oh, right. . . . Uh . . .”
I wondered if he was thinking about asking her to the dance. She and I exchanged looks, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. My heart sped up as we waited for him to go on.
But instead of asking her, all he said was, “I’m glad we got to play together tonight, Livvy.” It was weird hearing him use the nickname for her. He’d never used it before tonight.
“Me too,” she said.
“You’re even better at Zombie Slas
hers than Kat is!”
Olivia laughed at that, and I rolled my eyes. “Thanks a lot,” I said.
“Sorry, Kat!” he said quickly, obviously not meaning to insult me. It was pretty funny, since he was telling me I was better than myself. Deep down, though, it did kind of hurt that he thought Olivia was so good when it was really me. Secretly, I wanted him to know I’d gotten so much better at the game over the summer, but now all he knew was that Olivia was really good. Better than me.
“It’s okay,” I said. “So is your mom going to drive us to the shelter on Sunday?”
“Oh yeah. I’ll ask her, but I think so. Hey, Livvy, why don’t you come with us? You can volunteer too.”
Olivia looked at me. “Uh, maybe. I mean, I do love animals, obviously.”
I fought the sigh that wanted to come out of my mouth so badly because she so did not love animals.
“Don’t you have dance practice?” I asked her.
“No. You know I only have dance team on—”
“Okay, we’ll talk about it,” I said, interrupting her. “But she’d have to apply to be a volunteer. Anyway, we have to go right now. Bye!” I turned off the game then, even though Olivia had her mouth open to say something else.
“Hey!” she said to me. “We weren’t done talking.”
“Sorry,” I said to her. “I thought you were. And since when do you love animals?”
She crossed her arms. “Since your animal-loving next-door neighbor got so cute.”
I rolled my eyes. “One thing has nothing to do with the other.”
“It does if it means I get to spend Sundays with him.”
Taking the headset off, I got up off the couch and put the gaming stuff away. “Let’s go see if there are any cookies.”
Of course, what I really wanted were some of Mrs. Lot’s amazing brownies, but that obviously wasn’t happening, since I couldn’t go next door.
At this rate it felt like I’d never get to go over there again.
Chapter 9
WE DID GO OVER TO Tyler’s later that evening—but only for a few minutes. Well, we didn’t actually go inside; we just spoke through his kitchen window on the first floor after it took like twenty minutes for him to notice Olivia walking back and forth past the window. She stood there in the grass, explaining that she needed some fresh air after all the gaming, while I hid in the bushes in case he asked her anything about Zombie Slashers or Knights at Sunrise. I’d only agreed to do it if she got him to give up some of Mrs. Lot’s brownies (yes, they are that good). And because she wouldn’t stop babbling about going over there and I just wanted her to shut up.
On Saturday Tyler texted me to let me know his mom would be driving us to the animal shelter on Sunday. He said to come over at about nine thirty and reminded me to not forget my lunch. It was one of my dad’s two Sundays a month volunteering there, doing surgeries and giving animals check-ups before they got adopted, but he would be starting early in the morning and Tyler and I weren’t supposed to start our volunteer shift until ten. He would drive us home at the end of the day.
When I got to Tyler’s on Sunday morning, we had to wait for his mom to finish getting ready, but it was a beautiful fall day, with the sky clear and blue, so we sat on the front porch stairs. He asked if Olivia would be meeting us at the shelter. I reminded him that we’d had to apply to the junior volunteer program and that she couldn’t just show up. I really didn’t think she’d actually be into it and hoped she’d forget she’d told him she thought it would be fun. Plus, okay, so maybe part of me didn’t want her there.
“Oh yeah,” he said—and was I imagining it, or did his shoulders fall a little? “Well, I thought maybe she’d come to apply.”
“I’m here, though,” I said, a little hurt that he seemed to forget that I was his best friend and we’d planned to do this shelter thing together. Us. Tyler and Kat, not Tyler, Olivia, and Kat.
He smiled at me and leaned in to my shoulder. “Yeah. Sorry, Kat. I just . . . she’s not what I thought, you know?”
I swallowed and said, “What do you mean?”
He shrugged. “You know what I thought of her before, but she’s been . . . cool these last few days. I mean, she’s into Zombie Slashers and has been reading Knights at Sunrise and everything. I mean, check out this text she sent me last night . . .” He showed me his phone.
Olivia: I’m at the part in Nights at Sunrise where Kincairn is going to look for the gold chalice! So exciting.
Tyler: You’re going to love the next part. Text me when you get there.
Olivia: I will! But tell me what happens next—I hate surprises!
Tyler: ha ha, I don’t want to ruin it for you!
Olivia: no it’s okay if you do. I like spoilers!
He seemed to be enjoying texting with her. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Although I had to admit it was kind of funny how she was trying to get him to tell her what happened in the book and how he wouldn’t. I’m sure she didn’t think it was quite as funny, though.
If only Tyler knew I’d made up a bunch of messages for her to use. Every word of the first text he showed me was mine. Except where she spelled “Knights” wrong—that was all her.
“Yeah, cool,” I said.
He smiled at me. “And you were right—she really is funny. Sometimes she’ll be talking about Knights at Sunrise and she’ll pretend like she has no idea what’s going on in the book. Like this one time”—he started giggling, and then it turned into a real laugh and I had to wait for him to finish—“she was talking about the dragons flying into the rainbows to heaven and them landing in the leprechauns’ pots of gold or something. Like rainbows, not Reignbough. It was hilarious.”
Poor Tyler had no clue. “See? I told you she’s funny,” I said, not adding even when she doesn’t mean to be. I guess I should have been happy that our plan was working, except that instead of getting my mind off my crush on him, this whole thing was kind of just making me mad.
“Anyway, thanks,” he said, bumping my shoulder again.
I looked over at him, hating the butterflies that took off in my belly just because of the little piece of hair that fell over his forehead. I mean, it’s just hair!
“For what?”
“For helping me realize how cool she is.” He shook his head. “I was really wrong about her.”
I looked away. “Sure. No problem.”
Just then his mother came out, jingling her keys in her hand. “You kids ready to go?”
Of course, I love animals, so I was excited about getting to walk dogs and snuggle with cats at the shelter, but I was also excited about seeing my dad at work. Most of the time he was at his new veterinary practice, but he hadn’t given up his commitment to spend two Sundays a month at the shelter as a volunteer vet. I was so proud of him for what he did for the shelter, and I wanted him to be proud of me, too. That we could both be volunteers there made it feel extra special. Also, since I hardly saw him during the week, I was really looking forward to spending time with him.
Too bad that didn’t happen. When we’d arrived, I’d asked about him and they’d told me he was doing surgeries all day, so I probably wouldn’t see him at all. Sure enough, four hours, five dog walks, and countless kitty snuggles later I had seen my dad for a total of zero minutes.
The good news was that I quickly got so busy with taking care of the animals that I soon forgot about quality father-daughter time. I barely even saw Tyler, we were so busy.
Before I knew it, I’d returned the last dog to her kennel. One glance at the clock told me it was after two—time to turn in my volunteer badge. When I got to the desk, Tyler was already there, signing out. He handed me the pen.
“Thanks,” I said, taking it from him and signing my name on the line before I passed the volunteer coordinator my badge.
“How was your day?” Tyler asked.
I blew out a loud breath. “Really great. But I must have walked like twenty miles! I’m zonked. How about you?”
He grinned at me. “I know, right? Same. I can’t wait to plant myself on the couch and play Slashers. You coming over?”
I wanted to play with him and have it be like we used to be before the summer. But I also didn’t want to, because I was nervous around him now—because of the whole Olivia thing and also because I was scared that if I played with him, he’d figure out it hadn’t been Olivia at the controller. Would we ever get to hang out again the way we used to?
I opened my mouth to tell him that my thumb still hurt and that I had too much homework to do, but I didn’t have a chance to speak.
“There you are,” my father said in his booming voice. “Hi, Kat, Tyler.”
I turned around and smiled at my dad, who was coming toward us. He looked tired.
“Hi, Dad. We didn’t get to see you at all today!”
“Sorry, Kat,” he said. “It was crazy back there. You know they don’t have a regular vet here through the week, so I had to make up for it today. Twenty-seven cats came in this week, and at least a dozen dogs . . .” He sighed.
“Wow, I didn’t realize so many!”
“It’s a busy place. Come on, let’s get out of here.” He put his arm around me, and the three of us walked toward the door. “You must have been busy.” He glanced over his shoulder at Tyler. “Both of you—I know how they work their volunteers around here. So what do you think?”
“It was so cool,” Tyler said. “I like helping out. Even the gross stuff—like cleaning the litter boxes—doesn’t bother me.”
“Me too,” I said. “I love being around the animals. But it was so much work; we’re exhausted!”
Dad squeezed me into his side. “It’s not always good times, but I’m glad you liked it. I’m sure both of you were a big help today.”
I looked up at my dad, and he smiled back. “I think you two have earned something special. Your choice: ice cream or cupcakes?”
I looked at Tyler and he looked at me before we said at the same time, “Ice cream!”
“Great,” Dad said as we made our way outside and toward his car. “We’ll go to Scoops, and then after I take you two home, I’ll still have time to get a few hours of work done at the clinic before dinner.”