“Ah, look out!” Lucia shouted.

Eniola lurched in the thick red beanbag which called the floor of her bedroom home. Her grip tightened around the smooth black controller, which vibrated in her grip. Eniola stared at all 3 of her holo-monitors, one with the game Rise of Shadows, one showing all 4 video calls of her friends and Jay, and the other showing live footage of their Twitch stream. Not only were they SCOPE players but they managed to rack a decent following on Twitch playing Rise of Shadows.

“They’ve attacked our base!” Lucia yelled out, looking panicked in her small square on Eniola’s main holo-monitor. Eniola’s gaze quickly swept over to her second monitor to watch it all unfold. Rise of Shadows was easy to understand but hard to execute.

There were two opposing kingdoms, the Kingdom of Shadows and the Kingdom of Thorns, and you had to defend your kingdom from the other kingdom and also try to take over theirs. The more you attacked the more points you gained and the more you got attacked the less you earned. You could play different avatars. You could play with different weapons and get power-ups the more you played. It was like SCOPE, which was probably why Eniola was so good at it. They were playing with another team they didn’t know.

“Then we’ll attack their front base!” Eniola yelled into her headset mic. “Clear the lane!”

“That’s what we’re doing,” Iris said back.

Eniola moved to the side, as her game avatar swung their blades at the other team’s army then quickly dodged the blasts that the knights aimed.

Suddenly another avatar came to her defence. It was Killswitch, or Jay now that they had gotten to know him.

“I could handle that myself,” she muttered.

“Could you?” he asked, teasingly.

Suddenly loud hiss snapped at her from the side of the room and through her headphones. Eniola glanced over and saw that her mom was standing in the middle of the doorway hair in a hair wrap, looking annoyed.

“Always playing those stupid games!” her mom yelled at her.

“They’re not stupid,” she shyly said, trying to focus at the same time. “They make you smart. Playing takes immense focus and strategizing—”

“Oh ya, get up! We’re eating dinner!” her mom shut down. “Pause it!”

“We’re live, mom,” Eniola quietly said, turning her mic away from her mouth. “You can’t just pause it!”

“I said pause it!” her mom yelled louder.

“Ok guys, I need to go,” Eniola whispered, and heard a flurry of goodbyes as she pulled her headset away as it tangled through her coiled hair. She commanded the holographic screens to turn off and sprung up from her bean bag. She slipped down the hallway behind her mom, following her downstairs. Her brother and dad were there waiting for her, as Bola tended to last-minute details. The dining room looked bare after yesterday’s spiel, mainly because her parents packed away everything for the move to New York. It was just a simple white table in the sea of white floors. The walls were bare of all the artwork her dad used to collect and put up in their house. She slipped into her chair next to Kol and across from her parents. Bola’s front body opened and handed her a steaming bowl of pepper soup with steamed fish, and a cool glass of water. She set her table mat with a spoon.

“Thank you,” Eniola mumbled.

“Pleased to be at your service, Eniola!” she responded monotonously. Of course, Bola had to respond that way. They had programmed her to, just the way her parents wanted to program Eniola. It almost made Eniola wonder what it would be like. Only doing things for others and only doing what they programmed for her to do. Bola rarely went against orders, and if she did, it was a malfunction. If Eniola went against what her parents had ‘programmed’ her to do, it would be the highest form of betrayal.

Her dad said grace for five minutes this time, and they all dug into the soup. Her parents made some light conversation about what they did at the hospital, but they discovered nothing as they were both cardiologists for the same department. They saw each other every day and worked together.

“Do you know what happened on the way home?” her dad began with annoyance in his voice. “Those lope players ambushed me on the way home.”

Eniola raised an eyebrow. “Lope?” Eniola asked, then realization hit her. “SCOPE? Like the game? What happened?”

“I saw these vagabonds running down the street on those chunky bikes,” her dad spat. “Probably off to sell drugs at a game.”

“There aren’t any drugs at the game,” Eniola spoke out suddenly. Her parents’ eyes met hers with confusion. Eniola stammered, “Probably not, I mean, if they’re just gaming for the fun of it. I wouldn’t know. I’m not a vagabond.”

“Speaking of gaming,” her dad began, clearing his throat. “You can’t be gaming all the time, Eniola. You’re going to be studying to be a doctor soon when we move. You need to be focused.”

Eniola looked up at him. “I am focused. I’ve been doing what you’ve told me.”

“Doctors don’t play useless games that change nothing,” her dad told her. “They study. They make sure that they are prepared and preparing now. When you are in university, you need to be extremely focused.”

“I know, but—”

“You are going to college at 16, and you need to be more mature to prove yourself. Mature people don’t play games,” her dad continued. “And you’ve wasted it doing some android job that requires no skills. Soon they will replace you by getting the androids to stock other androids.” Eniola drooped in her seat like a wet sock.

“You have the smarts to be a doctor, yet you’re wasting it on these video games that make you ‘smart’,” her mom air-quoted. Her mom sank back into her seat, contemplating something. Eniola thought of something too. “In fact. Bola!”

Bola quickly whipped her head at the voice of Eniola’s mom. “Yes, Abeni!”

“Disconnect all the gaming software from Eniola’s room!” her mom commanded, and Bola wheels retracted back into her body and she began hovering up the stairs.

“No!” Eniola tried to defend herself. “You can’t—”

“Yes, we can,” her mom interrupted. She sunk back into her seat, looking defeated. Her eyes briefly met with Kol’s.

“Tell them,” he mouthed. She immediately shook her head.

She didn’t want to risk SCOPE, especially now that they had a full team, and had won all their qualifiers. They were entered and good to go. Now the hard part was figuring out how to get to Los Angeles.

“You need to figure out the type of specialization you want,” her dad said, narrowing his eyes at her. “You’re smart enough for cardiology, but you can go higher for dermatology or neurology. Exceed what we did.” Eniola got nothing about the different “ologies” they threw at her. It all sounded the same to Eniola.

“And when you finish college, you need to think about marriage. Auntie Abimbola is a great matchmaker and—”

“One step at a time, Dad,” Eniola brushed off, feeling flustered and overwhelmed. She was 16. Marriage was the least of her worries right now. And how was she supposed to worry about marriage when she could barely date?

“You know this is for the best,” her dad continued, going soft. “We want you to do better than us. That’s why we came to this country. It’s for you.”

“Of course,” Eniola replied, looking down.

“And nothing is going to change the fact that you will be successful,” her mom reinstated. Or that we love you and your brother.” Eniola knew all of this was true. They wanted success and sacrificed so much for her, and she couldn’t help but shake the guilt that came over her when she envisioned playing SCOPE as long as she could, travelling the world and meeting new people, doing what she loved the most and alongside people she cared about. Minus Jay. Maybe. That was the dream. That was success for Eniola.

But that dream wasn’t being a doctor.

As Eniola thought, there was no way she was just going to Los Angeles freely. She couldn’t go. No way her parents wouldn’t allow that.

Eniola bit her lip again, and then fought back the urge for tears to start coming through right then and there. If she started crying, they would ask why and she would have to say something. SCOPE was her passion, even if they didn’t know it. She desperately wanted to play, but without her parents knowing, her priority was being a doctor. But if she couldn’t go now, her SCOPE dreams were over.

But she needed to be there for her friends and maybe for Jay, even if he was annoying. An idea pricked at her head and before she could think, the words let themself out, “Lucia is planning on going to university.”

Her dad’s attention was pricked up. “Really?”

“Yeah,” she improvised. “She wants to go to a college in Los Angeles.”

“She has potential,” her mom complimented. “She just doesn’t use it. But this is surprising to hear, especially after what happened to her parents. Which college does she want to go to?”

“The one that suits her best,” Eniola continued, trying to keep a poker face. “She’s going for 10 days to visit different colleges and universities each day.” Eniola couldn’t tell whether they believed her. They wore the same stoic expressions you had to read to understand.

“I see,” her dad said, going over her words.

“You know, she invited me to go,” she said, sneaking a peek at Kol’s face. He was seeing right through her. “Since I’m going to university to be a doctor, she thought I could help. Pass some of my academic knowledge to her.”

“Oh really,” her dad said, lingering on his words. “When is this?”

“In a few days,” she lied. “I was wondering if I could go?” Eniola closed her eyes in anticipation and protection, just in case a storm of screaming came full force at her. Nothing happened. She opened one eye to be sure.

“Where will you stay?” they asked.

“Lucia knows someone who knows someone who owns the hotel,” Eniola told her parents. “They’re giving us the hotel room for free. You don’t even have to worry.”

“We’ll think about it,” they both said at the same time. She sighed: that was a definite no.

Eventually dinner ended and Eniola retreated to her room, lying facedown on her bed now that her gaming stuff was disconnected. Her hands felt lighter and weightless and empty now that nothing was to be held. Now all she had to do was lie in her bed having an existential crisis. She was so into this that she didn’t even notice her parents at the door.

“How long are you going for again?” her mom asked.

“10 days,” Eniola told them too easily. That was how long the Championships were for.

“I see, and what will you be doing there?” her dad asked.

“We’re touring all ten colleges she wants to apply to,” Eniola lied. “One for each day. And when we’re finished with the tours, we’ll compare the colleges, and Lucia will start applying.”

They both nodded, then walked to the hallway. They sounded like they were deliberating. Ten minutes later they came back.

“You can go,” her dad said with a small smile.

Eniola instantly jumped up. They were allowing her to go? Away? For ten days? By herself? There must’ve been a catch. It should’ve taken 12 business days for them to say no.

“What?” Eniola stammered. She met her parents’ gaze.

“You should help Lucia look for colleges,” her mom answered. “It’ll be an educational experience. At least something to get you off the gaming.”

Eniola couldn’t believe it. She was going to LA with her friends to compete.

“For real,” she asked. They both nodded simultaneously, giving the green light to her dreams. If they only know what this would bring to them.

🎮

On Monday, Eniola almost fell over herself with the large backpack her parents had packed for her. They must’ve filled it with boulders judging by how heavy it was. It was decimating her back. Her parents were rushing around the house, taking care of last-minute details for her trip to LA.

Her mom suddenly shoved a heavy cooler into her hand, and a tasty aroma of spiciness wafted into her nose. “For the trip. Save money.”

“This is a lot of food,” Eniola cautioned as it almost slipped through her hands.

“Enough to share with Lucia,” her mom told her. Lucia adored and practically drooled over her mom’s cooking.

“I’m only going for ten days,” she reminded them. “Are you sure we need all of this stuff?”

“It’s better to be over-prepared than under-prepared,” her dad told her. Her dad unzipped the huge-ass backpack resting on her small body and shoved one more thing, weighing her down.

“When is the maglev leaving?” she asked through all the motion.

“In two hours,” her mom said.

“Then why are we preparing so early?” Eniola asked. But no one responded to her. She lugged off the big backpack of her shoulders and rotated them to stretch out the cramps. It felt slightly relieving.

When her parents were out of view and in earshot, she picked up her cell phone and pulled up Discord, which appeared on the glass screen.

3:17 pm

theonewiththebraincell: I’m going!

luciawouldn’twanttobeya: For real?

theonewiththebraincell: Yeah!

killswitch: Can’t wait to see you! ;)

theonewiththebraincell: Is one eye always permanently closed?

killswitch: ;) Have fun shorty!

theonewiththebraincell: I told you to stop calling me that!

Eniola huffed and stuffed her phone away, and at that moment her parents came back in her range. They called for an autocar and drove to the intercity maglev station.

Eniola stared at the clusters of people waiting behind the red line that separated them from the auto train that would soon come through the glass tubes.

The Chinatown train station was a sleek and clear place, domed entirely with glass and curvy pillars shaped like vortexes. There were people clad in business suits yelling loudly into their earpieces, a variety of assistant androids patiently waiting beside them to dote on their every need. The green-lit holographic sign rotated in the air, showing everyone the name of the station and the next train. The next train to Los Angeles was in 15 minutes.

Eniola’s parents sat on both sides of her, crushing her like a sandwich on the bench where her toes barely reached the floor. Her backpack and her cooler were both sitting heavy beneath her. Her parents insisted they come to the train station with her and follow her every step of the way because it was her first time travelling solo. She looked down at the train ticket on her phone screen.

If Rogue won, her parents might just see that gaming isn’t at all useless. But winning was practically impossible for independent teams. The winners were always from team Inferno or the Omega Riders, or maybe a less known official team. Last year, Rogue came close and was dubbed the “underdogs’’ of the year. They almost made it to the top five and had a good chance of winning. Last year was supposed to be the year Eniola would prove herself to her parents.

That dream was chewed up and spit out when Keone left. Selfish, oh-so-pretty, narcissistic Keone.

“You must behave yourself,” her mom warned. “People in Los Angeles can be very weird. If anyone acts weird, run away and call us.”

“Stick to your hotel room and the universities,” her dad instructed. “Please don’t go out often. People might invite you to these things called raves. If they say that word, run away. The raves sound like this.”

Eniola doesn’t know what he’s going to do, but when he does she’s shocked. He goes on opening his mouth and trying to imitate what a rave might sound like by humming and beatboxing. Eniola and her mom raise eyebrows.

“That’s enough,” her mom stops him. “Do you understand?”

“I do. I won’t do anything that will bring shame to this family,” she said, as her parents began giving her more blow-by-blow instructions on how to stay safe in Los Angeles.

“All boarding Los Angeles, the train is here,” the intercom interrupted, repeating itself a couple more times. Eniola finally rose, lugging her backpack and cooler next to her. Her parents stayed with her. It was finally time to act on her place.

“I’m going to go now,” she said to them. She each hugged them and waved as she disappeared into the crowd.

“Behave yourself!” her mom yelled.

“Call us every day!” her dad yelled to her too. The train passed the waiting commuters as she pulled up to the platform, and it rose from the metallic tracks and hovered in the air. The glass tubes the train whirred through, then separated from one another as passengers instantly began pouring into the train. She checked behind her again, confident that she had lost her parents. Her lithe figure blended in with the small crowd and she slowly ran through the crowd. She wanted to look up and see where her parents were, but she was too short to peer above the crowd.

Eniola hopped onto the escalator that zoomed her up above the train platform to the exit stairs. She pulled out her bike orb from her pocket and hurled it to the ground before securing her helmet over her coiled hair and riding out into the day.

Eniola eventually pulled up at Theo’s house where he had called them for a team meeting. She parked her bike against the curb of the house and slipped off the helmet. The house addresses hovered, showing it was Theo’s house, but she didn’t need to know because she had been here several times. It was a domed, chrome white bungalow spreading out on the land, surrounded by lush green grass that his parents always reminded her was real. Circular windows with blue frames gave a glimpse of the inside.

Eniola walked up and rang the floating blue doorbell. It was only a moment before she was met by two grinning faces she recognized as Theo’s parents.

“Eniola!” they both exclaimed at once, pulling her into the house with bright smiles. Mr. Aurillo was a round man with black hair etched with silver and always wore a plain white t-shirt. Mrs. Aurillo looked petite next to him, but other than her height, she was like a mirror image of Theo. She had curly brown hair, olive skin, those big brown eyes he had, and the same smile.

The aroma of food instantly blessed Eniola’s nostrils. Sitting around the black table was all of Rogue, including Jay, whose eyes she couldn’t tell analyzed her or simply stared at her. She raised an eyebrow before looking away, pretending not to see him. What business did Jay have looking at her? She had the sudden urge to check her hair. She forced her hand down.

“Eniola!” Lucia exclaimed, and she waved, and Lucia waved back with the hand that wasn’t intertwined with Theo’s.

“You need to eat!” Mrs. Aurillo said, shepherding her to the table. With what she ate at home, she was already stuffed. But Theo’s parents were warm and Italian and made sure that you didn’t leave their house without eating, and Eniola didn’t want to offend them. They were so nice. Eniola was jealous that Theo and Iris had both parents that supported their SCOPE career.

“You showed up, Emily!” Jay said to her, butchering her name once again. The house-droid placed a tasty-looking plate of pasta at her.

“I thought you might not,” Theo said with a smile. “Welcome to my fine establishment, but you have already been here multiple times.” And it was exhausting coming here. Theo lived on the other side of the city, and that already posed many problems for Eniola.

“Thank you for having me,” Eniola joked, before narrowing her eyes at Jay. “And my name’s Eniola.”

“So what convinced your parents?” Iris asked. “Or did you escape?”

“I didn’t escape,” Eniola said casually. “It just happened, and now I’m here.”

“Ok,” Iris mumbled like she didn’t believe her. For a second she spaced out and her cyborg’s eye glowed.

“Iris?” Eniola questioned, waving a hand in front of her.

“Sorry,” Iris apologized. “My parents sent me a message. They’ve been following me for the last month about Los Angeles, keeping all tabs on me.”

“Same,” Eniola replied.

You can just read messages like that? That’s so cool!” Jay praised her, taking her cybernetic arm and running his hands down the black plating. “Where do I get one of these?”

“Take your real arm off,” Iris deadpanned. “I can help.” Iris opened the pocket knife on her pinkie and playfully shoved it at him.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he jokingly captioned, moving his hands away, breaking them into laughter, and revealing a bright smile.

“But look,” Iris showed and pushed her index finger back, revealing a bright spot of light. “A flashlight.” She opened the middle. “A screwdriver.” Then the ring. “A communication chip port.” And finally, she popped open the pinkie. “And a thin blade.” She finished the demonstration.

“What’s in the thumb?” Jay asked.

Iris shrugged before taking a long sip of water.

Everyone seemed to click right in and joined in the lively conversation, even Jay, which left her wondering how he made himself comfortable so easily. How did he just fit himself in the dynamics of everywhere?

“Hey, shorty,” Jay called to her, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Eniola whipped my head back to him. “You know, being short isn’t my entire personality.”

“I keep forgetting your name,” he admitted. “All I remember is that you’re short.”

She scoffed. “Is that it?”

“Do you want it to be it?” he said, smirking. “What else do you want me to remember you by?”

“I don’t know, maybe try my name first and then we can get to know each other,” Eniola said sarcastically.

The sound of glass tinkling filled the room. Eniola turned to see Theo tapping a glass with a fork like they were elite. “I don’t mean to act altruistically, but we’re starting the team meeting.”

At that moment, Theo’s parents left down the hallway. “First, I would like to welcome our newest team member, Jay Yoon,” he announced, and everyone but Eniola made a slight hoot.

“After last year’s failure, we need to be resilient and stick out again,” Theo said. “We were the underdogs last year because we were winning. We showed you didn’t need to be big to win this game. But we all know what happened, and we had to leave. This year however will be different,” he said excitedly. “SCOPE brought us all together and we’re team Rogue! We have nothing to fear except for fear itself.”

He paused, just in case any of them wanted to give us some more praise. Eniola would not shout a bunch of amens and “preach it white boys” at him.

Theo continued. “We have Iris. Our motivator and stronghold. She is the heart of our group, motivating and cheering us on.” They smiled at each other.

He pointed to Eniola. “Eniola is our brain. She’s smart and clever, can figure out all the codes and clues, and helps us strategize.” She sat back, flustered.

“We have our newcomer, Yoony,” Theo jokes. “He’s fast, he’s new, and he’s bold. And finally, I’m not the only boy here.”

“That’s right!” Jay responded.

“Next we have the beautiful, talented, fierce, smart, lovely—” he began, obviously referring to Lucia, “—best second-in-command and girlfriend there is.” He went to peck her cheek, but Lucia moved her face and he ended up pecking her on the lips. The others all hooted.

“And as your leader and captain, I promise to guide you and to help us win this competition,” he yelled, and the team cheers. “And if we don’t, we will at least have done it together and have had a damn good time!”

“To Rogue.” He stood up and stuck his hand into their circle, and Eniola, Iris, and Lucia stuck their hands on top. They all looked to Jay, who was still sitting in his seat.

“You’re part of this too,” Iris reminded him, and he shrugged and stood up, adding his hand.

“Welcome to our cult!” Iris joked.

“To Rogue!” Theo exclaimed.

“To Rogue!” they replied, shooting their hands up into the air.

“Now let’s win this thing!” he shouted.