The afternoon sun cast dappled shadows across the school's courtyard as Daniel and Wane sat on a bench, idly picking at their lunches.
"Yo, uh… the tournament," Daniel said, taking a sip of soda.
Wane's head snapped up. "Oh yeah!" he blurted, nearly bouncing to his feet.
"Ah, where do I even start?" Wane rubbed his chin, thinking. "You know who the Archangels are, right?"
"Yeah, I think my dad mentioned them once." Daniel squinted, trying to remember. "They're some kinda… military task force, right?"
"Are you serious? How do you not know them?" Wane leaned forward, squinting at Daniel like he'd just grown a second head. "The second-strongest fighter in the world is part of that task force!"
Daniel blinked. "Wait—you mean Andre the Beast?"
"Yesss!" Wane practically shouted, eyes wide with excitement. "They host these tournaments, and whoever wins gets to join the task force!"
"Oh, so has anybody ever won one of these tournaments?" Daniel asked, raising a brow.
"What's this about a tournament?"
A cheerful voice chimed in from behind them — and a pair of hands suddenly covered Wane's eyes.
"Ah—what's going on? Who's this?" Wane said as he tried to pull someone's hand from his eyes.
"Yo, Briana," Daniel called, raising his voice slightly.
Briana placed her lunch down and sat beside Wane.
"So, you're talking about the tournament?" she asked, popping open her container.
"Oh—uh, you know about it?" Wane replied, his voice cracking slightly and his posture straightening.
"Yeah," Briana said with a smile. "It's not exactly a secret. Everybody knows."
"Makes sense. But yeah, Wane and I were just discussing it." Daniel chimed in.
"Y-yeah, I was just telling him I think w-we should join," Wane said, fumbling over his words.
"Why are you stuttering?" Briana asked, tilting her head toward him. Her soft smile didn't fade as her gentle voice followed. "Did I really frighten you?"
"Yeah, dude," Daniel said with a grin. "You were jumping with excitement a second ago — what happened?"
"Shut up, man," Wane muttered, stabbing at his food as Briana laughed softly beside him.
"Ok, so you guys did say you want to join this tournament," Briana asked as she took a sip of her juice.
"Yes, but I haven't agreed to anything yet," Daniel said before taking a bite of chicken.
"What?!" Wane shouted abruptly.
"What do you mean, 'what'?" Daniel shot back. "You already know how my mom is, and I'm not really feeling it. Plus, how are we even supposed to win?"
"Okay, yeah, uh... alright, I get what you're saying." Wane rubbed the back of his head and forced a grin. "But we can still try, right?"
"Okay, let's run through a hypothetical here," Daniel said, leaning forward. "What happens if we win? You know that means fighting in a war, right?"
"Yeah, but we'd be fighting with a cool team! Isn't that good?" Wane replied, grinning.
Daniel blinked. "Huh? I think your perspective's a little mixed up."
"Okay, okay—how about we talk about something else?" Briana cut in quickly, trying to defuse the tension.
"...So, ahh, I reached level twenty in FallenBlade," Briana said, fiddling with her fork. "Yeah, I even got this—this bow called, um... Bone—"
"Bone Crusher," Wane finished for her.
"Yes, thank you, Wane. Anyway, I remember defeating a boss—I think her name was Dor—"
"Dorothy the Conqueror," Daniel added without missing a beat.
"Right! So that makes me twelve levels behind you two, but I'm finally eligible for the next area."
Daniel sighed. "Yeah, but we're gonna need your help—with a boss." He looked over at Briana. "You up for the task?"
"Hell yeah," Briana said, flashing a grin.
RIIIIIIING!
"Alright, we have to get to our classes now," Wane said, packing up his things.
"Remember, the two of you are walking me to the bus. I don't want that creepy old guy harassing me again," Briana said as she stood up and tidied her area.
"Yeah, I remember. But Daniel and I have Chess Club today, so you're gonna have to wait a bit," Wane said, slinging his bag over his shoulders.
"Okay," Briana replied, smiling faintly.