Malkav walked Siarra to her house after school, carrying his bookbag on one shoulder and hers on the other. She skipped ahead freely, swinging around telephone poles and the occasional tree to be found in their fair city. Now that it was autumn, those trees were beginning to wither and their naked branches shivered while the dried-up leaves fluttered in the streets like old newspapers, gathering at the sewer drains in wet clumps. The cold air didn’t seem to stop Siarra one bit, though. She had her jacket thrown over Malkav like a shawl so that she could spread her bare arms to the sky like the trees.

Malkav watched her for awhile, until they at last rounded Holland Street, where she lived. “Why don’t we go to the arcade or something?”

“No thanks,” she said, “video games are for dorks. I want to play Neverquest.” She stopped dancing and walked beside Malkav. “Don’t you like it?”

“I like it.”

“I saw you online at three in the morning.”

“I know… You shot me with a fireball.”

“Yeah!” Siarra grinned.

“I was almost halfway to the city.”

“Sorry.”

Malkav sighed. “Do you have any intention of ever helping me to make it there?”

“To the Abbey? Of course. You have to make it there to reach level 2.”

They were at Siarra’s house now, but she hung back on the porch while Malkav stood at the bottom of the steps.

“Then can we do that tonight?” he asked.

“Sure,” she shrugged, “right after my homework.”

“Oh, what do you have?”

“An essay on some book for English class. Just give it to me by Friday, newb.”

“Okay,” Malkav said, starting to turn away. But he looked back for a minute. “How long are you going to be calling me a ‘newb’ for?”

“Until you become something better.”

“When’s that?”

“Level 10.”

“What happens at level 10?” Malkav started to ask, but Siarra had simply waved him away and disappeared inside.

Sighing, Malkav pretended to walk towards his house, in case Siarra was watching him from her window, but quickly doubled back after he had turned the corner of Holland Street. He wasn’t planning on going home just yet. Instead, he decided to stop by Cain’s house, which was only a mile away.

Cain and Malkav had been best friends since preschool, and though Malkav was more into role-playing as a vampire with his new friends now, they still kept in touch. Cain rarely showed up at East Shore High, though. He wasn’t really a high school dropout, but he wasn’t necessarily passing either; he called it ‘in limbo’. And he had been ‘in limbo’ for about five years running. He was the only senior in ESH to have a full-grown beard and be able to purchase his own alcohol, even if his mom wouldn’t allow it in the house. Not that he would buy it, or could buy it, since he hadn’t had a job since he was fourteen.

But Cain did have something worth coming over to his house for. And Malkav was there in no time, following Cain down the basement steps of his parents’ house into what he called the ‘LAN Room’, which would’ve been more aptly named the ‘Geek Command Center’. There were about twenty-three computers in the room, though only about six of them were functional; the rest were scraps and pieces, fused together like some deformed toys you’d find in the reject aisle. But they must’ve seen something in them because the whole gang was there—Vic, a hippie in almost all respects with his rather long brown hair and scruff that was in desperate need shaving; Eric, the blonde-haired pretty boy who talked like a knight and acted like a fool; Ray ‘Mundo’, the tough guy who was a little too full of himself for anybody to take seriously; Adam, a slightly chubby boy who loved Cheesy Poofs just as much as he loved online games; and Quentin, the extra character.

Malkav waved to the guys, who were too occupied in whatever online game they were playing to do much more than utter “Hey”, but he didn’t care. He stepped over to the 65” plasma-screen television a picked up an X-Box controller, turning it over in his hands. “So, I hear you guys play Neverquest.”

Once again, they grunted a response.

Cain was the only one to give a decent answer. “We have it, but there’s no damn point in playing. The game was meant for bitches, and in saying that I mean girls as well as guys who are treated like dogs by aforementioned girls.”

“Yeah,” Mundo said. “I’m the only one here who can bag a girl and even I don’t stand a chance in that game.”

“Aye,” Eric nodded, “and their size advantage doth make them all the stronger in Neverquest. We stand but no chance against their fury.”

“Well, what level are you guys?” Malkav asked.

They all held up one finger, except for Vic, who held up two. All eyes turned to him.

“I got the game when it first came out,” he said. “You know, before girls took over. Now we don’t stand a chance. Some of the girls just sit in the newbie zone and squash us whenever we try to play since they’re about fifty times our size…which would be a lot hotter if it didn’t hurt so much.”

“At least we get a good view up their skirts,” Mundo laughed, high-fiving Cain.

“…Yeah,” Malkav said. No wonder these guys hadn’t gotten without two feet of a girl aside from the hopeless magazine pictures scattered around the floor.

But at least one of them had. There came a banging from upstairs and Kimberly and Isaac appeared, storming down the steps and arguing like always. Kimberly was one of the few girls who was considered ‘one of the guys’, not because of her tomboyish nature but because she actually enjoyed video games, much the way Siarra and her friends did. The only difference was that Siarra and her friends were the in the ‘cute girl’ clique and Kimberly was in the ‘brainy girl’ clique, thereby putting a huge gap between their worlds. There’s not to say Kim was ugly; in fact, to the geeks she was a goddess, but she did have pale freckles and glasses, which seemed to limit who she could be seen around.

Isaac, on the other hand, was nearly the opposite. Obviously he was a guy, but he also had leathery black skin like a rhino, narrow eyes, biceps to kill, and a bald head—which, next to Kim’s pastel skin, petite stature, and flowing auburn hair was quite the contrast.

“These are my friends,” Kim was saying, “and if you want to hang around me, you’re going to hang around them too.”

“Fine, but tomorrow night we’re at my place,” Isaac sighed, and then turned around. “Hi, losers.”

The usual muttered greeting went around.

“You play Neverquest?” Malkav asked.

“Hell no!” Isaac bellowed. “We don’t play Nerd’s Quest. I’m just here for the pizza.”

“And the girl,” Kim added quietly.

“Well, they’re both so spicy hot!” he laughed, pinching her behind. “Where’s the pizza, losers?”

Somebody muttered something about the fridge and Isaac disappeared upstairs.

“I…wasn’t really talking to him,” Malkav said, apparently to the air. “I was talking to you, Kim.”

“Hm?”

“Do you play Neverquest?”

“Of course. It’s every girl’s fantasy.”

Malkav spread his arms. “Well, couldn’t we get Kim to help us reach the Abbey?”

“She’s the worst of them all!” Quentin cried out. “If I had a pimple for every time she killed me, why I’d have…” He started counting the zits on his face.

“Probably as many as you do right now,” Mundo jeered.

“Shut up and pass the Clearasil.”

“You guys are gross,” Kim said. “Why am I friends with you again?”

“Because we needed more female characters in the story?” Adam guessed, but nobody paid him any mind.

Cain took her arm. “Come on, Kim, Malkav’s our guest. Can you just be damn nice for once and help him get to the Abbey? I hear he wants to impress his little girlfriend.”

“Oh, is that so?” Kim cooed. “I guess I could help you… But Isaac might get upset if I pay more attention to the game than him.”

“Yeah, my ex didn’t like that too much,” Vic said aloud.

“Well, he can play too,” Cain said. “We have an extra game helmet since what’s-his-name dumped us.”

“Narsis,” Adam piped in.

Eric raised a mighty finger. “Silence! That name must not be spokest again in this room!”

“…Well, okay,” Kim said slowly, “but what about Malkav? He’s going to need a helmet if you’re all going to play too.”

Since none of the guys wanted to be left out in a game of Neverquest, especially with the help of a girl finally, Malkav volunteered to run home and get his helmet. He rushed out the door, leaving behind his bookbag and Siarra’s. Little did the fool know he would’ve been better off going home to do homework instead of returning to ESH’s last LAN party to date…