Virtually Me by Chad Morris

Author:Chad Morris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Published: 2023-01-06T23:16:10+00:00

CHAPTER 24

THE FURRIEST

Edelsabeth

I filmed us. A good-looking lacrosse player, a rock star, a track kid, and me, Miss Basic, walking down the hall together toward the games. I felt like the odd piece that just didn’t fit.

When I edited it into a movie for Mom, I’d say something like, “Hey, Mom,” and then I’d sing, “one of these things is not like the other.” She’d get the idea. And then I was going to say something like, “to give you the update, I’m now trying really hard to not care what I look like and make friends. I’m trying so hard that I’m going to play VR video games. That’s right. Me, Edelsabeth—your daughter—is going to play video games.”

She would definitely know I was trying.

I didn’t play handheld video games much at all. Like never. I didn’t play many other games either. But I was coordinated. So I might be okay at VR. At least, that’s what I was hoping. If not, I was going to look incredibly stupid.

Hunter was still scowling. If he knew it was me, everything would be different. He’d be laughing, glad I was invited. But with Vanilla Vanya, it was clear he thought I didn’t have much to offer.

I’m not usually very competitive, but I really wanted to prove him wrong.

But I also wasn’t sure that I could.

It was really fun to play the science game with Daebak. Maybe that was a clue to figuring out who he was. He was pretty smart too. When I asked how he knew all that science stuff, he just said, “YouTube videos.”

Maybe seeing how he played games would give me more clues about who he really was, and why he liked this version of me better than the real-school version.

“We have to be able to play all the games for the tournament,” Jasper said. “I want that trophy,” he called out, raising his hand—it was like a battle cry. “So we can do any of them. Vanya, why don’t you pick?”

I liked Jasper. He was competitive, like Hunter. But he was also really different; he was giving me and Daebak a chance. And his polyester tracksuit had style.

I could tell Hunter wanted to play the shoot-the-aliens game, and maybe if I was a better undercover friend, or maybe if Hunter had been nicer to me, I would have gone with that. But I would probably do terrible at that game, and then Jasper wouldn’t want me on the team, and I wouldn’t get to hang out with Daebak more and figure out who he was. And I would miss this chance to maybe even win Hunter back, even without looking like me.

So I looked a little more closely at all the games. There was SkateCoaster, a game where you rollerbladed on a roller coaster. I might be okay at that. Maybe my mountain biking, with leaning into turns and reaction to obstacles, would help. But I didn’t want to look stupid. I didn’t want to fail.

There was the obstacle course.

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