Chapter 1

"Get the crystal! Get the crystal!" My teammates shouted at me as I ran my little computer character towards the clear, glowing crystal. Golden Temple had to be my favorite computer game that I had ever played. My friends had always tried to get me to play different games or get me off the computer entirely, but it never worked.

"Cover me!" I shouted into my mic. Sitting in front of my gaming console on my computer is a wonderful way to start off the new school year. I was a sophomore*1 in high school now. I quickly activated the crystal and it glowed a dark blue as my team one the game.

"Good job, PoisonIvy!" My teammate and friend, Black_Rose congratulated me. In real life, her name is Jess.

"Thanks, Black_Rose," I tease her by using her screen name. She was a rather well-known gamer, as she streamed on Xylon*2.

"You're getting really good! I wanna invite you to play with me when I stream!" She pouted, knowing that I would decline. She asked me almost every time we played, which was kind of often.

"Nah I'm--" I started but quickly got interrupted by the other people playing with us.

"Yo! That was sick!" Carter yelled into his mic. He was my older brother, Levi's friend.

"I have to agree," Levi joined in. He was in his room playing and could no doubt hear me yelling at him through the walls.

"Hey, can we play another round?" Leo asked. Another one of my brother's friends. He was quite popular as one may be able to tell. Me. Not so much. I wouldn't say I'm bad looking or anti-social, I just don't have a lot of friends.

"Sure," I say into my headset. For my birthday, my parents had gotten me the full gaming set with my keyboard, mouse, headset, and everything. We were what you could call rich. Both of my parents had well-paying jobs, so my brother and I lived well.

I looked over at the clock to check the time. It was almost one in the morning now.

"After this round, I have to go to bed. You may be a dropout Jess, but I still have school," I said and smirked, though no one could see. I heard Levi and his friends all laugh and say "yooooo".

We were all rather good players. The ranks went in the order: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Master, Grandmaster, Champion, and Legend. Leo and Carter were both Gold while Levi and Jess were both Grandmasters. I was the only Champion in the group and incredibly close to becoming a Legend. Jess wanted me to join her Master and above only team. She needed an extra player and desperately wanted me to join. Our current team was good but I hate to admit that Carter and Leo were dragging us down a little bit. We all wanted to enter the annual Golden Temple Gaming Tournament but always failed in the preliminaries.

We quickly finished our game, having one 2 out of 3 of the rounds.

Gotta go guys!" Carter shouted and logged off. Leo and Levi were soon to follow.

"Bye Ivy!" Jess said, using my real name. She was about to log off when I stopped her.

"Hey, Jess?" I asked.

"Yeah?"

"I'll join your tournament team if you'll still have me."