I shouted "Bye!" over my shoulder at Baba and slammed the car door shut. Beside me, other students entered the school, sweating and fanning themselves as they walked in. I was grateful for the car's air conditioning, and Maxwell High's halls and classrooms would be blasting it, too.

I caught sight of Annok at her locker and rushed to her side. But I was careful not to move my bag too much since my dad packed rice and chicken curry.

"Annok! Hey!"

"Oh, hi, Inaya," Annok looked over at me. "You sound more excited than usual—although you don't quite look awake."

I smiled. Last night was the first time I'd ever been up for something that wasn't for studying. I had two tabs open—CrusadEon and the website Valentino showed before with gameplay tutorials.

I lowered my voice to tell her, "I played CrusadEon Online all night, and it's so good!"

"Really? I knew you'd like it."

"Thanks so much for letting me play on your account!" I gushed.

She laughed. "No problem. Now you can talk to Valentino about it."

"So that's the thing." I shifted my foot and glanced over at Valentino. For the first time, I was glad he was busy talking with The Fanclub at his desk. "I'm not going to tell him, actually."

"Why not?" Annok closed her locker and raised an eyebrow. "I thought that was a reason you wanted to play."

I fought a blush. "I want it to be a surprise for now."

"Ah." Annok tilted her head knowingly and continued, "I get it." She placed a finger over her curled lips. "Your secret is safe with me. Don't you worry!"

I smiled at Annok and then unlocked my locker to prepare for the day's classes.

"Inaya-a-a!"

Turning around at Salah's voice, I saw the girl skipping toward me with Ameena close behind. I waved, and they joined my side to get to their locker.

"Ugh," Ameena complained, "Yesterday's math homework was so hard."

Salah hummed in agreement. "You'd think Ms. Vaia would give us a break!" She fished out a mirror from her bag so she could readjust her orange hijab. "We only have like another month of school left."

"Month and a half," I corrected. "Imagine the math we have to take in college."

Ameena frowned at my comment.

"Good thing I'm going into art," she said.

"You are?" I gasped.

Putting down her mirror, Salah gave Ameena a curious look. "Won't your parents be upset?"

"It's what I'm good at," Ameena shrugged.

"I know my parents want me to go into one of their career paths," I said and sighed. "My mom's an architect, and my dad's an engineer."

"Every brown parent's dream couple!" Salah teased.

"Yeah," I lightly scoffed. The comment made me happy, though.

Ameena swapped notebooks with her locker and bag. "What about being valedictorian? Is that their idea, too?"

"I mean, I don't mind." I smiled a little. "I like studying. I've got a whole desk for it and everything. Reading a textbook under the balcony sunlight gives really good vibes."

"Your parents must make a lot of money," Salah said.

I closed my locker. "I guess? Do you count going on a lot of vacations when I was a kid as a lot of money?"

"Obviously!" She rolled her eyes. I blushed a little. "But you always take the bus home."

"I'm hoping I'll get a car as a graduation gift."

"I can't wait to get my own car," Salah replied with a dramatic sigh.

"You have a permit, don't you?" Ameena prompted, now closing her locker door.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed Valentino getting up from Elsa's desk, and Mrs. Asaka was making her way to the front of the room.

"Yeah, but my family doesn't have a car," Salah replied.

We went to our desks. I turned slightly to greet Valentino when he took the seat beside mine.

"Hey," I said.

"What's up?" He lifted his eyebrows and stared at me for a moment. I swallowed hard at his undivided attention. "You tired or something?"

I couldn't believe he could tell with just one look! Annok noticing was one thing—that girl noticed a lot—but soccer captain Valentino?

"Salah Allam," Mrs. Asaka's voice reached the back of the classroom.

"Here!"

I lowered my voice. "No, just a boring Wednesday morning."

"Jamie Allan. Jamie."

"Oh, here!"

"You should be seated when attendance begins, and no phones in class."

I watched Jamie sit and put her phone in her back pocket while Elsa giggled. I quickly looked away after realizing I wasn't watching them—I was glaring at them. Don't be mean. What did they do to you except take the boy you like during homeroom?

"Ameena Baig."

"So, I brought lunch today," I whispered to Valentino. "My dad's chicken curry."

He leaned a bit in my direction. As he spoke, there was a sparkle in his eyes. "You're telling me because you're sharing."

"Well..." I smirked, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him for some reason. Being half-committed to flirting was as far as I could get before being tongue-tied.

"Hey, if you don't, you totally owe me a week's worth of homework."

"Maleek Lawrence."

I pretended to give it some thought. "Only if you let me watch you play today."

"Inaya Muhammad."

As I raised my hand, a slow grin made its way to Valentino's face.

"Here!" I called.

When I lowered my hand, smiling back at him, I realized Elsa was looking our way. Clearing my throat, I pretended to fish for something in my bag to ward off Elsa's narrowed eyes.

I looked up when attendance was over and saw Valentino had gotten up to go to his first class with his fan club. But before he walked off, he caught my gaze, and I knew I'd made the right decision to play CrusadEon.

* * *

Once my fourth class of the day ended, I rushed back to homeroom to get my lunch. There was only one microwave in the cafeteria, and it would get obnoxiously dirty if you got there too late. I needed to be among the first to be there if I didn't want to deal with someone else's mess in my food when I shared it with Valentino. Bless the unfortunate soul who had to clean it every day.

Dumping my school bag into my locker, I grabbed the packed lunch from its spot above my notebooks before slamming the locker door shut.

Just as I turned around to leave, I gasped and stepped back.

"Sorry," I flushed and then met the gaze of my could've-been victim: Elsa.

My whole body tensed. Her lunch break didn't coincide with mine, which was probably the biggest blessing of my year—that and sharing a lunch break with Valentino.

"No problem. What's gotten you all in a rush, anyway?"

I curled my toes in a mix of embarrassment and frustration while the blonde girl only blinked innocently. There was no way I was telling one of Valentino's fan club girls I was about to go and share lunch with him.

"Nothing," I finally mumbled and skirted around her. Elsa made no other comment, and the iciness in the air dissolved once I got far enough away from her.

I glanced over my shoulder. Annok and her friends passed by me. I couldn't remember what started my and Elsa's not-friendship. Was it the day I gave Valentino my phone number?

Arriving at the cafeteria, I scanned the orange-tiled room for Valentino. He wasn't seated at any of the tables yet, so I stood in line for the microwave. Not long into my waiting, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Valentino: move up three.

I looked up, and there he was, a few people ahead. I hesitated still. I knew the people ahead and behind me would be watching and might even get a little upset if I cut the line. But for Valentino, I would risk it.

I bumped my shoulder against Valentino's arm in greeting, ignoring the glare I received from the girl behind us.

"Hey!" Valentino greeted. "I got here early and got on the line to save us a spot."

"Good thinking. Did you bring your laptop?" I asked.

"Yup." Valentino jerked his right shoulder slightly to indicate it was in his backpack.

We moved up the line, and I said, "So...I saw a couple of videos." He tilted his head, and I continued. "And I noticed some people talk about how they level up quickly but don't mention how. What's the big deal?"

"The thing is," Valentino's eyes widened in excitement. "That method to leveling up is basically a glitch in the system, so the live streamers won't say exactly how they do it. They don't want the creators to learn about the loophole and patch it with a game update."

"Oh."

"I'll show you if you—"

"Sure!"

Valentino chuckled lightly and finished, "—ever play. We can try it out."

I winced internally. My excitement was a little too apparent. I hoped it didn't give him the idea that I was playing the game on my own. I was grateful we reached the microwave at that moment.

Before my hand could open the microwave door, Valentino did it for me, and I placed the glass bowl of rice and curry inside. Again, he moved quickly to close the door for me so I could hit the buttons on the surface of the machine for one minute. It was efficient teamwork, and we totally looked like a couple doing that.

"We should eat quickly since we're going to the library," Valentino said.

"You're not playing here?" I asked, furrowing my brows. "The library has a strict no-food-no-drink policy."

"Nah, the wifi sucks here."

I laughed and unconsciously tapped my foot to an unknown rhythm as we waited. Valentino's grey-blue eyes glanced at my footwork, sparkling with curiosity, but he didn't say anything about it. I stopped anyway.

"Well, I think we'll have plenty of time to eat and then go up to the library," I added.

"Yep." The microwave dinged, and Valentino opened the door for me to take the hot lunch out. "Let me go grab something," he added, stepping aside from the line to head over to the regular lunch line.

The lunchroom wasn't too crowded yet, so I made my way over to a half-empty table. Sitting, I lifted the lid and inhaled the familiar, comforting smell. A few students caught a whiff of the strong aroma and stared at me. I pretended not to notice them, but I felt a bit proud. It meant I was different. I was half of Mama's Bengali.

I split the rice and curry into two halves when a small carton of chocolate milk was placed in front of me.

"Got ya something."

I looked up and saw Valentino take the seat opposite of me with a tray of French fries and a slice of pizza.

"Thanks!" I smiled at him in appreciation before tilting my bowl and pouring half the rice onto an empty spot on Valentino's tray.

"No, thank you," he said as he watched the rice fall with a sparkle in his eye.

I grinned.

Over the curry, we talked about our dads. I started by saying that my baba sometimes played video games on the weekends and liked to cook because it was how he won my mom over.

Valentino listened, his eyes not wavering as I used hand motions to tell my story. Because Mama only ate halal, my dad learned Islam's religious rules to cook her something she could eat for a few lunch dates in college. Baba eventually became Muslim after that.

Then Valentino told me that his dad was terrible at cooking. They relied on a kind neighbor for a lot until he was old enough to cook something edible for them both.

I sensed a bit of reluctance from him after he said that. Maybe he expected me to ask about his mom since he didn't mention her, but I was chickening out anyway, so I moved our conversation on to CrusadEon game tactics when we got up to go to the library.

We sat at a table in the back, and Valentino showed me the shortcut to leveling up, but I saw a guy look up from his reading to stare at us—something he would've overlooked if I weren't visibly Muslim. Seeing it, I leaned a little away from Valentino, suddenly conscious of how casual I was with him.

We stayed like that for the rest of our lunch period.