That Friday, I received my precalculus quiz grade. Scrawled in red ink at the top of the paper was a 92.5 and a 'Not bad! I know you can do better!' Despite my teacher's disappointment, I momentarily held the test paper to my chest.

Alhamdulillah. Mama said to say that anytime you wanted to show gratitude. The grade wasn't the worst thing in the world. If Mrs. Vaia ever offered extra credit, I could probably balance this out to get the grade up to a 96 and not lose valedictorian.

"Wow, Inaya, that emotional over a grade?"

I froze at the sound of Elsa's voice. It was easy to forget that she was in my precalculus class because both she and Clara sat in the back, a mile away from my spot at the front by the teacher's desk. Turning to my left, I saw Elsa holding her test paper in her hands a few feet away. A circled 93 was drawn beside a congratulatory 'fantastic job!' atop Elsa's paper. I was lost for words. How was I supposed to respond?

"You should cry, though," Elsa said in my silence, turning away, "Since I scored higher than you."

I ignored her and put my quiz paper away in my folder. Receiving a lower grade than Elsa was something to cry about, but not today. I knew I hadn't studied well for this quiz and still scored decently. I was sure I would have left Elsa in the dust had I studied like usual.

Salah's theory from the other day still made its rounds like a fluttery sensation within me. And how Valentino complimented me a lot in-game, too. 'You're pretty cool,' he'd said, 'You're too good for that.' I tapped my pencil on my open math notebook, remembering he had also mentioned he had his fair share of jealous people. Who was it? And what had they ruined for him?

I couldn't ask in person. Valentino's texts had gone back to being school-only, mainly helping with citations as Mrs. Asaka prescribed, and he was skipping homeroom for practice more often. But I had Tireya.

"All right, class," Ms. Vaia said, "put your quizzes away. We're going to begin class now."

I sat upright and forced myself not to get distracted. I slipped up once, but it wouldn't happen again.

* * *

That afternoon, I sat with my mom in the kitchen. I played around with my food a little, mixing the rice and chicken curry over and over to muster the courage to bring up the precalculus quiz grade.

"I got my precalc grade back," I finally said. My mom looked over at me from her plate. "92.5."

Mama pursed her lips a bit and thought for a moment before answering. "That's not terrible, but you're going to have to do better to be valedictorian," she said.

"I know. I won't mess up again." I was spending too much time on CrusadEon Online with a certain person who also reminded me of prom. "Mama," I added, dividing the mixed rice and curry into little mounds on my plate. What if I went to prom, but I wouldn't do anything wrong, like go out with a boy or something? Like what if I go with my friend Salah?"

Mama looked at me questioningly. "I'm sure if you wanted to hang out with Salah, you wouldn't need prom," she replied.

"Right," I mumbled. Mama had a point. But..." I knew it was normal not to go to prom as a Muslim, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I really wanted to go. I'd be good about it, too.

"I know what you're thinking, Inaya. I've thought about it, too."

I glanced up from my plate and was surprised to see Mama had a small smile on her face.

"If you can promise me to go with a girlfriend, send me some pictures, and come home early enough, I'll let you go. The payment is due around now, isn't it? But Inaya, I'm worried about that test. We need to go over it, but not today. I'll be busy tonight."

I swallowed hard to push back the excitement. "You have to work? Isn't it off hours?" I pointed out.

"They want to build this new building," Mama sighed. "There's always a lot involved whenever there's a new building."

I didn't like the sound of the weariness in my mom's voice—it made me think she would go into one of her episodes again.

"Mama, let's finish that puzzle Baba got you," I said. "Then we can buy a frame to hang it up in the hallway. That'll be your ninth."

My mom nodded. "Okay, maybe we can do that after asr prayer."

"Plus, I don't think anyone in my class has a cooler mom than me," I added.

"You're going to do cool things, too, Inaya. I know you will. Have you thought about what you like? Science? Math? Coding?"

I took a mouthful of rice and swallowed before answering. I wondered if I said art what my mom would do.

"Maybe I could go into coding. I like things with formulas and instructions."

"I could see you going that route." Mama's eyes went distant, and a dreamy smile made its way to her face. "Me and your baba used to have these 'dates' where we learned to code in MATLab together."

"You guys are such nerds!" I couldn't help but laugh a little.

My mom looked back at me and grinned. "Most of the coding sessions were in the library before I wasn't allowed to go there."

Not allowed. She was talking about her parents. Her Bangladeshi parents. My Bangladeshi grandparents.

"Were they always strict like that, Mama?" I asked, knowing I was treading in uncharted territory.

"Yeah, your nana and nanu were as strict as regular Bengali parents are. Well, maybe stricter than most." Mama cracked a smile despite the sadness in her voice. "I couldn't go out or anything, not even go to the stores without someone or your grandparents knowing every detail or coming along."

"That sounds horrible," I said in a low voice. But I was admittedly happy to finally learn details about my maternal grandparents.

"It was..." Mama sighed. "If they went too far, or if I went too far...I'll let Allah judge."

I nodded. "I'm assuming they didn't like Baba then since he's White?"

The edges of my mom's lips curled down for a heartbeat before she shook her head. "They didn't at first because it wasn't traditional. But they warmed up because your baba makes really good curry."

"But Mama," I said, instead of laughing with her, "why don't I ever see them?"

My mom pushed up her glasses. "You know, Inaya," she said, ignoring the question again, "Is there a boy at school who has your attention? Maybe asked you to go to prom with?"

"What?" I blushed, and my thoughts went straight to Valentino. "No one asked me, but sometimes I do think about it."

"No boys until your last years of college," Mama answered with a wrinkle of her nose. "The boys with good intentions will come along later in life. Right now, they're just distractions."

"Yeah, boys are distractions, but Baba wasn't for you," I half-teased, half-accused.

My mom smiled. "Yeah, he was the coolest nerd I ever met. Also, it was in college," she emphasized.

I rolled my eyes. If Valentino and I were meant to be, meeting in high school instead of college shouldn't change that.

"Well, speaking of how nerdy Baba is," I started. Baba kept my CrusadEon secret long enough. "I think his love for video games transferred to me."

My mom raised an eyebrow, indicating for me to continue.

"I have a CrusadEon Online account. I know you told me not to play it, but it's not mine! My friend from homeroom gave me hers, and I'm just playing on it. I swear I didn't send any pictures or videos. I can even show you the character to prove it." The words spilled out of me, and my heart pounded, waiting for my mom's reaction.

Mama swallowed the last of her food. "Okay, okay, it looked like a fun game anyway," she said. "Now, hurry and finish your baat before it gets cold."

* * *

Logging in later that evening, I felt a sense of relief. It felt like I was starting the game all over again with my mom's approval. Now everyone and their cousin were playing CrusadEon Online, including me. If you ignored that I was using someone else's account to do it.

Ugh why are you so powerful

Lol

These battles aren't even five mins with you

Your gettin there :)

o remember that quiz I told you about

Yeah!

How'd you do??

72 lol

Not bad!!

Yea

:)

You said you were also in high school

Yup yup

You also taking precalc?

Yeah actually!

Any good at it?

I'd say so :P

Also my parents are super smart so I go to them for help too

That's cool

what they do?

Basically my mom's an architect and my dad's an engineer

Dammmmn

Lol I know!

You must be smart by default

Ha I hope so

Rich by default too lol

Lolllll we're pretty set

What do your parents do?

My dad works at a pharmacy

I typed out a "What about your mom?" to continue the conversation but stopped. I remembered how he avoided talking about her when we talked about our dads. He was doing it again now. Maybe he didn't get along with her. Maybe she didn't live with them. Maybe she wasn't alive. Anything could be the reason he skips over that part.

I hit the delete button.

Ooh that's gotta be good money

He just shelves stuff

Oh okay

that's still cool

Yeah

We need people like him :)

You're pretty cool too

I like talking to you

My heart fluttered at his admission, and my lips curled into a smile at the fluttery sensation inside my chest. Those butterflies were going to be moving in one of these days.

I like talking to you too!

Let's roll

Lets!

When do I unlock my new skill

Righteous Call

That's the one for Exemplar Valiants

Pretty sure it's at 38

Aw :(

that's so far away!

Yeah I know

you'll get there tho no worries

I'm here

<3

You're the best

Also can we fight a couple sea monsters

I need a few more pearls to craft the coastal warrior gear

You already have the recipe for it?

Yupppp

got it the other day

O

I was gonna show you how to craft

Loll

Guess I'm one step ahead of ya

Aight lets go

O

Soccer training gets pretty rough around this time of year

I might not be on too much bcuz of that

Ohh okay :(

I'll be on when I can tho

For you

Its ok I get it!!!

Not gonna abandon you if that's what your thinking lol

Haha

ty for everything :)

Your welcome

Dunno where I'd be without you!

;)

Theyre adding a new feature that allows players to talk to each other btw

Oh right

something about using our mics?

Yeah thats the one

I'd use it but i'm too shy!

lol it's all good

we can still use the feature

you'd just be muted

I held my breath. Could I handle hearing Valentino's voice, the sound of his breathing, so close to me, like he was speaking directly in my ears, for hours without melting? Just the idea of it was making my face flush.

Only if your okay with it

I tapped my foot and held my face in my hands while staring at the screen, conflicted. What if my parents walked in to ask me something, but I was too focused on him to respond? But I also didn't want him to feel embarrassed for suggesting it. I did prefer the sound of his voice over chat messages.

I glanced up at the Arabic calligraphic wall decor above my desk. It read: in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Playing online with him was one thing, but this felt like taking a step in a direction I didn't know the destination of. I looked away.

I'd gotten this far with him. And I didn't want to turn back. Plus, it was online, and it wasn't me. It was Tireya.

"Sorry," I whispered to no one in particular. My right hand hovered for a moment before I clicked the option in the settings to allow my character to be microphone-friendly.

Yeah I am!

I don't have a prob :)

Let me hear your voice before I log out

"Hey, goodnight."

Valentino's voice caught me off guard, and I scrambled to turn the volume down. I threw a hasty look over my shoulder, painfully waiting to see if my parents heard anything. For the first time, I was grateful for the silence.

I turned around, and my fingers flew across the keyboard before I could think twice.

Gah you should've been talking to me from the beginning

With a gorgeous voice like that

Lmao

You liked that huh?

Won't confirm or deny

Except I want it again

Let's do this again next time ;)

Goodnight <3