“Thanks for the food, Mr. Martin,” Dread smiled at Jenny’s father after he took their order. Dread, Dirge, Jenny, and Torque sat in a green in
“Having you girls here will be great for business. Once you start winning games that is,” he chuckled.
“Daaadd! It was our first game!” Jenny whined, but she smiled and tried to kick her father’s shin from her seat. Her foot did not reach but the older man responded by sticking his tongue out at her.
“Pizza on the way,” he said, then walked away toward the kitchen. Jenny’s attention turned to her friends.
“I gave Bailey some info about the next team,” she explained. “She asked me to give you guys a breakdown because she’s busy.”
“This team should be easier than the Magi-Knights, they’re ranked pretty low,” Jenny said. She smiled, “They’re a guild on the Teddy-Bear Server named Clown Patrol.” Dirge giggled.
“Sounds easy,” Torque said and laughed with Dirge. Jenny pulled out her node and motioned for the other girls to do the same. She brought up a picture on her node.
“Easier than our last game, definitely. But don’t underestimate them,” Jenny said. She sent a picture to the other three nodes. It showed a lanky clown with golden-yellow curls of hair at his temples. The top of his head was white and bald. He wore a red clown suit with over-sized yellow, floppy shoes.” The captain’s name is Laughtrack. He’s human, but he’s a bard, so he has a Unicorn soul. Next is WaterJet,” she said. The picture changed to a female clown carrying a white-lace parasol. Blue painted water drops resembled tears on her white face. “Mermaid elementalist with a water elemental soul. Torque, watch yourself with her.”
“No problem,” Torque smiled and gave Jenny a thumbs up. The picture changed to a tall, fat, mountain of a man. He wore a stained apron over his round gut, and a white hairnet wrapped around his rainbow afro.
“Cookie. Human chef with a Human soul. He can buff and debuff using his pies, so watch out.” The girls nodded while giggling. The picture changed again. “SlimeMime,” Jenny named the lean, athletic woman in classic mime makeup. “Human monk with a slime soul. Those guys are all pretty easy. We should take them out as fast as we can to focus on the main threats.” the picture changed again. This time it showed twin clowns wearing suspenders and cowboy hats standing back to back.
“Soggy,” Jenny highlighted the clown in a green cowboy hat. “Human rodeo clown with a slime soul. And Bull,” she highlighted the clown in a red cowboy hat. “human rodeo clown with a minotaur soul. They’re agility tanks, so they’ll be hard to hit. Focus on everyone else then we can take them out one at a time,” Jenny said. The girls nodded. Jenny was about to say more, but her father appeared at the table with a large pizza. Jenny waited for him to head back into the kitchen before she continued. The rest of the girls grabbed slices onto their plates.
“I talked to Ms. Sharp about getting another member,” she said when each girl had a mouth full of pizza. “The Magi-Knights have six, and the Clown Patrol have six. It makes sense to have someone on the bench. Having four people on the track for most of the early game last time slowed us down.” Torque swallowed her bite and looked at Jenny with sad eyes.
“Sorry,” she apologized again. She apologized several times since the game. Jenny shook her head and smiled.
“We already covered it. You made a good call. It’s just not how Ms. Sharp wants things run, apparently,” she said with a shrug.
“So what’d she say?” Dread asked, then took another bite.
“Bailey’s already looking at candidates. I suggested a healer, but who knows if she’ll listen,” Jenny commented.
“Do we know what Uniques they are?” Dirge asked. Jenny shook her head.
“They’re ranked so low that people don’t care. All I know is Laughtrack is #28, La Sandía. But I don’t know how that helps him in game,” Jenny said.
“Wait. When did you talk to Ms. Sharp?” Dread asked. She worried about Jenny going alone.
“At the beginning of the week. We talked about how the game played out and why we lost.”
“Was she mad?” Dirge asked sheepishly.
“It didn’t seem like it. But she did say she hoped we’d do better in the future.”
“You girls want anything else?” Mr. Martin appeared beside the table to ask.
“We’re good,” Jenny answered for the group. “
“Your dad’s cool,” Dread said.
“Thanks,” Jenny smiled. “What about all your parents?” she asked.
“OH!” Dirge overflowed with excitement. “You totally need to meet my parents next time! You too, Torque,” she offered.
“Thanks. Uh, my home life is complicated right now,” Torque stared at the table. “Not in a hurry to show off the parents,” she said.
“Ballisea killed my parents,” Dread said. “Dirge’s parents adopted me, they’re really cool too.”
“Who’s Ballisea?” Jenny asked.
“How do you know Flutter and not Ballisea?” Dread looked surprised. Jenny shrugged.
“Flutter’s popular in game. Ballisea can’t be that great. Why? Do they know each other?” Dread nodded.
“Ballisea is Flutter’s boss. She’s way stronger than Flutter.”
“She sounds awesome.” Jenny smiled.
