“You’ve got to do this,” Lexi said, grabbing my knees and eyeing me with some crazy glinting in her irises. “You’re standing up for all of woman-kind, right now.”
“Bonus points for getting the ultimate revenge on your school bullies at the same time,” Charlotte squealed with a clap of her hands.
The air had gone right out of my lungs. I swallowed and tried to get my head straight. “So...you approve?”
“Yes!” Lexi bounced on her knees. “You’re totally going to catfish our school’s star hockey player. I can’t wait to see the look on the Corrigan boys’ faces when they realize it was you, all along. This is the ultimate!”
“I’m not catfishing him.” I frowned. “At least, I don’t think so.”
She held up a finger and arched a brow. “Are you hiding behind a fake online persona?”
“Yeah...”
Another finger went up. “Are you luring a target into a relationship with your fake persona?”
An uncomfortable feeling came over me. “Yes...”
She smiled victoriously. “Then you’re definitely catfishing him. People do it all the time. I saw a show about it on MTV. The reveals are always juicy.”
I didn’t want to think about the reveal or anything having to do with catfishing. All I wanted was to prove myself in the world of gaming. If that meant taking Gabriel Corrigan down a notch, then I was okay with that. He and his brother had it coming. At least this way, it would teach them a lesson.
“So, you guys approve?” They both nodded and grinned at me. “You don’t think it’s too intense?”
Charlotte rose to her knees on the hard, wooden floor. “I think it’s brilliant. And when you beat him in the final round, he’ll realize how wrong he was to tease you all these years.”
I hoped she was right. Either the Corrigan boys would finally back off, or I’d be asking for a lifetime of humiliation. At this point, it felt like things couldn’t get worse. I didn’t have anything to lose and I had everything to prove. Maybe the girls were right. Maybe this was brilliant.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me to jump over the ledge,” I said firmly.
I took my phone out of my pocket and opened up the Battlegrounds app. There was Gabriel’s last message—the one he’d sent last night asking me to be partners. A little shot of excitement went through me when I clicked on it and typed out my reply.
CurrerBFighting: If your offer is still good to be partners, I’ll take you up on it. Let’s do this.
It didn’t take long for a response message to pop up. Gabriel had lunch the same time as I did. He was probably sitting in the cafeteria now, at the jock table, typing on his phone. The added knowledge that I was officially catfishing him kind of added to the suspense. Would he see right through me? Or, did he still think I was just some guy he’d met online?
Battlescar13: Heck yes! I’m signing us up now. We’re going to win!
The breath I hadn’t known I was holding left my lungs in a whoosh. I stared up at my friends with wide eyes, feeling both exhilaration and fear wash over me.
“He said yes.” I grimaced. “Guess there’s no going back now. I’m catfishing Gabriel Corrigan.”
“Kicking butt and taking names,” Lexi said, holding aloft her carton of milk. “To girl power.”
“Girl power,” Charlotte repeated, holding her own carton up and grinning.
I shook my head. Guess people really did say that. My mom would be so proud to see us girls lifting each other up like this. I grabbed my glass of water and tapped it against their drinks.
“To girl power,” I said proudly. “And teaching those boys a lesson they’ll never forget!”
“Hear, hear!” Lexi shouted.
As we tore into the rest of our lunches, I couldn’t help the massive grin that worked its way onto my face. This morning, I’d come to school wondering if I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. But with Lexi and Charlotte behind me, I knew I could pull this off. Battlegrounds was my game. It was my territory. No one stood a chance against me.
For the first time in history, a girl was going to win the gaming tournament.
Gabriel was never going to see it coming.
Chapter Five