Spiteful Healer

Chapter 12: Frenemies

The rest of that morning was a blur, his lack of sleep caught up with him and as he stepped off the bus in front of his school - he had to look down at his feet to make sure he put shoes on, as he couldn’t remember if he had or not.

Making his way up the stone steps to the front doors of the school, the droning chatter of nearby students around him was interrupted by an obnoxiously loud shout from behind, causing him to jolt up off his feet and turn.

“Watch out for that Boar!” A student yelled. He didn’t recognize him, but it got a good laugh out of everyone nearby. The comments of those nearby revolved around explaining to anyone who didn’t get the joke what had happened.

By the time he made it to his first class, Eli was sure everyone in the school was talking about it. He had heard that at one point the viewership to watch ‘Makaroth’s Son’ spiked up to one hundred thousand concurrently, making it to the top 100 most viewed broadcasts. More than feeling embarrassed though, Eli couldn’t help but feel annoyed at just how much an impact the game seemed to have in the real world.

All he wanted was to have the teacher tell them to self study, so he could slip into his Simbox and sleep. By the time the teacher entered the class, the boar jokes and comments shouted at him had already gotten repetitive, and he saw some people looking at him with sympathy.

Attendance taken, instructions given, Eli did just as planned, slipping into the Simbox and falling asleep without turning it on.

*CLUNK CLUNK*, the sound of knocking on hard plastic rung in his ears. He shot awake to see Derrick standing over him, half a sandwich in his mouth, another one in his right hand wrapped in paper.

“Yo, it’s lunch.” Derrick mumbled with his mouth full. Eli sat up slowly, rubbing his groggy eyes as Derrick handed him the wrapped sandwich.

“The bell already rang?”

“Yep, you slept through it. Was worried someone locked you in your Simbox or something.”

“Nah, just tired, was up the last few nights.”

“I know, I heard. I mean, you were on everyone’s radar for awhile. Was that your plan? Just commit suicide until they left you alone?” Derrick asked.

“Kind of… I was trying to get a skill…” Eli replied as he took a bite.

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“Eh? A skill? What kind of skill involves dying to a boar repeatedly?” Derrick asked as he sat sideways on the adjacent Simbox, legs hanging off the side.

“A really good one. I’ll tell you tonight.” Eli had a sly grin grow over his face, to which Derrick let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh man, I’m glad to hear that. I felt bad for leaving you, and all this attention, I didn’t know it was gonna happen man, I just thought it’d be cool to- I mean this is all my fault, you didn’t even wanna play and-” Derrick stuttered through his words nervously.

“Derrick chill, relax, it’s not your fault, I’m doing this on my own. It’s nothing I can’t handle, and I got a good plan for making the money I need for Uni.” Eli patted him gently on the shoulder.

“I should warn you, it’s not just those broadcasting companies. I heard a couple pe- there’s some big names in our school that play, livestreamers and what not. They saw the viewers you got, they’re probably gonna-” Derrick was cut off by the sound of the classroom door opening.

Eli looked over the rows of old Simbox models in the class - some still in use by students skipping lunch to study - and in the doorway he saw a girl he was all too familiar with. Long curled blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and over the top makeup and clothes for someone just attending school. It was hard to argue the fact that she was beautiful, the only problem Eli had with her was that she was very, very much aware of it.

Miranda. He’d interacted with her a few times in the past, but he wouldn’t even consider her an acquaintance. He avoided her sort, and he regretted looking up to see who had entered the room, because the moment he did, their eyes met and she smiled from ear to ear.

“There he is!” She said in an excited whisper, walking into the room. She wasn’t speaking to herself, nor to the group of individuals who followed her in, no - she was speaking to one of three small black ball-shaped camera drones that were hovering around her. A common sight to see when someone was live streaming.

“Hi Winter!” She spoke in a friendly, soft voice while waving and smiling. “My viewers heard that I went to the same school as you, and wanted to see how you were doing after those rough nights. I was worried when you didn’t show up to school, is everything okay?” She said as she casually sat on the edge of the nearest empty Simbox. Behind her trailed another female student, and a large muscular male with shaved hair and sunglasses, wearing a suit and tie - much too old to be a student, Eli assumed him to be a bodyguard of some sort.

“I’m fine, thanks for your concern.” Eli replied with a polite smile as well. What he wanted to do was tell her to buzz off, but he knew that was likely just to make things worse. From his experience, the best way out of an annoying situation was to act stupid, or stupidly friendly and boring.

“You know, I’m a monk player in the Shattered World - I’m not a very high level yet, but I thought maybe I could meet you in Orm and we could learn the game together? I think a priest and a monk player could make a really strong team.” She spoke with puppy dog eyes, leaning in towards him. Eli watched as her camera drones alternated from him to her.

“Honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing right now for me to play with anyone, because I’m so new, but maybe in the future when I get a bit better.” He replied carefully. He saw her eyes and figured what her plan was - if he’d refused outright she’d turn her audience against him for rejecting her.

“Really, you mean that?” She smiled with enthusiasm, jumping up and leaning in uncomfortably close, so that he caught a whiff of her perfume and got a clear view of her cleavage. His face reddened as he turned away.

“Y-yeah, of course.” He did his best to keep it together. He knew she was putting on a show, but he was still a man after all.

“Great! Since today is the last day of classes, we should add each other's contacts then, just in-case. Here’s mine!” She stretched her arm forward and waved her wrist over Eli’s ear implant. His eye implant displayed that he was receiving her contact information, and prompted him to accept or decline it. He accepted it and smiled. “Now do yours!” She cheered with excitement as she pulled her hair back behind her ear right ear so that it was visible, leaning in closer still.

“R-right.” Eli nervously waved his wrist over her ear as well, the smell of her perfume intoxicating him momentarily. Against his will he felt his cheeks flushing hot red from how close her head got to his, but it only lasted a moment before she’d accepted his contact information and straightened her back again.

“Great! It was really nice meeting you, hope to hear from you soon.” She replied to him, then turned and squeaked towards her cameras and did a fist pump. “We got it guys! He’s a lot nicer than I was expecting! Alright, now I’m motivated to play more!” She spoke to her audience, her voice trailing off as she headed out of the room, the door eventually shutting behind her and blocking her voice completely.

“She’s trying to use you, y’know.” Derrick nonchalantly said between bites of his food.

“She was friendly though.” Eli shrugged, to which Derrick gave him a deadpan stare. “What?”

“That reminds me, what was the name of your ex-girlfriend?”

“I haven’t had one yet…”

“Exactly. You better learn quickly that girls who look like that are only friendly when they want something from you.”

“My friendship?” Eli smirked.

“No, she just wants your Dad’s viewers.”

“What if she wants both?”

“Why would a girl like her want to be friends with guys like us?” Derrick raised an eyebrow at Eli.

“I dunno about you, but I’m kinda handsome.” To this comment, Derrick kicked Eli’s dangling foot.

The final moments of class passed by uneventfully. Eli took the time to touch up on his knowledge to make sure he was prepped for the exams, not wanting confidence to blind him, but more so because he wanted to use the weekend to take advantage of his new experience boosting skill. He ended up staying in the Simbox a few minutes beyond the bell, and by the time he’d stepped out he had a message from Derrick letting him know that he’d already run off and would message him in game.

As Eli was packing up his things and preparing to leave the now empty class-room, the door opened up and several familiar faces walked into the room. He recognized Jeremy, the player behind Swiftstar’s character, and the tall brown haired boy who went by the name of Keldan.

“Good, you’re still here, was afraid we’d miss you.” Keldan spoke as he marched in with confidence.

“Saw you on Miranda’s stream earlier, guess you’ll have an even easier time becoming popular now, eh?” Jeremy added.

“Guys like him piss me off.” A larger boy with short black hair spoke as he shut the door behind them. Eli had a sense for what was going on and just let out a long huff, rolling his eyes back and moving hastily towards the 2nd door of the room, but before he could get to it, another male and female pair stepped in and shut it behind them.

“Chill out.” Keldan waved at the black haired boy. “We just came to ask you if you could stream with us too, like Miranda. Y’know, give us a little boost.”

“Look I don’t want any trouble, I’m not actually that interested in the game, or streaming, so-”

“Y’see that’s what annoys me about you.” Keldan sucked his teeth. “Guys like us are fighting to get noticed, to pursue our passion and make it big. And guys like you, who have it handed to you on a silver platter, don’t even care.” Keldan walked towards Eli with his fists clenched and his chest puffed out. Eli had a sense he wasn’t getting out of this easily and used this time to put his things back on the ground. “You’re trying to be a doctor or something, right? It must be nice to have that much freedom to choose between one great life or another.” Eli remained silent.

“D'ya Know that, the last few days, all you did was die to a boar and you got more coverage than I have in my entire streaming career combined? I’ve been working my ass off day in and day out just to get noticed by a measly 100 viewers, and this guy just makes his character and is being shout-casted by 2 major networks.” Keldan directed this at Jeremy. “Is that fair?”

“Not even a little bit.” Jeremy replied.

“I gotta wonder though.” Keldan stopped right in front of Eli. “You really that weak you can’t even kill a level 1 boar?” To this comment, his friends laughed. Eli looked him in the eyes but didn’t reply. Not exactly an expert in dealing with these situations, he had the sense that anything he might say would just make the situation worse.

“Too good to answer?” Keldan sighed, glaring right back at him. Eli could see the anger in his eyes, it reminded him of his own towards his father, but at the same time he couldn’t sympathize with him, getting this worked up over the game.

“We could be friends, you know. Run some dungeons together. I could help you fight boars, and maybe you could get us into your dad’s guild... Or even just give us a shoutout, let the world know who we are. It’s not much to ask, is it?” Keldan broke his glare and forced a smile. Eli took this time to look at the others in the room, and they all seemed to be smiling at him awkwardly, save for Jeremy who looked nervous.

“Like I said, I don’t plan on being a part of any of that.” Eli replied.

“You’re already a part of it, buddy. You didn’t notice?” Keldan rolled his eyes and started pacing. “I get it though, we’re not cute girl streamers, so you’re not interested?”

“I think you’re pretty cute.” One of the other guys commented, getting a laugh out of the others.

“Thanks.” Keldan winked at him, then turned back to Eli, seeing him still glaring ahead. “We aint asking for that much, are we?” Keldan turned to Jeremy again, but Jeremy seemed uncomfortable with the situation now.

“I don’t think he’s interested.” Jeremy replied, to which Keldan sighed.

“Well, that’s a real shame.” Keldan aggressively pressed his hand on Eli’s shoulder. Eli turned to stare at the hand. Keldan opened his mouth to say more, but was interrupted by the door to the room opening.

“Everything alright in here?” An unfamiliar voice spoke, to which everyone turned and saw a young male standing in the doorway, scruffy black hair with broad shoulders whom Eli didn’t recognize.