It was a cold December night, and I had decided to spend some time playing some video games in the air conditioning. My mother walked into my room and handed Alex a cup of hot chocolate.

"Here's your hot chocolate, Alex." My mother said to me.

I looked up at her mother and smiled, giving my thanks as my mother turned to return to the living room.

I had recently gotten into a new video game that I had been anticipating for months. It came out just a few days ago, and I had been playing it for a few hours. I'm so glad I got all of my homework done so that I can get into this.

"I pretty much know the ropes now. Maybe it'll be nice to play some Online Co-Op." I connected to the internet and put on a headset. I joined a lobby of a few people, and noticed that she was pretty underleveled compared to everyone else. It made me a little scared. I hope I don't suck.

I heard someone else, who had a headset on.

"How's it going, everyone?"

At first, I thought he was talking to me, so I decided to reply. "I'm doing really fine, thank-"

"I'm Radic-Al, coming to you live! Welcome to the first episode of Blades and Shields III!"

Oh, this must have been one of those people who play video games as a job. What were they called again? Oh yeah, Let's Players. The guy's avatar turned to face mine.

"Sorry 'bout that. I was giving my intro to my Let's Play Channel. What's your name?"

"I'm Alex."

To my surprise, the Let's Player responded with excitement. "No way…"

"What?"

"My name's Alex, too! What a cool coincidence!"

His excitement made me smile. "That is pretty cool." I responded. "But won't it get a little confusing?"

"Oh, you can call me Al. My friends all me that, too."

"Al. That sounds good to me."

Al realized that the lobby was full. "Oh, let's pick a quest quickly, people are waiting. We can pick the same quest and work together, if you want to."

Picking a quest already? Al looks like he's a really good gamer. And… I'm not. "I don't know, I might not be good enough."

"Don't worry, I'll be there to help you."

Al's reassurance was very welcome. "Thank you."

We decided to choose a fight against a giant dragon.

"What weapon do you main, Alex?"

"Dual blades."

"Cool, I main the Sword and Shield. Let's not 'dragon' any longer and let's go fight!"

I have to hand it to him, that was kind of funny. My giggles made him laugh a little. The gate to our right opened, and we entered the arena, where the giant dragon was waiting for us. It turned toward us in rage as the starting gong was hit.

The dragon shot a fireball at me, and I dodged it. It swung its tail at Al, but he jumped over it.

"I'd call that attack an epic 'tail'!"

Okay, so maybe not all of his jokes are the best.

I charged at the beast and attacked it in the legs. It lifted its right leg to stomp on me, but I rolled out of the way. Al came in and stabbed it in the foot, making the dragon lose its balance and fall over. I got on top of it and started to slash at its chest, but it quickly got up and smacked me away with its claws. I went flying into a wall, losing my swords.

"Uh oh! My swords!"

The dragon noticed that I was open and charged up a fireball. I thought it was gonna smoke me for sure, but Al jumped in the way and blocked it with his shield.

"Looks like this battle's heating up!"

Al's lucky that I love puns so much. If it were any of my other friends, they'd roll their eyes. I quickly ran and picked up my dual blades again. I ran around to the backside of the dragon and jumped on its back. Al attacked it in the front and was keeping it busy while I climbed up the monster. I got to its head and started attacking its head, dishing out more damage than usual.

The dragon noticed what we were doing, and tried to swat me like a fly. I barely dodged it, and Al stabbed his sword deep into the dragon's foot, drawing its attention back to Al. It picked him up and started to shoot fire at him.

"I'm on fire! I'm not even joking, I'm on fire! … Okay, maybe I'm joking a little."

I can see his character losing a lot of health. I had to do something, but what? I jumped down from his head and slashed him in the face. It wasn't getting his attention, and I had to do something else. I noticed his big eyes. That's it! I poked the dragon's eye with one of my swords, and that definitely got him to stop.

The dragon dropped Al, and he fell to the ground landing face first. "I'm okay." His shield fell on top of Al's head after he landed. "Less okay."

I laughed pretty loud at that. I quickly stopped when I realized I must have been sounding obnoxious.

But, Al stands up and grins widely. "You have a nice laugh."

I have a… nice laugh? Not many boys have said that before.

I was a little too lost in thought when I started slipping off of the dragon. I tried to cling onto its scales, but they were too smooth, and I slipped off the dragon. From how high the dragon was, the fall damage was probably gonna make me lose all my health. Oh well, better luck next time.

But I was surprised when Al caught me in his arms. "Gotcha."

I might have been overthinking things, but did he catch me because he has a… no, it can't be. We just met. He was probably just helping me out.

"Thanks." I reply.

The dragon was stumbling backwards from its sore eye. It stumbled too far back and fell off the arena into the burning pit of fire.

The AI crowd cheered as the game gave me the message "Quest Complete!"

"Yeah, that was a lot of fun! That was a genius idea to poke its eye!"

"Oh, it was nothing, really." I tried playing modest.

Al was jumping around in excitement. "I hadn't had fun like that in a while! Want to play another quest, Alex? I can get you some better gear so you can level up and get better."

I smile. "You know what? That sounds really nice."

A few hours pass as we play a bunch more missions and Al shows me a few tips, along the way. After a few hours, Al ends his livestream. It starts to get late, and I decide to log off.

"It was great playing with you, Al."

"Wait."

I go to log off, but I stop myself when I hear Al respond to me.

"Do you… want to FaceCam chat?"

It takes me a little bit to think about it. I haven't known him for long, but he's treated me so well. We've both had a great time playing together. Most times, when I play with people online, I go quiet. I've even had a few people chew me out for doing something wrong, and even swear at me. But… Al seemed like a really cool guy. I just got to ask him something.

"Why?"

"Because… I want to get to know you better. You seem like a really nice person, and maybe we can play again some time?"

It's just a FaceCam chat. It shouldn't be that big of a deal. We set up our laptops and tell each other our profile names. Once we got it all set up, we both log out of our Blades and Shields III accounts and log onto FaceCam.

I see him for the first time. Al has brown, curly hair and thin eyebrows. His face looks a little chubby, but it isn't too noticeable. He has a decent looking nose and a small mouth. Despite Al's un-hot body and appearance, there's something about his green eyes that stick out the most to me. The first thing I look for in a boy is how they look. But maybe… he doesn't look so bad.

For a short while, when we first connected to FaceCam, Al just looked at me with his mouth open a little.

"What's wrong? Is there something on my face?" I ask.

"Yes. There's beauty all over it."

Daaaang, that pick-up line was pretty smooth. I could feel my face feel a little hot. "Th- Thank you. You know, you don't look so bad, yourself."

"Me?" Al shakes his head. "No, I know that I'm a little chubby. I'm not really the perfect looking guy or anything."

"You don't have to be. I mean, you look fine to me." I say.

"Really? Thank you. You should see my older brother. Girls say he's pretty hot."

"You have a brother?"

"Yeah, but he's not around often. He spends most of his time with our parents, writing music."

"He writes music?" I don't know why I just started asking a bunch of questions for clarification.

"He plays the guitar. But… his music hasn't really taken off. I just got lucky that a lot of people find me funny."

I smile. "You are."

"Where do you live, Alex?"

"Beverly Hills."

"Whoa. We must be closer than I thought. I'm in Beverly Hills, too!"

I gasp. "Whoa! That's cool!"

"This means we could hang out sometime!" Al covers his mouth after he said that. He must have not meant to say that out loud.

I giggle a little. "How about the movies?"

"Friday night?"

"Sounds good, Al."

"See you, Alex."

"Bye, Al."

We both log off, and I turn my laptop off, lying my back on the bed. Yep, he has a crush on me. But hey, maybe it won't be so bad. He does seem like a really nice person. Hanging out with him in person will be a great way to get to know him better.