Disclaimer: League of Legends belongs to Riot

SPOILER ALERT: a short scene from the movie, The Notebook, is described in this chapter. That is all c: enjoy.

"I'm going to kill Hurtle," I mumbled, pulling the covers over my head. I felt absolutely terrible. Sure yesterday's trip to the park was really fun, but the aftermath was almost like having a terrible hangover. My forehead was burning up and I was shivering incessantly.

"Aph, it's time to get up!" Aphromoo called from the other side of my door. I groaned and wrapped myself in my blanket. There was no way I was getting up.

"Mmph!" was the only response I gave him.

"Stella…" Aphromoo warned me. He was being serious, but there really was no way I was going to budge. He waited a few seconds.

"Stella Rose Black, you better wake up now or else you'll be late for school!" he demanded, using my full name. When I didn't respond, I heard him sigh and open my door. He looked ready to give me an earful, but when he saw me, his eyes widened.

"What happened to you?!" he gasped, rushing over to my side. He placed the back of his hand on my forehead. He flinched when he felt how hot I was.

"This is because you and Jasper ran outside yesterday, isn't it?" he accused, glaring at me. I gave him a guilty smile before hiding under my blanket.

"Fine. I'll call the school," Aphromoo mumbled and left my side. Before he made it out the door, he stopped. "I'm going to make you some soup, and then I'm going to come back up here and give you a piece of my mind!" he sassed. I heard my door close and I just let out a big sigh. I stuck an arm out from under my covers and started to reach around until I found my cell phone. I pulled it apart from the charger and brought it underneath my blanket.

"You're. so. dead.," I texted Hurtle. I didn't have to wait long for his reply.

"I don't think you're in the position to kill me," Hurtle responded. I felt the corner of my eye twitch when I read his text. He knew I was sick so he probably was too.

"I'll drag myself all the way to your house," I threatened. I could imagine myself acting like a zombie, on the sidewalk, crawling on all fours, slowly making my way to his house with a butter knife in one hand.

"…You wouldn't hurt a sick person," Hurtle protested. He probably imagined the same thing I did and either laughed or felt frightened. I was hoping the latter.

"You won't be sick anymore if you're dead," I pointed out and smiled. Nothing better than to start your day by threatening your best friend.

"But you loveee me!" Hurtle quickly texted back, trying to reason with me.

"Love can be fleeting… like your life," I smirked at my simile. My conversation with Hurtle was put on a halt as soon as Aphromoo returned to my room. He gave me a glass of water and a couple of pills. After I took them, he stuck a thermometer in my mouth. I gave him an unhappy look, but the expression on his face dared me to even try to complain.

"102.2 degrees…" Aphromoo muttered as he read the thermometer.

"Uh dad?" I questioned him.

"Oh right, that's about…" Aphromoo took a moment to calculate, "39 degrees Celsius." I just nodded and closed my eyes.

"Anyways, like I was saying earlier!" Aphromoo started, clearly not aware that I was trying really hard not to pay attention. "This is all because you guys decided to run out in the rain yesterday!" I opened my eyes and quirked an eyebrow. He motioned for me to sit up and handed me my bowl of soup to eat while he lectured me.

"I don't know whose stupid idea that was… okay it was probably Jasper's…" he continued. He was pretty much spot on. "But it doesn't mean you had to listen to him!" I wasn't off the hook just yet. I ate five spoonfuls of soup before I couldn't eat anymore. I placed my bowl on my bedside table as Aphromoo continued his rant.

"I thought I raised you better to know—"

"Dad." I cut him off. He looked at me, but didn't say anything.

"Hurtle was just helping me clear my mind – yes it was a stupid idea, but it helped me a lot," I explained and my father just sat there and listened.

"We're going to do the challenger team," I informed him what I didn't last night.

"I've got to tell Peter!" Aphromoo said happily, not even bothering to let me finish talking. He left my side and immediately went downstairs to tell Doublelift the news. Their daughter was finally going to follow in their footsteps.

"Ah well, at least he forgot I'm sick," I mumbled, ducking my head under my covers once more. I grabbed my cell phone and saw that I had three texts from Hurtle.

"Good one Aph," said the first text.

"Aph? You weren't serious were you…" was the second text.

"I'M SORRY APH, DON'T CRAWL TO MY HOUSE," Hurtle apologized in the third text.

"Oh god. You're actually crawling over here aren't you?!" came after, before I could respond to him. I quirked an eyebrow, definitely enjoying my best friend's reactions. Maybe I'll let him panic for a little bit longer...

My screen changed and Hurtle's contact picture popped up. It was the picture of us in front of the castle in Disneyland Paris. We both had those Mickey Mouse ears on and a stick of cotton candy. We were so young back then.

I was too busy reminiscing that I missed his phone call.

'Whoops' I giggled and tried to call him back, but the line was busy. I hung up and tried again, 'Still busy'. He was probably trying to call me while I was trying to call him. I decided to wait for him to call me again, but it didn't happen so I tried to call him once more. The line was busy again. This was getting really frustrating. You'd think that they would have found a way to fix this problem, but nope.

I gave up and put my phone down. I wasn't in the mood to deal with this. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Maybe a nap would help me clear my mind. I started to doze off but was awoken by the sound of my ringtone.

"DAMMIT HURTLE," I growled, picking up my phone. I answered him and then placed my phone next to my head on the pillow.

"YOU'RE ALIVE!" Hurtle shouted and I winced. He was too loud. I should have just ignored him.

"And you're not dead yet."

"Dragon is almost up," I informed my teammates.

"Hades do you have TP?" Adept asked.

"Ten seconds," Hades responded. We were playing our second ranked 5's game since the day Hurtle and I decided to join Adept and his quest to get into the Challenger scene. It took a little convincing before Cyan finally accepted us as her teammates. I'm not sure why though. It wasn't like we didn't play together before. We had our ranked 5's team before we even decided to start playing more seriously. I guess it had something to do with her and Hurtle not getting along. Those two would occasionally butt heads with each other. I was generally quiet – otherwise she would probably argue with me too.

"Their Draven is recalling," Hurtle said as we pushed them out. He was on Corki and I was on Morgana. One clutch 'Dark Binding' on their Draven gave Hurtle the chance to chunk him down to less than half health. We didn't get the kill though because Draven took Thresh's 'Dark Passage' to safety.

We made our way to dragon to join Cyan who was on Rammus. Adept moved down to help us, but stayed away to help zone out the enemy Malzahar and Elise. We quickly took dragon before their team started to make a move on us.

"Maokai is teleporting down!" Hades warned us as he too began his teleport a few seconds after. Maokai immediately engaged when he arrived, using his 'Twisted Advance' onto Adept's Katarina. Adept reacted by using his 'Shunpo' onto Cyan's Rammus. He ended up bringing the enemy Maokai into us.

"Whoops," Adept said. Maokai used his 'Vengeful Maelstrom" as soon as he reached us. In return, Rammus used "Puncturing Taunt" to peel Maokai away from Katarina. At the same time, Malzahar flashed forward and I immediately placed my 'Black Shield' onto Corki.

"Thanks Aph," Hurtle said, kiting backwards now that he was safe from Malzahar's suppression. Hades's Rumble appeared behind the enemy team and he dropped "The Equalizer" onto three of their champions. As soon as Rumble's ultimate landed, he was hooked by Thresh's 'Death Sentence'. They were planning on killing Hades first since he was separated from the rest of the team. I watched as Thresh used his 'Death Leap' to get closer to Hades and 'Flay' him back.

"I'm ulting!" I informed my team.

I was already moving into the fight before I flashed in and used my 'Soul Shackles'. This helped to slow the enemy team. However, I was hit by Elise's 'Cocoon' and only managed to stun the Malzahar and Maokai. But it was enough. Corki used 'Valkyrie' to get closer into the fight and started to attack the enemy Malzahar. Adept quickly finished him off and teleported to Hades using his 'Shunpo' once more. Hades had flashed closer to the team as soon as he was no longer CC'd.

Draven arrived late to the fight since he had backed before we went to dragon.

"Watch out for Draven ult," Cyan warned Hades, but it was too late. Draven used his 'Whirling Death' and managed to snipe the low Rumble.

"Draven!" Adept ordered and we all turned our focus to their AD carry who finally appeared in the fight. I landed a 'Dark Binding' and Thresh did his best to peel for his AD carry. Thresh ended up dying in the process, but Elise escaped over to her Blue buff with the use of 'Rappel'. Draven had used his 'Stand Aside' to stop Adept's Katarina from chasing. Somewhere along that, Maokai died thanks to Rammus and Corki. We had only lost one for three and managed to get Dragon.

"Good job everyone," Adept praised as we started our recalls.

"Thanks!" Cyan said cheerfully. Hurtle snorted quietly, but it didn't go unnoticed. I could imagine Cyan narrowing her eyes. "Is there a problem?" she tested.

"You guys…" Adept sighed.

"What?" Hurtle asked innocently, "did something happen?"

"You know what happened!" Cyan retorted.

"Guys stop. You guys need to get along if we're going to take this team thing seriously," Adept said unwavering. We had all agreed that Adept was going to be the team captain since the team was his idea in the first place. Before our matches, we were trying to figure out who our main shot callers were going to be. Cyan and Hurtle both said that they should be the ones, and then proceeded to have a small argument about it.

In the end, Adept decided that he would do most of the shot calling for mid-late game and that Cyan could keep track of the objectives since she was the jungler. However, she was too busy trying to gank for Adept that I ended up being the one calling for Dragons and keeping track of the big objective timers.

Cyan was not very happy with that. After the game, Adept suggested that I do the objective shot calling for the team and Cyan immediately objected. She claimed that she would have done it if I didn't beat her to it each time. Hurtle defended me and called her out for being too busy to shot call because she was camping mid all the time.

Needless to say, Adept put them on time-out for our second game. They weren't allowed to talk to each other until they broke the agreement just now.

"But he started it!" Cyan complained to Adept. I tried not to say anything. I was hoping to leave the objectives to Cyan so she'd be happy, but I couldn't help it when I mentioned Dragon earlier.

"We'll talk about this after," Adept ordered and everyone became quiet again. The only talking came from Adept's shot-calling, TP timers from Hades, and summoner timers from me – with the occasional objective timers from Cyan when I didn't ping them out (I tried really hard not to say anything about them). Closing out the game was a struggle since it was clear that Hurtle and Cyan didn't want to work together. Animosity was shown in their gameplay.

"Hurtle please!" I begged him, whispering to him.

He replied with a "Fine. But only because you asked."

The game went a little better from there on, but I could tell that Hurtle still wasn't trying as hard as he could have. At least he made some effort.

"Good game everyone," Adept said as we were greeted by the VICTORY animation on our screens.

"We had a few mishaps," Adept pointed out, "but we managed to beat the other team." He was getting into his captain mode. "It's still very clear that we don't have any team synergy…" I bit my lip. Were we ever going to have team synergy? We've been playing together for a while now and things still haven't really improved.

"So I think it's best that we do some team bonding," Adept declared.

"What?" Hurtle inquired. I was confused too. We were already sort of bonding by playing these games together.

"Well. It's clear that we all live in Germany," Adept started. There was a few murmurs of agreement.

"Germany is a big country though," Hurtle pointed out.

"Well I'm assuming you guys live in Berlin, right?" Adept asked us.

"Yeah we do," I confirmed.

"Then it shouldn't be a problem. We're in the city too," Adept informed us. I rose an eyebrow. When my parents told me that this was where all the retired league pros lived, they weren't kidding. Cyan's parents were also former professionals. She was the daughter of xPeke and Cyanide. I guess I could have figured that out by her summoner name.

"So why don't we go… watch a movie or something?" Adept suggested.

'Eh? A movie with them?' I asked myself. That didn't sound too bad.

"You mean now we have to hang out with them in person?" Cyan complained.

"I rather not," Hurtle agreed with her. There only seemed to be a few things that the two ever agreed on, and it was mostly agreements on not having anything to do with each other.

"I-I think that'd be cool," I mumbled into my microphone.

"Hades?" Adept asked our silent top laner for his opinion.

"Sure," was all Hades said.

"Great! That's 3 against 2. Majority votes for the movie!" Adept announced. I heard a groan from Hurtle.

"There aren't any good movies out!" Cyan stated. She really didn't want to hang out with us.

"Then what other group activity can we do?" Adept asked us. I heard some furious typing coming from someone. I realized it was probably between Adept and Cyan because Hurtle wasn't sending me anything and there was no reason for Hades to be typing. Hades was always the calm one and he had already agreed to hanging out.

"If we have to meet…" Hurtle was still reluctant, "Why don't we do something like paintballing?" he suggested. My eyes widened at that suggestion. I wasn't ready for that. Paintballing hurt… and it could probably get violent really fast. I imagined Cyan and Hurtle on opposing teams…

"Let's do something less violent," Hades stated.

"Yeah, the last thing we need is for you guys to kill each other," Adept agreed. I sighed in relief. Thank goodness for those two.

"That's no fun…" I heard Hurtle grumble. Cyan remained quiet, but I could still hear her typing. Mechanical keyboards were loud.

"How about food? Everyone likes food," I suggested. We could probably just go to a restaurant and hang out. It didn't have to be too fancy.

"YEAH! APH'S A GREAT COOK!" Hurtle sang and my jaw dropped a little. That wasn't exactly my idea.

"Wait—" I weakly protested.

"Sounds good to me," Adept agreed.

"But—"

"Home-cooked food sounds nice," Hades stated. I frowned and waited for Cyan to decline. I doubt she'd want to eat my cooking.

"Yeah, let's see what she can do," Cyan snickered.

"Then that's that, we'll have a meal at Aphrodite's," Adept proposed. Were they going to let me have any say?

"We can have it at my place, my father's always out and about anyways," Hurtle offered. That was true. Hurtle spent most of his time home alone because his father was busy working. It was a lot of effort to raise a child alone, even with child support.

"Alright, then we'll have a meal at Hurtle's," Adept corrected his previous statement. I heard a groan from Cyan, but she didn't reject the idea.

"This weekend sound good?" Hurtle asked everyone. I didn't bother to say anything and just sulked in my chair.

"I'm free," Hades said.

"Me too, and Cyan," Adept added. Of course he knew his girlfriend's schedule.

"Great," Hurtle said, "We can play board games or something."

"Boring," Cyan responded.

"Or watch a movie," Hurtle shot back.

"Only if I get to choose it!" Cyan yelled out.

"I don't trust your taste in movies," Hurtle objected.

"Hey! For your information, I have very–"

"Hades will bring the movie," Adept cut her off, "Won't you, Hades?" he asked his best friend. I learned from Hades that Adept was the first friend he made when he moved over to Germany. On the other hand, Cyan and Adept had been childhood friends since forever because of the history between their parents. The two of them grew up living in the houses next to each other while Hades was only a couple blocks away.

"Yeah sure," Hades said simply.

"Great, so Aphrodite will cook the food, Hurtle will host and Hades will bring the movie," Adept started to check things off the list. "What should Cyan and I do?" he asked.

"Show up," Hurtle said sarcastically with a hidden meaning in his words.

"What do you—" I swear the two were always going to be fighting.

"Cyan and I will bring a couple of board games," Adept offered, ignoring Hurtle's comment.

"Sounds good," Hurtle shrugged.

"Alright then, see you guys Saturday," Adept finalized our plans. Afterwards, Hurtle gave everyone his address and I felt exhausted. I guess it would be okay if I made everyone food, but I really wished they'd ask me for my approval. Sure I suggested food, but I wasn't expecting myself to be the one cooking it!

We ended the call for the night because it was getting late. We spent too much time talking about the game after and planning our get together. It only made me realize that this was now my reality. I had a team, and we were all going to try to get into the LCS and maybe one day Worlds.

"What did I get myself into?" I asked myself. My head dropped back and I closed my eyes.

"… what am I going to make?" was the real question.

Saturday came by pretty quickly. I told my parents about the gathering, and they wanted to be there to meet my teammates. I promptly told them no. I wasn't going to let them embarrass me.

"You can take me grocery shopping though," I offered.

"You guys aren't going together?" Aphromoo asked me.

"Nope. It'd be too inconvenient. I said I'd go by myself since I'll be the one cooking," I told him.

"WHAT!" Doublelift said, outraged. "Why are you doing the cooking? It's not because you're a girl, is it?" he complained. I rolled my eyes.

"Hurtle was bragging about how good my cooking was…" I told him, but he didn't want to hear any of it.

"Just because you're a girl doesn't mean you should be the one cooking!"

"Peter," Aphromoo interrupted Doublelift's dramatic rant. "Would you eat Jasper's cooking?" he asked him seriously. Doublelift remained quiet as he thought about this.

"Aph, you're cooking," Doublelift nodded simply, no trace of his earlier disagreement to be found. I rolled my eyes.

"Hurtle can make pasta!" I argued, trying to defend my best friend.

"Remember the first time he made pasta?" Aphromoo asked me.

"Yeah! I spent hours scrubbing the burnt pasta at the bottom of the pot," Doublelift grumbled.

"He was learning?"

"He got bored of watching the pot and left…" Aphromoo gave me a pointed look.

"Well now we know why I'm cooking."

"Smells good!" Adept complimented when he walked into the kitchen, followed by Cyan and Hades.

"Hi," I smiled, greeting them quickly before turning my attention back to the dumplings I was frying. I decided that Chinese food would be the easiest to make. I already finished cooking the chicken fried rice when I started to fry the dumplings we made. I had to teach Hurtle how to fold them so the process would be faster.

"I hope you guys are hungry," I said as I flipped the dumplings on their side. This was my last batch. The rest was already on the counter.

"We'll be eating while we watch the movie," I informed them. Hurtle and I agreed that it would be best to do an activity while we ate. We didn't want the awkwardness of everyone sitting around the table trying to get to know each other.

"Sounds good – Hey Dimitri," Adept turned to his friend, "What movie did you bring?" he asked curiously. Hades flustered a little in response.

"I told my dad about the gathering… and just asked him to grab me a movie," he tried to explain. I quirked an eyebrow wondering why he was acting nervous, "And I didn't look at it until I was already in the car on the way here…"

"I didn't know you were into these kinds of movies," Hurtle said, entering the kitchen. In his hand was the DVD case, but I couldn't see what it was.

"What do you mean 'these kinds of movies'," Cyan narrowed her eyes.

"Man. You're scary online and in person," Hurtle joked and left the kitchen before Cyan could respond.

"Oliver, I swear if he pisses me off today," she mumbled to the guy next to him. Adept—er I guess Oliver was his name, placed an arm around her shoulders and reassured her that it would be fine. Cyan was bright pink from the small gesture, but Adept didn't seem to notice.

'Man, too many names,' I thought to myself. It was going to be hard adjusting to their actual names.

"Well you guys can go to the living room, I'll be out with the food soon," I told them. Hades nodded and left the room with Cyan following. Adept didn't move.

"Need any help?" he asked me. I noticed that Cyan stopped at the kitchen entrance when she heard him talk.

"It's fine! Go join the others," I said hesitantly. I didn't want to get on her bad side right away.

Adept ignored me and started to pick up the bowl of fried rice. "Where does he keep his utensils?" he asked me. "Here Cy," he said handing her the bowl of fried rice. "Bring this to the living room," he ordered and she reluctantly left, giving me a quick look before leaving.

I had a mental sweat drop. It wasn't like I was trying to steal her boyfriend! I panicked a little and accidentally dropped a dumpling on my bare foot. "Ouch!" I winced, hopping on the other foot. It was still hot.

"Are you okay?!" Adept asked, rushing over to my side.

"Just clumsy," I admitted, embarrassed.

"Silly," he grinned, grabbing the plate of dumplings. I glanced at him and quickly looked away. Now that he was closer, I confirmed that he really did have pretty eyes. "What, is there something on my face?" he asked me, trying to look for a reflective surface.

"You're imagining things," I simply told him, walking away to grab the bowls and utensils.

"TIME FOR THE MOVIE!" Hurtle called out from the living room.

"Better join them," I said, leaving Adept in the kitchen. He quickly followed out after me. When we arrived to the living room, the lights were dimmed. Hurtle and Hades claimed the bean bags on the floor while Cyan was on the couch. I looked around for another option. I did NOT feel comfortable sitting next to the couple. Especially when I saw the movie's title appear on the screen: The Notebook

"Really Dimitri? A chick flick?" Adept asked him as he took the spot next to Cyan.

"My dad picked it!" Hades defended himself.

"Leave it to Uncle Hai…" Adept muttered. "Hey Aphrodite, come sit down," he looked over at me and patted the spot next to him. I grimaced and walked over, placing the bowls and utensils down on the coffee table.

"Alright, food!" Hurtle said happily, reaching over for a bowl. Hades passed everyone a bowl and the utensils. Soon everyone was picking at the food to get their serving.

Hurtle must have noticed my discomfort. "Hey Aph, come sit with me!" he grinned, scooting over in his bean bag.

"That seems impractical," Adept frowned.

"Oh let her," Cyan chimed in, actually agreeing with Hurtle.

"But there's more room on the couch," Adept pointed out.

"She's going to bawl her eyes out during the movie," Hurtle mentioned and I felt my face turn red, "I don't think you can handle two sobbing girls," he joked.

"Hey! I do NOT sob during chick flicks," Cyan got defensive.

"Well then, I guess Oliver can take care of Stella for me," Hurtle teased. Now he was just doing this to annoy Cyan.

"On second thought…" Cyan began and that was enough for me to stand up. However, I was stopped by Adept.

"It's fine, just sit down Stella," he said my name for the first time. It was weird hearing them call me that. "She worked hard on our food – thanks by the way – so just let her sit on the couch," Adept said, and I sat back down. Cyan didn't look too happy.

"Alright then, I'm starting the movie," Hurtle said as he reached for the remote.

"Don't worry, I'll let you cry on my shoulder," Adept joked, giving his shoulder a pat. I had an ominous feeling after he said that. This was going to be a long movie.

I brought my knees to my chest and hugged them when it got to the scene after the movie date. As soon as Allie and Noah started dancing, my eyes lit up at how romantic this was. I felt a pair of eyes on me and turned to my left. Adept gave me a glance and smirked. He was probably amused by how I was acting, I quickly looked away and buried my face in my knees. He let out a small chuckle and I could hear Cyan whispering, "What's so funny?" He just shook his head and she shrugged.

"If you're a bird, I'm a bird," Noah said as he held Allie in his arms.

I tried my best not to squeal at how cute it was. I was seventeen, and I have never been in a relationship before. I could only imagine the cute things that happened in one. I bet that's why Cyan was pretty clingy with Adept. I shivered at that thought. 'I hope I don't end up like that,' I thought to myself. No offense to Cyan. I just didn't want to be one of those girls.

Adept must have noticed my shiver, because he leaned over and whispered, "Cold?" I wasn't actually cold.

Before I could answer, Cyan repositioned herself so she laid her head on his lap and curled up. 'Oh goodness, someone help me,' I could feel the goosebumps. I was feeling even more awkward than before. I nodded in response, "Be right back, I'm going to grab a blanket," I said, leaving the couch. It was an easy excuse to leave.

When I came back, Cyan was sitting upright once more. "Damn, he's hot," Cyan had muttered and I looked at the screen to see what was going on. My face paled when I saw the actor and actress stripping in what looked to be like an abandoned house.

I took my seat again and wrapped myself in the blanket. Cyan had latched herself onto Adept's left arm, but Adept was trying not to make me feel awkward by keeping some distance from Cyan. 'Curse Hades's dad for choosing this movie,' I groaned internally. This wasn't exactly how I wanted to get to know my teammates. Maybe if it was a comedy, it would have been better. I had to admit though, the actor had a nice body. 'This isn't the time to be thinking about that!' I told myself and just wrapped myself tighter in my blanket.

"I want a house by the river…" Cyan whispered to Adept. Now I was wishing I didn't come back. Maybe I should have taken Hurtle's offer of sharing the bean bag. I felt like a third wheel.

"Damn, she talks too much," Hurtle muttered as the scene advanced. For a sex scene, it was really awkward to watch.

"Is this what your dad watched when he was younger?" Hurtle asked Hades, only to be shushed by Cyan.

"Be quiet, we're watching a movie!" she complained. I guess she was really into it. That only made me feel worse.

"Oh my god woman, just sleep with him!" Hurtle ignored Cyan as he clutched his head in his hands and groaned. This movie was a bit too painful for him.

"Maybe we should do something else…" Hades spoke up. I could tell that he was feeling uncomfortable too.

"What no—," Cyan protested.

"Sounds like a good idea," Adept agreed. I sighed in relief. "Besides, Stella over here is shivering like crazy," he added. I froze, was I that obvious? If only they knew I was shivering for different reasons.

Hurtle paused the movie once the characters started to confess their love for one another. Cyan pouted and removed herself from Adept's arm when Hurtle turned on the lights. I squinted as my eyes tried to readjust to the light.

I left the couch and started to clean up all the empty bowls and utensils. Hades also left his seat and began to help me.

"Thanks guys," Adept said, stretching from his seat. "Why don't we just sit and talk," he suggested. Hades took the stuff from me and walked towards the kitchen.

"Sounds like a good plan," I agreed, willing to do anything but watch that movie. How old was that thing anyways?

We waited for Hades to join us again. There was an awkward silence as no one wanted to start talking.

"I guess we can start by formally introducing ourselves," Adept said.

"We're not in grade school," Cyan retorted. We kind of knew who each other were, but I guess I never actually introduced myself. I didn't even know what Cyan's name was.

"I'm Oliver Larsson, also known as Adept," Adept began his introduction, "and my parents were known as Rekkles and Deft." He looked over at Cyan when he finished and she just rolled her eyes.

"Alright then, I'm Azura Happonen or Cyan. My parents were known as xPeke and Cyanide, hence the summoner name," Cyan introduced herself.

"Jasper Tran, son of the hamster and turtle," Hurtle said, "for those of you who don't know who they are – Xpecial and WildTurtle."

"Ohh, so that's how you got Hurtle," Cyan spoke, "No offense, but I thought it was a stupid sounding name," she added as an afterthought. I glared at Hurtle who gave me an innocent look. I knew what he was thinking of, and I dared him to say it.

"None taken," he said dryly. I gave him a smile. Things could have gotten worse.

"Dimitri Bae or Hades," Hades introduced. It was very like him to keep things short and simple. "My parents are Hai – the person who chose the movie – and Dade."

"I'm Stella Black, also known as Aphrodite," I said when it was my turn, "and my parents are Aphromoo and Doublelift."

"Isn't Doublelift the one—" Cyan began, but stopped when Adept gave her a look. I grimaced. Of course they probably knew since all of them had parents who were in the scene. What was the likelihood of that? That every single one of us had retired pros as parents. 'Stupid land of all the retired pros,' I cursed in my mind.

"Now that everyone has been introduced," Hurtle spoke up, probably trying to change the subject in my defense. "Welcome to AA – also known as Alcoholics Anonymous," Hurtle joked.

"Oh ha ha," Cyan said sarcastically. I smiled in relief, glad that we were no longer talking about my parents.

"Thanks for volunteering, Azura," Hurtle smirked, "do share, why are you here today? Don't worry, this is a safe environment."

"Stupid," Cyan said under her breath.

'This is what happens when five random teens meet each other,' I thought to myself. It was a lot easier for us to converse online where our faces remained hidden. There was some more silence between us.

"Where did you learn to cook?" Adept asked me, moving on from the AA joke.

"O-oh uhm."

"Aph's been cooking since forever," Hurtle grinned, joining in on the conversation. "Well at least for as long as I've known her," he said.

"The food was good," Hades nodded.

"It was alright," Cyan added.

"Thanks?" I wasn't sure how to respond. I wasn't expecting our topic of interest to be… well me.

"Too bad Cyan can't cook as well," Adept teased his childhood friend. She swatted his arm and pouted.

"I can cook just as well!" Cyan complained.

"Oh you wish Cy," Adept petted her and she looked flustered. She crossed her arms and looked away from him.

"Get a room," Hurtle interjected, rolling his eyes. Cyan's face turned red at this.

"Aw, do we need a room Cy?" Adept continued to tease.

"Stella, you should give me the dumpling recipe," Hades cut in before Cyan could retort. He probably sensed that this conversation was about to take an awkward turn. I could live without hearing about their love life.

"Sure Dimitri," I smiled.

"Oh man, this means we'll have good food once we start living together," Adept said happily.

"L-living together?" I questioned him.

"Well yeah. If we get into the LCS, it's only natural that we'll start living together," Adept said nonchalantly. "Though maybe we should start when we get into the Challenger scene," Adept suggested.

"This way we get a head-start. Since all of our parents were former professionals anyways, I think they'll agree to getting us at least a gaming apartment," Adept added. "And when we get into LCS we can move to an actual gaming house," he grinned. He looked excited. I could tell he had a lot of hope for our team.

"But we have to make it there first," Cyan said, though she didn't look too opposed to the idea of all of us living all together.

"B-but we're all still in school!" I pointed out. It made no sense for us to live together when we were all still in secondary school.

"Right…" Adept frowned.

"I'm sure we'll find a way," Cyan said. She was really for this gaming apartment thing. Hurtle just shrugged at the idea.

"Whatever works," he said. Either way he was going to end up living with his teammates, whether it be us or the team in Korea.

"We should talk to our parents about this," Hades said. If this was going to work, we needed the help from our parents. None of us had jobs anyways, so without parental support, we wouldn't be able to.

"Maybe we're thinking about things too quickly," I tried to reason.

"We should at least have a plan," Adept said. "We need to make sure that Jasper and Azura don't kill each other," he smirked. "Maybe we should have them share a room," he suggested.

"Over my dead body!" Azura growled.

"Just kidding Cy," he laughed at her reaction, "You'd obviously share a room with Stella here," he said looking over at me.

I saw Cy frowning. "M-maybe you and Cyan should share a room?" I squeaked. I don't know if it would be a good idea since they were together.

"Don't be silly, I don't think our parents would agree to that," he quirked an eyebrow.

"Our parents wouldn't mind!" Cyan refuted.

"Probably not, but still. That'd be super awkward for everyone else," Adept stated. "We also wouldn't want them to misunderstand anything."

"It's fine, we know you guys are dating," Hurtle shrugged like it was no big deal. Adept's eyes widened.

"You guys think that Cy and I are dating?" he asked. I nodded. I mean, it was obvious. Adept started laughing hard. I looked at Hades who had a small amused smile on his face then at Cyan who was blushing madly.

"D-dating?" she stuttered.

"Yeah I know right?" Adept said, straightening his posture. "We're not dating," Adept told us, "she's like a sister to me. We've known each other since literally forever."

I don't think anyone else noticed, but there was a small frown on Cyan's face. It didn't seem like the feelings were mutual.

"I mean if anything, it'd be you two sharing a room, right?" Adept inquired.

Hurtle looked at me and grinned. "Yeah Aph, let's room together," he agreed with Adept.

"I'd rather room with Hades," I joked. Hurtle placed his hands on his heart and gasped.

"I'm hurt that you'd choose Hades over your best friend!" he said dramatically.

"Best friend?" Adept repeated.

"Best friends forever and ever and ever," Hurtle corrected him.

"That's a very long time," I commented.

"Aw, you know you love me Stellz."

11/24/14