I'm giving you guys one more chapter for tonight. Yay you!

JANUARY 4

I fiddled with my ID bracelet as I slumped into my seat. It really was amazing how quickly information got around in a high school. It was the first day back after Christmas break, and classes hadn't even started yet, but it already seemed like everybody knew that I'd been diagnosed with type one diabetes.

Then again, I had missed the last week of school just before the break. The news had probably gotten around the school before the break had even started.

But at least I was starting to get it under control. My diabetes. I mean, it seemed like I was constantly going back and forth between highs and lows, but the doctor said that can happen, when we're still trying to figure out the right dosage and type of insulin. But I was able to recognize the symptoms, and I could get it taken care of pretty quickly. Until we had all of the insulin stuff figured out, and had my bloodsugars staying within a certain range, I did have to go to the doctor almost every week.

Major suckage.

I was hoping it wouldn't take much longer for it to be stabilized enough that I wouldn't have to see the doctor every week.

I wasn't paying much attention as my classmates came in and took their seats around me. I knew I was getting some sympathetic looks, but I ignored them. I wasn't interested in seeing everyone's pity.

Then a pale, freckled hand flicked my bracelet. "Sweet med tag, Needles."

I looked toward the voice. It was somewhat familiar. Willow Griffin, the girl I'd met at the hospital a month ago, was sliding into the seat right beside mine. I frowned at her. "Needles?" I wasn't really offended by the nickname - she hadn't said it with any kind of malice or disdain or anything.

She shrugged. "You are diabetic, right? And I never did catch your name at the hospital."

"Oh, sorry." I hadn't realized that I'd never told her my name in our first meeting. "It's Stryker. My name's Stryker."

She looked me up and down. "That's not…what I was expecting. Not at all. I pegged you more as a Trevor or an Allen or something like that."

I scrunched up my nose. "Really?"

She shrugged again. "Yeah. Don't judge, okay? I just thought that you looked like a Trevor or an Allen. Do you have a last name, Stryker?" She gasped dramatically. "Oh my gosh. You're one of those one-name-guys, aren't you? Like a gangster? Stryker is just the name you chose, isn't it? Your friends are probably Blade, T-Bone, and Pitbull. Or something equally stupid."

I laughed. I was pretty sure that she was just joking, and I thought she was pretty funny. But I had to tease her back. "What? Are you saying Stryker is a stupid name?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "I feel like this is a trap..." she trailed off.

I laughed again. "It's not a name I gave myself, although I do like it. My mom actually gave me the name Stryker. It's on my birth certificate. And she's not a gangster, before you can suggest it. She just likes unique names. My friends aren't gangsters either. I'd say Adrian, Tyler, and Thomas are pretty normal names. My last name is Pendragon."

Her green eyes widened. "No way. Are you related to Arthur Pendragon, CEO of Camelot Corporation?"

"You've heard of him," I stated. I was actually a little surprised. She'd only been at the school for an hour, at the most, and she moved from Nebraska.

She snorted. "Who hasn't? You seriously can't go far in this city without hearing the Pendragon name. He's practically a celebrity, which is crazy because he runs a tech company. Are you related to him?"

"He's my grandpa."

"Awesome. So, how's the whole diabetic thing going?"

Now it was my turn to shrug. "Eh. I'm figuring it all out, but it's taking some time. And it's weird to get used to, all the carb counting and testing and stuff. I'm getting there, just not as quickly as I'd like. Still not happy about it. But unfortunately, I can't change it. How's your grandma, by the way? You said she had lung cancer?"

Willow gave a sad smile. "They say she's got about four months left."

"Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. What about chemo or something? Is that not an option in her case?"

"She did chemo. It went away for a while, then came back twice as strong. And now it's spread to some of her other organs. It's progressing way too quickly. There's nothing else the doctors can do. It's why my mom wanted to be here. The best we can do is make her comfortable in her last few months."

"Willow, I'm so sorry."

"Don't be. It's a part of life. A really crappy part of life, but still. Like you said, it can't be changed. Hey, I was wond–"

"Dude," Adrian said, rushing into the classroom. He sat on the corner of my desk.

I sighed. "What? Why are you in my history class? Don't you have P.E. right now?"

"The bell hasn't rung yet. You know I'm never on time, anyway. Calm down. Listen, I finally found a cheat to help us get past that stupid manticore. Somebody posted it on the forum just last night."

Willow shook her head. "Don't try it. It's a crash code. It'll crash your whole game and erase all the memory. All your characters will start at the very beginning. Level one, and they'll lose their ranking. You really don't want to use that cheat."

Adrian and I stared at her in shock. "What?" she said. "You are talking about The Five Kingdoms, right?"

We both nodded.

"My cousin tried that cheat code almost as soon as it was posted online. He lost everything. It was like he'd just opened the game from the package." Adrian and I both winced. That would totally suck. "Luckily, my character wasn't a part of his campaign, or I would have lost her, too. I was part of another cousin's campaign, but she's stopped playing, so I'll need to find a new group to play with. There's only one way to beat the manticore. You can't use a cheat. Well, not a cheat like that."

"How do you defeat it?" I asked.

"You need a level ten wizard. The manticore can only be defeated with an element spell, and only a level ten can do that."

I frowned. "Wait. There is no element spell. I'm a level ten wizard, and that hasn't been an option."

She got this smirk on her face. "There's a secret level where you can learn it. Right before you get to the town that the manticore is destroying, there's a little broken well. Over by the tavern. If you jump into that, you can play a challenge round. If you beat the round, you learn the spell. That's the only way to defeat the manticore. My cousin didn't believe me, so he tried the cheat code. His loss."

"Man. So we have to go back a level?" Adrian asked.

Willow smirked. "Or you could have someone who already knows the spell join your campaign."

"Like who? Stryk's the only wizard in the group. We don't really know anybody else who plays."

"I'm a level eleven wizard. And I know the spell. I can defeat the manticore for you. And like I said, I'm not part of a campaign right now."

My jaw dropped. "Join our campaign," I said.

"Marry me," Adrian said at the same time.

Willow just laughed. "Yes to the first offer, no to the second."

Confession: I don't really know much about video games. I'm totally making this all up as I go. I don't know if you can...transfer characters like that. I know you can in Dungeons and Dragons, but that's not a video game (I don't think so, anyway). So even if there's no video game like this that actually exists, we're going to pretend that it does in this story. In my head, Stryker's story is set slightly in the future (though I'm trying not to be specific about it on purpose), and so maybe something that would exist by that time.

And one more thing: The nickname Needles. I know that some diabetics might take offense at any kind of nickname about their disease. I'm not one of those. To me, as long as the person using the nickname isn't being rude about it, I don't mind it. It all depends on how they're saying it. Not everybody who is diabetic will feel the same.