Ezra stood at the sign-up table in the school auditorium, scanning the list of names already written down for the fall py. The paper smelled faintly of marker ink, the edges slightly crumpled from eager hands flipping through it. His heart pounded—not with fear, but with excitement.

  He had spent the past year building confidence in the acting club, learning how to own the stage, how to work a crowd, how to make even the simplest dialogue feel alive. But this? This was different. This was a real production.

  As he scrawled his name onto the sheet, a familiar voice rang out behind him.

  “Damn, The Tale of Quarantinemas. You really goin’ for it, huh?”

  Ezra turned to find Bruiser standing there, arms crossed, a smirk tugging at his lips. The nickname was teasing, but there was something else in his tone—something like approval.

  “Yeah,” Ezra said, grinning. “Might as well, right?”

  Bruiser snorted. “Guess this means I actually gotta come watch you make a fool of yourself.”

  Ezra raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’ll be impressive.” He patted Bruiser on the shoulder as he walked past. “Try not to cry when I bring the house down.”

  Bruiser shook his head with a chuckle, watching him go.

  The truth was, Ezra wanted to be impressive. And there was one person he especially wanted to impress.

  It was ter that afternoon when he found himself sitting across from Julie, a coffee cup between his hands, his knee bouncing slightly.

  “So,” he said, trying to keep his voice casual, “I’m in the school py.”

  Julie blinked. “You’re—wait, seriously?”

  Ezra frowned. “Why do you sound like that’s a bad thing?”

  Julie tilted her head, smirking slightly. “It’s not bad, it’s just… I don’t know. Acting?”

  “Yeah, acting.”

  She took a slow sip of her coffee, eyeing him over the rim. “It’s just kinda… cringe.”

  Ezra pced a hand over his heart, feigning deep emotional damage. “Midy! Thy words wound me so!”

  Julie ughed, shaking her head. “See? That’s exactly what I mean.”

  Ezra chuckled but felt a twinge of something else. She wasn’t being mean, not really, but… he wanted her to be impressed. He wanted her to see what this meant to him. “It’s not just pying pretend,” he said, leaning forward. “It’s like… trying out different lives. Testing yourself. Learning how people work. It’s actually kinda cool.”

  Julie studied him for a moment, her expression softening just slightly.

  Then she smirked. “You just want me to show up so you can brag about being the star, don’t you?”

  Ezra grinned. “Absolutely.”

  She rolled her eyes but sighed in defeat. “Fine. I’ll come. But if you embarrass yourself, I’m telling everyone I don’t know you.”

  Ezra ughed. “Deal.”

  But something in him itched now.

  He wasn’t just doing this py for fun anymore. He had something to prove.

  One day in biology css, Ezra and Bruiser found themselves waiting for the teacher to arrive, their conversation drifting from csswork to the future.

  “I’m not going to college,” Bruiser said suddenly, staring at the scratched-up desk beneath his hands.

  Ezra blinked. “Wait—what?”

  Bruiser shrugged, pying it off like it wasn’t a big deal. “Never really saw the point. My grades aren’t great, and I got bigger things to deal with.”

  Ezra frowned. “Like what?”

  Bruiser sighed, running a hand over his buzzed hair. “My grandma’s sick. Real bad. My parents don’t give a damn, so… I’m moving outta state after graduation to take care of her.”

  Ezra was silent for a moment.

  He knew Bruiser’s home life was a mess, but hearing him say it so pinly made it hit different.

  “Damn,” Ezra muttered. “That’s… a lot.”

  Bruiser shrugged. “She’s the only family I got that’s worth anything.”

  Ezra hesitated before asking, “Are you sure about this?”

  Bruiser let out a short ugh, but there was no humor in it. “What else am I gonna do?”

  Ezra didn’t have an answer for that.

  The idea of not having Bruiser around after graduation felt… weird. They had gone from enemies to friends, from trading fists to trading banter. And now? Now it felt like life was pulling them in different directions.

  But before the weight of the moment could settle too heavily, Bruiser smirked.

  “Don’t worry, nerd. We still got war to wage.”

  Ezra raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  Bruiser flipped his phone screen toward him, showing a familiar title.

  Total War.

  Ezra grinned. They had been pying it together for months, strategizing, building empires, conquering entire continents in te-night gaming sessions.

  “We keep up that way,” Bruiser said. “You handle the nerd tactics, I handle the brute force. Just like old times.”

  Ezra felt the weight in his chest lighten just a little.

  He might be losing Bruiser in real life, but their friendship?

  That wasn’t going anywhere.

  As the school year pressed forward, everything felt different.

  Bruiser was preparing to move. Ezra was pushing himself harder than ever in his studies and acting. He wasn’t just trying to be good anymore—he was trying to be great.

  And Julie?

  Well, she was coming to watch. That meant something.

  For the first time, Ezra didn’t just feel like he was moving forward.

  He felt like he was stepping into something bigger.

  Something that might actually define his future.

  The screen flickered with the warm glow of an empire on the rise. Rows of armored infantry stretched across the battlefield, banners waving in the wind, as the siege preparations neared completion. Ezra sat forward in his chair, fingers poised over the keyboard, his mind racing with calcutions.

  Across the room, Bruiser cracked his knuckles, rolling his shoulders like a man about to step into a real battlefield.

  “This is it,” Bruiser muttered, his voice low, focused.

  “Last city,” Ezra agreed. “They’re gonna throw everything they have at us.”

  Bruiser smirked. “Good.”

  For months, this campaign had been their battleground—a virtual war that neither of them had been willing to back down from. Ezra, the strategist, the mind behind each move, anticipating counterattacks before they even happened. Bruiser, the warlord, unrelenting, fearless, a hammer smashing through the weakest points of the enemy’s defenses.

  They made a hell of a team.

  And tonight?

  Tonight was the final battle.

  Ezra’s army stood in tight formations, arranged like a masterpiece of calcuted destruction. Pike walls lined the front, archers behind them, cavalry waiting on the fnks for the right moment to strike.

  Bruiser’s forces, on the other hand, were pure chaos and raw power—a mix of heavily armored shock troops and war beasts, designed to smash through anything in their path.

  “You sure about this?” Ezra asked, eyeing Bruiser’s reckless unit pcements.

  Bruiser grinned. “You py chess. I py demolition.”

  Ezra sighed. “Alright, Barbarian General, let’s see if your brute force holds up.”

  The enemy army swarmed forward, a wave of disciplined soldiers crashing against their lines. The csh was deafening—swords cshed, catapults unched fiery payloads, and war elephants stampeded through enemy ranks in an explosion of chaos.

  Ezra was in the zone, directing troops like a maestro conducting a symphony of war. Every unit pcement, every movement was precise.

  But Bruiser?

  Bruiser was screaming at his screen.

  “GO, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS! PUSH! DON’T STOP TILL YOU SEE THE WHITE OF THEIR—"

  “Bruiser, they don’t have eyes! This is a game!”

  “I DON’T CARE, WE’RE WINNING!”

  Ezra couldn’t help but ugh as Bruiser’s warriors tore through enemy lines, throwing the opposition into disarray. And then—the opening they needed.

  Ezra’s cavalry swept in from the fnks, crushing what remained of the enemy archers. Bruiser’s troops rammed through the city gates, overrunning the st of the defenders.

  The victory felt earned.

  The two of them sat back, staring at the screen as the final victory banner fshed.

  “Damn,” Bruiser muttered. “We actually did it.”

  Ezra exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “Took long enough.”

  There was a silence between them, the kind that came after something meaningful—like finishing a book you didn’t want to end.

  Finally, Bruiser leaned back, grinning. “Best damn campaign we ever pyed.”

  Ezra nodded. “Yeah. It was.”

  Julie hadn’t pnned on sticking around.

  She had been passing through the school halls when she noticed the glow of phone screens from inside the auditorium. At first, she assumed it was just Ezra killing time, maybe scrolling through some forum about historical warfare or whatever nerdy thing he was obsessed with that week.

  But when she peeked in, she found something else entirely.

  Ezra and Bruiser sat across from each other, locked in battle—not in real life, but through the screens of their phones. They were pying Total War again, but it wasn’t just a game to them.

  It was a spectacle.

  Ezra, hunched forward, was speaking in calm, calcuted commands, his tone sharp as he issued orders to his imaginary troops. “Hold the center line. Lure them into the choke point. We can’t afford a break in the formation.”

  Bruiser, on the other hand, was a force of chaos. “SCREW FORMATIONS! SEND IN THE WAR BEASTS!”

  “You absolute menace—”

  “CHAAAAARGE!”

  Julie covered her mouth, trying to stifle a ugh as Bruiser bellowed like a battlefield general, clutching his phone like it was the hilt of a sword. Ezra, meanwhile, spped a hand over his face in exasperation before scrambling to counter whatever reckless move had just been made.

  The way they pyed was fascinating—completely immersed, acting out their roles as if they were actually there. Bruiser made every move with raw aggression, never hesitating, never second-guessing himself. Ezra, on the other hand, was the strategist, adapting to Bruiser’s recklessness, twisting disasters into opportunities.

  And for twenty whole minutes, Julie just… watched.

  She had never seen this side of Ezra before.

  Sure, she knew he loved this game, and yeah, she had heard him and Bruiser nerd out about their campaigns before. But seeing it in action—seeing how seriously he took it, how much he loved it—was something else entirely.

  He was pying, yes. But he was also performing.

  It was the same look she had seen when he talked about acting. The same passion. The same spark.

  For Ezra, rolepying wasn’t just a game. It was a way to test himself, to try new things, to think outside the box.

  And for the first time, Julie understood.

  The battle reached its climax—a final, all-out assault on the enemy’s st stronghold.

  Ezra’s forces had seized the high ground, pelting the opposition with volleys of arrows. Bruiser’s war beasts had broken through the front line, wrecking havoc inside the city walls. It was pure destruction, pure chaos, pure victory.

  The enemy colpsed.

  The words “Victory Achieved” fshed across their screens.

  For a moment, the two boys just stared at the screen, panting like they had actually fought in the battle themselves.

  Then, Bruiser let out a whoop of triumph, throwing his arms in the air. “HELL YEAH! THAT’S HOW WE DO IT!”

  Ezra grinned, shaking his head. “Absolute brute-force madness. That should not have worked.”

  Bruiser smirked. “But it did.”

  “Yeah,” Ezra admitted, exhaling. “It really did.”

  And that was when Julie made her presence known.

  “You two,” she said from the doorway, crossing her arms with a smirk, “are the biggest nerds I have ever seen.”

  Ezra’s head snapped up.

  Bruiser froze.

  The look on Ezra’s face was priceless—half shock, half embarrassment, and maybe a little bit of panic. “How long have you been there?”

  Julie tilted her head, pretending to think. “Mmm… since the first war elephant charge.”

  Ezra groaned, burying his face in his hands.

  Bruiser, meanwhile, just smirked. “You liked it, didn’t you?”

  Julie shrugged, stepping closer. “I’ll admit… it was entertaining.” Her gaze lingered on Ezra for a second too long, and that’s when something clicked in her mind.

  She had never realized it before, but…

  She liked this side of him.

  Ezra was completely unapologetic about the things he loved. He didn’t care if it was nerdy or weird—he threw himself into it completely. And in some strange way, that was… kind of attractive.

  Ezra, still flustered, started gathering his things. “Alright, well, now that my dignity is gone forever—”

  Julie stepped forward, grabbing his wrist before he could leave.

  “Wait.”

  Ezra blinked. “What?”

  Then, before she could second-guess herself, she leaned in and kissed him.

  It was quick—just a soft brush of lips—but it was enough.

  Ezra froze.

  Bruiser, watching from the sidelines, had the most cartoonish expression of shock possible. His jaw dropped. His eyes went wide.

  “THE HELL?!”

  Julie pulled back, grinning. “Consider that your hero’s reward.”

  Ezra’s brain had completely short-circuited.

  “…For what?” he managed to choke out.

  Julie chuckled. “For being you.”

  And with that, she turned and walked away, leaving Ezra standing there, blinking like an idiot, and Bruiser staring at him like he had just witnessed a divine miracle.

  Finally, after a long silence, Bruiser cpped a hand on Ezra’s shoulder.

  “My dude,” he said solemnly. “You just conquered something way bigger than Rome.”

  Ezra, still trying to process what just happened, could only nod.

  For once in his life, he was completely speechless.

  Later that night, as Ezra and Bruiser packed up their game, Ezra hesitated.

  Bruiser raised an eyebrow. “What?”

  Ezra exhaled. “Look, man. You don’t have to leave.”

  Bruiser’s smirk faded.

  “Yeah,” he muttered. “I do.”

  Ezra leaned forward. “But why? I mean, yeah, your grandma needs you, but—” He paused, trying to find the right words. “You could still build something here. You’re smart, Bruiser. You’re good at this stuff. You could go to school, get a degree, do something with it.”

  Bruiser studied him, something unreadable in his eyes.

  Then he shook his head.

  “I get what you’re saying, Ezra. And I appreciate it. But…” He leaned back, rubbing his hands together. “What’s more important? Chasing some idea of what my life could be? Or actually being there for the only person who’s ever given a damn about me?”

  Ezra didn’t have an answer for that.

  Bruiser sighed, shaking his head. “Life ain’t about getting everything you want, man. It’s about knowing what actually matters.”

  The words settled deep in Ezra’s chest.

  Bruiser grinned suddenly, lightening the mood. “Besides, I’m still gonna kick your ass online.”

  Ezra ughed, shaking his head.

  “You wish.”

  Ezra left that night feeling different.

  Not just because he had realized how much he loved acting or because he had seen Julie watching him.

  But because for the first time, he understood that life was about choices.

  And sometimes, the hardest ones were the ones that mattered most.

  As he walked home under the glow of streetlights, he pulled out his phone and sent a message.

  Ezra: You coming to the py?

  There was a pause.

  Then Julie’s reply popped up.

  Julie: Wouldn’t miss it.

  Ezra smiled.

  This was going to be one hell of a winter.