The doorbell rang and Mooner answered. “It's some dude named Gary,” Mooner yelled at me. “He says he's a stalker.”
I went to the door, and Gary tried hard not to notice I was blue. He looked at his feet, and he looked above my head, and he cleared his throat.
“It's okay” I said. “I know I'm blue.”
“It caught me by surprise,” he said. “I didn't want to seem rude.”
“Just so you know, Brenda is blue, too.”
“Is this some art thing?”
“No. It was an accident. What's up?”
“I had the toilet dream again, only this time a bull came charging down the southbound lane, right at Brenda.”
“Jeez. What happened then?”
“I woke up.” His attention shifted to Mooner and Zook. “Are they playing Minionfire? What's their PC?”
“Zook and Moondog.”
“Are you kidding me? They're famous. Zook is like a god. He's a Blybold Wizard.”
Gary inched his way in and stood behind the couch, watching over Zook's shoulder. “Feel the power,” Gary said. “The dragon's coming. There he is! There he is! Go arcane.”
Zook turned and looked at him. “How did you know the dragon was coming?”
“Ever since I got hit by lightning, things happen in my head before they happen on the screen. It's like I'm a step ahead of cable, and I'm way faster than dial-up.”
“Whoa,” Zook and Mooner said, eyes glued to Gary.
Zook looked over at me. “You're blue.”
“It's a long story.”
“Who's your PC?” Mooner asked Gary.
“I haven't got one. I just lurk. I thought it wasn't fair for me to play with the lightning advantage.”
“Far out,” Mooner said. “A dude with honor.”
Morelli ambled in. “We need to go to your parents' now.” He checked out Gary.
“Is this the stalker?”
Gary extended his hand. “Pleased to meet you,” he said to Morelli.
“Everyone sign off,” I said. “We're going to my parents' house for dinner.”
My grandmother opened the door, and we all marched in. Zook, Mooner, Gary, Morelli, me, and Bob.
“You better set more plates,” Grandma yelled to my mother in the kitchen. “We got a group.”
My father was in the living room, dozing in front of the television. He picked his head up and looked at everyone standing in the foyer. He mumbled something that sounded a little like friggin' mutants and went back to napping.
Bob bounced around, doing his happy dance.
“Isn't he something,” Grandma said. She patted his head, and Bob took off for the kitchen.