Geo flipped curiously through the Battle Cards he had in his pack, trying to find something else he'd be happy to part with. He eventually pulled out a Vulcan Seed 1, placing it into the trader with the other two cards he was parting with. He turned the crank, hoping that he was making a good trade, listening to the machine as it collected the cards and deposited a brand new one.

He reached out for it eagerly, grabbing it and turning it so he could see the label on it. He sighed, disappointed, when he saw that it was a Ground Wave 2, which he had plenty of already. He slipped it into his pack, standing up straight and heading toward the door, having an errand he needed to run and running out of excuses to delay it.

It had been roughly two weeks since he had decided to return to school, after some persuasion from his mother and Omega-Xis, and endless badgering from class president Luna Platz. After spending so long in seclusion, he was still finding it difficult to socialize with others; he ate lunch by himself every day, rarely spoke to others, and spent most of his free time at home. On this Saturday, however, his mother had asked him to go downtown to mail a package. They both knew it was just an excuse to get him out of the house, so he decided that he would at least try doing some things he would enjoy while he was out.

He had already spent a good twenty minutes at this Battle Card store, and after losing yet again at the card trader, he figured he should probably get on with his planned errand. He walked to the door and pushed it open, stepping out, a bit surprised when the door bumped into a young girl walking along the sidewalk.

"Oh, um… sorry." He gave a quick apology, briefly glancing in her direction as he said it, before turning away, heading to the post office.

"Hmph! Is that all you have to say to me?"

Geo was caught off guard by this response, not thinking that he owed the girl any more than that apology. "What do you…" He turned around to face the girl again, studying her a bit more carefully. She was a little shorter than he was, wearing a black skirt and a white tank top with a small purse at her side, with her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail reaching down to her waist. Her piercing glare, however, was extremely familiar to him. "Luna?!"

"Oh, now you recognize me."

"Sorry, just…" Geo's eyes flicked up to her hair, which was normally done up in two elaborate spirals behind her. "You look different from usual, is all…"

"I'm not doing my hair up like that on the weekends, it takes way too long." She kept her annoyed glare fixed on him as she stepped forward, taking the door from him. "Try looking at my face sometime."

"Right… sorry." He let go of the door, taking a step back, not sure what else he was supposed to say to her. "Well… see you, I guess." He turned and walked away, expecting her to step inside the card store, a bit surprised when he heard her footsteps continue behind his. He walked for about a minute this way, until it became clear she wasn't going away.

He glanced back at her. "Are you following me?"

"We're going in the same direction," she responded flatly. "I'm expecting a package in my P.O. box, so I'm going to the post office. Same place as you."

"How do you know that?"

She smirked, walking right up behind him, poking the package he was holding in his hand. "Nothing escapes my keen powers of observation."

He sighed, shifting his arm to hold the package in front of him. "Or you're just nosy."

"Same thing." She kept smirking as Geo turned, entering the post office, and she followed him in.

—

Six minutes later, Geo stepped out of the post office, taking a right and heading deeper into downtown. The day so far hadn't gone the way he'd thought, but at least now he could do something fun without being bothered by other people. He enjoyed the moment for about fifteen seconds, before realizing that the footsteps had returned behind him.

"You're a fast walker when you want to be," Luna spoke from behind him; her hands were empty, her package not having arrived yet.

He turned his head again, a bit incredulous. "You're going the same way as me again?"

She grinned. "No, now I'm following you because I'm bored."

"And you want me to entertain you."

"This is what classmates do on the weekend, isn't it?" She stepped up a bit closer, as if to drive home the degree to which she wasn't going anywhere. "They spend time together and hang out."

"Yeah, if they like each other," Geo grumbled.

"Eh. Details." She grinned. "So where are we going?"

He sighed, annoyed by her persistence, knowing he wasn't going to convince her to go away. "I'm headed over there," he replied, pointing to a building about a block away, on the other side of the street.

She cocked her head. "The EM arcade, huh?"

"If you don't like it, feel free to go somewhere else."

"Not on your life, Geo Stelar." She smirked, the two walking in silence across the street and entering the arcade, instantly surrounded by the sounds of games that were brought to life in three dimensions, using EM waves. Geo kept walking, not sure where he wanted to go, but feeling like he had to keep walking with her behind him, or she'd catch up and capture him or something. After a few seconds, he spotted a new EM gun game cabinet, one that he had been hoping to play for some time, and his eyes lit up. He picked up speed, almost sprinting toward it, and Luna yelped as she ran after him.

"Hey, wait up!" She huffed as she caught up to him, watching him pull out his arcade card and swipe it, picking up one of the two guns as the game began. She folded her arms, watching as the area right in front of Geo turned into a strange sci-fi and horror setting, the game brought into real life by EM waves. As the game started, he began firing the fake gun in his hand, more waves shooting out and destroying the monstrous beings that were advancing toward him.

After a couple of minutes, however, it became clear that Geo was in trouble. He hadn't expected the game to be as difficult as it was, and he was quickly running low on health as the nightmarish creatures ran forward and clawed at him, not actually damaging him but taking away his in-game health. It wasn't too long before he received a game over, and he sighed as he lowered his gun, defeated.

"Well, that didn't go very well, did it?" Luna offered.

Geo glanced in her direction, annoyed. "You think you can do better?"

"Only one way to find out." She stepped up, gently pushing him aside and grabbing the gun he dropped. He rolled his eyes, reaching to get his arcade card, but she surprised him by producing one of her own and swiping it, starting up the game again. He stood off to the side, not wanting to get hit by a thrown gun when she lost, but his caution was quickly replaced with amazement.

Luna was dispatching the enemies left and right without a second thought, blowing Geo's lackluster performance out of the water. Her steely gaze was laser-focused on the game in front of her, her hands making tiny movements to move her aim from one foe to the next. The enemies exploded into 3D pixels in front of her, as she quickly eclipsed his previous score.

"Wha… but how are…"

Luna smirked, not looking away from the game. "You know not to whom you speak, little boy."

"Since when do you play EM games?"

"I have a Wavebox hooked up to my television at home," she responded, as she cleared the game's first level. "Are you surprised?" She reached down and swiped her card again, adding another credit as she grabbed the game's second gun as well.

"Well… yeah, I am." Geo tried to think of any time the subject of games had ever come up, either from her or around her, and nothing came to mind. "Do your friends even play?"

"One of them, hopefully." She held the other gun out to him, eyebrow raised, an expectant look on her face as she looked toward him.

Geo studied her for a second, before his eyes glanced down at the gun. So far, his expectations of his day had gone off course at every opportunity; instead of sulking on his own and playing video games, he was being hounded by the most annoying girl he knew, learning things about her he had never suspected. A large part of him wanted to walk away, to try and spend some time by himself as he had planned, but there was a voice inside him telling him to stay, convincing him that he might be surprised again.

A few seconds later he sighed and took the gun from her, stepping up and getting into stance. She grinned wide, pleased, and hit the button to start the next level.

—

An hour later, the pair finally walked back out of the arcade, their fingers and reflexes fried. The two of them had managed to beat the first game they played, and at Luna's heavy insistence they had played several other games, both cooperatively and competitively. While her spirits had been bolstered by their time playing together, his had been hopelessly crushed.

"You know your name was on half the leaderboards I saw in there? I never noticed it before." He sighed. "That should have been my warning."

She smirked, hands behind her head. "Well, you got to learn the hard way. That's more fun." She stretched her arms back. "And you never would have beaten that game you love without my help, anyway."

"You had to rub it in, didn't you?"

She grinned, turning back to him, walking backwards. "So where are we going next?"

"I don't care. You pick." He was a bit surprised at the words that came out of his mouth, but at this point he didn't really have a good reason to push her away.

"Let's head to Vista Point Park. They're supposed to be playing a soccer game there."

Geo nodded, liking the sound of it. He let her lead the way, and the two of them made small talk as they walked away from the center of downtown, eventually arriving at Vista Point Park. They walked up a small hill overlooking the soccer pitch, sitting down and watching the game, which was already well into its second half.

After about fifteen minutes of relative silence from the pair, Geo spoke up. "The team in red is a complete mess."

"Why do you say that?" Luna glanced over, curious. "It's a tie game."

"It won't be for long. Whenever they get close to the goal, they can't make anything happen. But whenever the other team has the ball, they nearly score."

"Hm." She made a curious and contemplative noise, turning back to the game and waiting for his prediction to come true. Three minutes later, he was proven right, as the team in green managed to outfox the red team's defense and score a punishing goal, effectively sealing their fate with so little time left on the clock.

"Told you."

Luna grinned. "Guess I should have expected that from the former soccer star."

His eyebrows raised as he turned to her. "How did you know that?"

"I'm class president. It's my business to know things like that." She sat back a bit, her hands resting on the ground behind her. "Why haven't you gone out for the team again? You used to be great at it."

Geo looked down, a somberness starting to take over him. "It wasn't fun anymore."

"Why? What changed?"

"Everything changed, Luna." His eyes flicked over at her. "You should know why, Miss Class President."

"What does…" She started to give an annoyed reply before realization hit her, eyes widening a bit. "Oh… this is about your father."

He looked away from her again. "We didn't play together much, but… the memories are enough." He hadn't told this to anyone before, and wasn't entirely sure why he was opening up to her, of all people.

"I'm sorry, Geo, I didn't realize."

"It's fine. I wouldn't expect you to know what it's like." He sighed. "You haven't lost a parent before, have you?"

She shook her head. "Not at your age, no."

Geo blinked, not having expected that reply. He quickly looked toward her. "What do you mean? You have?"

Luna nodded in response. "My real father left when I was very young, too young to remember him. My mom remarried last year, but for most of my life, it was just me and her."

"Oh… sorry, I didn't know."

"It's fine. It's not really much like your situation, anyway." She looked back toward the soccer match, which was coming to a close, her arms wrapped around her knees. "I've always sort of wondered, though… what it would have been like."

"You mean if he hadn't left?" Geo sat up more, curious. He hadn't really thought about other students having personal issues of their own, least of all her.

"Yeah." She looked down a bit. "I mean, I love my mom, she's wonderful. And I like my stepdad plenty. Just… I see my other friends with their parents, how close they all are… and I wonder what I might have done, who I might have been."

Geo stared at her, taken aback. She was always so outgoing and confident; he had never imagined these sorts of feelings would have been buried within her all this time. He studied the melancholy expression on her face, finding that it upset him to see her like this.

A minute later, he found himself speaking up. "Well, I mean… what more could he have done?"

Luna's eyebrows raised, and she glanced back over at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, look at yourself," he continued. "You're class president, you're popular, a straight A student… and you're good at games too, apparently. I'm not sure what he could have done to… make things turn out better."

Her eyes were wide, a bit shocked at his response, but her shock quickly settled into a smile. "Thanks, Geo." Her cheeks flushed pink as she looked back at him, holding her legs a bit closer. "That's really sweet of you to say."

He looked back at her, studying her new expression; he had never seen her smile quite like this before. This wasn't a triumphant grin, or a self-satisfied smirk as she often wore. It was just a warm, heartfelt, genuine smile, one that lit up her whole face. He was soon smiling back at her in response.

"I should probably head out." Luna stood up, dusting a bit of dirt off her skirt. "Dinner's going to be ready soon."

Geo nodded; it was starting to get late. "Yeah." He stayed seated, leaning back a bit. "See you Monday?"

She nodded, taking a couple steps forward before turning back to him, blocking out the setting sun. "Thanks for today, Geo. It was fun."

"Yeah, it was."

She gave him one last smile before turning and walking down the hill, past the soccer pitch and toward Echo Ridge, the suburb where both of them lived. He watched her go for a minute or so, before lying back against the grass, looking up at the sky as it started to turn from blue to orange. He knew that Luna was going to be back to her usual bossy self when they saw each other at school, but he was never going to look at her quite the same way again; just knowing that there was a fun and personable girl buried somewhere in there was enough to change his perspective. Maybe the two of them could be friends after all, sometime.

He closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of the park, making a note to thank his mom for sending him on an errand.