Chapter 1: 1. The Childhood Friend Has a Big Secret

It was a Friday night in late August, and Jay was at the biggest house party you'd ever find in a small city in Central Florida. One side of the mansion-sized house was a roaring, crowd-pleasing beer pong competition between the Superjock and the Band Lead. Another side of the house was a riot of laughter where a pair of infamous brothers from the junkyard side of the city entertained a host of girls.

Then there was Jay and his best friend holding up the wall at the back. Jay forgot how many cups of rum and coke he'd drain by now. He knew he was pretty far past his limit. But the taste of sugar, spice, and alcohol-fueled craziness was the push he needed to commit what could be social suicide.

He was psyching himself up when something blue popped into his vision.

You've been⁠—

The blue box and white words flickered away before Jay could read further. He stared at the empty air, wondering if the blue box was a trick from the light shining around. Or he was seeing things in the fog produced by the dry-ice machines. Maybe the drink was spiked?

Whatever that was, Jay put it out of his mind for now. He drained the rest of his cup. He grabbed Mike by the shoulder and yelled into his ear. "I'm going for it!"

"By the power of anime and geekhood, I hope you come out with your soul intact!" Mike yelled back.

"That's way too dramatic!"

"It's the right amount of dramatic," Mike responded, pushing up his thick-framed glasses. "She walks the same halls as us, but we haven't talked to her in years."

"That's our fault as much as hers," Jay defended.

"Just be careful, man," Mike warned. "For all we know, she can be like Circe of the Island! Then you're just another man she'll roast like a pig!"

Mike patted Jay on the back, which was Jay's signal to go and face destiny. Or death.

Three steps later, he bumped into a miniature girl and nearly lost his cool. A flash of laser light illuminated her face. She was the number one test-scoring student at their high school and the only person to keep Mike at number two in academics.

Lilith looked like she was far out of her element here. Jay grinned. He grabbed her by the elbow and spun her away from the random crush of bodies. He planted her beside Mike.

The First Nerd looked up in annoyance before seeing Mike. She grinned and greeted, "Hey, lesser lifeform!"

"Wings of Icarus!" Mike shot back.

Sparks flew. Jay took that as his cue to go.

Set on his incredible mission once again, he scooted around the Junker Twins and their gaggle of pretty girls. He ducked past the climactic beer pong battle between the Superjock and the Band Lead. The wall of bodies grew denser and taller the closer he got to his goal⁠—the central figure of this entire party.

The Queen of their high school.

Jay was a little shorter than the average guy. He was also more on the lithe and skinny side when it came to his physique. The blockade of admirers was too tall and heavy for him to see over or push past.

He got creative and climbed a nearby living room table, avoiding all the drinks stacked there. Drunkenness be damn, he looked back once, then twice, and backflipped over the human wall.

Jay stuck the landing on the other side of a stanchion set with red VIP rope, his back to his goal. The crowd gasped, the music stopped, the lights spun around until they beamed down on him. Jay swayed a little and adjusted his hoodie like a proper Floridian.

He faced around.

His breath stopped in his throat when he saw the High School Queen. She sat regally on a plush, high-backed throne decorated with flashy jewelry and obscene piles of wrapped gift boxes. The party served three purposes: celebrating the start of senior year, honoring the football team for winning their season opener, and damn-near worshiping the birthday of the most beautiful girl ever, the Queen.

Now, if only Jay could get past the Queen's attack dogs, the Divine Four. The Queen's closest inner circle were the type of girls you'd recognize in movies. They were each hot or pretty in their own way. Mean as hell when you crossed them. And they ran the school with iron fists, controlling the soul, politics, media, and budget for their Queen.

"Hiya!" Jay waved. "Mind if you scoot aside. I got this thing with the Queen, and it's a little on the private side."

"Rooftop Weirdo," the Cheerleading Captain called out, flicking her long blonde hair over her shoulders. "You want privacy? Flipping in like the cheer squad gets you the opposite. Why not tell our adoring audience what you got to say?"

The cameras were out. The weight of the world pressed on Jay's shoulders.

Welp. In for a penny. In for a pound.

"I want to ask her out on a date," Jay said plainly.

People gasped. The audacity of his request was nearly too much. How could a mere high school weirdo dare ask out the High School Queen?

"You can't even afford the coffee she drinks, pleb!" The Cabinet Financer cackled, waving around an arm covered in expensive gold bangles.

"Ever been to Paris?" the Event Planner asked, pointing her glass of dark red wine at him. "Let me answer that for you. You haven't. The Queen has global supermodels and arrogant rich boys on her heels, taking her out to The Louvre and La Tour d'Argent over the summer. You don't even know how to spell those places."

"I can French Press and French Kiss better than a Frenchman," Jay joked. "And I want to start things slow. Getting into talks about being lovers and tours in Asia are big steps."

A few people from the audience laughed. One random guy cheered for him. Jay might have a chance if the people were moved by his theatrics.

"Confidence and jokes. You got plenty of both, I give you that," the Cheerleading Captain acknowledged. "But you're nobody all by yourself. That's creepy, and we don't let creeps around the Queen."

"Your actions come across as toxic, predatory, and unwelcomed." The Journalism Prez readjusted her trendy glasses and raised her phone with the camera recording. "What could you say to defend yourself?"

Jay hesitated. That was a hard angle to defend against. And he was too drunk to avoid the minefield competently. Thank goodness this wasn't a quiet affair.

"Defend what?" roared one of the Junker Twins, a boy with a light, musical tonality to his voice. "Defend nothing! That's a damn hero, I say! Flipped in with the super landing and all!"

"The dude got bigger balls than the football team!" spoke the other Junker Twin, a boy whose voice was deep and grungy.

"Hey!" roared the high school Superjock, the epiphany of big, muscular, and American. "That would've been fighting words if I wasn't on the Rooftop Weirdo's side. Any man willing to throw himself out there for love deserves my respect."

"I say knock off the mean girl act and let that darn boy through!" the Band Lead shouted with a strong rural accent that was as charming as her Southern looks.

The jocks and bandmates backed their alphas, merging the biggest state-competition-winning high school clubs into a single supportive unit.

"Let him through! Let him through! Let him through!"

Since most people followed the biggest trends, everyone at the party got in on the action.

"Let him through! Let him through! Let him through!"

The Divine Four could do nothing to beat down the fervor raised against them.

Jay looked around in amazement, never expecting that he'd dominantly win the crowd's favor. It was almost too good to be true. Like being the movie underdog during a crowning moment.

Then the Queen stood.

Silence reigned.

As if their breaths were snatched away. Jay had to remind himself to breathe. It wasn't easy.

The Queen stepped down from her throne on designer heels worth more than a decade's pay at Jay's old burger joint job. The long glittery gold dress was split on the right side of her legs and flowed like water to match her effortless grace.

She had flawless skin. Height and curves. The biggest New York runway agency couldn't pay enough for her time. It was as if she was from another world. Like a beautiful but displaced alien forced to live amid small city people and lowly public school peons.

To most people, she was the living figment of fantasy and mystery. Borderline unreal.

To Jay, she was the girl who had once clung to the back of his shirt when they were super little, always bugging him to do a backflip. If he failed, she'd laugh at him. If he succeeded, she'd cheer for him like the biggest fan ever.

"It's been a while, YoAnna," Jay greeted, looking up with a grin.

"Took you long enough to talk to me again, Jay." YoAnna smiled, dazzling him.

"Wait, what?" asked the Divine Four all at once. They weren't the only ones out of the loop. Mostly everyone at the party was.

"Jay Luckrun's a childhood friend," YoAnna announced, her voice alluring and authoritative. Lovely to hear while speaking over others effortlessly. "The same goes for Lilith Hernandez and Michael Zhou, even though they keep treating me like a stranger."

"I don't mean to!" Mike shouted from all the way in the back while Lilith kept her mouth shut.

"I'm hurt, Mike," YoAnna said. "You used to share PB&J sandwiches with me because I've always liked how your mom made them precisely. We were PB&J bros!"

"To be fair, you've disappeared for years, then came back in sophomore year and became Queen suddenly, without warning!" Mike defended. "Perhaps I misjudged you based on pop culture, but there are layers of stratospheric proportioned obstacles between us commoners and you."

"Well, I must admit, the Rooftop Weirdo had to flip in, fight off the Divine Four, and arrest the crowd's favor just to speak with you," said one of the Junker Twins. "That was a gauntlet of effort risking social suicide."

"You put that boy through the works," said the other Junker Twin.

"I thought it was cute and fun," YoAnna replied. "I didn't think that was much of a barrier. Especially for him."

Jay neither agreed nor denied.

"Well, that's fine and dandy, but can we get back to partying?" asked the Band Lead. "I gotta show this big blue-eyed wonder boy I'm my family's top dawg in beer pong for a reason."

"Wait!" shouted the Superjock. "I need to know if the Queen and the Rooftop Weirdo are going out."

"You care that much?" asked the Band Lead.

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"I'm invested."

So was Jay.

"Mmm," YoAnna pressed an immaculate, gem-dusted nail to the edge of her lip. "No."

The crowd groaned in dismay, which was a small display compared to Jay feeling his heart sink. He kept his cool on the outside. A good act.

"It's sudden," YoAnna explained. "We haven't talked in years. Can we start with that first?"

She touched his shoulder, freezing him.

"Come to my afterparty, Jay," she said, more of a command than a request. "Bring Mike and Lilith since it's a small but important gathering. I'd love to have you three, especially you."

She sauntered away, leaving Jay a little dazed. 

The party resumed.

The Divine Four ushered him out from the inner circle. The cheering crowd took him with open arms. Mike showed up with Lilith to help separate Jay from random people, which wasn't easy.

Everyone was trying to talk to him. As if he was the key to reaching the Queen, the idol of countless many. But he wasn't listening. He was too stunned and happy to make conversation.

You've been offered⁠—

Jay blinked. The blue box thing disappeared as soon as it appeared.

What was that all about?

***

The afterparty was a drastically intimate and casual affair. The entire mansion had been emptied except for thirteen teens with no adult supervision. In a private room of bean bag chairs, top-shelf drinks, and hella good hookah, Jay kept his buzz and good vibes going with the unlikeliest group of people in an after-midnight shindig.

The Junker Twins and the Divine Four took up one side of the room. They joked and flirted, becoming a riot of teasing laughter that broke the social barriers.

On the other side of the room, Lilith was learning to blow perfect smoke rings from the Band Lead. Mike clicked with the Superjock on how Vegeta was the better Saiyan and Dragonball Z fighter.

Sitting nearby, Jay knew Goku was the greatest, of course, but his attention was drawn elsewhere. He'd have to defend one of his favorite anime characters another time.

YoAnna was standing away from everyone with a stranger Jay had never seen before. He was Jay's age with an air of maximum serious business. Tall, dark, and slick in a pitch-black suit that framed him perfectly like a male model, a good balance of edge and suave.

The Band Lead, Brit, leaned over. "You know how we say don't worry about the other guy. Well, sho'nuff, Mr. TakeYourGirl over there is worth a worry."

"Don't let that stop you." The Superjock, Dennis, nudged Jay's side. "I bet he can't even bench four hundred pounds."

Jay chuckled in self-deprecation since he couldn't bench half of that amount. At least Superjock Dennis and Band Lead Brit turned out to be cool people. Even the Divine Four didn't seem so bad if they could accept being in the same vicinity as a pair of hoodrats like the Junker Twins.

Though based on the scrutiny Lilith was giving the others, you'd think something was wrong.

"What's up, Lil?" Jay asked the First Nerd.

"The variances between our social statuses are deeper than our preferred tribal cliques," Lilith said. "Most of us should be split between different school zones, but our school finished construction and started accepting students before our freshman year. Our class was the first to populate it."

"It changed the school lines, giving residents from low-income areas a better chance while offering state-of-the-art equipment and rooms the other schools didn't have, which is incredibly competitive," Mike added. "That's why all of us can exist together like this."

Yea seemed like nothing unusual to Jay.

"A significant portion of the school's buildup funding comes from YoAnna's family, an open secret you have to do some digging on." Lilith glanced at the Divine Four, who fell silent suddenly. "Something I brought up with the Journalism Prez out of curiosity. She stonewalled fiercely over the matter."

"What's your point?" The Cheerleading Captain asked defensively. The tension was building suddenly. The Junker Twins shut their mouths, doing the wisest thing while sitting between the Divine Four.

"My point is YoAnna's too much of an enigma," Lilith said. "She's number four in academics, right behind the Event Planner, which is bothersome because YoAnna never shows up at the study sessions that are pivotal for achieving our ranks."

"She's not a cheater if that's what you're accusing," the Cheerleading Captain replied. 

"I don't think Lilith's accusing her of that," Mike interjected. "It's just that the three of us have known YoAnna from the same daycare. Speaking to her now after she went away long ago is a bit of a shock. It raises some questions about her circumstances and motivations. Because if she wanted to unite her old friends with her new friends, Junker Rick, Junker Tim, Superjock Dennis, and Band Lead Brit wouldn't be here."

"Then there's the boogieman boy over there keeping YoAnna occupied in secret," Lilith said.

The Divine Four looked conflicted, perhaps even uncertain, as if they were out of the loop. The Cheerleading Captain repeated herself, "What's your point?"

"Her point," Jay interrupted, "is that we're not here just to hang because we're her favorite people."

Lilith gave a slight nod.

Jay laughed. This was getting ridiculous. The mood had been pleasant and light, but the  was the type to break things down and strip them of the magic. Rather than let the charade continue, Jay inhaled a quick puff of hookah,  drank a swill of alcohol, and then got to his feet. The floor swayed underneath him as he moved over to YoAnna and the mysterious guy.

It wasn't fair that he had to look up to both of them.

"Have you been listening?" Jay asked.

"Yes," YoAnna answered, ignoring the glare from the stranger. No introductions were made, and the guy took a step back as if to dissuade the chance of a greeting.

"You're keeping the people antsy," Jay said. "Me too, honestly. Is this part of the whole Queen image?"

"I didn't mean for it to become like this, truthfully. The whole Queen thing just sorta happened." YoAnna blushed. "I do like it, of course. I prefer the treatment, but I don't want to build hostility. Especially now that I have you all here together at long last."

"I knew it," Band Lead Brit said. "My momma warned me about this. It's an orgy."

"I can't," Superjock Dennis said. "I'm waiting for marriage."

"No, no, no, this is not for an orgy!" YoAnna squealed.

"We will never judge anyone for their sexual preferences, no matter how strange, even if you're solely into feet," Junker Rick said with a tone of musicality and showmanship. "But my twin and I are quite standard in our extracurriculars. First and seconds and thirds are fine. As we switch around, we will prefer the messiness to be limited. Take note that we do not play for the other team, so we will require all the lads to maintain arms distance from us. It'll be appropriate for our delicate tastes."

"We're hood, not gross, so keep the trains clean and don't expect gay shit from us," Junker Tim summarized with a deep, gritty grunt.

That was the perfect time for the Divine Four to step in and speak down such nonsense. When they didn't, their silence had YoAnna covering her face as Jay burst into a mad, drunken laugh.

"YoAnna," barked the stranger at their party. "Get to the point. We're running out of time."

"Who are you again?" Jay slurred.

"If things work my way, you'll never get to know," the tall and dark stranger replied.

YoAnna lowered her hands from her face and sighed. The air around them seemed to move with her breath. Jay felt a shiver run up his spine. The atmosphere in the room shifted into the bizarre.

"I should've done this earlier," YoAnna said, fidgeting with her fingers, breaking the image of the Queen even further. "But I kept delaying. I'm afraid this won't work out with all of you, my chosen."

"What does that mean?" Jay asked carefully.

"It means none of you are here by accident," she admitted. "Eleven of you have been purposefully herded into our school by my designs, too. I've been tracking you for the past six years, biding my time until I've come of age tonight. Now I can present to you a choice that'll end your simple lives as mere mortals. For you all have the greatest potential to endure and enjoy the rigors of challenge and change."

Jay shook his head slowly. "But me, Mike, and Lilith have known you longer than that."

"I didn't understand my duties back then," YoAnna said shakily. "But you have no idea how ecstatic I was when my childhood friends fit the metrics I was searching for when I got serious."

She glanced at the Divine Four. "Casey, Hailey, Emily, Macy. Do not try to hide your shock. I've kept this from you on purpose. You've burdened yourselves with making my mortal high school life pleasurable while guarding me against real creeps I was clueless about. Even though our meeting and subsequent relationship weren't by chance, I'm truly in your debt as your Queen."

She panned a view over the others. "The Junker Twins do not let their shortcomings define them and meet my metrics in ways that may surprise you. Dennis's athletics are notable, but there's true valor inside of him. Lilith and Mike's academics are unquestionably high, but their divergent minds are the treasures I seek most. Brit has a power that's subtle but is drastically essential for a group like this to work."

She paused on the mysterious stranger. "The boy behind me, Frank, is number one in a global competition devised by your world's secret government agencies. It's part of an agreement to include at least one official representative to keep watch of our inner activities. But he wouldn't be here if he didn't meet my metrics as well."

Her eyes landed on Jay, saying nothing.

Jay nearly asked what made him fit her metrics. Then the blue box that had been teasing his vision earlier flickered back into view.

It stayed this time around.

You've been offered to become a Champion of YoAnna Sainte-Rhythms, the Godling of Challenge and Change, and the sole Multiverse System Guide of your home dimension. Additionally, accepting this offer will put you under allegiance and service to the Multiverse Protectorate Pantheon, granting you easier access to its holdings and support from its leader, YoAnna, and those who follow her. Do you accept the offer, yes or no?

Gasps, shrieks, and yells of surprise sounded all over the room. Jay heard enough to know he wasn't seeing this alone. The stranger, Frank, acted like he was expecting this and looked at them all contemptuously for showing surprise.

"I've been catching glimpses of this all night," Jay said in disbelief.

"I apologize," YoAnna said. "I've managed to keep this out of sight from the others until I can make the reveal. But it was hard to hold in my excitement when you showed up at the party, Jay. You alone do not fit my metrics. You freaking exceed them."

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