Filed to story: That Campus Prince Is a Girl
Cameron was speechless. Sure, her cooking was decent. But their building had a food delivery service with restaurant- quality meals.
Bradley laughed. “I’m just messing with you. I’ll let you know if I think of something.”
Cameron nodded.
Bradley dangled his car keys. “I’ll drive you to Murphy Manor now.”
“Aren’t you busy today?” Cameron asked.
“Nope, not at all.” Bradley had actually cleared his schedule to take Cameron golfing today. He’d made the arrangements last night.
“Thanks for the ride then,” Cameron said.
Bradley dropped her off at the entrance to Murphy Manor. As she was unbuckling her seatbelt, he asked, “Want me to pick you up this afternoon?”
Cameron shook her head. “No need. Xander and I are heading back to campus together.”
“Cool. See you tonight.” Bradley waved.
“Bye.” Cameron disappeared through the massive front doors of Murphy Manor.
Bradley checked the time-nine-thirty in the morning. ‘Might as well head to the law firm now, he thought.
The housekeeper led Cameron to the main living room of Murphy Manor. Logan and Gwen were out today.
Xander was sprawled on the couch, game controller in hand, his eyes locked on the massive screen where an intense battle sequence played out. He was glued to his video game.
“Mr. Wallace, please have a seat.” The housekeeper respectfully served drinks and snacks. Before Logan and Gwen left, they’d specifically instructed her to take good care of Cameron.
“Thanks,” Cameron said, but before he could finish, Xander tossed a game controller at him.
“Hey punk, play with me,” Xander said, not looking away from the screen.
The game’s sound effects blasted in surround sound. While Xander found it immersive, Cameron just thought it was obnoxious.
“Xander,” Cameron frowned, “I’m here to tutor you. When are you planning to wrap this up?”
Xander’s eyes remained glued to the screen. “Why stop when the game’s this good? Play with me. I’ll still pay you 30 grand an hour.”
Cameron was speechless. He set the controller on the table and frowned, “Enough playing.”
“No way,” Xander protested. “I’m not stopping.”
“You really suck at this game, yet you never want to quit,” Cameron remarked.
Xander turned his head toward Cameron in slow, robotic movements, his eyes widening. “What did you just say, punk?” ‘Suck at this game? Is he talking about me?’ Xander thought. He was playing a fighting game. He’d been dominating for three weekends straight and was about to beat it.
‘How dare Cameron call me bad at it?’ Xander thought. ‘That’s going too far!’
Xander shoved the controller back into Cameron’s hands. “You think I suck? Fine, you try it.”
Xander was stuck on the final level. He’d been playing for two days straight, but this boss was impossibly difficult to beat. Every time Xander nearly defeated the boss, he’d end up dead instead.
The more Xander failed, the more determined Successfully unlocked! gling with this level for two days straight, his enthusiasm hadn’t dimmed a bit.
“If I beat this, we’ll start our lesson?” Cameron asked. She wasn’t particularly excited about tutoring Xander, but she’d taken his money, so she had to follow through.
“Ha! Big talk from you, little punk,” Xander laughed. While they were chatting, his character got stomped to death by the final boss.
Cameron took the controller with a blank expression and selected ‘restart”. The sound of combat filled the room.
Xander stopped laughing and folded his arms, watching the screen like he was settling in for a show. “Alright punk, let’s see how good you really are.
“Wait, why are you jumping on its head? You need to hit the chest. That’s where it takes the most damage!
“Trust me, I learned this from two days of getting my ass kicked. Get down now!”
Xander couldn’t help backseat gaming, getting more worked up than Cameron herself.
Cameron completely ignored him. She kept her character firmly planted on the boss’ head, unloading a barrage of bullets directly into its skull.
At first, the health bar barely moved. But after 30 seconds, Cameron blasted a hole right through the boss’ head, and its health started dropping like crazy.
A few minutes later, Cameron’s character still had more than half its health left when the boss collapsed. “VICTORY” and ” LEVEL COMPLETE” flashed across the screen.
Xander was speechless.
Cameron tossed the controller back to him. “So, are we doing this tutoring session in the study or what?”
Xander’s mouth slowly closed. He leaped off the couch and grabbed Cameron’s arm. “You little punk! Did you play this game before? Is that how you knew the head was the weak point?”
Cameron peeled his hand off and brushed her clothes. “Never played it.”
“No way. You must have,” Xander insisted.
“Why would I need to play it? I could see the solution with one glance.”
Xander was speechless again. ‘One glance?’ he thought. ‘It has taken me two whole days to get nowhere!’ He felt like he’d just been hit with a critical damage multiplier.
Cameron stood up and headed for the stairs. “Come on. Tutoring time.”
Xander scrambled after her. “Seriously, how are you so good at everything? Basketball, running, academics, and now gaming too?
“Not gonna lie, if you were really my little brother, I’d be pretty proud.”
Cameron stopped in her tracks as Xander babbled behind her. “You think I’d be proud to have you as my brother?”
Xander’s mouth snapped shut.
In the study, Xander flopped onto the couch and crossed his arms. “You look down on me, don’t you, punk?”
“What do you think?” Cameron replied.
Xander lifted his chin. “Listen up, I’m actually pretty awesome myself. You know I have tons of fangirls at Langford Academy, right?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Cameron said dismissively. “Can we start the tutoring now?”
“What’s the rush? The clock started ticking the moment you walked into Murphy Manor.”
“The clock starts now,” Cameron countered.
“Whatever. Let’s get this over with so we can play another round together.”
Cameron opened her notebook, searching for last week’s math practice test. “Not interested.”
Xander rolled his eyes. “I’ve figured you out. You’re only interested in one thing, money.”
“Smart,” Cameron scoffed.
Xander looked thoughtful. “Is the Wallace family that broke? Are you guys poor?”
‘Could it be that Milena won’t see me because the Wallace family is poor and she’s insecure?’ Xander thought. ‘I’ve never looked down on her.’
So Xander pulled out his phone and texted Mil
Successfully unlocked!
Xander: [Ms. Wallace, I don’t care that your famil, poroty you. fault, so you don’t need to feel insecure.]
Milena was dumbfounded.
Milena’s face darkened when she saw Xander’s WhatsApp message. What bothered her most was that he’d hit the nail on the head-she was insecure.
The Wallace family was doing fine compared to most people, but at Langford Academy, where everyone was loaded, Milena was at the bottom of the food chain. Having Xander point it out so bluntly was mortifying.
After struggling with what to say for a long time, Milena decided not to respond at all.
Meanwhile, Xander was smugly congratulating himself on being so “understanding.” He stared at his phone screen with a goofy smile, certain that Milena must be touched by his thoughtfulness.
“Ahem.” Cameron rapped her knuckles on the desk. “Xander, I’m trying to tutor you here. Could you please respect my time and put your phone down?”
Xander pouted, “I’m just texting your sister.”
Cameron’s face remained expressionless. “If you don’t want these lessons, I can refund the remaining 85 thousand dollars right now. Don’t waste my time.”
Seeing that Cameron was genuinely annoyed, Xander tossed his phone aside. “Fine! I’ll stop. Go ahead and teach. Gosh, you’re so moody. Good luck finding someone who’ll marry you with that attitude.”
Cameron just furrowed her brows slightly at his comment. She skipped making Xander do the problems himself and jumped straight into explaining the first question.
