I'm sitting on my bed trying to concentrate on Bianca's essay, but it's hard when Selene is waging a one-woman war against mathematics on my left.
"This is actual torture!" She suddenly groans, throwing her pencil down and shadowboxing the air beside me. "Who decided math needed to exist? Because I have some words for them."
I glance at her attempted murder of air and can't help but smile. "Pretty sure they've been dead for like, a thousand years."
"Ugh, that's so unfair! I can't even yell at them!" Selene collapses dramatically onto my shoulder, her pink hair spilling across my arm. "Why is this so haaaaard?"
"I'll help you in a sec, okay?" I tell her, trying to focus on the laptop screen in front of me. "Just let me finish looking at Bianca's thing."
On my right, Bianca's leaning against my other shoulder, she's got her laptop balanced on her knees, and I'm squinting at her English essay, trying to focus.
Oh no. She's doing the thing again.
The thing where she gets bored and just... takes my hand.
My heart immediately launches into an Olympic gymnastics routine. Bianca starts playing with my fingers like they're the most fascinating toys in the world, bending them gently, tracing the lines on my palm, interlacing her fingers with mine and then separating them again.
I swear if organs could participate in the Olympics, my heart would win gold for its current performance.
Focus, Adam. English essay. Blue curtains. Literary analysis.
"Okay, so..." I clear my throat, trying to sound normal. "This is pretty good overall. But you're kinda ignoring the whole curtain thing."
"They're fucking curtains, Adam." Bianca groans, pulling at my index finger for emphasis. "Why do they need to mean something?"
"Because the author made them mean something," I say, trying not to stutter as she traces a line down my palm. "Trust me, in this story, they're actually important."
I shift between tabs with my free hand showing her sections of the novel. "Look, see how every chapter mentions them? Open curtains mean good mood, closed means depression, half-open means uncertainty."
"That's stupid."
"Yeah, well, take it up with your teacher."
"...Fuck." Bianca sighs, but she starts typing with one hand, refusing to let go of mine. "This assignment is bullshit."
I laugh again. "Just add a paragraph about the symbolism and you're golden. It's an easy A."
"Ooh! Are you done?" Selene bounces excitedly. "Can you help me now? Please? I'm dying over here!"
"Yeah, yeah, I got you." I turn to look at her math problems. "Oh wow. Okay. That's uh... that's a lot of algebra."
"I know! It's terrible! I hate it!" She shoves the textbook at me. "Make it make sense!"
Two hours later, and I find myself staring at the blocky landscape of Minecraft.
Getting everyone connected was its own adventure. Selene couldn't remember her Microsoft account password. Bianca's game needed to be updated. While, unsurprisingly, Luna already had everything ready to go.
But finally, finally, we're all spawned into the same world, standing in a little circle and talking through Discord.
"Okay, hi! Hi everyone!" Selene's cheerful voice comes through crystal clear. She's playing as a female character with a flower adorning her long pink hair.
"Hey." I jump my character up and down. I'm rocking a medieval knight look, complete with armor and a sword on my back.
"Sup." Bianca's deadpan delivery cuts through. Her character is, of course, goth: She has medium-length black hair, dark clothes, the works. Extremely on-brand.
"Um... hi…" Luna's soft voice joins in, quiet even through Discord. Her skin has little pink and white cat ears poking up from her long white hair.
"Alright team!" Selene announces. "Time to get mining and crafting!"
There's a beat of silence.
"Never say that again," Bianca says flatly.
"What? It's funny!"
"No."
I'm about to mediate when I notice something. "Uh, guys? It's already night."
"Oh." Selene's character turns to me. "Is that bad?"
An arrow hits her.
"Ahh!" She yelps, immediately sprinting off in a random direction, her character bobbing across the screen. "I'm being attacked!"
"Shit." I scan the area. There's a skeleton on the hillside and zombies spawning in the distance. Luna's already digging into the mountain wall behind us. "Okay, new plan! Luna and Bianca, make us a shelter! I'm going after Selene!"
I sprint toward the skeleton that's using my sister for target practice, watching Selene's character run in what appears to be a completely random pattern.
"Selene! Come back to spawn!"
Her character spins in a complete circle. "Which way is back?"
Oh no. "I'm coming to get you! Just stop moving!"
I sprint toward the skeleton, punching it repeatedly with my bare blocky hands.
"There's things everywhere!"
"I know! I'm fighting the skeleton, just—" I punch the skeleton frantically. "—just hold on!"
The skeleton dies in a puff of smoke and I collect my bones. "Okay, just follow me. I'm right behind you."
"Oh! When did you get here?"
"I've been here the whole time!"
"Oh. Hi!"
I lead her back toward spawn, where Luna and Bianca have somehow already excavated a decent-sized hole in the hillside. Three zombies are wandering around the entrance.
"Alright, here's the plan," I say. "I'll aggro the zombies and lead them away. Luna and Bianca, you guys open up the entrance. Selene, you run inside."
"Got it," Bianca confirms.
"Um... okay..." Luna agrees quietly.
"I'm ready!" Selene announces.
I execute the plan. Run in, slap all three zombies to get their attention, then book it away from the base. I switch to third-person view to see behind me. Luna and Bianca have opened the entrance and Selene's character is safely inside.
Then I get shot by a skeleton I didn't see.
"Shit!" My health bar drops. I start zigzagging, trying to get back to the cave.
Another arrow hits me from the side. My health stops regenerating.
"Where are these guys even coming from?!"
Then a creeper appears and explodes right next to me.
I'm at half a heart. One more hit and I'm dead.
"ADAM!" Selene shouts.
The three girls come charging out like the cavalry. Each one targets a different zombie while I sprint for my life. Bianca tanks an arrow straight to the face, her character now has an arrow comically sticking out of her head, and I barely make it inside.
"I'm good! I'm alive!" I gasp.
The girls rush back in, and Luna and Bianca immediately seal the entrance.
We all just stand there for a moment in our tiny dirt cave, catching our breath. Bianca's character still has that arrow sticking out of her head.
"Well! That was fun!" Selene says brightly.
All our characters turn to stare at her. Bianca punches her.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
Bianca's character just stands there ominously. Then she punches Selene again.
"Okay, now you're just being mean!"
"Heh." Bianca does her evil little laugh.
Selene punches her back, and for a moment they're just hitting each other's characters while Luna and I watch.
"Should we… stop them?" Luna asks.
"Nah, let them work it out," I say.
When they stop fighting, we spend the rest of the in-game night expanding our cave, mining out dirt and stone. It's incredibly peaceful. We're just breaking blocks and making casual conversation.
Morning comes, and we make a two-block viewing hole in the wall.
"Okay, we need to check if it's safe," Selene whispers.
"They can't actually hear you," Bianca points out.
"I'm being immersive!"
"You're being a dork."
"You're a dork!"
"Can we focus?" I interrupt. "Who's going out first? Because I'm super low, so... not it."
"Not it," Selene and Bianca say simultaneously.
"...Oh no…" Luna mutters.
"It's okay!" Selene says quickly. "We'll all go together! Safety in numbers!"
The three of them venture outside while I wait in our dirt hole.
Silence.
"...We're good!" Selene finally announces. "No monsters!"
We fall into the standard Minecraft routine. Gathering wood, making tools, upgrading to stone. Luna starts building a house. Bianca explores and hunts animals with ruthless efficiency. Selene sets up a farm, humming to herself while she plants seeds.
I find a cave system and spend most of my time exploring it, occasionally returning to base to drop off materials.
While we play, the conversation flows easily.
We drift through various different topics: school, our favorite teachers, what anime we're currently watching. It's easy. Comfortable. Fun.
Eventually I decide to head back to base before we log off for the night.
But when I get there, I stop dead.
"Holy shit. What the hell?" I stare at my screen. "Guys, did you... did you build all of this?"
Since the last time I surfaced, Luna has constructed a cottage. It has windows, a sloped roof, a porch… The works.
Next to it, Selene's created a neat wheat farm, the golden crops swaying slightly.
"This looks incredible! You guys are like, actually talented. I've just been mining in a cave."
"It's not… that impressive…" Luna says softly. "I just… copied some things I saw…"
"Don't sell yourself short," Bianca cuts in. "This is really fucking good."
"Thank you..." Luna sounds genuinely happy.
"We should probably log off soon, right?" I ask. "It's getting late."
"Aw, already?" Selene whines. "But we're having fun!"
"We can play again tomorrow."
"Ooh! Yes! Same time tomorrow!"
We all head inside to check out the interior. That's when I notice the bedroom.
Three beds are clustered together on one side. Then there's a deliberate gap. Then one single, lonely bed sits by itself against the far wall.
"Uh... why is that one bed all alone over there?"
"That's yours!" Selene says cheerfully.
"What?! That's so depressing!" I navigate over and break the bed, placing it next to theirs. "Why am I sleeping alone like some kind of outcast?"
Bianca immediately breaks it and places it back in the corner. Her character punches me. "Stay over there, dork."
"This is discrimination! This is segregation! This is—"
"Sexism?" Bianca offers.
"Yes! Thank you! This is sexism of the highest order!"
"Cry about it."
I make my character get into the segregated bed, pouting even though no one can see my face. "Fine. But I'm not happy about this."
The screen starts to fade for the night cycle.
Then I notice Luna's character. She's just... standing there. Looking at me. Then at her bed. Then back at me.
She breaks her bed and places it directly next to mine.
Stupid as it is, my heart skips a beat.
"Oh my god, Luna, you're so sweet!" Selene squeals.
"I guess... if Luna's okay with it..." Bianca says slowly. "Then whatever."
Both my sisters break their beds and place them around mine, creating a four-bed cluster.
The screen fades to black as we all sleep through the Minecraft night together.
I'm smiling at my screen like an idiot.