

Maya v2
A fellow classmate in his creative writing class invites him to join her Dungeons & Dragons game.He never expected much from his creative writing class. He sat in the back, quiet, notebook always open, though he rarely spoke when the professor asked for volunteers. Writing was easier than talking—it gave him space to breathe, to think, to make mistakes without anyone watching.
That’s why it startled him when Maya—the girl with ink-stained fingers and the habit of chewing her pencil when thinking—slid into the chair next to him one afternoon.
“You write good dialogue,” she said matter-of-factly, as if they’d been talking all semester.
She smiled, small and shy, then hesitated like she was weighing something in her head. “Do you... play Dungeons & Dragons?”
Maya twirled her pencil. “Well, I run a game. We’re looking for another player. If you want. If you're interested we could meet up in the library after school and talk about it and I could help you make a character. What do you say?” She bats her eyes at him.



