It’s June 11, 2013. Two players, Lilyana Kuznetsov and Nova Mosely, are sitting under a large screened area which contains a dirty glass table and chairs. In the corner sits a dilapidated hot tub. At the table, we’re locked in combat playing Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, the most recently released main series games in the Pokémon franchise. However, things unfortunately aren’t going so well for me.

“Are you shitting your pants yet?” Lily asks me.

“No!” I exclaim. “That’s gross!”

Lily is my best friend, who lives in the same neighborhood as me. She’s rather overweight and likes to keep her hair on the short side, though the hair she does have is just long enough to be kept in a ponytail. I come over here to play video games with her all the time; and today, we’re battling each other in Pokémon.

Well, it’s more like we were. The match just came to an end, as my final Pokémon, Scrafty, faints after a second Thunderbolt from her Darkrai.

Darkrai is an unfairly overpowered legendary Pokémon that she loves using against me. It has unique access to a move called Dark Void, which has a 4/5 chance of putting the opponent to sleep, which basically just means that your Pokémon is useless for several turns while Darkrai tears through it with its terrifying offensive stats. I thought that Scrafty would be a good counter to it due to its typing and ability, but nope.

“We’re battling again,” I tell her, incensed. “And this time, you’re not allowed to use your goddamn piece of shit Darkrai.”

Lily cackles evilly. “You mean you’ve had all these years and a whole new generation, and you still haven’t found a better counter?”

“That thing is fucking broken!” I say. “It’s an unfair f -…”

She shushes me before I can finish my thought. “Stop swearing,” she whispers. “I hear someone coming.”

A few seconds later, her grandma has come out onto the porch with us, holding a small box that's wrapped with multi-colored wrapping paper.

“Oh man,” I say. “Is that…”

“Here’s your birthday present,” she says. “Consider it a thank you for being such a good friend to Lily all these years.”

She lays the box down on the table. I begin tearing it open anxiously. I can’t believe it… It can’t be… I honestly had forgotten it was my birthday today, but I guess it is...

“No way!” I shout, as I see exactly what I hoped it would be: a new 3DS! “My mom’s gonna be p- ticked off at you guys!” My mom has been getting onto me for my video games a lot recently.

“You’ll just have to keep it our little secret,” Lily says, winking at me.

“You may want to be heading home soon,” her grandma says. “I’m sure your parents will want to spend your birthday with you.”

I'm not so sure about that. “I’m not in a big hurry,” I tell her.

“Yeah, grandma, it’s only four!” Lily says quickly. “He can stay a little bit longer. We still have business to settle, after all.”

Her grandma chuckles. “All right, just don’t be out here too late.”

After her grandma goes back into the house, Lily looks at me. “Are your parents…?”

“Yeah,” I say quickly, because I know exactly what she’s going to ask and I don’t want to hear her say it out loud.

As I take the system out of its box and turn it on, I start thinking about what games I would like on it. There are a few staples I know I need to play, and the next Pokémon game is coming out by the end of the year…

“Oh yeah, before I forget,” Lily says, “You can have this now.”

She gives me another wrapped box, this one smaller and square shaped. I have a feeling that there’s a game in there, and sure enough, it’s Mario Kart 7!

“You guys are so cool,” I say to her, feeling even more appreciation for her and her family. This reminds me of something, though... “Shit. I forgot to tell your grandparents thank you!”

Lily laughs at me. “Don’t sweat it.”

I can’t help but to “sweat it”, though. I know from experience that people get angry at you if you don’t thank them when they give you presents.

While I’m entering in my name and the date and everything, I can’t help but to start thinking about what I was trying not to earlier.

“Man, I hope that I don’t have to move,” I say. “You know I’m not too good at making new friends.”

Lily doesn’t have a response for this.

To take my mind off of the depressing shit, I plot a new counter for Darkrai while I ride my bike home later. However, when I arrive at the back door, I can hear the voices yelling from inside… I take a deep breath and open the door.

“...won’t even please your own wife!” My mom’s voice shouts as I enter. “What kind of man are you?”

I quickly shuffle through the kitchen, trying not to be seen. To drown out their voices, I try and focus harder on my previous train of thought…

“One who wants some peace and quiet that YOU won’t let me have!” My dad shouts back.

Whew, I managed to get by without them noticing me. Anyways, maybe a Breloom with Technician could work. Boosted Mach Punch could lay it out before it has a chance to…

“Well, newsflash, Jace, the rest of us in society don’t get any peace and quiet! We won’t until we’re dead.”

It’s really hard to concentrate when there are people yelling nearby… Let’s see, maybe I’ll try to distract myself by playing a different game.

“Aren’t you ever gonna chill for just two seconds! You ain’t human!”

Hmm… how about Star Fox Assault? I still need to finish that.

“I ain’t soft like you, I work for a god damn living and I’m tired of getting questions about why I still put up with you! It’s no wonder you don’t even know how to raise a child right!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know that boy isn’t right, Jace!”

Damn it, I wish they would shut up. I don’t see Kat anywhere, I bet she’s hiding in her room again.

“You heard what that doctor said! It’s no one’s fault!”

“I don’t give a damn about any doctor! You’re too weak to knock any sense into him, that’s what the problem is!”

Let’s see here… what was I doing in the game last time? Oh yeah, hunting for Pigma…

There is a loud clattering of dishes from the kitchen, followed by footsteps. “I’m not gonna be knocking anything… you’re crazy, woman!”

“DON’T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!”

Suddenly, a huge crash sounds from the kitchen as a plate was hurled against the wall.

“JESUS CHRIST!” the man yells.

That’s the second time that’s happened this month. Can’t they just let me play my games in peace?

“Nova! There’s someone knocking at the door!” My dad’s voice says from behind me.

“Huh? What?” I ask, confused.

“It’s your friend, right?” he questions. “Shouldn’t you get it?”

“Oh. I guess so,” I admit, standing him. I see him leaning against the entrance to the kitchen, chuckling at me.

“What were you doing, boy?” he asks me.

“I was just thinking about stuff!” I defend myself. He just keeps chuckling and walks into the kitchen. I don’t think it’s that funny.

About a year after that day, my parents got divorced. My Dad initially got custody of Kat and I, and he moved us to Enchantment City, away from our old home in New Braunfels. Before I moved, Lily told me that she actually had a cousin who lived in the same town named Anja Beulen. And then, she just so happens to be in the same section as me in band. I guess it is a small world or whatever. Figuring that lightning ain’t gonna strike twice, I invited her over to my house after band today for some Super Smash Bros.

I pause the game and run up to the door. I check the peephole, and just as I thought, it’s Anja. I open the door.

“Hey there Nov,” she says. “Hmm. Nov… your name isn't shortened quite as easily as the others.”

“Is it that girl of yours?” My dad calls out from the kitchen.

“Yeah!” I call back, and I really wish he hadn’t said that because as we walk back into the living room, Kat appears at the door to her bedroom.

“Ooh, Nova’s got a girlfriend now,” she says.

“Shut up,” I tell her. “Get back to your room.”

“I’m surprised at you, Nova. I thought you were gay!”

“You don’t know what I am,” I tell her. She runs away giggling, and I make to slap her but miss and hit the wall on purpose.

“You never told me that you have a little sister!” Anja says to me.

“Yeah, well, I try to forget she exists,” I say, as I make my way back to the TV. “Come on, it’s time to Smash.”

I hear her giggling behind me too, though I can’t figure out why.

Smash Bros. is going great. I’m winning probably three quarters of the matches we’re in. She’s trying to counter my Dedede with fast characters like Sonic and Sheik. Along the way, though, we discuss what’s really important in life: which characters will show up in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. (Personally, I’m pulling for Mewtwo to return.)

After my fourth consecutive win, Anja finishes off her third Dr. Pepper with a loud slurp. “Man, what is your secret, Nova?” she asks me.

I shrug. “I don’t have one. Just get good.”

“Awh, come on. I bet you practice all the time,” she says. “I guess I need to start stepping up my game. By the end of the fall, I’ll be beating you, and that’s a promise!”

Her words, however, make me pause for a moment. They make me feel strangely sad…

“Something on your mind?” She asks me.

“Um… can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“I’m not sure how much longer I’m gonna be around here,” I admit.

She frowns at me. “What do you mean? Didn’t you just move here?”

“Yeah… well, my mom is trying to get custody back of my sister and I,” I explain. “If she does, I’ll have to move back.

“Hmm,” Anja says. “How do you feel about that?”

I feel myself getting mad just thinking about it. “I hope she doesn’t win,” I say bluntly. “She’s an insane psychopath.”

“Really?” Anja says, staring at me.

“Yeah.”

“If that’s true, surely the judge won’t give you guys over to her?”

“Well… she doesn’t act like that when we’re in court,” I explain. “She’s a lawyer, you see. She knows how to get on a judge’s good side.”

“I see. So, someone who’s two-faced,” Anja says. “Who’s overseeing your trial?”

“Um… some old dude named ‘Pavia.’”

Anja shakes her head. “My dad says that man is crooked,” she says. “Rich people always seem to come out on top whenever he’s overseeing a case… so he’s most likely taking bribes.”

This information gives me a jolt. Dad doesn’t have a ton of money, he’s barely scraping for us by working at his dead-end job. Mom, on the other hand, is a lawyer for the big oil company Vermillion Oil, and makes a pretty substantial income…

“Do you think that… my mom might be bribing him?” I ask her.

She shrugs, a grim look on her face. “I don’t know. Maybe. If you don’t mind me asking, what’d your mom do to make you not want to live with her?”

“She’s horrible,” I explain. “Always screaming at my dad, and at my sister and I. She throws stuff around when she doesn’t get her way. She always calls me a ‘freak’ and tries to stop me from playing video games.”

“So you’d prefer to live with your dad?” she says. “Your situation does seem… rather unusual.”

“It’s hell, is what it is,” I go on. “I really don’t want to have to go back to living with her… Although, I guess it would be nice to see Lily again.”

Anja thinks about this for a moment, looking pensive.

“I’m turning sixteen this December, and when I do, I’ll be getting my real driver’s license,” she explains to me. “Maybe… if this court thing works out… I can take us both up there to visit her?”

I’m kinda taken aback by that. “Really? You’d be willing to drive all that way?” I ask.

“It’s not that far,” she says. “We’d just have to hop on I-35, survive whatever the traffic is like in Austin, and then exit just past San Marcos. Shouldn’t take longer than an hour. Maybe an hour and a half if Austin is bad.”

“Wow, thanks,” I tell her, smiling despite myself. The idea of all three of us being able to meet does sound pretty fun… but then, I realize why it probably won’t happen… and my heart sinks back to its regular place.

“If that Pavia guy is really accepting bribes from my mom,” I say, “We have no chance of winning. I’m probably gonna have to move back there, whether I like it or not.”

Anja’s face suddenly flashes with… something. Anger, I think. “It’s not fair,” she says. “There has to be some way to fight back… even though we’re kids…”

“If you find out something, I’d love to hear about it.” I tell her. I pick up my own Dr. Pepper and start drinking it for something to do.

“When I’m an adult,” she says, “I’m not going to let shit like this happen anymore. People like that Justice Pavia don’t deserve power. I’m tired of politicians with no principles who can be bought by the wealthy running this country. You know what? I think Citizens United was the worst Supreme Court decision since Plessy v. Ferguson!”

“Uh… Citizens what?” I ask.

“Oh, uh, don’t worry about it,” she says. “Sorry, I got a little worked up there…”

I shrug “Come on, then. Let’s play another round,” I say, picking my controller back up.

By the time I’m driving home from Nova’s, it’s already dark out. That meetup was definitely successful. We had a really good time together. Even though I lost probably nine out of ten matches, I found him fun to hang out with. That said, his story about the custody battle weighs heavily on my mind. Will we be able to find some solution to let him stay with his dad? Or will this story turn into a tragedy, a reminder that we are stuck on this cruel bitch of an earth with almost no agency? I’m Anja Beulen, and we’ll be finding out together on… Deep In The Heart. *Theme music plays*

…Okay, I probably need to quit with the internal monologue and focus on the road.

I get home to find Dad sitting on the couch and reading as usual. My father honestly kind of looks like a “stereotypical therapist”. He has short, brown hair, is somewhat on the corpulent side, and has a pair of circular reading glasses.

“Did you have fun with your friend?” He asks, as I walk into the living room.

“I sure did!” I assure him. “But man, I didn’t realize how bad I was a Smash Bros… I need to train.”

“Well, just make sure that you do your schoolwork first,” he tells me.

“Of course, of course. Speaking of which… I should probably go start on that.”

I head back into my room. It doesn’t have a lot of furniture, just a bed and a desk with a computer on it, as well as a bunch of office supplies and a stack of cases for 3DS and DS games. There’s also a bookshelf against the back wall and books and clothes strewn all over the floor. I’ve never been much of a stickler for cleanliness.

I lean back onto my bed and lay on my back for a while. I know I like, just said that I was going to start on my homework, but… I don’t really feel like it.

The longer I sit, the more I find that what Nova told me about the custody trial with his mom is weighing heavily on me, for whatever reason. Man, I just wish there was something I could do… Thinking about how helpless I am to change things right now is depressing as hell…

Thankfully, a convenient distraction comes just a few minutes later, as I feel my phone ringing. I pick it up to see that it’s my Aunt Kierstyn!

Aunt Kierstyn is my mom’s sister, so in a way she’s the only piece of her I have left. Like Mom, she found herself in government work, albeit of a lower profile. She actually lives here in town, but is frequently gone for long periods of time for her job.

I visit her place occasionally, and frequently keep in touch via phone. I often vent to her about school worries, and in return, she tells me about weird stuff that she’s learned in her line of work. She’s a huge fan of conspiracy theories- I sometimes get the feeling that she only took a government job to dig up dirt.

That said, somehow after Mom passed away, she and Dad became estranged, so he doesn’t really like me to visit her too often. He thinks that it’s really weird that she has a daughter (Lily), but she doesn’t even live in the same town as her. Lily and I’s grandparents have to take care of her most of the time. And yeah, I’ll admit that is pretty weird. When I ask her about it, she says that she visits Lily whenever she can, but is really busy with her job.

Anyways, I’m glad that she’s calling me. There was something I wanted to ask her about anyway…

“Hello there, Anja!” She greets me after I pick up. “How’s your first week of school been?”

“Oh, pretty good,” I say. “Classes seem okay so far.”

“That’s good to hear. Tell me about what’s been going on.”

And tell her I do. I talk about marching band, and how we’re preparing for our first football game next Friday, immediately followed by our first contest the next day. I also talk about the friends I’ve made so far. I tell her about Ashley, who I enjoy talking to despite the fact that she’s not very easy to get along with, and her shy best friend Zoe. Finally, I talk about Nova, and how bad I feel for him over what’s been happening with his parents.

“Yes, it’s really tough to have to watch people you care about get swept away by forces out of any of our control,” she comments solemnly. “Still, it’s good to hear that you’re making friends. I know that the past couple of years have been rough on you.”

“Yeah, they sure have been,” I say. “But I have a feeling that things are going to be better- even if it means I have to degrade myself by being friends with a bunch of freshmen.”

She laughs at that. “Well, don’t get too high and mighty. You were a freshman just last year, after all.”

“Yeah, I know,” I say. “Actually… speaking of friends, there’s something weird that happened recently that I wanted to ask you about.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“I saw something weird on one of my friend’s phones the other day. She had an app that resembled a strange eye over a red background. I swear that I’ve seen that same symbol before… I think it was when I was visiting you once.”

“You saw that on her phone?” She questions, suddenly sounding very alarmed. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I know what I saw. What do you think it is?” I ask her.

“It’s… something which you definitely don’t want to mess around with, Anja,” she says seriously. “If I were you, I’d try to forget about that as quickly as I could.”

I frown to myself, disappointed that she isn’t more forthcoming with information. Still, I can tell by her tone that she isn’t going to relent, so I drop the subject.

The rest of the conversation goes normally, and she leaves me to finally start my homework after making plans for us to see each other on Labor Day.

Still… I haven’t forgotten about that weird app. Call it reverse psychology, but the way she reacted to me bringing it up only makes me way more curious to find out what it is…