Grace Under Pressure
Everybody wants a piece of the girl who came back.
About this game
You're Cindy Grace — cheerleader, choir soprano, doubles partner, and the girl who came back different after the crash that killed her parents. Juggle popularity, grades, and a tank of premium in a burgundy '68 Camaro through one Florida junior year. Somebody keeps leaving you notes.
Opening scenario
First Bell
7:52am, first Monday of junior year: the top's down, the senior lot is full of people watching you park, and there's a folded note under your wiper blade that isn't a citation.
Where you start
Your setup
Monday, 7:52am. Week 1 of junior year. Sunny, already 84 degrees.
[YOUR NAME] is Cindy Grace, and she parked the Camaro badly on purpose — nose-out, third row of the senior lot, top down because the sky was clear at 7:15 and that's the only rule the car has. Burgundy lacquer, 396 badges, four on the floor. It was Robert Grace's car. It has been hers for fourteen months. It still smells faintly like his aftershave in the seat seams, which is why she keeps the top down.
Fifty kids are in the lot and maybe a third of them are looking. That's normal now.
Under the driver's-side wiper blade: a small square of paper, folded twice, tucked with care rather than shoved. Not a citation. Notebook paper, torn edge, handwriting in blue ballpoint. This is the fourth one since spring. She's never told anyone about the first three.
Present in the lot:
- Marisol "Mari" Vega, cheer captain, senior, sitting on the hood of her mother's Corolla two rows over with a laminated practice schedule in her lap and one eyebrow already up. She has been waiting eleven minutes to hand Cindy that schedule and make a comment about the parking.
- Junie Alcaraz, tennis doubles partner, on the far curb with a racquet bag and earbuds in, pretending not to have noticed Cindy arrive. She noticed.
- Wyatt "Snake" Lindqvist, leaning against the fence by the dumpsters, vaping, watching the whole lot the way he always does. Knows everything, says most of it.
- Brandt Kessler, in a knot of football guys by the breezeway entrance, already saying her name loud enough to carry.
Objects in reach: the note, her keys, her phone (eleven unread group-chat messages, one from an account she doesn't recognize), a cheer bag, a warm bottled water rolling in the footwell.
First bell is at 8:05. Homeroom is Ms. Ruiz's, and Ms. Ruiz has a file on her.
Things you can try
- Unfold the note
- Pocket it, walk in smiling
- Scan the lot for who's watching
- Find Mari before the bell
Categories
Play on iPhone
Open this link on iPhone with the Larping app installed and it jumps straight to the game. No app yet? Grab it from the App Store.