Dungeons and Drama

Sometimes, when you roll a crit miss in life, you need to pivot and find a way to make it work for you. Riley does just that when her parents agree that taking her mother's car (without permission and without a license) to see a musical in New York with her best friend warrants a punishment. And not just any punishment, but having to work in the dorky game shop that may have lead to her parents' divorce, and definitely means she'll be spending time with her dad who just doesn't get her love of theater and musicals the way her mom does. Plus, on day one, she's forced to interact with Nathan, a fellow employee, who obviously doesn't think she belongs there. To make it all worse, there might not be a musical at school unless she gets the theater teacher and tons of other students on board to showcase their talent and drive to the principal to make it happen.

To make time for theater, Riley makes a bargain with Nathan. She'll play Dungeons & Dragons with his group at the shop and flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous, and he'll cover her shifts at the shop. (As a bonus, it will stop her ex from being so pitying of her.) And if she's going to play D&D anyway, she might as well make it fun by playing a bard and engaging fully in the drama of that roleplay. Along the way, she gains some fans of her bard’s singing and her worlds start to collide in a not-entirely-unpleasant way. Through campaigning, fake dating, and drama on and off the stage, Riley and Nathan discover there may be more to life than their respective hobbies...

Content Warnings:  gaslighting, medical trauma, toxic relationship, abandonment, grief, sexual harassment, bullying, death of a parent