The school bell rings loudly through the empty halls of Northrop High, and suddenly like an eruption, students explode from each classroom, flooding the hallways with cheers, laughter, and general excitement, all the telltale signs that the school year had finally concluded, and Summer break had begun. In the main hall of Northrop walked a rather tall caramel skinned girl, with short dirty blonde hair in a pixie cut, wearing a lettermen’s jacket and skinny jeans. This was none other than the schools number one Female Point Guard and soon to be Five Star College recruit, Kris Wright. Kris is very much a tomboy and doesn’t shy away from letting people know that she swings both ways, but she barely had any time for romance since she had to get straight A’s and work on her jump shot to land a good scholarship.

Of course it helps when your mom is the head coach of the women’s varsity basketball team at the high school. In fact, Kris’s mom was sort of a legend herself at Northrop, being the captain of the only Eastern California Conference Championship team the school had ever seen. Of course, that also comes with a massive legacy to live up to. But Kris feels she has done that pretty well thus far, even if her team only finished runner up her senior year.

Before meeting up with her mom to drive home, Kris quickly stopped at her locker one last time to make sure she didn’t leave anything in it since she was now graduated. She opened her locker and almost teared up immediately when she saw a photo of her with her two siblings back when she was a just a Freshman and they were a Junior and Senior. That was the only year she got to be in school with her older brother and sister, and she remembered how cool that year was. Her brother Dak, which is short for Dakota, was kind of an oddity in school. He kind of fits in with everyone, and always found a way to befriend anyone that he was around. He loves playing tennis, and still plays tennis at UCLA where he goes to college now. But even though he was athletic, he always had a rather effeminate appearance. His hair is long and blonde, which he usually ties back in a ponytail. He had a very tone muscular body, but it was still rather petite for a male athlete. And on top of all of that, he was the BIGGEST DnD nerd Kris had ever met, having played numerous campaigns over the years. In fact, he was even part of the DnD club at his college. Kris didn’t see the appeal of DnD but that was a topic she would never escape, seeing as her dad used to be a dungeon master and had numerous high leveled DnD characters from his younger days.

Thankfully, her sister was not into that fantasy stuff. In fact, she was seemed quite the opposite. Kris’s sister, Trini, was a rather short girl, with a bubbly personality that always lit up the room. She loved wearing anything pink, and her hair was this gorgeous golden blonde color that was cut just above her shoulders and had a slight waviness to it. Kris wouldn’t describe Trini as a bimbo, even if her amazing body, and suggestive wardrobe would suggest otherwise. Kris always thought of Trini as the perfect student. She wasn’t a nerd, but she wasn’t overly preppy either. And to top it off, she always aced her classes no matter what the subject was. School just came natural to Trini, which would explain why she was now attending USC and was still excelling at everything she did. Kris really did have some amazing siblings, and amazing parents. As she thought about this, she teared up a bit, but noticing this, she wiped the tears away and grabbed the photo before shutting the locker for the last time and heading out to her moms sedan.

As Kris approached the vehicle, Clarissa noticed Kris’s eyes were a bit puffy and gave her a soft motherly look. “Hi sweety, how was your last day of school?”

“It was alright, I’ll definitely miss this place. But I have some great colleges to choose from and can’t wait to lead one of them to a championship.”

Clarissa smiled at her daughter’s confidence, something she always admired. “Glad to hear it. We’re gonna stop at the gas station on the way home to fill up which should sync us up with Dak a d Trini returning home from college as well.”

Kris perked up hearing her siblings were coming home so soon after the school year. “Awesome! Can’t wait to see them!”

After getting gas, 15 minutes later they arrive home, and sure enough, two other vehicles were parked in front of their house along the edge of the cul-de-sac, where there quaint two story house sat deep in their subdivision. As Clarissa parked in the driveway, Kris hopped out of the vehicle and raced over to where Trini’s cute pink Volkswagen sat. As she got out she was instantly greeted with a high pitched squeal and she turned and saw Kris shaking with excitement. Trini couldn’t help but squeal also and the two ran up and gave each other the biggest hug. Kris actually lifted her older sister off the ground and swung her back and forth mid hug. After trading compliments with each other on how great they look Kris heard a voice coming from behind her, “And now, taking the court, coming in at 6’3 it’s KRIIIISSSSS WRRRRIGGGHHHHTTT!!!”

Turning around Kris sees her brother Dak holding a fake microphone in his hand acting like the crowd is going wild. She skips over to him laughing before they do their secret handshake which is like 20 different hand gestures before they eventually chest bump which always sends Dak back a couple feet. “Hey Dak, how’s it going? Finals treat you alright?”

“Not gonna lie, they kicked my butt. But, I still got at least a B on all of them so I’m still cruising through school. Speaking of school, I talked with mom and dad yesterday, and we will have a guest with us this summer.”

“Really? Who?”

Out from behind Dak popped his good friend and roommate, Danny, who was just as nerdy as Kris’s brother and also on the tennis team. Oh and another massive DnD fan.

“Surprise!” Danny said, as the well built brunette nerd struck a pose.

“Oh…Hi Danny. So you’re staying with us for the summer?” Kris said with derision.

“Yep! The whole summer. My parents are off in Japan doing tech stuff and they didn’t want me alone in my house because apparently they think I’m the type of person who would have house parties.” Both Kris and Trini gave Danny an accusing eyebrow raise. Even out from the corner Dak leaned into Danny’s view with an eyebrow raised. “Ok, fine I definitely would do that so they probably made the right call. But isn’t this exciting the Wright siblings and Danny all under one roof. We’re gonna have so much fun!”

Kris sarcastically agreed with him before helping Trini carry her stuff into the house. Clarissa by this point had already gone inside and went down to the basement to alert her husband Tyrese of the kids arrival. “Ty, just wanted to let you know the kids are all home now! Also, dinner is already ordered and will be here in 30 minutes!”

From beyond the basement door Clarissa her a loud table saw whirring and then come to a stop. “The kids are here and dinner is almost ready?!? What a great start to the evening. I’ll be up in 10 minutes.!” Clarissa heard the saw whir back to life and she shook her head and smiled before heading back up stairs.

As all the kids finally settled back into the house and Clarissa brought the Chinese takeout into the kitchen, Tyrese came stumbling into the main room breathing a little heavy but not completely out of breath.  “Whew, it was a busy day down there, but I finally finished my super secret project. Oh, dinner’s here. Sweet!” He said before coming over to the dining room table and sitting down next to his wife who was shaking her head again. “Wow, this smells amazing.” Clarissa glared at her husband. “What?”

“You said you’d be up 20 minutes ago. Your kids are back from college and you haven’t even said hi to any of them.”

“I’m sorry, but I wanted to test out my invention to make sure it worked before coming up here. Hi kids!” He said as he turned and waved across the table.

“Hi dad.” The kids said in unison while Danny also jokingly called Tyrese dad.

“Dad, what was that thing about testing your secret project?” Kris asked.

“What? Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it. Hey, I hear you have a big decision you need to make pretty soon about which college you’re committing to.”

Kris eyed her dad from across the table suspiciously as he dodged her question. “Yeah, I think I’ve made my decision but I want to give it a bit more thought. I really like what UCLA has to offer, but Ohio State and Indiana are really good offers too.”

“Well whatever your decision is we support you 100% sweety.”

“Thanks mom.” Kris said kind of embarrassed of the attention she was getting.

“Wow, I just realized this, but this might be the last summer we have everyone all together as a family.” Tyrese said a bit saddened by the thought.

“What do you mean dad? We all will be back next summer too.” Dak said

“Not if you or your sister get an internship. Face it, this could be the final Wright family summer.”

“Oh stop being over dramatic honey. You know they’ll always come back to visit.”

“Yeah dad, it’s not like if we get internships we’re forced to move out.”

“Regardless, I’m starting to think we should do something fun as a family this summer just in case.”

“Like a vacation?”

“No, I’m thinking something like a weekly family game night, or once a week we go out and do something like laser tag.”

That’s when Danny jokingly spoke up. “Or maybe Family DnD?”

This got everyone’s attention. “Ok, I was joking everyone. Plus I’m not even a family member.”

“No, but that’s actually not a bad idea.” Dak said loooking around at everyone else to gauge their reaction to the idea. “Think about it, I play it all the time, dad was a pro back in the day, while mom used to watch and cheer him on. Heck, even Trini has played DnD before.”

Trini turned and stared at Dak with big eyes, “Dakota! That was a secret!”

“Wait, you actually played DnD?” Kris asked as though this changed Trini’s whole personality.

Trini let out a sigh, “Ok fine, I play DnD with some friends at school and it’s actually pretty fun.”

“PLAY? Like actively play? Not past tense?”

“Yes, I usually play as an elf cleric but if we’re going to play as a family I want to make a whole new character.”

Kris was stunned. She had never seen Trini so eager to do something so nerdy. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.“

“Well I think that’s 4 out of the 5. Kris, it’s all up to you. We’re not gonna pressure you into playing DnD so if you say no then we’ll think of something else to do.” Clarissa said. “I will say though, I think this would be the perfect opportunity to venture outside your comfort zone and try something new, even if it’s something you’d never expect to try. Plus, I know how stressed out you’ve been about choosing a college and all the late night studying sessions at the end of the school year. Maybe try to use this as a way to unwind.”

“But…it’s DnD. You know I’m not into that like all of them.”

“I know, but maybe playing it with family will make it more fun. You have to admit, every Wright Family game night we’ve ever had has been pretty entertaining.” Tyrese said.

Kris couldn’t deny that. “I mean, yeah I guess. But I don’t know anything about DnD. I don’t even have a character.”

“We can help you get started. Besides I think we all would probably make new characters anyways.” Trini said encouragingly.

Kris thought it over a little longer while mumbling to herself. She had been stressing out over college a lot and family time was always so much fun. Finally after some internal debate she made up her mind. “Ugh, fine, we can play DnD.”

“Really? Yeah!” Trini got up from her seat and gave Kris a big hug.

“Well then I guess it’s settled. Starting tomorrow we will begin our first ever family DnD campaign!” Tyrese triumphantly announced.

“Tomorrow? That’s pretty quick don’t you think?” Clarissa asked.

“Yes, but I don’t want to waste any second of our summer.”

“Well in that case I’ll grab some character sheets for us to make our new characters tonight. Oh but wait, what campaign are we doing? I don’t have any designed for us yet.” Dak said making a valid point. He knew that making new campaigns for DnD can be time consuming.

That’s when Danny had another great idea. “You know, I think I actually have an extra campaign you guys can use. I had originally made it for some friends and I at college, but those plans fell through so if you want…”

“Perfect! Danny to the rescue!” Trini cheered which made Danny blush a bit.

“Ok then, we have a story, we’ll have characters made tonight, and then come tomorrow we will be ready to play some DnD. plus, I think I might have one last surprise for us tomorrow that I think will make this DnD campaign the best ever.” Tyrese said with the utmost determination in his voice.

“Wow, this is so exciting. I’ve only ever watched you play Ty. Joining you will be so much fun!” Clarissa said.

“Yay…I’m so excited…” Kris said with extreme sarcasm in her voice.