"Dude what the hell!" Liam yells from his room, his voice an octave higher than normal. "What did you do, tag everything in the room?!"

He's been yelling at his computer for hours now bringing me to this very point. Curiosity is getting the better of me. I know Liam is on that stupid online game, has been for a while. After close to a year of listening to him scream at his monitor now, I'm dying to know what's pissing off he who can do no wrong.

Tearing my gaze away from the pristine white of my textured ceiling, I roll over my baby blue comforter and out of my queen size bed. The shag of my lavender rug is soft and warm under my feet. A stark contrast from the hardwood beneath. Soon I'm outside my room and in front of the closed-door my brother resides behind. I rap my knuckles two times against the wood before opening his the door to find him in the exact spot I knew he'd be. In his large black and red bucket seat computer chair sporting a deep crease across his brow.

"Oh, bullshit! My sister could heal better than you and she's twelve!" His tone heavy and condescending. His eyes flick up to catch mine before waving me into his room like he's done countless times over the years. It's the same dark room, lit by a single large computer screen set up directly on the right just inside the door, accompanied by the same locker room boy smell.

Liam spins the dial on his speakers and then yanks his headphone jack out of the port it's been plugged into on the front of his computer tower as he slides his headset back to rest around his neck.

A loud male cackle fills his room from one of the guys Liam must be talking to.

"There is no way a 12-year-old girl could out heal me." The male voice boasts over the speakers, putting unnecessary emphasis on the word girl. "I've been playing since drop man. I'm sure she's never set foot on Azeroth soil."

Liam gestures to his monitor with his hand as he rolls his eyes. Translation, this guy is full of shit and is talking out of his ass. Again.

"Nope, never," Liam confirms with a small smirk playing on his face as he leans back in his chair, rocking between the erect and reclined position.

The cocky attitude my brother now sports is one I'm all too familiar with. It's the game face that takes control when he's competing on the basketball court. The fact that it's surfaced while playing video games does worry me but it's nothing in comparison to the irritation that's beginning to bubble within me. The boy spewing these words is starting to piss me off.

"Unfortunately, for you, we'll never know. Girls don't willingly play World of Warcraft and even when they do, there's no competition."

"Challenge accepted."

The words leave my mouth before I can think about stopping them. Whoever this guy is, he needs to be put back in his place and it just so happens I'm feeling a little charitable. The fact that he's insulting me without knowing me is what makes my blood simmer.

Liam's head snaps up to meet my gaze, his eyes reflecting the surprise he's feeling at my unfiltered response. "You serious? "

I return his stare with a flat one of my own. He better believe I'm serious. "That guy sounds like a jerk and needs to be knocked down a few pegs as far as I'm concerned."

"Whoa, simmer down there." The male voice from before instructs his tone now lower and accompanied by a chuckle.

Heat floods my cheeks at his response to my words. I smack Liam hard in the shoulder causing his hand to jerk off his keyboard and his finger to slip off the ALT key he's assigned to control his microphone.

"Why would you do that?!"

Liam lets out a howl of laughter as he throws his head back in amusement. "Because it's entertaining to mess with both of you."

I roll my eyes and cross my arms in defiance. I want to prove a point to this jerk, girls are more than capable of holding their own with the boys. I'm not sure what's more annoying though, my brother's unnecessary laughter or his inability to take this as seriously as I am. "Wouldn't it be better to just beat his ass at this healing thing?" I ask irritation now tickling the edge of my mind.

Liam's laughter subsides as he wipes the tears from his dancing orbs. "Sorry. You're right." He says taking a deep breath and sitting upright in his chair. "Good thing it's Friday, we're going to be up for a while." He winks.

"You have to move out of that if you don't want to die again," Liam instructs from his perch otherwise known as his computer chair.

"Yeah yeah," I mutter under my breath as I use my mouse and the arrow keys on my keyboard to guide my avatar out of the raging fire beneath her feet now chipping away at my health bar point by point.

I currently have my laptop balanced on my outstretched legs where I'm stationed at the head of Liam's bed, back pressed up against the furthest wall of his room. For almost a month this has been my position when things like school and homework are out of the way. Every day I've watched as my avatar creeps up in level, starting as a level one in the easy area, killing glowing worms and tiny tree creatures to being a key member in a five-man group.

The hardest part of this whole thing has been choosing my online identity. I'm playing to make a statement, don't underestimate a girl or ridicule her for that matter. In a sense picking my avatar was the easy part because I knew as long as I didn't choose the easiest healer I'd be fine. That happened to be my Blood Elf Paladin named Ellana. The second was my real-life identity. While some of his friends knew Liam had a younger sibling, that was it and I wanted it to stay that way. My interest in Liam's online nerd life is strictly business at this point and I'm not interested in making friends or socializing with any of these boys who seem to only be able to poke fun at the fact that I'm female. To them, I'm Ella and only Ella.

"I don't heal those who stand in the fire." The jerk reminds me, making it a full dozen times he's uttered the words since I reached level seventy, the max level for the game.

"I'll remember that next time you stand in it." I shoot back at him in irritation. Something about the guy rubs me the complete opposite direction. I'm not sure if it's the condescending tone he always seems to take or the fact that he has a clap back for everything anyone says.

He lets a snicker float through his microphone, another quirk that is driving me up the wall. "That won't happen."

I mimic his words in a high pitched voice directed at my laptop screen for only my ears and Liam's to hear. Across his dimly lit room, I can hear his faint laughter at my immature response through the ear I have pulled my headset off of. Liam wants me to succeed almost as much as I do and for that, private communication is essential, which means one ear is listening to the game and the other is available to hear him speak.

"He's doing it to get a rise out of you."

"Yeah, and he isn't going to get it," I grumble back, earning another laugh.

I know that's what he's doing, despite my reaction. What this jerk doesn't know is that Liam has been telling me where to stand and what to avoid, along with keeping me updated on my healing per second. It's the way all healers gage whether or not they are any good and the way this jerk will determine if I'm better than him or not.

I've been running with Liam since level fifteen in dungeons as well. In a sense he's been training me for the last twenty days or so for this moment and I have no intention of disappointing him.

There are now twenty-five of us standing before the final boss as we listen to some guy give us a short pep talk that ends up sounding more like a threat than a go get em speech.

"He's explaining it all wrong, just do what I say and listen to that add-on we installed." Liam throws over his shoulder as a timer begins to count down in the center of both our monitors.

As the final number disappears the group charges forward towards the massive red cyclops who look like we just pissed in his bowl of cheerios. Chaos ensues as the main tank attacks the boss, grabbing his attention and in turn receives all the aggro as the nerds call it.

The mechanics are quite simple with our twenty-five man group. The main tank and the off-tank keep the bosses attention away from the rest of the party, swapping when they no longer can withstand the assult. Meanwhile, the DPS, or damage, tries not to die while they chip away at the bosses health either by melee or ranged means. While all that's going on I'm silently carrying out my role, keep everyone's asses alive. It's easier said than done I've learned.

It's evident after the first minute that there are people in here that shouldn't be. Several are dancing with the devil, their health dipping dangerously low before one of our healers fills their health bar without thanks. Luckily I have a leg up called Liam.

"Don't bother healing Phatcheese. His damage isn't helping."

Within a minute the Tauren shaman collapses, health gone as his voice floats through the vent server asking for a resurrection.

"No can do, battle rez is for tanks and healers bro." Liam chides before snickering to himself after releasing his microphone key. "Fuckin newbies." He adds for my ears.

I ignore his comment, concentrating on my task. Don't stand in shit and keep the important ones alive.

"Let Slappy die."

Two seconds later, Slappy, the goblin is dead except this time no one asks for a battle rez. Looks like they understand why they weren't healed. After the second member of our group has fallen I'm certain this is an unspoken healing law of some sort and lucky for me I have Liam teaching me.

I have no idea how much health is left on the boss, my attention is already divided in three ways. Avoid damage, monitor health bars and make sure my mana pool isn't depleting too fast. If I run out of mana that's it, game over. I'm no longer able to cast my healing spells and I'm rendered useless as far as healing is concerned.

The add-on Liam installed on my computer sounds off in my ear, indicating that the boss is about to execute another one of his specialty moves. I suck in a deep breath, navigating my avatar to the designated safe zone marked on the dungeon floor.

Before I reach the area Liam's voice drifts across his dark room. "This is going to be a shit show. Come this way." He commands, tapping his space bar to make his avatar jump up and down.

I guide my avatar over to where I see Liam jumping, but not too close to avoid spreading unnecessary damage. There is already a small group of other people gathering in the originally marked space and I have a nagging feeling it's not going to end well for them.

In one foul sweep, the boss executes his attack killing the raid members who followed the markers, leaving the dozen of us that didn't still standing.

Liam's laugh fills the space we occupy as we reposition ourselves now two healers, one tank and nine DPS strong.

"Okay squirt, just like we practiced."

I give a nod he can't see as I see a bear appear where a troll used to stand as Liam swaps over to his tanking form. His voice rings over the vent channel silencing the beginning of mass nerd rage ripping through those that have just been annotated.

"I can only hold him for a minute. Get Steelz healed and brez that off-tank." He commands to those left standing.

"I can't do both." Jerk boy grits over Vent.

I make quick work of the party, bringing them all close to full health before pressing my ALT key to open my microphone to remind the jerk he's not a solo show.

"Lucky for you I'm still standing."

Silence greats my rebuttal so I brace myself for the incoming damage, knowing that it's not going to be pretty when it hits. It takes a mere second after gaining threat before Liam's health dips and I begin to cast heal after heal to keep my brother from hitting the floor and killing the whole raid.

Any day now would be nice...

"Fine..." Jerk boy mutters, annoyance clinging to his words like a parasite to its host. Maybe he complies because it's what has to happen or maybe it's because of some other unknown reason. I have no interest in which, only that it gets done.

Since the moment over half our raid group collapsed the Vent channel has fallen into silence with neither input from the supposed raid leader or any of the deceased party members. I suspect they are waiting for us to fail but who knows, maybe they think we can pull this off.

I can feel my heart begin to accelerate when the alarm goes off once again, signifying that the boss is about to hammer us with another assault. The off-tank is about to be resurrected with jerk boy's brez but it will be too late for him to escape the barrage. A sacrifice must be made and I can already tell he's going to make it even though he hasn't said so.

"Ready to shock the shit out of his ass?" Liam asks in a more rhetorical than literal sense.

"Absolutely."

Liam calls for the main tank to take the boss from him seconds before the attack goes off. In those few seconds, I have two tasks. I first cast my Blessing of Protection on Liam which buffers him from the physical attack the boss unleashes on him. I then quickly select jerk boys health bar and cast Lay on Hands, my oh shit heal. His health returns to it's maxed capacity as quickly as it fell. As we spread out to avoid damaging one another I see the off-tank come back to life and jerk boy still standing. Success.

With a heavy sigh, the fight goes on for another minute before the boss topples to the ground. A course of shocked acknowledgment drifts through the Vent channel but only one voice matters to me, jerk boy.

"Girl's definitely not a newb."