To many of the people around her, Giulia, a shy and fragile-looking 17-year-old, is the “weird girl,” perhaps because she always seems to be hiding inside oversize sweatshirts or doing anything to avoid being noticed. In fact, very often Giulia would really like to disappear, at least so she wouldn’t have to put up with the endless bickering of her parents, who are perpetually at odds over what is best to do and not to do for their daughter at this delicate stage of life (as if she has no say in the matter); or come to terms with a sister with whom, since she literally ran away to England for study, she has totally lost the complicity she once had; or pretend not to suffer from being bullied or ignored by her classmates. Fortunately, there is Challenger, a gaming bar where she can hide away and devote herself to her greatest passion: League of Legends. A hidden refuge from the rest of the world where no one judges her or pretends to teach her how she should be or feel. Giulia then is incredibly good despite being an amateur player and, thanks to this talent of hers, one day she has the chance to participate in a tournament where she is noticed by the staff of a major gaming academy who makes her a proposal that no one could say no to. For Giulia, however, accepting is not so easy. This would mean turning a solitary hobby, shared for the few minutes of a game with strangers, into something serious. Above all, it would mean sharing everything with her team, just everything. And that’s what scares her the most. More than the struggle to convince her parents to give their consent. But perhaps the time has come for her to gather all the courage in her body and face her fears, trusting that instinct she has so often questioned. Perhaps the time has come to look to the future without, for once, feeling blind terror.
(Source: mondadoristore.co.uk)
Valerie Notari, aka Imriel, is an Italian writer and cosplayer
