Connection Lost

Jordan's fingers flew across the keyboard, heart pounding like a bass drop at a festival. Three hundred viewers. Finally. After months of streaming to empty rooms and his mom occasionally wandering through frame, he was THIS close to hitting affiliate.

"Chat, if we win this match, I'm literally gonna pass out," he said into his headset, trying to sound chill while internally screaming. His discord blew up. 'crash' from the squad: 'bro don't jinx it'

Then disaster struck. The ethernet cable - the fancy gaming one he'd saved three months of allowance for - snagged on his chair. Yanked right out. Screen froze. Chat erupted in 'F's' and 'rip'.

Jordan threw his headset down and went running through the house, phone clutched in hand. The router was in the garage. His dad was out there, probably messing with his woodworking projects.

"DAD! You killed my stream!" Jordan burst through the door, then froze.

His dad wasn't alone. A massive black bear - an ACTUAL bear - was standing on its hind legs, paws resting on their garbage bins, not three feet from where Jordan's dad stood frozen, phone raised like a weapon.

"Jordan," his dad whispered, eyes wide. "Don't. Move."

The bear dropped to all fours and regarded them with what felt like judgment. Jordan's phone buzzed in his hand - Discord notifications, probably his friends wondering what happened. But that didn't matter.

"Slowly," his dad mouthed, backing away toward the house door.

Lightning cracked across the sky, making them all jump. The bear startled, then lumbered off into the woods like it owned the place.

Jordan's dad slumped against the garage door. "Okay. That happened."

"Your stream," he realized.

"Dude. Who CARES." Jordan was still shaking, but he started laughing. "I just went viral."

He hit record on his phone. "Chat, you are NOT gonna believe this stream recap."