The Sphinx in Room 304

Kai's sphinx cat, Biscuit, regarded him with judgmental eyes as he crawled under his desk for the third time that evening. The HDMI cable had slipped again, probably because Biscuit liked to nap on the tangle of wires behind his gaming setup. The stream was starting in seven minutes, and his internet was being about as stable as his math grade.

"You're doing this on purpose," Kai muttered, wrestling with the cable while Biscuit made a soft, chirping sound that definitely meant "get owned, nerd."

His phone buzzed. Group chat was going wild:

* daniel: u streaming tonight??

* chloe: ANSWER ME

* tyler: if u flake on movie night AGAIN...

Kai sighed. Movie night with Chloe and Tyler meant sitting through another rom-com while Tyler pretended to understand Chloe's conspiracy theories about which celebrities were secretly dating. Meanwhile, Daniel would text him the whole time about Kai's channel finally hitting 1K subscribers. Which would happen if he could actually STREAM tonight.

His mom knocked once and pushed the door open without waiting. She held out a green smoothie that looked like something extracted from a swamp creature.

"Spinach, kale, protein powder, and some berries," she said. "You need brain food for your... whatever this is."

"Thanks, Mom." He accepted it because refusing meant a lecture about his "obsessive screen time."

"Your father said the cable company is supposed to fix the line outside tomorrow," she added. "Something about the whole neighborhood's connection being trash."

Biscuit chose that moment to knock the HDMI cable completely loose.

"The stream's off," Kai typed into the group chat. "Tech issues. AGAIN."

The responses came instantly:

* chloe: we can do movie night here instead?? daniel can come

* tyler: pizza's on me if u bring that weird cat

* daniel: bet

Kai looked at Biscuit, who had curled up on his keyboard like the sphinx herself, guarding some ancient secret. The green smoothie sat untouched on his desk. The subscriber count in his head stayed at 987.

He typed back: *bet. who's picking the movie though*

Biscuit purred, as if that was the right choice all along.