Don't Hate the Player: Part III

by Alexis Nedd
Emilia, a field hockey star with Ivy League dreams, tries to keep her virtual identity hidden when a member of a rival team recognizes her during an esports tournament.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. conducive
    tending to bring about; being partly responsible for
    He was aware of developmental research that suggested eating meals as a family was conducive to stronger parent-child attachment and a lowered chance of psychological problems, but as far as Jake was concerned, that ship had sailed a long time ago.
  2. nonchalant
    marked by casual unconcern or indifference
    He tried to look nonchalant as he strode into the kitchen on bare feet and saw Jacob Hooper the Elder eating a plate of reheated ziti at the table.
  3. dispassionate
    unaffected by strong emotion or prejudice
    "Yup." Jake noted the change in his dad’s voice and responded as dispassionately as possible.
  4. niggle
    worry unnecessarily or excessively
    That niggling feeling that he should tell the truth crawled up Jake’s spine again.
  5. preemptive
    designed to prevent an anticipated situation or occurrence
    It was the voice that made him preemptively call himself stupid before anyone else had the chance to lob it at him as an insult.
  6. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
    He checked his list again to make sure no one was awake and clicked the request with trepidation.
  7. clandestine
    conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
    Now that I’m at lunch, I half expect to find a sticky note with coordinates for a clandestine debrief in my cafeteria burger.
  8. feign
    give a false appearance of
    “Thank you.” I feign all the enthusiasm I can for two green, sludgy lumps. “I’ll wait until it’s all melty and drink it like a milkshake.”
  9. cede
    relinquish possession or control over
    I cede the territory without a fight.
  10. curt
    brief and to the point
    “Yup,” I answer curtly.
  11. subtlety
    the quality of being difficult to detect or analyze
    She leans toward Connor with zero subtlety and all but purrs, “I looove matcha. Why didn’t I get anything?”
  12. successive
    following in order without gaps
    For my part of the combo, I use the surge to whip off three successive crossbow bolts that hit Byunki, Ivan, and Han-Jun square in the chest.
  13. scant
    less than the correct or legal or full amount
    It’s the rhythm of my parents fully retreating into their world and leaving me a scant few hours to spend some time in mine.
  14. gradient
    a graded change in the magnitude of something
    The green window pulses to the tune of the GLO ringtone, and the hypnotic gradient washes everything on my desk the bright verdant color of...matcha, unfortunately.
  15. self-effacing
    reluctant to draw attention to yourself
    “After I did it I was like, ‘Aah, that was corny, like way too corny.’”
    “Jake.” I have to stop him before he talks himself into another self-effacing spiral.
  16. cadence
    the rhythmic rise and fall of the voice
    From the cadence of his speech, Jake’s in ramble mode.
  17. jaunty
    marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
    His Pythia is wearing a cross between a nurse’s outfit and a clown suit, complete with a big red nose and a jaunty candy striper’s uniform.
  18. dilapidated
    in a state of decay, ruin, or deterioration
    I hear a creak, like Jake is closing a squeaky door or moving around in a seriously dilapidated chair.
  19. brandish
    exhibit aggressively
    Nero emerges and comes straight for us brandishing a shiny galactic sword that is, in the words of Wizzard’s legal team, definitely not a lightsaber.
  20. subterfuge
    something intended to misrepresent the nature of an activity
    It’s not a bad feeling, and it’s certainly not a new one relating to the tournament, but knowing I’m here to pick up Jake before engaging in further GLO-related subterfuge adds a little extra thrill to the usual proceedings.
  21. surreptitiously
    in a secretive manner
    Giving Jake a ride is the right thing to do, and surreptitiously flipping Byunki the bird might be the only thing that gets me through another day at his hypercompetitive mercy.
  22. cynic
    someone who is critical of the motives of others
    What is it about Jake that makes me feel like a huge jerk for assuming the worst of him? He’s not the only person to surprise me with hidden depths in the past week, but for some reason he’s the only one who makes me actually want to question what a cynic I can be.
  23. indignation
    a feeling of righteous anger
    I sputter with indignation. “Who the hell stole our spot? Jake, we have to—we gotta—What the hell is that noise?”
  24. innocuous
    not injurious to physical or mental health
    I don’t remember putting anything in my trunk this morning, so I must have closed it over the strap on my field hockey bag or something equally innocuous.
  25. vitriol
    abusive or venomous language to express blame or censure
    I steal a glance over at Jake, and the confusion on his face points instead to this kind of vitriol being massively out of character for Dad-Bob.
  26. gall
    the trait of being rude and impertinent
    “I wasn’t worried about you because I thought you were smarter than this,” Bob says and has the gall to point to me when he says this.
  27. contemplative
    deeply or seriously thoughtful
    “I am,” I lie, and try my hardest to match Ivan’s, Han-Jun’s, and Erik’s contemplative expressions.
  28. inception
    an event that is a beginning
    Every mechanic, map, and new character comes through him, and he’s been the public face of the game since its inception.
  29. inaugural
    serving to set in motion
    “Welcome, everyone, to Round Two of the Wizzard-Claricom Arena’s inaugural Guardians League Online championship!”
  30. culmination
    a concluding action
    This tournament has been the culmination of years of planning, with Claricom and with my team at Wizzard. One of these four teams will be victorious in two weeks’ time, but that was never meant to be the end of this journey.
  31. jaundiced
    affected by yellowing of the skin
    Team colors: electric yellow. The Chronic boys look jaundiced in their spotlight.
  32. intractable
    difficult to manage or mold
    If Fury wins this, my real life and my GLO life would morph into an enormous, intractable fame monster with no room for secrets or partitions.
  33. cliche
    a trite or obvious remark
    Or maybe they’re not and the walls just feel like they’re closing in around me because every cliché about impending panic attacks is 100 percent true.
  34. holistic
    emphasizing the organic relation between parts and the whole
    “I’m good,” I lie, about the stumble and the holistic state of my identity.
  35. respective
    considered individually
    The crowd from the ramp has thinned out by now, with the rest of the teams splitting off to head to their respective green rooms.
Created on Tue Mar 08 09:45:40 EST 2022 (updated Fri Mar 18 10:49:48 EDT 2022)

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