Didn't See That Coming

Chapter 1

In the dim glow of the moonlight, nobody spots the cyborg assassin peeling herself off the back of a stone gargoyle s head. She moves with the liquid grace of a stalking cat, her eyes, one human brown and the other an electric blue, scanning the damp street before her. In one smooth motion, she raises the scope of her sniper rifle to the blue eye and peers through it. There. Her heat sensor picks up a small figure scurrying behind a building. The assassin smiles. From the way the figure moves, it s obvious that it s a dwarf. Dwarves are armed with machine guns, so it s in her best interests to eliminate this one before he spots her. Her finger caresses the trigger. Just one more step and the dwarf will be out of cover. She takes a breath to steady herself. The dwarf s hat comes into view, followed by his head. She pulls the trigger just as a huge shield appears in front of the dwarf.

What? It takes a second for the assassin to realize what s just happened. The shield is being held by a huge, hulking figure. A grinning giant of a man. The second it s taken the assassin to reassess the situation costs her. Before she can react, the dwarf swings his machine gun over the giant s shield and the world explodes. Machine guns are rarely accurate. But then, they don t need to be.

VICTORY flashes onto my screen as the assassin, along with the stone gargoyle, tumbles down onto the street. Grinning, I tap my fingers against my keyboard with practiced ease.

Dudebro10: Duuude!

Sourdawg: Yasss!

The robot assassin was the last of the enemy s team. Both teams started out with five members each, and the robot assassin managed to pick off three of my team members within the first ten minutes of the round. When our second member was sniped three minutes in, I told Sourdawg, who has chosen to play the machine-­gun-­toting dwarf, that we needed to stay well away from the assassin so we could kill off her teammates before getting to her

Jesse Q Sutanto is the author of the YA thrillers The Obsession and The New Girl and the adult rom com Dial A for Aunties. She grew up shuttling back and forth between Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford and considers all three places her home. She has a master’s from Oxford University, but she has yet to figure out how to say that without sounding obnoxious. Jesse has forty-two first cousins and thirty aunties and uncles, many of whom live just down the road. She used to game, but with two little ones and a husband, she no longer has time for hobbies. She aspires to one day find one (1) hobby.

Praise for Didn't See That Coming:

"An adorkably inclusive YA romance that is both fiery and earnest." Booklist, starred review

"A powerful trifecta of humor, ­romance, and feminism grounded in positive change." SLJ, starred review

"Sparkling humor, vivacious storytelling, and occasionally theatrical scenarios inject levity into this perceptive romp." Publishers Weekly

"Rollicking fun." Kirkus Reviews