"Once we got locked in a room and assigned to locate and disarm a flashbomb," Jedao shares, "If we lost, everyone would know for the week or so we were affected by it. Of course, the teacher also lied and said one of us knew the location of the bomb." He grins. That's part of games too—cheating and figuring out the cheating. The unspoken rules. The unfair ones.

He shrugs at her point, still amused. "One valuable lesson where pride's all that's on the line is a small price to pay to open your eyes to how the world really works around you," Jedao says. "If they want to get mad at me for it, that's a price I'm willing to pay."

He's made people mad at him for far less.