The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Follmuth, Alexene Carol. Twelfth Knight. Tor Publishing Group, 2024. Kindle Edition.

As the novel opens, Jack Orsino is the star of the Messaline High School football team. Both his father and his brother were football stars, and no less is expected of Jack. It has been predicted for years that the team will win State this year, Jack’s senior year. Jack has already agreed to play college football next year for Illyria. Jack gets a minor injury during a game and feels off. While he should sit out the rest of the game, he knows the team needs him to win, and if they lose this game, their chances of making it to State are over. He finishes off the game but gets a serious knee injury in the process, leaving him on the sidelines indefinitely.

A teenaged Vi is playing a role-playing quest with her best friend Antonia and some boys they both know. She is hoping that since she has played so many of their quests that they will agree to play hers once this current one is over. The quest ends, but very few people vote for her quest, and she leaves angry. Antonia believes that this is just how boys are and that Vi should try to win them over with kindness, but Vi believes that is just lessening herself. This causes a rift between the two friends that plays out in the background throughout most of the novel.

Most of the students at Vi’s high school consider her to be snotty, and she agrees with this estimation. She has no desire to make herself smaller in order to make other people feel larger. She struggles in both the gaming worlds and in the real world because of her gender. She hates how boys, especially boys in the gaming world, treat girls. She believes that whenever a girl is nice to a geeky boy, they feel entitled to hit on her. For this reason, when she plays the online game, Twelfth Knight, she plays as a male character named Cesario.

Being consumed with football and his social life, Jack never played online games. This changes after his injury. When his friend introduces him to Twelfth Knight, he takes to it right away. He plays under the name DUKEORSINO12, using his football nickname. He likes how in the world of the game, he can experience some of the joys that he used to experience in football. He teams up with Vi, and she knows who he is right away because of his name. Eventually, when he asks her who she is, she lies and says that she is Bash, her twin brother. The two develop a friendship online.

When the novel opened, Jack was dating a popular girl, Olivia. He feels insecure in their relationship when she mentions taking a break, and she starts to avoid him. Jack knows that Vi is in classes with Olivia, so he asks Vi to find out what is going on with Olivia in return for him spearheading a school dance. After all, he was already supposed to be helping out in such endeavors. Vi and Olivia begin a friendship when Vi plays Romeo to Olivia’s Juliet for a school project. Eventually Vi learns that Olivia fell in love with a girl, and while that relationship is over, she does not feel comfortable being in a relationship with Jack while she is still so confused. Vi starts to feel caught in the middle because she has begun to grow in respect for Jack and does not want to keep things from him, but she also knows that Olivia’s secret is not hers to share. Eventually Olivia does tell Jack about her confusion, and the two become friends but no longer date.

As Jack and Vi work together at school, they start to develop a close friendship and begin to develop feelings for each other. This, too, leaves Vi in an uncomfortable position because Jack believes his gaming friend is Bash, and the longer she does not correct this, the longer she lies to him. Jack comes up with the idea to have a Twelfth Knight tournament at the end of the school year. Vi tries to help Bash learn to play so that he can play as Cesario, but Bash is bad at the game and hates that Vi never actually asks him for help. In the end, Vi goes onto the stage and takes Cesario’s seat at the gaming table, letting Jack know who Cesario really is.

Throughout the novel, Vi believes that people will leave her. She thought Olivia would leave her when Vi did not share her affections, but Olivia did not. Now she believes Jack will leave her when he learns of her deception. He is very angry, but the two eventually make up and start dating. Meanwhile Jack learns that Illyria still wants him on their team, and they will allow him to practice without playing his freshman year so that he can heal without further risking his knee.