CHAPTER FIVE
1386 Words
Tam headed across the scabby grass outside school. He needed to do something about his system, and soon. Yesterday it had made a horrible grinding vibration when he powered up. The noise finally faded, but it had been bad.
“Tam!” a voice called behind him. His steps slowed.
Not just any voice, but hers. Jennet Carter. She had a faint accent. He’d noticed it in class, the way her answers were inflected with a lilt that Crestview didn’t have.
“Tam Linn!” she called again. “Hey, could I talk to you?”
He turned around. She was standing on the steps outside the school doors, her pale hair shining in the afternoon sunlight.
“What?” he said. Why would Jennet Carter want to talk to him?
She moved toward him, her expression cautious.
“Hi.” She tried a smile. It faded when he didn’t smile back. “Right. Well. I hear you’re a simmer.”
“Yeah.”
His tournament win was common knowledge. The fact that his prize system was tapped into the ‘net - that was secret. He wasn’t about to get all chatty with anyone about his gaming, let alone a Viewer.
“So… you’re a pretty good player, right?” she asked.
He narrowed his eyes. “How am I supposed to answer that?”
If he told the truth, he’d come across as bragging. If he didn’t, he’d sound like a loser.
“Honestly.” She gave him a measuring look and he tried not to notice how having her gaze on him made that restless feeling start up again under his skin.
Okay then. “Yeah, I’m good.”
She hitched her bag up on her shoulder. “Best simmer in town?”
“What is this?” Annoyance heated his words. “You have some assignment to interview another student or something?”
“No. I was just… wondering.”
Nosy rich girl. Still, a part of him - a stupid, doglike part - was flattered that she was interested. That part was sitting up, wagging its tail and ready to do anything for a word of praise from those soft lips.
So he turned his back on her and started walking away.
“Wait!” She came after him and caught his arm. “Please tell me.”
The vulnerability in her expression made him pause. Made him answer, despite himself.
“I’m the best simmer in the tri-states, actually. Happy? Now let go.”
She did, and he felt the absence of her touch almost as keenly as he’d felt the warmth of it.
“Could I…” She looked down at her hands, then back up at him. “Could I watch you game sometime?”
He pushed his hair out of his face, so he could see every nuance of her expression. “You’ve seen people sim before, haven’t you?” The high-tech world she was from, she must have.
“Of course!” She looked offended for a second, and it made him smile a little bit inside, to see emotion blazing like that from her eyes. “I play, too, you know.”
On equipment that he didn’t even want to try and imagine, or jealousy would eat right through him.
“I don’t doubt it. Are you trying to ask me out or something?”
She blinked, and he caught the flash of disbelief in her eyes before she spoke. “Ask you out? No. I’m not.”
“Good.” Relief and disappointment circled in his stomach. He turned to go.
“Hold on a sec.” There was an edge of desperation in her voice. “I do want to see you game. Just… let me explain.”
He folded his arms and waited.
She was silent a minute, and a bubble of stillness dropped down over them. There was a tickle on the back of his neck, like what she was about to say was important. Beyond important.
“All right.” She let out a breath. “Here’s the thing. My dad’s one of the senior managers for VirtuMax. He’s been working on their new sim system. Maybe you’ve heard about it.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard of it.”
He tried not to show how her words had sent a jolt of interest through him. Her dad worked on the full simulation project? How much did she know?
“Full-D, they call it. And there’s a new game to go with it. Has to be, to show what the system can do. It’s like nothing else out there.”
“You’ve, uh, seen this new game?” His heart thudded in his chest like he’d been sprinting down the street, not standing in one place for three minutes.
She nodded. “Yes. In fact, I’ve been playing it and… well, I need help.”
“It’s in beta-testing? Why don’t you get your dad or one of the other devs to help?”
He thought he knew the answer though, and anticipation sizzled through him, burning away his jealousy, his resentment of the rich kids in the View. Was she going to ask him to play?
“Pre-beta, even. Basically…” She bit her lip and glanced to one side. “I can’t ask them for help. I’m not even supposed to know that this version of Feyland exists, let alone go in-game. But I can’t stop.”
He nodded. Games could get inside your skin and become the most important thing in the world - at least for a little while. It always wore off though. And simming didn’t keep his little brother out of trouble, or scavenge food from behind the grocery store, or help his mom when she finally came home after one of her episodes.
But a new game, on a brand-new sim - his fingers tingled at the thought. And Jennet wanted to see what he could do. Check out his cred, like some kind of audition.
“When do you want to watch me play?” He glanced down at his scuffed boots and tried to sound casual. “We could go over to Zeg’s simcafe—”
“No. I want to see you play on your own gear.”
He wished, for a gut-searing moment, that he didn’t have the life he did - that he could wave his hand and call a grav-car and they could drive to his house, a real house, full of good things to eat and shiny equipment.
And they could game. With a legal account, not his ‘jacked connection. On a system that wasn’t half broken, in a place that wasn’t falling down, in a neighborhood that hadn’t turned to rot long ago.
“I have to go.” He turned and started walking again.
She followed. “But - you do have a sim-system, right? I heard you won a great rig. I want to see you in your home element. At your best.”
“I don’t think so.” He hunched his shoulders. His home was none of her business. “I’ll see you around.”
It was stupid, to think he could connect with someone like Jennet. They had nothing in common. No matter how attractive her world was, or how much he might want it, he didn’t belong there. Just like she didn’t belong in his. The thought of taking her into the Exe, showing her where he lived, revealing his secrets… just, no.
“Wait.” Something trembled in her voice - hope or tears. It didn’t matter.
Tam shoved his hands into his pockets and kept going. He had long-since perfected the art of walking away.
- Writer
