My breathing slows even more. Nineteen chat log . . . “Probably. If the others say it’s okay.”
Hanging out in my server home is almost as good as being in my real home. Better, sometimes. Maybe Mom will bring over a bag of my stuff—earplugs, toothbrush, PJs—if I ask nicely. And we can work on the proposal tomorrow.
“Hurry up, slowpoke.” Meg holds out her hand, and I grasp it with one hand and the jump rope with the other as I ease back inside.
LEGENDS OF THE STONE
KittyKat has logged on.
[]Sythlight: Hi
KittyKat: hey
KittyKat: no one else is on?
[]Sythlight: Nice to see you, too. :P
KittyKat: sorry, I just wanted to ask if I can bring my friend on
[]Sythlight: Fine by me.
KittyKat: you don’t think I should ask everyone?
[]Sythlight: I’m sure it’s fine. I mean, if you’re really worried about it, you could talk to Lucien. But I haven’t seen him on here in a while.
KittyKat: that’s true. and if he’s not going to be online, he really can’t complain.
[]Sythlight: If anyone bothers you about it, just tell them I said it was ok.
KittyKat: because you’re the boss?
[]Sythlight: King of the world, actually.
KittyKat: oh, I didn’t know that. though I am the Supreme Emperor of the Universe, so that’s to be expected. I don’t concern myself with such pitiful, lowly matters.
[]Sythlight: So you’re the one I should talk to about that pay raise.
KittyKat: I wouldn’t recommend it. I have a policy of demoting anyone who asks for a raise.
[]Sythlight: Smart. I understand how you became the SEU.
KittyKat: and I behead anyone who is too lazy to spell out my entire title.
[]Sythlight: Oops. Forgive me oh Supreme Emperor of the Universe. I beseech thee.
KittyKat: well, fine, just this once. but don’t make the mistake again.
[]Sythlight: Never. So is your friend coming on now?
KittyKat: oh yeah right . . . give me a min
[]Sythlight has entered the badlands.
[]Sythlight was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
[]Sythlight has entered the badlands.
[]Sythlight was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
[]Sythlight has entered the badlands.
[]Sythlight was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
MEGAdawn has logged on.
KittyKat: back
KittyKat: this is Meg
MEGAdawn: HIIIIIIII
[]Sythlight: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE GONE DON’T LOOK AT THE CHAT LOG
KittyKat: ha ha ha
MEGAdawn: oh good ur as good at this game as me!
[]Sythlight has entered the badlands.
KittyKat: want help getting your stuff back?
[]Sythlight: Sure. There’s a whole pack of them.
KittyKat: be right there. just giving Meg some gear
[]Sythlight was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
MEGAdawn: lolol
[]Sythlight: I should probably actually gear up a little before heading in there.
KittyKat: be right there. where’d you die?
[]Sythlight: By the tower.
KittyKat has entered the badlands.
MEGAdawn has entered the badlands.
[]Sythlight has entered the badlands.
MEGAdawn: I hit one!
MEGAdawn was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
MEGAdawn: welp I hit it once I’m calling that a win
[]Sythlight was slain by a mutant shadowwolf.
MEGAdawn: we’re good at this
[]Sythlight: Remember how I said I was going to gear up before going back in? Definitely should have done that.
KittyKat: okay, they’re all down. I’ll grab your stuff.
[]Sythlight: Thanks! Meet you at your castle.
[]Sythlight has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: is that where I spawned?
KittyKat has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: hiii
[]Sythlight: Hi
KittyKat: here’s your stuff
MEGAdawn: we should do one of those rift things
KittyKat: yes, I’m sure that’ll go well
[]Sythlight: Oh, come on. They just caught me by surprise the first time. After that, if I’d been geared up, I’d have destroyed that pack.
MEGAdawn: and I’m an expert at this game. from all my lumberlegs watching.
[]Sythlight: I watch him sometimes. He’s funny.
MEGAdawn: the funniest
MEGAdawn: i’m going to marry him one day
[]Sythlight: Does he know that?
MEGAdawn: in his heart i’m sure he does
[]Sythlight: lol
MEGAdawn: let’s do it do it do it
[]Sythlight: I’m game.
KittyKat: fine
KittyKat: but only that easy one in the drylands
MEGAdawn: YASSSSSS
MEGAdawn: TO THE RIFT!!!!!!!!!!!!
[]Sythlight: Lead the way.
KittyKat has entered the drylands.
MEGAdawn has entered the drylands.
[]Sythlight has entered the drylands.
CHAPTER 6
MEG
IF MY AVATAR AND LEGS’S GOT TOGETHER, THEY’D ACTUALLY MAKE A PRETTY cute couple. My green hair and his tree-stump legs against a nature background—the perfect fit. Though purple skin isn’t very nature-y. It is definitely badass, though, and Legs is badass, too. Sort of. More funny and kind, I guess.
“How many?” Kat’s question breaks into my thoughts.
I’m not admitting to her that I wasn’t listening. Again. I could just tell her about my ADHD, but what if it scares her away like it seems to do with everyone else? And it’s her own fault I’m so scattered. She insisted we work on our science proposal today, even though we stayed up way too late last night playing LotS.
“Um, ten,” I say.
She chews her lip and studies her page of neat, straight writing. “Do you know that many people?”
“What, ten people? Of course!”
“Okay.” She writes it down. “So this week we’ll both do some research on sugar so we can ensure our hypotheses make sense. I think this is a good start.”
A good start. Sweet. “Hey, don’t you think my avatar and Legs’s would make a cute couple?”
She purses her lips, and for a moment I think she’s going to ream me out for changing the topic, even though she basically just said we’re done. But then she says, “Well, his is quite a bit taller than yours. But your dwarf’s green hair would go well with his legs.”
I grin. “An excellent point.” The image of Legs’s face slips out of my mind and is replaced by another. “Hey, what did you think of Grayson?”
She looks back up from her paper. “Who?”
“Boxer Boy. I pointed him out in the caf, remember? Looks kind of like Legs.”
She shrugs. “I don’t think I actually saw him.”
“You didn’t? I’ll have to point him out again on Monday.” I wonder what type of character he’d play in LotS. An archer, obviously. “He’s a dragonlord archer,” I decide.
“Oh, cool,” Kat says, looking much more interested than she did a moment ago.
All week I watch for Grayson in the cafeteria so I can point him out again to Kat, but he must eat elsewhere sometimes, because I don’t spot him until Friday. “There!” I say, pointing to a table in the back corner.
“Don’t point,” Kat snaps, then turns her head ever so slightly in that direction. “The guy with the floppy hair and black shirt?” She’s whispering, as if there’s any chance he could hear her all the way across the busy room.
“That’s the one! Doesn’t he look kind of like Legs?”
She shrugs, then jerks her head down. “He’s spotted us.”
“He has?” I stand and turn, and sure enough, he’s looking right at us. I wave, then immediately r
egret waving, then don’t regret it at all because he actually waves right back and grins this grin so magical it should be named Perfection.
I sit back down to find Kat blinking wide-eyed at me, cheeks tinged with red.
“Isn’t he adorable?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Let’s just work on our proposal,” she whispers. She pulls our drafted and redrafted plan from her backpack.
“I told you, I don’t do homework at lunchtime,” I say, but I’m too happy to really protest. “Maybe Grayson can be one of the people we test. That’s a good idea. Write that down.”
Kat just rolls her eyes.
KAT
EVEN THOUGH OUR PROPOSAL IS PRETTY FAR ALONG, MY HEART POUNDS AS Mr. Carter leans over my desk to peer at it.
One judgment . . . two approval . . .
“Nice hypotheses,” Mr. Carter says.
“We want to do a bit more research on sugar this weekend,” Meg pipes up, which surprises me because I didn’t think she was listening when I told her that the research we’d done—and she had actually done a bit after I texted her to remind her—didn’t quite answer all my questions. “To make sure they make sense.”
Mr. Carter nods, eyes still on our paper. He reaches out and taps a line with his pencil. “You’re going to need to test more than ten people, though.”
More than ten.
Seven crowds . . . eight socialization . . .
“How about thirty?” Meg throws out.
“Yes, thirty would be much better.”
Meg grabs the sheet, turns it toward herself, and I’m forced to watch her make the revision as if in slow motion.
We will test ten thirty people.
Thirteen strangers . . . fourteen panic . . .
“Good work so far,” Mr. Carter says, then walks toward the next group, his legs disappearing from my field of view as I stare down at the page.
Sixteen introvert . . . seventeen conversation . . .
Thirty people.
When Meg and I decided on our science project, all I thought was: Legends of the Stone. Video game. Awesome.
I did not think about the fact that we would have to test real people. And I did not think about the fact that we would have to recruit those people.
I’m thinking about it now.
Twenty extroverts . . . twenty-one doomed . . .
“He said, ‘Good work,’” Meg says, beaming like she’s never had a teacher say that before, though I know she’s acing history and drama. She’s sitting backward in her chair, leaning over my desk, doodling on the corner of our proposal.
I can’t admit to her that I’m panicking. Can’t tell her that even though I’ve been here for more than a month, she’s the only person I know. We don’t need to actually finish the testing until February, with a check-in in January. That’s loads of time. Months and months. Which means I can push it out of my mind for now, and we can deal with that issue later. The people issue.
I hate people.
“Even me?” Meg asks, which could mean she’s a mind reader, but probably just means I accidentally said that out loud.
“You’re not people. You’re Meg.”
And something about the way she grins at that makes me feel the tiniest bit better.
LEGENDS OF THE STONE
[]Sythlight: Good job, team.
MEGAdawn: I only died five times!
KittyKat: you’re definitely improving
MEGAdawn: yeah now that we’ve handed in our proposal and you’re actually letting us play again instead of working all the time
KittyKat: oh shush. we played tons while we were working on it.
[]Sythlight: I should probably go soon. Need to go for a run before it gets dark.
MEGAdawn: u run in the snow?
[]Sythlight: No snow yet. It’s only October.
KittyKat has entered the waterlands.
MEGAdawn: we have a ton already
MEGAdawn: it snowed all weekend
MEGAdawn: u down somewhere south?
[]Sythlight: Nope, near Toronto.
[]Sythlight has entered the greenlands.
MEGAdawn: WOOOOO TEAM CANADA
MEGAdawn: we’re in Edmonton
[]Sythlight: A lot of us on here are in Canada. I think Pterion’s in Halifax. That’s how I connected with Lucien on the forums in the first place. Discovered we were both in Ontario and he invited me on here.
MEGAdawn: ur not a true Canadian if you don’t have snow yet, though
MEGAdawn has entered the waterlands.
KittyKat: stop perpetuating Canadian stereotypes
MEGAdawn: there’s no one else even on
Private Message from MEGAdawn to KittyKat:
MEGAdawn: u and Sythlight should totally get married
KittyKat: you’re ridiculous. I don’t even know if Syth is a girl or boy
MEGAdawn: boy
KittyKat: you don’t know that for sure
MEGAdawn: hey Syth, u a guy or a girl?
Private Message from KittyKat to MEGAdawn:
KittyKat: you are sooooo embarrassing
[]Sythlight: Guy. Why?
Private Message from MEGAdawn to KittyKat:
MEGAdawn: told you so
KittyKat: gah, he’s gonna think we’re stalking him
KittyKat: and maybe he doesn’t even like girls
KittyKat: BUT DON’T YOU DARE ASK THAT
KittyKat: and also I really don’t care
MEGAdawn: I have a theory that boys play girl and boy characters, but girls only play girls
KittyKat: that’s not confusing at all
[]Sythlight: How many people have you asked?
MEGAdawn: 1
MEGAdawn: so far 100% right. :P
Private Message from KittyKat to MEGAdawn:
KittyKat: if you want me to marry him, then you should probably stop flirting with him
MEGAdawn: OMG am I? so sorry!
KittyKat: dude, I’m not actually going to marry him. flirt away
MEGAdawn: no I’ll stop
MEGAdawn: random fact—I’m lactose intolerant so I fart after I eat ice cream
Private Message from KittyKat to MEGAdawn:
KittyKat: OMG!
MEGAdawn: no problem
MEG
NORMALLY, I LOVE SNOW——LOVE THE WAY IT TURNS GRAY STREETS WHITE AND piles up on lawns like mounds of fluffy pillows and makes everyone look like they have white hair. A city of grandparents.
As I bash my knee into the washing machine, though, I curse the stuff. Loudly.
The rest of our house is draped in carpet—except for the living room, but Mom yelled at me when she found me skateboarding on the hardwood floor. Which means that I’m stuck trying to learn this kick turn in our laundry room. The room may have cement floors, but it is way too tiny to do this trick right, let alone to do it wrong.
I let the skateboard skitter away toward the drain as I jab pause on the YouTube tutorial. My knee has taken enough bashing for now, and so has the washing machine. I pat it apologetically as I hop up to sit atop it. Then I text Kat.
I m bored.
She won’t respond. It’s Tuesday evening, which means she’s supposed to be out helping her granddad do I forget what. Maybe smoke a pipe and sort through old newspapers, snipping out articles about capitalism and world wars and the weather. I wonder if he has a weather clipping from every day since the war. Is he old enough to have been alive during one of those big ones? I could probably try to calculate it, but why bother?
My phone rings and I snatch it up, thinking it might be Kat, but it’s stupid Stephen-the-Leaver. I refuse to give him a moment’s thought. I hit the ignore button, hop off the washer, and head in search of my real parent who actually cares. She’s in her computer room, furiously typing numbers into some Excel spreadsheet. She’s been spending a lot of time doing that since her marketing company started doing so well.
“I’m going for a walk,” I report, then duck back out of there be
fore she can subject me to some boring rant about how much she hates accounting. “You should hire a bookkeeper,” I always tell her, and she always says she can do it herself.
“Meg!” she calls after me, and my heart sinks.
“What?” Reluctantly, I stick my head back inside.
“Take your sister with you,” is all she says, not taking her eyes away from the screen.
I see her then. Kenzie sits on the floor at Mom’s feet, rolling Mom’s pant leg up and down. She gives me an impish grin.
“Come on, little wingling,” I say, swatting her lightly on the back to corral her out of the tiny room. Upstairs, I bundle Kenzie up in her fluorescent-pink snowsuit and alligator hat, then grab my own winter coat, and we head out.
Kenzie purrs some song about a pirate mermaid as we march along—probably one that she made up, but possibly not. It wouldn’t be the weirdest thing she’s learned at day care. The wind is nippier than I expected. It seeps through my jeans, making my not-so-recently shaven leg hair stand on end. Fashion be damned; I should have worn snow pants like Kenzie.
“Hey, Meg!” The call comes from across the street. Boxer Boy—Grayson—is waving at us. At me.
There’s a busy street just a few blocks away that hums with constant traffic, but cars are rare on this side avenue, so Grayson barely glances each way before crossing the street to meet us. I stand up straighter, instantly relieved that I didn’t wear snow pants, the ugly things. They’d make my butt look about five sizes larger. Though maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Big butts and all that.
“You babysitting?” he asks as he draws up beside us. His green scarf is bunched around his neck, like a strangling boa constrictor.
“Kind of. This is my sister. Kenzie, say hi.”
She pops her thumb into her mouth, glove and all. Mom has been trying to get her to stop sucking her thumb for about a year, but even mittens won’t deter her.
“I like your snowsuit,” he says, grinning at her. She looks down at her body, brow furrowed, as if she’s just realized what she’s wearing.
“She likes pink,” I tell him. I think that’s why she likes Kat so much, since at least half of Kat’s wardrobe is pink. Kenzie tries to clamber into Kat’s lap pretty much every time she comes over. Kat never seems to mind, though, and she’s better at LotS than me even with Kenzie’s hand under her own on the mouse. “Where are you going?”
“Heading home from archery. I practice Tuesdays and Fridays, usually.”
Kat and Meg Conquer the World Page 8
