Chapter 12: The Rooftop

Wind blew from the sea of green that was the soccer field up into the engineering building's west-end wall. It splashed straight into Ellie's face and waving hair as she sat on the rooftop's concrete sides, legs crossed and eyes closed. Her green skirt and white blouse almost made her blend with the horizon of green lawns and light blue skies beyond. There was a hint of agitation in her face that morning - slight albeit unusual.

The rooftop door opened directly behind her, making Ellie break from her trance-like indulgence of the cool breeze.

"I thought you'd be here, babyface," a hoarse male voice shot from behind her. Ellie didn't bother to look. It was him. She bent her lips ever so slightly and turned a smile. "It's just you. AND WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING BABYFACE?"

"Just me?" the voice replied, "Maa, maa. That's just not the reaction I've been wanting to get. And it's such a good morning to boot. Did you get up in the wrong side today? Or let me guess. You and Rayn had one of those piddle fights again eh?"

Ellie remembered what had happened that morning, Rayn, that mysterious girl and all. For some reason though, she'd rather not have talked about it. The scene was beyond explanation, she thought to herself. Somebody so stoic couldn't be possibly hiding a girlfriend from her - could he? But that's not something she wanted to delve on that morning, the very thought boiled her blood.

"I got your bragmail last night," Ellie segued "You're saying that you can create an intelligent program that learns from how a character moves in-game and make it into an ultra-realistic copy of its personality? Sounds fishy."

A man came alongside her and sat in almost the same manner. He wore long hair, box glasses with an unmistakable maroon long-sleeved polo with oversized disco-era collars, giving him the look of a hippie lost in time. His face, though of youth, looked more like in his early twenties with stubbles of roughly shaven facial hair and a more ruggedly chiseled face.

"That's the long and short of it. Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of creating an entire race of independent bots. Like a tamagotchi of sorts. Imagine, your very own personal army in-game of not just dumb bots, but almost living things that learn and evolve," replied the young senior.

"Holy s--t, Jerimiah Esteves! We're going to be rich with this kind of project!"

The young man locked Ellie's neck with his arm and drew her close. "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU NOT TO USE MY FULL NAME?? JEEVES. JEEVES!"

Ellie buried her elbow into the groin of the man called Jeeves with considerable violence. "Fine, but that doesn't give you a right to go cuddle up like that - Jeeves. God, why do you fancy such a stupid name?"

Jeeves almost fell back from his seat in anguish. "Fine," he grumbled in fetal position, "you're fiesty as ever. I still can't get over that side of yours." Jeeves gave out a grunt of pain.

Then came something unexpected. Ellie turned to Jeeves and moved his face towards hers. She titled a bit and kissed him in the lips lightly. The boy flushed red.

"Jeeves, we tried didn't we?" Ellie spoke softly, "it didn't work out. And if you ask me, I'd still really love to have you as a very good friend. You're a good guy and you're going to make a girl really happy one day. I'll be rooting for my favorite lab assistant till that happens."

The melodied lunch bell rang all over the campus, muffling a young man's sigh. Ellie just put on the similar happy-greet face she had beforehand. Jeeves stood up and faced the strong winds from the field.

"Classes are starting," said Jeeves while watching a faint outline of a familiar figure walking with another student in civilian clothes along an unroofed walk leading towards the building, "We should go downstairs now."