The next morning my head was fuzzy and I was still exhausted, but when I woke up my first thought was to check on Linux.  He was still asleep and he groaned and protested when I shook him, but he seemed better than he had the night before – less out of breath and afraid.  I sat next to him on the bed and took a long look at the bruise on his cheek.  "Did you sleep OK?"

"Yeah – I guess." He yawned.  "Sometimes I got a little stab in the middle of the night and it woke me up but I was so tired and sore I went right back to sleep."

"Well – that's good, I guess.  This bruise on your face is a beauty – but at least your eye's not closed.  How're you gonna explain it to people?"

"I'll tell 'em I tripped and fell down, or something.  No one'll care."

"The teachers might." I sighed.  "Why don't you tell 'em we were horsing around, practicing combat or something, and I did it by mistake?  Sounds more convincing."

"You just want people to think you're tough."

"Very funny.  Lemme see your stomach.  Does it hurt?"

"Course it hurts." Linux grumbled as he lifted his T-shirt.  "Where'd you go last night, anyway?"

"Never mind."

"Did you and Zip fight or something?  Owww!  Stop it!"

"Hold still!   I have to see if these bruises are any worse."  I gently prodded around Linux' belly and ribcage, deliberately ignoring his question.

"Well?  Did you?"

"No.  I went to his room – I'm not even sure why.  I was just really mad, I guess I wanted to do something.  But he's a coward – he's afraid he'll get in trouble if he beats me up."

"Crash!  That hurts…"

"I know.  At least you won't have to explain these – no one'll see 'em."

"Are they bad?"

I shrugged.  "I don't think they're any bigger than they were last night – maybe a little darker, but mine did that too.  I guess you're probably okay – we got lucky this time."

"You…  You think they'll do it again?  What did he say?"

"I dunno, Dude.  I doubt he'll go after you again but he still hates my guts.  He's not gonna let this drop and he won't fight me.  I don't know what's gonna happen."

"Crash…" he said softly.  "This really sucks – why do people have to be such outputs?"

"Wish I knew." I smiled.  "No one's ever given me a good explanation of that one.  I guess all we can do is try and stay out of their way as much as possible."

Linux scowled at that.  "This campus is a pretty small place."

"Yeah…  I know.  But that makes it tougher for them to do stuff without Laser finding out, too."

"I guess."

"C'mon." I sighed.  "As long as we're here he can't do anything too bad – not without getting expelled.  Let's hit the showers or we'll have no time for breakfast."

I didn't really plan on telling Lisa about what happened – I figured it'd be easier that way, since she'd probably want us to go to Laser or Mouse about it.  That was the plan, anyhow.  I don't know why I bother to make plans – seems like things never follow them.  Dot's the one for plans in my family.  I might as well make stuff up as I go, 'cause that's what always ends up happening anyway so why waste time planning?

Lisa pretty much knew as soon as I sat down at lunch that something was wrong – I could tell by her face, which I was getting better at reading even though I still wasn't as good at it as she was with mine.  "Hey."

"Hey Cutie.  Did you ask Linux about the double-date?"

"Uh…"  Obviously I should have been ready for that question, but I'd totally forgotten about the double-date.  So I proceeded with my pathetic attempt to keep from telling Lisa everything.  "I forgot."

"You forgot?"  Lisa frowned and furrowed her brow at me, which instantly made be feel about 0.7.  "All right – what's up?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighed patiently.  "Something's the matter.  Maybe if you tell me I can help you with it."

"Nothing's the matter!" I protested, concentrating on my food.  "Mmmf.  Everything's fine, I just…mmmf…forgot is all."

"Oh, Enzo…  Don't you think this is silly?  You'll end up telling me anyway."

"But-"

"Just tell me.  Maybe I can help."

"Crash!" I scowled at her. "Just tell me one thing.  How do you know?  Why is it so obvious the nano I walk into the room that something's wrong?"

Lisa smiled and stroked my hand under the table.  "You aren't good at hiding things, Enzo.  You show everything in your face, that's all."

"That's just great.  Thanks a lot!"

"Don't be mad!  I love that about you.  It's just because you feel so strongly about everything, that's why.  Besides – you look terrible, like you haven't slept a wink.  It's not hard to figure out something happened – you looked as happy as a virus in the supercomputer when you left me last night."

"Oh."

"Now just tell me – maybe I can help, whatever it is."

"Thanks." I sighed.  "I don't think you'll be able to do anything, though."

"Won't know unless you try me, will you?"

"No – I guess not.  But you have to promise not to tell anyone else, OK?"

She frowned.  "Why?"

"Just promise, OK?  Or I won't tell you."

"All right, I promise.  Now tell me what's wrong, OK?"

"OK." I smiled.  "You're pixelacious, you know that?  But I still don't think you can help this time.  Linux got beat up by Zip and Calisto last night."

"What?  I can't believe-"

"Shhh!"

"Sorry."  She lowered her voice to a whisper.  "But what happened?  Why would they do that?" 

I shrugged.  "To scare me, I guess.  I think they're afraid to beat me up after what happened last time, 'cause they think they'll get caught if they do.  So they went after Linux."

"Those nulls!  Is he all right?  Poor Linux!"

"Yeah, he's OK.  He got bruised up a little bit but I don't think they did any permanent damage."

"What did the nurse say?"

"Umm…  We didn't go to the nurse.  Linux didn't want anyone to know about it.  That's why you can't tell."

"What?  Enzo, that's stupid!"

"No it's not." I said softly.  "If he rats them out they might hurt him even worse the next time."

"Crashes!" Lisa scowled.  "It's all about acting tough, isn't it?  That's all boys care about, acting tough and looking tough.  Those outputs should be punished for what they did!  But no, you can't go for help-"

"That's not fair!  You don't know what happens when guys snitch, it's…  It can be bad.  Sometimes you just have to take care of stuff on your own.  When I went to Zip's room-"

"What?  You went to Zip's room?"

"Uh – yeah…"

"Why?  What in the net were you thinking?  Wanting to fight him, I suppose.  That's smart…"

"No!  I just…  I don't know…"

"Oh, that explains it.  How can I argue with that reasoning?"

"Stop it!  You're not being fair." 

"Enzo – you could get really badly hurt if you fight Zip again, don't you know that?"  She grabbed my hands.  "Forget about the fact that he's older and bigger and stronger than you – he's already proved he won't fight fair.  If he needs to get Calisto to help him hurt you, he will.  I don't want anything to happen to you!"

"I don't either!" I sighed helplessly.  "But I can't go running to Laser every time something happens – Zip would be right about me if I did that!  If I really belong here I should be able to take care of myself."

"Oh, Enzo…  Do you have any idea what it would do to me if something…  I mean – Enzo-"

"I know."  It was amazing knowing that someone like Lisa cared so much about me – it's not like she had to or anything.  I squeezed her hands tight.  "Look – I don't want to fight him.  I promise I won't look for trouble, OK?  I just want him to leave me alone."

Lisa stared sadly at me for a couple nanos.  "Just how do you plan to get him to do that?"

"I'm… not sure.  But I'll be careful.  He's just a bully, that's all.  He just wants to scare me and if he can't, maybe he'll get tired of me and pick on someone else."

"I hope so."  She didn't sound convinced and honestly, I wasn't either. 

"It'll be OK." I smiled.  "You're the most important thing to me, Lisa.  As long as we're together I don't care about Zip or anyone else."

"OK, Sweetie." She whispered.  "But promise me you won't pick a fight with him anyways.  Just promise me."

"I promise.  I won't pick a fight with Zip."

"Thank you."

"NP.  Everything will be OK, I promise.  You'll see."  She smiled, but she didn't look like she believed me.  I guess I couldn't blame her for being skeptical.

Linux was OK, more or less – he limped a little bit for the rest of that cycle, but the pain didn't get any worse and the bruises didn't get any bigger.  The hardest part was combat class, when Mouse got a good look at his face.  We tried to hurry out afterwards but she stopped us and asked what was up.  Linux and I looked at each other and then down at our feet and didn't say anything for a couple of nanos, than he muttered something about an "accident".

"What sorta accident, Sugar?  That's some bruise!"

"Uh…" Linux offered.

"Um." I added.

"C'mon, you two – what's up?  Spill the java beans."

"Well – it's sorta embarrassing." I sighed.

"Yeah." Linux nodded.

"See, we were practicing some of the self-defense stuff you're teaching us – the martial-arts stuff – and I pretended to kick Linux in the face just to see how he'd react, you know, except I accidentally didn't pretend and really kicked him."

"Yeah." He added, shooting me a dirty look. "I shoulda been able to defend it, but I was too slow.  It's embarrassing."

"And I shoulda been more careful.  I thought I had better control.  Sorry, Mouse."

"Uh-huh.  I see.  Boy, you must be practicin' hard with those moves, Enzo – that was a helluva blow you landed."

"I know.  I feel really bad about it.  I'll be more careful next time, honest."

"That's the last free one he gets." Linux scowled.  I have to admit, he was pretty good once he got into the story.

Mouse looked hesitant – she didn't quite believe us, I don't think, but the story sounded almost reasonable and Linux' acting had her nearly convinced.  "You boys be careful in the future – this stuff can be deadly if ya use it wrong.  It has to be."

"We know, Mouse."

"We will be.  We're sorry."

"All right then, Boys.  You do that."  We smiled and nodded and started for the door.  "Oh, and Boys?  I'll be watchin' real careful to make sure there's no more 'accidents', you got me?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Yes Ma'am."

"What'd I tell you about that "Ma'am" stuff, huh?"

"Sorry!"  I know one thing – it's not easy to slip anything past Mouse.  She already had so many reasons to watch me I'm not sure how she found time for anything else.

After that a few cycles went by without anything much happening.  I mean, lots of stuff did happen, but it was mostly normal stuff – classes and homework and lunch with Lisa and a few quick kissing sessions after school.  It was scraggy knowing that Zip was out there, and he was still gunning for me – and not having any idea when he'd take his next shot.  But you can't worry about stuff all the time – or at least I can't.  Life goes on and I got caught up in it and just tried to do my best and be prepared for whatever happened.

Linux got better – after a couple cycles he wasn't even limping any more.  You could still see the bruise on his cheek, but the swelling went down and he could open his eye all the way.  Neither one of us forgot about what had happened, though, and some part of me still felt that Linux had taken those punches for me, and felt bad about it.

When you look back at the important nanos in your life, the right thing to do always seems obvious.  Problem is, it's almost never obvious when those nanos are actually happening.  It's a trick – once you know something you can't make yourself un-know it, so it's impossible to look at the same event later on and truly look at it like you did when it was happening.  You know about it now, and that changes the sprite you are forever.  The simple fact that something happened changes the way you look at it later.

I guess the reason I say that is 'cause I don't want to look like I was stupid about what happened next, because I really don't think I was.  Sure, knowing what I know now it looks like I was, but I can't honestly say I'd ever have done things differently in the same situation.  From the nano I got home from dinner with Lisa and saw the look on Linux' face I just reacted the best I could under the circumstances.

"What?"  I could tell something was up right away from the way his eyes focused in on me the nano I walked in and never left me, all the way to my bed.

"Did you see it?" He asked grimly.

"What?"

"If you have to ask, I guess you didn't." he sighed.  "They downloaded next minute's game roster."

"So?"  My batting average was about .250 getting into games so far – it was always disappointing to be on the roster and not get a game cube but I knew with this many cadets, the odds of being lucky weren't that great.  "Did I get a lousy slot – middle of the night or something?"   There were hardly ever any games then.

"Just look at it."

I frowned and picked up my organizer.  Like always, the new game roster was in the "Incoming Messages – Administration" folder.  I opened it up and scanned for my name.  My first reaction was relief – I had a slot at 2700, around dinnertime.  Then I saw the other names that were listed next to mine.  "Cursors and crashes…"

"Sucks, huh?"

There they were, right on the screen –

Zip Calisto

Matrix

Jobs

Instructor – Garamond.

I could hardly believe what I was seeing.  "Dude – this is not good."

"What're you gonna do about it?"

I jerked my eyes away from the screen to stare at Linux.  "Do about it?"

"Yeah!  I mean- Well…"

"What can I do about it?  It's the official roster!  It's not like I have any choice, is it?  Man, this bytes…"

Linux shuffled over and sat next to me.  "I know, Dude, but – come on!  Zip and Calisto in a game with you?"

"And Lisa, too." I whispered.

"Enzo – I don't think that could be a coincidence, could it?  I mean, the four of you?"

"I dunno, Man."  The more I thought about this prospect, the more scraggy it sounded.  And it was undeniably weird, there was no question about that.  "I guess it could be a coincidence."

"No way."

I stared down at the names again, like I was hoping if I stared at them long enough they'd change.  "D'you think maybe they're testing me or something?  Could that be it?"

"I dunno.  Could be." Linux shrugged.  "So what're you gonna do?"

"Just…  Just try and get through it the best I can, I guess.  Mr. Garamond will be there, at least."

"Yeah."  He didn't sound very reassured.  "Maybe you should talk to somebody about it, Enzo.  Maybe they can change it or something…"

"I can't do that!  We're supposed to be working together, remember?  If I don't like a game assignment I go and ask them to change it?"

"I know, but this isn't right. Not after what those guys did to you."

"And you, too." I said softly.  I definitely did not like the idea of going anywhere with Zip and Calisto, much less into a game – and I liked the idea of Lisa being along with us even less.  But how could I whine to Laser about it?  Maybe they were testing me, or maybe it was a coincidence – either way, if I asked out of it I'd be asking for special treatment.  And proving Zip was right about me. 

"Enzo?  You OK?"  I realized I'd been sitting silently for quite a while.

"I can't, Dude.  I can't complain about it.  I can't ask them to treat me different than everyone else, I just can't.  I'll just have to make the best of it."

"Maybe you'll get lucky, and there won't be a game."

"Maybe.  Never thought I'd be sayin' that."

"Be careful, OK?  If you have to go into a game with those guys-"

"Yeah.  I will."  I smiled at him.  "Thanks.  It's no big file – if there's a game we'll win it and come home, and Zip and Calisto will still be jerks.  No biggie."

"Yeah." Linux smiled weakly.  "No big file."

Lisa had seen the game roster too – I could tell right away at lunch the next cycle. Of course I would've liked to have talked to her about it as soon as I'd found out, but that wasn't an option – the inside of the girls' dorm was strictly forbidden territory, and I had no way to call her.   So I had to wait and I wasn't sure if she'd know, but it was obvious - she looked totally depressed when she got to our table.  "Oh, Enzo-"

"You saw it huh?"

"Of course I did.  Isn't it awful?"

I shrugged, trying to look casual.  "I'm not gonna worry about it if you aren't.  We'll be fine – I can take care of myself in any game."

Lisa smiled sadly.  "I'm not really the one who should be worrying, am I?  The two of them have never bothered me-"

"If they try and hurt you, I'll delete them.  In a nano."

"Oh, Enzo-"

"I mean it." I scowled.  The thought that those two nulls would try to hurt me by hurting Lisa had crossed my mind already – I'd given it quite a bit of thought since Linux' "accident".  "If they even look at you wrong, they're toast."

"Thank you." She sighed.  "But I don't think they will, Cutie.  You're the one I'm worried about."

"Don't worry about me.  Like I said, I can take care of myself in any game.  And Mr. Garamond will be there."

"I suppose."  She absently took a bite of her salad.  "Why do you think this happened, Enzo?  Have you thought about it?"

"Yeah." I said softly.  "I dunno why.  I guess it doesn't matter – we just have to deal with it."

"Well, I don't like it.  But I'm proud of how brave you are."

"No.  I'm not." I sighed.  "I'm scared.  But what can I do, really?  We have to take all kinds of tests to graduate here, right?  Maybe this is just another test."

"You are brave." Lisa smiled.  She squeezed my arm softly.  "You're always brave – you always do what you have to do.  If there were a whole army of Guardians like you Daemon wouldn't stand a chance."

"Lisa! Stop it…"  I could tell I was blushing but I couldn't help smiling, too.  It meant a lot to hear that from Lisa, - even though I'd only known her a few minutes, it felt like my whole life.  "I'm just a little kid."

"That makes you even braver."  Then she leaned across the table and kissed me on the forehead, right in front of everybody.  "I don't even care if anyone saw that.  I'm proud of you."

"Thanks." I grinned.  When Lisa did stuff like that it made me feel like I could take Daemon on myself, never mind Zip.  "You should meet my family sometime - they're the brave ones.  Matrix and Dot and Bob – I'm nothing compared to them."

"I'm sure they're wonderful sprites, but you're amazing compared to anybody, Enzo."

"I… I guess!  Thanks…"

"Maybe I'll get to meet them sometime.  I hope so."

"I know you will!"  I grabbed her hands.  "Bob and Dot are coming to the Academy next semester, for six minutes.  Bob's gonna teach.  And you can come to Mainframe, too – to visit.  It'll be alphanumeric!"

"Maybe." Lisa smiled.  "We'll see."

"Not maybe – definitely."  I hadn't allowed myself to think much about Lisa in Mainframe, even for a visit.  Or explaining her to Dot.  But talking about it made me think about that, and about what would happen after we finished at the Academy.  My future seemed like a much more real prospect now, not some far-off, far-fetched adulthood that was out of my processor's reach.  And Lisa was a big part of that future – in fact, I couldn't even imagine it without her anymore.  The thought of anyone interfering with that scared me silly and filled me with incredible anger at the same time.  I'd do whatever I had to do to protect her – to protect us.  Whatever I had to do.

I tried hard to put the games roster out of my mind as the minute dragged on, especially when I was with Lisa.  As long as I was busy, I was OK – I could wrap my processor around a calculus problem or a game sprite chart or 3-D pinball and I'd be OK.  It was the quiet times that were bad – when I was by myself my mind would wander to places I'd rather it didn't go.

I had a kind of lurking queasiness in my belly the whole minute that came out whenever those alone times happened.  There was a feeling of wrongness to what was going on that scared me – and I felt helpless to do anything about it.  After a lifetime of relying on other people to protect me when I was in danger and comfort me when I was upset, I was finally facing a situation where I couldn't turn to anyone for help – and that might have been the whole point, if I was right about Laser testing me.  I couldn't ask for help – the mere act of doing it would mean I'd failed.  But the queasiness and foreboding got worse and worse and that nano drew closer and closer, so bad that I almost did go to Mouse the night before, just to talk about it.  But I resisted.

I wasn't about to talk to Lisa about what was going to happen – above anything else I wanted her not to be scared, not share the fear and worry I was feeling.  After our lunch I did my best to make her think I wasn't worried at all, and even though I'm as sure as I can possibly be that she knew it was an act, she played along – she was like that.  She seemed to have an amazing ability to know what I needed to feel OK, and she did her best to keep me distracted.  Just being around her cast a kind of glow over me and made me feel better, but as soon as we were apart I'd get terrified about what was going to happen.  The possibility that she might be in danger was what terrified me – that she'd be in danger and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it.  And I'd do anything to protect her – I knew that.   That resolve grew stronger every cycle until it crowded almost everything else out of my processor.

The only sprite I could really talk about stuff with was Linux, because he knew how worried I was.  We both knew first-hand what outputs Zip and Calisto were.  But Linux couldn't really do anything about what was going to happen, so mostly we tried to keep each other distracted by playing games or talking about stupid stuff.  His bruises disappeared and he felt better and he started to spend some time with Patch, even though neither one of us mentioned the double-date idea – I think we both knew it wasn't the right time for it.  Linux was still incredibly shy about Patch, even more than I was about Lisa – he'd get all blushy and flustered every time I'd ask, and that made me smile, at least.  I think things were OK, though – they had lunch together every day and if things weren't going OK, why would he blush?

Mostly it was just nice to have Linux around, because I didn't like being alone right then and besides, he understood what was happening in my processor.  That's what it's like having a real friend – they're just there, and that's enough.  They don't even really have to do anything – just be there and understand.  I was beginning to realize that's what I'd been missing growing up in Mainframe all by myself.  Bob and Dot and Matrix and Andri were incredible sprites and I loved them, but they had their own lives and no matter what happened, we could never be equal – not ever.  I'd always be a little brother or a 'younger self' or "Little Sparky" or even a son – kinda – but never just a friend, not really.   And Linux was, now – that's what I'd finally figured out.  And User, was I glad to have him around.

One thing I'd noticed around Gallifrey was that once a game cube dropped it was pretty unusual for a second one to come down the same cycle.  Mainframe is the same way – not that it never happens, just not very often.  So from the time I woke up on the cycle we were game-rostered I kept hoping in the back of my processor that a game cube would drop early.  I wasn't really proud of it – I didn't like being scared, especially of a couple of bullies.  But I couldn't help it – I was scared, and I did want to hear that voice all cycle long.  That feeling of wrongness was stronger than ever.

So a sense of anticipation was kinda hanging over me all cycle, and it made me nervous and jumpy.  My teachers could see it, Lisa could see it at lunch, Linux could see it after class.  As the millis went by and no game cube came, I got a sicker and sicker feeling in my stomach.  Sometimes a whole cycle or even two or three would go by without a game but again, not very often – most cycles we got one - so as it got later in the cycle I liked my odds less and less.

Our last class let out at twenty-six fifty and Linux asked me if I wanted to go to the rec room and watch a quicktime or something, and I said sure.  It didn't much matter what we were doing, I just didn't feel like being by myself.  Linux popped in some comedy or another and I sat next to him, but I couldn't tell you what movie it was – I was thinking about Lisa.

The whole idea of Zip and Calisto began to seem very small and trivial in my head.  I thought about what the two of them had done to me – embarrassed me publicly and punched me – and in a way it made me feel silly, being so worried.  They were pathetic – Mainframe had faced down Megabyte and almost crashed, the net was still dealing with Daemon.  What were those two compared to that?  Zip was a bully, totally obsessed with pushing people around – and Calisto was even worse, he was dumb as a 5.25 disk and did whatever Zip told him.  If Zip was pathetic, how pathetic did you have to be to be Zip's slave?  They'd tried in their stupid way to hurt me and they definitely had, but crash, if I couldn't deal with childish bullying I wouldn't be much of a Guardian.

What made me realize all this was thinking about Lisa.  Thinking about her made me realize how huge the net was, how amazingly incredible things could happen without you even trying to find them.  Zip could never touch what me and Lisa had – never.  He was tiny, and we were as big as my imagination.  Just meeting her had turned me into a totally different person who could feel things and dream things he didn't even know were possible.  If they tried to hurt me again, fine.  Maybe they would and maybe they wouldn't, but they wouldn't hurt her.  I'd make deleted sure of that, and as long as they didn't hurt her I could deal with anything else.

I felt someone shaking my arm and realized I'd been so far away I didn't even know how long I'd been sitting in the rec room.  I looked over and Linux was staring at me, smiling a little.  "You OK?"

"Yeah…  I was just thinking, sorry.  What did you say?"

"I said, it's after twenty-seven."

I checked my internal clock.  "Yeah – guess so."

"Maybe you'll get lucky."

"Maybe." I smiled.  "I'd feel better if there'd already been a game today, though.  How's the movie?"

"I didn't think you were paying any attention!  It's OK, I guess.  You wanna go get some dinner?"

"Sure.  If you want."  It didn't make much difference to me where we were.  Whatever he wanted, I'd go along.

"Might as well – this isn't all that funny, anyways."  He shut of the quicktime and I sort of numbly followed along behind him as he headed for the mess hall.  My queasiness had gone and I was feeling a weird emptiness, almost not caring what happened now.  Whatever did happen, I just wanted it over.

Linux got a heaping plate of food and I got something small, like a sandwich or soup or something, I don't even remember.  I don't think I ate much of it and I remember neither one of us talking at all while we were sitting at the table, me staring at my food and Linux slowly eating his.  It got to twenty-seven thirty, then fifty, but it wasn't twenty-eight yet.  Maybe it never would be.

Linux had just opened his mouth to say something for the first time in what felt like hours.  "Looks like you're gonna-"

"WARNING – INCOMING GAME.

WARNING – INCOMING GAME."

"Low-density!"

I remember I closed my eyes and just sat there, and it's basic but what I was thinking was how different the game lady sounded here than the one in Mainframe.  Then I let out a deep breath that I'd been holding in my chest.  "Crash.  Crash, crash, crash it all."

I felt Linux'hand on my shoulder.  "Good luck, Dude.  Just win the game and don't let those sphincters get to you, OK?  You're better than they are."

"Uh-huh." I whispered.  I sat there for a nano, just thinking about how scraggy it was that after all that waiting and all that worrying it was actually happening.  Then I thought of Lisa and I shot to my feet.  Suddenly the idea of her being with those two nulls for even one nano without me there was too horrible to think about.  I didn't even wait till I was outside to pop my zip – I opened it right in the mess hall and weaved through the cadets, towards the door.

"Good luck!" Linux shouted.

I didn't even turn.  I zipped out of the mess and down the corridor and outside, into the fresh air.  I scanned the sky and found the cube, slowly coming down over the hillside behind the boys' dorm.  I raced towards it, calculating the distances in my head like I always do, and realized I'd be there in plenty of time.

Once I was settled under the game cube I took a deep breath and scanned the horizon for the others, feeling my stomach start to churn itself up again at the sight of two sprites zipping towards me from the direction of the great hall.  Another lone figure from off to their left was coming towards me, too, and I could see a flash of gold in the fading light.  It seemed weird that I didn't see Mr. Garamond – since he was the House Master I'd expected him to come from the boys' dorm, just like I had.

Zip and Calisto reached me first, and circled me on their zip boards.  Calisto had a sneering grin on his face, but Zip's was totally calm.  I returned his stare, saying nothing and watching for the others out of the corner of my eye.

"Well – if it isn't the little prince." Zip finally smiled.  "I was worried we weren't gonna have a chance to party."

"Whatever.  Let's just get this over with."

"Are you ready to have fun, Enzo?" Calisto giggled.  I glared at him, frowning, and he kept on giggling like an idiot. 

"Enzo!"

"And the little princess too." Zip said softly.  "What a nice coincidence."

"Shut up." I growled.

Lisa shot the pair of them a dirty look and slowed to a hover next to me.  She grabbed my hand and I closed my eyes, concentrating on reassuring coolness of it, trying to fight the gnawing terror I'd felt in the showers, surrounded by the pack of hyenas.  Seeing Zip's cold sneer and hearing Calisto's cackling made me feel like a naked little boy again, and I didn't like it one byte. 

"Relax." She whispered.  "We'll be just fine."

"You look lovely in that uniform, Lisa." Zip purred.  "Good enough to eat."

"Shut up!" I growled again.  Hearing him talk that way hurt as much as his punch to my belly.  "Don't talk to her!"

"We'll do anything we want to her, Infant!" Calisto spat in his shrill voice.  "Who's gonna stop us – you?"

"I know what you did to Linux." Lisa said calmly.  "The two of you are really pathetic, you know that?"

"Linux?  Do I know him?" Zip smiled.  "Oh look – the game's almost here, we'd better get ready.  I wonder where Mr. Garamond could be."

There was something in his voice I liked even less than usual – that and the grin on Calisto's ugly face.  I scanned the horizon and still saw no sign of Mr. Garamond.  I met Lisa's eyes and she shrugged helplessly.  "Lisa!  What-"  Then the cube was on us, and I never finished the thought.