I glared at the wall screen as my feed swarmed with comments on the video someone kicked of me. Every once in a while, angry tears would fill up my eyes and my vision would be distorted.
I had received pings from both of my brothers and my parents apologizing and trying to give me advice on how to deal with this, but I had ignored everything. Han hadn't even bothered trying to make contact with me at all.
I was furious with all of them. I didn't want to be thrown into the spotlight. I'd seen people get ripped apart over the feed and I had always been terrified of that being me. Now that it had happened, I realized I had been right to be terrified. Everyone had something to say so they could get their fifteen minutes.
My wall screen beeped to tell me I had an incoming ping and I sighed. I almost told the room to ignore it, but then I saw who it was. I groaned and ran my hands through my horribly messed up hair.
"Fine. Answer it, I guess." I responded grudgingly.
"Hey." Han's voice came over the speakers. For the first time, he sounded unsure.
"What do you want, Han?" I asked. I almost sighed in relief when my voice didn't quiver.
"The meeting place for the race is Nana Love's mansion. With your face rank you can probably get in, but you will not be welcome there." He told me quietly.
I pursed my lips as I thought about what I was going to do. Airi wasn't going to back away from the race, and Takashi wasn't going to tolerate being challenged by an extra. The smart thing to do was to back out and let them work it out among themselves. But if I did that, then she would win.
"Rin?" Han asked hesitantly.
"I'm still here." I replied half-heartedly.
"Deciding to not to race is your smartest move, but if you do, just know I'm cheering for you." He told me before he ended the ping. Despite my every effort to hate him, my lips twitched up in a smile.
Z
"Rin!" Someone yelled. My head jerked up from where I had been laying face first in my comforter. The first thing my eyes managed to focus on was Hayate standing in my doorway.
"How did you even get in here?" I asked sleepily. He rolled his eyes.
"Never mind that. Who does this bitch think she is?" He snapped as he gestured to the wall screen.
"The twentieth most popular person in the city?" I guessed sarcastically. He growled in response.
"Aren't you going to do something to respond?" He asked.
"You know that'll only feed the flames." I told him. He sighed and swatted his long bangs out of his face.
"What are you going to do about the race?" He asked me seriously.
"I don't know." I told him honestly.
"Surely you aren't thinking about going." He deadpanned. "That would ruin you forever." When my expression didn't change he set his jaw angrily. "You can't be serious."
"I don't want to let them win." I told him. He scoffed.
"You're going to be an outcast forever. Do you know what this'll do to your reputation?" He snapped.
"What'll do to mine or to yours?" I asked. He froze. "You already have the burden of being saddled with a socially awkward extra sister that everyone in the family is too ashamed of to associate with." I bit out as anger built in my chest.
"You actually believe that?" He asked.
"Why wouldn't I? You've always been embarrassed of me; it's not too much of a stretch to believe you told other people you were." I spat out. He looked dejected.
"Rin, I'm not—" He started.
"You are; ever since your face rank dipped below 100,000 and you moved into your new mansion. You haven't wanted to deal with me, and guess what? I haven't wanted to deal with you either. I don't deserve any of that, Hayate." My voice wavered and I cringed. I glanced up at Hayate to see if he noticed. He looked like had slapped him.
"Rin—" He began again.
"No. You don't get to talk." I interrupted. "I'm tired of it. All you and Kaede ever do is worry about how I affect your face rank. Both of you have done everything possible to keep me away from you unless you needed something. I couldn't even call either of you when I thought I was going to die because I knew you wouldn't come. I had to rely on a complete stranger." My voice cracked.
He opened his mouth to defend himself, but I cut him off again.
"I think you should leave, and I don't either of you should come back." I blurted before I could start crying in front of him. My eyes started burning with unshed tears and his outline started to blur as my eyes filled up. He noticed and took a step towards me but I shook my head at him. He sighed and walked out the door without a word.
I couldn't stop the tears that started flowing as I stared at the door. I finally gave up, buried my face in the comforter, and let them fall.
Z
The feed didn't get any less dismal after I woke up from crying myself out. I finally had to turn it off to preserve my sanity. That lasted for an entire hour. I had to turn it back on when my face rank started rising even more quickly than before. Everyone was buzzing like a kicked beehive about something involving my brothers.
"Room, pull up my feed." I told it breathlessly. Two stories kicked by Kaede and Hayate were at the top of my feed. "Open Hayate's." I told the room.
"What are you doing?" My fifteen year old self asked the hover cam as she sprawled in an arm chair at our parents' house.
"I'm interviewing you; I get to ask the questions." A newly un-brain damaged Hayate hissed. I shook my head at him and took another sip of my tea.
"Can't you interview Kaede? I'm eating." I asked as I gestured to the plate in my lap.
"And what do you expect the reputation economy to bring?" He ignored my question.
"A bunch of former bubble heads with hover cams that film every random thing they can find?" I deadpanned. Hayate snorted.
"There is that. Are you going to be one of the kickers with a hover cam?" He questioned me.
"I don't know." I answered unsurely. I still looked really confused as to why there was a hover cam in my face. My eyes strayed over to Hayate questioningly.
"Look at the hover cam." He hissed like he thought the hover cam wouldn't hear him. My ugly self obeyed. "Want me to tell you what I think is going to happen now, first?" He asked, apparently realizing I wasn't going to answer. I gestured for him to go ahead.
"Kaede is going to be a famous tech-head, I'm going to be famous for my gorgeous looks, my way with ladies, and my hover boarding, and you'll be a famous athlete. I'm going to have a massive mansion and, because you're the level headed one, you're going to have to live with me to make sure I don't get too crazy." He told me in a teasing manner. I chuckled at him.
"I wish that were the way it worked out, but I have a feeling things are going to be very different." I told him thoughtfully.
"How?" He asked.
"You don't think you're going to be different when you're famous?" I asked him slowly.
"No. You're my baby sister." He commented like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "By the way, I'm also keeping this clip so I can remind boys of that once you're pretty and famous and everyone wants you." He added as an afterthought. I shook my head at him.
"I don't think it's going to be like that. It's going to be a massive competition to get on top and stay on top. Everyone's going to be doing everything possible to get a few minutes of fame." I told him seriously.
"And what do you think about that?" He asked in a fake serious interview voice.
"I think you're going to be able to see a lot of people's true selves when they're trying to get ahead of everyone else." I answered honestly.
"Is that a bad thing?" He pressed.
"Sometimes. When someone does something they regret it's going to be forever immortalized on the feeds. They're going to have live with what they did or what they said for a long time. It's hard to get a second chance when everyone likes reminding them they messed up."
The story ended right there. No narration, no comments.
I didn't know what to think. I had never felt so grateful for him.
The old interview Hayate did when he was half drunk was a better apology than anything he could have said with words. The Crims were going to humiliate him for months for his twenty minutes of goofiness caught on camera and he would lose a lot of fans that loved him for his surly emotionlessness. The statement I made reflected badly on him and whoever was slamming me.
"Room, play Kaede's."
Kaede's was different, but it still said the same thing. I was sitting beside him as he demonstrated one of his new mods. It was a piece of footage that was left out of the finish project because something went wrong and he had to adjust some things. We had a short conversation where he was teasing me about creating mods for my hover boards and hover ball suits when I was a famous athlete, obviously joking about Hayate's interview. At one point he promised me that he'd never be too busy or to famous for me.
The clips meant a lot to me. I would never forget that they had done this for me.
I was still marveling at the way they embarrassed themselves for me when a new video was kicked to my feed. I grimaced when I saw the same name as the guy that kicked the story that started all of this.
"Two major topics have been blowing up the feeds tonight." He began as his surged face filled up the wall screen. I sneered at him at a little. "The first one is the Nakamura brothers. The two have come to the rescue of their baby sister. Sort of. I'm not really sure what their strategy was because all they really managed to do was look like assholes and show us an inside look at the siblings when they actually loved each other." He snorted.
"The next topic is tomorrow night's race. I think we're all looking forward to seeing the best male and female hover boarders of our time up against each other in a grueling race. There were concerns that the wardens were going to break up this event, but with the mass popularity it has gained, they've agreed to it as long as good sportsmanship was applied." He paused." I think we all know that won't happen."
I raised an eyebrow. I knew Airi was evil in sporting events, but how bad was Takashi?
"I am the only one kicking the race, so if you aren't invited, come back to my feed." The screen went black and his disgusting, overly angular face went away.
Z
The party buzzed with big faces and Crims as we waited for the tech-head deciding the course to show up. The only thing that could be heard throughout the party was Takashi and Airi's names. Everyone wanted to know who the winner would be. Every once in a while someone would joke about the girl in the bomber's robe showing up and someone would quickly tell them that was Airi and she was already there.
I had to cover a laugh at that. It would have looked suspicious if the reputation bomber on the edge of the group was giggling.
I had finally decided I was done crying in my room over Airi and the slam feed guy. For under my robe, I got a new jacket with a hood that completely covered my face in shadow and new grippy shoes, just in case someone would recognize my old shoes. I didn't worry about people recognizing my hoverboard; Kaede and Hayate had sent me a new one as an apology gift.
"Everyone please move out to the garden. The race is about to start." Nana love called loudly.
The press of the crowd was unbearable. Everyone was fighting through the doors of the mansion to make it into Nana's garden. I panicked for a few seconds when I got separated from my reputation bomber clique, but once I was outside I was able to find them again.
"Everyone please be quiet!" A tech-head I'd never seen before snapped at the crowd from a hoverboard. I could barely hear him because I was in the back of the crowd with my back facing him. I couldn't see if Airi and Takashi were there yet, and I didn't dare risk turning away from the other bombers.
"Silence!" Takashi snapped. The whole crowd stopped instantly. I rolled my eyes at their absolute obedience. "The way this works is Airi and I have never heard the course. He is about to give it to us, then he will start us off. Does anyone have any questions about this?" He asked condescendingly.
Fury boiled in my chest at the way he spoke to everyone. Before I could stop myself, I whirled around. I grabbed the person standing in front of me's shoulder and shoved him to the side before doing it to the person on the other side. Both turned to glare at me, but I shoved past them.
Ripples spread through the crowd as I shoved my way through, but I barely noticed; I was too focused on beating Takashi and Airi. People started stepping aside from me, and before I had time to process what I was doing, I was at the edge of the crowd and almost to the spot where I hid my hover board in the leaves. I stepped on the hem of my bomber robe and almost stumbled. Tired of the hindrance, I yanked it off and let the river of gray silk trail behind me as I snapped for my hover board to rise. I planted one foot on it and it jumped up in the air until I was on their level.
Shock colored both of their faces; Airi's face leaned almost toward horror.
"You didn't think I was going to back out, did you Airi?" I called clearly.
Below us, the crowd exploded.
AN: Most fun chapter to write so far.