So, I left you for nearly two weeks. I need to work on that. I still own nothing, sadly.
Chapter 11: Game Plan
Well, I could tell that Danny's sister was disturbed by the changes that took place in my additude, going from withdrawn to depressed, to happy, to focused. Running the gauntlet of emotions was becoming a talent. I was planning on raiding Axiom Labs, an area close to the area that we lived in. I hacked as well as I could, trying to find the documents I needed. I finally found a floor plan, and worked out where the supplies I needed would be. I measured the exact quantities needed, an activity that took nearly a week because of the density of my body, altered by the changes, so to speak, that had occurred. I had to calculate density, volume, mass, and the effects certain kinds of tissues and other body parts could have on the energy I was using. School passed in a blur, for once in my life, as class after class fell away in a flurry of paper and pencil, and work. Sam and Tucker tried to talk to me, but I ignored them as well as I could, until Tucker invited me to his house to play Doomed. The conversation went something like this:
"Hey, dude, wanna come to my house to play Doomed? I already invited Sam, and you agreed earlier."
"I...did?" I couldn't remember agreeing to this.
"Yeah. Yesterday, just before the math test."
"I don't remember agreeing..."
"Figures. You were really zoned out, just staring at the sheets of paper you filled out with math-y stuff like they held the power to save your life." Tucker informed me.
"Er..." I laughed nervously. Tucker, you have no idea...
Tucker rolled his eyes. "You've been zoned out for the past week, dude. Is this about the portal?"
I gulped.
Tucker snorted. "And there we have it. The reason you act so weird. You're worried about if your parents find out, and if you should tell them anyway, aren't you?"
I thankfully nodded, glad that he had provided me with an excuse.
"Playing Doomed will help you relax." My (Danny's) friend reasoned.
I just laughed. "It is a game in which I battle for keys. How, Tucker, is that relaxing?"
He paused. "It simply is."
"In other words, you want me to play, no matter what. You sound like a salesman."
"Pretty much."
"No."
What? was the thought plastered across his feelings, and his face. Remembering I had a job to focus on, I ignored the hurt that swiftly followed.
"You promised. You never break your promises." He spoke.
"I can't keep it this time."
He frowned. "If something is bothering you that much, you can tell us."
"No."
His face was pleading, and I could feel my emotions driving me towards accepting his offer. "Fine. You win." I finally gave in.
He smiled briefly. His smile didn't feel right, but accepting his invitation did.
/
School finished for the day, and I was glad of it. I met Tuck outside the school, after my newly-earned detention. "Where's Sam?" I questioned.
"She went on ahead. Said that you would take forever in detention. I just waited to take you to my house." He held out his arm as if he were an escort. I hesitantly took it, amusement bubbling in my chest. "Off we go!" Tucker and I took off at the fastest speed we could run, awkwardness making running difficult.
I stumbled, taking Tucker with me as we reached his house, laughing at the difficulties involved in running in such an odd manner. I cut off my laughter abruptly as I hurriedly withdrew my foot from the pavement outside his door. He paused his own laughter, and saw my foot. "Still? Your foot just won't stay out of stuff." He commented. I smiled tightly. "Here we are. The best looking house in the area." Tucker laughingly declared.
We headed upstairs, to where Sam was already seated on the couch, holding one of Tucker's computers. "Hi!" She sounded remarkably chipper compared to the whole 'goth' thing she had going.
"Hey!" Tucker and I said simultaneously.
"About time. I was thinking you'd gotten lost."
"On the way to my own house?"
"Good point."
Watching them talk between themselves was amusing. The little indicators of banter were there, even without feeling what they felt, a fact that I was slowly adjusting to, even if I couldn't control it. It wasn't as close to driving me insane, however, a fact for which I was grateful. I felt that maybe being with them was worthwhile this time. I could feel myself relaxing. "Nah, Tucker just forced me to run as fast as I could while linked together. I never realized it was quite that hard."
Sam snorted. "You only did that two weeks ago, and now you remember it was hard?"
"Yup!"
"Is Doomed up yet?" I asked.
"I pulled it up on one of Tuck's computers while you were tripping your way over."
Tucker did not look happy. "You pulled it up on my computer without my permission?"
"I figured it'd be a while before you got over here, so I played a couple rounds."
"Oh."
" So, do we play now, or do we simply sit here?" I asked, rather entertained.
"If you are ready to get your butt kicked, yeah." Tucker commented.
" I'm not ready. I won't lose." My response came.
"Just stop." Sam sighed. We turned towards her. "Besides, I'll win." We met her with twin glares.
"Only if you work really hard." and "No way!" Came our rebuttals.
"Let the games begin!" Called Tucker as we sat in front of his computers, and began.
Tucker was quickly in the lead, with me close behind. We steadily picked up keys, but within seconds, Sam simply disappeared. We moved as fast as we could, intent on winning. Several of the keys were missing as we reached them, and a giant robot that Sam would probably have liked came at us. Within seconds, it had captured Tucker and I; we never saw it coming. YOU LOSE! Popped up on both our screens.
"I'm too young to die!" Tucker pleaded, seconds too late. I slumped against the chair.
"Tuck, any idea who that robot was?" I questioned.
"No idea. But it got our keys. It looks like Sam's still in the game, though. How'd that happen?"
Sam appeared to be quietly celebrating, before she caught our gazes and sighed. "I lost. There was this cool looking automaton, and it beat me." She looked almost as if she might have been lying. I ignored that. At least she was being honest about the emotions, mostly. Guilt was in her feelings for a second, before it was erased as Tucker informed her that girls could never play video games as well as guys. I agreed. After all, even if Sam was pretty unusual for a girl, girls simply didn't like videogames. I felt great. Better than I had for a week.
"Well, Tucker, you were right. Battling for keys is distracting. Thanks." I smiled slightly. "How about coming to my house. I'll get some supper. Jazz has cooked way more than I should be letting her. If you help me, I'll go get some food at the store." At this point, I knew better than to eat some of the food at home, as a great deal was moldy, and I mentally made a note to go through our stuff and throw away as much as I could that was bad now.
"Sure. But it'd better be good. Anyway, it's 6:00 already. We should go on ahead. Have you got the money?" Sam agreed.
Tucker was slightly more hesitant, but in the end gave in. "Why not? Besides, your food has to be better than the food that happens when Mom goes on a meat strike."
"Meat strike?" Sam asked.
"Mom periodically decides that I shouldn't eat so much meat, and fixes only vegetables, fruit, and bread. I've so far escaped with my fourteen-year-long meat streak."
"Ahhh..." (my response) Sam's response was more like, "Good for her! You already eat so much meat that your body is used to having lots of protein, and it'll make you fat."
I winced sympathetically as Tucker glared at her and informed her that he needed that extra protein for his growing body.
"Which way is it growing?"
I stood up quickly, and broke their eye contact. "Cool off, guys. Arguing over food choices is stupid. Get over it."
"You probably argue over stupid things. And food isn't stupid."
"..." As if to mock my silence, I abruptly phased through the floor, landing hard on the ground below. Seconds later I fell through the ground and stuck. Sam and Tucker rushed down stairs after me, arriving as Tucker's mom entered the room, and froze with a shriek.
"What is...that-that thing doing on the floor. What happened to Daniel?"
"We constructed that. I put it on the ground to scare you." Tucker answered after a pause.
"DON'T do that ever again!" All three of us winced at the volume she employed. I was glad she wasn't looking at me.
"Yes, ma'm." The two of them agreed.
"Now get that thing off the floor."
"Yes, ma'm."
She left the room with a nervous look on her face.
"That was close. Never scare me like that again, please." Tucker commented. "Can you get out?"
"No. I can't get out. I'm stuck."
"Concentrate on getting out, then."
"I tried."
"Focus. How do you feel when you go through something?" That was Sam again.
"Like freaking out." I dead-panned.
"Not that! Be serious! How do you feel when you phase?"
"Tingly. But won't that make me fall further?"
"True. So what about flight?"
"Cool-cold type cool. And sorta drifty. Like gravity never existed in relation to me."
"Focus on that. Think about the idea of floating, like a hot air balloon, and visualize it. Think about the cold feeling, too." Tucker informed me nervously.
"And if your mom walks in?" I enquired.
Tucker looked slightly pained. "We tell her that I inflated you."
"Alright. And if she buys it, you still have to explain the fact that I would have legs now."
"I'll tell her that you were a balloon, and your legs hadn't been inflated at that point. Call you a surprise for yourself. Just try now, ok?"
It worked. I slowly, haltingly made my way out of Tucker's floor. We all breathed a sigh of relief when I got out all of the way. My entire body felt weird, like it had been dumped in a bucket of ice-cold water. It was at this Point that I realized I was feeling the temperature, rather than guessing it. I shivered.
"Do we go to the store now?" I asked, dispite the feeling of elation that I had made it out of the floor.
"Sure. I'll call my parents and tell them that I'm eating at your house. As much as I don't give a care to whether they care about where I eat, I think I'll tell them. Last time I left the house without telling them and stayed for too long, they called the police, and they'll never tell you this, but they tried to get a restraining order. That was overdoing it." Sam laughed, "It was really chaotic around our house, and Gramma had to stop them."
We smiled, remembering the woman who helped us a lot, supported us, and let us do more stuff that Sam's parents would have, if they could help it. She helped us clean up after we first met Sam, when I'd painted Sam's dress black with Tucker's assistance, while it was on her. I felt certain that Mrs. Ida Manson had nightmares about that. Of course, we'd spilled cookie crumbs all over the dress, and they had dried on. When I got back to our house, I had to scrub the chairs so mom and dad wouldn't notice. That had been boring, except for the fact that I was listening to an audio book on mathematics. I was starting work on division at that point. Long division. That part aside, the general consensus was that Sam's gramma was the coolest person ever, except in my opinion, because Jazz was really cool.
"Maybe we could visit her sometime. Doesn't she live across town?" Tucker enquired.
"She does for now, but with the way she's getting older, she'll probably move into our house soon. I've heard mom and dad talking about it lately." Sam stated, after a moment of consideration. "But it you want to, Maybe we could go tomorrow, after school, of course."
"Sure!" Tucker stated enthusiastically, before adding with a little bit more hesitancy, "Actually, I may have something coming up soon. I think mom might have a shopping trip planned soon. I hope it isn't tomorrow."
I debated with myself. I wanted to see her, that much was clear. But I had science to work on. I thought long and hard. "How about not tomorrow, but next week on Monday? I could fix some cookies, and we could take them over there. It could be really fun, if you gave me a little bit of time."
Sam chuckled, and Tucker asked, "Chocolate chip cookies?" We all chortled. By now, our meeting, and the cookies were an inside joke. If we talked about them for long enough, someone would bring up that incident, and we would burst into laughter. It was inevitable.
"Why not?" And we all broke down.
"Th-that was horrible. Mom got on to me for a week, and Dad gave me lectures on lady-like behavior, even though I was five!" Sam managed. Tucker and I finally stopped laughing, a bit after Sam did. Laughing felt good, and human. I tried not to think of that. I also hoped that in a week I would be properly human, and not have to lie to gramma Ida.
We finally made it to the store, and bought the food needed for our supper, along with a few extras, including some turkey for Tucker. The total came up to $20.00. At least it wasn't more expensive. So We made it home, and I began to cook the food. Our meal consisted of spaghetti with tomato sauce, and loaf bread-homemade. I was rather proud of myself. Of course, there was optional meat to ad to the sauce, and stuff to put on the sandwiches. Tucker and Sam enjoyed it, as did I, and Jazz ate with us. I was a pretty good cook, or at least, it could have been worse. I stopped burning my fingers a while back, so there were no band-aides on my hands, either. It wasn't too fancy. Jazz liked to cook fancy stuff. We finished eating it, and I took them down to the lab because they insisted that I did so. The portal was still running, and the whirring sounds it produced were eerie. Afterwards, we returned upstairs, and Sam and Tucker walked home. I walked with them as well, and kept up the discussion. Sam and Tucker informed me that this was the most attention I'd payed them in a while. I smiled sheepishly and apologized.
As I walked home after leaving them, I reflected that maybe it wasn't so bad to waste an entire day with my friends; nothing too bad had happened. Still, I imagined the comments they made inside their heads as I did weird and random things, and decided that it was still better if I continued with my plans, and simply tried to remember not to tell them that I was getting rid of myself, in favore of Danny. They would think I was planning on killing myself. When I reached FentonWorks, I used the floating sensation inside myself that had been building up, and floated into my room, and through my window, collapsing in my bed, chills running through my body, along with the now-normal aches in my body, especially my chest. I was asleep within seconds.
2760 word-long-story in reward! This is thrice as long as my story chapters normally are, and if I add the notes, 2,805 words.
-Miaulin
