movie.act1p2

scenes xi-xxiv

Spies and Mall Rats

           “Okay, time to give you some spy gear,” Millie announced once the crowds had thinned and the posted faculty guy was waving in stragglers. “As a former spy myself… it feels like I’m passing the torch. First of all, Jace, take this. Sorry, I only have one.”

           After he was handed a bulky yet quite durable 1998 era cell phone, Jace, looking unimpressed, replied, “Amazing. This will really help me… do what, exactly?”

           “Well, I put my number in the contact list, so you can call me if it all goes wrong and you need bailing out. But really try not to screw up in the first place, because my quartz is running on fumes. I don’t want to risk an unnecessary time jump. That’s why I chose to bring Laurie with us instead of wasting a charge to redo our meeting. Still, I did also say that this could still work for a reason. That’s because of these.”

           She raised part of her jacket to reveal a carbon fiber side satchel hidden underneath, and pulled out a pair of large metallic futuristic armlets. She gave them to the kids, who put them on without asking despite their weight and strange nature.

           “Looks like some kind of sci-fi gear,” Laurie said, feeling the smooth material.

           “They’re stealth rings! They bend light and make you invisible. Cool, right? If you’ve ever had a dream where you’re wandering around school and no one sees you… I mean, I have. More than once. Just be careful; they don’t hide sound. And people can still run into you, of course. See, I figure that since you’re smaller than me, you’ll use less power than I would if I went in with Jace. And these will let you see each other.” She gave them pairs of tinted glasses. “We have to wrap this up before they lock the doors.”

           “Yeah, about that—Cookton is pretty much a prison during school hours. What are we supposed to do after the mission is complete?” Jace asked. “Do we try to break out, or just… what, hang around, invisible, until the doors open again at 2:30?”

           “Do… whatever you think is the safer bet. You’ll at least have the freedom to go anywhere you want inside. And you both know the school layout by heart; it’s been so long since I’ve been here that I’d get lost. Hey, Jace, why not track down all the kids you helped back in fifth grade and tell Laurie about them? It would at least pass the time.”

           “This could kind of be fun…” Laurie said. “Exploring the school unseen, getting to check out what life was like at Cookton in the 90s… What will you be doing, Millie?”

           She yawned. “Taking a nap, hopefully. I’ve been awake at least thirty hours.”

           “Guess we’ll make the best of it,” Jace said as he and Laurie put on their shades.

           Without overthinking it, they both touched their bracelets and vanished for everyone except each other. They rushed up the stairs and through the front doors, just behind the last group of kids to go in. Jace noticed, as the doors were being locked, that Charlie Pippin just so happened to be among those near-truants.

           Jace tapped at Laurie’s shoulder and pointed him out, her appearance like that of a ghost. The pattern of the lockers past her made her tricky to spot; it was like someone had turned down their bodies’ opacities to 10% on Photoshop. But they could see each other, enough so to confidently creep side by side to a nearby classroom door. They looked in through the glass to see students settling into their desks.

           “Homeroom…” Jace whispered. “Let’s just wait and follow Charlie to a real class, where we’ll have more time. Doors opening on their own might cause a scene, too.”

           “I still don’t really get the purpose of homeroom,” Laurie admitted. “Ya think schools would’ve come with something more… efficient by 2022. By the way, Jace, your shoes are too loud. If kids hear them clomping around the halls, urban legends about a Cookton ghost and his cursed clogs may still be around when we get back home.”

           “My heels don’t reach the backs, so they hurt to walk in, anyway.” He took them off and hid the pair behind a nearby trash can. “Hey Laurie… Heheh…” He flexed his socked toes on the hallway tile and stomped softly. “It’s like Ninjas. Remember? Us and Warren, creeping around our houses all quiet like, sneaking up on adults and scaring them? It was great. Until the adults got mad.”

           She huffed. “That was a thing when we were five. We aren’t little kids anymore.”

           “Y-yeah… I know that. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun.” Jace briefly watched Charlie scratching into his desk with a paperclip as the teacher did roll call. “I didn’t think we’d be back in school again already… Are you still feeling okay about all this?”

           “I’m just trying to take it in a moment at a time. Oh, great,” she groaned as the morning announcements started up on the room’s small outdated TV, complete with cheesy graphics and two student anchors who read out the ‘news’ with zero inflection. “I’m suddenly more empathetic with our parents, who had to endure this every morning, too. I… I can’t watch. Jace, tell me more about when you time-traveled before.”

           “Hm. All right. I’ll try to summarize, since we only have a few minutes.”

           “Is homeroom really that short? Guess the announcements make it feel longer.”

           “Like I said, Wes time traveled before I did, and spent a year in the past from ’95 to ’96. Then he grabbed me to do it all again, this time with a big plan to make things ‘better,’ which mostly had to do with setting up just the right team for the King Arcade laser tag tournament—that ended up having no winners because of a blackout he caused. I felt like a spy at first, since I sorta infiltrated his childhood group of buddies, but pretty soon I considered them all friends, too. Let’s see… We took a road trip to Las Vegas, LA, and San Diego. And after tons of pizza and maybe fifty sleepovers, we had to fight a giant liquid metal super computer thing that got hijacked by Wes’ other, original older self. That nearly ended us. Then we fought the Old Wes, too—right in the middle of the theme park, with the whole class watching. It got mostly destroyed in the battle. Luckily, though, we could go back in time to undo the damage and erase memories.”

           “… Holy crap, Jace…” Laurie quietly exclaimed. “You went through all that?”

           “That’s not all, either. There were more down-to-earth things along the way, like me finding ways to help out all the kids in my uncle’s fifth grade class. But the biggest thing was me and Wes finding out that he was supposed to marry Aunt Sadie and have kids, but getting into the Toys ‘R’ Us Super Toy Run contest changed all that, which is something his older self set up, and tried to keep a thing, despite… the consequences.”

           “Warren didn’t exist?! Or Sally, obviously. That would’ve changed everything.”

           “Well… Warren did still kind of exist, just in the past, stranded from the original timeline. I know, it’s weird and confusing. But he was sixteen and really cool and strong. You should’ve seen him swinging his sword around in this cybernetic ninja get-up. And after my uncle learned some lessons, we saw Independence Day with his class, went home, worked with Millie to hide all the evidence and our time quartz, and gradually… forgot.”

           “Except for Charlie in there… He’s still up to something.”

           “Guess so. Charlie was always going to be a ‘loose end,’ like they say in adult TV shows. So keeping him from making another time machine is fine with me. Besides, Millie’s plan only does anything if he tries to build a new one in the first place.”

           “And that’s what Millie meant by ‘all the kids you helped…’ Hm.” Laurie seemed to release a bit of worry, and grinned. She untied her shoes, slipped them off, hid them behind the trash next to Jace’s borrowed loafers, and gave her toes a wiggle. “All right. I’m not happy about getting my socks filthy, so you owe me a tour of Wes’ classmates.”

           “Heh. Okay, sure. Not like we can do much else while trapped in school.” The bell rang, so the two shuffled to the side of the lockers to avoid the crush of students heading to their first classes. Jace added, “But let’s take care of Charlie first.”

           The doors opened, teens flooded the halls, and Jace kept his eyes on Charlie as soon as he emerged. Likely at least somewhat nihilistic by this point, it wasn’t a surprise to see him procrastinate outside of a nearby classroom with two other fringe, anti-social, too-cool-for-school lads in dark clothes. Charlie at least stood out in his red jacket and torn blue jeans, but the appeal of leaning on lockers looking bored was lost on Jace.

           “He’s not even going in,” Laurie murmured. “Oh, I get it. This is what ‘nothing matters’ kids do before smart phones, when they’ll stare at screens like the rest of us.”

           “Laurie—there’s Zach. The cool guy in Wes’ group,” Jace pointed out as Mr. Pentino, now among the taller seventh graders, walked by with no shades in sight.

           “Yeah, it is. I’ve only seen him a couple times as an adult when our parents have house parties, but I’ve heard the stories. He made my zari the leader of some dumpster club at DTE back in… 1996, I think? Hm, does he have a history with Charlie?”

           “They all did. It’s complicated,” Jace whispered as they watched Zach go up to Charlie, and based off the body language, seemed to criticize his life choices again; it was too noisy to hear exactly what he was saying. Charlie only rolled his eyes, and Zach went to class without him. “And he is sort of dangerous. He knows I’m a time traveler.”

           “So, it wouldn’t be good if he saw you, at all. But I could do the mission.”

           “Maybe. But his backpack needs to be unguarded first. Like… on the floor.”

           Once the hall had just about emptied, Charlie left his leaning buddies, the three separating without so much as waving. Stealthily, Jace and Laurie followed him through the closing door and into the classroom. The last student to arrive, Charlie plopped into a beat-up desk in the front row, dropping his backpack with as much care as he showed to everything else. Jace and Laurie moved to the corner by the door and huddled up.

           “Mr. Pippin…” the overweight teacher, balding despite only appearing to be in his forties, let out a disgruntled sigh. “Even on the last day, you keep us in suspense as to whether or not you’ll show. Do you have homework to turn in, or do I ask too much?”

           “Sure, Mr. Garcia,” Charlie scoffed. “You’re my only teacher to give me any this week, so I figured, ‘eh, why not, what else I got going on?’ Not your toughest stuff.”

           “You are an enigma, Pippin. You only ever complete your assignments when you ‘feel like it,’ yet manage to get A’s and B’s. And from what I’ve heard from your other teachers, this is hardly unique to my class. I don’t know if you’re simply bored, feel unchallenged, or if you’re an example of talent wasted through jaded laziness.”

           “Tell the whole school why don’t ya…”

           “Charlie, you’re such a rebel,” a girl who must’ve been in his fan club swooned.

           “Keep it up, Ms. Peters. Maybe you two will have a chance to get to know each other better in yet another detention,” Mr. Garcia threatened the two edgy-cool kids.

           “It’s the last day of school, teach. How’s that going to work out?” Charlie scoffed.

           “I can find a way. Now, we still have an hour to learn a few things about English literature before brains rot over the summer, so let’s finish studying Hamlet.”

           “Ugh, mean teachers, I swear,” Laurie groaned as the class got under way.

           “We had our own share of them, huh? I’m tempted to pick up a marker and write ‘dork’ or something on the whiteboard with an arrow pointing at him…”

           “That is tempting, but we should probably do what Millie wants.” Laurie took out the USB drive from her backpack and gripped it tightly. “Okay. I’m going in.”

           “Be careful!” Jace whispered half-jokingly, half-seriously.

           Keeping low to the floor to avoid any wayward swinging arms, Laurie crept up to Charlie’s bag, and cautiously, slowly, dropped the stick into one of the open zipper pockets. Then, as she headed back to Jace, Charlie suddenly… didn’t notice.

           “Well, that was easy,” Jace said. “Usually everything goes wrong a few times.”

           “Guess I should be a secret agent when I grow up,” Laurie replied and got back to sitting against the wall. “So, mm… Who do we have in this class?”

           “Most of Wes’ gang, actually. He and Zach look bored out of their minds, but Colin, Sadie, and Arthur seem invested in the work. I don’t see anyone else.”

           “Or they’re just scared of the teacher. I wanna find the others, hear their stories.”

           A boy raised his hand and asked, “Mr. Garcia, may I use the bathroom?”

           “Yes, yes, Mr. Weichster. Just make it quick,” the teacher huffed.

           “He’s our ticket out. Reynold’s needs, reliable since summer camp ’96,” Jace said.

           “Good,” Laurie sighed as they sneakily slipped out behind Reynold. “Better than being stuck in there any longer. Okay, Jace. Let’s have fun at school for a change.”

           Jace followed closely as Laurie speed-walked away, the pair moving enough air and creating just enough noise to make poor Reynold look around spooked as they passed him. This kind of taking charge behavior was common with Laurie.

           “Hey! Where are we going?” Jace asked as they went down the empty hallways.

           “I’ll let you lead in a bit, I just really want to see teen Celly in her natural habitat.”

           “Figures. You’re both brash and bossy. I hate gym… but at least it’s still cool out.”

           With the layout of the school super familiar to them, they had no trouble finding the doors to the activity yards and emerged outside, where the last day of PE appeared to be a free one, with kids doing whatever they wanted so long as they were moving. As the coach kept an eye on everyone, Jace and Laurie got their socks very dirty by going around to see what other seventh graders were up to across the basketball and tennis courts and baseball diamond. That was where Jace spotted Delilah, hitting balls thrown by Hutch. Having hit a growth spurt, Delilah was just as tall as he was.

           “Okay, here’s one,” Jace told Laurie. “The girl at bat—looks like she’s wearing a jersey for the school’s softball team—that would be Delilah. She acts tough, yet she just loves her Beanie Babies. I helped her stand up to her older brothers… sort of. And the pitcher, Hutch… I didn’t help him personally, but he helped with that ‘dumpster club’ after being held back a year, so he’s a little older. Zach tutored him, I’ve heard.”

           “I wonder if those two are just friends. Or if it’s… a little more serious.”

           Jace moaned. “Please, Laurie, no gossip about the 90s kids today.”

           “I know, I know. I’m just joking. These are real people, not fanfic OC’s, I get that.”

           They found Celeste next, who, with the help of puberty, had become one of the few girls in PE with noticeable muscle tone. She looked quite athletic—and sweaty—as she ran the track… and kept running after passing the finish line. No one else making the rounds was nearly as serious about it, and she easily passed the others.

           “Looks like her freckles are fading, but she’s still about her twin braids,” Jace said while he and Laurie watched from the bleachers. “She was so cool in our water gun games and the laser tag tourney. And her name is all over the city’s arcade cabinets.”

           “I take it she didn’t need help from you, either?”

           “No way! Although… she and Wes could’ve ended up together in another world.”

           “And that doesn’t count as gossip?” Laurie quipped, right as the bell rang.

           Back inside the main building, Jace and Laurie gradually felt a weight lifting off of their shoulders as the day progressed; a tension that had been there since the first day of middle school was softening. This was still the first day of summer to them, sure, yet a certain carefreeness they hadn’t known for years was returning. Running around their school in the past while invisible was an unexpected way to find fun, and, partly since they were teenagers… the experience enticed them to be a tad mischievous.

           In between the classes that they checked out, they both partook in a few pranks, like spraying water from the fountain onto a rowdy student’s back, or slamming lockers when those nearby weren’t looking. And when the halls were empty, they got around by running at high speed and seeing how far they could sock-slide on the smooth tiles. With no one they knew watching—not like they could—they didn’t hesitate to cut loose.

           Jace also advanced the promised tour between bouts of entertainment, of course. They observed a boy with long hair through an art class window, who worked on his amazing graphing paper pixel art as his fellow artists partied in their esoteric ways.

           “That’s Brian. He was once shy and unsure of himself. I got him to convince his dad to let him pursue art instead of… football. He’ll work with my uncle later.”

           The school’s band room was nearby, its cacophony of mediocre melodies audible from outside. Peeking through the windows, Jace and Laurie saw that the teacher was passing the time with earmuffs and a book as he let his students unwind, by letting them try to play along with the classical music coming out of a sound system; fun, but noisy.

           “Ah, makes sense they’re here,” Jace spoke over the din. “That’s Gerald on cello. He was the nice guy everyone leaned on, but had to learn how to take an opinion in his direction. I got him and Carson, the chill kid playing oboe, to bond over mutual tastes. They argued over their likes at first… then ended up going to music camp together.”

           Afterwards, Laurie was the one to spot her parent Lex in a darkened sixth-grade science class, where their teacher was letting them watch the second half of Star Trek IV; the one featuring a singing whale, and its own California time-traveling plot. She tugged at Jace’s sleeve and pointed out her find, and Jace’s eyes moved to the back of the room, where he spotted his mom Lucy, alone behind one of the lab desks meant for two.

           “Poor Mom,” Jace sighed. “It’ll still take her a while to come out of her shell.”

           “But we already know they become besties! Aiyee! Zari looks so cool at twelve!”

           In the familiar cafeteria with the same old rubber and cleaning product smell it always had, a fight between two girls broke out for no discernible reason at a table in the back. Hair pulling and swearing was involved, but it was B grade at best; it only mildly attracted the attention of the closest students, and went mostly ignored.

           “Is there anything more pointless than a middle school lunch room fight?” Laurie commented as she and Jace sat at the edge of an empty table near the food line, where they munched on procured cookies, also rendered invisible. “At least no one’s recording it for internet points, so it’s not forever. Yeah… forgotten in a week, probably.”

           “Like… Oh. My. Gawd,” said a familiar voice, and Jace turned to see best friends forever, Tammy and Trudy, watching from a distance with trays in hand. “Who fights on the last day of school, seriously. Literally gag me with a spoon. So gross.”

           Trudy added, “Totally grody. They must think it’s the last chance to, like, do a vendetta before break. Maybe they’d chill if they knew about the mall sale today.”

           “That would be Tammy and Trudy,” Jace told Laurie. “Believe it or not… their friendship was almost in trouble in fifth. No idea why they’re talking like that, though.”

           Three goth girl friends were just behind them—and Felicity was among them, though only her blond hair was really recognizable. They grumbled and scoffed.

           “Barf me out,” Felicity mocked the pair. “Tam and Trude, when will you drop the valley girl crap? Just because we live in a valley doesn’t mean you have to sound stupid.”

           “Look who’s talking,” Trudy said and gave her the stink eye. “As if your whole thing is any better. Do you three even like each other? C’mon, Tams, let’s sit with Stacy.”

           “Uh. Hm,” Jace said as Felicity and her crew gladly got away from the BFFs, after some eye rolling. “I thought I did better with Felicity. She was the first person I helped, by showing her some kindness she didn’t get from her classmates. But now… Huh. I’m guessing the only reason her hair isn’t black is because her parents didn’t let her dye it.”

           “I wouldn’t worry about it. First of all, goth is always just a phase. Second, what’s important is that she’s confident enough to express herself. That’s a big thing.”

           “That’s what you’re always telling us. Better than keeping it all inside, right?”

           “Exactly.” Laurie finished her third cookie and scooted off the table. “I bet there are a bunch of classes visiting the library today. Let’s hang out in my favorite place next!”

           “Hang on, Lor, what are we doing?” Jace asked. “We might be heard in there…”

           When they were back in the halls, she replied, “Running around was fun, but I say we chill in the library and see who comes to us. Maybe we’ll see the rest in there.”

           Halfway to the sanctuary, the bell rang again. Students once more poured into the corridors, and Jace soon spotted someone in the crowds. “Wait, hold on. Is that…”

           He grabbed Laurie’s hand and navigated the seventh graders going back to class and hungry eighth graders heading to lunch. As the crowds thinned, Jace found him: a taller boy in a black jacket carrying a bag lunch into a neglected corner classroom, with broken desks and few students. He plopped down in the back, showing a mean scowl.

           “Oh yeah, lunch detention’s a thing,” Laurie said. “So Mr. Garcia is sorta right.”

           “I thought so,” Jace whispered by the door’s window. “Conrad Baker. My dad.”

           “Whoa, for real? I’ve only ever met him a couple times. He looks like… well…”

           “A punk, I know. At least I’m seeing him a little more often back in ’22. Still, he cares more about his business. Whatever. I… just wanted to be sure. Let’s keep going.”

           “Jace… you never really talk about him, but I’m sure he does care about you.”

           On their continued journey to the library, Jace postulated, “Maybe I’ve gotten old enough to begin to really understand what it means that he couldn’t make it work with Mom. He didn’t exactly run out on us, and he sends checks… but it doesn’t make up for not being there. I go to our friends’ houses and see their dads, and I feel like…”

           “It’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it. But that reminds me, I wanted to ask you… If you time traveled for a year… does that mean you’re actually fourteen?”

           “Yep,” he said with a huff, and peeked through the library door’s windows to see if the coast was clear. “But I don’t feel any older around you guys while my memories of all of that aren’t there. Plus… I still always think of Warren as my older cousin.”

           “Heh. Well, Warren’s had that teenager energy, even when we were five. But, you know, he might feel the same way. He looks up to you a whole lot, too.”

           Jace pushed open the doors, and they entered the large and well-stocked media center, with plenty of available tables and other reading areas. A teacher’s seventh grade class was still settling down for their free period, and Jace smiled as he studied faces.

           “Lor, we struck some gold here. I recognize a whole bunch of these guys.”

           “Speaking of recognizables, look who’s at the front desk,” Laurie said, pointing to a cranky older lady. “Ms. Finch was the librarian all the way back… now? Wow.”

           “She… has to be in her sixties. I think? Then if she’s in her eighties for us…”

           “All right, enough age talk. Lead the way—just keep it to a whisper.”

           “Okay… We got more former fifthies in here, so… Ah.” Jace went over to two well-dressed boys utilizing the library’s chess set in a quiet corner. “Here we have Kyle, once actually Sherman Miller’s coolest kid. But it was all an act. After he dropped it and lost his followers, he got back to his real friend… Uh, what was his… Oh yeah, Lewis.”

           The periodicals section was nearby, and the sound of ripping paper next drew their attention. They found an exceedingly fashionable girl wearing an expensive dress. Then watched as she flipped through typical teen rags and issues of People, stopping often to tear out photos of celebrities to add to a growing personal collection.

           “Spice…” Jace introduced her. “The style guru, giver of many makeovers. I got her to be a little less prissy at camp, but now she’s destroying school property…”

           Laurie shrugged. “Last day. I’m sure they were about to be recycled anyway. At least someone cares about her appearance. That’s uncommon at middle school.”

           “Oh, and over there, the girl all alone at a table, looking very intense… and like she’s working on a whole stack of extra credit to try and get every last boost to her GPA up to the end… That’s Marianne, the overachiever. She was at camp, too. And went a little crazy trying to get our school to ‘win all the games.’ I… couldn’t really help her.”

           “I know the type. And I’m not sure how you’d help someone like that.”

           The pair snuck up to the array of tables in the middle of the library, where most of the free-time activity was going on. Laurie followed Jace’s ghostly form to one table in particular, where a snazzily-dressed boy was playing a round of Magic: The Gathering with a peppy if not slightly serious girl, as two others at the table watched.

           Jace continued, “Wright and Willa here grew up on a street of cottages. He was a daredevil, and she was obsessed with… finding something to snuggle. So, I made a bet that he had to be her boyfriend for a while. No idea how long it lasted, but hopefully he learned a lesson about gambling. It’s nice that they still seem to be on good terms.”

           “That one’s a little questionable, ethically. But… they do look chummy.”

           “Willa wins again!” one of the girls watching exclaimed, loudly enough to get shushed by the librarian. “She’s on a roll. Tch. We really need to start taking bets.”

           “Please, no,” Wright muttered. “I can’t be around that again. I could relapse.”

           Willa added, “Besides, we’re just playing for fun. Wright’s building a new deck. Normally, he wipes me out. But I hope he’s not just letting me win.”

           “Nah. Don’t think these cards are working for me. Still time for testing, though.”

           “Portia, Wright—your latest mixes, still with the burn smell,” a merchant lad said as he came over and produced two CD-Rs in colorful cases from his hoodie pockets.

           His customers gladly passed five bucks to him for their music, but Willa was out of the loop, asking, “Park, is this, like… making mix-tapes, like they did in the 80s?”

           Park explained, “Sort of, but it’s a lot faster. It’s a business model I’ve been testing this month. I’m cornering a market here, and could go big next year with a cutting-edge service. I learned how to file share online, for music I burn to CDs at Dad’s print shop.”

           “Oh. Cool… I don’t get it, but it’s neat that you can get music on the web world!”

           Jace was momentarily stunned, and told Laurie, “Okay. I’m not sure why Park is doing piracy, since I helped him when he thought he was selling… stolen games.”

           “Dad told me about the old Napster days. Everyone will be doing it soon, without really thinking about laws—and they’ll load up iPods with that music. He’s ahead of the curve and might make bank, but demand will drop when his services reach the masses.”

           “Geez, Lor. You two should chat about capitalism. Still, I’m a little disappointed.”

           “Why? Just because a few of these kids still have a little bit to learn? Ya don’t flip a switch and become a saint. Besides, don’t you already know how they all turn out?”

           “I guess,” Jace said with a sigh as they retreated into the stacks. “I looked them all up at some point, though those memories are blurry. Everyone makes it, eventually.”

           “See? What’s there to worry about? Change takes time. So… anyone else here?”

           “No one I knew directly. We’ll have to wait and see who comes in next period.”

           “Cool. I’m fine with just chilling. But I wonder how long these cloakers will last.”

           The next class to come into the library, however, were eighth graders—although Jace still knew a couple of them. He alerted Laurie, who had started to doze off against the books, and pointed out a shorter boy and a taller one who still wore braces, both keeping to themselves on the periodicals couch and invested in their GamePro mags.

           “Stu and Mikey. The gang hung out with them sometimes. Also good at water gun and arcade games. Friends with a kid named Gavin, who dominated the local arcade scene with his stepsister Vanni. And she was my uncle’s teenage guru for a while.”

           “It sounds like you knew half the neighborhood…” Laurie said tiredly. “I’m just gonna keep resting my eyes for a little bit. Let me know who comes in last period…”

           The very next thing Laurie knew, she was being jostled awake by a very visible Jace, who exclaimed quietly, “Lor, wake up. The cloakers just ran out of battery.”

           “Hm…? Did I seriously fall asleep?” She looked at her opaque arms. “Oh, great.”

           “C’mon, we’ll keep our shades on and hide out in the computer lab until school’s over. Just another half hour, and we can try to sneak out without attracting attention.”

           It sounded like a good enough plan, so they stuck to the rows of books in the back, away from the busy central tables where kids antsy for break were getting rowdy. Thankfully, the adjoining lab room full of old Mac computers was fairly sparse. The two kept their heads down, but Jace couldn’t help but continue the commentary as he and Laurie went by a boy whose eyes were glued to a classic internet Star Trek fan site.

           “And there’s Robby,” Jace whispered as they walked. “Big sci-fi nerd, but I got him to show interest in the great outdoors, too. Is that Colin and Arty?” he wondered aloud, and as they passed by the pair, Jace caught in the corner of his eye a familiar yellow video game character with pointy ears that they were studying.

           “I see Millie in the back,” Laurie noted. “She’s safe. Let’s stick by her.”

           Hoping that her presence would be enough to keep other kids away, Jace and Laurie plopped down in the nearby chairs. Millie only gave them a side-eye glance before returning to her work involving copying files onto a collection of floppies.

           “Have you two been sneaking around school all day?” she asked. “We’ll still catch up, but right now, I’m busy backing up the stories I wrote for the school paper.”

           “We won’t bother you,” Jace promised. “We’ll just spend the rest of the day… looking at long-gone early websites. By the way, this is my buddy, Laurie. Not a cousin. Also… do you know what December’s been up to, so I can finish up a, um, ‘tour?’”

           “Wait, the December? Mayor Helvetica?” Laurie replied. “You knew her, too?”

           Millie grumbled, but responded by Ask Jeeves-searching for a local news article. A story popped up on her screen, showing a smiling, victorious girl in a fancy uniform.

           Jace read out, “‘Everette Academy Student Wins Debate Championship.’ Nice!”

           Laurie smiled. “Jace, you gave good advice to an entire class. You’re amazing.”

           He blushed and let Millie get back to work, replying, “I kind of got it from you.”

           “Millie, I can barely hear you,” Jace later tried to tell the adult one over the cell phone as he and Laurie went down the busy halls filled with excited tweens and teens. “Yes! For the third time, we finished the mission. We’re going to the mall with the gang. What? Y-yeah, I mean… whatever. Not like I can stop you. Okay. Bye.” He pocketed it and updated Laurie, “Sheesh, she’s getting testy. Now she wants to keep an eye on us at the mall. I get that she can’t help spying, but, like… we don’t need a babysitter.”

           Laurie looked down at their footwear and replied, “Our socks are so dirty, we might as well just get new ones while we’re at the mall. And, uh, your shoes…”

           “Yeah, I know. Somehow, it’ll be the second time I’ve bought 90s shoes there.”

           They went through the front doors along with dozens of other students too frenzied about summer to even notice them, and their special shades had the bonus of helping to dull the bright sun, which always hit the pickup and bus loop area hard at this time of year and day. Jace started looking for Wes’ crew amid the tinted crowds.

           “It’s still kinda crazy to me that you, as a time traveler, showed up for only one school year back at DTE and found ways to help your uncle’s whole class. Even if you did have a full year to do it. But what about his closest friends? Any miracles there?”

           “I didn’t really do any single ‘big’ thing for them, but I think I improved their lives just by being around them for that year. That doesn’t sound modest, does it?”

           “Yo, Jason!” Zach’s voice suddenly called out. “And, uh… his girl cousin!”

Jace spotted the group huddled together next to one of the school’s dumpsters—oddly appropriate—and he and Laurie quickly headed over. Celeste was there, too; everyone except Millie, in fact. Now that school was out, their smiles were wider.

           “You stuck around and came back!” Jared said excitedly. “Man, you two are lucky you got to stay out of school all day.” He groaned, “It suuucked.”

           “Hey, nice suns,” Zach complimented, and brought out his pair of shades from a case. “I don’t wear mine all the time like I used to. I think people found it intimidating.”

           As he unfolded them with a wrist snap and coolly slid them on, Celeste said with a sly grin, “The guys told me you were back in town, Jason, but I didn’t quite believe it.”

           “We didn’t get a full intro for your cuz before,” Sadie added. “She got a name?”

           “Lor… Um, Lara,” Laurie answered. “Yep… I’m on a road trip with Jason.”

           Arthur replied, “Like Lara Croft? Nice. I love Tomb Raider. Uh, for its adventure.”

           “Sure,” Ash said with an eye-roll. “That’s why you have a poster of the character near your bed. So… Jason… Still want to go to the mall with us?”

           “Mm-hm… I won’t be in town long, so… some time together would be great.”

           Laurie noticed something in the way Jace and Ash were looking at each other, but didn’t think on it too much before asking, “Which bus are we getting on?”

           “Heh, none of the yellow ones,” Jared answered. “We don’t really ride them that much, usually just if the weather’s bad or one of us is tired. Most days, we walk home together and chat, or go a few blocks and take the city bus to the mall or a movie.”

           “Middle school might suck, but being near the main line is nice,” Wessy added. “We’ll get going as soon as Luce shows up. Um, that’s my year-younger half-sis, Lara.”

           “I know,” Laurie said. “I mean, Jason told me about her. About all of you guys.”

           “Aw, I guess we left an impression,” Sadie replied with a smile. “Not trying to gossip, but Lucy’s gotten away from her DTE ‘friends’ and is pretty much working on a new social circle from scratch. But she needs time to open up to people, so we let her do stuff with us sometimes. Her last friends were pretty… shallow, to put it gently.”

           After just a couple more minutes of casual conversation about summer, the twelve-year-old edition of Jace’s mom slipped in with the group nearly unnoticeably, calling no attention to herself. She still tried to blend in with crowds, but at least the oversized green security shirt she once always wore was nowhere to be seen, and she seemed to be putting a more confident effort into her appearance.

           “Oh, there she is,” Celeste notified the others. “Hey, Luce, look who’s visiting.”

           Lucy shyly looked at Jace, waved, and murmured, “Jason… Wes missed you.”

           “Yeah, he wrote about you in his diary every day,” Zach joked.

           Not even dignifying the remark, Wessy replied, “Let’s go before we miss the bus, or it runs out of seats. We aren’t the only Cooktonners that hit the mall after school.”

           The kids began the walk towards Kettle, joining a dozen other students on the tree-shaded sidewalks who were headed in the same direction. The gang talked about the usual daily happenings on the way, while Wessy fell back to join Laurie and Jace.

           “The neighborhood hasn’t really changed much since you left,” he told Jace.

           “I can tell. It feels like I’m home again. All the memories are coming back.”

           “It’s… really good to see you again. Even if just for a little bit.”

           Slowed by the fact that they were a large group of chatting teens, everyone ended up having to make a mad dash the last hundred or so feet to get on the bus, just barely making it and joining no fewer than a dozen other kids their age on the public ride. To no surprise, the transportation turned into an impromptu school bus, which aggravated the older riders—and even more kids boarded on the next few stops. It got so loud that Wes’ group eventually stopped trying to talk over the noise altogether.

           The poor bus driver finally got a reprieve upon arrival at the mall, where the ride emptied out and the indoor plaza was stormed by excited middle and high-schoolers who needed to kick off their break right away. Comparatively, Wes and friends were fairly calm and collected; their ethos of keeping things chill when able had persisted.

           “The sign changed since I was last here…” Jace observed about the modernized Westfield Royal Valley Mall marquee over the food court entrance.

           “Yeah, guess it has,” Arthur replied as everyone headed into the air conditioned commerce palace. “Some mall corporation came in and bought the place.”

           Sadie added, “A bunch of stores had closed, and then this Westfield business came in and even more closed. But others opened, too. My dad calls it a ‘shake-up.’”

           Gesturing towards new stores, units that remained vacant, the mall arcade, and the food court with three ‘coming soon’ displays, Wessy reported, “KB Toys and Gadzooks are gone… EB Games, too—but it got replaced by an even better video game store called Babbage’s. It’s one of our favorite new hangouts.”

           “It’s really pretty much the same place,” Ash muttered.

           “The owner of the arcade hates it, apparently,” Zach said. “He thinks it’s stealing his business. But he’s probably just getting grouchy in his old age.”

           “It is true that the good old arcade isn’t as busy as it used to be, though,” Colin noted. “Sure, Galaxy Hub at the park is the hot place to jam on cabinets now, but I really saw the drop-off once 3-D games on the N64 and Playstation started coming out.”

           Wes smiled wistfully. “Aw, heck, let’s drop by there first, for old time’s sake since Jason’s back. We’ll do Babbage’s on the way out. You ever been a real arcade, Lara?”

           Laurie answered, “Yeah, sure. We still do a little arcading… where I’m from.”

           “Cabinets better not disappear for good.” Celeste cracked her knuckles. “At least not until I get my name on all the high score lists here. I still got a few to go.”

           “I never thought I’d get to see this place,” Laurie said a few minutes later, after the group had split up and chosen games to play. “Dad’s always staring at this spot when we’re at the mall, telling me how he ‘rocked’ it here in high school.”

           Eyeing the Hungry Hungry Hippos game as they walked by it, Jace replied, “It did used to be busier here back during my last visit.” They spotted Stu and Mikey playing fiercely on the Mortal Kombat cabinet, and Jace added, “Guess it still has its devoted regulars, though. Do you want to actually play anything, or… just watch?”

           “Watching is fine; I got my fill at Warren’s party. More interested in seeing what the others are doing.” They stopped for a moment when they happened upon all the girls busy with one of the few available four-player titles, The Simpsons, with Lucy playing as Lisa and being surprisingly savage with the controls. “Your mom’s in serious mode.”

           “We still game sometimes,” Jace admitted, his gaze on Arthur and Colin nearby, who were shooting dinos in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. He then noticed a figure past the arcade entrance. All the way into the food court, leaning against a pillar, was Millie, her arms crossed. “Ugh, Mill’s watching us. Let’s go further in and find the other guys.”

           They passed by Zach, showing his retro hipster side by playing the ancient Donkey Kong, and finally found Wes and Jared—who were deep into a round of Area 51, also a light gun shooter, in this case with an alien outbreak at the titular military base.

           “Hey Wes, J,” Jace said once they walked up. “Did you ever beat Vanni’s score?”

           Wes no longer wore his cap or carried a Game Boy charger, but that “ready for anything” confidence of his had become an intrinsic part of his look. He also wore big high-top shoes that gave him a boost against Jared, now the second tallest behind Celly. Mr. Reiner seemed to be coming into his own as well, no longer following the others so closely; he had found his own way to be cool, and his expensive hair cut helped.

           Wes devoted 10% of his concentration to reply, “The first day this arcade got it. Course, it’s not the same test cabinet we played back at the Hub, so her name was never actually on it. But you can still find some V-A-N’s here. Me and Luce play sometimes, too, even though it’s violent. She kind of has a mischievous side, ya know.”

           Jared said, “Hub doesn’t even have this. They got nothin’ with too much blood.”

           Laurie snickered and told Jace, “Way different story in ’22, huh?”

           He whispered back, “It’s either keep up with the times, or have half the games.”

           “Oh, these are cute,” Laurie said some thirty minutes later, about the twin bunny earrings she was looking at in Claire’s—which had dropped the ‘Accessories’ part of their name only a year ago. “I really need to ask permission to pierce my ears already…”

           “I love shopping here, even if it makes me feel tempted to maybe go too girly,” Sadie replied nearby, as she and Ash also checked out the rotating jewelry racks. “I think Celly doesn’t come in here at all because she’d be tempted, too.”

           “Jason, you know you don’t have to stick around,” Laurie noted. “Why not go see what stores the others went to? I’ll meet you at Payless in a few.”

           Noticing that Millie was once more watching from a safe distance, Jace said, “Nah, it’s okay. I can wait a little longer.” He watched Lucy for a moment, who was elsewhere in the store, looking at barrettes. “Luce does seem to be opening up a little.”

           “Ditching her toxic friends from the DTE days took guts,” Ash replied. “I mean, putting effort into a friendship is hard, too, but when you know that someone else just isn’t good for you and then actually cut them out… that’s brave.” She took a pause in her scrounging and turned to Jace. “What about you? Made any new… friends?”

           “Um, sure, Ash…” Jace couldn’t help but blush again. “Lots. I don’t think my middle school is all that different from Cookton. But there are still things I miss here.”

           Laurie noticed the tension between the two, and she soon understood what she was seeing. Ash’s bubbly charm and sharp wit, combined with her unique sense of style, love of cute bug buttons, and big glasses—she was a bit like someone in the present.

           Sadie on the other hand, with her semi-tomboy personality, clothing that gave her a tougher look, and shorter hair didn’t appeal as much to Jace in that way; which was a very good thing for the sake of paradoxes and the creepiness factor, of course.

           “Anyway, I kind of hang around with a fashion ‘clique’ now. Arty hates it.” Ash laughed. “It’s not even serious, and we’re not, like, snobs or something, but he’s worried I’ll become ‘fake.’ I mean, who else am I supposed to ask for fashion advice? Zach?”

           “Not much to talk about here,” Sadie added after picking out a bracelet. “But my cat Bippy has two more friends that Mom just randomly adopted. Oh, and I got myself a school bully this year. And the detention I got for beating her up was worth it. Also…”

           “Psst, Jace,” Laurie whispered. “You and Ash… Is that like an Emiko thing?”

           “Ugh. Please don’t ask me to get into that,” he squeaked—which made her smirk.

           Jace wound up going to Payless with the girls after they were done at Claire’s, though he was the only one who actually bought a pair of shoes; on sale, cheap, and good enough. Laurie was more than happy to get a clean pair of socks, too.

           “Here,” Jace said to Millie afterwards outside the store, handing her the shoe box that now held the borrowed loafers, along with the change from the purchase. “Thanks for the shoes you kinda owed me, but could you maybe step off a little, let us have this?”

           “You expect me to return these or something?” Millie sighed. “You two catch up with the gang and forget I’m here. I’m… looking out for Charlie. That’s all. I swear.”

           Jace and Laurie weren’t convinced, but gladly turned and ran off to rejoin the others. With everyone now in teenhood, it wasn’t a surprise that Hot Topic was the next stop. Its trendy, edgy, pop-culture slathered tops definitely belonged right in the late 90s. But by visit’s end, no one wanted to dish out any dough for the pricey threads today.

           On the way to the other end of the mall, someone else caught Jace’s eye, and he gave Laurie a nudge. “You see that shady guy in a suit, hocking watches at a stall? That’s Willa’s grandpa, and my uncle’s former stockbroker. Guess he got out of prison…”

           “Think he’ll recognize you?” Laurie wondered. “He does look untrustworthy.”

           Jace put his hoodie up and kept his head down just in case. He could hear Eddie Meeks hyping up a watch as an anniversary gift to a naïve couple as they walked by.

           After searching for sales, some of the gang did buy a clothing article or two from JCPenney’s summer catalog, and by the time they left the store, the day was showing its age. With plastic bags in hands and orange hues from the skylights starting to paint the sunken plaza below, everyone grabbed some Baskin-Robbins and spread out on the benches to cool things off. Jace used the time to catch up with Zach and Celeste.

           “Anyway, yeah, I was in the ’97 King Arcade Laser Chase,” Celeste continued her stories for Jace and Laurie. “Got that taste of the sport a year before and really wanted to win. Partnered with some of Gavin’s old crew and Zach here, since he didn’t get to do it the first time. Second place isn’t bad… but we might’ve won if not for his gung-ho crap.”

           Zach finished his ice cream cone, checked his black jeans for drops, and groaned, “Cel, that’s just how I roll, from water to lasers. You knew what you were getting.”

           Jace replied, “At least there were winners. Like I said, a blackout ruined it for us.”

           “I’m jealous,” Laurie murmured. “We missed out on the Laser Chase entirely.”

           The last stop of the mall run was Babbage’s, back where it began near the food court. Full of the latest games and third party controllers, the store was the new hotspot for kids their age, and was packed even towards closing time. Jared was quite lucky to get a spot at the Nintendo 64 demo console, where he sampled Rare’s upcoming and legendary platformer, Banjo-Kazooie, as Sadie looked on and seemed rather enthralled.

           “Backpack bird spits eggs and lets the bear run fast? That’s… neat,” she stated.

           “Yeah, and the graphics are next-level,” Jared replied. “Rare makes great stuff.”

           “Now I recognize this place,” Laurie told Jace while they walked by and skimmed the shelves full of Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn, and Playstation games—and a shrinking section for Super Nintendo titles. “This becomes, or is GameStop… Chad and Jamie spend way too much time in here, too. And usually end up not buying anything.”

           Wessy must have been the same way, since he was more interested in going up to a certain twenty-something clerk behind the cash register and making conversation.

           “Yo, Mitch! Back to working Fridays, huh?” he exclaimed and leaned against the counter. “Hey, you see this month’s Nintendo Power yet? With the new Zelda pictures?”

           “Not you again…” Mitch groaned. “Can’t you leave me alone? We’re very busy.”

           “Bro, I don’t see a line. So, you change your mind about Ocarina of Time yet? I see all the delays as a good thing. More time to get the dungeons and towns bigger and better. Gotta get it right, ya know? Not like you can fix a game after it comes out, right, Mitch?”

           “Would you stop calling me by my first name, like we’re friends? And as I keep saying, you just can’t capture the adventure and epic scale of a series like Legend of Zelda in 3-D. How are the fights even going to work? Trust me, it’s going to be a flop.”

           “Jason, Lara,” Arthur’s voice caught their attention. “Come over here a sec.”

           In the back corner of the store were the console accessories, which he and Colin were checking out. The happy nerds of the group, Arthur was nearly Jared’s height and had a late 90s flip-phone in his jean pocket. Colin was the only other member to have a cell, which he kept on a clip attached to his outer tan shirt’s pocket. He wasn’t nearly as shrimpy as he used to be either; adolescence was being kind to his constitution.

           “Zach still hasn’t asked you guys over, has he?” Arthur said. “Probably slipped his mind in all the excitement. But I know it’s what he’d want, so… you’re invited.”

           “To… what?” Jace wondered. “To his place? Man… I didn’t get to see it much.”

           “End of the year Nintendo 64 pizza party, of course,” Colin replied. “You in?”

           “Oh, heck yes,” Laurie answered for the both of them. “Four-player, right? Don’t tell the others, but I’m pretty competitive. Let’s just keep that a surprise…” She looked around the store and did a head count, finishing with Ash and Celeste, who were playing the late SNES era action-platformer Kirby Superstar at another TV as Lucy watched. “But how big is his room? I have a large friend circle, too, so I’m used to being cramped.”

           “Oh, Zach’s room is crazy.” Colin added in a hushed voice, “His family has some money, yet he prefers hanging out at our houses. We think he gets self-conscious about ‘showing off’ his digs. But he’s got the biggest TV, so we made him be tonight’s host.”

           Arthur’s primitive phone suddenly let out a strange noise, startling him. He took it out, flipped it open, and read something on the tiny screen that made him sigh.

           “Dad just wasted a dime on an SMS, telling us it’s time to get home. After all these years, he still forgets… I’m the timekeeper. I always make sure we’re never late.”

           “Come on, Wes, we gotta get going,” Colin informed him. “Leave Mitch alone.”

           Wessy grumbled, “Colin, do you believe this guy? I’ve told him over and over how to, but he still hasn’t seen Sector Y in Star Fox 64. Dude, do you even use GameFAQs?”

           “Don’t you have a curfew or something?” Mitch groaned in irritation.

           With a bus back to Desert Tree about to arrive anyway, the gang regathered and headed out, leaving Mitch to deal with a clueless non-gaming mom trying to find “this one game for this one system” for some kid’s birthday; not a big improvement.

           Upon seeing Millie waiting in the food court, Jace said to the others, “Hey, start the party without us. We have one more thing to do—we’ll catch the next bus.”

           “Uh, that reminds me…” Zach said sheepishly. “You’re both… invited to…”

           “Too late, Zach,” Sadie playfully chided him. “Okay, guys, see you soon. Oh, by the way, any pizza requests? We usually do Hut thin crust on Friday game nights.”

           “I’ll eat any toppings you get, as long as it’s meatless,” Laurie replied.

           “Oh, Luce is trying out the vegetarian thing, too,” Wessy remarked.

           “Well… I’m not exactly one myself, but I do avoid it when it’s easy. I’m hopeless around fried chicken… or tacos. Or lox and cream cheese bagels. But I do try, a little.”

           Ash smiled. “Lara, you’re pretty cool. Tell us more about yourself later. See ya!”

           “Bring your game faces,” Jared added as they walked off. “We can get hardcore.”

           “… Heh, yeah. That was fun,” Jace said wistfully and lowered his waving arm. He turned to Millie, sipping soda alone at a table. “Let’s get the ‘debrief’ over with.”

           “About time you got around to talking to me,” Millie muttered and leaned back in the chair. “Couldn’t break away for five minutes to tell me how it went?”

           Jace huffed, “I said over the phone that it went fine. Seriously, nothing to report. Laurie’s the ‘junior agent’ here, and even she managed to do it—after volunteering.”

           Laurie snickered and nudged him in the side before adding, “Millie, what are you so worried about? You look pretty worked up. You were the one that told Jace to take the chance to say hi to Wes’ friends and catch up with them, remember?”

           “Yeah, I know.” Millie sighed and sipped the last of her drink. “This was just my first time at this, executing a plan in the past all by myself. It’s not like I’m quaking in my boots or something, but I did think I’d screw something up. And Charlie is a… cunning opponent. I bet he’s found the USB stick by now. But if it all went fine, then… Good. Good job. So, do you want some dinner at the food court before heading home, or…”

           Jace explained, “We’re eating pizza at Zach’s and playing Nintendo. No idea how long that might last. Look, it’s been a full day for us, so we might as well get a hotel room for the night and start our 2022 summer morning over tomorrow, right?”

           “Wow. Definitely a 90s night. Hm. I guess that’ll work. How’d Laurie hold up?”

           “Surprisingly… well.” Jace noticed Laurie’s curious glare, so he expounded, “It’s not like I expected you to be permanently freaked out or scared, Lor. I was just, at some point, expecting to hear you list all the things wrong with the past. Like, I dunno… trans fats, or lead still being in ‘everything.’ Cancer chemicals, less social equality… Ya know, the usual stuff you bring up when our parents worship these years in front of us.”

           “Sure, all of that is a concern,” Laurie said. “But there’s one thing about the past that almost makes up for a few regressions. I’ll… tell you later. Oh, before I forget.” She got the cloaking bracelets from her backpack and handed them to Millie. “They didn’t quite last all day. Good luck… charging them? What year are they from, anyway?”

           “I got them on a visit to the 29^th century.” Millie pocketed the devices. “I don’t think they’re military grade. I bought them at a store. They might even be kids’ toys.”

           Laurie’s eyes got big. “W-what? I know they’re from the future, but… that far?!”

           Millie smiled. “Eight centuries… Boggles the mind, huh? I can’t wait to go back.”

           A holographic alarm resting on a nightstand let out a pleasant chime, its display pulsating with a soft light to gently wake the occupant of a small bedroom. Millie stirred and opened her eyes, and the first thing she did was roll over and look at the floating, ticking clock to check the date. Even after all these months, her reality still felt unreal.

           “Good morning again… 2884,” she murmured, then raised her arm and gave her wrist a flick to activate the motion-sensing shutters. “Nah… Still not ready to go back.”

           As the slats gradually opened to let in the light, she got out of bed, slid her feet into slippers, and grabbed her translucent glass phone off its wireless charger. Out in the apartment’s basic and small living room, she tried to wake up over a mug of coffee and a strange round piece of toast made of grains and slathered with a green jam. She’d been told that it was the perfect breakfast super food, but she had yet to acquire the taste.

           Above the table, a TV designed to look like a solid gray slate when it was off played the news at a low volume. Millie had seldom trusted the media in her home time, but here, checking the daily stories each morning helped her feel era-anchored.

           Events included the buyout of a helium-3 lunar mining company, a Founder’s Day parade on Mars’ largest city, the grand opening of another orbital casino and hotel, a rising crime wave on a floating city in the Mediterranean Sea, and, locally, Royal Valley expecting more monsoon-like weather in the coming week; that wasn’t unusual, given the world’s shifted climate patterns. And as was now the norm, these reports were AI-generated and presented by faceless, emotionless, floating globs of celestial color. It was a way to remove any sense of bias or manipulation in modern news media, supposedly.

           Millie received a text message from the only friend she had in this distant world, reading, “Made plans for today. Come over to the balcony and see the view.”

           She finished her meal and did so, opening the sliding glass door and emerging onto just another terrace on an apartment tower’s fiftieth floor. Outside, Royal Valley’s sci-fi city towers disappeared into the gray mist above as the rising sun cast prismatic tones across the glass facades. Air traffic was heavy this morning, and among the aircraft were the large orbital shuttles taking off or landing on rooftop aeropads. Coming in to hover by the balcony was an old bird with a rumbling gravity drive, its cockpit window open. A girl in a violet vest and dyed side-cut hair banged on the fuselage as she smiled.

           “Hey, Mill,” she shouted over the noise. “Good day for a little adventure.”