The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 7]

I guess you’re probably wondering: Mike, any cavities discovered at the dentist? Well, yes, unfortunately. I had a little one in the back of my mouth. Just one, mind you. My mom still took me out to lunch anyways. She did make me promise that I would stop drinking sodas late at night and that I would have to brush AND floss my teeth every night.

School was going as well as school went. I’d dare to say there were certain parts of it I liked, too. I think it takes a good teacher to inspire you, even at the very end of the day when you have a math class but all your brain power is run out.

Thinking about it, the class the first thing in the morning is bad, too. You’re still a little bit sleepy. It’s like your body wakes up and is able to eat food and make your legs walk you to the bus stop, but thinking takes a little while longer. I guess that’s why teachers always have cups of coffee in the morning. They have to do more thinking and do it earlier too.

I think Mrs. Carpenter was one of those good teachers. You might remember she was the first class I had in the morning, teaching us literature and language arts. Mrs. Carpenter had short brown hair that I had only ever seen tied up in one of those bun things at the back of her head. She always wore dresses that reached the floor, and they came in all patterns and colors. Those dresses also had belts around the waist, but they didn’t work like how a belt for pants worked.

Mrs. Carpenter spoke in a high-pitched voice. Some other kids made a rumor that sounded like she was calling for a dog all the time. She sometimes spoke fast, too, especially when something was really exciting for her. Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever saw coffee in her hands or on her desk anywhere. Maybe she was one of those strange people who were able to make their brains work in the morning.

“We’re starting a rough draft today, for a story you’ll all be writing,” she said as she began the main lesson for the day. “First off, I want you to come up with a conflict for your story. There’s that word again. I mentioned to keep a look out for the conflict of ‘An Unkeepable Promise.’ There’s a big one. Who can remind us what a conflict is?”

She was asking about the book that we’d been bringing back and forth to class. I had been able to keep up with some of it. I knew the definition of the word, too, but raising my hand wasn’t something I dared much to do. A hand came up from the front row, predictably.

“A conflict is something that the main character or characters have to deal with.”

“Exactly,” Mrs. Carpenter said with a load of praise. “Something they have to overcome. So then, in the story we’re reading, what is the conflict that Crystal is dealing with?”

Another couple of hands flashed up about the front areas of the classroom, all ready to answer. “Crystal learned that… her brother isn’t her real brother.”

Mrs. Carpenter nodded. “Exactly. And why is that a challenge?”

“Because she really wants to tell him,” another person answered.

“But that makes Crystal also worried because…”

The final person was called upon. “Because… because she’s afraid that might make him sad.”

Mrs. Carpenter made a few short claps and nodded. “Yeah! Perfect! And we’ll see how that turns out. So, your job today, with some pencil and paper, is to come up with a character, in a setting— a place, and decide what their challenge is, what conflict they’re going to face.”

Something struck me right then. Between my mom’s book about the man who pretended to be a knight and my own adventures with Jakey on Rune Quest, I had the perfect conflict. I was, of course, going to make a different ending than one that ends up being smashed by goblin hammers.

I had never written faster than that in my life. I’m sure I had never written as sloppily, either. My thoughts were being scribbled onto the paper as fast as my health bar had gone down that Friday. I think I had like half a story while the other people around me were still coming up with names for their characters. They were all just talking and wasting time anyways. I barely noticed Mrs. Carpenter wandering around the room. She eventually came up behind me. I only noticed a slight hum and nod of a head out of her. I don’t know why, but it was slightly embarrassing, and it threw me off my concentration.

Before I could do much more writing, the bell for the end of the period was ringing. Mrs. Carpenter gave us one last direction before letting us pack up. “Please finish these up at home and bring them back tomorrow to turn in.”

I almost told Jakey about the story I was going to write. When I met up with him, I realized that writing a story about him, at least one based on him and me, was a little bit embarrassing. I also imagined him calling me a nerd or something for enjoying a school assignment so much. Jakey never mentioned anything about school, except when it sucked.

I was excited enough about the rough draft that I even wrote down a few more points about it even before I got on Rune Quest at home. After that, I packed it nicely in my backpack ready for the next day. I didn’t know what was awaiting me then.

Mrs. Carpenter had a jar full of numbered sticks, one number for each of us. It was fair, I guess. She could pick people without just choosing the same people who always raise their hands. She was ready with them that morning, right away. “Okay, I hope that everyone put together a character or two and came up with a conflict for them to deal with. Let’s hear some of them before they get turned in. Number… eight.”

I could see some people still frantically writing theirs, even though it had been homework. I was there with both sides of the page filled out, overflowing with the makings of a story. The boy who got called up to read had a draft about a farmer, but none of his plants were growing. Everyone was surprised (I guess) by the twist being that the farmer was actually using cooked beans that could never sprout. When he finished, I hoped that the next number wouldn’t be mine. Well, I was spared by at least one person, but my luck ran out on the next pulling of a stick.

I trudged up to the front of the classroom after hearing my number called. All of my classmates stared at me like I was the goblin king himself and I was ready to drop a load of gold from them.

“Uh…” I began, “I don’t have a title yet. But my… main character is a knight. He’s strong. He also has a squire. A squire… is a guy that helps the knight. He helps put on his armor and… sharpen his swords, I guess. Oh, this takes place during the olden… middle ages time. Well, the squire fights bad guys and enemies, like goblins, with the Knight, but he isn’t very strong. The problem… the conflict is that the Knight has to defend his weak squire, even if that means that he… the knight gets hurt too. But… the squire does get stronger! He didn’t like seeing the knight get hurt, so he trains hard too! So… yeah.”

I heard only one pair of hands clapping. It was from Mrs. Carpenter. “What a conflict that is! And we’re also seeing the overcoming of that conflict. A squire… that’s a word I haven’t quite heard in a while. As Mike said, a squire was like a partner to a knight, a knight of shining armor some might say. Their armor had so many pieces and layers that a knight couldn’t put it on by themselves. What a noble pairing.”

I smiled at my classmates who were attempting to clap as quietly as possible. Some people were probably trying not to laugh. I was about ready to head back to my seat when a hand raised up in the air. Mrs. Carpenter looked between the girl and me, waiting for me to answer. I didn’t want to, obviously, so the teacher took over. “It seems we have a question. MacKenzie?”

The girl responded. “If the… squire is fighting, does he have his own set of armor? Does that mean the squire has a squire too? Is he trying to be a knight too?”

I took in the question. I looked at Mrs. Carpenter to see if she was going to make me answer. The look in her eye said that she was expecting my response. I took a breath.

“No. Uh, the Squire’s armor is simpler. He doesn’t have to fight, but he does.”

A boy from the front row blurted out. “Wouldn’t the knight get mad if the squire is just getting in the way? It would be annoying to protect the squire if he wasn’t able to fight.”

Their questions seemed like they were picking away at my story. “Maybe… well, the knight was a squire before he was a knight, and he knew how hard it was!”

“Wonderful questions,” the teacher said, stopping any others before they started. “We might call that back story. Now, that doesn’t mean you have to write all of that for your story, but you can give hints for your readers, or even just have it in mind while writing your characters. Thank you, Mike.”

While Mrs. Carpenter was still sending praise my way and explaining the setting of the Middle Ages, I hurried back to my seat. I barely listened to the other people reading. At the end of the time, all the paper drafts were passed to the front and collected by the teacher. Finally, the bell rang and released me from any further judgment from those people.

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The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 6]

That weekend was ruined after the events of that Friday night. Saturday morning, my mom threatened to cancel the internet connection if I tried to get on the computer again. Not only did I have to worry about my lost Rune Quest items, but I had to go outside. The summer heat hadn’t even gone away yet. It was like a dragon assaulting our land with its fiery breath endlessly.

My dad saw me sulking in front of the TV on Sunday morning. He decided that he was going to teach me how to mow the lawn. What he really meant was that he was going to force me to do it while he sat and watched.

“It’s a good skill to know,” he explained. “Lots of kids your age learn how to mow lawns. Then they go around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, and seeing if the neighbors’ll pay you to do it for them.”

“I don’t know any of the neighbors,” I said back. “And I don’t really need money that badly.”

“Well, if your mom decides to cancel the internet subscription like she says, you will need that money,” my dad concluded. I didn’t know if he was joking, even if he said it with a laugh. “Now, yank on that cord and rev up the engine.”

I mowed the entire front lawn that afternoon. My dad laughed at the uneven lines I had carved out and tufts of grass left behind. I let out what little breath I had left when he offered to finish up the front and head to the backyard on his own.

I was tired, thirsty, sweaty and probably a little bit sunburned. The roar of the lawn mower’s engines still rang in my ears too, like the hum you hear when you’re really sick and your nose is plugged and your throat is scratchy. All the work almost made me forget about what my mom had said the night before: that Jakey’s bad attitude was rubbing off on me.

I didn’t have time to think about it much. I had homework. After that was dinner, dishes, a shower to wash off the sweat from mowing, and finally some boring TV time with the family. Sunday felt like a completely different day, one that could have been a lot better if my death by goblins hadn’t caused me to shout out.

Jakey and I met back up at the bus stop that Monday morning. We nodded to each other a bit and shared a couple of sighs, both knowing that our adventure had come to an end way too early. While the bus was pulling up to let us inside, we finally exchanged the first words.

“So, can we talk about what happened Friday?” Jakey said, glancing over his shoulder as he marched up the narrow bus aisle.

I shook my head defeatedly. “Apart from me getting slaughtered?”

“That about sums it up,” he said back, settling into one of the seats. I sat across from him as usual, the both of us smudged into the middle of the bus.

“Did you die to the goblins too?” I asked, kind of hoping he had earned the same fate as me. Not to be mean, but so that we could share the same sad tale.

“Nope,” Jakey chirped back. “And I got a lot of your gear. We can trade it back the next time you’re on. I am sorry that I could not protect my companion, though. Were you too dismayed over your defeat to return the entire weekend?”

“Dismayed?” I asked.

“Uh… downtrodden. Upset. Sad.”

I rolled my eyes and huffed. “No. My mom heard me yelling at those… dang armored goblins. I guess I was a little too loud. But if she knew what was going on, she would have understood. You know?”

Jakey held his wide chin in his hand and nodded. “Ah, so you were banished from the online realm for the weekend.”

“Yeah. She doesn’t understand at all!”

“Parents never do,” Jakey said. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the seat, bouncing his leg. “I feel lucky that mine are out of the house often enough so I can do as I please without interruption.”

“How lucky,” I sighed. “If it isn’t my mom or dad, then my sister is home. And she has been bringing over her annoying high school friends, too…”

Jakey’s bouncing leg was rubbing against mine. The rough, stretchy fabric of his pants was making that whooshing sound. I wouldn’t have cared if I didn’t remember my mom’s words again— his bad attitude.

I pressed my backpack harder into my lap and scrunched sideways further into the bus seat. The two others beside me, already pushed up against each other and the window, glared at me. I didn’t dare look at them. Being such a big kid, Jakey barely fit anywhere. The people in his seat were probably already having a tough time making room.

I guess I sometimes noticed Jakey being rude or harsh. He never cussed, that’s for sure. He said his vocabulary was better than that. The things he said were funny sometimes, but I don’t think his attitude was really bad, not like some people. Sometimes he smelled bad, but that wasn’t his fault and I tried to ignore it as best I could. I wondered if he knew when he smelled that way. I don’t think he mowed the lawn enough to get all sweaty and smelly like I had done that weekend.

I wondered what he said and thought when I had died back there against the goblins.

---

Jakey and I met up again on our way to the computer lab that day. He was already ready to talk about the Goblin King.

“After you died, I jumped into the Stronghold just to scout it out. I saw him, just for a second. People were already fighting him. They were getting taken out left and right with that massive hammer of his. I don’t think either of us could have taken him on.”

“We’ll just have to level up some more,” I said hopefully.

“There are plenty of strong goblins to take on the way there,” Jakey added.

Once more, Jakey and I were logging into our computers there in the lab. “Do you think if we only farm goblins, we’ll get really good at taking down all sorts of goblins specifically?”

Jakey shrugged. “I’m not sure there is any system like that in Rune Quest. Perhaps a hidden skill? To the wiki, I say!”

Just as I was finished putting in my password, the entire school was hit with one of those announcements. “Please excuse the interruption. Would Mike Shepherd please come to the office to be picked up? Repeat, Mike Shepherd to the office. Thank you!”

Jakey was looking my way. I glanced at the teacher’s corner and called out to him. “Mr. Tate? What was that?”

Mr. Tate poked his head and eyes over his computer screens. “That’s an announcement. We’ve had plenty this year. Where have you been? And you wouldn’t happen to be the Mike they called for? Shepherd, they said.”

I zipped up my backpack in a rush and slung it over my shoulder. “Uh, yeah, that’s me. Jakey, can you log me off?”

“I shall do that for you, my companion,” he said back. “Best of travels. I wish for your safe return.”

I rushed out the door. I barely had time to readjust to the bright sunlight. For a moment, I didn’t even remember where the office was. The only thing I knew was that it must have been near the front of the school.

All of the buildings around the quad looked the same, all painted white, with dark windows and grey-blue doors matching the school’s colors. Some of the buildings had their names or numbers painted on them. I was too busy looking for the word ‘office’ that I totally missed my mom waving at me from beside the parking lot.

She smiled at me as I came near. Even though something was up, she didn’t even seem upset at all. “Did you forget what I said this morning? Dentist appointment today, kiddo. Just come right up front at lunch, I said. Come on, I’ve already got you signed out at the office.”

I followed my mom to the car and loaded myself in, backpack and all. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I was still too mad at my mom to properly listen that morning. “Sorry,” I said back, not really thinking what I was sorry about. Sorry for yelling while playing Rune Quest? Sorry for not listening to what she was saying that morning? Sorry for… being me?

“I think we will be right on time,” she said brightly as if my apology wasn’t even necessary.

The school disappeared from sight in the side mirror of my mom’s car. I was sad that I wasn’t able to hang out with Jakey, but somewhat glad that I was able to escape at least some of the school day.

“Sorry that we have to do this right at lunchtime,” my mom said, driving as carefully as she always did. “Tell you what, we’ll get something to eat on the way back home. A treat, maybe. But only if the dentist gives you a clean bill of health. Let’s hope all those late-night sodas aren’t destroying your teeth.”

I nodded and looked out the window. I had nothing on my mind to talk about with her. I don’t think I was mad at her anymore, I just didn’t have anything to say. The dentist was downtown. It was a completely different route from the one we took from the elementary school. Somewhere along the route, my mom spoke up again.

“I wanted to say sorry, Mike. About what I said about Jakey. I hope it didn’t change how you see him. And I really hope you didn’t tell him what I said,” she said, ending on what seemed like a joke.

“No…” I said. It was an all-encompassing no, one to respond to all of her comments.

“It’s really nice that you have a friend like Jake. Someone older you can look up to. But when you get to be a big teenager, things change. You know how Jess is, too. You think you’re the coolest person in the world, and nobody can tell you otherwise. People can see that as an attitude. And you know Jake’s parents aren’t around a lot. He probably has to fend for himself sometimes. Your grandpa would maybe call him an ‘old soul.’ Someone who’s already seen and heard it all. But, by all means, I don’t think Jake really has a bad attitude.”

That was one of my mom’s apologies. They always went on for a long time. They were always filled with lots of different ways to say sorry, even if the person she was apologizing to wasn’t even hurt anymore or that bad. Strangely, she sighed and laughed not long after finishing.

“But there is one thing about him. Mike, does he still say some of that weird stuff? Like you being his companion? Like he’s a knight or something? Does that come from that game you play?”

I shrugged and held back my laugh. “I don’t know. Maybe… do you remember that one movie with the ring?”

“The ring? Oh, the groups of hairy guys and their ring! Ugh! I swear, we were in that movie theater for hours! Ah, but there was that handsome guy with the beard.”

“Gandalf?” I asked, halfway joking.

“What? Wait, he was the old, dirty wizard, right? No, the other guy!”

“Aragorn,” I said, remembering my mom’s weird crush on the guy from the movie. He looked nothing like my dad.

“Yeah…” My mom said with a sigh. “I don’t remember, do they talk like that in the movie?”

“Kinda,” I replied.

“There was this book I tried to read in college,” My mom said, nodding. “Called Don Quixote. About some old guy who believed he was a knight. I think he talked and acted funny, too. That’s kind of what I remember. The book was thousands of pages and was kind of boring, too. Never finished it. But the main character could be kind of like Jakey, huh?”

I laughed and nodded. “I guess so. Do you still have that book?”

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The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 5]

Eric and Brett, the two good-for-nothings, only showed up sometimes to the computer lab with us. They kept their distance and even kept their voices down. Sometimes I would hear their snickering from behind us. The first few times, I would jerk my head back to catch them in the act. I always just saw them hiding away behind the big computer screens. I decided to follow Jakey’s advice and just ignore them.

Jakey and I were far too busy anyway, planning our adventure to the new Rune Quest area when it opened up. Jakey said that since the little goblins were weak to fire, the bigger ones, and even the king, must also be weak to fire.

“My magic is weak, but there are a few low-level spells to make your weapons attack with fire damage,” he said.

“I have some of those magic runes,” I offered.

“Could I leave it to you, my companion, to gather more of those?” He asked, proud of my ability to serve. “The flame ones, especially.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

---

About two weeks from our first discovery of the wiki, the Goblin King update dropped. It was a Thursday. The game took longer to load than normal. It had a popup as soon as I logged in talking about all the new things. Jakey and I already knew everything about it. We had decided at school that day to wait until that Friday to take it on. It wasn’t a school night, so we could be up as long as we needed to find that goblin king and take his treasure.

That next day at the end of dinner, I was the first to plop my dishes in the sink. I marched through the kitchen to grab a single bag of chips from the pantry and a coke from the refrigerator.

“Mike!” my mom scolded. She was almost ready to stop me. “You just had dinner!”

“They’re my rations, Mom,” I said, pushing past her. “For later.”

My dad chuckled. “Off to war,” he said. He didn’t know how right he was.

When I finally got on Rune Quest, Jakey was already online. I didn’t know how he got away with eating dinner so early. Maybe, I thought, his parents didn’t make him eat with them. It was also possible that they just ate early. I had never spent much time at his house, so I wasn’t sure of how their dinners worked.

I sent Jakey a private message telling him that I was online. He sent me a party invite back, putting the two of us in a team. His marker on the map showed that he was already at the edge of the new area.

I must explain yet another limitation of the internet at this time. There was no way to just talk to other people with your voice. If there was, it probably wouldn’t have been very good on our slow dial-up internet. We talked only using the chat in-game. My typing speed had gotten pretty fast as a result. My mom always said I would be able to type essays in no time. None of my middle school classes had given me an essay to type yet, so I wasn’t sure if that was true.

I chatted with Jakey, known as MakeMeJake88 in game, as I made the journey to the new area.

MakeMeJake88: got everything?

IcyMike203: ya

IcyMike203: ill trade u those runes when i get there

MakeMeJake88: good

MakeMeJake88: I got lots of fod

MakeMeJake88: food*

IcyMike203: lol

IcyMike203: k

IcyMike203: got my own rations, lol

MakeMeJake88: irl?

IcyMike203: coke and cool ranch

IcyMike203: we r undefeatable

MakeMeJake88: tons of ppl here

MakeMeJake88: hurry!

The trek to the new area wasn’t terribly long. I finally arrived. The location of the stronghold was once the very edge of the world. Going any further was impossible. It was guarded by a massive wall made of chopped-down tree trunks that were as big as giants. A gate was also there, but there was never any way to open it. Well, for that update, it had finally opened.

Other players swarmed the area. I could tell some of them had worse gear than me. There were also many with the best gear. A lot of people were posting a little message in the public chat- lfg- looking for group. Jakey and I didn’t need anyone besides the two of us.

The first few bunches of enemies, mostly basic goblins, were being dealt with just beyond the walls. They were going to be no challenge. The real fights were going to be deeper inside the goblin lands. Even deeper than we could see at the time was the stronghold itself. I wondered if anyone had made it that far.

I followed Jakey as we had planned.

IcyMike203: lead the way

We had managed to get about the same equipment. I had full steel armor and a sword. Jakey had the same, just with a Mythril chest plate which he had spent most of his gold on just for that day. Of course, his combat level was higher than mine too.

Our plan went like this: Jakey would get the attention of the goblins, start slashing away, and then I would come up behind and help him take the green dorks down. Since we were in a party, the experience was shared.

I had a bunch of food for healing on me. Jakey had cooked up some of his own, too. Because he planned on taking most of the damage, though, I was ready to pass him some when he needed. The first few fights were smooth. Jakey’s plan of using fire attacks with his sword brought down the weak goblins easily.

MakeMeJake88: too easy here

MakeMeJake88: lets keep going

We met the first groups of armored goblins. We also met a few piles of lost gear from the noobs who had fallen to these stronger foes. When you die in Rune Quest, you drop most of your items. It feels terrible and sets you back a lot of time and money. Jakey and I weren’t going to let that happen to each other.

The armored goblins put up a better fight. We began to use the first of our healing supplies. The experience was piling up. On top of that, I had already pocketed a good amount of gold and a few weapons to sell when we got back to town. While we were simply testing our skills, though, other players were already continuing on.

My real-life stamina was running low an hour and a half in. I cracked open my coke and yanked the bag of chips open with my teeth. I was careful to wipe my hands on my shirt and keep the seasoning from the chips off my mouse. If felt my strength return, and our hacking and slashing continued.

That’s when I saw it. It was up on a hill, surrounded by more gargantuan walls of logs. It was the stronghold, the home of the Goblin King. Even bigger goblins guarded the entrance.

MakeMeJake88: u ready?

MakeMeJake88: the good loot and XP is going 2 be inside

IcyMike203: right behind u

I guessed that most people had skipped the guard goblins and ran in straight for the boss. According to the wiki, many people could fight the king at the same time. He shared experience, too, depending on how many people took him down. Anyone within range would get a notification. Brave Adventurers have slain the Goblin King, protecting the land once more!

That’s exactly the message we saw on our screens then. Also mentioned by the wiki was that it took him a full thirty minutes to respawn. A half hour.

MakeMeJake88: dang

MakeMeJake88: might as well just farm

MakeMeJake88: u have time

MakeMeJake88: ?

I looked at the clock in the corner of my screen. It wasn’t too late. I could hear my parents, and probably Jess, watching a movie or something in the living room. My dad had probably fallen asleep on the couch. My mom never could fall asleep on the couch. She always woke up my dad and forced the both of them to bed. She was more relaxed on me and my sister on non school nights.

IcyMike203: no prob!!! more loot!!!

The stronghold goblins had spiked hammers. They dealt more damage. On top of that, they were tightly packed there in the halls of the stone and wooden fortress. While we could deal with one or two, sometimes another group would end up behind us. Jakey did his best to fight them back and defend me. I was putting up my own fight, but it seemed like I was getting taken down faster than the foes. I watched my health bar turn more and more red, meaning I was that much closer to death. I chowed down on my in-game rations to keep myself up. I’m sure Jakey was doing the same. The window for the Goblin King’s return was coming closer.

MakeMeJake88: need food

MakeMeJake88: u got more?

Jakey’s health bar was pretty full, but mine was more red than green. I did a calculation in my head. The few pieces of food left in my inventory were just enough to get me back to max.

IcyMike203: cant

IcyMike203: im almost out too

IcyMike203: dang help me here

I consumed the rest of the food just in time for a fresh spawn of spiked-hammer goblins to run at me. I did the only thing I could think of. I ran, hoping that Jakey would be able to take care of them.

Jakey kept swinging his sword, but the goblins were already ahead, hot on my heels. They got a few good hits in, bringing me down halfway. Somewhere outside of the gates, more ganged up on me. I was surrounded. Jakey and I both tried to fight them back, but my health bar dropped quick. I was clicking as fast as I could. I gritted my teeth. I screamed. Then in the blink of an eye, I was falling to the ground. The game teleported me to my home. Only my main piece of armor was left on me. Everything else I owned or had gotten in the stronghold was back there. I cursed. You shouldn’t imagine what I might have yelled.

I heard stomping feet on their way to the den. “I hope I didn’t hear what thought I heard!” My mom said angrily. She was in the doorway already, hands on her hips.

“It was nothing, Mom!” I shouted back. The excitement from the chase still had a hold on my body.

“I can’t believe you’re shouting at a silly game like this. And saying stuff like that,” my mom added. The anger from my cursing still had a hold on her body.

“It was an accident!” I was whining but didn’t care. “Jess says stuff like that all the time!”

“Well Jess is being a bad influence, then. And these computer games aren’t helping, either. You’ve been on this forever, the whole week, even. It’s late, Mike, give it a rest.”

“I need to get my stuff back!” I was still shouting, digging myself deeper. I could see Jakey’s chat messages coming at me from the corner of my eye. I knew that if I looked back at the screen, my mom would blow up. “Just let me get back to Jakey! He’s telling me something right now!”

“Get off it, or I will pull the plug,” My mom said, even more serious. “You can talk to Jakey on the phone, like any regular person. And if you’re lucky, you might get an hour on it for the rest of this weekend!”

“That won’t be enough time to find Jakey and get my stuff!”

My mom stomped her foot. “Then nothing at all. Turn. It. Off! I swear, that kid’s bad attitude is rubbing off on you.”

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The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 4]

It had become my and Jakey’s habit to head to the computer lab every day at lunch. It didn’t even seem like any of the teachers or yard duties cared about us not going to the cafeteria to eat. That place was always loud and always packed. Playing outside was kind of hot, too. Summer break ended the week before, but the actual summertime goes on for several more weeks. It doesn’t make any sense.

At home, my mom asked if I was enjoying school and if I managed to hang out with Jakey. She knew we didn’t have any classes together. That was a given since he was in eighth grade. I told her that we did manage to hang out at lunchtime, but I never told her that it was inside the computer lab. I think she would have said something about spending too much time on the computer. That might have led me to getting less time online at home.

She would have also complained about me not running around at lunch and getting exercise. I knew that didn’t matter since we had P.E. anyways. While it was still hot, we were playing basketball in the gym. With me being smaller than most other kids in the class, it was hard to chase after the ball, let alone hold onto it and make a shot. Everything was bigger in middle school, especially the basketball hoops.

My mom also asked if I had made other friends besides Jakey. I mentioned the names of a few of the people I had sat by in my classes. Middle school classes make it harder to sit and talk with people. That makes it harder to make friends. That isn’t my fault. The teachers talk and then we do work. If we talk while doing work, that means we aren’t doing work. All of this happens in the space of an hour and then we move to another class. That means we sit by more people that we can’t talk to or make friends with. If we can’t talk to them, then we can’t make friends with them. Again, that isn’t my fault.

It was the third week of school then. The computer lab had gained a few new patrons since the beginning of the year. Most people kept to themselves. That included me and Jakey. By then, everyone had their assigned spots, even if we were never technically assigned them. There was still the black girl by the door, watching her cartoons. I think Jakey called it anime, and it was from Japan. I wonder if she understood what they were saying.

The pair of guys still sat at the back wall. They seemed to play a different random game every day. They sometimes worked together on the same keyboard, groaning (and sometimes cussing, quietly) when failing, and exchanging high-fives and cheers upon a victory. I worried for them in case Mr. Tate got mad at them for being loud.

There was a chubby, dark-haired girl that sat in the far corner. I think her hair was dyed that dark color. I could see some of her underneath hair was blond. Jakey said she was a goth. Jakey knew all the types of people you saw at middle school. People had types, which was a thing nobody in elementary knew about. The ‘goth’ girl played games on a website that was mostly colored pink, which seemed strange. I probably wasn’t ever going to find a way to talk to her either way.

There was another pair of guys that started coming during that third week of school. They didn’t immediately choose a set of computers to make their own. I guess they had been there before since Mr. Tate didn’t bother telling them about the rules. Well, the guys wandered around for a bit, glancing at other people’s screens. They even passed behind me and Jakey that first day. I didn’t bother looking over my shoulder at them. I thought, at the time, they just wanted to know about what was fun to do.

I don’t know what they played finally on the computers they chose. I only heard them talking about random stuff. They were louder than anybody else. I’m really surprised Mr. Tate didn’t get upset at them.

With Rune Quest out of the question, Jakey and I played whatever wasn’t blocked through the school internet. In those days of the web, many copycat sites were sharing and posting a lot of the same things. Finding one that was usable wasn’t that hard. I can’t remember the name of the one we went to a lot back then, but I remember the endless pages of games, short videos, and funny pictures with random captions on them. I must also remind you that I never would have seen such things at home on my slow dial-up internet.

It was a Wednesday. Just as we had logged in Jakey called out to me. “Look, my companion. A great find!”

I pulled my eyes away from my screen. He had pulled up a website that almost fooled me into thinking he had gone to Rune Quest. I almost yelled out way too loud, “Wait… what? How? What is this?”

Jakey leaned back in the seat, causing it to creak under his weight. He cracked his fingers and nodded. “It isn’t the promised land, but it is close enough. These could be called Rune Quest’s own ‘Tomes of Knowledge.’”

I studied the web page. The design was a lot like the page where you logged into Rune Quest, but instead of any sort of game, it was made up of blocky sections of words, some bold, some italic, and some colored blue like they wanted you to click on them.

“I don’t get it,” I said. I almost felt betrayed.

“This is the Rune Quest wiki,” Jakey began to explain.

“Wiki?” I repeated. It didn’t sound like a word.

Jakey nodded and scrolled up and down the page. “Like… do you remember those big sets of books your mom used to sell?”

“Yeah…” I said and nodded. I remembered them. We had our own set of encyclopedias at that time, still. They took up a whole shelf in our den. They each weighed like ten pounds. They were covered in something that looked like leather but was much cheaper. The cover and the pages also smelled funny. It was like glue and old tree bark. Most of all, nobody in my family had ever opened one, at least not in my memory. “Those are useless, dude.”

Jakey closed his eyes and nodded. “Indeed, my companion. Anyone could tell you that the internet has made those useless. Tell your mom I’m sorry, but it’s the truth. Well, this wiki is made by Gamex. The Gamex company that runs Rune Quest.”

I was almost beginning to understand. “And what does it do?”

Jakey placed his mouse cursor in the search bar, decorated with the picture of a magnifying glass. “This is the entirety of the knowledge about Rune Quest. Every quest, every crafting recipe, every map and dungeon- it is all here. Even pages on pages of lore.”

“Lore?” I asked. It was another word I had not heard before.

“The history. Everything that has happened in the world, why the kingdoms exist as they do. The people and the places, too.”

“And it’s not blocked?” I asked, surprised at the thought of it.

“It is not,” Jakey said. He lowered his head and glanced in the direction of Mr. Tate’s desk. “We best keep the secret away from the more powerful sorts, let it be put behind bars like our other pleasures.”

I nodded and shrugged. “Sure. How did you find out about this?”

Jakey raised a finger in the air. “I had heard of it before. But just like you, I have the curse of dial-up internet at home and it loads so slowly. I just thought of it today to see if it was blocked. Look at our luck, my companion. You can see the link to it at the very bottom of the page when you’re logging into the game. You can also just search Rune Quest Wiki, of course.”

I found my way to the homepage of the wiki just like Jakey. I read through the bold words on the screen. I found myself understanding better what we had discovered. I couldn’t make up my mind on what to click on first, on what to discover.

“Players can add to this themselves,” Jakey said. He was already scrolling through one of the articles. “I mean, Gamex probably wrote most of this. They know everything since they made it. But you can leave notes for other players to read. If you type in junk, it gets erased though. I don’t know how they do it. Look, they have a page for the new area they’re expanding into.”

I was suddenly even more interested than before. “New area?” I asked, leaning over to Jakey’s computer.

“The Goblin Stronghold,” He said proudly, reading off the article’s title. He continued down the page, reading off more of the notes. “The slaying of goblins by the human kingdoms has not gone unnoticed! The homeland of the goblins has made a declaration of war. Fight your way into their lands and seek out their rulers. Help us defend our lands!”

I had only ever heard such a phrase in one of those big Hollywood movies where they used real swords and armor. Those sorts of movies also have big monsters made with special effects and computer graphics. Also lots of loud, epic music. I tried to read along with Jakey, or even figure out a way to get to the same article.

Jakey nodded as he read more to himself. He took time to glance at the pictures too, showing off the spiky walls of the stronghold and the collection of heavily-armored goblins. “Look here, Mike. The boss at the end of the area; the Goblin King!”

There was a picture to the side of the words that had just loaded. The Goblin King looked a lot like the other weird green enemies that I had taken down in my early days of the game. The King, however, was twice, maybe three times as big. He had his own set of armor and a helmet with great big horns sticking up into the sky. In his hands was a massive war hammer, a great big stone block on a stick, looking like it was ready to squash any puny human that came close.

I heard a snickering behind us. I glanced back. It was the two chatty guys who had started to come in that week. They were standing behind Jakey, quietly watching as he scrolled the pages. Jakey didn’t look back.

“The goblin king,” the taller one said, his laughter growing louder.

The shorter one grabbed Jakey’s shoulders and shook him back and forth. “We have our own goblin king here!”

They both laughed. The tall one poked Jakey in the shoulder. “Don’t get in his way, or he’ll roll you over.”

“This one must be the goblin queen, then,” The short one said. They both looked at me. His hands were on my shoulders next. He yanked me in Jakey’s direction.

I shook my shoulder free. My teeth were gritted tight against each other. “If you knew how strong the true Goblin King was, you wouldn’t be messing with us!” I blurted out.

The two rude guys stared at me for a moment, then burst out laughing, leaning back on the sets of chairs behind us. “The true Goblin King, he says! Look at this kid!”

I saw the teacher, usually ducked behind his monitors, shoot up from his seat. “Hey, Eric, Brett,” Mr. Tate said with a harsh tone. “Too loud. Move on out of here until you can learn how to not disturb others.”

The teacher’s glare followed them as they shuffled out, giggling and poking at each other the whole time. Mr. Tate descended back to his desk without another word. Jakey was leaned forward in his chair, eyes fixed only on the screen.

“You good, man?” I asked.

Jakey shrugged his shoulders. He sat back slightly. “Yeah. Don’t worry about those idiots.”

“Well, hopefully they won’t be back?” I said with a sigh.

“You just gotta’ ignore people like that, Mike.”

I nodded. “The… the goblin king will probably drop something cool. I mean, the real one.”

“Yeah.” Jakey nodded. He still didn’t look my way.

“Does it say what level he is? I might still need to get stronger.”

Jakey shrugged. “You can keep leveling up your fighting, but your armor-making still will also help keep us alive. Maybe… tonight, you can check how many more levels you need until you can make us stronger stuff.”

“Yeah…”

<– Previous Chapter | Next Chapter –>

The Place Where Promises Aren’t Kept [Chapter 3]

The second day began with me walking to the neighborhood bus stop, the way I would be getting to and from school for pretty much every day after. I was far from the first to show up that morning. My savior from boredom and loneliness had already arrived. Jakey was a kid who was quite tall and quite rounded, probably the biggest kid around my age with such massive proportions. Like me, he wore rounded glasses and sported only the finest graphic t-shirts. That morning, beneath his unzipped sweatshirt, he was sporting one with just the number 7 down the front, something supposed to look like a sports jersey. I don’t think I had ever heard Jakey mention a sport. I had to think that it was one of those back-to-school choices picked out by his mom.

It wasn’t just his body that was massive, but his personality too, that towered over everyone else. He extracted his hands from his sweatshirt pockets when he noticed me on the sidewalk, shaking both pointer fingers at me like he was doing target practice.

“My companion!” He called out, grabbing up my wrists in his hands and grabbing the notice of the other kids waiting for the bus. “I feared that you had become lost in the Mines of Moria, or at least fled the country to avoid the first day of school! And not even a peep last night online, either.”

I finally regained the use of my arms after they left his grasp. “Yeah,” I sighed, “My mom drove me yesterday morning, picked me up too. Then we went out to dinner to celebrate or whatever? I don’t really consider coming back to school really anything to celebrate.”

“The peasants will do as they will,” He replied in one of his cultured patterns of speech.

I had met Jakey four summers previous when my family moved to the neighborhood. Before, we had lived in a big city called Sacramento. The busy, preppy elementary school there really wasn’t my thing, but my opinion meant even less when I was a little kid. It wasn’t until my dad got fed up with having to wear a hot, stuffy suit every day for work that he decided to move us somewhere more relaxed. He also mentioned inflation and some other stuff, but the suit thing made more sense to me at the time. Either way, he had set himself up with a similar job in a new, smaller town, one where he could wear more comfortable clothes.

Well, moving is a big thing. I swear, we had a mountain of boxes and piles of furniture, all stuffed into a rented trailer behind my dad’s truck, plus arranged into every free spot inside his and my mom’s cars. We were just about to our new home when we met the hill. You see, the current house we live in is up on a ridge, just a little bit, at the back of the neighborhood. The hill isn’t actually that bad. If you were walking up it, you wouldn’t even break a sweat, and if you were riding your bike, you would only have to adjust the gears a little bit. But towing a trailer with thousands of pounds from two hours away was just enough to make my dad’s truck stop working.

Thanks to my dad’s driving, nobody got hurt, but we ended up rolling right back down to the bottom of that hill. While my dad was trying to get the truck started back up again, the nice family that lived there in that house poked their heads out to get a look at the strangers moving into the neighborhood. That was Jakey and his family.

Everyone kind of met everyone right there as they helped us figure out the problem and get the truck started back up, and eventually to our destination. I can remember Jakey showing off for my sister, playing at the idea of hefting several boxes himself up the hill and to our place. From that point on, our two families were pretty close.

The bus finally came to a screeching halt there in front of the stop. “Well, right on time,” Jakey said glancing at his wrist. Despite there being no watch there, he was always prepared to say something of that nature.

I didn’t know the exact time, but judging by how packed the bus was, I realized we were one of the last stops. I could only offer up a single look to the bus driver as I climbed the stairs, looking over Jakey’s shoulder at the nearly-full seats.

Most seats were already full with two people. Many were stuffed with three, the most outward person pushed out slightly into the center aisle. Some of the others looked up at us as if they were angry that we had to be there and take up more of their room. I only caught some of their judgmental looks as Jakey pushed his way through, forming a wall between myself and them. Jakey had a presence that I always felt secure with, like he always knew how to handle every situation and not worry about others or their need to exist in the same space as him.

I joined Jakey near the back where there were two aisle seats next to each other where we could meet up in the middle. I only dared making a second of eye contact with the guy beside me as I sat down, firmly planting the heavy backpack on my knees.

“So who did you get?” Jakey asked suddenly.

The bus jerked and coughed as it took off from our stop and began once more toward the school. I forced myself up against the gravitation forces of the massive vehicle moving forward. “Huh? Oh, my teachers?”

The school schedule and map had been folded up and unfolded, yanked from, and shoved back into my pocket more times than I had changed classes the previous day. It was once again pulled from my back pocket, looking like an ancient document from the founding of the country.

Jakey pulled it out of my hand and glanced it over, flipping it about to the correct side and going through the list of names one by one. “Let’s see. Carpenter? I dunno them. She’s good. P.E.? You get pretty much the same P.E. teacher and class every year. Got to love running and playing stupid sports that don’t teach you anything. Science next? Make sure to laugh at Mr. Jones’ jokes, no matter how sucky they are. You get extra points for that. Uh, yeah, Mrs. Tucker isn’t too bad. Don’t know this math teacher. Ugh, math at the end of the day, though. Don’t fall asleep in class.”

I tried to take down the mental notes, but the names of the teachers were already departing my mind the second the paper had left my hands. “How do you remember where anything is?”

Jakey flipped the paper back into my hands and changed the subject. “So, your sister is in High School now?”

“Yeah,” I said. The morning light flashed past the windows as the bus went past a grove of trees. “She even has friends in her new classes. She’s taking Spanish. When we were out at dinner last night, she was saying some of the words she learned in class. She was saying all that stuff right in Italian Garden, too. Everyone else must have thought she was crazy.”

“Spanish…” Jakey huffed, pressing himself harder against the already squished girl beside him. “Why would anyone take that?”

“I think she said a language is required, like, for two years in high school.”

“I speak a language, it’s English,” Jakey grumbled, forcing his hands up into the pits of his arms. “I better not be forced to take anything like that. All I need are the computer classes they teach there. Which reminds me, my companion! I did not see you yesterday, so you missed out on seeing it.”

“Huh?”

“The hideout awaits you!”

I remember my eyes becoming wide, and my grasp on the backpack in my lap tightening. “Hideout?”

“The computer lab, my boy!”

I lowered my voice to a whisper and leaned in closer. “I can’t get in there, I don’t have any computer classes.”

Jakey shrugged. “The need be not, squire. Mr. Tate is cool about that stuff. They get a class in there like once or twice a week. Definitely not during the first week, either. He’s open at lunch.”

“Is that why I didn’t see you yesterday?”

“T’was.” Jakey hummed mysteriously. “I formally invite you to join the haven of HPs. It is located betwixt the Office of the Elders and the home of the school’s Tomes of Knowledge.”

“Tomes… of knowledge?”

“The library, dude. A tome is like a book. A big, old one,” he described, glancing up over the tall bus seats to judge how close we were to school. “Do you remember when Gandalf went to that big, white city on horseback to learn more about the ring Bilbo had? He was all up in the tomes there.”

“Oh yeah! So like… just beside the office, too?”

“That is correct. Do you still consume the meals prepared by your kin? Your lunch, from home?”

“Yeah.”

“So, just like drop in, man. We can eat together and I’ll show you around the place,” he said with a wink of an eye.

“And that’s okay? I can just go there instead of the cafeteria?”

“Sure.” Jakey shrugged then glanced at his watchless wrist once again, just as the bus stopped in its rightful place before the school. “Right on time. I shall await you there, Mike.”

---

It felt as if I were about to pull the worst crime of the century. I diverted from the flow of other kids headed for the cafeteria and instead made my way for the library. Even if I couldn’t tell the blocks of classrooms apart from each other, it was clear that the second biggest building there at school was the library. I definitely saw many books, or rather, the Tomes of Knowledge, through the windows. As I searched for something resembling a computer lab, I conjured up several different excuses that I could use if a teacher or other adult stopped me.

“I need to stop by the office and call my mom.” No, they might lead me to the office themselves. “I needed to go to the bathroom before lunch.” It might work, but I might be pointed off in a way different direction. “I was trying to find the computer lab.” That would have been mostly truthful, but it might just expose whatever activities were going on there. I would have ended up being a huge tattle-tailer for anyone else trying to enjoy the space, Jakey included.

“Mike! Hey Mike!”

I froze in place. All my excuses left my head that very moment. I jerked my head over my shoulder. It was Jakey calling my name. His voice was deep enough that I had thought it was a teacher, and that my journey had ended before it had begun. I relaxed my shoulders and nodded at him.

“Funny meeting you here,” I said, my heart slowed back to its normal speed.

“You’re in luck. I can now give you a proper tour,” my big friend said back, patting me on the back on his way past me.

The door that he brought us to there beside the library didn’t seem like much. The painted letters above it said ‘L4.” Jakey opened it for me, then waved a hand to let me in first. The space I entered at that moment was the place I always wanted and needed, but never knew existed.

The big computer desks lined three of the walls. There were two smaller islands of more desks holding their own computers in the middle. I scanned the endless rows of keyboards, pared with mice that each had found their own place on the corner of the desks. The room didn’t have many windows to start out, and they were covered with blinds that were drawn. Unlike the other classrooms with glaring lights that stayed on all the time and reflected off the shiny floors, only a few of the banks of lights were turned on. All of that missing light was replaced by the glow of rows and rows of computer monitors.

I heard my favorite sounds, too. First, it was the low, repetitive clicking of hard drives reading and writing data. It kind of sounds like little rats or rabbits nibbling on something. My dad said that if they start to get louder, that means the spinning disks inside the hard drives are going bad, and that’s not good. One of my dad’s coworkers lost all their work to that once.

The other unmistakable sound was of the computer screens themselves. Big CRTs (that also meant the TVs we had back then) make a little buzz when they’re in use. With that many computer screens packed in the room, I could feel the sound inside my whole body. There was also the whoosh of the air conditioning, trying its best to keep the room cool, fighting the heat of the computers inside and the remaining summer heat of the outside.

The outside world was gone as soon as Jakey shut the door behind us. He slung his backpack off his shoulder and wandered forward. Besides us, there were a few others inside already. Not far from the door was a black girl watching a cartoon or something on her screen. She stared at me for a little bit as I stepped in, then moved her chair to keep me from looking at what she was doing. Further in the back were a couple of dudes. Their computers were letting out a series of beeps and boops of some flash game, one where you solve one of those simple puzzles, or just hit things really fast.

At the far end of the room, Jakey was talking to the one and only adult the room contained. He probably would have called him ‘the master of the domain’ or something like that. Jakey pointed a finger back at me. I heard my name being used.

“Mike, is it?” The teacher said.

I approached, nodding. “Yeah.”

“This is Mr. Tate, Mike,” Jakey said, holding out his hands like a game show host.

“Well, welcome to the computer lab,” Mr. Tate said with a welcoming tone.

His area of the lab was a battle station of a futuristic design. Instead of a big, thick CRT screen, he had not one, but two flat-panel displays. They were turned facing the corner so nobody could see what was on them, but I imagined them being full of all sorts of computer information and data. On the wall behind him was the usual teacher stuff like his framed college diploma and other degrees, but also a shelf with indescribable computer equipotent, all lit up and wrapped in a tangle of wires.

Mr. Tate himself was a younger guy, with short, dark whiskers all over his face and a straight-edged haircut that wrapped around his head. He wore one of those dark polo shirts like the ones my mom picked out for me. For a moment, I thought they might have looked not that bad. Around his neck was a pair of sunglasses resting on a band, ready for when he stepped out into the glaring light of the outside world.

“You tell him the rules, Jake?” Mr. Tate asked.

“What rules?” Jakey said back.

Mr. Tate rolled his eyes and sat back in his tall-backed desk chair. “Well, first off, welcome to North View. There are a few rules for this place. Yes, you may eat your lunch in here, but clean up after yourself. I don’t want a single ounce of sticky, dirty mess smeared on one of my keyboards or mice. I do have proper classes that come in here and use this place like civilized people.”

“Oh yeah,” Jakey said, laughing and nodding his head. “He’ll make you eat up all the crumbs that end up between the keys if you do leave a mess.”

“Okay,” Mr. Tate said with a click of his tongue. “First off, that’s disgusting. Second, keyboards also get filled up with endless strands of hair and flakes of skin when they get used by a lot of people. So eating anything from between the keys is a punishment reserved for only spilling water or juice on anything in this room. But yeah, no spills either. I shouldn’t have to tell you two knuckleheads what water does to a computer, right? Overall, just treat this place and the other people here with respect, yeah?”

“Understood,” I said, nodding, thinking about how many crumbs were in my own keyboard at home.

Jakey shrugged and urged me to follow him to a free pair of computers. “Well, time to dig in, Mike,” he said impatiently.

I nearly had forgotten it was actually lunchtime until Jakey brought out the crumpled brown paper bag from his backpack. His lunch had a sloppily made sandwich on white bread, with a bag of chips and one of those plastic barrel-shaped containers of juice. I had always wanted to just try a lunch like that, something simple and also somehow daring. My own lunch had an egg sandwich on wheat, the filling decorated with those little green herb flakes that come out of a plastic container.

With one hand, Jakey deftly tapped away at the keyboard while shoving the sandwich into his mouth with the other. I kept watching him, nibbling my own food, while the computer accepted his username and password.

He swallowed hard and finally looked at me. “You aren’t going to jump on?”

I blinked and finally made eye contact with the glowing screen. Screen savers were a big thing back at this time. They were fun, random animations that began to play when a computer stopped being used for a while. The default one that was running on my screen had the logo for the operating system bounce around endlessly from corner to corner, side to side. When I moved the mouse, the login screen revealed itself to me.

“I don’t know how,” I admitted. “Is it the same one I use at home? My dad set it up for our computer.”

“Ugh,” Jakey grunted and leaned in closer to me. “No, stupid. The school gave you one. Where’s that paper with your classes?”

The paper had gotten more crumpled over the course of that day. The words with the names of my teachers and their rooms were still readable, luckily. There was also my name and several other bits of information I hadn’t looked at.

“Okay, here,” Jakey said, pointing at one of the corners of the paper. “It’s your initials and ID number— that’s the one right here— for the username. The password is your birthday, backward. Like year, then the month, then the day. All numbers. Don’t tell your parents any of that information, or then they can log in to the school’s website at home and check your grades. It’s a pain in the butt.”

I nodded. I looked at the number that was supposedly my ID number. I had never had one before. At least, if I had had one, I didn’t know it. I typed in the numbers one by one, making sure they were right more than a couple of times.

The computer liked what I typed in. It wasn’t too different from the computer I had at home. If anything, it was kind of a little bit older than my home computer. Maybe it was just more boring. As soon as I was on the desktop looking at all the icons, I had a revelation.

“Jakey!” I shouted out loud. My voice echoed about the room more than I had expected. I glanced over to the teacher’s desk. Mr. Tate had poked his head up from behind his screens for a split second. I quieted myself and continued. “Can we… can we get on Rune Quest here?”

Jakey sat back and rolled his whole head. “No. Blocked. It’s a joke.”

“Oh. Why not?” I said, looking for any icons that looked like they could be used to get on the internet.

He shrugged. “Mr. Tate says its because this is school, and you have to be bored at school and not play any games, at least not the good, fun ones.”

I glanced around the room. I was trying to see if the two other guys who were in there before us were still playing their own games. “So… Mr. Tate blocked it, then?”

“Nah, not Mr. Tate himself. I guess he and the school have to follow what all the other schools do.”

I sighed and looked down at the keyboard. “I guess it would take too long to dial up to the internet here at school, anyways.”

“Dial-up?” Jakey said, interrupting my sulking. “Oh no, my companion. This here is high-speed internet.”

Jakey was pointing at his screen. I saw him on one of the sites he had shared with me in the past. It was one where you could play one of those old arcade games, like where you bounce a ball and break the tiles. For my internet at home, I could go to that website, go make myself a snack, use the bathroom, and come back to it still loading. There on the school computers, on the school internet, the loading bar moved like a kid on a water slide in the middle of summer. Before I knew it, it was up and ready to play.

At that moment, I knew that this place was not just going to be my hideout, but my haven.

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