by Jamie Davis
Shelby nodded after a brief pause and Cass sighed. She was afraid Shelby was too upset to see reason.
“Excellent,” Mitch said. His pleasant grin irked Cass. “Grab your keys and go. I don’t want to see either of you back here for at least an hour.”
Cass walked over to her desk and grabbed her key card. Shelby waited for her by the door.
Cass stalked past her and headed down the hallway, her mind spinning with ways to fix the horrible mess she’d made getting to know Shelby.
Chapter 3
The two girls walked in silence across the campus to the student center. It held the cafeteria, school bookstore and gift shop, as well as the activities center, weight room, and indoor track.
There was a long line leading up to the table where they dipped the ice cream. Cass tried to fill the silence by scanning the fixings table where people could add toppings and flavored syrups to their choice of ice cream.
She started putting together her options and choices in her mind as they passed by in line. Before she knew it, she turned to Shelby and said, “I’m getting crushed chocolate cookies and caramel syrup on mine.”
“Hmph,” Shelby said in reply. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead.
“Seriously,” Cass said. “What’s wrong with what I just said?”
Shelby didn’t say anything at first. When Cass stood and stared at her, waiting for a reply, Shelby finally broke down and answered.
“Caramel and chocolate? First of all, pick one or the other. They don’t mix. Second, you missed the best part of the toppings.”
“What’s that?” Cass asked, glancing at the table again.
“The gummy bears. They are the obvious choice when they’re available.”
“Ewww. I like gummy bears, but not on my ice cream. They get all hard and chewy in the cold, and get stuck in your teeth.”
“That’s the best part.” Shelby smiled. “You save some for later.”
“Gross.”
Cass’s response made Shelby laugh out loud.
It caught Cass by surprise and before she knew it, she laughed, too. “We can’t even get along about our ice cream options. That’s pretty sad.”
“So much for Mitch’s grand plan to get us to agree on something.”
“I know, right?” Cass said. “He acted like he was bored by our fight, like we were interrupting something he had to do.”
“Yeah, if he acts like that all the time, it’s going to be awful having him living on the floor with us the whole year.” Shelby glanced at Cass. “I guess that’s one thing we agree on, at least.”
Cass nodded. She realized Shelby had offered a cease fire to their argument with that last statement. It was her turn.
“Shelby, I’m sorry about what I said. I’m trying to learn all these new things and sometimes I say stuff without realizing it.”
“I just wish you’d told me about your family over the summer.”
“Would you have agreed to room with me if I had?” Cass asked.
Shelby didn’t answer.
“I didn’t think so,” Cass said. “Look, I want to learn more about the things they taught me growing up. I know now so much of what I learned isn’t like they told me it would be out here in the rest of the world.”
“I can’t even understand what it was like growing up there like that. Did you have any access to the net or anything?”
Cass shrugged. “We had a closed network inside the community. That gave filtered access to outside information and news feeds. It was enough to do school projects and stuff like that.”
“What about VR gaming?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. That’s giving yourself over to influence from the AI. The name says it all. Virtual reality isn’t actual reality. How are you supposed to tell what’s fake from real if you do that too much?”
“Weird. I can’t even think what it would be like without any sort of VR gaming. I’d be so bored all the time. What did you do?”
“I read books. I like stories about kids like me growing up in the past.”
The line had moved forward far enough that Cass and Shelby were next. Cass grabbed a bowl and handed it to Shelby before grabbing another for herself.
“We’ve got chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry,” the girl behind the table said.
“I’ll take two scoops of vanilla,” Cass said. She handed the other girl her bowl and waited while another older student dipped the ice cream for her.
When she got her bowl back, she moved on to the toppings table. Shelby was right behind her. She’d gotten two dips of chocolate.
They both laughed as Shelby went right for the gummy bears, spooning so many atop her ice cream that a few fell off the sides to the floor.
Cass bent down and helped pick them up and throw them in the trash before finishing making her own sundae. She put crushed cookie topping on hers and then caramel as promised. She topped it all off with whipped cream from an aerosol can at the end of the table.
“Want some?” Cass offered Shelby the whipped cream.
“Sure,” Shelby said, holding out her bowl.
Cass squirted a generous pile of whipped cream on top of the gummy bear laden bowl. Shelby nodded and grabbed a spoon for each of them as they moved away from the line.
“Let’s sit over here,” Shelby said, pointing to a bench in front of the bookstore entrance.
Cass followed her over and sat down next to Shelby. For the next minute or so, the two of them enjoyed their ice cream in silence.
Cass was the first to speak up again. “So, can we stand to live together until they approve a change of room?”
“We don’t have to change rooms, Cass, at least not right now. You shouldn’t have hidden who you were from me, though.”
When Cass started to respond, Shelby held up a hand to stop her. “I understand why you did it. I just wish you didn’t feel like you had to hide who you were from me.”
“I’m still the same me you talked to all summer, the only difference is now you know where I grew up. I’m not defined by that, Shelby. I don’t believe everything I learned back in the enclave schools.”
Shelby turned to face Cass on the bench. “What have you learned is different?”
“I’ve learned that just because you have add-ons and enhancements, it doesn’t mean you’re under control of the Mantle. You’re just like me in most ways, the ways that really matter.”
“And, what have you learned is the same as you heard growing up?”
That question was hard for Cass to answer. She didn’t know where to start because she was still learning so much about the world outside the enclave.
“I honestly don’t know yet. I guess that list is a work in progress.”
Shelby smiled. “Good answer.”
“It’s the truth.”
“I know, Cass. That’s why it’s a good answer. Look, I made some snap judgements about you earlier, too. I have to hold myself accountable if I’m going to take you to task.”
They finished the last of their ice cream and stood to throw the bowls away. Together, they turned back towards the dorm.
Cass had a random thought and laughed out loud.
“What?” Shelby asked.
“Oh, I was thinking about how smug Mitch is going to be if we come back and we’re no longer fighting.”
“The hell with Mitch. I gave up worrying about what boys think about me a long time ago. It’s much more important to me what you think.”
They walked a bit longer then Shelby smiled.
Cass glanced her way and asked, “What are you smiling at?”
“I know how to get Mitch. Let’s make him think his plan worked too well.”
“What?”
“We’re almost there. Hold my hand.”
Cass looked down. Shelby held out her cybernetic hand to her. Cass swallowed hard and reached down, taking the metal hand in her own.
She was struck immediately by how warm it was to the tou
ch. The smooth metal wasn’t cold at all. It wasn’t soft like skin, but it still felt alive somehow. That surprised her. She stroked the back of the hand with her thumb.
“Stop that. It tickles,” Shelby said.
“You can feel that?”
“Of course, I can. What good would it be if I couldn’t feel something touching my hand? The neural-mechanical connections allow for all the basic senses: hot, cold, pressure. It can even generate a diminished pain response if the arm is damaged in some way.”
“Wow, I had no idea.”
“Let’s set some ground rules from here on out,” Shelby suggested. “If you have a question about my arm or my v-tats or anything else, just ask. Don’t assume you understand. I will do the same about your parents, family and friends growing up.”
“That sounds good,” Cass replied.
“Awesome. Now, ready to go inside and blow Mitch’s mind?”
Cass nodded and with a burst of laughter, the two roommates entered the dorm and headed back to their room.
Chapter 4
The visit to the ice cream social on the first day on campus started to cement the friendship between the two roommates. Cass was glad. There was a lot to like about Shelby, despite her implants.
The two of them came up with some additional rules to help them avoid sensitive topics unless they had to time to sit down and make sure there were no misunderstandings regarding technology and enhancements. Instead, the two girls focused on their past activities in high school and what it was like growing up in their families.
They both had broken up with long-time girlfriends over the summer. They talked a lot about how hard it was to leave all their friends behind. Those discussions helped to draw them closer over the following weeks as school got underway and the stress of studying began.
Shelby talked about her older brother most. He’d already graduated from the same university they attended and now worked as a social worker in the city nearby. His job involved working with transient and homeless communities around the area.
Shelby’s animated tone when talking about him showed her pride in him. It made Cass want to meet him someday and she asked Shelby when he would be on campus.
For some reason, Shelby hesitated answering Cass about her brother coming to visit.
“He’s really busy, Cass. I don’t think he has a lot of time to drop everything he’s doing all the time and come here to visit me.”
“Even on the weekends?”
“Yeah, especially then.” Shelby looked away as she answered.
“Shel, what aren’t you telling me? Remember we agreed not to hide things from each other. Our rules still apply.”
“Eric is a bit of an activist for the cyber-human community.”
“Okay, so?” Cass asked.
“I haven’t told him about your family and where you come from. He’s super-focused right now on the Sapiens movement.”
Cass paused. She’d never mentioned that before.
“Focused how?”
“Well, he’s convinced he’s uncovered evidence of a Sapiens First cell in the city.”
Cass laughed. “Sapiens First is a myth perpetrated by people opposed to the movement. There is no secret terrorist arm of the Sapiens Movement.”
“And that’s why I haven’t invited Eric to come meet you. I don’t want the two of you getting into an argument.”
“I wouldn’t start a fight with him. He’s your brother, Shelby.”
“For now, the two of you should hold off on meeting each other, alright?”
Cass nodded and let it drop. It wasn’t worth arguing about. Shelby was the only friend Cass had at school. She missed all her friends from high school. Most of them enrolled at the nearest Sapiens higher education program and she’d seen some messages from a few of them that indicated they were having a great time away at school.
For Cass, that wasn’t the case. She had worked things out with Shelby and the two of them grew closer as the weeks passed by.
Shelby always asked Cass to accompany her when she went out to do things with other friends from school. Cass refused, citing her schoolwork or the need to call her parents. Shelby surprised her on more than one occasion when she opted to cancel her plans and hang out in the room with her, sharing funny stories about the various people she knew around campus. Cass came to relish the times her roommate stuck around to spend with her.
Other than Shelby, though, Cass found it hard to make friends with the other students around her. She feared they’d hold her Sapiens background against her, so she avoided sharing any details about herself. That caused others to pull away from her and gravitate towards those who were more outgoing. It wasn’t that they didn’t like her, it was worse. They stopped noticing her altogether.
Cass got over the lack of a social life by staying focused on her studies instead, as her attempts to make friends didn’t pan out. As she dug into her own school work more and more, Cass noticed right away how Shelby didn’t seem to spend as much time on it as she did. She studied in a different way than Cass did.
It took Cass a while to realize it had to do with her cerebral implant that made the difference. While Cass poured over the carefully typed notes in her tablet, Shelby would lean back in the chair at her desk or on her bed and close her eyes.
At first, Cass thought her roommate was sleeping all the time. Shelby laughed when Cass asked her about the constant napping.
“Do you have to sleep a lot more because of the implant? You’re always napping while I’m here studying.”
“No, silly, I’m studying just like you. My implant connects to the university’s auto recordings of all the class lectures. They’re indexed and transcribed so I can jump right to the parts I need to review without having to listen to the whole thing. It’s super-efficient.”
Cass wondered what it must be like to be able to review things that way. As she pondered it, though, the thought sent a shiver down her spine. Studying that way let the machines and AI into Shelby’s head. It scared Cass to even think about being connected and exposed to the whole world via the Mantle that way.
Shelby’s study regimen was so different and took so much less time, she spent much more time out socializing than Cass did. Over the next few weeks, Cass became more and more isolated and lonely.
The only break came when she went home for the weekend for Elena’s birthday. It only served to compound her loneliness. Her mother talked the whole time about all the updates she got from the other enclave mothers about Cass’s friends who were all away at college together.
She returned to school from that weekend even more depressed. Shelby wasn’t there and Cass didn’t even bother to turn the lights on when she came in the room. She dropped her backpack on the floor and flopped down on the bed, staring at the ceiling while she lay there in the dark.
Shelby returned, bubbling with energy as usual, entering the room and flicking the lights on while chatting over her implant’s comm interface with one of her friends. “…Yeah, I just need to grab a sweater. It’s going to be chilly tonight. I’ll be right there and we can leave.” She paused for a few seconds and then said, “Great! See you soon.”
She turned and spotted Cass on the bed. “Oh, sorry, Cassie. I didn’t know you were back already. Were you sleeping?”
“No, not really. Just thinking.”
“In a dark room? Did everything go all right on your trip home? You were at your sister’s birthday, right?
“Yes, it was fine,” she said as she sat up. “Elena got some nice stuff.”
“Well, something is wrong.” Shelby sat on the end of Cass’s bed. She reached out with one hand and placed it on her roommate’s shoulder. “What happened that put you in a funk?”
“I guess it was my mother. She kept going on about all my old high school friends and how much fun they’re having at school. Most of them went off to the same place together. After hearing her go on about all the things she’s heard about them from their par
ents, I feel so disconnected to everything that used to be big parts of my life.”
Shelby smiled and nodded as she listened to Cass share what was bothering her. Cass noticed right away how much better she felt just talking to Shelby about it. She was always a good listener.
“I’m sorry, Shel. I feel like I’m always dropping my sad, depressing problems on you.”
“I don’t mind. I tell you when stuff is wrong, too. We’re here for each other. That’s what friends are for.”
Cass didn’t say anything. She shrugged and stared at the floor by her bed.
“You know what?” Shelby said. “We need to get you out of here. Let’s go grab something at the Special Grind cafe off campus. It’ll be good to get out in public around people for a while.”
“I thought you had plans already tonight. I heard you talking about it when you came in.”
“That? Oh, that was nothing major. I’ll tell them you got home early and we are heading out to grab something to eat together. They’ll understand. It’s just Lisa and a few other people from one of my classes.”
“You talk about Lisa a lot. Is she cute?”
“Yeah, you might say that. It doesn’t matter, though, because I’m here with you, now.”
Shelby stood up and grabbed Cass’s coat from the floor by her back pack. She tossed the coat on the bed. “Come on. We’ll have fun. We can try and guess what weird jobs people have as they come in to the cafe. That’s always fun.”
Cass smiled. They’d played that game before. It always ended up with the two of them giggling in hysterics as they each tried to come up with the more outrageous profession. She stood up and put on her coat.
“Good,” Shelby said. “You feel better already, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” Cass admitted. “It’s annoying how good you are at that.”
“At what?”
“Making me feel better. How come you’re so good at that?”
“I am a psych major. It’s what I want to do. I’ve always been good at helping people around me. My mother says it’s my calling.”
“I think she’s right,” Cass said as she headed to the door behind Shelby. “Hey, Shel.”