Too Many Rules

by G. L. Snodgrass

  "Interesting Ms. Martin, why," The teacher said from the front of the room.

  "Yes, Why?" Bri said from the desk next to mine. Her eyebrows had risen to two points in bewilderment.

  My stomach turned over in worry. I didn't want to make Ryan's life miserable and for some reason, I was worried about people getting the wrong impression. Besides, if I was going to turn him into something socially acceptable I only had a few short weeks.

  Shrugging my shoulders I said. "Because I think he's going to be the next Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg."

  "Yeh, right." Suzy Rawlings said with a laugh.

  "God, I hope not," Eric said. "I spent fifth-grade shooting spitballs at him in Miss Ring's class."

  "No, she's right.” Amy Johnson chirped in from the back. “Ryan's a genius when it comes to computers. He should be interviewed."

  Bri was looking at me funny. As if I'd lost my mind, and she was trying to decide whether to help me find it or not.

  "Okay, we'll add Ryan Hardy to the list. Anyone else?"

  Bri didn't ask any questions as we left the class, but I know her curiosity was pegged to the max. I silently thanked the stars for keeping her quiet. I wasn't really ready to talk about it.

  .o0o.

  Mark was fighting with his locker door when I came up behind him. "Where's Ryan this time of day," I asked.

  He about jumped out of his skin as he twisted around to face me. A flash of worry crossed his eyes before he could pull it back under control. "Why?"

  "Jesus Mark, don't make this some big dramatic issue. I need to talk to him. That's all. Okay?"

  He studied me for a moment then his shoulders slumped in resignation. "He's in the computer lab. He's got it for both fifth and sixth period."

  Good, that wasn't far and I had stuff to do. I could hurry over and set something up for later. Mark looked at me as if I'd just taken away his favorite comic.

  "Why'd you tell me?" I asked.

  "Because he'd kill me if he ever found out I didn't"

  My eyebrows narrowed in confusion. Mark's statement didn't really make sense, but then that wasn't unusual for Mark.

  At the end of the west wing of our school was that bastion of nerd's ville known as the computer lab. It had long been the sanctified home of the nerds, outcasts and forgotten others. A place they could call their own.

  The jocks had the quad, the drama queens the school theater. The band kids hung out in the auditorium. Each group had their own special place and the computer lab was for the nerds.

  It had started out years ago as a typing class. I laughed to myself thinking about it. Imagine, they used to have classes to teach kids how to type. Nowadays most of us could type forty words a minute with our thumbs.

  Looking through the window in the door I scanned the room for Ryan. It was made up of long tables filled with all kinds of electronic equipment. Most of it in pieces. Groups of students, mostly boys, were gathered into small clusters working on things.

  I couldn't see Ryan anywhere. Had Mark sent me on a wild goose chase? There wasn't a teacher either. Wasn't there supposed to be a teacher here? Who was I going to give Mr. Sinclair's note too?

  I cracked the door and stuck my head in. Several of the boys looked up, their mouths dropping open when they saw me. You'd think they'd never seen a girl before. Ignoring them, I stepped into the classroom.

  Ryan was at the back surrounded by five or six younger boys, freshmen. One girl stood with them, ponytail, black glasses. She was looking up at him as if he was telling them the secrets of the universe.

  Brackets inside parentheses with words and symbols all mixed up together. It looked like an algebra book had mated with a thesaurus.

  I held back and watched him for a moment. He towered over his audience. His hair was mussed up and he had black marks on his hands from the marker. He kept fiddling with the marker top. Putting it on then pulling it off. Twiddling it in his hands.

  The younger students seemed to be hanging on every word. No teacher could have held a class with more devotion. He pointed to a young boy, Jenny Snow's younger brother Jack, and asked him a question. Jack hesitated for a moment then gave him an answer in some language I didn't understand. Ryan smiled, "yes, good," he said as he added it to the board.

  Jack's face lit up like a neon sign. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy answering a question and getting it right. This was important to him, I realized. Ryan's simple praise had made this boy's day.

  My mind flashed to a scene of Jarett taunting a freshman football player. Hazing him really. He'd tripped him on purpose. Then, when the boy had tried to get up, he'd knocked him over again and laughed his head off.

  What had I ever seen in the jerk I wondered as a sense of shame washed through me.

  Ryan saw me waiting for him. He froze in mid-sentence, our eyes locking for a moment. A warm sensation grew inside if me. It was nice seeing him again. We traveled in such different worlds that our paths never crossed. The lunch room the other day had been our only conversation and that hadn't been exactly all that smooth.

  Handing the marker to Jack, he left the group and walked towards me, frowning all the way. I wondered what was it about my presence that made him upset.

  "Um ... what are you doing here?" he asked.

  I was taken aback by his abruptness. It took me a moment to recover. "Hello Ryan, it's nice to see you again too," I answered and realized it sounded a little snotty, even for me.

  His shoulders relaxed and a faint smile creased his lips. I think he realized how rude he'd sounded.

  "Hi Hailey, sorry, you surprised me. What's up?"

  Now it was my time to relax. Surprises, he didn't like them. Something to remember. I hesitated for a moment. Knowing how much he despised bringing attention to himself. It was going to be hard to convince him to do the interview. I just knew it.

  "Um ... You know I'm on the paper, a reporter, right?"

  He nodded his head, a quizzical look in his eyes.

  "Well," I continued. "We've been assigned to do interviews for the next edition. Interview those students we think are going to have the biggest impact on the world in the future. That is. You know, after we graduate." Why was I rambling? "Anyway. I was hoping you would let me interview you."

  "Me, why me," he asked his eyebrows rising in confusion.

  "You know why, that whole Microsoft thing, state chess champion. Next Bill Gates. Come on, please." I hadn't planned on stooping to beg but if that's what it took. I desperately wanted to write this article. I wanted the kids in this school to see Ryan, the real Ryan.

  His face began to turn red and he stared down at his shoes for a moment. I was sure he was going to say no. Life would be so much easier for him if I just went away. It was written all over his face.

  Taking a deep breath he looked up and slowly nodded, "okay,"

  I slowly let out a long breath. "Great. I could come by your house today after school. I need to visit Nana and it’d be nice to see Amanda." Did I just invite myself over to Ryan Hardy's house? Not something I had really planned out.

  What would Bri say? I could just imagine her shaking her head and mumbling under her breath.

  "Um, sure, I guess," he said as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked extremely uncomfortable as if I'd just asked him to perform a violin solo in front of the entire school. All I was doing was coming over to his house to ask some questions for a newspaper article.

  Chapter Ten

  Ryan

  My stomach felt like it was coming apart inside. Rumbling and tumbling. I kept pacing in the kitchen waiting for Hailey to show up. We hadn't set a time. She could be here any moment or hours from now. I didn't know which would be worse.

  What did she want to know? I hated the idea of people knowing things about me. It was ammunition they could use. Why help them out?

  "Will you stop," Amanda snapped from the kitchen table where she was doing the school work mom had left for her. "Go downstairs, work o
n your computer stuff. I'll let you know when she gets here. I promise."

  I looked at my sister trying to register what she’d said. Yes, my lab. I should go to my lab. Maybe I could relax.

  Miracle of miracle, it worked. Within minutes, I was lost in other people's problems. I got buried in researching a path through a company's Intrusion Detection System. Trying to find a way through without being found out. I’d just discovered a promising possibility when I heard the door at the head of the stairs open.

  "Ryan, Hailey is here," Amanda yelled.

  I quickly closed out of what I was working on. Being sure to save the important parts. Turning I watched Hailey walk down the stairs. She'd changed clothes since school. Now she was wearing a light blue blouse, jeans, and tennis shoes. My stomach started falling apart again.

  She was gorgeous. The blouse matched her eyes. Flat over her stomach and not too tight across the chest, just the right amount of tight in fact. Her Jeans filled every curve, emphasizing her female shape. My heart skipped and my breath hitched. How does she do it? Always looks so perfect, so wonderful, so damn sexy it hurt.

  "Hey, Ryan. Is it okay if I come down?" she asked, hesitating on the stairs. As if I could have said no if I wanted to.

  "Um ... Sure. We can do it down here." My mind jumped to the alternative meaning of what that could have meant. I wanted to kick myself until I realized she hadn't seen my mistake. Take it easy Ryan, this is Hailey. You already know she's nice.

  Do. Not. Screw. This. Up. I told myself. Forcing my body to relax as I smiled at her.

  She stepped off the bottom stair and looked around the Bat Cave.

  "Wow," she said. "Did you really build all of this? Mark said you did it from spare parts and cast off equipment."

  "Yeah, I got some of it from EBay for pennies on the dollar. I used to haunt the recycling place and Goodwill too. You'd be surprised what people throw away." I watched her go from equipment rack to equipment rack. Examining each piece. My heart began to swell. She seemed genuinely impressed. Who would have ever thought that Hailey Martin would visit me in my mother's basement?

  "I read some of your articles," I said, wanting to shift the focus. "You're good. I like your writing. I especially like your reports on the dangers of concussions in High School sports. It was very well written." Now it was her turn to feel embarrassed. A very pretty blush settled onto her cheeks.

  "Thank you," she said with a small dip of her head. "Maybe we should get started."

  "Um ... Okay."

  She pulled another stool up to my workbench and took a small notebook and pen from her back pocket. Holding them up she said, "I hope you don't mind if I take notes."

  "Um no, of course not," I said as my stomach turned over once again. Would it ever settle down?

  "Fine, let's get started. How did you get into computers? What is it about them that you like so much?"

  After a moment, I started telling her about how I liked the fact that there was no gray area. The same thing meant the same thing every time. How they all came down to yes or no, on or off, ones and zeros.

  The absence of ambiguity is a wonderful thing."

  Hailey laughed and wrote in her notebook. Smiling she looked up and continued asking questions. She was good, very good. It was an hour into the interview and ten minutes into a lecture about computer security before I realized I was rambling.

  She was a phenomenal listener. A world champion. I'd forgotten that I was sharing my opinions and thoughts.

  She'd softly ask me a question, smile up at me and I'd melt. Trying hard to impress her. She'd pretend to be interested, occasionally jotting something in her notebook but mostly looking at me, nodding as if she agreed. A man could bare his soul in such a situation. It would happen to anyone.

  I halted in mid-sentence. This was way too much. I'm sure I'd bored her out of her mind.

  She smiled at me once again. "Okay, one final question. If you could do anything, what would it be?"

  I looked at those lushes lips and felt myself begin to lean forward. 'Kiss You' I almost said before I caught myself. She was talking about the computer world. What would I do with computers?

  Pulling myself back I thought about her questions. I had long ago had an idea but never really told anyone.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, "Everything a person does on an electronic device leaves a trace. That information is captured by companies and governments. Even ours. Every internet site you visit, every phone number you dial. When you purchase something on-line your size, color preference, style choice it's all stored in a thousand different places. Do you understand?"

  "Sure, everybody knows that."

  "Well, I believe that information should be yours to control. Not theirs. I don't think a company should know what movie I like, or what books I read, not unless I want them to know it. Information is power, it always has been and I want to find a way to take that power back."

  She was silent for a moment. "So you want to write a program that lets a person control the information about themselves."

  "It's either that or write a program where angry birds shoot cannons at castle walls," I said.

  She laughed. "Well if anyone could, you will."

  We stared at each other for a minute. My heart raced as I looked into her beautiful blue eyes. They were like a mesmerizing pool of deep water, pulling me in.

  Without thinking I said. "Do you want to go out sometime?"

  My heart stopped. What had I done? My God, I had just askeded Hailey Martin out on a date? Surely the universe was going to tip on its axis. I'd just asked her to betray her social network, her support group, and her friends all at once. A celeb dating a nerd would not be accepted.

  "What?" she asked, her eyebrows rising in confusion.

  "Um ... never mind. Forget ... "

  "No, No. You surprised me that's all." Her eyes narrowed in concern. "Um, sure, yes I guess. What did you have in mind?"

  My heart started beating again. I also realized there was a God after all. Not only hadn't she laughed in my face, but she said yes.

  Plans. She wanted to know what I had planned. I should have thought this through. Something like this demanded detailed planning.

  "Uh, A movie maybe. How about this Friday?" Wow, I sounded a lot smoother than I felt. I could confirm that my insides had finished dismantling themselves.

  She smiled and nodded. "Sure that sound's great. Let me know when and where."

  An awkward silence fell between us. She was probably kicking herself for saying yes, probably already trying to figure a way out.

  "I should probably be going. I need to type up my notes while the interview is still fresh. Thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it. I think it's going to make for a good article."

  Nodding like a drunken bobble head, I smiled. What was I supposed to say now? I'd already said way more than I had ever planned. Hailey Martin had said yes to going out with me. An unbreakable rule had just been shattered.

  .o0o.

  Following Hailey up the stairs has to rank up there as one of the greatest experiences in my long, but sad life. Her beautifully shaped rear end swayed back and forth in front of me as she climbed each step sending my heart into hyper drive.

  At the front door, she thanked me again, smiled, reminding me to let her know about Friday. All I could do was nod my head.

  I waited until she pulled away in her car before screaming "YES" at the top of my lungs and pumping my fists into the air.

  Amanda stood at the kitchen table smiling. "You're going to need different clothes. You can't wear your regular clothes," she said.

  "Huh, what's wrong with my clothes? And how do you know what I'm wearing anyway." I asked.

  "Let me guess, Jeans and a T-shirt. Am I right?"

  My little sister shook her head. Clothes, yeah I should probably wear something different.

  "Okay fashion guru, what should I wear for a date with Hailey Martin." I couldn't believe myself when I s
aid it like that.

  Amanda smiled and shook her head again. "I think something with a collar at least."

  Clothes, Car, what else did I need to do before Friday.

  .o0o.

  Hailey

  Face it, Hailey, I thought to myself as I turned over in bed for the tenth time. You've got a crush on Ryan Hardy. All the signs are there. My heart had raced when he asked me out. A surge of pure joy had flashed through me. I desperately wanted to know where we were going on Friday. Most of all I wondered what he thought about me.

  Had it been some throwaway line. Had he felt obligated because we'd been spending so much time together? What could he possibly see in someone like me?

  I mean the man was a certified genius. Sure he wasn't high in the social pecking order but that was only because it wasn't important to him.

  Oh crap, social pecking order. People were going to freak when they found out that I went to the movies with Ryan Hardy. I could hear it already. 'She's fallen so far so fast. All the way from Jarret McGee to Ryan Hardy.' Or 'A nerd, she's crazy, bat crap crazy.'

  I lay there hugging my pillow and parsed the ramifications. Weighing the pros and cons. I realized I was going to take a hit for this and I also realized I didn't really care. Maybe Ryan Hardy was rubbing off on me.

  He was so different. It was as if he was from a different country or something. He saw the world so differently. He treated the world with respect I realized. He does it without even trying. It was just who he was.

  Ryan Hardy, who would ever have thought.

  .o0o.

  The week seemed to drag. It felt like Friday would never get there. Ryan had approached me at my locker the very next morning and asked if six would be okay on Friday, we'd have time to grab something to eat at the mall before the movie started at seven thirty.

  Asked, not told, not instructed. Asked. It was nice to be treated with respect. I could get used to it.

  "Sure," I said, "That sounds great, I can't wait."

  "Okay, great. I'll pick you up at six then."

  He smiled and got a little red. I swear if there'd been dirt on the floor he'd have kicked at it.