Jinxed

by Amy McCulloch

  There’s a huge cheer as Jupiter’s percentage is displayed: 98%. ‘Well, not quite 100, but it looks to me that everything is in order with your baku, Ashley. I don’t know how your team did it, but you appear to have pulled off a miracle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a comeback quite like it.’ He turns so that he is facing the school. ‘After the first round of Baku Battles, the top two teams – Gemma and Tobias – split the round points, giving them fifty each. The next battle will take place the first week of November. Be ready, everyone. Now, get to class.’

  As if timed to perfection, the bell rings, signalling the official start of the day. Jinx threads through the crowd in front of me, so I have no choice but to follow. As I approach, I catch the tail end of Mr Baird’s conversation with Tobias. ‘Maybe when all this is over, you can give us a masterclass of just how you did it, Tobias? I’m very intrigued how you managed to fix that baku. In all honesty, I’m not sure that I could have done it myself – not in a single night – and not with the resources you have access to.’

  Tobias catches sight of me just over Mr Baird’s shoulder, and – to the delight of the butterflies in my stomach – he winks at me. ‘I might just have found a secret weapon, sir.’ I feel like I might burst into flames on the spot – at any rate, I feel my face burning bright red. I duck my head so that my fringe falls over my face, hiding it. Then I think to myself: no. I don’t need to hide. We just spent all night working together. This is an inside joke. I have nothing to be ashamed off. I raise my chin, shaking my fringe out of my eyes . . . and I wink back. Tobias flashes me a white-toothed grin, then turns back to Mr Baird. ‘But you won’t mind if I keep it to myself until the end of term?’

  Mr Baird chuckles. ‘Not at all.’

  Behind them, I catch sight of Carter. He’s staring at me intently, his boar’s ears pricked forward – exactly in the direction of where Tobias and Mr Baird had been talking. I turn away immediately. Did he catch my wink to Tobias? Did he understand what it meant? Surely not. If I keep on walking, maybe nothing will have changed . . .

  The team gathers around Ashley and Jupiter. Tobias looks visibly relieved, and it’s nice to see a genuine smile on his face instead of the normal frown. Instantly he seems more relaxed. Happier.

  ‘We should do something to celebrate, don’t you think?’ he says. ‘How about BakuBeats tomorrow night?’

  ‘Yes!’ says Kai. ‘I kicked your ass at that last year.’

  ‘I’m in!’ says River.

  ‘Me too,’ says Ashley.

  My heart leaps with excitement. I’ve always wanted to go to BakuBeats. It’s a new Moncha-owned attraction that’s opened up – you bring your baku to a giant converted warehouse with dozens of soundproof, clear-plastic bubbles filled with different instruments. It’s a blend of karaoke and pretending to be your own rock band while your baku helps you not to sound terrible, and bright lights sync along with the music. It sounds ace – and expensive – and the bubbles have been booked up for months so I never thought I’d get a chance to go.

  I hesitate. ‘My treat,’ Tobias says, bumping me on the shoulder.

  ‘I’ll be there!’ I say, with a relieved grin.

  ‘Let’s meet there at seven.’

  ‘I’d better be getting to class,’ says Ashley. ‘Don’t want to risk a detention.’

  ‘Me too – I have been falling way behind in History class,’ I say.

  Tobias’s serious face returns. ‘Good plan. Let’s all go. See you guys tomorrow.’

  As I leave the gym, Jinx’s paw lights up.

  >>Got an incoming message from Tobias Washington. Want to read it now?

  My throat instantly goes dry as I wonder what I’ve done wrong. Um . . . yes!

  I stand outside the classroom door as I wait for the message to appear on Jinx’s back. When it does, my jaw drops.

  TOBIAS: Hey Lacey, meant to say – I have something for you to thank you for letting us use your place yesterday. Can you meet me at my house tomorrow before BakuBeats? I’ll ping you the address.

  My heartbeat hammering in my ears, I compose a quick reply.

  LACEY: Yeah should work.

  TOBIAS: Great, see you there at five?

  LACEY: Sure

  The address comes through. I can’t believe it. Tobias lives on Companioneers Crescent. I’m about to see what my dream life looks like, up close and personal.

  >>And maybe get up close and personal with a certain resident?

  ‘Jinx!’ I say out loud, a blush rising in my cheeks. I grimace at him. I forgot he’s constantly monitoring me – not just my heart rate but the quickness of my breathing, my internal body temperature – so he can see exactly what looking at Tobias does to me.

  >>I’ve composed a message to Zora Layeni to send when we are outside the restricted communication zone. Want to read it?

  I frown. A message to Zora . . . why?

  But then I gasp. I don’t need him to answer that question. It’s just hit me. Tomorrow is Saturday: the day I was supposed to be hanging out with Zora. I’m going to have to disappoint her all over again.

  I am officially the worst friend in the world.

  THANKFULLY, AFTER FINDING OUT THAT the reason I was ditching out on our Outerlands streaming session was because of an invite from Tobias Washington, Zora is excited for me, not mad. She definitely approves of Tobias, especially after I explained to her about the mix-up on the bridge. It’s much easier to hold a grudge against Carter than Tobias (whose outrageous good looks probably helped to change Zora’s mind).

  ‘You do know this is a date, right?’ she says. She’s lying on her stomach on my bed, her legs kicked up in the air, her chin propped up in her hands. Linus plays us a ‘Getting Ready’ dance mix – his speakers surprisingly loud and clear for such a little baku.

  ‘It’s not a date, it’s a team outing.’ I run a brush through my unruly dark hair, trying to shape it into something remotely resembling a cool hairstyle. This is where having a beetle baku might have come in handy – I could’ve downloaded a tutorial from the internet and run a program for the beetle to do my hair for me. Jinx is too big for that – but besides, he wouldn’t deign to do something as mundane as my hair in the first place.

  ‘But you’re going to his house first.’

  ‘Well, yes. But that’s because he wants to give me something.’

  Zora waggles her eyebrows and I throw my hairbrush at her.

  ‘Honestly, he doesn’t have any interest in me that way.’

  ‘And how do you know that?’

  I shrug. I pull down a denim shirt from a hanger inside my closet and throw it on over a white vest.

  ‘A super cool level 3 baku, a place at the fancy Academy, a date with a hot guy, an evening at BakuBeats . . . you really are living the dream, aren’t you, Lace?’ Her voice sounds wistful, but she smiles at me. ‘I’m really happy for you.’

  I shuffle awkwardly in my socks. It all feels too good to be true.

  ‘Oh, you might not want this any more but I’ve been meaning to give it back to you . . . we just haven’t seen each other.’ Zora puts my old beetle baku on the desk in my room. I’d forgotten that I’d given it to her. ‘I just added a couple of custom apps and tweaked some things as a thank you for Linus. No big deal. Maybe you can sell it to earn some extra cash?’

  ‘Thanks,’ I say.

  ‘Don’t wear that shirt,’ Zora says. ‘Wear the other one – with the little cats on it. And roll up the sleeves. Much more on brand.’ Then she grins. ‘Don’t worry. You’re going to be great.’

  I take her advice, switching my shirts and taking one last look in the mirror, before letting out a deep breath. ‘I hope so.’

  * * *

  I can’t believe I’m about to visit the home of Tobias Washington.

  Just stepping on to Companioneers Crescent is as incredible as I imagined it. As someone who’s grown up living the vertical condo life, seeing the oversized mansions lined up in a row makes me feel overawed
.

  This is a part of Toronto that hasn’t changed in fifty years – whereas most of the city has grown up, a concrete and glass jungle maze of high rise condominiums and office blocks – this is a preserved pocket of old-fashioned suburbia – big detached homes, with grand design features like Romanesque columns and perfectly manicured hedges, with driverless cars parked on paved, circular, heated driveways. There are even real garages here, like the ones from my tech history books. I’m envious.

  Tobias’s home is one of the biggest on the block. The Moncha logo is embossed above the front door, but it’s slightly modified – with a cluster of stars in the corner. I stare at it as I wait for the entry camera to approve Jinx for entry.

  The door clicks open, and Tobias is standing in the hallway. My breath catches, and my feet feel frozen on the step.

  I must have faltered for a second longer than is normal, because a small frown creeps on to Tobias’s face. ‘Are you coming in?’

  Jinx gives me a tiny electric shock that makes me jump – and gets me moving.

  Yet stepping into the house itself does nothing to alleviate my anxiety. It’s the grandest home I’ve ever been in, palatial in size compared to my condo. In fact, I’m pretty sure our ‘open plan’ kitchen and living room would fit inside their entrance hall. Or when it’s this big, does it get called an atrium, like at the Academy?

  There’s a wide staircase that spirals up to the second floor and a blown-glass chandelier hangs down from the ceiling. I can barely fathom living in a home with a second floor and I’m dying with curiosity to see what the upstairs is like, but Tobias leads me past that and into their kitchen. The hallway is wallpapered with photographs and videos of Tobias’s family: his parents, his brother, Nathan, and him. I can’t help myself – I stop in front of one of the videos. I see a different Tobias to the one that I’ve come to know. He’s standing in the background of the shot, while his brother – equally handsome, if not slightly more so in a conventional sense, takes centre-stage shooting hoops. Yet there’s something harder about his brother, a glint in his eye, an air of arrogance that comes across even in the way he celebrates with an exaggerated fist pump, and throws the ball back to his brother just a little too hard.

  Tobias comes up and stands next to me, staring at the video. ‘You know how some families get kind of crazy about sports? They push their kids to train harder, yell at coaches to make sure they get a spot on the first team, line up scouts and judge performance by the number of trophies on the shelf? Well, that’s my family, but with science. Oh, and basketball.’

  ‘Woah,’ I say.

  ‘We actually have an inter-family leaderboard, if you can believe it,’ he says, with a grin that seems half-grimace.

  ‘What’s that like?’

  He shrugs. ‘Just means I have to work extra hard to take over the number one spot.’

  I can’t imagine what it must be like to grow up with that kind of family pressure. I’ve only ever placed it on myself – I know that Mom would never force me to achieve, or reach any kind of goals that weren’t my own.

  ‘Come on, I’d better give this thing to you and then we can get going to BakuBeats.’

  I follow Tobias through to the kitchen, which almost takes my breath away. The counters are a polished white granite, which sparkles as it catches the light streaming in from the floor-to-ceiling bifold doors that lead to the enormous backyard. It would be my mom’s dream come true to have a kitchen like this.

  ‘Here you go,’ he says. On the counter is a circle of silver. It looks like a bracelet of some sort.

  I don’t want to sound ungrateful, especially as he’s looking at me so expectantly. I pick it up and hold it delicately between my fingers. ‘It’s beautiful but . . . uh . . . what is it?’ I ask.

  Tobias laughs. ‘It’s a boost collar. Top of the line, straight from Moncha Corp. Your baku wears it around its neck and it enhances some of its functions – like speed and accuracy on the battlefield. I was going to give it to Ashley if she won the battle, but seeing as you were the one responsible for fixing up Jupiter . . . it’s for you.’

  ‘Wow, this is . . . amazing.’

  ‘Put it on your baku!’

  For a second, I falter. I don’t know how Jinx will respond to having an . . . accessory.

  Jinx, do you want to wear this? I ask.

  He saunters over to it and sniffs. >>I guess.

  If you hate it, we can take it off . . . but not until we get home.

  I hook the collar around his neck. The lights on the edge of his fur light up, and he buzzes twice.

  >>I like it! he says, and he sounds genuinely pleased.

  I look up at Tobias and beam.

  ‘He says he likes it.’ Immediately I realize my mistake.

  Tobias falters for a second, then laughs. ‘You seem to really understand each other!’

  I laugh too, slightly overloud, as if I’d made a really funny joke instead of almost letting slip about Jinx’s unusual communication style.

  ‘Hang on, let me get my coat and then we can get the car down to BakuBeats,’ he says, shaking his head at me and chuckling.

  I’m sad to leave his amazing house, but it makes me all the more determined to move Mom and me into one of our own one day. The dream is so close, I can almost taste it.

  We settle into the self-driving car, which Tobias programs to take us to BakuBeats. The interior is the softest leather I’ve ever sat on, and I barely feel a thing as the engine starts.

  There’s even a special basket in front for bakus to sit in, and Jinx immediately curls up inside.

  >>Oh this is nice. Very nice.

  What is it? I ask.

  >>They’ve made this basket out of microfibres that if I just . . . he wriggles around in the basket. He’s rubbing himself up against it, as if it’s giving him pleasure. >> Ah, That’s it. I’ll sparkle like new by the time I get out of this.

  I grin. Moncha knows how to keep the bakus happy even while travelling in a moving vehicle.

  Our destination is not far from Moncha HQ. ‘I can’t wait to visit the headquarters for the final battle!’ I say.

  He grins. ‘You’ll love it. Although I’m pretty excited to be the team captain this year.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, the captains get a tour of the headquarters before the battle – probably to give us added incentive by reminding us of the summer internship – as if we needed reminding!’

  ‘So teammates don’t get to come on the tour?’

  ‘ ’fraid not. Captains only. But you’ll get your chance – I have no doubt you’ll be a team captain one day.’

  His praise makes me blush.

  There’s something else I’ve been dying to ask him. I speak the words before I lose my nerve. ‘So . . . what’s the deal with you and Carter?’ I ask.

  He cocks an eyebrow. ‘I could ask you the same thing.’

  ‘You first.’ I grin.

  Tobias flashes me a quick smile, before turning serious. ‘Carter Smith . . .’ he gestures over to the Moncha logo embossed into the leather – the same symbol I saw on their front door – with the added stars. ‘My father is one of the top coders in Eric Smith’s personal department at Moncha: Team Happiness is what they call themselves. Dad said specifically for me to “take Carter Smith under your wing, son”.’ Tobias deepens his voice and puffs out his chest, emulating his father. Then he deflates, and catches my eye. His eyes search my face, and he looks almost – guilty. ‘It’s a favour to his boss or something. I mean, I’ve known Carter for years – he’s always been annoying as hell but I used to pity him. I wouldn’t want Eric Smith as a father. But I should tell you something. And before I say this – you have to know, I’m really glad about the way things have worked out.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well . . . you weren’t supposed to be on my team.’

  I frown. ‘Huh?’

  ‘I didn’t pick you. Gemma did. We think someth
ing was switched in the announcements. I mean . . . she made a good choice. Your stats were off the charts – your grades from your old school were top notch – you clearly know your way around a lab, your connection with your baku is super strong. Like, really strong. But my father had made it clear to me that having Carter on my team was the only option. Kai also thought it was a done deal – he thought we’d be guaranteed winners because we’d have another high level baku on the team. That’s why he was a bit . . . hard on you in the beginning.’

  ‘A bit?’

  Tobias barks a laugh. ‘Well, okay, a lot. And, with your grades and your stats, you’re a bit intimidating, you know?’

  ‘Me?’ Emotions swirl in my stomach. Just like my Profectus acceptance, getting on to Tobias’s team is just another thing that was sort of . . . a fluke.

  >>Who cares if it was a fluke, as long as it happened?

  Not helpful. I frown at Jinx.

  ‘Hey, I’m glad you’re on my team now.’ His hand brushes the bare skin on my arm, where I’ve rolled my shirt sleeves up. Once again I feel the electricity of being with him, near him, but I’m sure he doesn’t feel the same way about me.

  We inhabit totally different worlds. He’s seen the basement where I do my work – it’s nothing compared to the opulence he’s used to.

  ‘So, what’s your deal with Carter?’ he asks.

  I shrug. ‘We’ve been academic rivals since sixth grade. I beat him in a couple of regional science competitions . . .’

  ‘Not a surprise.’

  ‘And then I got a higher mark than him in some exams. He didn’t like it. But I thought it was a bit of healthy competition . . . until the Profectus thing.’

  Now it’s Tobias’s turn to look sceptical. ‘Feels like a bit more than academic competition to me.’

  ‘Well, my dad might have something to do with it too.’

  ‘Huh? What do you mean?’

  I can’t look at him any longer, so I turn my attention to Jinx, who is crawling out of the basket and leaning his paws against the door frame, so he can stare out of the window. ‘My dad was one of Monica’s original companioneers.’