“Could be a dummy profile,” Rory finished. “Or he’s purposely covering that tracking stuff up, and why do that unless you’ve got something to cover up?”
Behind me there was a loud crash. I squeaked in surprise—actually squeaked—and jerked around. Brittany Mulligan must have stood up too quickly and knocked her chair over.
“What?” she asked when she caught me staring. “Afraid Ellie was coming to get you?”
And although I desperately wanted to say, No, I just saw your shirt-and-pants combination, I shook my head. When I glanced at my Doc again, Rory was peering into the FaceAlert screen.
“Are you actually in your school’s cafeteria right now? Kyle, do a wide-angle reverse view. Are you, like, surrounded by kids in space-agey uniforms? Is everyone eating adorable box lunches? Are owls delivering your homework assignments?”
He snuck a finger beneath his glasses to rub his eyes, as if to better see the private school wonders previously denied him.
“Rory, it’s a cafeteria. Not an anime spaceship for wizards.”
“Feed a programmer’s offline experience points and reverse angle already.”
I sighed. “Fine, there’s someone here I want you to meet anyway. Rory, computer hacker extraordinaire, allow me to introduce Sharma, computer hacker extraordinaire.”
Sharma shook her head, whispering, “Don’t you dare,” even as she took her hair down from the pencil it was twisted up in, so when the Doc camera landed on her, glossy black hair was swishing across her shoulders.
“Whoa,” Rory said.
Sharma blushed and flapped her hand halfway between a greeting and a go away.
“Sharma, meet Rory. He dropped out of college. What does ‘ew’ mean, Mac? What did Sharma see on your CB page?”
Mac fully turned toward me so I could see just how far back on his neck that thing went. His nah-it-isn’t-a-hickey was the size of Greenland.
“Oh my gosh. That’s hideous.”
“What’s the big deal?” Mac asked. “I thought you liked being proven right.”
Then he pushed back his chair and left. If Fawn or Audra were here, I would have been wrapped in a hug right now, but Sharma just studied me quietly.
“Sorry,” she said. “Awkward.”
When I turned my Doc around again, Rory was scowling. A txt from him hung over his FaceAlert screen.
rory (cb techie) Hey. That whole dropping-out-of-college line only sounds good when I deliver it. It also means I’m only nineteen. Please turn the Doc around again?
“Just find out what you can about normal boy, okay?” I forced a smile. “Oh, and Rory? Sharma wrote a program that makes Universal Translate recognize pig latin.”
Rory clutched his chest and collapsed on his desk.
“Not fair,” he murmured as I hit disconnect.
Rory’s next FaceAlert came while I was in study hall. Before I accepted, I sent invites to Fawn and Sharma to silent conference the call. Two tiny FaceAlert windows immediately popped up on my screen. Now they could see and hear everything that I could and I wouldn’t have to try and repeat any of this later. I blew them kisses, then tapped accept.
“Am I on speaker or are you plugged in?” Rory immediately asked.
“Plugged in,” I murmured. “Study hall.”
“Okay, gotcha. You can’t talk. Is your foxy friend there?”
“Not the one you like.”
I reversed my screen so he could see Fawn. She was sitting next to me, smiling at her Doc. When she noticed herself on my FaceAlert window, she angled her own Doc away so we couldn’t see her screen, probably so Rory wouldn’t know she was silent conferenced in.
Rory shrugged. “Not my type.”
Gorgeous isn’t your type? I wanted to ask, but the study hall monitor was already looking at me, so I just shook my head in exasperation.
“So, it’s definitely normal boy,” Rory continued. “I counted five firewalls around his profile. Or, you know, his dummy profile. Plus, get this, all the travel pics in his cache? They’re all stock photos. He bought them off this site BeenThereDoneThat.com.”
moi Wait. You’re serious. You found him?
Rory laughed. “Yeah, I told you we would. I mean, if it is a ‘him.’”
Rory actually found him. Which meant this was all almost over. I felt the tingly rush of adrenaline of winning a debate, except this prize was so much bigger. I’d just won my life back. Fawn reached across the aisle and gripped my hand.
“And hey, be careful. Nobody puts up this many firewalls without having something major to hide or without being serious about protecting it.”
Who of the half dozen people who hated me would go through this much effort to make a fake profile? Intentional or not, there had to be a clue, either in the awful movies or music they made the dummy profile like or in the uber-WASP-y clothing sites they made him shop at. The fake boy’s avatar profile pic actually reminded me a little of Cobi Watkins. I couldn’t help thinking that this entire account reflected the exact kind of have-it-all-prepster that Audra—or Jessie, for that matter—would hate.
moi You’re telling me this person’s dangerous?
“No. I’m dangerous. This kid’s a guppy who’s about to get caught and doesn’t even know it.”
moi Do you find these lines on some kind of B-movie quote site?
“Nope.” He grinned. “One hundred percent Rory’s original recipe.”
Damn.
moi So what do we do?
“You let me do a little more digging and then we talk in a few and come up with a game plan. Also, wait, don’t disconnect. Can you put in a good word for me with your foxy friend?”
moi Sharma?
“She’s not like sixteen, is she? You’re all seniors, right? No, don’t tell me. But maybe tell her I’d be so good to her, it would crash her system. No, don’t say that. Make something up, but make sure it sounds nerdy so I could have actually said it. But not that nerdy! Like suave nerdy. Just think about it. But make it clear I’d kill to meet her without sounding desperate.”
moi I got it, Rory. I’ll come up with something.
“Don’t make me sound too desperate,” he was saying as I hit disconnect.
Rory clicked off FaceAlert. Sharma and Fawn’s faces became 50 percent larger on my screen. I tried not to think about how one face was noticeably missing. Luckily, watching Sharma squirm made up for this fact.
“One word,” Sharma said, “and I’ll freeze you out of your online memberships for life.”