“David?” you hear Jimmy talking from behind you. “What’s that?”
You freeze, as his voice rubs very uncomfortably on the nape of your neck – the very place where the slit is. Unlike your mother, you haven’t sealed yourself in your replacement; any close examination will reveal it. You fear Jimmy has noticed it and will question you about it.
Quentin, however, has another idea. I bet he must be asking about all the windows you’ve got open.
You move aside, stunned. “Whaddya mean by ‘that’?”
“All that stuff you’ve got open in that computer?” He gasps. “You’re hacking!?”
“Shut up!” You’re at a loss for words, so you resort to consult Quentin for ideas. What do I tell him? I barely know how to turn a computer on!
You need to restart, so tell him that someone must’ve hacked your computer and you’re trying to restart it to see if it--
That’s enough, you tell Quentin’s voice. “You think I’d know? I think someone hacked me instead.”
“Can’t be Mr. Hudson.” (He’s talking about one of the Computing teachers, who also keeps an eye on the computers at the library.) “He probably thinks the smartphone is a Star Trek gimmick.”
“He probably still knows how to program using punch-cards.” (Wait, what the heck?) Quentin, what was that?
I thought you wanted to sound smart.
“Yeah, whatever. Still – better do something before he notices.”
“I was going to!” You ask the computer to restart, then turn towards him. “What’re you doing here?”
“I skipped class. It was boring.”
“If Missus Wilson figures it out--”
“Unless you tell her,” he threatens you. (But he can’t say a thing if Quentin happens to tell her, though. Or a girl.) “Besides, I wanted to figure out ideas on how to prank the computers, so I needed to check them.”
“And what’s your plan?” you mock him. “Download some nude girls’ pics and replace the desktop background with it?”
He cocks his head, grinning. “That sounds cool.”
That’s child’s play, Quentin tells you. If it were me, I’d--
I’m trying not to give him ideas! you respond before chastising him. “Dude, that’s gonna be so obvious, everyone’s gonna know it’s you.”
“Exactly! That’s the point!”
“And then they’re gonna call your mom. Is that what you want?”
That ruins his mood. “Yeah, true. I could always try something else.”
Hey, Quentin asks, audibly bothered. He’s just trying to pull a harmless prank. Why so harsh?
Because he should be using that big brain of his for something better!
You want to help your friend? Quentin asks you, which surprises you. There are a lot of online pranksters that use their know-how to prank scammers.
“Huh...” You notice Jimmy’s giving you a queer look. “Oh, it’s just that I got a really cool idea and it was so amazing that I didn’t notice I said a thing.”
“Dude, everyone’s been saying you’ve been acting odd.”
Try spending the day with another mind inside of you, you think to yourself.
I could say the same , Quentin replies. Especially one that’s not into fun despite being at the best time in life to do so.
“Just ignore that, alright? You know all these streamers that love to prank scammers? How ‘bout you try that instead?”
“I dunno...”
“Think of it as your vocation. You’ll still be pranking people, but only those who deserve them. And you could start by studying computers! Or engineering! Or... I dunno, something! You’re smart, Jimmy – you could use that big brain of yours for good.”
“S’not like I’ll be able to get into Computer Sciences on MTSU,” he tells you.
Beasley CC has some computer classes, Quentin tells you, and you wonder why you didn’t think of it before. Alton Beasley Community College is where your brother Nick and his sister Heather study, a cheaper and more accessible option for those who aren’t interested in a degree. He could get the basics and then learn the stuff they don’t teach you in college on his own.
“You could take classes where your sister studies – either computers or some workshops, like Nick does.”
“I’ve thought of it, but pranking won’t be fun anymore. I mean, I’ll have to pay bills and stuff.”
I could always teach you guys how to mine some crypto coins, Quentin tells you.
“I can always back you up,” you tell him. “But at least you’ll be putting your smarts to good use. Maybe once you get good enough, you could become an Internet celeb.”
“You think so?” He snorts. “Cool. So, you’re gonna help me with that?”
You notice the computer rebooted, leading to a very outdated interface. “Well, not with this computer. Lemme see if I can work with it.”
“Yeah. I’m gonna download the nudes in case I choose to go on with that prank.”
“You’re gonna get caught,” you tell him.
“Not with this,” he says, showing you a flash drive. “If I download it directly to this, no one will--”
Any good admin will notice the browser history and figure out where it leads – if it doesn’t do IP blocking anyways.
“Mr. Hudson might not figure it out, but maybe Mr. Skolnick, Mr. Ehrman or Jonah will.” (That is the other Computing teacher, the librarian and the librarian’s aide, respectively. Jonah Pederson is the worst, as he’s more computer-savvy than the others and isn’t above doing extortion.) “Give me the drive.”
“Why?”
You obviously want it for your own stuff, but you figure you could improvise. “You’re gonna insist on it, so I might make it better.”
“What made you change your mind?”
“Remember you asked what I was doing here? Turns out, there’s a friend of Nick’s that’s teaching me how to do dark web browsing.” That lights up Jimmy’s eyes. “I was trying to download the browser here, but because I didn’t have anything to store it, he told me he could do something...” This’d be a good time for some technobabble, Quentin.
Say it’s making a subpartition on the disk drive that’s invisible to the admins.
“--something about a subpartition on the disk drive. Since I don't know how, I had to connect him here, which is all that stuff you saw.” You scoot him off, looking around. “Now let me finish this before anyone else notices.”
“Alright, Mr. Hacker, alright! But don’t hold any other secrets from me, alright?”
“Yeah,” you lie, but sweeten it with a plan of your own. “Maybe I’ll bring him to your house one of these days.”
“Really?” You stare him away, but he speaks from the next booth. “Hey, does he play games?”
You’re deep into working with the BIOS, but you interrupt Quentin to ask. Hey. Do you play games?
You mean video games? You feel your fingers falter, but only briefly. Sure. What kind of stuff you play?
Anything. Fighting games, sports games, first-person shooters--
Yeah, I could play all that.
You know you won’t be the one playing those games, right? That silences him, but at least you got your answer.
“Yeah.”
“What’s his name, by the way?”
You grin. “Quentin.”
--
You’re inside Harknell’s at the strip mall leading outside Edgefield after a few bus stops. You recall when it was a Roddington’s - a very old English department store that closed its doors almost everywhere when you were still a kid – and then when it was reacquired. It’s not as big as Save-Mart, but it’s still large enough to lose yourself.
The advantage to Save-Mart, of course, is the prices – clothes at half price, used consoles at 30% discount, kitchen appliances at 40%, amongst others. They also sell new stuff – usually things like underwear, toothbrushes and single-use personal items – but they’re not as cheap, prompting you to make a pit stop at the bigger chain for some briefs.
You check Harknell’s selection of male clothes, prompting you to ask Quentin about his usual attire. I tend to wear whatever – polos because I needed to be presentable, but I could do T-shirts. Same with pants and jeans.
So, T-shirt and jeans?
Sure. Your hand trembles as you touch one, and as you grab it, you snicker at the design – a robot, with an egg-like head and pincers for arms. How about this one?
Uh. Sure. If you like it.
You feel cold scorn creeping on your neck. Dude, you don’t recognize this? This is the robot from Lost in Space!
The movie?
No! He screams in your mind, making you shudder. The series! You hear him grunt. Whatever. I want that one.
Let me check if it’s your size.
I don’t mind if it’s oversized, he tells you. Just... not comically oversized. Or too tight. You check the tag, and he hums. Cool. Just in my range.
Great. You check the price, making a quick calculation in your mind. Not a bad price; I could get six more for like 30.
We don’t need that many. That shirt and one pair of jeans is enough.
Always plan ahead, my mom says. How about 5 shirts and two pairs of jeans? That should give us more than enough for the flash drive.
You hear him snort. Flash drives are usually cheap. I bet you could find a one gig drive for like 20 online. And we only need half that size.
We only need the drive and the clothes, you tell him. You said--
Think big, man. Hard disk drives are cheap. I could make it work externally, and you’ll end up with over 300 times the size for stuff only you can access!
As you grab a pair of jeans, you notice the employee leaves momentarily. Your plan was to check the new clothes as Quentin, then pay as yourself and switch elsewhere, but you could kill two birds with one stone and just make the switch here.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
