Zara wanted to get ahead in school. She wanted the cute guy. She wanted to win the game. Trouble was, everybody else had expensive brain implants, augmented muscles, and those pretty tailored bodies. She had none of those things. Of course, she work...
When the class lined up for their morning game at the School of Axion that morning, they faced a sheer holographic cliff. They were to run straight up.
Zara stood next to Finn as they waited for the start. Xavier, Samara, and three other goons came and stood on each side of them. One of them, named Kabibe, squeezed next to Finn. To say that Kabibe was a large woman would be an understatement. She sported muscle augmentations on top of augmentations on top of more augmentations. She was massive. When she clenched those muscles, they popped right out of her face, her biceps, and her quadriceps. She eyed Finn closely, looking him up and down.
Samara motioned between Zara and Finn. "That's so cute. Are you together now?"
"I can pound them together," Kabibe said. "Then they'd be inseparable."
The energy sizzled through Zara. It warmed her body and quickened her mind. She felt strong, like she could do anything. She thought she could fly to the moon. She could smash this oversized Cro-Magnon into the floor. It would be easy.
But as she clenched her fists, Finn placed a hand on her forearm and smiled. It was a mesmerizing, butterfly-inducing kind of smile. "Relax, Squark. We don't want to make a mess right before the game."
Moments later, a large red mushroom bursting above them signaled the start. The class shot upwards. There wasn't anything to climb, of course, and there weren't any physical handholds, since the depiction was a holographic image. Instead, they sprinted upwards by pumping their supernatant antigravity athletic shoes, catching the air, and snapping their feet down to create the lift.
However, the rules of the game forced them to go around the imaginary rocky obstacles. To barge straight through would cost them a penalty. They would be whipped if they lost. Nobody wanted that.
Zara soared up the holographic image like she had been born in her shoes. It didn't matter that the supernatant antimatter pods were old. It made no difference that they didn't have as much lift as the newer shoes. She wasn't even breathing hard.
The rocky images, likewise, posed no challenge. Her fingers found their way around their visual texture with skill and dexterity she never knew she possessed. Even when she stopped at the test stations, she knew all the answers. She didn't miss a single question. Why hadn't she been able to do this before?
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Zara and Finn clasped arms at the summit, congratulating each other. "We did it, Squark. We're at the top of the class, you and me. We're the winners."
Later, when Xavier reached them, he raged with spectacular outrage. His square jaw jutted out with fury and his prominent cheekbones scrunched into an angry frown. He pointed a finger at Zara, "You cheated. I know you did."
"I ran around every obstacle. My fingers touched each handhold. And I answered every question correctly." She got up into his resentful face, "I did not cheat. I won straight as a laser."
