Eddie runs

Chapter 1

Eddie was sitting in her chemistry class, desperately trying not to fall asleep again, when a small message popped up in her lower left field of view.

"Need Grime. 20 grams, 700?", no username.

It had been sent via SafeChannel, a software that her distributor installed on her wristband to make sure customer interactions were not saved anywhere. Every message was deleted within 15 seconds after it had been seen or immediately, if it had been replied to. No traces.

Eddie discreetly swiped her thumb across her wristband, making sure not to stare at the letters for too long. A small digital keyboard appeared right below the message. Using the eye tracking feature, she quickly typed her response.

"2 p.m. in the girls shower. No wristband." Send.

As she looked back to the front, where some of the popular girls was fighting her way through a terrible presentation on ionization, the message disappeared. She rubbed her hand along her chin.

Recently, she'd been getting a lot more customers than usual, which meant that she made a lot more money (nice), but also that she'd need to stock up her Grime stash more often and meet with her distributor (not nice).

She'd started selling a couple of months ago but still hadn't gotten used to meeting him. He was a sleezy weirdo, who clearly spent most of his time in The Sewers of New Tokyo. Additionally, they always met at the gates of her community, which was insanely nerve-wracking for her every time.

She swallowed the rising anxiety and decided that this was going to be a problem for her future self. She focused her attention back on this car crash of a lesson in front of her and couldn't help but smirk a little bit. Rich kids struggling with basic shit was her favorite type of entertainment.

After lunch, she headed to the gym for her hoverball training. Her teacher had suggested to join the team a few years ago, because he thought it might help Eddie with finding friends. It didn't, but she did enjoy the brutality of the sport, which is why she continued to go.

Nowadays, she mostly goes there, because the showers in the gym were the only place on school grounds, that was not under constant video surveillance. It was an easy was to meet customers, that did not involve sneaking around too much. Also, the hoverball training was always a nice opportunity to let off some steam.

When she went into the locker room after practice, only a couple of her teammates were still there. She checked the showers and made sure they were empty. Before she entered, she took her wristband off and put it inside her gym bag in the changing room, while grabbing the small plastic baggie with the Grime in the same motion. Carefully clutching it in her fist, she walked over to the showers. As she stepped into one of the stalls, she placed the ware onto the small metal shelf inside and turned the water on.

She flinched a little when the hot water hit her body, clenching her hands into fists. The heat hurt and it took a bit for her body to get used to hit, but she enjoyed it. There was always something about this pain.

Technically, the school isn't allowed to check the students' wristbands, especially not the visual modification that is connected to them. They say that the videotaping option by the mod was installed, so students could re-watch lessons for studying purposes. However, there are rumors that whenever a student got in trouble with the authorities, these wristbands had been used as evidence. Eddie didn't know anyone this had ever happened to, but she certainly did not want to be the first.

After a couple of minutes just standing in the steam and water, she noticed someone turning on the water in the stall next to her. Almost immediately, her muscles tensed up again and she took a step away from the stream.

"You got what I asked for?" a female voice from the stall next to her echoed.

"Money first.", Eddie replied firmly.

A hand appeared next to her feet, reaching under the wall between the stalls. It was holding a stack of 100s.

Eddie reached down and took the money, quickly counting it, as she got back up. Then she took the plastic baggie from the shelf and slid it under the stall, over to her customer.

"Pleasure." The voice said and the water stopped.

Wet footsteps made their way out of the showers. Eddie listened for a moment until they disappeared. She stepped back into the stream of water and let the heat hit her once more before she eventually had to go back home.

The neighborhood of Silver Oaks was as close to perfect as it got: vastly identical suburban villas with white patios and picket fences, built along fifteen streets, spanning like sunrays around the central plaza that was home to the school, kindergarten and community administration. On Sundays there was a farmers' market (obviously the food had never actually seen a farm but only the lab it was printed in) and on community holidays they set up a fair at the plaza.

Everyone living here had somehow managed to become a key player in the workings of New Tokyo. A lot of politicians, economists and tech developers called Silver Oaks their home. For a while, the community had become more and more popular among high-ranking employees of the city's main tech company Vice. Their work focused mostly on body modifications and neuroimplants. That lead to quite a few technical advances in the community – one of them being the obligatory wristband and visual modification for the students.

Eddie hated it here. There was not a single place where one wasn't being watched or recorded, no one under 18 was ever allowed to leave the community without their parents' permission and nothing ever fucking happened.

As she left the gym, she walked over the schoolyard and onto the main area of the plaza. There weren't many people there at this time in the afternoon because all the kids were home already and the adults were mostly still at work. Eddie made her way through the plaza and towards her street.

Because her dad was Andrew Greyward, Co-head of the Pilgrim foundation and moderately popular candidate in the upcoming mayoral election of New Tokyo, the family was assigned a house quite close to the plaza. Rule of thumb in Silver oaks; the more influential your family is, the closer you get to be to the central area of the community (more fake-fruit from the farmers market for you! Yay!).

Eddie took a shortcut across a couple of lawns and through front yards, feeling her neighbors eyes closely following her along the way.

As she pulled up to her house, she could see her mom through the kitchen window, preparing lunch. Her mom used to work in a public hospital as a nurse before she met Eddies dad at a fundraiser where he represented Pilgrim. They hit it off and got married three weeks later. They always said it was love at first sight, that God had told them then and there that they were soulmates. Maybe it was - maybe it also had something to do with Eddie being born almost exactly 9 months later.

Eddie walked up to the front door and stood still for a moment. The door made a short beep and then opened with a click.