The Birch House

Chapter Five

Evie's P.O.V.

I watched the clock - some old-style wall clock, with hands - crawl slowly up to, and past, eleven o'clock. Professor Forbes is starting the lecture, I thought, and felt a nauseating twist in my stomach. This was the second day in a row I'd missed school. In my whole life I'd never missed two days of school back-to-back. Sure, I'd read the textbook already - twice - but lectures were important. That was how you found out the good stuff, especially in classes like physics, where they did practical demonstrations. Lectures were the fun part.

It was Thursday. That meant I had a lab class later, too. You couldn't make up lab class, no matter how good your excuse.

I sighed, forced myself to look away from the time, and opened my Calc II book - I'd tested out of Calc I, could have tested out of Calc II, but I'd thought maybe I could learn something about solving linear inequalities, which had always been a problem for me.

'What the hell are you doing?' Chase. He was on the stairs, staring at me. I hadn't heard him coming, but that was probably because he was barefoot. His hair was a mess, too. Maybe he'd been asleep.

'Studying,' I said.

'Huh,' he said, like he'd never actually seen it done before. 'Interesting.' He vaulted over the railing three steps from the bottom and flopped down on the leather couch next to me, flicking the TV on with the remote next to him, then changing inputs. 'This going to bother you?'

'No,' I said politely. It was a lie, but I wasn't quite ready to be, you know, blunt. It was my first day.

'Great. Want to take a break?'

'A break?'

'That's when you stop studying' - he tilted his head to the side to look at the book - 'OK, whatever the hell that is, and actually have some fun. It's a custom where I come from.' He dumped something in the centre of my open book with a plastic thump. I flinched and picked up the wireless game controller with two fingers. 'Oh, come on. You can't tell me you've never played a video game.'

Truthfully, I had. Once. I hadn't liked it very much. He must have read that in my expression, because he shook his head. 'This is just sad. Now you have to take a break. OK, you've got a choice: horror, action, driving, or war.'

I blurted, 'Those are my choices?'

He looked offended. 'What, you want girl games? Not in my house. Never mind, I'll pick for you. Here. First-person shooter.' He yanked a box from a stack next to the couch and loaded a disc into the machine. 'Easy. All you have to do is pull the trigger. Trust me. Nothing like a little virtual violence to make you feel better.'

'You're crazy.'

'Hey, prove me wrong. Unless you think you can't.' He didn't look at me as he said it, but I felt the sting, anyway. 'Maybe you're just not up to it.'

I shut my Calc II book, picked up the controller, and watched the colourful graphics load up on the screen. 'Show me what to do.'

He smiled slowly. 'Point. Shoot. Try not to get in my way.'

He was right. I'd always thought it was kind of creepy, hanging out in front of a TV and killing virtual monsters, but damn if it wasn't...fun. Before too long, I was flinching when things lunged out of the corners of the screen, and whooping just like Chase when some monster got put down for the count.

When it ended for me, and the screen suddenly showed a snarling zombie face and splashes of red, I felt it like an ice cube down my back.

'Oops,' Chase said, and kept on firing. 'Sorry. Some days you're the zombie, some days you're the meal. Good try, kiddo.'