The Game

After Dinner

Dinner is over too quickly and all four of us make our way out of the building. None of us want to go back to Skinker at the moment so we decide to head to our old spot out on the green under a large tree.

Tom and J.T. stand off to the side talking quietly so I take the opportunity to sit next to Sydney.

"Hey, do you know a girl named Amelia? I think she's French." I grab a stick and start digging lines in the dirt beside my leg. Sydney joins in, connecting the lines to create something.

"Uhm, yeah I think so," Sydney pauses to think about it. She doesn't answer for a few seconds but I know she's met a lot of people at school. Sydney's eyes click when she remembers Amelia and she rolls her eyes a bit. "Oh! Yeah. Amelia. She is French, in fact I'm pretty sure her dad is some important part of the French government. A lot of people here have family in high places."

"Do you know much about her?"

"She seems nice. I didn't have any classes with her but I heard she has a bit of an attitude, although she is quite bright so I think she gets away with it. Hey, reminds me of you." Sydney leans against my shoulder pushing me a little, teasing.

"Ha ha, very funny." Sydney straightens looks back down at our drawing in the dirt.

"Amelia's mom actually came to this school thirty years ago. Her mom's name is Celeste. The mom and her best friend, Ines were super successful here. One of the labs in the academic building was actually named after the two of them but when Ines married a man named Avaya, well he turned out to be a load of trouble. I'm not sure exactly what happened but he was later labeled as a Traitor. So they decided to rename the lab." Sydney gives me every piece of information she knows and I love her for knowing everyone and all of their business. "Honestly, I think that's why her mom married the important French dude. For protection. But I'm surprised they even let Amelia attend the school. Loralee and the rest of the teacher tend to err on the side of caution if there might be a tie to a Traitor."

I nod, keeping to myself the fact that my uncle is a traitor. Why would I be allowed to attend? I guess my parents reputations are strong enough with Loralee and whoever else decided I was allowed to attend.

Before I can ask her if she knows anything else, J.T. and Tom join us under the tree. It's gotten dark outside and I know that soon we should be heading back to our rooms to get ready for tomorrow.

"We will still try to do our dinners, right guys?" Sydney asks as she leans against the base of the tree, stretching out her legs.

Tom sits down beside her and starts pulling a few objects out of his pocket.

"I think I have a solution for that, if we can't hang out anymore." J.T. and I move in closer to them. Tom reaches up and hands us each a device.

"Is this a flip phone? I used to have one of these in middle school." I turn the phone over in my hand examining it and then flip it open to the main screen.

"Technically no, it's not a phone. I designed it to look like one. Since it's not a smart phone, we should be allowed to keep it on our person at all times. And it won't be suspicious."

"I don't know man, a super old flip phones not suspicious?" J.T. questions him. Tom chuckles understanding that J.T. is joking. I  still don't quite understand their friendship, or how they even became friends.

"So what is it?" Sydney asks, still examining the flip phone. I eventually figure out how to turn the device on. It powers up silently and  little logo flashes on the screen.

"What's this mean?" I ask in reference to the logo. Sydney looks up and I show her the screen, she looks at it for a few seconds before it disappears and a main screen with three apps on it. One just looks like a basic social media, slightly off in color but the screen is small enough that it passes easily. Another app has the cover of a game involving cartography.  And the final app looks like the usual photo app on most iPhones.