EverWorld (Book 3 of the Down World Series)

Chapter Ten

My suspicions that this was a date were confirmed when Jin insisted on paying for my americano, plus a blueberry muffin for us to share. The only available seating at the little coffee place on campus was the tall table in the center. I climbed onto a stool as I took a sip of my drink, not surprised to find that it wasn't nearly as good as the place on my block.

"So what are you going to invent?" he asked, landing on the stool next to me. But he seemed to realize he was craning his neck too much to look at me. "Wait, this isn't working. Hold, please."

I laughed a little awkwardly when he hopped down and zipped around the table so he could face me instead.

"Better?" he asked.

"Much better," I agreed. He was pretty cute now that I was getting a good look at him. Just a few inches taller than me with a lean swimmer's body and spiky hair. He had movie-star teeth, too, which made me think his parents had made some orthodontist very rich.

"Cool, I'll start over. Wait, what did I ask?"

"Um, inventions for Sanchez's class. But I don't really know yet. What about you?"

"Okay, so here's the part where I impress you. Are you ready?"

"I'm ready," I said, laughing again.

"So my brother was born deaf. He's got these Cochlear implants. You know, they go inside his head and they help him hear."

"Yeah, I know what they are."

"And so I was thinking: why stop there? He's already got all this hardware in his head and it's only serving one function. Why not install some more software into it?"

"What do you mean? What would the software do?"

"Anything. Books on tape. Mozart. I mean, it's wired right into his head. He could just be like, mm, I've got five minutes. I think I'll learn Swedish. And then the program would just start teaching him Swedish for five minutes."

I smiled, sipping my drink and feeling the pressure that it was my turn to talk. But all I could think about was wires sticking into my brain and teaching me Swedish.

"You're not impressed," he said, disappointed.

"No, I'm just thinking—I don't know if I'd want to have all those voices in my head."

"Well, you already do. We all do. We're being bombarded all the time with information. What do you think your phone is?"

"But is it too invasive?"

"Well, he's used to that. I mean, it's just for learning. It's not, like, mind control."

I nodded, realizing that I was coming off as a bit combative. I didn't know what to do with my hands and so I just kept them both on my cup. "I'm sorry," I said. "It's a good idea."

He buried his head, but then looked up and smiled again. "So you don't know what you're inventing yet?"

"Oh, I'm inventing mind control," I answered without missing a beat. "Yeah, I've decided that the problem with society is that people are liars. So I'm going to invent a device that stops them from lying."

"Like Minority Report!"

"Exactly."

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

I almost knocked my coffee over. Did he just switch topics again? "Um..." I had to stop and laugh before I could go on. "No, I don't."

"Cool. I'll take you to the movies on Friday."