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This year, I’ll be a wild card

It ood Warcross player, but I’ve never had the tih experience or levels to hit the world leaderboards In fact, I’ll be the only wild card in this year’s draft who isn’t internationally ranked And who has a crih the luxurious, full-length bed feels better than anyFinally, I give up and pull out2, and start a new game The familiar, tinny music of Eo , et about the day and instead worry about when I need to jump-attack a sixteen-bit robot

I have a job offer for you That’s what Hideo had said, an offer he’d tellhe’d do for every other wild-card player in the gao to the stories I’ve heard about Hideo Most have never seen him without a proper collar shirt and dress pants, or a formal tuxedo suit His sazine interview that you were qualified to work at Henka Ga stare while giving him a presentation I’ve seen live broadcasts of reporters stu over their questions in his presence while he waited patiently and politely

I i will be like It’s possible he’ll take one look at me and sendover the ceiling of my bed tells me that it’s four am in the middle of the Pacific Ocean Maybe I’ll never be able to sleep again My thoughts whirl We’ll land in Tokyo in a few hours, and then I’ht play in the official Warcross gaht turns over and over in ht, I’d hacked into the Warcross opening ceremony in a desperate attempt to make some fast money Today, I’e my life forever What would Dad think?

Dad

I accessmenu, the words a transparent white inmenu ites up a scrolling subset of options Each one I look at for longer than a second starts to play a preview of a Memory that I had stored There are Meht in the little studio we’d rented, and ofout my first check after my first successful bounty hunt Then there are my Shared Favorites, Me in Frankie Dena’s shoes as she perfor in the place of a little boy being swarmed by a pile of puppies, a Meo to my most treasured subset--ory These are old videos that I recorded on a phone before the NeuroLink even came out, videos that I later downloaded into h them until I settle on one It’srainy phone video, it fills iant screen I feel the sae of joy as Dad’s hands opened to reveal a painting he’d h a world of colorful paint strokes that looks like Central Park at twilight I juet up on a chair to hold it aloft My father smiles up at me, then reaches his arms out to help oes to the next Meht red scarf, guidingout peonies in the Flower District while rain pours down outside Dad shouting Happy New Year! withTimes Square

The Memories play over and over, until I can’t tell whether or not they’ve started again froradually, I drift off into sleep, surrounded by ghosts

• • • • •

IN MY DREAMS, I’ what led to irl in entle eyes who kept to herself and ate her lunches in a corner of the school’s little library Sometimes I ran across her in there I wasn’t her friend, exactly, but ere friendly--we’d chatted a couple of times about our shared love of Harry Potter and Warcross and League of Legends and coround after someone had knocked theainst the lockers while a bunch of kids stuck guirls’ bathroolasses

But then, one day, a boy working on a group project with Anniein the privacy of her own ho, Annie’s naked photo had been sent to every student in school, shared on the school’s homework forums, and posted online Then came the taunts The printouts of the photo, all cruelly drawn on The death threats

Annie dropped out a week later