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His mother then called out loudly, “Leave the bedroom door open, please, Fi
“I will!” Fi
He gave Amanda his chair in front of the screen. He sat on a wooden chest that he dragged from his closet. It contained an old model train set.
“Five minutes to seven,” Amanda said, checking her watch.
Fi
The screen went black. Some music played. His room appeared.
It was a stone room, as if they were in a dungeon or castle. Using credit he’d earned by wi
“What’s with the color of those couches?” Amanda asked.
“What? I like them.”
“Trust me, you’re color-blind.”
Fi
Fi
“This is wild,” Amanda said.
“Have you never seen VMK?” he asked. “Everyone at school’s on here twenty-four seven.”
A few minutes after seven, a second figure, a girl, appeared in the room. She wore hip huggers and a lemon-yellow top that showed her stomach.
A dialogue bubble appeared above her.
Angelface 13, it read.
Cool room appeared inside the bubble.
Fi
The girl character bought herself a drink and took a seat on the couch near Fi
Angelface 13: U got any tunes?
Fi
Others coming soon.
“It’s Charlene,” Amanda said out loud. “I can tell by the way she dresses.”
“Yeah,” Fi
Willa and Philby’s characters appeared almost simultaneously. Philby, with red hair. Willa, dressed like a hippie. They too got drinks and gathered by the others, both standing. Philby (philitup) complimented Fi
“This is a really weird thing to say,” Amanda said, “but I feel like I’m in the room, not just watching.”
“I know,” Fi
“No, no! I agree. I don’t want them to know. I don’t want to be seen as a problem.”
“You’re not a problem!” Fi
Dilltoast showed up in the room and asked, What’s up?
“That’s my friend, Dillard.”
“We met,” Amanda said.
Fi
His explanation was made clear as Charlene and Willa continued talking, presumably about clothes, but the dialogue in their bubbles was replaced with exclamation points, dollar signs, and ampersands—unreadable gibberish.
Fi
“Tell him about it tomorrow in person. If you make it into something secret, that you’re sharing, he won’t even remember this.”
“Good with people are you?” Fi
Maybeck passed on the offer of a drink. He’d given his character a sizable Afro, blue jeans, and a white T-shirt. Somehow it made him look taller than the others, which he was in person as well.
Mybest: Let’s do this. I got homework.
Fi
Each of the others said hello. Then Fi
Fi
or we wouldn’t be here. Maybeck and I both felt
kinda sick, like fainting, earlier today, anybody else?
The dialogue bubble above Willa’s character started “talking.”
willatree: yes. I felt awful, but only for a few minutes.
angelface 13: me too
philitup: yup
Mybest: so what’s with that?
Fi
Maybeck’s character moved around the room but stayed close enough to chat. Willa got up off the couch and moved over next to Charlene. No writing appeared above any of the characters.
Amanda said, “I think you freaked them out.”
Fi
angelface 13: I saw him get burned. It’s for real.
philitup: what’s weird is that over there we look like our DHIs, but Fi
Fi
Mybest: does anyone hear how completely stupid this sounds?
philitup: we all got sick at basically the same moment. That may sound stupid, but it felt awful.
Mybest: so what we do?
Amanda, looking on, said, “Now, Fi
Fi
Mybest: tell me you’re kidding?
Fi
Fi
Fi
One by one, the characters answered.
willatree: I’ll be there.
angelface 13: I’m having trouble falling asleep, but I’ll try.
philitup: I’m there.
Mybest: word.
Fi
Mybest: we all play VMK, right? What if that’s got something to do with it?
He had a point, Fi
Fi
Each of the characters agreed to the time, a text bubble appearing above their heads. Then, one by one, they checked out. Fi
“You look kinda lonely just standing there,” Amanda said.
“I think I’m afraid,” Fi
“I bet they all are too,” Amanda said. “Remember that fear is a human emotion. A DHI wouldn’t feel fear.”
The way she said it, so calm, and like she knew what she was talking about—really knew it—