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night
together, how he held my hand under the stars, how cute he looked
all covered in flour, his smile, his laugh, and how it felt as he
held me close all night long. I’d been warm that night. I’d felt
safe.
    It was the complete opposite of
everything I felt now.
    I was so incredibly
alone.
     

 
     
     
     
    7. zxbfeie
     
     
    I didn’t sleep at all that night. I
spent the hours thinking, listening to the sounds of The Academie,
the soft snoring of girls around me, and the sound of Sergeant
Garret’s footsteps in the hall. Eventually, the bell went off and
the lights went on, signaling that it was six o’clock.
    Great, exams on no sleep.
This should be fun. On the upside, I was
able to get a shower before the others awoke.
    At breakfast, I found Ruby again and
after another rubbery meal, we headed off to our first exams. Mine
was directly around the corner, so I found it easily and slid
myself behind one of the computer desks. That’s when my mind went
blank. All I could think of was Bryan.
    We met online, after I came home upset
from my visit with Matt. I was running searches on The Academie—to
find out more, to see if I could figure out what might be going on
with my brother—when I came across a peculiar website.
    Click.
    The moment I did it, I knew it was a
mistake. With all the danger of computer viruses, I had no business
clicking on a link when I wasn’t familiar with the source—but my
clicking finger sometimes worked faster than my brain.
    The site went to nothing. Well, no,
not nothing. It was stupid. Some game site—all dark and ominous.
The only writing appeared to be gibberish.
    Great, I’ll probably get a
computer virus. I clicked away quickly and
sat there for a few moments, contemplated what to do. Then I opened
my anti-virus program, and prompted it to do another
scan.
    That’s when my instant messenger
popped up.
    zxbfeie: Hi.
    Who the heck is
“zxbfeie”?
    I just sat there, staring at it,
trying to figure out if I should answer, and if so, how?
    zxbfeie: Hello? Don’t you want to talk
to me?
    truth: what do you want?
    zxbfeie: I just wanted to tell you
that I like your screen name. well, and I wanted to know what your
interest was in the academie.
    truth: what are you talking
about?
    zxbfeie: the academie. you want to
know about it, don’t you?
    truth: what’s it to you?
    zxbfeie: i could tell you things about
it
    truth: who are you?
    zxbfeie: my name is Bryan.
    Bryan? Who did I know named
Bryan? I don’t remember meeting any Bryan…
    truth: are you in one of my
classes?
    zxbfeie: classes? where?
    Yeah, okay, I’m going to
take that as a big fat ‘no’.
    truth: do I know you?
    zxbfeie: you were on my
site.
    truth: what site?
    zxbfeie: the one that came up when you
searched for the academie.
    Oh no.
    truth: is this your way of torturing
me before the virus I’ve inadvertently downloaded from your site
shuts down my computer?
    zxbfeie: virus? no, is that what you
thought? Hmm…yeah, I can see how you would get that. Nope. no
virus.
    truth: sure, this is probably just
your way of keeping me online while it finishes its dirty
work.
    zxbfeie: listen, if it was a virus,
then it’d already be too late, trust me.
    I sat there for a minute,
contemplating why I had been continuing this conversation with some
nut I didn’t know. When I didn’t respond, he started
again.
    zxbfeie: I can tell you about the
academie
    truth: of course you can. Everyone
can. the tv and internet’s loaded with ads and
propaganda—
    I was still in the middle of typing
when he interrupted me.
    zxbfeie: I can tell you
more than what they tell you
    I hadn’t sent my message yet; it was
like he was reading my mind. Unless he was tapping into my
computer…
    truth: wait—how were you able to start
messaging me anyway? All I did was click on your
website.
    zxbfeie: you clicked, I traced your IP
address, looked through your files a bit, discovered you are a
college student, tapped into your messenger and