Lia looked up at the menu board. “It says Frito pie. There should be some kind of truth in advertising: chili poured over corn chips.”
“I actually like that,” Deborah said. She pulled a plastic spork from the container and grabbed a tray of food.
“Is this from Miss ‘It Tastes Like Prison Food?’” Lia took her own tray and they found a table together.
“Even in prison Frito pie has to be good,” Deborah said. Sadly, it had been the only thing she looked forward to during her twelve years on death row. She couldn’t go to the weekly movies they played for the general population because of security. She could read or listen to the radio. She mainly read.
“Whatever,” said Lia. She took a bite of her food.
“About tonight,” Deborah asked, “when does the movie start?”
“They’re showing it on a million screens, so there is one every half hour. I would like to go to an earlier showing so we can study earlier. How about just ride the bus to my house and we’ll drive to the theater. My brother is letting me drive his car.”
“Um, I can’t then. I got to go home so my mother can chew me out for peeing the bed.” Deborah’s face reddened. “My dad got home and she was too busy to finish chewing me out.”
“Oh he was at the execution of that horrible…”
Deborah didn’t wait. She got up and ran from the table to the bathroom. She remembered the pattering pee falling beneath her chair on Wednesday and she didn’t want a repeat accident here. Fortunately she made it to the bathroom dry. She used the restroom and returned to the table. “Lia, please don’t talk about Deborah Addison in my presence again. Especially at school. It is nightmares about her that give me problems at night.”
“What kind of…” Lia began. “Oh.” She looked at her with doe eyes. “I’m sorry.”
The rest of lunch was spent in silence until the bell rang. It was frustrating Deborah to no end that she couldn’t keep the bed dry for one night since her metamorphosis. It was almost a relief when the bell rang and she could go to class.
Fundamentals of Computers was next. She sat down at her place and logged into her machine. She still needed her notes to remember the password. She had logged in by the time Lia arrived at the place beside her.
“You got all quiet on me at lunch,” said Lia. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” Deborah answered. “I was just thinking about stuff. Thanks for not bolting on me when I told you my secret.”
“We’re friends. I wouldn’t bolt on you.”
“Thanks.”
“Besides,” said Lia. She opened the drawer under her computer and pulled out a gamepad. “I need you on my team for Friday LAN party. I hope you finished your PowerPoint.”
Deborah wondered if you took turns playing or what. She hadn’t played video games in years. She had played Doom and Sim City, but that had been ages ago.
Ms. Hardy, the computer teacher walked around the room. “Put your thumb drives in the basket if you are finished with your assignment.” She carried the basket around the class room. Lia threw her thumb drive into the basket and Deborah did the same. Some of the students started to work on their assignments instead of turning it in. The rest of the class pulled game controllers from the drawer beneath their computers and started to play games.
Deborah started the same game as Lia. It looked like a shooting game, but a screen came up and asked what server she wanted to join. There was a list. “What server do I put?” she asked Lia.
“Are you having memory problems, Alison?” Lia looked worried. “It seems that since Wednesday’s incident, you’ve asked questions that you should know and it’s really creeping me out.”
Deborah froze. She could feel the blood drain from her face. Lia knew. “Umm,” she said while stalling for time. She forced herself to calm down. Lia couldn’t know the whole story. Jumping from body to body was crazy. It only happened in science fiction stories. Lia liked science fiction almost as much as she did, but Lia knew that Alison liked romance and she gave her a dig about reading too much romance.
“I’ve been going through a lot of stress recently with graduation coming up, needing a new prom date, and Spanish. It’s everything at once.” She smiled. “Did you think I was a pod person?”
“Pod person?” asked Lia.
“Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And I thought you liked science fiction.”
“We’re on server B2,” said Lia. Her face pinkened with embarrassment over my remark. “We’re Blue team,” she added when Deborah almost picked Red.