Page 30 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

There was a window he thought of asFind My Momthat showed Adele’s location, in the middle of an island, in the middle of the Atlantic.

He had an alert set for any news about Extreme and the challenge.

Malinka’s WeWatch page was open in one window, Mav’s in another. He had enabled notifications in case either of them went live. He’d been toggling between the open windows, texting any new info to his mom.

He did a quick check—all quiet. He watched the recorded live broadcast his mom had done when she was riding with Gustavo to Enchantments. She looked happy, if a little tired, maybe a bit nervous. Seeing her, he felt some relief. Like she was close by instead of so far away.

He had a catch in his throat as he thought about his mom out there, hiding in some abandoned hotel.

This whole thing had been his idea.

If anything went wrong, it would be his fault.

He got up to shut and lock his door, then he donned his headset, turned off the lights, and pulled up to his desk. The controller was heavy and cool in his hand.

He dropped into the game, dropping out of real life and all the things he couldn’t control.

In The Locker Room, he chose his mohawk helmet, black leather jacket, ripped jeans, and heavy boots. He took his virtual machete, rocket launcher, two guns, and a first-aid kit, which always came in handy. Not everyone had one of those; it was a high-value item. He could use it to heal himself or others if he was so inclined. The kit had earned him a reputation with the other players: they came to him for help all the time. And as a result, a lot of people owed him favors.

In the upper-right corner of the screen, a timer counted down. You had twelve minutes to gather as many prizes and supplies as you could and then find the doorway to the next level before the Red Cloud descended, ending everyone still in the game.

He entered Haunted Amusement Park by the roller coaster, a towering purple-and-black behemoth where a runaway coaster roared by every few minutes with riders screaming in terror.

As soon as he was boots on the ground, he had to react quickly and behead two skeleton bikers, the resident evil beings of Haunted Amusement Park. Afterward, he got moving fast. He grabbed two canteens, a gold ingot, and a bag of magic beans, shoving them into his pack. He hadn’t had beans in a while; they got you out of all sorts of messes.

There were a lot of other players here tonight. He recognized a couple of kids from school. Blake’s avatar was big and muscular, with a chiseled jaw, huge fists, and broad chest, a far cry from his doughy and essentially wimpy self, named The Beast. Violet had snorted at that. But that was fine. Everyone’s avatar was somewhat aspirational. There was Tisha. In life, she was cute, a bit pudgy with thick glasses and braces, a bookish strawberry blonde who sometimes sat with him at lunch. InRed World, she was Pink, a leather-clad babe with thick powerful thighs and huge boobs, and heavily armed rocking a knife in a leg holster. She was a friend, and he could count on her in a pinch, unless they were competing for the same thing. Then she’d kill him without a second thought. He’d learned that lesson the hard way.

The only person who looked exactly like herself inRed Worldwas Violet. And just like in the hallways at school, if she saw him inRed World, she ignored him. But she wasn’t on tonight. Her avatar name was Violent.

He spotted some of hisformerfriends. He avoided them, kept moving.

And then there was Marco. Blake’s former best friend turned archnemesis. Marco’s avatar, called Savage, was a bald, hulking prison escapee in an orange jumpsuit and a hockey mask. His smile was a metal grid. He wielded a gleaming machete. The bridge of Blake’s nose ached just thinking about him. Sometimes he dreamed about Marco punching him in the face, smashing his glasses. He’d cried in front of those guys; the pain and the shame had been too much.You fucking waste. Everyone here hates you and your whole family.The words were on a loop in his head.

That’s why he never told on Marco and his former friends. The shame of it all. How small and helpless and how sick it made him feel. And how maybe there was a part of him that felt like he deserved it.

Blake kept to the shadows. He was just here for the prizes, for the game. He didn’t want to engage with anyone. He was on an ongoing quest for the golden peach. If you found it, it quadrupled your Red Coin balance and unlocked a whole new wardrobe of skins, as well as the ultimate weapons cache.

He watched as his friend Gregg dropped in. Blake rushed over to help him kill off a few more skeletons.Gregg, or Bone Breaker onRed World, was a ninja, slim and shadowy. He was a master with the Chinese stars, preferred hand-to-hand combat. Gregg was a senior at another local high school. They’d even met at a football game in the real world. Gregg’s parents got him a new Bronco, and he’d shown it to Blake.

“Thanks, brah,” said Gregg now. “I can always count on you.”

Then he took off. Everyone was looking for that peach.

Blake was about to follow when he heard Marco’s voice over his headset. Their avatars were still connected from all their years of playing, so Marco didn’t have to request permission to engage with Blake.

“What are you doing here, loser?”

The glasses incident had happened at lunch. He’d accidentally bumped into Marco on the cafeteria line, tipping his tray to the ground. Marco had spun around and punched him hard, knocking his glasses to the ground and then stepping on them for good measure.

Blake, true to form, had just stood there staring, weirdly remembering how when they were in kindergarten Marco still sucked his thumb. It was like a math equation he just couldn’t solve no matter how hard he puzzled over it: How could someone who was your friend once just stop being your friend? How did they suddenly hate you?

“Your dad did a bad thing, and people judge us for that. Some people will stop wanting to spend time with us,” his mom had explained.

“He didn’t do it.”

“Yes, he did, Blakey. He stole a lot of money from his company. People lost their jobs and their savings. And then he disappeared. He left us behind. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth.”

“That’s the way it looks, but it might not be the truth. What if something else happened?”

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