“FANCY SEEING YOU OUT OF DETENTION.”

“Fancy seeing you out of luck.”

“Touché,” Devon replied, a blue detention slip in his hand. Nick was glad to see him finally punished. He always seemed to slip out of trouble. Unfortunately for Ms. Elis, it seems like she wouldn’t be getting a lunch break any time soon.

In truth, Nick would have been wholly prepared to do something “disrupting to the learning environment” and get into detention, but she had forgotten Ms. Elis excused her from double detention. So, Nick, like all introverts, avoided human interaction, and headed for the least crowded area during recess; the library.

Nick always wondered why people bothered to go to the computer lab when the library was so much quieter and comfier. The computer lab had hard plastic chairs, while the library allowed you to recline on a sofa while you type. Nick wolfed down a chicken wing on her way. No food was allowed in the library, so she may as well finish her lunch in the hallway.

Nick waved a hello to the librarian whom looked just as eager to get home as the students. Nick logged in to her school account, thought a moment, and decided to type Conspearisee.com.

The same black screen greeted her, with the timer refreshed at 10 galmin. She hurried to type something in the chat box, which only said [Hello Sodriew] like yesterday. Right before she started typing, her fingers already poised over the keyboard, she hesitated.

No. She was being an idiot. Why did she go on this hacker’s site? And she really shouldn’t be doing this on a school account. The last thing she needed was to be put in detention because she was on a “inappropriate website.” Nick didn’t mind detention, but she went into detention with honor. Nick went to detention for starting games in class, or pulling pranks. Not for looking at “inappropriate websites”. If that were announced over the PTA her entire reputation would fall. It was slightly far-fetched, but, at the very least, Nick didn’t want the hacker to break the school computer.

Also, why would the person who had chatted with her yesterday—this guy named Exflipper-something—still be on the site? Why is Nick on the sight? What was wrong with Nick?

Then it occurred to her that the school had put up multiple firewalls and stuff to block hackers, and if this hacker was able to bypass the firewalls, this hacker must be very good. And at least Nick would be chatting to a skilled hacker who didn’t treat the victim as a helpless idiot—if the person Nick was chatting to was indeed the creator the website. Perhaps Nick can learn to hack the hacker and find out. Comforted, Nick typed out a quick greeting.

[hello]

The response was nearly immediate.

[Oh, Nick, you’re back!]

At once, fear rose. So this person was on. How did he—or she—know that it was Nick? Nick was on a completely different computer on a completely different school account! Panicking, Nick typed:

[HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS ME?????!!!!!]

[I’ve never met anyone else who so stubbornly refused to use correct capitalization and punctuation. Except for your last message, which had way too much of both.]

Nick was still not completely convinced, and typed cautiously:

[promise youre not a hacker]

[I searched up ‘hacker’. I’m not sure I understand why you use it in your context. It doesn’t make sense.]

[what]

[The definition of hacker is “a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity”. If you’re asking if I’m a hacker, are you asking if I’m unskilled?]

[uh…what dictionary did you use? hacker is someone who breaks into computers and steals your information and puts in a virus and stuff]

[Oh. That’s definition two.]

[whatever]

[So, are you going to agree to the Terms and Conditions, or are you going to just keep chatting?]

Again Nick paused. Did she want to agree to the Terms and Conditions? They were the weirdest ones she’s seen. She still hadn’t finished reading the Terms and Conditions, something she would normally never do. But then again, Nick always agreed to the Terms and Conditions. Besides, what was the worse that could happen? Death? Yeah, right.

Nick was being a wimp. She couldn’t agree at school, of course, especially if the Terms and Conditions was a virus, but she would agree at home.

[i cant agree right now. im on a school account]

[Oh. School. So you’re younger than twenty?]

Nick felt like she just gave away a valuable secret.

[none of your business]

[It’s ok. I’d rather you to be younger. I don’t want some fifteen hundred-year-old man, since (if you agree to the Terms and Conditions of course) this mission I’m on will require strength and agility. I’m fourteen, by the way.]

[figures]

[What does figures mean?]

[look, did you drop out of school or something? you barely know anything]

[I’m from another planet.]

[yeah right. get out of town]

[I am out of town, if you didn’t notice. I’m floating in space.]

[whatever. also what gender are you]

[ __

/|

____ /

/ \/

/ \

| |

\ /

\______/ ]

[showoff. you could have just written male]

[It wouldn’t have been Galictically correct.]

[whats galictically]

[Now look who doesn’t know anything.]

[look if you want to pretend youre in space and making up words do your thing]

[Galictically is just Galactic politics. There are technically more genders than male and female. Even on your Driew.]

[what. are you talking about lgbtq+]

[Yes, but even more literally. The mole salamander is what I meant. Their species consisted only of females.]

[so how do they…you know…reproduce]

[Do you really want to know?]

[…no. please dont tell me]

[I thought so. I’m pondering ]whether or not I should forget that detail. I really wish I didn’t know.]

[i dont think you can forget that sort of thing easily]

[Easy enough, once I land and get fuel. Also, you probably want to exit out of this website now. The terms and conditions countdown is almost to zero.]

[oh. right. thank you bye]

Nick quickly x-ed out of the tab.

Nick looked at the time at the bottom of the screen. Ten minutes? That wasn’t ten minutes. It was only seven! But then again, it said ten galmin, whatever that was. Or, more likely than not, Nick had mixed up the times and had logged on three minutes earlier than she thought. With that, Nick opened a new tab and started playing Paper.io.