Will looked up and saw Mrs. Barnett, his homeroom teacher. She was a middle-aged woman, dressed in a white blouse and a formal black skirt. Her square glasses completed her severe look. Tablet in hand, she was making her rounds when she stumbled on the two of them.

"Do get up from the floor, Dunn," said Mrs. Barnett. "Leave something for the droids to clean."

They immediately shuffled to their feet. Will's right foot was still a little tender, and he had to lean on the machine for support.

Mrs. Barnett turned to face Remy and gave him a once-over. "You are out of uniform," she stated. "What is that ridiculous getup?"

Remy was enthusiastic. "Just wearing Awakening Day colors, ma'am. The red represents the sun temple, and the green is the Hallucia mountain. What do you think?"

"I think you should get back to your pod, Soto." Mrs. Barnett was already on her tablet, typing away. Apparently, she had already evaluated Remy's excuses as irrelevant. "And next time, you will be in your uniform, won't you?"

"Uh... yes, ma'am," Remy said sheepishly.

Mrs. Barnett was tough but fair, despite being from the upper tower. She clearly didn’t want to give Remy grief over his dressing choices right before an important exam.

"Now, roll number 27351. William Dunn." She looked at Will pointedly.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Excellent. Next, Rowan Kade. Roll number 27372." She frowned. Will followed her gaze and found the VR pod, at the end of the row, abandoned.

Mrs. Barnett spoke in a clipped tone. "Is Rowan absent or having fun rolling on the floor like you two?"

Will shook his head. "There was no one there."

Remy followed. "We didn't see anyone coming there."

She clicked her tongue, exasperated, and walked towards the end of the row. "Back to your pods, boys," said Mrs. Barnett, and with a final clack of her high heels, she was gone.

"Hey," Remy turned to Will, "Is Rowan Kade close to your pod?"

"Looks like it."

Remy snorted. "Kade!"

"Another headache to deal with."

"You be careful," said Remy. "Idiocy is infectious. And that dumb brick has less going on upstairs than a one-story house."

"A one-story house?" asked Will.

"An open-air one-story house—" A shadow loomed over them, and Remy broke off mid-sentence to look behind.

A tall boy with a military crew cut stared them down; his square jaw working slowly over a piece of purple gum. He ground his teeth like he wanted to chew their heads off instead.

His large frame was barely contained in the navy blue uniform. Silver cufflinks and a high-end wristwatch completed his look. The watch itself was worth more than everything Remy and Will owned. He was the real deal. A true upper tower blue blood. A towerite that hated the two of them ever since they had been in the program.

"Kade," Will said shortly.

"Dunn," finished the big boy.

"Well, well, well," said Remy. "If it isn't Mr. living proof evolution can go backwards."

Rowan Kade looked at Remy like something he had stepped in. "F--k off, Soto. I'm here for Dunn."

Remy stepped forward, but Will put a hand out to stop him. "What's this about?"

Rowan stared down at Will for a while. "Stay away from the Wagners."

"What?" Will frowned. "Wagner?" Was he talking about the Wagner sisters? Will had never interacted with them much.

"What are you talking about?" asked Will.

"I'm warning you, Dunn."

"What I do," Will stepped forward, "and who I'm with, has nothing to do with you. Now get back to your pod. Don't you have an exam to fail again?"

Rowan stepped forward and came face to face with Will. There was a crunching sound. Will glanced down and saw his prosthetic being stepped on. The metal had given way. He slowly looked back at Rowan with rage in his eyes.

"Stay away from her." Rowan spat out the wad of purple gum onto the floor. "This is the last time I'll be saying this."

The big boy straightened up and walked off. Will was filled with boiling rage. Remy was about to go after him, but Will stopped him again. "Not here."

They watched Rowan walk to the end of the row and get into his pod. It was a while before they said anything.

Remy chuckled. "Going after the upper tower girls. Gutsy."

Will frowned.

"Be careful," said Remy. "The Wagners are loaded. This won't be the last time you see some peacocking."

Will snorted. "Bull. I have no idea what that was about."

"Sure, sure," Remy patted my back. "Good luck with the exam."

Remy walked off, and Will shook his head. The ass left without even giving him a chance to explain himself. There was a creak from his leg, and he reluctantly bent down and examined the prosthetic. He flexed and turned his metal ankles and watched his now scuffed dress shoes rotate with his prosthetic foot. Everything seemed to be normal. The actuators seemed functional. The real damage, though, was in the outer plating hidden beneath the dress shoes, but there was no way to examine it right now. A fresh wave of anger coursed through him. There was no solution to this. The shoe itself was difficult to remove and put on during the best of days, much less when he was minutes away from the exam.

A soft chime interrupted his inspection.

The crisp feminine voice spoke once again. "Attention all students. You have five minutes to the start of the exam. Please enter your pods and sync in. Thank you."

Will was still angry, but he pressed on. With a tap to the side, the pod opened up with a hiss. Cold air rushed out as the top cover split into two and slid to the side. Inside was a chair that was fully horizontally reclined. The armrests were counterintuitive in their design, hollowed-out pockets fused to the rest of the chair.

He climbed in with some difficulty. His prosthetic was giving him a bit of trouble. He held his heavy metal leg with both hands and swung it in place with a grunt. There was a little bit of finagling involved as he adjusted his foot on the paddles. After adjusting his feet a little bit more, he laid down flat.

"Welcome, user." The same feminine voice spoke, but this time from within the simulation tank. "Are you ready to begin?"

He let out a shuddering breath, still angry. The plates on his prosthetic creaked.

"Ready," he breathed out through clenched teeth.

The machine hummed in response. "Readiness confirmed. Closing pod now."

Lights flashed across its surface. The top cover slowly slid closed till the outside world was a thin line of light. With a click, the lid was fully closed, and he was encased in darkness.

"Establishing machine-human interface. Please hold."

He felt a helmet sliding in place around his head and connecting to his CAD. The respirator came next. It sealed around his face, and cold air rushed into his lungs. It burned as it went through. The air was highly oxygenated, mixed in with a cocktail of drugs that was supposed to put him in a half-dreamlike, hypnagogic state.

He let out a shuddering breath, still angry. Despite the cold, Will was burning on the inside. His teeth were bared, and his metal foot creaked as he flexed.

Crunch. He heard the sound of Rowan's foot coming down on his leg.

Crunch. The memory looped as he replayed the events.

"I'm warning you, Dunn." A wad of purple chewing gum flashed through chomping teeth.

Crunch. Will's whole body was tense, muscles clenched tight. Metal ground against metal as he flexed his prosthetic foot.

"Stop!"

His hand drifted to the locket around his neck. He needed to calm down. All of this would be worth it. He traced the familiar edges of the locket and flicked it open. It was pitch black, but in a sense, he could still see his mom and sis, smiling back at him. Smiles from a better time, from a better place.

The machine hummed once again. "CAD connection established. Commencing pre-interface diagnostics."

Will held onto the locket with his eyes set. That better place wasn’t far away now. There was only one step left. He tucked away the locket back under his shirt and gripped the armrest.

"Neural interface checked. Biometrics checked. G-class prosthetic limb interface detected. Target locked."

This was the part that had terrified him from the start. He gripped the armrest harder. The machine shook as it went into overdrive.

"Connection established. Initializing startup sequence."

Sweat beaded across his forehead.

"Neural dive in 5, 4, 3..."

White-knuckled, Will gripped the armrest.

"2, 1..."

And here we go.

"Launch."