The counselor sat back in her chair. "Stone, I know you're sick of waiting for the response to your internship application for Age of Fantasy. I have good news for you. It came in. Do you want to know the answer?"

Stone smiled. It was a lie, his smile. How could she open a letter addressed to him, FOR him. A letter he worked years to get. Years. Studying artificial intelligence, world building, computer code, graphics and on and on until his brain folds leaked acid and caused permanent damage to his spinal cord. The last part was not true, but he liked coming up with exotic reasons for his paralysis. Almost anything was better than ALS, the slow poison of ALS. He swept his mind clean. Always did that when he thought of the thing. "I don't know, I kind of like being held in suspense, every night struggling to fall asleep, every day having an ache in my stomach at random times because I get an overwhelming feeling that nothing good ever happens to me."

Counselor Vega frowned. She hadn't expected that, though she should have. Teenagers. God. Was she ever one of them? "You were accepted!" She stood with her hands in the air, the letter squeezed in her right hand. "A student from South Orchard High got an internship at AoF, it's incredible!"

This time the smile was genuine. "Oh my god." He didn't have any other words to say. He leaned back in his chair. Hands down on the wheels, he jerked them in opposite directions and spun 360 degrees. The motion killed all the depression in his body. For one glorious second Stone was weightless.

"I know!" Mrs. Vega said with a squeal. She ran around the desk and leaned forward, wrapping her arms around Stone's neck. Her V-neck exposed the  slit of her breasts, which Stone instinctively wanted to see but did not want to see. He closed his eyes. It was awkward to hug people. They had to work around his chair and he had to lean up and forward to meet them halfway, or awkwardly try anyway.

Hugs.

"Mrs. Vega?"

"Yes," she replied pulling away.

"May I have the acceptance letter?"

"Of course, honey," she laughed at herself handing the envelope to Stone.

"Am I free to go? I kind of want to read over everything alone and make sure I'm not dreaming."

"Yes, please do. Stone, I want you to know I'm so proud of you. You haven't given up on everything you're capable of in the face of your diagnosis. I won't tell anyone about your acceptance. You should get that honor. You worked for it."

Stone knew two things to be true. One, he hated people bringing up his ALS; it always led to them having that stupid sad puppy face as if he was to be pitied. And two, Mrs. Vega would tell everyone she thought she could trust about his acceptance, and they would then do the same. It wouldn't be long before he would be trotted out in front of the school like a show horse. Look at one of our own, what he did. Even being handicapped. Isn't this a great story. Despite the lurking dread over public spectacle, Stone couldn't feel bad, not holding the golden ticket in his hands.

The hallway was empty as he rolled through the blue carpeted monster that was South Orchard High. The lockers were gold once. Today, they were faded, dented and scuffed, scattered among them were a few of the old gray lockers from the original build. They had a new football field though. Can't have decent storage for student books, but we'll have emerald grass worth a pound of gold per square inch, by God, Stone imaged Coach Goddard say. Coach always had a whistle around his neck and sunglasses on the top of his head. He showered with them on probably, got baptized with them. Had a farmer's tan more permanent than a tattoo.

"How's it hanging, roller boy?"

Steve Hawk's voice dissipated Stone's wandering thoughts. Damn. He hated Steve Hawk. And not because of the obvious reason that the school's most popular jock made light of his wheelchair in a non-ironic way, but because he played Age of Fantasy, and he was good.

"Just rolling around the school looking for douche bags and I'm in luck."

"Oh, you found one for your smelly twat. That's great."

"I'm in the hallway because I got called to the Counselor's office. Why are you skulking about the great blue highway?"

"Getting some green from my guy."

"Totally understand, leafy greens are part of a well rounded diet."

"Especially when you smoke them."

"And, goodbye, Steve," Stone said rolling past him.

"Scared of smoking, Stone? With a name like that I figured getting stoned would be your thing, especially with all that," he gestured to Stone's chair. "Life's not such a downer when your up high." He winked with a smile. "I'm just messing with you, Stone. I know your situation sucks. ALS has to be a bitch. Come smoke one. Makes the lunch food ten times better."

Stone almost wanted to say yes. His life was about to change, big time. Why not live a little. Not like he had all the time in the world. "Maybe next time. Thanks for the invite."

Steve shrugged.

Stone pushed on, the wheels humming softly on the flat as a sheet blue carpet. He tried not to envy Steve's life. Playing football, gaming on AoF, looking forward to college without a fear or care in the world. Stone pushed the images of Steve's life away. His life was not that. He was dancing with death. Maybe sitting was a better analogy. Dammit, I got a letter from Age Of Fantasy. I'm not gonna feel sorry for myself, he thought as he pulled the letter out of the open envelope in his lap.

"What's this?" Steve Hawk must have followed behind him. He snatched the letter from Stone's hand.

"You are so NOT annoying," Stone sighed and dropped his head in surrender.

"Holy- what!"

"You thought you were the only asshole interested in AoF?" Stone couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face.

"But this is for real. You're going to do a summer internship there? You have to tell me about the latest stuff. There's supposed to be an expansion coming this summer, a whole new race and S class weapons."

"You're totally throwing the jock stereotype out the window with all this nerding out, and I kinda like it. So stop. I like hating you more."

"That's fair," Steve said getting behind Stone's wheelchair, pushing him the opposite direction from class.

"So, what are you doing?" Stone palmed the wheels of his chair, freezings its motion, causing Steve to trip over himself.

"Dude, you're going to AoF this summer. You're getting high with me right now."

"Can I have my letter back? Between you and Mrs. Vega reading my mail, I haven't actually seen it."

Steve dropped the letter over Stone's shoulder. "You should read it. It's kind of important."

Stone didn't care about class anymore. There was only a month of school left anyway. This was turning out to be a strange day.

"I'll just follow you," Stone said pushing his wheels.

"Excellent. Have you ever played AoF?"

"I don't have a Sim, I applied for a grant because of my...situation, but I didn't get it."

"That sucks, man. I know they are hella expensive, but my dad kinda has and endless supply of money, being the best heart doctor in the state, and he likes to make up for not coming to my games with gifts."

"Must be nice."

"Sometimes. Sometimes it would be cool to see him in the stands, but whatever."

"Where exactly is your 'dealer'?" Stone made air quotes and said the word dealer with an ounce of mistrust. "I feel like we are heading to the gym. Please tell me it's under the bleachers."

"It's not under the bleachers. This isn't some 80's flick. It's in the locker room in the gym. Nobody uses the gym before lunch period or during it, so there's no worries about somebody being down there."

"Nothing like a couple of dudes getting together secretly in a smelly locker room. I saw you online onetime when I was streaming Easy Elf, by the way. She was a little pissed when you got the Silver Dragon Shield to drop on the second run of Aegis Mountain."

"That was crazy. I couldn't believe our guild ran into EE. I was like: no way. Aegis was probably my favorite DLC so far. The game is so massive, it's kinda hard to have a favorite anything."

"She is pretty hilarious. I watch a lot of her streams because she explains the strategy really well and it helps me feel like I'm not falling way behind in the game, even though I will be starting at level 0. I can't believe I got an internship. I'll finally be in Age of Fantasy."

"Sounds like you'll know the mechanics and world pretty well if you've been watching her. Nothing is like being in AoF, though. It's amazing. If there wasn't a mandatory log out every 16 hours I don't know if I could stop."

AoF was required to have a forced log off after the World Health Organization deemed gaming addiction, specifically to AoF, was an official disease and major health concern. The forced log out was just a slap on the wrist. 8 hours offline was required to unlock another available 16 hours, so professional gamers just slept immediately after logging off and came back online after waking up. Too much money was tied up in AoF for any real legislation to be passed.

"I bet," Stone said with a glint in his eyes. "I'll actually be able to walk again."

"I didn't even think about that! That will be amazing. You want to come over and try my Sim? You should be able to play anytime you want over something like that. I can't believe you didn't get the grant."

"I've waited this long. It'll be sweeter doing it at AoF using the new Meteorite Black Sim Suit. Thank you for the offer. I mean that."

"I get it, man. I'm sorry for giving you a hard time in the past. I'm wasn't sure how to act around you, so I usually make bad jokes."

"No kidding," Stone said with a smile. "Maybe they'll be funny when I'm high."

When they got to the locker room, Steve's dealer James was sitting down on the bench that ran the entire length of the left wall in front of the lockers that climbed to the ceiling of the sunken gym. He had smoke pouring out of his mouth, which was shaped in the form of an O.

"Always starting without me, bro," Steve said as he sat next to James and took a hit from the offered joint.

"Stone right?" James asked exhaling more of the smoke he had been holding in. He slightly coughed as he squeezed out the name.

"Yes, and your Purple Turtle. I've seen you and Steve's group on AoF: Level 50 gray mage, you have high level healing and buff spells, but you countered that with a 4th tier summon spell making you a gray mage, instead of dark or light. You gained the unique summon from a rare temporary quest most mages would kill for, so you kind of have a lot of haters out there."

"Who's your avatar?"

Steve jumped in. "He doesn't play, yet. Stone is working at AoF this summer, so he'll  probably be decked out from day one with with insane gear."

"Whaaaat?" James said with his eyes like full moons. "You got that internship thing. You have to have SAT scores through the roof and a minimum IQ of, like, 150."

"Not quite like that," Stone said unable to suppress a smile.

"Tons of the kids that come out of there have massive mana pools, the game bases a lot of the magic system attributes on cognitive stuff. You're gonna kill it if you got accepted into that place."

"What did you get on your SAT?" Steve stood up and leaned toward Stone, his hand extended with the burning joint.

Stone took a hit and immediately started coughing. He coughed so hard tears began to form in his eyes and a headache began to accumulate at the front of his forehead. He heard both guys laughing and he started laughing with them. It would be awhile before he would be able to speak and by that time the conversation moved on. He was glad. Telling people he made a perfect score on the SAT was kind of uncomfortable.