Pulse Read Free

microwavable snacks, and there was a rumor floating around that a future version would even do that.
    A message appeared along the bottom of Faith’s screen, which surprised her. Usually when a lecture began, her Tablet automatically locked out all incoming messages.
I see you got Buford. He’s pretty good. Rollins is better. What’s your name again?
    Faith looked around the classroom, filled with thirty other students. Another message appeared on her screen.
Behind you : )
    Faith slowly turned around and smiled painfully. Then she turned back to her Tablet, rolling her eyes as soon as she could without being seen by the crown prince of dorks.
    Perfect, Faith thought as she listened to Buford dissect the meaning of Henry the Fifth . I’m here ten minutes, and I pick up a stalker. And a hacker.
    Faith typed out a terse message and tapped SEND .
How did you activate messaging during a lecture? And I’m busy.
    There was a pause of about four seconds.
Easy! There’s a back door in version 25. It takes about an hour to code for each Tablet, but once you’re in, you can com with anyone during lectures. It’s a two-way door when I open it. Cool, right? Didn’t you hear about it?
    No, Faith thought, I don’t troll the online nerd threads.
    Faith tried to listen to Buford until another message scrolled across her screen.
I’m Hawk. And you are?
    Faith ignored Hawk and went back to work, tapping out notations and tagging them to the screen with her finger. She tapped the corner of the screen on the Tablet, and a menu appeared, from which she chose a drawing stylus. A square of soft light appeared on her desk next to the lightboard, and she began drawing the outline of a face. She was very good at faces and usually only needed to get a really good look at people once in order to draw them.
    She looked around the room for a subject, taking in the new students, and her eyes landed on a guy in the back row. He wore skater shoes, skinny jeans, and a tight V-neck T-shirt. His hair was thick and black, and to her surprise, he was writing. With a pen. In a notebook. He seemed to be ignoring his Tablet.
    She sent a message to Hawk and began drawing with her finger.
Who’s the caveman in the back row?
    A moment later, Hawk answered.
Dylan Gilmore. He doesn’t talk too much. At least not to me. Also, he’s an a-hole.
    Faith stole one more glance. The profile of his face and upper body revealed a strong chin and muscular arms. Please be tall, Faith caught herself thinking. Whatever he was working on, he was really into it. And his head was moving up and down. It looked to her like he was listening to music, not to a lecture. But that wasn’t possible. The Tablet wouldn’t let him do that during a lecture.
    There were three more messages from Hawk before the lecture came to an end. When it did, Faith turned in her chair.
    “Please don’t do that while I’m in the middle of a class. Buford is tough, and Shakespeare is confusing.”
    “No problem, I can chill. Suuuuper chill. What was your name again?”
    Faith rolled her eyes and got up to leave, but then she thought better of the idea and turned back. She could have worse things than a friend who was really bright and knew how to hack into a Tablet.
    “It’s Faith. And no more messages during class, okay?”
    “Totally, yeah. Got it. Faith.”
    It dawned on her then that Hawk was probably a lot younger than she was. They were glomming the classes together more and more, because there didn’t seem to be a good reason not to. Faith was a junior, and by the looks of this little guy, he was probably a freshman.
    “How old are you?” Faith asked as they walked out of the classroom.
    “Seventeen. Okay sixteen. I mean, I’ll be sixteen in practically no time.”
    There was a long pause in which Hawk decided she was going to find out soon enough.
    “I’m thirteen.”
    “Are you sure you’re not nine? You look like you’re nine.”
    “Ouch,” Hawk said, holding his heart.