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I took a breath, and a drink of vitamin water. “Sorry.”
“What’s got you all inverted?”
“I just had a really long day yesterday, that’s all. And Jernan—the QM—is furious with me for losing a shield disk.” At her questioning glance, I sighed and explained. “I tried to throw it to Jo when she fell—”
“Which was a good move, by the way.” Most of the time it was impossible to tell who was speaking unless you looked at them. I mean, we all had pretty much the exact same voice, give or take some quirks. This one sounded exactly like me, yet I still wasn’t at all surprised when Joaquim sat down across from us. I knew it’d be him, probably because that was how my luck was going lately.
“I mean, I had no idea what it was when you threw it at us,” he continued, spearing a bit of something made to look like eggs on his fork. “But I made the connection when people were talking about you losing the shield disk.”
My dismay probably showed on my face, because he winced and looked sympathetic. “Sorry. But they are talking about it.”
“Of course they are. All anyone ever talks about is what I do wrong, if they talk about me at all.” Acacia raised an eyebrow at me, but I ignored her.
“Hey, come on,” Joaquim said. “I’m the new kid now—I’m sure I’ll be messing up all over the place.”
I snorted. “You’re already the hero, saving Jo like that.” It rankled me to admit it to his face, but I had to. It was true, and it was the kind of thing we all needed to hear. “That was impressive.”
“Thank you. I was terrified,” he admitted, and I felt some of my jealousy give a bit. “I had no idea what was going on, and it was all so unreal…then I got to that crazy place, like…It was like…”
“An M. C. Escher painting on acid?” I cut in.
“Exactly.” He laughed. “Boy, I’m glad you said that. Everyone’s been talking about things I don’t understand.”
“I’m glad you got it,” I admitted. “We’re all from different worlds, some more different than others. It’s hard to find a common pop culture reference sometimes.”
“Yeah, I asked someone if we were a team of X-Men, and she looked at me in utter disgust. I don’t think she got it.”
I laughed. “Where are you from, then?”
“Earth, uh….” He lifted his arm and pulled back his sleeve; I caught a glimpse of hastily scrawled writing on his skin. “F?986, the captain said.”
“Just call him the Old Man. Everyone does. And that’s not going to help you with taking tests here,” I informed him, indicating the notes on his arm.
“Never did,” he replied, looking a little sheepish. “I have the feeling I’m going to fall way behind
.”
“It’s not so bad.” Damn it—I was liking him more and more, despite my initial decision not to. “Mostly a lot of memorizing, but we’re good at that. I mean, I am, so that means you are, right?”
“I guess so. Man, I can’t…I mean, you’re me. You look like me. Everyone here is me.”
“I’m not,” Acacia spoke up, and I had to admit I’d almost forgotten she was there.
“I was going to ask about that. Are you…” He paused, and she just looked at him with a faintly amused, expectant look. “Who are you?”
“Acacia Jones,” she offered.
“Don’t call her ‘Casey,’” I advised, and he grinned. She elbowed me in the side, a little harder than necessary.
“Acacia Jones, the mystery of InterWorld,” said a new voice, and I glanced up to see Jerzy. The birdlike version of me was holding a single plate instead of a tray, with a modest amount of food on it.
“I’m just a mystery in general,” she told him, winking. His feathers ruffled a bit—mine would have, too, if I’d had any. Probably for a different reason, though.
“Or so you like to make us think.” He smirked at her; Jerzy wasn’t one to take crap from anyone, pretty girls included. “You work hard on your image, huh?”
“Don’t have to,” she replied cheerfully. “You guys are all doing it for me.”
Joaquim snorted. I decided I liked him a little bit more. Jerzy joined us at the table.
