Augmentum

I was in the portal building, standing on one of several round plates in the main portal room, but concentrating on my bedroom. The next instant I was there, in my bedroom. The sun was still high in the sky. How cool was that!?

I had to remember what I was supposed to be doing now. Oh yeah, Mom had to stay for a meeting so I needed to pick up Gemi from Mrs. White. I ran downstairs and out the side door to our carport. Then I walked next door and rang the doorbell.

Listening, I could hear Gemi crying inside. After a minute Mrs. White came to the door carrying Gemi, who had stopped crying, but started up again as soon as she saw me.

“There you are, just in time,” she said over the crying. “She just got into the pan cabinet, and pulled one out, right on her foot.”

I reached out and took her into my arms and started rubbing her back. “I understand,” I said. “She gets into everything. And she's fast.”

“Hang on. I'll go get her things.” She left me on the stoop.

“You're so much trouble,” I said to Gemi. “But you're too cute.”

When Mrs. White came back, she handed me her diaper bag, which I draped over my shoulder.

“Thank you for watching her.” I took Gemi back to our house, who stopped crying on the way.

I put her in her highchair, so I could get us both a snack. I was starving. It had been hours since I had eaten lunch. I'm not sure how many. I got out some baby food for Gemi and started feeding her while I made some toast for me. I slathered it with jam and got a drink from the fridge.

After our snacks I took her to my bedroom and sat her down with some toys. I sat next to her and got out my homework. I tried to read, but she kept trying to turn the pages, tearing some of them. I ended up having to move it out of her reach. I was able to get some of it done, but she kept needing my attention. Eventually, mom came home and took her off my hands, so I could finish up my homework.

Dad came home and had dinner with us. Thankfully, he was sober and in a much better mood. After dinner I went back to my room. I was getting tired but wanted to have time to explore my agent and learn about the augments that Ivy talked about.

Pawg, can you show me the list of available augments?

A list of them appeared in front of me. It looked like a piece of paper with the list, floating in the air. If I looked in different directions, the paper moved wherever I looked.

How do I control what you show me?

[I recognize multiple gestures by default. If you want, you can change them or teach me more. With your hand in the shape of the letter C, move it to control where the visual interface is placed in your vision. With that same hand shape, open your fingers to zoom closer to make the window larger or pinch them to zoom out and make it smaller. Use two fingers together to scroll the contents within the interface. To follow a link or press a button, point to it with one finger, or you can think or say the name. Use a full hand swipe to dismiss and hide the interface.]

I played with the controls for a while, so I could get used to them. It felt very similar to using a phone or tablet. Nice! I started studying the augments list being shown. Looking at the physical ones, I tried to think which ones would really help me. Some of them were self explanatory, but I wasn’t sure about the others. I discovered that each was a link which would take me to a detailed definition. I learned that Agility was quickness, Allure was physical attraction, Dexterity was hand manipulation, Might was strength, Stability was balance, Stamina was endurance, and Vitality was health and energy.

Moving on to the Mental augments, I learned that Charm was likability, Confidence was self esteem, Creativity helps to generate better ideas, Imagination helps to conceptualize better, Persuasion was believability, Prescience helps you predict the future, Resilience helps you handle stress, Retention improves memory, Wisdom helps you apply knowledge better, and Wit was intelligence.

There were many skills to choose from. But for choosing the best augments, I really needed to decide what I wanted to do in the future. Before things changed yesterday, I had thought that I would become a teacher, like my mother. However, physical activities weren’t something I was very good at. And, I really didn’t like being around a lot of people. So, maybe I should change my target career?

Now that I had met the people at the Academy and the… Visitors, I suddenly wanted to explore, and travel to other worlds, to see places and things that no one had ever seen, at least things that very few in our world knew about. Ivy talked about being summoned to do jobs or to handle emergencies. So, I should consider things that would help me do that, also.

Considering the physical list again, I’m thinking about picking Agility, Might and Stamina. Those would each help me do a lot of different things. For the mental augments, I definitely need confidence. Should I choose the other based on what I need, like charm, persuasion, or wisdom. Or should I choose things I already have some of and make them better, like creativity, prescience, or retention. I needed to think about these more. On the skills list, I was already musical, but I knew nothing about combat, defense, strategy or weapons. It seems like those would be better for boys to pick, but maybe I should get better, at least so I could defend myself.

I woke up very groggy the next morning. Looking around, I realized I had slept in my clothes, without getting ready for bed. I quickly made my way to the bathroom to take care of my full bladder. Then I took a quick shower and brushed my teeth, and started to feel fresher. After getting dressed and taking care of the rats nest on my head, I joined mom in the kitchen. She was making eggs on toast, with orange juice to drink.

“I didn’t see you last night after dinner,” she said. “When I checked, you were asleep in your clothes. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m good now. I must have been really tired last night. I don’t even remember falling asleep.” Changing the subject, I said, “How did your meeting go yesterday?”

She sighed. “Some students were causing problems, and contacting their parents just made the situation worse. We are going to have to be much stricter with the rules and document every infraction, as if I wasn’t busy enough already. I’m glad you are a good student.” She smiled and winked at me.

As we drove to school that morning, the sky was overcast and looked like it might rain later. While I waited for school to start I was reviewing my new classes at the academy. It looked like I only had four, with three before lunch and one after. I had discovered that the students boarding at the academy had more classes than those who were living at home. I supposed that was to cover the general education classes they would miss otherwise.

When it was time to go to class, I left and went to my locker, stepping only on the colored tiles and touching each piller I passed in the hallway. I swapped out books in my locker and then turned to go to my first class. When a group of girls passed me in the hallway, I heard a gasp.

“Keyva! You’re alive.” It was Ava Bennett. “I was so worried. Where did you go yesterday? We saw you by that tree, or at least we thought we did. We were chasing that silver thing. Then you and it disappeared. We looked all over for you.” A bunch of girls she had been walking with were standing there, looking at us. Others had stopped too.

What should I say? Can I lie? I hate lying. But I don’t see any way around it here, especially with everyone watching.

“What? You guys ran off, and I went home.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. “I had to take care of my niece.”

She looked at me strangely. “Well, I’m glad you are okay. Sorry about Keisha. I don’t know what she was thinking.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so there was an awkward pause. My face was getting hot. I hated to be the center of attention. Then she turned and walked away with her friends.

During my classes that day, I got distracted looking things up with Pawg. It was thrilling that I could have full access to the internet when no one could tell. Using phones or tablets was forbidden in most classes. I noticed a couple of kids near me gave me strange looks, seeing me do random things with my hands in front of me. I just ignored them and tried to make my gestures smaller. But if they were too small, they didn’t work. I needed to work with Pawg on more ways to control the interface when I couldn’t easily use my hands.

On the way to the lunchroom I had a question. Pawg, how do I use you to make a phone call?

[I am not yet set up to connect to the cellular network. Would you like to do that?]

Yes.

[You will need to press the following keys on your phone keypad.] He gave me a series of keys which I had to press in order. [Done. I can now send and receive calls and texts using your same phone number. I can also record, playback and transcribe your calls and voicemail. When you receive a phone call you may choose to answer using my interface or your phone. If you don’t want your phone to ring, leave it in silent mode.]

Awesome, one more thing taken care of. I was eating my lunch at the social rejects table. That’s what some of the popular kids called it. We weren’t exactly friends, but we were at least friendly, if you know what I mean, usually choosing to eat our lunch in silence. That’s when Keisha, Macie and a small group of their followers walked up to me, most of whom hated my presence.

“Ava said you weren’t dead,” Keisha declared.

“Yup,” I said. Nothing to see here. Just go away.

“I told Macie that you were coming to her party with a date,” Keisha said.

“I expect to see you there, with your date, or one will be provided,” Macie said.

“Why do you want me to come to your party?” I asked.

“It’s your punishment, what you chose,” Keisha said.

“I’d rather do your homework for a week, than go to a stupid party,” I said.

“Do both of our’s for a month, and you have a deal.”

I stared at them. “Fine, I’ll go to your party.”

“Remember your date,” Keisha said with a smirk. Then they all walked away.

I was nearly finished with my lunch when a tall blonde boy walked up to me. “Hi, I’m Brad. I heard you need a date for Macie’s party. I’d be happy to go with you.”

I looked at him. “Really, you want to take me? Do you even know who I am?”

“Sure, you’re ah… Kayla, right?”

“No, I’m Keyva.”

“Oh, sorry, Keyva. Sure, I’ll take you. Just text me your address and I’ll pick you up.”

“You have a license, right?”

He looked at me strangely. “Of course.”

We exchanged phone numbers and I sent him my address. I didn’t have a good feeling about this, but I guess I was committed now. At least I didn’t have to try to find a date myself.

Let’s just get this over with.