Chapter Thirteen
Setting his navy blue book bag against the leg of his assigned desk, Tim gazed
at the empty chair next to his and frowned – before sliding into the gray
plastic seat in front of his computer. It just didn’t feel right being in the
Office Skills class without his best friend being there. Heaven knew that ever
since their first year of middle school Paul and him had always taken the same
classes, so they could sit together – especially if the class was going to be
something technical.
But starting this week things were going to be different. It was going to be the way things were during the six months Paul lived in North Carolina, and he still resided in South Florida. Just like then, somehow he was going to have to make it on his own for awhile.
Awhile. … Hmm. … That’s such a funny word. … Will Paul’s absence actually be for only awhile? Tim wondered. After all, if he was out because of having the flu or some virus, then he would be back in awhile – a couple of days, or maybe even a week or two at the most.
Unfortunately, things weren’t that simple. Paul was currently a patient at Duke Medical Center. And according to the info Mrs. Pontiac gave Tim’s father, their highly specialized doctors had recently reluctantly admitted there was a grave possibility his best friend may never leave. … At least not alive.
This wasn’t the way I had planned things to be, Tim angrily thought as he stretched his arm in order to turn on his computer.
The uncaring Dell desktop, being a multi-core system only a few months old – soon flashed its colorful Windows logo across its black fifteen-inch flat screen monitor in reply.
We were suppose to finish high school together, Tim continued in his thoughts. And then use the MIT college scholarships Titan Industries was going to provide. After that, both of us were planning on taking the program developer positions, they had offered in their contract.
Briefly forgetting his friend’s critical situation, Tim smiled at the thought.
Just imagine – Both Paul and I, working for my Dad in a PC Game development team at Titan Industries. … Wow!
Unfortunately, “reality” soon prevailed and Tim’s smile faded faster than a sand drawing on the seashore when hit with a tsunami at high tide.
“I brought the DVD like you asked, ” Daniel said, interrupting Tim’s thoughts as he reached across Paul’s empty chair with the metallic-coated disk clutched between his thumb and forefinger. “Maybe sometime during class you can look at my files and tell me what I’m doing wrong. … I thought I had the 3-D graphics coded correctly. But whenever I run Plutonium’s Revenge, everything beyond the initial start-up screen soon becomes one super jumbled mess.”
“What?” Tim gave his young friend a puzzled expression as he turned toward him. He then realized what his younger compadre was referring to and took the silver-colored object out of his hand. “Okay, Daniel. I’ll look at it if I get a chance. Otherwise, it will have to wait until school’s out – that is, IF I’m able to convince Mrs. Pontiac to give me a ride home, so I can skip the bus.”
Daniel pursed his lips and nodded that he understood.
“Sandra Anderson,” Mr. Thompson yelled, beginning his tedious daily roll call.
“Here,” a blonde longhaired girl replied.
“Steven Bates.”
“Here.”
“Charles Bellows.”
At least, Mr. Thompson seems to be taking Paul’s absence in stride, Tim thought, pressing the slotted button on the front of the system’s DVD player.
Dropping the circular metallic-colored disc inside, Tim watched as its drive slowly closed and then proceeded to click his mouse a few times the moment the DVD’s green drive light flashed on.
“Tom Godwin.”
“Here.”
“Cindy Greystone”
“Here.”
“Timothy Hegler.”
No answer.
Mr. Thompson lifted his head and began to gaze down the aisle where Tim was supposed to be sitting.
“Timothy Hegler,” he repeated, catching sight of the fire red haired teenager intently staring at his PC.
Daniel instantly turned toward him and panicked. “Tim. Quick. You need to say ‘HERE’.”
“Huh?” Tim jerked his head out of the screen he’d been studying so he could face his obviously disturbed friend. “What you want, Daniel? I’m busy trying to find your error like I said I would.”
“Mr. Thompson’s waiting for you,” Daniel silently shouted as their Office Skills instructor repeated Tim’s name an additional time. “Say ‘HERE’ so we can proceed with the roll call.”
“Okay. Okay. Don’t have a cow.” Tim twisted around to face the instructor and gave him a sheepish grin. “I’m here, Mr. Thompson. … Sorry … I was so involved with trying to fix Daniel’s problem, I didn’t hear ya.”
“That’s obvious, Mr. Hegler,” Mr. Thompson said, folding his arms in a manner which reflected the irritation shown by the wrinkle in the middle of his forehead. “Now … if you don’t mind, Tim, I’d like you to join the rest of the class. Or would that be too much to ask since apparently you ‘d prefer to be working on the game our computer club’s developing?”
Tim’s cheeks rapidly turned a shade of crimson red as the other students within the classroom chuckled.
“Yes, sir. … I mean no sir,” Tim stuttered as he moved his mouse in order to minimize his code-editing program. “I’ll try to pay attention – Sir.”
“I’m glad,” Mr. Thompson sarcastically replied, then resumed taking roll.
*****
In what seemed to be a matter of only a few short minutes, Tim soon came to realize it was time to shut down the computer since the end of the fourth period bell had commenced to repeatedly clang.
“Were you able to find anything?” Daniel nervously asked as he slung his official black and red NC State University book bag on top of his desk, so he could open it and drop his Plutonium’s Revenge’s DVD inside.
Tim aggressively shook his head no, and the grimace showing across his face underscored his disappointment. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to continue examining the code after school this afternoon.”
Daniel frowned as he lifted the bag over his shoulders and stuck his arms inside its straps.
“Are you sure you’re gonna be able to hang over? You told me earlier you would have to ask Mrs. Pontiac for a ride.”
“I’m still going to need to,” Tim replied, turning toward the Office Skills classroom’s opened front door. “Hopefully she’ll be in her office when I pass by on my way to my sixth period P.E. class. … If she isn’t or for some reason can’t take me home, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.”
Daniel nodded okay. “I understand. Thanks, Tim.”
Fortunately, for both of them – Paul’s mother was busy filling out reports on her computer when Tim stopped by.
*****
Much later that afternoon, while in the Office Skills classroom – still trying to locate Daniel’s 3-D coding errors, Tim decided to give his eyes a short break and glanced toward the clock located near the top of the front wall. It stated it was already 4:30.
Uh. Oh, he thought. We’re going to have to wrap things up soon. Mrs. Pontiac could be here any minute now.
“Did you find my mistake?” Daniel asked, noticing Tim turning back toward his monitor.
“No.” Giving Daniel a brief frown, he continued to study the code in front of him. “What I’ve seen so far all looks correct so I don’t know why it’s refusing to display the game’s graphics properly. … Maybe I should check to see if it displays correctly in 2-D. That way I could be certain this is an isolated 3-D coding error.”
“I sure wish Paul could be here,” Daniel offhandedly remarked, moving his chair a bit closer to Tim’s screen. “I’d make a bet he would know how to fix it.”
Tim immediately leaned backwards in his seat, and it seemed like he was about to laugh.
“Daniel, my friend. If there was any way possible Paul could somehow be here, not only would this problem already been fixed, most likely we’d be halfway home by now. Unfortunately though, that’s not the case. At the moment, it’s up to me to try to figure out this complex gobbley-gook stuff since no one else in our computer club has ever worked with 3-D graphics.”
“Is there any possible way you could give Paul a call? He might be able to fix the problem over the phone.” Daniel’s red spidery-laced eyes reflected the desperation the poor kid was feeling.
“I doubt it,” Tim answered as Mrs. Pontiac casually strolled through the classroom’s open door. “From what I’ve heard he’s pretty darn weak and still has to have another operation.”
Daniel’s mouth instantly dropped. “Will Paul be able to survive another one? … He’s been through two already.”
Tim slowly nodded no while noticing Mrs. Pontiac was pointing at her wristwatch.
Understanding the silent message Paul’s mother had given, he selected the option which would tell the program he was running to re-encrypt the code he’d been working on and save the file. However, soon after he clicked the proper icon, a bold, bright-red, 36-point, Franklin Gothic font, error message unexpectedly appeared.
“That’s strange. … Daniel, did you make a revised copy of our game before you left class yesterday?”
Daniel negatively shook his head. “No. The one I’ve been using was made last Friday.”
“Are you sure?” Tim asked, raising his eyebrow – before clicking the part of the program that would display the day and time of the last five times each file within their game had been accessed. … He then frowned. “According to this, someone last night successfully copied an encrypted version of our game.”
“Last night?” Daniel repeated, rising from his chair as Mrs. Pontiac walked up to their table. “That can’t be. Would you know anything about anyone copying our program Mrs. Pontiac?”
“No. I don’t,” she replied, looking at Tim and then towards Daniel. “No one’s supposed to be in the building after five P.M. unless there’s a scheduled event.”
Tim’s eyebrows turned downward as he double-checked the date and time stamp in front of him.
“Mrs. Pontiac,” he said, before pausing. “According to my program, it seems like not only did someone break into the school last night. They illegally made a copy of our game.”