I wake from my comfy armchair to find Emma talking to a hologram of someone I don’t know. She hurriedly ends the call when I stand up.

“Hello Alicia, I’ve been waiting for you.” Oh shit. She doesn’t look angry but maybe she is and just hides it.

“I’m sorry for leaving you like that at the party.” What? She is apologizing to me? This was not the turn of events I expected.

“That’s okay, I managed just fine anyway.”

“Still, I was supposed to keep an eye on you but I became occupied and neglected you.”

“I’m not a defenceless kitten, Emma, it’s okay.” I didn’t expect her to take her 'keep and eye on me' duty this serious.

“I heard you had your own fun.” Emma grins mischievously. Yep, that’s more what I expected.

“I don’t know about fun but yes, some things happened.”

“Are you two a couple or what’s going on? I was startled when Alex called me about it.” Of course not!

“There is nothing between me and Milly and never will be. This was just kind of a drunk stupid thing with no meaning to it.”

Emma tries to hide it but she seems relieved. Understandable, would be rather weird for her if we became a couple. I’m not a great sister, not as green as Emma by half, but I still have standards.

“What’s up with you and Daniel?” Let’s turn the table here.

“I don’t know yet but I like him. We will continue to meet and see what happens.”

That was straight forward. Not sure what I think of Daniel yet but I’ll sheer the green people on.

“He seems nice, good luck to the both of you.” Emma smiles brightly at that and nods.

I actually have plans for the day. I’m curious how some of my course mates are doing so I’m going to try for a small gathering. Maybe some of them have a job in one of our rival clubs, would be fun to face them on the pitch. Hopefully I’m not the only assistant manager of the bunch.

I make a couple calls while putting on a smiley persona to entreat the bums to meet. I got two of them, that will have to do. Anders and Jane will meet me at Green Style Café. They exist everywhere in Europe but with good cause, they make delicious cinnamon buns. I take a drone to the location; the cost is 23 Euros. I enter the shop as I have many times before. Something I like is how they aspire to integrate the local culture and language into their shops despite being a global company. Swedish words, a rarity these days, are still present on the menu. Some signs from before the conversion to English hangs on the walls accompanied by paintings and plants. The walls are a light shade of green that has become synonymous with this café.

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I take a seat and a robot in the shape on a man in his thirties walk over with a huge smile plastered on his face. “Dear customer, how may I be of service.” A small bow followed by an expectant look. I would be fooled to think it a human if not for the orange band around his right arm, identifying him as an it.

“A large coffee with milk and a cinnamon bun, please.” I press my ID on a device he holds forth to complete the payment. Really, these ID:s are the very lifeblood of society. There are rumours of people managing to hack the system and practically becoming gods in the process. Unlimited money, unlimited points.

“Ah there you are Alicia, I’m surprised you called like this.” Anders shows up and take a seat opposite me.

“Hello, I guess I just want to know how you guys are doing.”

As before, the waiter shows up and take Anders order.

“Take the hint dammit, what are you up to, are you a manager?” I ask in a huff.

“Impatient as usual I see.” Anders says bemused.

I demonstratively tap my finger on the table.

“Fine, I’m a support coach for Eskilstuna FC.” Hehe support coach? He’s not even an assistant. I lean back with a satisfied grin.

“I take it you did better then?” He says, perturbed by my gesture.

“Assistant manager for Uppsala FC, div 3 women’s team.”

He nods in a thoughtful manner. “Eskilstuna FC is a div 2 men’s team. We started the season strong and aspire for a promotion.”

Ohh, I can’t really say the same for my own team. “So, what’s it like?”

He receives his order from the waiter and take a sip from his coffee. “I like it but as you can imagine, I would rather be first coach.”

Ye I can totally relate to that. We studied and trained to become head coaches not some sidekicks for other people.

He continues. “My plan is to help the team get promoted and hopefully my boss will take a better job so I can take over or at least become an assistant manager.”

“That’s my thoughts too. Help the team achieve success and then take over once the manager flies off to greener pastures.” I would say great minds think alike but I’m far from convinced he has a great mind.

We share about our respective work for a while until Jane shows up too.

“I’m sorry if I’m late!” She walks over in a quick pace.

“Don’t worry about it.” Anders magnanimously says. Pff like he called this group together.

“Hey, Jane nice to see you again.” I proclaim.

She takes a seat and order tea and a chocolate cake. She practically vibrates with excitement.

“Have you heard?” She leans in conspiratorially while looking over her shoulder.

“Heard what?” Anders asks.

“The war of course, what else!” She exclaims. She immediately lowers her voice and look around again.

“Wait, what war?” I can’t keep some trepidation from my voice. I don’t know anything about war other than what we learned from school.

“There are rumours about a war against the black zones.”

“How’d you know about something like that?” Anders offers, unconvinced.

“You know, rumours spread. Anyway, that’s the word. I wonder what will happen if war does break out?”

“But why? We have never had war before so why start now?” I voice emphatically. What would something like that even mean to me?

Jane holds up her hands. “Hey, I don’t know anything more. There’s chatter about it in the big VR domains.”

Well this made my whole quest of prying into fellow coaches’ careers feel silly and inconsequential. Not like a war would impact me directly, I think, but it’s still a scary notion. I’m not even sure what countries are part of the infamous black zone. Only those nations who refuse the HHI system are categorized as such. I remember something about it from school. Countries filled with immoral degenerates who refused to be judged by a system because they know they would fail. They are rather excluded from the system than to be reds, as failed people tend to be.

Our speculations continue until we call it quits and depart, each in their own transport drone.