Michael tapped his pencil on the desk, waiting impatiently as he stared at the clock. Five more minutes until lunch. The red second hand crept around the face, passing each number painfully slowly. Michael’s eyes shifted focus between the clock and the whiteboard. Formulas in dry erase markers and in his notebook in front of him might as well have been written in Egyptian hieroglyphics or Klingon. All he wanted was to leave before his stomach growled embarrassingly loudly. And have hot-ish pizza with his friends at the lunch table, where for forty-six minutes a day, he didn’t have to endure forced learning and monotonous teachers. As soon as the bell rang, chairs scooted and screeched, notebooks rustled and closed, and Michael fell in with the rush out into the hallway.

The cafeteria echoed with Kennedy High School’s sixth period lunch already two minutes underway when Michael arrived at his usual lunch table. His friends Ryan and Trey were huddled together watching a live stream on Ryan’s phone. 

“What are you watching?” Michael asked.

“It’s a new game coming out called Nova Galactica,” Trey said, not looking up. “It’s made by Riddle Games–the same developer who made Forge of Steel: Axis vs. Allies, Age of Crusades, and Suburbia Planner.”

Michael took a seat next to Trey. “Oh yeah, I think I’ve heard of Nova Galactica. It’s the one where you create aliens and explore the galaxy, right?”

“Yup,” Ryan said. His pudgy fingers felt around a soda can and popped the top without drawing his gaze away from the screen.  “I pre-ordered it last week.”

“You got the cat alien race?” Trey asked.

“The cat race and the bonus soundtrack too.”

“Lucky.” Trey opened his lunch box and unpacked a vegan feast. He bought school lunch on hamburger day with his own money sometimes, but mostly, he just choked down endless amounts of chickpea chips and jicama sticks. “I asked for it for my birthday, but I got a zen garden instead.”

“You should buy it yourself,” Ryan said, stuffing cheesy crackers into his mouth with his other hand, making sure the phone was still positioned so Michael could watch. “What’s the point of having a job if you can’t buy stuff?”

Trey shrugged. His shaggy blonde hair hung in his eyes and he pushed it aside with a puny forearm that wasn’t as big around as his elbow.

“Get it tonight. Then we can design our races and start together.”

“If I do, I’m making mine a race of scientists.”

With cracker crumbs falling from his mouth, Ryan said, “You should download it too, Mike. I’ll invite you to my Discord voice call. We’re getting started at seven.”

Michael huddled in closer as the streamer made adjustments to his ship templates changing out weapons and armor for the ships.

The bell rang and Michael’s stomach growled. “Oh, man! I’m starving and missed getting in line!” 

“You can have my zucchini chips,” Trey said.

Michael paused and then took the offered bag. “Thanks,” he muttered before hurrying off to his locker. He forced tasteless snacks down while stuffing his math book and binder into the top cubby, and filled his backpack with everything he’d need for the afternoon. As he walked down the hall, he put a note on his phone–order Nova Galactica.

Friday afternoons were always long, but that afternoon was made longer by the missed pizza, the preoccupying thoughts of the ship design Ryan was so excited about, and the unpleasant film left behind on Michael’s tongue by the Zum-Yums–which he thought ought to be sued for false advertising, as they were anything but yum.

When Michael got home he had nine texts from Ryan, all links to live streams. He grabbed a banana and a soda from the kitchen and headed to his room. After entering the information from his pre-paid credit card, he laid on the floor and listened to music with headphones while Nova Galactica downloaded. Strategy games were his favorite. So much better than the huge online MMOs where you had to create teams to advance. It would be good to play with his friends but not have the rest of the world to contend with. Thinking about friends reminded Michael to check his phone and join Ryan’s Discord group.

While the download was running, Michael searched through Ryan’s links, which included a “Quick Guide for Newbies.”

Stolen story; please report.

“Twenty-eight minutes!” Michael scrolled the time stamps and picked one that looked interesting.

“Now that we’ve collected some steel,” the narrator said, “we can begin constructing new ships and divisions.” Michael followed along while the video showed how to design templates for ships, and which statistics the player should keep an eye on. 

Grandma came up the stairs, stopping by Michael’s open bedroom door. “Michael, your mom is just finishing up dinner.”

“Okay,” he muttered, after popping one headphone off his ear so he could hear her.

“Twenty minutes, she told me.”

“Okay, Grandma.” He shifted the headphones to cover his ears again and closed his eyes to listen to the rest of the guide. She went past his room, to the bedroom at the end of the hall.

Three minutes later, the lights flickered. 

Michael sat up and ran from his room.

“Grandma?” He knocked on her bedroom door. “You aren’t vacuuming, are you?”

The door opened. “No,” she said. “Just turned my heater on.” Behind her, the electric fireplace blasted out warm air. A radio news program came from the bedside table, and her reading lamp was on the brightest setting.

“Okay. I have something running on my computer, so don’t plug anything else in or it’ll mess up my download.”

“I’ll let you know before I do. See you downstairs, Michael.”

He put his headphones away and plugged in his phone (which wasn’t allowed at the dinner table). Michael walked downstairs and into the kitchen where his mom was taking lasagna out of the oven. The kitchen was warm and smelled like garlic and oregano. 

“Michael,” Mom said, there you are. I haven’t seen you since you got home. Are you doing your homework? Mr. Wilson said that you have a test coming up…”

“Yeah, I’ve been studying.” Michael zoned out while he set the table. “Should I set a plate for Dad?”

“I don’t know. He’s off in his own world. He could be coming home in fifteen minutes or in three hours for all we know. Just worry about the three of us for now.”

Michael sat at the table and waited until Mom and Grandma joined him before heaping lasagna onto his plate. “Pass the garlic bread and parmesan.”

“Don’t forget you have that chemistry test coming up soon in Mr. Wilson’s class, his email said it’s about ionic and covalent bonding. Sounds like something you should probably study.”

Michael thought himself old enough to manage his own schedule and prioritize what he needed to study, but he didn’t say anything. He’d have plenty of time to look at his notes and do some Googling to fill in the blanks over the weekend. It was nearly time to meet his friends online, so he cleared his plate and skipped seconds. Michael started the dishes while Mom and Grandma finished eating.

He rushed back upstairs to check that the download was complete. His computer fan whirred quietly and he wiggled the mouse. When the screen opened, a new icon appeared. A little spaceship on a black background. Michael moused over it and double-clicked, opening Nova Galactica. He clicked through the instructions and when the next prompt came up on the screen, asking whether he wanted to continue with the tutorial or skip, Michael clicked skip. 

He put on his headphones and joined the voice call with Ryan and Trey. They were already a few minutes into designing their aliens, and having a heated discussion about what space cats should actually look like. Michael was too focused on creating his own alien race to listen to too closely. He had other plans. Something so much better than cats.

“All right guys,” Michael said, “I have my aliens done, now all I need is a name.” 

“My aliens are called The Galactic Gatos,” Ryan said. “Get it? They’re space cats!”

“Well, what do they do?” Trey asked.

“They’re resistant to different environments, they prefer more balanced climates, but they’re fine at surviving hot, cold, wet, dry, you name it.”

“Oh sounds like you made some tardigrades,” Trey said, chuckling.

“Good idea!” Michael said. “Maybe The Tardigrade Republic.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Trey said. He always spoke in a quiet, barely there way. Michael had only seen him excited once–when he’d found a giant green caterpillar on his tomato plants and brought it to school. Maybe that’s why Trey and Ryan were such good friends. Trey was quiet and unassuming, and really into bugs and other weird stuff, and Ryan was loud and sort of a know-it-all, and he didn’t care what anyone else was interested in because inevitably, he’d shift the conversation back to himself. 

“Okay,” Michael said, “I’m going to go through the process of organizing my capital planet’s affairs.”

“Is it united under one government?” Ryan asked.

“Um…looks like it. It has several factions.”

“Okay, I’ll text you a link.”

Michael’s phone beeped.

“Skip ahead to Four minutes thirty-nine and see what he says about governing bodies. You definitely need to know this stuff before playing.”

“I’ll watch it later,” Michael said. “It’s not like we’re building real colonies with real politics. I mean, it doesn’t matter if my aliens are pacifists or warlords, it’s just a game.”

“I’m making mine pacifists,” Trey said. “They grow all their food in huge greenhouses.

“You would make a vegan alien race,” Ryan scoffed. “Haven’t you had enough of that in your own life? Make a science-driven bloodthirsty horde.”

“Yeah, Trey,” Michael piped in. “Live a little. Be adventurous. Like Ryan said, it isn’t like it has to make sense in the real world.