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Two little intruders dashed around the corner of the arcade and hid behind a dumpster. They leaned against the wall, shoulder to shoulder, gasping. After a moment the girl's eyes met the boy's, and a colossal grin split her face.
She leapt into his arms for a hug, and spun him around. When he didn't immediately hug her back, she peeled off to give him time to breathe.
Before long though, she remembered that moment with Guinevere and started flapping her hands for sheer glee.
"That was so awesome, that was so awesome!" Frankie crowed over and over, marching in a circle. She kept at this until she slipped on a soggy wrapper.
Joseph caught her before she fell, and the instant she recovered she was right in his face, going "did you see that? Did you see how she smiled at me!?"
"Yeah, I was there," Joey wheezed.
"She knew my name!" Frankie squealed, and whirled away to geek out some more.
While Frankie went on, Joseph peered down the alley. He kept watch for park security so Frank could drink in the moment. He nodded along to her words, not paying much attention until-
"How did she know my name? And how did she not know yours?"
His blood ran cold when she reminded him. How could Guinevere call him… that?
She turned to him, asking, "what did she call you, Audrey or something? What was that about?"
"Some girl ran by right when she asked," he lied, not looking at her. "That must have scrambled her."
Frankie snickered. "You with a girl name."
She sidled up next to him, smile growing sharper. "Girly Joey."
"Listen, I," Joseph stammered, backing up. He tried to find an out for what he could feel happening. He was too late.
She took a fistfull of his hair and jeered "you girl boy, with your girl hair, and now a girl name!"
He tried to protest, but his voice failed him. Every word he tried just came out in a pathetic squeak.
She danced around him, chanting "girl-boy, girl-boy!" Normally Frankie never got this mean, but apparently the ingrained instinct to root out the sissy goes deeper than friendship.
"Just wait until Reggie hears about this one," she said, and busted up laughing like this was the most innocent fun and not something life or death.
"No, nonono please-" Joey gripped her shoulders, and begged "Frankie, please, you cannot tell anyone."
His fingers dug in tighter than he meant, but the pinch pulled Frankie out of her tirade.
When she saw the look in his eyes, her face softened into concern. Then she covered it with a snort, and gave his arm a perfunctory punch.
"Whatever, girlboy," Frankie replied, but all the venom was gone. She wouldn't be telling anyone.
She stepped away, saying "let's just get outta here."
She won't tell. Oh thank God, thank fucking God. Joseph wanted to hug her, but if he did he thought he might cry, and he couldn't do that right now. So he just hugged himself and tried to hold it together.
Frankie pulled Boombox out of her pocket. "Oh Boomie," she asked in a queenly voice, "where might two damsels in distress find egress from this place?"
"Hey, knock it off!"
She stuck her tongue out, and ran off along the path Boombox recommended. "Come and make me!"
Several more adventures were had in the struggle to get home, and the two laughed together all the while. The girlboy taunts kept up for a little while, but Frankie dropped it once they were back in M7. By the time they made it home to the orphanage it seemed like Frankie had forgotten all about it. Which made sense. It was far from the funniest moment, or the most tantalizing secret. At least as far as she knew.
After dinner they shared one last meaningful glance over clasped hands, then separated to the sleeping rooms. They were divided by gender. So Francesca filed in with the girls, and Joseph had to go back with the boys.
He hurried to his bunk and curled up under the covers. He hated this place, and he wasn't good at hiding it. Joseph was the youngest one in this room. Frankie's loyal, bitey protection was the only thing that kept the older boys from tearing him to shreds.
He waited, listening to the other boys sneak off to the attic with the old computer. Time to hunt down their nightly dose of sick shit. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups, but never in pairs. That'd be gay. They would wait a while after the last one returned, then slip down from their bed and out the door.
It had been silent for a while now. Even under the covers, he could feel their eyes on his back.
His turn.
He crept down the creaky hallway, to the place where the attic was left open. The attic door was one of those ones with the stairs built in. No easy way to close it behind yourself.
Up the splintery steps he went, and found the computer still on. Still open to- oh Jesus, come on.
He kept his eyes unfocused as he closed out of the orange tabs the last boy had left up, and went to change accounts (fucking Reggie. It was always Reggie leaving his shit open.)
Once he was safely in his own account, Joseph took a few steadying breaths. His own desktop was fastidious, with only three folders. The first one was BLOOD, which had pirated video games in it. The second was PiratedGamez, which he'd filled with gore videos. Because fuck snoopers.
The third was SchoolStuff, which contained a bunch of subfolders with all his essays and some books he'd downloaded. One of them, FinalDraftBackups_2, was locked behind a password. It would be easy to explain as not wanting to accidentally screw up his storage.
Inside was a bunch of pirated Guinevere media. Plus some fan stuff he collected from around the web, which got more and more unsavory the deeper you went…
He hovered over it. Two clicks, and the password entry window popped up. His hands froze over the keys.
The password was simple. It was a name that did not belong to him.
Stomach twisting, he glanced back towards the entrance of the attic. No. No, he couldn't do this tonight.
He closed out the password window, then the whole folder. Instead he opened the web browser and went to his bookmarks. He would just look at the name, for now.
The website was perfect. It was just called The Big Book, so in his saved tabs it just looked like another library site. But the UI was really cute, with fields of lavender covered in filigree.
The name was perfect, too. Right near the start of the alphabet, so if anyone did look through it they would think it was a generic landing page.
Not anything he chose. Certainly not something he treasured dearer than-
Andrea
Joseph whipped around in the chair to check for intruders.
The page had loaded faster than he'd expected. He couldn't handle that, not after everything that happened today.
His scrambling had sent the mouse flying off the desk, and he leaned down to pick it up, gaze still fixed on the door. After several minutes spent reaffirming that there was nothing in the attic with him but dusty boxes, he dragged his eyes back to the screen.
To the name.
Andrea.
He loved the sound of it. All the vowels made it feel so free. A shaky smile bloomed on his face, and he whispered it to himself again. Andrea. It sounded like an open meadow. Like skirts rushing in the breeze. Like hope.
Joseph hugged his knees. Boys weren't allowed to love things like that. That was part of why he loved Frankie. Don't get it twisted, they were inseparable. But her obsession with Guinevere gave him cover to tag along, and act like it was all for her sake. And Frankie knew it wasn't. But even she didn't know about this.
He'd kept it jealously hidden. It was among his very darkest secrets. The dirty drawings of Gwen, sure those were weird, but boys are supposed to be dirty. There was no acceptable explanation for this.
"Francesca and Andrea, from M7. What lovely names!"
He looked over his shoulder again. That was the thing. The question that had made him so sick all day.
How did the android know this name? How did Park Planet know what Joey's own family didn't?
How could Guinevere call her by the name that she'd never given to anyone?