Sometimes it seemed as if Alan had a “Do Not Disturb” sign over his head or in front of his computer (well, not really in front of his computer because then he wouldn’t be able to see the screen) for whenever he made a public appearance, he would more often be found deeply engrossed in his current program. The term “public appearance” had to be applied rather loosely; usually the “public” consisted of three people. Three very specific people.
“Alan, what do you do all day?” Emily asked him.
“What do you think I do all day?” he replied without looking up from his laptop.
“Um, program?”
“That would be accurate.”
“What do you program though? I mean, how much could you possibly do?”
“Could you ever finish learning?” he deadpanned back, voice emotionless and obviously not focused on the conversation.
“No. I guess not.” Emily pondered that analogy. She supposed that it was valid enough. “Well, you don’t have to do it every single day, do you?”
“No.”
“Then why do you?”
A long pause. Neither one of them spoke, but the light, perpetual clicking of Alan’s fingers typing filled the space. His eyes remained trained on the screen in front of him, the glare glinting off his glasses.
“Alan?”
“Yes?”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Why do you keep learning? Why do you keep going to school?”
“Um, because it’s required...” She wasn’t sure where this was going. That was the easy answer.
“If it wasn’t required, would you still go to school?”
“I- yes. If there were teachers to teach still,” Emily replied. “I’d want to find out more. And I like it when other people can explain things to me. It’s so much easier.”
“Why don’t you just teach yourself? It’s so much more efficient.”
“Well,” she thought for a moment. “That would be really lonely. Don’t you miss the company of other people?”
“I am surrounded every day by humans.”
Emily was about to argue his point, but Chris decided to interject in their conversation.
“You’re one to talk, Emily! As if you aren’t the most antisocial person ever!” exclaimed the other girl in their group.
“I- what? I’m not antisocial!” the girl in question tried to defend herself.
“You’re not to us, but other people marvel at how much you can actually talk,” Chris teased.
“Are- are you trying to insult me?” Emily stuttered.
“Nope. Just stating a fact of life.”
“Seth!” Emily called out to the light haired boy. “Help me!”
“Well, I can’t really argue against Chris. From what I recall, she tried to invite you to our table for lunch a few times last year, but you always looked a bit uncomfortable around us, so she stopped. I guess you liked reading your books alone?”
The boy looked over at his long time friend. “When Chris actually eats lunch of course,” he appended. It had gotten better, but there was a stage when Chris followed in her brother’s footsteps and did nothing but play basketball all lunch. Then she would be starving during fifth period and Seth would hear all about it.
“I’m glad that you’ve decided to join us this year though,” stated Chris cheerily. After working on science labs with them at least four out of five days every week, Emily had warmed up to the other three and agreed to join them for lunch. For Seth, it was most likely a way of convincing Chris to not spend her lunch break playing sports and to actually eat instead. When Chris tried to ditch them (and their new friend) to go play in the P.E. area, Seth would pull the guilt card.
“Anyways, Emily is right though, Alan. You should stop programming for a while and talk to people. At least talk to us.”
“I never have much to say.”
“Ha haha,” Seth laughed mirthlessly. Chris would always be the one to fill up most of the conversations among the four of them. During class it often had to do with complaining about how hard the material was.
The low-pitched electronic beep went off, signaling the end of lunch. Five minutes to get to class.
“Time to go,” stated Seth. He collected his trash and dumped it in a nearby trash can.
“Woohoo! Social Studies time!” exclaimed Chris.
Usually Chris didn’t care much for the subject, but last year, the Medieval Period had peaked her interest, and this year, the teacher was the funniest guy ever. On the other hand, Chris did resent that she had to choose a female Eminent American for their big project since she would much rather wear a suit than a dress for the skit and presentation portion. The rule that males had to research male Eminent Americans and females had to research female Eminent Americans wasn’t implemented until a few years ago. Apparently some cases of cross-dressing caused a little too much confusion.
“Did you write your outline yet?” Emily asked. This was mostly addressed at Chris since Alan wasn’t in their class and Seth would have finished his long ago.
“Outline? Shoot. When is that due?”
“Tomorrow, but I'm turning mine in today since we'll be gone on a band trip this weekend.”
“Oh, okay. Safe. Phew.” Chris swiped some nonexistent sweat off her brow in relief. Then, looking the other way, she muttered, “D’arvit.”
