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Bella plays the fantasy game again now - it is less fun than flying, all raw physicality and poise, in the battle room, but it now compares favorably with a decent fraction of books. She plays it in front of her launch and the boys want to know where in the hell this setting came from.
"Go to the Giant's Drink and I'll show you," she says.
She bypasses the Drink for six boys. They drift through the clouds, but they don't find villages, or pretty landscapes - they just find parts of the game they've already been to.
"Don't look at me, that's the same way I got here," says Bella. She's teaching her bird-people the scientific method now, painstakingly, almost comically, by mime and enthusiastic gestures. They're getting it, a little; a pink-and-gray one has put a cup of water in the sun and a similar cup of water in the shade and is staring at them intently.
By the time Bella has been at Battle School for six weeks she has tried all the games in the game room, and most of them (apart from the newly fascinating fantasy game) are now only interesting if someone will play against her. Most people won't. She's got too much of an advantage over the controls, and even at Battle School, among what really is a better crop of brains than kindergarten, it's apparently too much to ask that anyone think faster.
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"I mean mentally strong," she says, petting his hair while the nurse spreads some kind of bruise-healing ointment on Suicide Watch's leg.
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"Your bird just started flying straight like you weren't there anymore, and I went up and pulled it down, and then your color scheme changed and it showed me a path color," she muses. "That's strange."
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"We have to stop playing it all the time. We have schoolwork and battleroom practice and stuff."
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He gets a needle stick above the cracked rib. They have pretty advanced medicine up there. "I'll write you a note to your launch coordinator to excuse you from the battleroom for four days," the nurse tells Suicide Watch. "You can walk, but no roughhousing or strenuous play."
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"If you need help again you won't be able to telepath at me, but you could try Qiaochu, he's in my launch and most of my classes and he'd be able to tell me where to go most of the time," suggests Bella. "And he's cool about me being a mutant so I don't think he'll mind you."
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She puts her arm around him again. "It's not too far. I got to you in very little time running, it won't be more than a minute or two walking like this."
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They reach her barracks. She has a top bunk, second from the door on the left, and Qiaochu's diagonally one farther back from her. "Hey Qiaochu," she calls. (He's one of the kids who's resisted nicknames.)
"Hi, Bella," he says. "Who's he?"
"He goes without a name. I call him Suicide Watch. But I just rescued him from some bigger kids, and I want you to take messages from him for me if he needs rescuing again, okay? 'Cause I can't -" She taps her temple - "and you're usually around. Is that cool?"
"Yeah, yeah, I take your messages, I your answering machine," says Qiaochu. He's taken up more Battle School slang than she has. "You owe me, though."
"I owe you," she agrees.
"Suicide Watch?" snickers another boy.
"Sue," suggests a third. "For short."
"Hi, Bella," he says. "Who's he?"
"He goes without a name. I call him Suicide Watch. But I just rescued him from some bigger kids, and I want you to take messages from him for me if he needs rescuing again, okay? 'Cause I can't -" She taps her temple - "and you're usually around. Is that cool?"
"Yeah, yeah, I take your messages, I your answering machine," says Qiaochu. He's taken up more Battle School slang than she has. "You owe me, though."
"I owe you," she agrees.
"Suicide Watch?" snickers another boy.
"Sue," suggests a third. "For short."
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"You want to go by Sue?" asks Bella, raising an eyebrow.
"Hurray, Bella found a girl friend," snorts the kid who suggested calling him Sue. "They can have tea parties."
"I just beat up twelve-year-olds, I beat up you you say tea parties again," says Bella mildly, dropping into slang for this purpose.
"Hurray, Bella found a girl friend," snorts the kid who suggested calling him Sue. "They can have tea parties."
"I just beat up twelve-year-olds, I beat up you you say tea parties again," says Bella mildly, dropping into slang for this purpose.
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"Fine, I braid your hair, no tea parties," says Bella, rolling her eyes not unfondly. "You can find Qiaochu's brain, tell him if you need your girlfriend to come dance on some necks?"
"Yeah, got it," he says cheerfully, and gives Qiaochu's mind a little push. More of a nudge, really, a little mental hey-I'm-here.
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Qiaochu waves hesitantly and goes back to his geometry homework.
"Back soon, hauling Sue home now," Bella tells her launch, and she leads Sue out the door again. "What's your path color?"
"Back soon, hauling Sue home now," Bella tells her launch, and she leads Sue out the door again. "What's your path color?"