"So it will be easy for us to see each other?" she asked anxiously.
"Very." He stroked his fingertips along the curve of her hips, the way he'd found excited her most.
She snuggled up against him, bestowing a multitude of quick playful kisses along his neck. They tickled.
"And you've got my dp-code?"
"Yes." He moved on top of her, pinning her arms down. "I'll call you as soon as I get home. I'll call you an hour later. I'll call you an hour after that."
"I'm sorry. I don't want to be a possessive bitch. I just want you."
"You'll be in Templeton a day after me. We'll see each other first thing in the morning at school."
"All right." She nodded slowly, as if they'd been discussing a legally binding contract. "I'll wait till then."
The limousine that picked up Lawrence and his father early the next morning took five hours to drive back to their home. Lawrence sat back in the leather seat and stared out moodily at the thick dancing snowflakes. The only thing he saw was Roselyn, curled up in his arms, smiling fondly as they soaked in each other's warmth.
"Is your bracelet pearl broken?" Doug Newton asked.
"Huh?" Lawrence shifted his attention back inside the limo. "No, Dad, it's fine."
"But you're not using it."
"Don't feel like it."
"Hell, we'd better go direct to the hospital emergency department."
"Dad?"
Doug caught the tone, and suddenly focused hard on his son. Indigo script faded from his optronic membranes. "Yes?"
"We've got house rules for everything."
"Look, Lawrence, I don't invent them specifically to annoy you. They exist so that we can all live under the same roof in a vaguely civilized fashion."
"Yeah. I know all that. But you've never said what the rules are about girlfriends."
"Girlfriends?"
"Yeah."
"But you haven't... oh. You kept that very quiet, son. Do we get to meet her?"
"I don't know, Dad, what are the house rules about that? Is she even allowed to visit?"
Doug Newton eased himself back into the seat and gave Lawrence a long look. "All right, son, you're virtually old enough to use your voting shares, so I'm not going to treat you like a total child. In return I expect the same courtesy. Okay?"
"Yeah, right"
"There are two sets of house rules. Your girlfriend will be very welcome to visit. In fact, as you damn well know, your mother will insist on it the instant she finds out you have one. When the young lady comes around, the pair of you can do what you want. Play tennis, soccer, go swimming, study together; all that jazz. She will also be welcome to join us for meals when she's here. What she cannot do is stay the night, not in your room. Understand?"
"Yes, Dad."
"The other set of rules are very simple, and they are the same as in real life. You do not get caught. Neither myself, your mother, and especially not your brothers and sisters, are ever to be put in the position of walking into a room and finding you screwing her ass off. Do you understand that?"
Lawrence knew his cheeks were bright red; he could feel them burning. This was turning into a hell of a week for fundamental life changes. "I get it, Dad. Don't worry, that won't happen."
"Glad to hear it. Just make sure the lock on that cave of yours works properly."
"It does."
Doug Newton shook his head in bemusement. "I'll say one thing, son, you never fail to amaze me. I take it she is real, not an i-program."
"Of course she's real!"
"Thank Fate for that. Does she have a name?"
"Roselyn O'Keef."
"Not sure I know an O'Keef family."
"They're not an Amethi family, Dad. They just got here."
"Really? Well, that means they have a decent stake then."
"Is that all you care about, that they're rich or players?"
"As it happens, yes, it does matter to me. But as we both know by now, what matters to me doesn't even register with you."
"It does. It's just..." Lawrence didn't want to say the wrong thing right now. He'd never talked with his father like this before. All this honesty was almost making him feel guilty for earlier behavior. He supposed he had been slightly inconsiderate to his parents recently. But life here wasn't easy. They always seemed to want so much for him and from him.
"I know." Doug held his hands up. "I'm an ogre. You think you're different to me? If you ever find the time to talk to your grandparents, ask them about the fun they had bringing me up."
"Really?"
"Like I said: if you ever talk to them."
"Yes, Dad."
"That's my son."
As soon as he got home, Lawrence loaded her dp-code into his den's desktop pearl and asked the AS to connect him. Her face filled the sheet screen, smiling down at him. The faint freckles dusting her cheeks were the size of his palm. They talked for an hour. He called her another three times that day before finally going to bed to sleep. During the night, he woke up twice, reaching for her. In those blurred moments before he was fully awake he was unsure if she wasn't just a dream. It was a terrifying experience.
Hilary Eyre High was in the center of its own dome, a three-story H-shape structure, big enough to provide firstclass educational facilities for fifteen hundred pupils. The ground around it was mostly sports fields, with a constant all-year-round climate, approximating the start of a temperate zone autumn. It was an unusual sight for kids who'd grown up in a city where each dome took pride in its horticultural layout. There were no trees at all, just a flat expanse of verdant grass, interrupted by various styles of slim white goalposts.
Not quite as unusual, though, as the sight of Lawrence Newton standing on the steps ninety minutes before the new term officially started. Despite the weather, he'd driven his trike to school to make certain he wasn't late. Now he was shuffling his feet about impatiently as he tried to look at all nine 'tweendome tunnel arches simultaneously. Pupils were emerging from the twisting caverns to walk toward the school's glass entrance hall. Already, several groups were forming on the plaza outside, friends catching up with each other, sports teams bonding before the term's action, pupils behind on their coursework (usually Lawrence) desperately searching for a crib to download, in-crowds being cool together.
He saw her easily enough even when she was a hundred meters away. Shouted and stuck his hand up, ignoring the curious glances. She saw him and smiled. Waved back. He ran over and they embraced in the middle of amused onlookers. That kind of public kissing was against school regulations. Lawrence didn't care.