Cory opened her capsule and sat up. She rubbed her eyes and paused, thinking. Then she heaved a sigh as she swung her legs onto the floor.
She'd left after planting the red clover. The corn stalks had been surprisingly easy to take care of. One of the farming tools, a rake-looking thing had only to be picked up and gestured towards the field before gaining a life of its own and disposing of the stalks by the simple expedient of raking them into the soil. Cora had been a bit surprised and had made up her mind to identify all the tools she had no clue about.
The only ones she'd recognized in the beginning had been the hoe, hole digger and watering can. It had been the same way with them. Once she'd started, the hoe would dig from one end of the field to the other, stopping when it encountered the decorative rock that fenced it in. The hole digger only needed to have the distance between holes set, and the watering can just kept watering until it ran out of dry soil.
It had been helpful for growing her MP. Every time it was exhausted, it would grow just a tiny bit, never more than .1 or .2, but seeing as she'd started with a measly 2 MP in the beginning, it hadn't been hard to use up. Now it was a more robust 10 MP.
Cora padded into her kitchen, her mind on a variety of tasks she'd set herself. She still hadn't checked her status page since planting that first field of corn. If it wasn't for the constant notifications, she'd never have noticed that her MP was now 10. She was sure that there were other changes.
Cora was also sure that there was an explanation there for her being able to understand Blue, the Warcorns, and the dragons. She worried at that thought as she pulled out her electric kettle, some peppermint tea and the makings for a quick sandwich.
As her water boiled, she picked up her phone. As usual, there were no messages from Nate, a couple from Heidi and Lorenz and one from an unknown number. Cora smiled grimly. She knew who owned that unknown number. She just hadn't gotten around to having it blocked and investigated. No one from Gerald's family was allowed to contact her, but his mother thought that having an unlisted number wouldn't ping on the investigators' phones.
She listened to Heidi and Lorenz' voice mails as she set a couple of mugs of tea to steep. She rolled her eyes at Nate's as she pulled out a heavy glass mug and dropped a couple of pieces of ice into it. Cora simply deleted the last message without listening to it before searching for an unopened box of sweetener to replenish the bowl on her counter.
"Heidi?" She questioned as her call to her friend went through. "Are you busy?"
"I'm so not busy for you," Heidi responded. "Have you finally given up on that game?"
"No, but I think you might like it," Cora probed.
"Me?" Heidi paused, and Cora could hear her forking something into her mouth. Knowing Heidi, she'd gotten dumplings from somewhere and was eating them in secret. Her grandmothers would give her true holy if they thought she was eating someone else's dumplings, and that included each others. "Really, Cora?" Heidi's voice was temporarily muffled. "I mean, I can't see myself doing something like that."
"The game is really good. You'd have a blast doing it, and it would be something that your family wouldn't pay attention to," Cora added.
"What do you mean?" Heidi asked, her voice wary.
"They want you to do business research, right? Well, there are business opportunities galore in the game," Cora said, mixing up the mugs of tea. She dumped a mini-moo into each one and stirred again. "You can justify playing that way."
"But the capsule costs a fortune!" Heidi protested. "That would be all my vacation money for two years, and I don't even have one."
Cora rolled her eyes. She held a funnel over the glass mug and poured the two smaller ones into it. Heidi had never seen a sale she didn't like. As she listened to the ensuing litany of excuses which all boiled down into Heidi having no money and no interest in the lecture her family would give her for not having any money, she made her sandwich and cut it into quarters.
"I'll pay for the capsule," Cora finally said as Heidi wound down.
"You'll what? I'm not poor! I can afford a capsule," Heidi immediately protested.
"You just said that you didn't have any money whatsoever. Just how are you going to beat your cousins and prove you deserve an eventual seat on the board?"
Heidi fell silent. Cora let her stew. Her family business was expanding every year, and her cousins on both sides were eager to help it grow even more and prove themselves to their elders. Cora had always thought it had a very Dynasty-cultivation novel vibe. She would never tell that to Heidi, though. Cora had even been asked by one of Heidi's cousin for investment advice. She still had no idea how the man had thought to ask, but perhaps Heidi had been indiscreet during an argument or something.
Why else would a guy ask a teenager for investment advice?
"You need a capsule. I need someone to play with. It's a win-win situation." Cora let out a short laugh. "I'm in a strange situation, and you've played more games than I have."
"If you'd pulled your head out of all those newscasts and investment shows when we were in high school," Heidi began.
"I wouldn't have so much money now, and be able to afford to buy my best friend an expensive game capsule," Cora finished. She took a sip of iced peppermint tea and smiled in satisfaction. "I still have no idea how Gavin thought to ask me for investment tips."
"Oh, Gavin? Well, hmm, so I do need a game capsule," Heidi said, sounding flustered. There was the sound of clinking in the background and a murmured voice. "They were delicious. Can I get another order to go? This time fried?"
Cora sighed and hung up the phone. She wouldn't get anything else out of Heidi until she left the restaurant, wherever it was. Her grandmothers tried to keep track of her, but Heidi liked to 'slip the leash,' so to speak. Her mother's mother prided herself on her traditional dumplings, and her father's mother thought that hers were the best. Two separate cultures that clashed whenever they came up against Heidi's dumpling addiction.
Heidi's solution was to sneak out and try every new place that offered dumplings in a hundred mile radius. The last time she'd been caught, her parents had confiscated the 'delicious contraband' while her grandmothers had scolded her for nearly an hour. Cora had just sat and watched in patent disbelief as her parents disposed of Heidi's thirty-dollar crab and scallop dumplings by the simple expedient of sweet soy dipping sauce and a blind spot in their kitchen that the grandmothers couldn't see from their vantage in the living room. Cora had been sitting at the enormous island that separated the two areas.
She was fairly sure that Heidi's parents had taken her sitting there into their calculations. It had only taken them a few minutes to eat the dumplings, and then they'd told Heidi's grandmothers that they were far inferior to the elders' offerings. When the mollified women had trotted off to the store for ingredients for 'proper' dumplings, they had almost casually asked Heidi where she'd found hers.
Cora had discovered the true meaning of 'shameless' at that moment. It hadn't been when her father had confiscated half of her allowance in high school because his 'special' friend, Sherrelle, had needed a new car or when her mother had sold all the expensive dolls her Great Aunt Jerry had bought her over the years she'd been living with her not two weeks after getting custody of Cora back. It had been when Heidi's parents, having pried the information out of Heidi had immediately decamped, declaring they needed to do 'consumer research.'
Heidi had said it was because they owned restaurants, but Cora wasn't too sure about that. Still, she understood once the grandmothers returned and battled it out in the giant gourmet kitchen in Heidi's house. The dumplings, while delicious, didn't really compare to those now lost crab and scallop dumplings.
She thoughtfully ate her sandwich as she sipped her now cooled and iced tea. Lorenz would be a better catch than Heidi, but underneath the jock exterior was a stone-cold nerd with the undying heart of a researcher.
Cora dumped her dishes into her sink and picked up her phone again. She knew just the right tack to take with Lorenz.
*****
"I don't know about this, Ms. Cora," Lorenz's mother, Andrea said. She stood to the side as the movers slowly entered.
Andrea watched as the men trundled into her little two bedroom apartment and started setting up the two capsules side by side in the living room. Previously, there had been a nicely laid out table and breakfront but those were now relocated to the breakfast nook where they barely fit.
"I keep offering to upgrade you, but you keep turning me down," Cora complained, leaning against the wall leading to the kitchen.
"I can't impose on your good will, Ms. Cora," Andrea said.
"Can you stop calling me 'Ms. Cora?' It makes me feel old, and you're my elder." Cora shivered. "Just tell Lorenz that he can vegetate in this thing and make a little spare cash while he's at it."
"Make money? Playing a game?" Andrea turned and looked at the capsules, intrigued.
Cora hid a smile while she buffed her nails on her shirt.
"People actually pay in-game currency for things, and there's a platform where you can turn that into actual money," Cora explained. "I'm not too sure on the details, but the game is old enough that people are paying for things from the beginning area." She shrugged. "Once people get past those areas, they wind up doing other things elsewhere, so there's a market."
"Surely not," Andrea said, nodding to the men as they finished up and trudged out the door. "There has to be someone trying to fulfill the need."
"There are, but the need is vast. It's just right for someone who's bored staying home, doing nothing except cooking large meals for her kid who keeps eating out," Cora cooed.
"He does come home occasionally," Andrea protested, though her eyes were twinkling with humor. "I do, however, get very bored just sitting at home, being an old lady."
"See?" Cora slung an arm over Andrea's shoulders. She waved her arm. "Just think! You could play as a hot young warrior woman who slays her way to a fortune."
"Or I could just be a regular woman who figures out how to make an extra fifty dollars a week while exploring a new place," Andrea said, shrugging off Cora's arm. "Of course, if I'm in the game, then Lorenz will also play the game."
"I hadn't thought of that," Cora said.
"Of course, you hadn't," Andrea chuckled. "Go, go, little one. I'll talk him into trying your little game. Knowing Lorenz, I wouldn't get your hopes up. He's been wearing holes in the carpet after that little dustup with that idiota."
"Sorry about that," Cora winced. She hadn't expected that Andrea would know of it, but then again, she was Lorenz's mom.
"It's okay, sweetie. Everyone kisses a few frogs in their lives. It's just that your frog turned out to be a poisonous little toad." Andrea kissed her on the cheek. "Are you staying for lunch? I was inspired, and made frijoles and tamales."
"I would be delighted," Cora agreed.