Welcome to Monday morning. Time to go be bored, tired, and annoyed.

The weekend was uneventful, again, and I mostly just spent it reviewing every step of my dark web client process for any possible leaks. I found none. Now I'm back at school, waiting in the history classroom for my boring teacher to come start this boring class. And guess what? I'm bored. Already.

"Hey Kalix!" My best friend, Roxanna, walks into the classroom, perky as ever. "Why are you always so gloomy on Mondays?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Why aren't you? Mondays are like the world's worst math problem. Add the irritation, subtract the sleep, multiply the problems and divide the happiness."

"Maybe a little. But they're also a fresh start of a new week!"

Roxy pulls up a seat beside me, looking effortlessly happy with her bright smile and a toss of her voluminous red hair over her shoulder, catching the attention of some of the students walking by. She's wearing a comfy-looking grey pullover with an illustration of a crescent moon and flowers on the front, tucked into her distressed jean shorts, and red canvas sneakers. On her left wrist, along with her tracker, she wears several woven friendship bracelets and a red scrunchie that matches her hair. Her makeup is light, just a little eyeliner and her signature rose lip gloss. She's naturally beautiful, from her blue eyes to her dark caramel skin, and I'm sure people would be bitterly jealous about it if it weren't for her peppy and charming personality. Everyone loves Roxanna; it's impossible not to.

We talk for a few minutes before Sogato-san, the history teacher, walks in.

"Good morning, students," he says, walking to his desk and waving on a holo-projector. The hologram appears over the desk and he starts flipping through the virtual pages, trying to find where we last left off.

"Hey, Kal," Cayden whispers from the row behind me, and I turn around and wave. Like Roxy, Cayden is one of my best friends. The two of them, they're my people — they understand me, know almost everything about me, while most people know pretty much nothing.

Emphasis on the almost, of course. I haven't told either of them about the whole I'm-an-illegal-hacker thing. But that's my business, and honestly, bringing them into it would only put them in danger.

"For today's lesson, we'll be continuing our studies into the Information War," Sogato-san states, looking at a hologram page of the textbook. "Everyone, please get out your notebooks and textbook chips. Flip to page 72." He closes his own holo-book, detaches the d-chip from the holo-projector, and swaps it for one from his bag. A SlideIt presentation titled Lesson 3.2: Information Conflict (2016 - 2059), appears on the holo. A sea of whispers and background noise rises in the class as people set up their various devices and chat to each other in low voices.

"This is so boring, we already had a lesson on this last class!"

"Psst! Can I share your holo-book?"

"How's your project going for biology?"

I try to tune out the sounds, focusing on the (boring) history hologram textbook and virtual notebook plugged into the holo-projector lying on my desk. The whispering continues, and while I wait for Sogato-san to start the lecture, my hands instinctively start fidgeting with my necklace.

A flash of light crosses my desk, and I look down to see a hologram in the shape of a scrap of notepaper. In a handwriting-style typeface, it reads,

Hey Kal, what are you doing after school?

Cayden

Pulling up my virtual keyboard, I type out a response and flick the note across the space between our desks.

Not much, probably just catching up on HW. What about you?

Roxy and I were going to Café Kaku, do you want to come? Unless you're busy of course, it's fine if you have homework.

No, I'd love to! Kaku's the one with that really awesome cinnamon mocha, right?

That's the one. Pretty great matcha-chocolate cookies, too.

Oh yeah, I remember those. We should go there more often.

"Cayden?" Sogato-san waits expectantly for an answer to his question... whatever it was.

"Umm..." Quickly deleting the hologram note, Cayden looks up at the board, which reads, Causes of the Information Conflict. "Umm, it was caused by unmoderated content on social platforms, increased ability to falsify information, and, uh... I can't remember the third one. Sorry."

I raise my hand.

"Yes, Kalix?"

"Exponential growth of behavior-predicting algorithms," I answer.

"Right, that one, uh, thanks," Cayden says, giving me a quick smile.

"Correct," the teacher walks to the smartboard and types our answers. "So, these are the main three causes of the war. Can anyone tell me what the main event was that triggered the influx of falsified information?"

* * *

"Ugh, school was so boring today," I say to Roxy and Cayden, sipping my cinnamon mocha. I had my least favourite classes today, the History Duo of Death."

My friends know, of course, that I'm referring to Old History and Recent. I also had Physics, which I like a fair bit, but not enough to make up for everything else.

"I know, right? Sogato's so analog," Cayden comments.

"Yeah, and those same stupid history problems haven't changed since we last learned about them, right?" Roxy jokes. "Unless he's trying to tell us there are time-travellers messing up the past like in the Legends of Tomorrow reboot."

"Besides, if that were the case, I'm sure you'd have different priorities. Namely, meeting Sara Lance?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Hey, it's not my fault she's—"

"'An incredibly badass, crazy hot ex-assassin?'" Cayden asks, mimicking the way Roxy's frequently talked about the character.

"Well, she is!" She defends.

The conversation stays on the topic of TV shows for a while before somehow switching back to school.

"How'd you guys find compsci today?" Cayden asks. "I still can't seem to get rid of that database connection error."

"Maybe I could help you," I offer. I've already finished the project he's referring to, I'm sure I could figure out what's up with his program. I mean, come on. To say this is my area of expertise would be a bit of an understatement.

Roxy nods excitedly. "She's helped me so many times with that kind of thing. I wish I had your level of compsci-genius."

"OK, genius is a bit of an exaggeration," I answer, lifting the warm drink to my lips again. Whoever invented the cinnamon mocha, now they're a genius.

We all continue drinking our coffees and talking about various things — mostly school, Roxy's art project, Cayden's little sister who won't stop stealing his tablet.

"Oh hey, I forgot to ask, but how's it going with Petrosh?" I ask Roxanna. She's been dating a guy in the grade above us for almost a year, but they've been having problems.

"Ugh, don't even get me started." She looks down at her matcha-chocolate cookie. "He's just so clingy, and totally the jealous type. He gets all upset if I'm just hanging out with my friends. Not, like, mad or anything, he just acts really worried, and I don't want to be mean, of course, but it's just a lot to deal with."

"Do you think you're going to stay together?"

"Maybe. For a little bit, anyway. I'm not sure. Anyway, Cayden: tell us about Jezzia!"

"Oh, are you guys finally a thing?" I ask. Cayden's been crushing on Jezzia for months, and talks about her constantly, especially to Roxy, who's practically an expert in that kind of thing. Of course, I have my own theory, not that I know much about crushes. But it doesn't take a relationship genius to see that Roxanna's a gorgeous girl with an even more beautiful personality, and Cayden wouldn't be the only person who wants to be more than her friend.

"Umm, yeah, I guess we're a thing. Well, sort of," he answers, suddenly sounding shy. "We've only gone out a couple times, but it's been fun. I think she might actually like me,"

"Of course she does! She'd be crazy not to," Roxy said with enthusiasm.

"Yeah, she's lucky to be with someone like you. You're actually nice, which is a refreshing change compared to the other guys at our school."

He blushes at the compliments and laughs in agreement about the other boys. "What's the big deal with those guys anyway? I mean, why's everyone so obsessed with Sebrian, he seems like a bit of an a-hole to me."

"Couldn't agree more," Roxanna says, and I raise my latte in agreement.

* * *

"Kalix?" My mother wanders down the stairs in her nightclothes, sleepy and distant.

"Hey, Mom."

She glances at the clock on the wall. "Were you, umm, were you out with your friends?"

"Yeah, Roxanna and Cayden. Sorry, I forgot to tell you," I answer in a soft voice. Not that she'd have remembered if I had told her, but she likes to feign interest in my life sometimes. I've learned it's best to go along with it, and pretend she's acting normal.

"That's OK, just, uh, remember to text next time.

She sits down at the table and I start the kettle, deciding to make tea. I ask her if she wants any.

"Sure, sweetie. Anyway, how was school? Uh, how are your friends?"

"School was kind of boring, I had history." I pace around the kitchen, getting mugs and a green tea bag. "And my friends are doing good, I guess. Cayden and Jezzia are together, do you remember I told you about Jezzia?"

I turn back towards the table, and my mother is resting her head in her hands. She probably tuned out of the conversation already, but that's OK. I'm used to it, and like I said, it's better to just pretend she's normal.

Ever since my dad died in the car crash two years ago, my mother's been like this. She sleeps most of the day, or at least lies in bed, and doesn't eat much. She barely pays attention to what's going on, with the exception of sometimes watching a soap opera on the teleholo, though I don't think she even follows its flimsy plot. She had been given time off work after his death, and extended that period for longer, saying she wasn't ready to go back. Eventually, she just quit, and signed up for an unemployment welfare program instead, stating mental health reasons. Her request was granted on the condition that she went to therapy, which she did — exactly twice. The first time, she said the accident was too fresh in her mind, and she wasn't ready to talk about it. The second time, she told me she had tried, but it just wasn't helping. Eventually, I gave up on trying to make her go, and the doctors just told me to "try to help her recover as best I can", whatever the hell that meant. So, I make sure she eats, drinks water and takes her heart medication — another consequence of the crash — as well as go along with her half-hearted attempts to act like a mother figure. Thinking she's taking care of me, or at least taking an interest in me, makes her feel better, so I just pretend.

By the time the water's boiled, she's totally zoned out, staring blankly at the table. I set her mug of tea on the table beside her and head upstairs to check my feeds.

My monitors come on automatically as I enter my room. They sense the location of my tracker wristband, which, yes, I have to take off before sneaking out to my secret meetings, or hacking adventures, or whatever you want to call it. All I have to do is run a program that transmits a preset heart rate on a loop to make it seem as though I'm wearing the band.

"Vivian, check the newsfeeds," I instruct the computer's virtual assistant, and the recent headlines appear on the two main screens. I can access the newsfeeds from my eyeview if I want to, but the monitors have more functions, and I have to sign onto them anyway to do my schoolwork and work on my various programs and secret projects.

My attention is caught by a headline that reads, "Police Raid at Tokyo's Café Suki Unsuccessful in Unmasking Infamous Hacker xCodebreaker01". Guess I'm trending.

Which, yes, is a bad thing. Everything about my system is supposed to remain secret, and my last known location showing up on every newsfeed is not far from that. Not to mention the earlier problem of how the hell the police even knew to find me there. I still haven't found whatever this leak is, and every day, no, every minute that passes by without a clue seems to make me more nervous. Quickly locating the dark web application, I sign onto the chat platform I use to communicate with my clients. Until I figure this out, I'd better cancel my upcoming meetings.

Leaving the chat window open for a few minutes after sending my message informs me of the surprising fact that people are actually disappointed to know that I'm unavailable. It's understandable, I suppose — I'm one of the best at what I do, right? — but it's still disconcerting compared to my real life. Shame no-one cares about the version of me that isn't a criminal.

Still, they'll be fine, other hackers exist. Besides, they of all people understand how important it is to be cautious when it comes to the law.

I open the international chats to see what's going on with others. No-one mentioned anything about police raids on the local chat rooms, leading me to believe that this wasn't just the Tokyo Local Police Department getting an anonymous tip, not that I'd have the slightest idea where it would've come from. No, something about this has a suspicious quality unique to the UNBI — that's the United Nations Bureau of Investigation, of course. An international investigative agency dedicated to the destruction of worldwide criminal activity, the top three most prominent forms being fraud, organized crime, and cybercrime.

So basically, they spend their time hunting down either fraudsters, mafias, or... me.

I've got to admit, tracking me down sounds a whole lot more fun than arresting rich old men who think they're above taxes.

xCodebreaker01: Anyone experienced problems with the law recently? Tokyo police raid on the newsfeeds feels very UNBI.

I hit send and wait a few seconds for someone to respond.

Digital_Nameless: I haven't had any problems in Northern Africa, nothing out of the ordinary.

Renova17: All good in Canada. Virtual exchange platforms have upped their security a bit, but nothing's gone wrong with my in-person meetings.

CyberGhost: Mostly fine in the UEK, but I haven't been able to get in touch with @OutlawResolve for a while. Haven't heard anything on the news about an arrest, but his clients have been worried.

OutlawResolve is missing? That's pretty weird — he's one of the best hackers in the world, basically the UEK's equivalent of, well, me. Egotism unintended, of course, but hey, I know my skills. Point is, it would be strange for him to just fall off the face of the Earth without so much as a warning. The most likely explanations are that he was somehow caught and arrested, or the authorities are close and so he's lying low, like me.

I click his tag and pull up his profile. It's a simple one, as is the case for all of us — all the profile says is his username and general location: the United European Kingdom. Hackers on this platform usually list their country as public information, so clients will know if they're within a reasonable distance for in-person meetings, but more specific location data, obviously, is kept secret. As I press the Direct Message button, I contemplate what to say, or if I should even say anything.

Suddenly, a curious feeling ventures into my mind. Why do I care? If anything, I should be glad that OutlawResolve's gone. He's one of the only other hackers as good as me, and with him out of the picture, reasons aside, I'll end up with more international clients.

Speaking of, I'd better get working on my next program. @User1582 put in a request last week for a virtual keycard, and I'd put it off for a while because of the in-person meeting with U5, but now that I have time, I need to finish it. My meetings are canceled, but I can still do digital transactions.