Part 2: by Steve Michel
[I wrote this Science Fiction story a few years back: a somewhat slipstream narrative with old-school sensibilities.]
"Thirty five seconds. Not bad." Fooy's avatar, some buddist monk with flaming hair, floated down from the corner of the displays. "My grandmother in her grave can do that in half time." It might have been a compliment coming from Fooy. Rumor on the math circuit had it his grandmother could.

"Fickle muthafucker, if you can ball cal like I can ball a basket, then you got something." BigGee impatient, folded his whiteboard back up into his laptop's menu.

"Your SAT has twenty two matrix examples at a thirty two second average time, do the math -you'd run out of time." Fooy said with a certain smugness.

"Nine seconds." FooY was a blip on the corner of their laptop screens.

"Damn! Closing hour is past. Time to bounce FooY thanks again." JB closed the connection and snapped shut his laptop. He got up too quickly. His chair fell backwards hard corn plastic hitting the linoleum floor.

A cone of flashlight cut through the dim library."Hey you boys what are doing here?

"Shit run here comes the nightguard." BigGee slammed his box shut and got up too quickly wincing at the pain on his knee.

"Come back here!" The nightguard, came around the stacks. One hand held a roving flashlight, the other a twirling police baton.

The three grabbed their laptops and bags, and ran for the nearest exit. Out on the street they ran on past the point where any sane overweight high school library afterhour security guard would have deemed it pointless to chase them. JB, leading the pack with long strides, turned abruptly into an alley-a dead space between the school gym and the local drycleaners that abuted to the wide boulevard sidewalks of BakerHill.

'Hey you chicken or something oldman Thomas wouldn't catch us even if we was tied to a chair.' said BigGee limping slightly from his bad knee. He lived up to his name, tall with a football player's build, he was the newest member of the gang. At BakerHill High School in Baltimore's run down district, brawn was currency on the street or a football scholarship. For BigGee it was both since he teamed up with Jb and Kay.

'Shit if he saw us he'll report us for sure' said Kay catching her breath.

'Last we need is the principal closing the library on us' said JB.

Kay gave a shrug 'Nowhere else.' The others nodded a silent agreement.

They walked now taking a shortcut past the piled garbage containers that lined the alley. The stench was horrible as they walked past the back of the school BurgerKing's greasy doorway.

"Say we go for a burger instead for Friday nights' 2 for 1 specials" declared JB. It was getting late and none had eaten anything since lunch.

'Forget it J' said Kay shaking her afroed head 'No plugs for laptops; besides they kick us out within minutes loitering'

'My laptop's batteries only got an hour.'

'JB's basement was the best place by far.'

'Till his old man caught on and kicked us out'

'I told you already. He'd never believe us. Only thinks we're doing crack down there.' JB shot back angrily.