Chương 243: Book Six, Chapter 5: By the Slice

On-Screen.

"Get away from the door," Isaac said as two upperclassmen stood too close to the entrance.

"The pizza will be here soon, and I have to answer it because this is my house." The guys gave him a strange look.

"Cassie, your little brother is being weird again," Ramona said from the couch nearby. The house party was in full bloom: "high school" students, red plastic cups, a keg in the laundry room. Everything Hollywood had taught us to expect from those classic teenage get-togethers.

"Don't harass the delivery worker," Cassie said.

"It's not her fault your pubescent hormones have turned you into a little pervert." Isaac sneered, but only took his attention off the door for a second. I sat alone in a wingback chair in the corner. I would have sat with Ramona, but she was on the couch next to Nathan, her character's long-time boyfriend. She smirked at me from across the room. Camden was playing poker with some NPCs in the dining room. They were gambling with actual Carousel money. Anna and Evan had paired off.

I could hear their conversation from where I was. Evan had pursued her romantically in Delta Epsilon Delta, and he pursued her here.

"I really did write this song," Evan was telling her, referencing the catchy song playing over the living room's sound system.

"I can't believe you think I would lie about this." Anna was genuinely giggling at his banter.

"This song came out when you were five." Evan nodded.

"I thought you would say that. My age at the time speaks to the impressiveness of the feat, not the veracity of the claim."

"Oh my god," she said.

"Debate club has ruined you." He shrugged that off. My attention wandered around the room.

"No, you have no idea," Cassie said to a group of NPCs.

"He has spent every penny of his allowance ordering from this same pizza place, just hoping she will show up. I don't know what I am supposed to do about this. Men are disgusting." The girls echoed her reaction.

"You should be happy for me," Isaac said in a dull, John Cusackian meditation.

"How often does someone find true love in this world? Life is nothing but a black pit of tedium and longing until you find who you were meant to long for."

"Oh, shut up," Cassie said, walking back toward the dining room and the poker game with her friends. Isaac continued to peek through the blinds on his tip toes nervously. I decided to circulate. I might find out I was dating one of the NPCs. Who knew? I glanced at Ramona as I made my way into the dining room poker game, where my luck could really turn around. The stakes were low, a few cents here and there, but watching the participants, you'd think it was the Carousel Tournament of Poker. Camden was cleaning up.

That might've been his stats doing the work, however.

"Do we have another victim?" Camden asked as I walked into the room.

"Care to try your luck?" I shook my head.

"I know my luck pretty well, and I'd rather not try to do anything with it," I said.

"Pansy," Ruck sang out as he pushed his chips all in.

"Got to risk money to make money. I'm all in." Camden looked over at him for a few seconds, then said, "I call."

"Dammit," Ruck said, getting up from the table before even showing his cards. He moved past me, patting his husky paw on my chest a couple of times as he went by. The last time I'd seen him, he was skewered. I wondered what would happen to him here. Unlike in Delta Epsilon Delta, he wasn't an obnoxious brute. Well, not to the extent that a bunch of people wanted him dead. He high-fived people as he lumbered through the living room and sat next to Ramona and Nathan.

"She's here!" Isaac called.

"Who's here?" Ruck asked.

"The pizza girl," Nathan answered.

"Cassie's little brother is in love."

"Don't call it love," Cassie said sharply. A knock came at the door. Isaac had it open wide before a second knock could follow it. The music subtly shifted to proper, beautiful-woman-entry music, as in the movies. The room turned to stare at the much-anticipated pizza delivery person. The poker game halted, and people crowded the door where I was standing to get a look. And Avery knew how to play that moment.

I knew she was attractive, but I still associated her with the sickly caged werewolf she had been when we first met for some reason. Instead of struggling with all the pizza boxes, she'd sat them down on the bench on the porch. The boys were agog. The girls turned up their noses. Textbook teen movie stuff. Stolen novel; please report. It wasn't like she was wearing a fancy dress. She was in a company tee, knotted at the waist like that was just part of the uniform.

Black bike shorts, clean white sneakers, and a red visor pulled down low over her eyes. Her fiery auburn hair was up in a ponytail that bobbed behind her as she walked--efficient, confident. She was dressed for the era. She smiled at Isaac and said, "I was wondering if you had people over. You got so much this time." He stood in front of her, lovestruck.

"Yeah, it's a party if you want to come. Or stay, I mean, because you're already here," he laughed.

"If you want to stay, that would be cool. Or whatever," he managed to get out. She laughed like he was telling a joke.

"I would, but I'm actually working," Avery said with a smile.

"You should quit," Isaac blurted out so fast it was hard to parse.

"What?" Avery asked.

"Nothing. So you go to Carousel U, right?" Avery stood awkwardly, glancing around the room.

"Yep," she said.

"I'm a psychology major."

"I love psychology," Ruck announced from the couch a bit too loudly. People in the room turned to look at him. He blushed.

"My parents made me talk to a counselor after I flunked out of school last year. Guy made me look at psychological pictures and stuff… so yeah, I love it," he added. Avery nodded.

"Okay, that's… nice," she said.

"Does someone here have money?"

"Yeah," Isaac said.

"My parents are loaded. This is my place. Well, my parents' place. They're out of town, so I'm having a party. These are my sister's friends." He nodded his head, then, suddenly realizing what she was actually asking for, said, "But you probably need money for the pizza. Sorry about that. I was just talking, you know. Talking. Here you go." He handed her a clump of money.

"All those dimes and nickels are for you. A little extra, you know. For college." Avery grabbed the wad of money and said, "Thanks so much." She turned to walk away, but not before flashing a brilliant smile at Isaac and the guys behind him. Isaac closed the door and turned around. He fell back against it, sliding down to his butt.

"Pizza girl is hot," a random male NPC said. Isaac just stared ahead blankly.

"That's not a pizza girl," Ruck said.

"That's a pizza woman. I want to settle down and have little baby pizza children with her."

"You guys are nearly adults," Cassie said, hitting Ruck with a throw pillow.

"This is disgusting. At least my brother has the excuse that he's fourteen."

"Fifteen almost," Isaac said. He leaned his head back against the door and looked up at the ceiling, dazed. He pressed his hands firmly over his heart.

"You left the pizza on the porch, you twerp," she fired back.

"Bring it into the dining room." I was hoping he would play it like puppy love, but Ruck and the boys were trying to take it in a slightly different direction. Avery needed adoration for her tropes. We had to provide it. Still dazed but obedient, Isaac opened the door back up and grabbed the pizza boxes. There were six boxes. Five were normal, and the last was differentiated by the fact that it had the word "Free" written on its front and back. On all sides, actually.

It was part of the promotion from the ad: order five at full price and get the sixth one free. As Isaac hauled the pizza into the dining room, I cleared out of the doorway. I caught Cassie's eye. She was trying to signal something wordlessly. Something about the pizza bothered her psychic sensibilities. I wasn't going to eat it anyway, but now I for sure wasn't. We had been On-Screen for a while at that point.

There was nowhere to talk casually out of character unless we went into one of the bedrooms, but that might not have the effect we were hoping for in a hormonal story like this. The partygoers absolutely tore through the pizza. Cassie insisted on trying to help divvy up the food so everyone would get some, but the NPCs were determined to defy her. They grabbed slice after slice. Camden looked at me from his place on the other end of the table from the pizza. This was scripted. They were supposed to do this.

Cassie must have caught on to that, too, because she yelled, "Everyone stop!" She had a huge Moxie score because of her fondness for psychic powers, which used that stat. It also made her persuasive on the occasions she wanted to use it that way. I got closer so I could see what she was making a fuss over.

"Everyone freeze!" she added.

"Who took slices from this sausage pizza?" People looked at each other like a classroom of middle schoolers getting scolded.

"Who grabbed a slice of sausage?" she yelled again. I scooted closer and looked down at the box she was pointing to. It was the free box.

"There's lettering there," I said.

"Wait, what?" Anna asked, moving in close.

"Wow, you're right. There was a message on this one." I stared down at the pizza. Half of it was gone, but what remained had lettering on it spelled out in little chunks of sausage. I could make out an H, but too much was missing.

"If you grabbed a sausage, return it now," Cassie said, really leaning into the bossy older sister thing. Slowly, the teenagers around us dug through their collections of pizza and returned the sausage slices one at a time.

"You didn't say anything was off-limits," Ruck complained.

"We just need to read this," Cassie said.

"You can stuff your face later." With a little bit of effort, Cassie and Isaac managed to reconstruct the pizza. Well, mostly. I stared down at it: %⠀⠀%⠀%%%%⠀%⠀ ⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ %⠀⠀%⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀ %⠀ ⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ % % %⠀%%% ⠀%⠀ ⠀%⠀%%% %⠀⠀%⠀%⠀⠀⠀ ⠀%⠀ ⠀%⠀%⠀⠀% %⠀⠀%⠀%%%%⠀%%⠀%⠀ %% ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%%% ⠀ %⠀⠀⠀⠀ It roughly translated to: "HELlo U!"

"Hello, you?" Ruck said aloud.

"Why wou—dude!" He looked at Isaac. Isaac looked back at him.

"Pizza girl must have sent this!" Ruck screamed. Isaac looked down at the pizza, then back up at Ruck.

"Hello, you!" they both said at once.

"Dude, you're so in!" Ruck said.

"I told you she comes here all the time," Isaac said. A bunch of silly bros began hugging it out with Isaac as they grabbed their pizza and left, dragging little Isaac along with them to cheer stupidly.

"That is so dumb," Cassie said, staring down at the pizza like it was an alien head on a spike.

"I'm throwing this one away. Something's... wrong about it." She grabbed the pizza with the message and started carrying it away.

"No, wait," Camden said, grabbing the box. Cassie relented. She rolled her eyes and left. It was just me and Camden then.

"I bet they just send out that message for everyone," I said. Camden laughed.

"No, Cassie's little bro is a chick magnet," he replied as we listened to the idiots back in the living room.

"It's the braces." Camden began rearranging the sausage on the pizza.

"I think it got messed up in the shuffle," he said. Before we could read the fruits of his puzzle-solving, a crash could be heard in the living room as Ruck had seemingly knocked Isaac into the entertainment center. Glass shattered. Cassie was having a cow. Ramona was laughing, as were many of the NPCs. Anna was trying to help Isaac. By the time we looked back at the pizza, NPCs had filtered through and taken slices.

The message that we never read, the one that was really sent, would have read more like: %⠀⠀%⠀%%%%⠀%⠀ ⠀%%%%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ %⠀⠀%⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀ %⠀ ⠀%⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀ % % %⠀%%% ⠀%⠀ ⠀%⠀%% %⠀⠀%⠀%⠀⠀⠀ ⠀%⠀⠀ %⠀ %⠀⠀%⠀%%%%⠀%%⠀%⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%%%%⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀%%%%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%⠀⠀%⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀%%% ⠀ %%%%⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ HELP US. Of course, this was a comedy, so I thought we might as well only let the audience see that. Isaac got first aid. Cassie cleaned up the glass. The NPCs left one by one. I went out the back door. Off-Screen.

Avery was standing there waiting for me.

"Help us?" I asked.

"Thanks for the heads up." She shrugged her shoulders. She had read the message before delivering it and had stopped at a pay phone to call us Off-Screen and tell us.

"Are you all trapped in there?" I asked.

"At the pizza place." She shook her head.

"I have no idea why someone would have written that. It's just a normal restaurant as far as I could see." She had gotten a good look at the pizza place.

"Of course it is," I said.

"Otherwise, Carousel wouldn't let me speak to you so easily." She nodded her head.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked.

"We scrambled the message," I said.

"Better we remain innocent of things On-Screen until we know a bit more."

"Smart," she said.

"I have more deliveries. Gotta go." I didn't know Avery that well. It wasn't that I didn't like her. Bonding was hard for me, and even harder in Carousel. She seemed like a competent enough player. We would have to see.