Chekof looked at Lana. "What's wrong with Blaine?"
Lana shrugged. "I was bringing food up to Paul and he insisted on coming and he just got upset. I asked what was wrong and he just shrugged."
"Who's Paul?"
"He's just a classmate. He's an inventor and doesn't leave his room much. Since he's helping me with my food experiments, I'm giving him food. It sounds fair to me…"
Chekof chuckled, "I get it."
Lana looked confused.
Chekof looked at her, "have you thought of introducing them?"
"No, why would I? Paul's busy working on his inventions."
Chekof chuckled, "I think it would help, just offering my opinion."
Lana chewed on her lip as Kattie came out, just finishing the dishes.
Kattie wore her backpack as well as having Sven on her shoulder. Lana had emptied hers as well so they could pick as many apples as possible. Once they were at their spot, they quickly filled their bags. Chekof was tall enough to pick those higher up.
Instead of growing more food immediately, "do you really think I should introduce them, Chekof?"
He nodded.
Lana sat down on the bench and started texting.
[Paul, can I bring a friend up to meet you?]
[When?]
[Today if possible.]
[Okay, in an hour? I can return your dishes.]
[Okay, I'll ask him.]
[Blaine, do you want to meet my classmate? He's available in an hour if you want to.]
[Okay.]
[Paul, he said that's okay. See you in an hour.]
Lana then grew a whole bunch of wheat and grain for bread and filled the bags the rest of the way. She was done before Sven returned but only by a few minutes.
They marched back to the dorms, dropped Kattie off at their room and Lana handed her bag to her roommate. Lana then followed Chekof to his room to get Blaine. They were a little early and Blaine was in the middle of changing his shirt. Lana couldn't help but stare. She realized he caught her looking and quickly looked away with bright red cheeks. He grinned.
He ran a comb through his hair while grinning at her and realized even this action got a reaction from her. It was so shiny with each stroke of his comb. Lana forced herself to look away and stare at the door. Blane was positively beaming.
Kyle: I thought you said having feelings for her was dangerous?
Blaine sighed: It's true. But can we truly stop this? We both want her now.
Kyle: She's perfect for us.
Blaine: We need to figure out what to do about her.
Kyle: The sooner the better.
Blaine stepped up to Lana's side and put a hand on the small of her back. "I'm ready now."
Still flustered, "sorry I got here early. I just didn't want to be late."
Blaine smiled brightly, "I don't mind having you in my room. Let's go."
Chekof watched the whole interchange with his book in his hands pretending he was reading, the cover was now concealed. He ripped a cover off another book and glued it to the cover of his book. The problem was he glued it upside down. As they left, he finally was able to read in peace.
Upstairs, they got there early and decided to linger in the hall until the appointed time. Five minutes early, the door beeped, unlocked from inside. Lana took that to mean he was ready so they went inside.
"Hi Paul, this is my friend Blaine," she said with a smile that had yet to fade.
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Blaine Abel 0%]
Paul looked at Blaine then back to Lana. "What's this?" as he pointed to her smile in a circular fashion.
She chuckled, "you mean my smile?"
"The smile, the glow," he turned to Blaine, "you look good on her." He turned back to Lana, "here are your plates back."
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Blaine Abel 5%]
She took them from him, "thank you. Are you working on anything you'd like to share? What do you do when you're not working on your inventions?"
Shocked, "not working on my inventions? That never happens. Did you have an idea?"
"Well, I thought maybe it could be lonely in your room all alone all the time. Maybe the next time we have a movie night or something?"
"Oh no thank you. It does get lonely but it's hard for me to adjust to being around people. Short bits of time is all I can handle. Now, if we're playing a game, I can do that but it's been a long time. I make games now rather than play them."
"Have you made any games I know?" Blaine got excited.
"Have you ever heard of Fight! Train! Fight!?"
"Have I heard of it? I've played it so much I had to take a break!"
Lana stepped back from this conversation since she had no games in her life. Ever.
Before they knew it, 30 minutes had gone by about how the idea came to mind. Paul had made the game with his mother as he was still quite young when they programmed it but his ideas were instrumental. He was also a lead moderator in the game so he was always checking to make sure no one hacked the system.
[Quest updated: Progress toward friendship: Blaine Abel 20%]
The short of it was the system was one where people could virtually fight with others but also they could train on various things. When you first enter it asks if you want to train or spar with others. The spar option allows you to fight against others without getting physically injured. The train option allows you to target practice, train on agility, a whole bunch of other things which ultimately lead to being a better fighter. In gaming terms, these other activities would improve one's stats while sparring improves one's combat prowess.
Lana decided to see if Dobin could get an account at some point. Once again, that stuff needed to wait until phase 3 which was still three weeks away.
Lana watched as the fire died down in Paul and he yawned. She smiled. "Paul, get some sleep. You can talk to him more later."
Paul nodded, "I will but I never sleep long."
Lana nodded, "I'll bring you some tea tomorrow with dinner."
"Tea?"
"To help you get a good quality sleep. I will help your brain be more efficient if you sleep proper."
[New Quest: Consume Lana's Sleep Tea 7 consecutive days: 0/7
Reward: bronze nanostick]
Paul smiled, "keep an eye on her Blaine. She's a treasure that another will try to scoop up. Not me, though. Too outgoing. I prefer more rigid females, with thick-rimmed glasses."
Lana chuckled, "you're pretty cool, too, Paul."
Blaine was watching her facial expression.
"Oh, do you two want some apple pie? I grew apples today as well as some wheat. I was thinking of making some today."
Paul replied, "just bring me a piece tomorrow with dinner."
Lana nodded. "Blaine?"
"I'm following you to your room and helping you."
"Oh wait! I need some ingredients first. We need to go to the library."
"No need," Paul chimed in. "What do you need?"
"Cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, brown sugar, and butter," Lana said.
Paul, within seconds, had a box appear on his own personal receiver. Being an inventor meant he needed to order parts and such so he was well equipped for such things.
He gestured to the huge box that appeared, "Blaine, do you mind carrying that for Lana?"
Blaine eyed the box with suspicion, "that's a rather large box for just 5 ingredients."
"Well, you don't want her to run out, do you?"
Blaine picked up the box, "this thing weighs a ton!"
"Well, carry it out. I need to get some sleep."
He laid on his bed and did just that as Lana and Blaine left.
In the stairwell, "do you want to open it and have me carry a few things?" Lana asked.
"Absolutely, not. I got this, you just get the doors."
Lana ran ahead to do just that. In her room, Lana let Kattie know she'd be messing up the kitchen again and it was going to smell really good in there. Kattie smiled and nodded.
"Oh, and Blaine is here to assist me." Just then she heard the sound of a heavy box hitting the table in the kitchen.
"What was that sound?" Kattie got up and followed Lana to the kitchen. Blaine had the box open and was in shock. The box contained 10 pounds each of cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. There were two fifty-pound bag. Each contained one of the two types of sugar she requested. Lana now stood in her kitchen dumbfounded about where she was going to store fifty pounds of sugar and fifty pounds of brown sugar.
"Lana, what did you do?" Kattie asked with shock.
Lana explained how they came upon such a large supply of these items and Kattie grinned. "Looks like you can make us a lot of apple pies!"
**********************************
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