Jake jumped when a hand landed on his shoulder. He had his earbuds in and hadn’t heard anyone come up behind him. He pulled them out and looked up.

Ryan was standing there, hand up but drawn back. He looked nervous.

“Hey.” Jake grinned. He scooted his chair over and pulled up another one, patting it. “I didn’t think you’d actually come.”

His phone chimed, informing him that he had once again forgotten to put it on silent. Luckily, the room was empty. Most of the club members were more focused on their classes than their club projects this time of year.

He glanced at the phone. ‘Should I not have?’

“What?” He looked up again. Ryan had his phone in hand, waiting nervously. “No! I didn’t mean that.” He patted the chair again, and was relieved when Ryan sat down. “I just know that you never came by to see what Luna was working on.”

Ryan looked around the empty room, then down at his phone.

Jake smirked. “You know, I’m starting to get the feeling that you don’t like people.”

‘I don’t.’

“Really?” Jake laughed. “Isn’t that a little--”

‘People are cruel.’

He stopped laughing. Ryan was looking down at his phone. For a moment, Jake felt his head spinning. It seemed that every time he interacted with Ryan, his understanding of the boy shifted. Slowly, he thought he was piecing him together, but he wasn’t too happy with what that looked like.

He hadn’t even thought about how others would treat the boy who couldn’t talk. Had Ryan been bullied? Now that he thought about it, Jake knew he must have been. He had gone through the public-school system, and he knew how adolescents acted. He had no doubt it had been bad.

And here was Ryan on the other side of that experience. An isolated boy who didn’t participate in communication not only because of speed limitations, but because past experiences had taught him it wasn’t worth trying.

“I’m sorry.” He whispered.

‘Tell me about your character.’

“My character?”

Ryan pointed at the computer screen. The character model was up, waiting for him to make any decision regarding her.

“It’s kind of all there. She’s female, has long red hair, and green eyes.”

‘But what makes her three dimensional?’

“Uh, the program?” Jake clicked the mouse and turned the model, showing Ryan what she looked like from different views.

A chair squeaked. Jake looked over and saw Ryan’s shoulders shaking. He was confused for a moment, but then realized that the boy was laughing. It was completely silent, but he recognized the combination of the shoulders and smile.

He stared. It was the first time he had seen Ryan smile, and it looked good on his face. It seemed to fill him with life.

‘What’s her story?’

“I don’t know what the story is yet.”

Ryan sighed and shook his head. He reached over and opened a web browser. Jake leaned back as his fingers started flying across the keyboard. When he retreated to his chair, a list of questions was on the screen.

‘Answer those.’

Jake read some of the questions. What are their hobbies? Who is their family? How were they raised? Describe their personality in one word.

He shook his head as he scrolled. He had no clue what the answers were. Who even was ‘they’? He returned to the top of the page and the first question caught his eye.

What is their name?

“I don’t know.” He muttered. Then he turned to Ryan. “I don’t have a story yet. What if one of these answers doesn’t work with whatever the story ends up being?”

‘Then change the answer.’

Jake opened his mouth to protest, but saw that Ryan was still typing. He closed his mouth. He would let Ryan say whatever he wanted first.

‘It’s not set in stone.’