Hard Wired Trilogy DeAnna Pearce (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

“I’m pretty jealous of your screen too, but we can’t all be spoiled.” His soft lips pulled up into a grin.

“Free tonight for a movie?”

“Sorry. I have homework.” He motioned to the tablet in front of him. “Rain check?”

“Of course.”

“Call me when it’s over, so I can say goodnight.”

“Deal.” She clicked off the screen and checked with her only other friend on the island, Vinh.

Since he was busy as well, it was only Niomi and Ari for the movie that evening. It wasn’t as relaxing as a real movie should be with Niomi constantly critiquing every action section. They did have a large plate of sushi and fruit delivered to accompany the old Asian movie. The translation was a bit spotty as the actors’ lips didn’t quite coordinate with their words. But, since most of the movie was fighting, it didn’t matter.

As the movie ended, Ari turned to Niomi on the other side of the couch. “How did you get into fighting so much?”

Niomi startled a bit at the question, and it wasn’t easy to surprise Niomi.

Ari continued, “Come on. How can one person want to constantly eat so healthy, fight with weapons, and run like someone is always chasing her?”

Niomi turned towards the screen and turned it off with a command. Her blonde hair fell to one side of her head. With her profile to Ari, she could see the vulnerability in Niomi that was usually covered by a strength and fierceness. After six months, it surprised Ari as much as the next words.

“Growing up, I was hurt… bad. I swore I’d never play the victim again, and I haven’t.” Niomi turned, her shoulders tightening, and eyes narrowing back to their normal position. “You want to know why I’m hard on you? It’s because I never want you to have to live through something like that. So maybe next time you can quit your whining and trust me.”

Unsure of what to say to that personal confession, it took Ari a moment to reply. “I trust you, but it doesn’t mean I won’t complain when you torture me.”

Niomi threw her napkin at her. “If you’re going to complain, you might as well get clean up duty. Don’t forget you have homework tonight. Get started on the skins.”

“Thanks,” she said sarcastically. Ari grabbed the leftover plates, her thoughts on Niomi. That was the most she had shared with Ari in six months. It didn’t mean they were going to start to do each other’s hair, but it was something.

Since Ari’s abilities were worth so much, they didn’t want her with the rest of the population. The more people that knew about her, the more chances the outside world would too. Granted, she had her boyfriend, Reed, but he was working like crazy to catch up with their tech program and started a design program at night. That left Vinh, and Ari’s maid, Jewels, who only came around if Ari called her.

She messaged Reed to make sure they were still on for tomorrow morning and then headed to her rooms. Dressed in pajamas and tucked into her soft bed, Ari flipped on her large screen and starred at the red-headed woman. With a finger, Ari enlarged the picture of the woman to view the 3D image closer, not only to study, but to memorize it.

This woman must be important enough to impersonate. Who knew, maybe she wasn’t even a real person? She pushed aside those thoughts, she couldn’t do anything about them now.

Ari continued to flick through the pictures of men, woman, dark, light, tall and short. They kept coming and a sickening sensation grew in Ari’s chest. Not because of all the work this entailed; growing up poor, she wasn’t afraid of hard work. She worried as her life shrunk to these small rooms and her only life was wearing others’ skins, what would be left of her when she was done?

Chapter 3

The next morning, Ari’s legs burned as she sprinted barefoot through the sand. Damp sand flung behind her as strands of sweaty hair clung to her neck. The ocean blue stretched as far as she could see. Beauty taunting her in her misery. Her legs felt like rubber and she thought she better stop before she ended up face down in the sand.

She reached out to Reed next to her. “I give.”

They slowed down, but Reed kept walking. “Come on. You’ll get a cramp if you stop.”

“If I cramp, just throw me out to sea,” she said between pants of air. She pulled out her pony tail, letting her wavy dark hair fall past her shoulders.

The HUB on her wrist, beeped. “You’ve completed 2.75 miles in twenty-five minutes. A quarter of a mile farther yesterday, but an overall lower speed by 2.4 percent.”

She moaned and dropped into the sand. Her breath coming out in ragged gasps. Ari stared out at the aquamarine water. It didn’t matter how many times she looked out at this never-ending expanse in the last six months, she never got tired of it. As the ocean breeze cooled the sweat on her skin, she breathed in deep.

Reed sat down next to her in the sand, running a hand over his short sandy brown hair. “We went farther. Niomi can’t give you that hard of a time.” His silver Fit Suit clung tight to his body. He looked comfortable, whereas on Ari the suit felt constricting.

“We’ll see. If I don’t keep improving, she may not let me run with you anymore.” As every VisionTech employee was supposed to get regular exercise, Ari recently convinced Niomi to let her run with Reed in the mornings, so they could spend time together.

Ari sighed at the thought of her upcoming meeting today. She’d fallen asleep memorizing all she could of the first three skins Niomi gave her. And now, with a sleep deprived brain, she doubted she would remember any of it.

Reed nudged her shoulder. “What’s distracting you?”

“Work.” She leaned onto his shoulder, breathing his warm spicy