The last few months of the school year seemed to fly by at an accelerated rate. Heidi was cranking out two new songs a week, many of them the result of historical stories from students that had trouble learning in the conventional classroom setting. Heidi, Autumn, and Aria would sit down and go over history, English, or science lessons with a student and then have them write lyrics about the lesson. So far, it had been a stunning success, with many of the students transforming their grades from an F to an A. The songs sounded far more interesting when they were based off of academic material as well, instead of incessant love stories.
Stefan had been uploading their music to YouTube for several months now, and they were gathering a sizeable following. At Heidi's request, Stefan made a point of not using Heidi's name anywhere in the uploads, simply assigning credit to the whole group. Heidi didn't want people flocking to the channel as a result of her popularity in the alternative media—she wanted the music to stand on its own merit.
Principal Wiley had an end of year concert scheduled on the last day of school. She had invited several state lawmakers and district officials to watch the students perform.
"So are you ready to perform in front of the whole school again?" Autumn asked Aria with a nervous grin.
"Yeah, I suppose so," Aria shrugged, looking completely unfazed. "It's just like playing in the classroom if you ignore the audience."
"Therein lies the problem," Autumn sighed. "I can't seem to fool myself into thinking I am alone."
"It's going to be fine," Aria told her reassuringly. "Heidi can do something to calm your nerves if you get too frazzled."
The two of them were sitting on a small couch in Heidi's room while Heidi worked in the closed studio that her dad had hired some contractors to build for her after Christmas. They had knocked out the walls in her room and combined it with the room next to hers. She had a large collection of instruments sitting on stands throughout the room. She would come out of the studio every few minutes and exchange instruments as she began a new track in Logic Pro. In addition to the songs she wrote at school, she would write one with her own lyrics every night at home now. Her lyrics were often in foreign languages, and they usually involved stories of ancient civilizations long forgotten, as well as heroic acts of noble individuals nobody had ever heard of.
There had been three more moderate earthquakes since Valentine's Day. Heidi assured them the Titans would not be waking up for several years. Autumn tried not to think about what would happen when they did finally wake up. She fervently hoped that Heidi had a plan to stop them.
Heidi had also started an email dialogue with the girl from Finland that she had called Athena. The young woman was scheduled to visit them on the first week of summer break. Autumn's curiosity had kept her awake many nights as she wondered what Athena would be like. Would she be as overpowering as Heidi?
"So how are things going with Leslie?" Autumn asked curiously. "I expected you to spend a lot more time with her than you have since Valentine's Day."
"We see each other occasionally, but there's really no chemistry between us," Aria answered, fidgeting with her hands. "I mean, I find her physically attractive, but I don't feel any powerful sense of allure. I don't know, maybe people really don't feel that way in relationships—maybe it's just all Hollywood hype."
"I think you just haven't met the right one yet," Autumn told her confidently. "When it is the right one, you'll definitely feel an overpowering desire to be with them all of the time."
"Oh really?" Aria drawled, drawing the word out. "You sound like you're talking from experience. I didn't realize you and Stefan had gotten so close."
"Stefan?" Autumn repeated, her brow creased in puzzlement. "Oh, yeah, Stefan. No, we're just friends."
"Well then who is it?" Aria asked intently.
"It's nobody," Autumn denied with a shrug. "I just have a pretty good imagination, and I'm pretty sure that when the right one comes along, you have no doubt that it is the right one."
"You are so full of crap!" Aria declared, pointing an accusing finger at her. "I saw the look in your eyes. You weren't talking about an imaginary prospect. Now come on, spill."
"I'm totally serious!" Autumn protested her eyes shining with sincerity. "I wish there were someone, but it really is just my imagination."
Aria stared at her suspiciously, arms folded with one finger tapping on her forearm. "I'll be keeping a sharp eye on you from now on, mark my words."
"Sure, sure," Autumn nodded agreeably, smiling when Aria grimaced at the patronizing note in her voice.
"I should just ask Heidi," Aria murmured thoughtfully. "I'll bet she'll know who it is."
Autumn blanched, and Aria grinned. "Ha! That's what I thought! There really is someone!"
"There really is someone what?" Heidi's voice spoke up from behind them, causing both of them to jump. She was like a ninja sometimes.
"Nothing!" Autumn replied firmly. "Aria was just telling me how she wanted to find the right one, and I was telling her that there really was a Miss Right out there somewhere."
Heidi tilted her head slightly as she looked at them, and Autumn groaned inwardly. That look meant she was going to dig deeper.
"I was just noting how Autumn seemed to have a personal understanding of what meeting that special person is like, but she claims it's just an imaginary person," Aria told Heidi with a doubtful look at Autumn. "I don't suppose you know who Autumn's inspiration is?"
Heidi shifted her gaze to Autumn, and the other person in Heidi's body was watching her through Heidi's eyes too. Autumn closed her eyes as her face reddened, wishing she could teleport.
"No idea," Heidi replied after a moment of silence.
Autumn's eyes popped open, and she stared at Heidi in relief. She could tell by the knowing look in Heidi's eyes that she did know, but that she was keeping her secret.
Aria squinted at Heidi suspiciously. "I can't trust either of you. Fine, I'll figure this out myself."
"I'm sure you will," Heidi agreed with a knowing smile.
"Are you finished recording for the night already?" Autumn asked Heidi, hoping to change the subject.
"Yep, it was a short one tonight," Heidi replied with a nod. "I thought we would go out somewhere fun to get your minds off of the concert tomorrow."
"Where did you have in mind?" Aria asked in sudden interest.
"Cody invited us to the game shop where he works," Heidi answered with a wry grin. "He wants us to learn what it's like to kill aliens."
"Nice!" Aria exclaimed, her eyes alight with sudden excitement. "What game are we playing?"
"Seriously?" Autumn asked with a resigned sigh. "Gaming?"
"He wants us to play Destiny," Heidi replied to Aria. She turned to Autumn with a raised eyebrow. "Have you ever played any video games before?"
"Of course not," Autumn snorted. "Talk about a waste of time."
"Since time is imaginary, you can't really waste it," Heidi told her critically. "Why don't you reserve judgement until after you have tried it?"
"Fine," Autumn sighed loudly. "But next time I get to pick the activity."
"Of course," Heidi replied agreeably as Aria nodded.
Aria had won a drawing after donating to a wildlife refuge and had received a Kia Soul as the reward. Autumn had nearly been knocked off of her feet when Aria found out she had won. The fiery haired girl had tackled her in a bear hug, jumping up and down in excitement. Autumn could understand her elation; her father certainly wouldn't have forked out the money for a car, and it would have taken over a year of part time work to afford a cheap used car. Autumn hadn't asked Heidi if she had anything to do with Aria winning the car, even though Heidi had been the one to suggest submitting a ticket to the refuge. Autumn certainly wasn't complaining; it was nice to have a driver besides their mothers to cart them around town.
Heidi never seemed to care whether she was in the front or back seat of the car, so Autumn took the front seat. Aria filled the time to the game shop trying to convince Autumn how fun modern gaming could be. Despite herself, Autumn found some of the descriptions of the digital gaming world fascinating.
The game shop was a lot larger than Autumn had expected. The first part of the game shop was stocked with shelves holding thousands of games and gaming gear. The second part of the shop was filled with recliners and televisions, each of them connected to a game console. As they walked through the store, a steady stream of pimply faces turned to watch them in surprise. They had probably never seen a girl up close before.
"I can't believe you convinced them to try it," Cody told Heidi as he led them back to the lounge.
"Aria didn't take any convincing," Heidi replied with a glance at her excited friend. "She's already a gamer."
"Really?" Cody asked in amazement. "I would have never guessed. Where does she find the time to game? You guys are always making music or running around town watching local bands."
"I haven't really gamed much since meeting Heidi," Aria told him with a shrug. "It used to be all I did. In the game world, I was anonymous, and nobody could judge me by my sexuality."
"Makes sense, I suppose," Cody conceded. "Well let's see if you still have any skillz."
"Have you ever played any video games?" Autumn asked Heidi curiously.
"Nope," Heidi replied with a grin. "That's why I'm excited to try it. I love new experiences."
"If you take to it like you did music, there's going to be a lot of pissed off gamers out there," Aria noted with an evil chuckle.
"That was kind of what I was thinking," Cody agreed with a smirk.
It took Autumn almost five minutes to stop staring at the sky and spinning in circles as she tried to handle the two joysticks.
"Now that you're done with your circle dances, follow me and I'll show you how to kill aliens," Aria's voice spoke into the headset Autumn was wearing.
It took another twenty minutes of cursing and twisting her arms about wildly before she was able to shoot any of the aliens with any accuracy. Once she learned how to use her grenades and switch weapons, she actually started to enjoy the game.
"You're learning pretty quickly," Cody told her, sounding impressed. "It took me a lot longer to get headshots when I first started."
"How's Heidi doing?" Autumn asked absently. She had been so intent on learning how to play that she hadn't even noticed what Heidi was doing in her part of the map.
"Getting bored," Heidi replied dryly. "This seems pretty repetitive. Is there somewhere that offers more variety?"
"Yeah, this was just an easy spot for Autumn to practice," Cody answered reassuringly. "We can go do one of the strikes now."
Cody's gamer tag was G0ds0wner, which had caused an uncomfortable silence to reign when he first logged in and they all saw the snarky name. Heidi had burst out laughing, and Cody had let out a deep breath, glancing at Autumn with a relieved expression. At least his gamer tag hadn't been G0ddess0wner. That might have gotten him in trouble.
The strike was a lot harder, but Cody, Aria, and Heidi kept her alive when the fighting was intense. By the end of the strike, Autumn felt like she was holding her own pretty well. Heidi was taking out the end guys while receiving no damage, and making it look so easy.
"Okay, I think it's time to go play some Player versus Player now," Cody decided as the strike ended.
Several of the other gamers in the store had gathered around to watch them play. They all fit the introverted gamer stereotype so perfectly that Autumn couldn't help smiling every time she looked up at them.
They played Player versus Player for over two hours in the Iron Banner arena. Heidi's gamertag kept getting friend requests from all of the other players they were playing against. It was just one of the store's gamertags, so Heidi accepted all of them. She also received a lot of messages accusing her of cheating. She would walk around a corner and take out a group of players with an open-sight sniper rifle at close range, which was extremely difficult.
All three of them received dozens of messages asking them for pictures, because they sounded freaking hot. Autumn shook her head ruefully as she ignored another message.
"So what did you think?" Aria asked Autumn with an expectant grin as they shut the consoles down.
"Okay, it's pretty fun," Autumn admitted with a small smile. "I guess I can see how people get into video games. I didn't realize they were this social."
"Yeah, gaming has come a long way since the days of Atari's," Cody said with faint smile. "I'm still waiting for full immersion games, like the Matrix, but I'm guessing we're another fifty years away from that kind of technology."
"The technology is already in your head," Heidi told him, tapping on his forehead with a finger. "Your mind can create virtual worlds, and you can explore them just like you would in a game. It's called lucid dreaming."
"I've heard of that, but I've never been able to purposefully have a lucid dream," Cody said with a sigh. "That would be really cool though."
Heidi pursed her lips and then put the fingers of both hands to Cody's temples. There was an inverted boom, causing the lights to briefly flicker. "Now when you go to sleep at night, just say out loud, 'I will remain conscious in my dreams tonight'."
"Really?" Cody's eyes were wide, and an excited grin broke out on his face. "Thank you so much! This is going to be the coolest thing ever!"
"You're welcome," Heidi replied with a half-smile. "Once upon a time, lucid dreaming was the only kind of dreaming."
"What happened to stop people from having lucid dreams?" Autumn asked with a frown.
"A renegade cult that was supposed to be safeguarding the development of human technology after the last Titan awakening," Heidi answered grimly. "The power went to their heads, and they began hoarding knowledge of the astral plane among themselves while purging any record of it from the public. They will pay dearly for their selfishness and stupidity."
Autumn shivered at the icy rage in Heidi's voice. The violent intent behind Heidi's words was almost palpable.
"Heidi!" a boy that looked around ten years old ran up to Heidi, his eyes shining with excitement. "What are you doing here?"
"We were playing video games," Heidi told him, a large smile spreading across her face. "How are you doing, Jordan?"
"Much better, thanks to you," the boy called Jordan replied with a grin. "The nurses didn't believe me when I told them that it was your music that healed me."
"You listened to Heidi's music?" Aria asked in surprise.
"Yep," Jordan nodded vigorously. "She visits the hospital almost every night and sings for us. We were all supposed to die soon, but since Heidi started showing up and singing to us, most of us have gotten better."
"When in the world do you get time to go to the hospital?" Aria asked Heidi in amazement.
"Late at night," Heidi shrugged. "I don't need as much sleep as most people."
A few of the gamers that had been watching them play Destiny were listening to the conversation with interest while trying to pretend not to. Autumn stared at Heidi with something bordering worship. She knew Heidi loved little kids, but she had no idea she had been visiting the children's ward for the terminally ill. She really was a goddess.