Read Anda's Game for Free Online

that meant that her parents would discover where she'd been and then —
    "I'm talking to you, girl," he said. "You disgusting lump of suet — Christ, it makes me wanta puke to look at you. You ever had a boyfriend? How'd he shag you? — did he roll yer in flour and look for the wet spot?"
    She reeled back, then stood. She drew her arm back and slapped him, as hard as she could. The boys in the Baang laughed and went whoooooo! He purpled and balled his fists and she backed away from him. The imprint of her fingers stood out on his cheek.
    He bridged the distance between them with a quick step and punched her , in the belly, and the air whooshed out of her and she fell into another player, who pushed her away, so she ended up slumped against the wall, crying.
    The mean boy was there, right in front of her, and she could smell the chili crisps on his breath. "You disgusting whore —" he began and she kneed him square in the nadgers, hard as she could, and he screamed like a little girl and fell backwards. She picked up her schoolbag and ran for the door, her chest heaving, her face streaked with tears.

----
    "Anda, dear, there's a phone call for you."
    Her eyes stung. She'd been lying in her darkened bedroom for hours now, snuffling and trying not to cry, trying not to look at the empty desk where her PC used to live.
    Her da's voice was soft and caring, but after the silence of her room, it sounded like a rusting hinge.
    "Anda?"
    She opened her eyes. He was holding a cordless phone, sillhouetted against the open doorway.
    "Who is it?"
    "Someone from your game, I think," he said. He handed her the phone.
    "Hullo?"
    "Hullo chicken." It had been a year since she'd heard that voice, but she recognised it instantly.
    "Liza?"
    "Yes."
    Anda's skin seemed to shrink over her bones. This was it: expelled. Her heart felt like it was beating once per second, time slowed to a crawl.
    "Hullo, Liza."
    "Can you tell me what happened today?"
    She did, stumbling over the details, back-tracking and stuttering. She couldn't remember, exactly — did Lucy move on Raymond and Anda asked her to stop and then Lucy attacked her? Had Anda attacked Lucy first? It was all a jumble. She should have saved a screenmovie and taken it with her, but she couldn't have taken anything with her, she'd run out —
    "I see. Well it sounds like you've gotten yourself into quite a pile of poo, haven't you, my girl?"
    "I guess so," Anda said. Then, because she knew that she was as good as expelled, she said, "I don't think it's right to kill them, those girls. All right?"
    "Ah," Liza said. "Well, funny you should mention that. I happen to agree. Those girls need our help more than any of the girls anywhere in the game. The Fahrenheits' strength is that we are cooperative — it's another way that we're better than the boys. We care. I'm proud that you took a stand when you did — glad I found out about this business."
    "You're not going to expel me?"
    "No, chicken, I'm not going to expel you. I think you did the right thing —"
    That meant that Lucy would be expelled. Fahrenheit had killed Fahrenheit — something had to be done. The rules had to be enforced. Anda swallowed hard.
    "If you expel Lucy, I'll quit," she said, quickly, before she lost her nerve.
    Liza laughed. "Oh, chicken, you're a brave thing, aren't you? No one's being expelled, fear not. But I wanta talk to this Raymond of yours."

----
    Anda came home from remedial hockey sweaty and exhausted, but not as exhausted as the last time, nor the time before that. She could run the whole length of the pitch twice now without collapsing — when she'd started out, she could barely make it halfway without having to stop and hold her side, kneading her loathsome podge to make it stop aching. Now there was noticeably less podge, and she found that with the ability to run the pitch came the freedom to actually pay attention to the game, to aim her shots, to build up a degree of accuracy that was nearly as