"Yep, elementary through high school in Nevada's finest school district."

"Were there many students in your academy?"

"Academy?" What was she...? "Oh! You mean my high school. Yea, lots. My high school had three thousand students."

"Three thousand? Three thousand people!" she asked, flabbergasted.

"Budget cuts. They had to clump as many of us into a cla.s.s as possible. Usually it was one teacher per fifty students." I shrugged. "But all you really need are the books, right? What was your education like, Rei?"

"Well...I was what you would consider to be homeschooled. I had many private tutors and a pedagogue to manage my studies. But, Dieter, I am curious, in such a large school, how did you manage to establish sufficient dominance to gain the note of a prestigious school such as Elliot?"

"Dominance? Rei, I'm a nerd. I only dominate equations. I was at the bottom of the social totem poll."

Rei glanced at my wound and tilted her head. "You do not strike me as weak."

"What I meant is that mental apt.i.tude wasn't valued by Ted Binion's student body."

Rei looked at me as though I had claimed up was down. "Then what do the young value?"

"Strength." I looked down at my shoes. I felt embarra.s.sed even explaining it. "They value strength."

"And how do they determine strength?" Rei asked, leaning forward.

I shrugged. "It usually gets decided in the first few fights." No use faking it. She could probably see right through me. In truth, I was nothing more than a thug. It felt better to just get it out there. I didn't feel comfortable lying to her.

"It always does, doesn't it?"

I raised an eyebrow.

Rei smiled. "You were a good fighter."

I put up my hands. "Hold up, Rei, I wasn't king of school or anything..."

Rei's eyes narrowed. "What of the first few challengers?"

I bit my lip. Rei didn't dance around things, did she? Still, it was an honest question, and it deserved an honest answer. "Well, I...I hurt them badly, Rei." I wasn't proud of those fights. Using my Sight had felt like cheating. "That reputation gave me some breathing room. But, Rei, you have to understand, there's no reasoning with the kids I grew up with. They only understand violence and power."

Rei turned away from me to look out the window. "Dieter Resnick, that is a fact as old as time itself."

I swallowed. That was rather heavy...

"Forgive me, but I cannot resist asking: How did you hurt them?"

"What do mean?"

"You did not have a method? I apologize if the question sounds rude, but I come form a very different background. I did not have peers growing up. I've never been in a 'schoolhouse' fight." Rei almost looked wistful. It was hard for me to picture what homeschooling was like. It must have been just as difficult for Rei to try to understand my experience.

"Okay. If you want, I'll try and give it a shot."

Rei nodded eagerly.

"First you have to understand that fights don't just suddenly break out. There's always an underlying motivation. Fights start because a guy decides he has something to prove. Maybe he wants to get into a gang. Maybe he wants his girl's respect. Maybe he's just afraid of getting picked on himself. Now, what he understands is violence. As he grew up, he saw it work for other folks; and now that he's old enough, he's going to try it too. He picks on someone he perceives as weak, someone he thinks he'll have a good chance of beating. The best outcome he can hope for is that the person he's picking on won't even want to fight. You see, if he can get his opponent to chicken out, then he wins without risking anything. That's why these fights start out with a war of words."

"How odd," Rei opined. "The aggressor merely goads his target? He only attempts to intimidate?"

I frowned. "Of course. All fights involve random chance. Why risk rolling the dice when you can get a free spin at the wheel?" That seemed rather obvious to me. "Now, if you are getting picked on, you have a few options. You can talk s.h.i.t back-but that will gather a crowd. The witnesses up the ante. It raises the stakes for your opponent. That's no good. If a fight breaks out, he's going to fight even harder now because he has more to lose. Only idiots do that. Some people cower and try to gain their opponent's favor. In the short-term it's a good strategy, but in the long-term it's terrible. It just opens you up to more bullying in the future."

"Did you choose another option?"

"Yea, I used three-strikes."

Rei c.o.c.ked her head again. "Pardon?"

I swallowed. She looked even cuter when she was confused.

"With three-strikes, the first time someone makes a comment, you just walk right by. The second time they make a comment, you stop, meet their eyes for a second or two, and then walk right by again."

"Ah! You speak of dominance posturing. This I understand. You have put them on 'the notice.' You are giving them a chance to back down without injury."

I scratched my head. "Not exactly, Rei. You're doing it so everyone else can see it."

"Everyone else? Do you mean the other students? But they are not your opponents. They are just rabble. I do not understand this, Dieter. Explain it better."

I mussed up my hair. Stars above, I needed a haircut. "You're thinking too narrowly. I don't give a d.a.m.n about the challenger. He's a short-term problem. There are thousands of students. Hundreds of them are stronger than me. And I'm not only worried about one-on-one fights."

"The cretins would gang up on one person?" Rei looked confused. "What is the fun in that?"

"Beats me. The point is that by eyeing the challenger, you're singling him out from the group. Instead of letting his buddies get involved, you're turning them into spectators. The eye contact is a form of direct challenge. It says, 'I dare you to try that one more time.' It also ensures the larger group doesn't perceive you as weak. You have to avoid that at all costs. The weak always get torn to shreds. It's better to be the entertainment. Give the crowd a bit of theatrics and-"

"They become an audience rather than a mob. A fascinating observation, Dieter."

I blushed.

"And the third time?"

"The third time, you do something theatrical. Oh, and theatrical means painful."

"Like?" Rei had leaned in close enough that I could feel the slow draw of her breath. Her lavender scent reached my nostrils, and all hesitation left my mind. I wanted to tell her everything.

"I had five fights before the challenges stopped coming. In the first, I closed quickly and dropped him with a few knees to the gut. He had no stamina. That stopped the fight. But to my surprise, a second guy came after me within a week. I did something similar in that second fight. But again, within a week, another guy started in on me. And the third guy was stronger. He took the shots to the body and managed to crack my jaw. I got lucky and caught him in the temple."

"Why did you focus on the body?" Rei asked. "Why not target the joints?"

"Because I wanted to get into college, not start a fight club. Body-blows-don't-show. You don't get in as much trouble."

"Body-blows-don't-show," she repeated. "So after this tactics failure became evident, you decided to do something 'theatrical'?"

"No. I was still being thickheaded. The fourth fight was a bad one. My opponent had a good fifty pounds on me, and this guy knew how to fight. I could be as fast as I wanted, but I couldn't deal enough damage to faze him."

"If one's opponent is large, one need only employ counters to his vitals," Rei said, matter-of-factly. "Velocity can always defeat ma.s.s."

"You know how to fight?"

Rei shrugged. "Martial arts are part of a balanced education, and my education was quite balanced. Now tell me, did you prevail in this fourth contest?"

"His punches were powerful. I didn't want to take anything more than a glancing blow. He was dealing enough damage with his jabs." I felt my jaw reflexively. "First I took his knee out. After I scored the hit to his knee, I worked him laterally. I forced him to plant on the bad knee and caught him in the throat."

"Excellent! Was that sufficient to kill him?"

"Stars above, Rei! I didn't hit him that hard. I hit him a few more times, and he yielded." I scratched my head. "Actually, we got along pretty well after that. Turns out he wasn't such a bad guy. He just liked a challenge."

"Your technique was incorrect," Rei grumbled.

"My technique was desperate. He only gave me a narrow opening, and I was not the strapping lad you are looking at today. I only weighed like 130 pounds."

"And I weigh even less," she replied. "You shouldn't select a tactic you lack mastery in, Dieter."

"Technique? I never learned any techniques. I wasn't taught martial arts as part of a 'balanced education'."

"Then who taught you to fight?" she asked. "You can't just know."

"No one taught me." Visions of a particular birthday party danced in my head. "I just..."

Rei waved off the question with her hand. Something in her eyes told me she knew what I was trying to say.

"You said you were involved in five fights?"

"Yea." Was I that easy to read? "After the fourth fight, I realized that all I was doing was making myself look like a bigger challenge. I was attracting fights, not scaring them off."

"Indeed. That much is obvious. You masqueraded about like appealing quarry. Defeating you was a chance to earn prestige with very few downsides."

I raised an eyebrow. "Right." Again. "And to make matters worse, the fifth kid was a bold little p.r.i.c.k. He picked a fight right off the bat. It was in the center of the cafeteria at lunchtime. It was a bad place to fight. Too many people. Too many obstacles." Too many distractions for my Sight. "Anyway, he was quick, wiry, and even faster than I was. I wasn't used to that. It was like fighting against myself. I was on the defensive from the start. I tripped over a table. He nearly managed to get on top of me-then I hit him in the head with a lunch tray."

"Metal?"

"Na, plastic."

"Unfortunate."

"Na, it was good enough." I smiled. "I hit him with the edge. It dazed him good. But I was pretty mad by that point. My lunch was on the tray-and there wasn't anything in the fridge at home-so I grabbed him by the hair and kneed him in the nose."

Rei covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh, there must have been a great deal of blood."

"Yea, it splattered all over the cafeteria."

Rei giggled. "A food fight. How charming!"

"Actually, the blood ruined my burrito. Anyway, I kneed him again. And again. And again. When he dropped to the ground, I kicked him in the kidneys. I dumped a few plates of food on him, poured a carton of milk on his head, and made him lick it off the floor. They called it b.l.o.o.d.y Lunch Day. I got suspended for a whole week. It's on my permanent record." I scratched my head. I was getting a little too excited talking about this stuff.

Rei frowned. "A suspension? What is...ah, yes, like when Zack Morris and the Screech forged their ident.i.ty papers in order to enter the dance club. But, Dieter, I do not understand this. The boy challenged you to a fight. Why were you the one punished?"

"Fighting isn't allowed at school," I said with a shrug.

"But-"

I laughed. "Gosh, where on earth did you grow up exactly?"

Rei frowned and crossed her arms. "Just north of Chicago."

We talked for a few more minutes. She asked questions about life in Las Vegas. What were casinos like? Did people really just gamble away all their money? It was the stuff that outa-towners asked. I could sense she was enjoying the conversation, but it was becoming kinda awkward for me. I felt like she was sizing me up, checking my limits, seeing what I knew. Maybe it's just me, but I think there should be a certain amount of t.i.t-for-tat when you talk. That just wasn't happening. No matter what I tried, she just kept steering the conversation back to me. I didn't get to learn a thing about her.

It must have been around midnight when the conversation died off awkwardly. I returned to Ulysses, and Rei pulled out a copy of one of those Harry Potter books. Her face was expressive when she read, and I kept sneaking glances. Someone must have done something exceedingly vile to Harry, because Rei's hands were tense, and she grimaced as she read. I envied her book choice. Reading about kids running around blasting monsters sounded way more appealing than cataloguing Leopold Bloom's self-involved bulls.h.i.t. I decided to finish the book off in one last push, but I was going to need some help in the doing. I busted out my thermos and readied an anti-sleep grenade. I was taking my first sip when I realized Rei had put down her book.

"Dieter, is that coffee?"

"Um...yes?" I sniffed my cup again to make sure.

"Father never allowed me coffee." She eyed my thermos. "How does it taste?"

"Well, coffee has a complicated flavor that verges on-wait, did you just say you've never had coffee before?"

Rei shook her head in the affirmative.

Ah, so she was a Mormon. That explained a lot.

"Well, some people think it's too bitter. Others find it too acidic. Coffee does have a strong taste, but there's a lot of variation. The beans taste different depending on where they are grown, how long they are roasted, and how they're brewed." I paused to struggle for words. I loved coffee, and Rei's question was making me get nostalgic. All the cram sessions coffee and I shared together, the video game marathons, that barista I had a crush on back in junior high...

"How does it taste?" I asked rhetorically. "If I had to put it into words, I would say it tastes like the sun mixing with the earth."

I cringed at how corny that sounded. Man, I was a dork.

Rei considered my words with total seriousness, then turned to me and stared. I was regretting the dopey line, plus that headache was coming back again. All that reading was straining my eyes. I took a sip, telling myself the caffeine would help.

"Dieter, I desire a cup of coffee. Serve me one." She said it with such force. More like a command than a request...like a spoiled little princess.

"No problem, princess," I said with a smirk. "Just let me grab another cup out of my bag." I stood up and scrounged for a cup. When I bent down to hand it to her, Rei looked distracted. I had to get her attention before she'd even take the cup. It must have been that princess line. I must have come off like an a.s.s.

"He certainly has a sense of humor..." Rei mumbled.

"Sorry?"

"Nothing," she said, waving her hand at an invisible fly. "I apologize, my mind was wandering."

"Are you going to try it?" I asked.

Rei turned her attention back to her cup, sniffed it warily, sat up straight, and braced herself. As she gave the black goodness a probative sip, her features scrunched up. "You spoke truthfully. It does taste like dirt."

We both laughed.