She took a last slurp, then added the can of Red Bull to the stack piling up around her desk. Sarah continued tapping away at her keyboard and paid Jon no mind.
"Sarah, can't you hear me? We need to talk."
She continued typing -- Jon couldn't see what she was doing, but the screen was filled with text. No pictures, nothing to look at, just text. It looked like she was editing some kind of document.
"Don't you see that you're different, Sarah? Snap out of it!"
And she did. Jon knew that it was still the same Sarah McMillan by the way she swiveled around in her seat and glared at him. That was about it though.
"Can't you see I'm plugged in? You know it's like the golden rule of programming, NEVER bother a programmer while they're plugged in! Who do you think you are?This stuff takes concentration! Now that I'm out of it, I might lose my place! I don't suppose YOU'VE ever successfully ran a masked CP above web root with EECMS 2.3.1?"
Sarah obviously hadn't lost her ability to make people feel lesser than her, either.
"OF COURSE you haven't. Well, now that you broke me out of my coding masterpiece, whaddya want? I assume clothes. Maybe hair product? There's a $500 cosmetics kit I can't stand looking at any more, too. It's all in those brown boxes by the door. You can have it all, we'll take it to your house now."
Just then, a butler appeared and started moving the boxes.
"Alex, take all these boxes over to whatsherface's house. I'll bet little Miss Cutesy over here would just love some more frilly things to wear."
Jon's mind briefly thought about all the great clothes and other personal effects that were probably hidden away in them and were now becoming his - but why did he care? He didn't. He shouldn't.
"Sarah, I don't want your stuff. Look at yourself. You're different. You're giving away your trademark Versace pink miniskirts! Your Manolo polka-dotted heels! Your MAC Viva Glam Lipglass kit with matching applicators!"
Since when did he know those brand names?
"They're doing something to you at that center. Can't you see it?"
Sarah continued to look at him strangely.
"Listen girly-girl. I've already given you all my stuff. Could you just leave me to finish this project? I've got to get it done before 8pm when me and the other guys are going to take on a couple missions LAN-style on World of Warcraft. That is of course, unless you were here to ask me on a date? "
Jon slammed the door in a huff behind him. Sarah didn't understand either! And to think he'd go on a date with a nerdy programmer like that! Gross.
He had to get to someone outside of the program who would believe him. He just knew there had to be at least one person who could help him get out of this jam. Maybe Karyn or Zoe?
But it was getting late, so Jon decided to set back for home. He could continue the search after Brittney-Lynne's class got out tomorrow. He dreaded what she was going to force him to do, but he almost looked forward to seeing her smiling face. Brittney-Lynne was always just so excited about everything. Sad people could really learn a thing or two from her, he thought. At least she understood him. It was like she knew what he was going through. Almost like she was the closest thing to a friend he had since this program began. Jon resolved to try hanging out with Brittney-Lynne a little more. He did have a huge stack of boxes he'd need help going through
