Free Counting to D by Kate Scott

“What are you playing?”
    “Urban Destruction. Do either of you want to play?”
    Eli walked us through the rules. Kaitlyn totally sucked at it. I started getting the hang of it, but I couldn’t read the clues that flashed across the bottom of the screen. When an enemy sniper took me out, I looked back at Eli. “I guess I’m a pacifist. I don’t like killing people, even in computer games.”
    “You were pretty good, for your first time. What kind of games do you like to play?”
    “Old-school eight-bit games.” I swiveled in Kaitlyn’s desk chair so I was facing them. “They’re all strategy and no fancy graphics. Tetris is probably my favorite.”
    Eli found a free online version and raised his left eyebrow. “You any good?”
    My fingers danced over the arrow keys as the colored blocks fell from the top of the screen. They twisted and turned at my command, stacking into neat, even rows. The score climbed higher, and the blocks fell faster. Then a credit card form popped up — I’d beaten the free version. That was lame.
    “How did you do that?” Eli asked.
    “Nice work, baby brain.” I spun around and saw Lissa standing in the doorway.
    Kaitlyn glared at her sister. “When did I say you could come into my room?”
    “Chill, I’m in the hallway.” Lissa rolled her eyes. “You guys got quiet, so I wanted to make sure nobody died. I’m relieved to know you’re simply enamored by the awesomeness known as Sam — the cleanup’s much easier.”
    I felt my cheeks flush. All I’d done was beat a stupid computer game. Why did Lissa have to make me look like a freak show in front of the only two sophomores who had spoken to me since I moved here? I didn’t really want to become best friends with Kaitlyn, but I didn’t want her to start teasing me even more.
    “Sam is pretty awesome.” Eli glanced at the time on the bottom corner of the computer screen. “But my mom wants the car home by ten. I guess we should get going.”
    I pulled myself together enough to gather my belongings. “Yeah, see you tomorrow, Lissa.”
    “Later, baby brain.” Lissa tousled my hair as I walked past her toward the front door.
    Eli didn’t start the engine right away. Instead, he turned sideways in the driver’s seat to face me. “Samantha?”
    “Elijah?”
    He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, then turned the key. “Never mind.”
    “What?”
    “It’s just…forget it.”
    Curiosity ate at me as we backed out of Kaitlyn’s driveway. “Eli, what do you want to ask me?”
    “I don’t want to offend you or anything, but do you have Asperger’s syndrome or something?”
    I pulled my knees into my chest and started rocking back and forth. Then I realized that was a totally autistic thing to do and forced myself to stop. “Why would you even ask me that?”
    “Crap, I don’t know. I wasn’t asking as an insult or anything. You just seem different somehow. You’re crazy smart about stuff, and when you were playing Tetris back there, it wasn’t normal-teenager-that’s-good-at-video-games behavior. It was unreal, like you went into a trance or something. I just thought maybe there was a reason for it, but I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”
    I wasn’t offended — it’s not like his question had never entered my mind. We drove past Nate’s street, and I thought about all the things I had and hadn’t talked to Nate about, and how scared I was of Nate’s friends. Eli was different somehow. English was the only class he was doing well in, and that was only because I’d explained the entire play to him. I doubted he’d even read it. Maybe I told him the truth because I didn’t think he would make fun of my answer.
    “Asperger’s deals a lot with not being able to understand other people. Not reading body language properly and stuff like that. I think I’m okay at that kind of stuff, but I do have some other pseudo-autistic traits. Like, I’m really sensitive to sounds, and things like