Tomorrow Land Read Online Free PDF Page B

could barely hide his mirth. “Oh? Did your Knights of the Living Dead guild just take down Fiddler’s Green?”
    “No. I’m playing Basketball Dayz now, I’ll have you know,” Chris snapped. “And just ‘cause I don’t spend all my time cracking into that Playboy House of Love sim you jacked doesn’t mean I’m some social reject. There are girls in B-Dayz, too. Real girls from our school. Not computer-generated sexpots.”
    “Yeah, well, I hate to break it to you, little bro, but you’d have a much higher chance of scoring with a sim star than anyone at our school.”
    Sadly, Chris knew Trey was probably right, but he wasn’t about to admit it. The last thing he needed was more teasing from his older brother. He understood the reality: Trey was über popular. Everyone loved him. Trey was the life of the party, and Chris was the dweeby little brother no one ever noticed, including the person he was most desperate to have notice him—Peyton Anderson, the most beautiful girl at school. Ever since his family first moved down the street from her, Chris had known she was the girl for him. But she’d turned him down time and again, this year going for that stupid meatboy Drew Barry. Chris had no idea what she saw in him. He had a brain the size of an amoeba and even less personality.
    But hey, Drew was tall and built and had a flashy smile. And Chris was just a beanpole who couldn’t manage to put on any weight if he tried. If only he’d gotten Trey’s genes, maybe he’d have had a chance.
    “Hey… Trey, Chris… will you guys play Barbies with me?” a little voice begged.
    Chris looked over to see that his sister Tara had entered the room. Back when she was a baby, his parents had adopted the now six-year-old girl from an African country that had been all but wiped out by the resurgent AIDS epidemic. Sometimes he wished they’d traded his brother for the privilege.
    “Yeah, right ,” Trey said, rolling his eyes. “I’ve got to get ready for my date with Anna Simmons.”
    Tara’s face fell, but Chris knew how to fix that. “I’ll play with you, Tara Bara,” he said, pulling out his VR goggles. He didn’t have much else going on, after all. “What address are you at?”
    His sister chirped with joy. “Dreamhouse Fifteen, on the Blonde and Beautiful server.” She grabbed her own sim deck. “Thanks, Chris. You’re the best!”
     “You just remember that come dessert,” he teased as he activated the sim. “I want your portion of Mom’s banana cream pie.”
    “Anything!” Tara promised. Of course, he knew she’d deny it all when it came to actually giving up her sweets, but he didn’t really mind.
    “Hey, your girlfriend’s outside,” Trey remarked casually as he headed back up the stairs. “Pretty hot, if I do say so myself.”
    Chris started, his heart in his throat as he found himself clamoring for the nearest high basement window. Sure enough, there was Peyton, talking to their neighbor, Mrs. McCormick. He smiled. The old woman was his favorite person on their block—besides Peyton, of course. A sweet, cookie-baking grandma-type who’d been his babysitter when he was younger. And even today, she was always around to listen when his parents were late coming home from work, which they usually were. He’d never seen Peyton talk to her, though. Maybe Mrs. McCormick would put in a good word for him. He could use all the help he could get.
    But just as he was about to leave the window and switch on his sim, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Mrs. McCormick. Swaying and stumbling and falling to the ground. In a flash, he was on the stairs. Then he paused, turning back to his sister.
    “Meet me in the Glow Cat area,” he told her. “I’ll be right back.”
     
    *
     
    Peyton, late for her training session with her father, had been rushing home from a fight with Drew at school—he hated how she had to rush home to train every day instead of spending time with him—when