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Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 8
Short-circuited. I am definitely feeling short-circuited. Because my après school time now has this new team-coding commitment, I am, instead of sleeping, sitting on the floor, leaning back against my bed, feet pressed up against the wall, laptop propped open, busy trying to execute my Vikram rescue plan by leveling u...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 9
And rise and shine! Drumroll please. Welcome to what I like to call our school east locale, aka the right side of the building as you come through the courtyard. I texted everyone and we are now huddling, shivering, outside the school. Because while it isn't a freezing cold morning, it isn't all that warm either, a sit...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 10
Which is why I am still here, determinedly hunting for that needle in the proverbial haystack. Previously on The Hunt for Vikram Patel's Inventory, we watched as suddenly sleuth-less Sid Rubin spent six nights achieving virtually nothing. Six nights and still no answers. Leaving us with one big question: Will Sid rise...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 11
Who needs sleep? I mean really, way overrated. I bolt straight out of bed at seven this morning, having first gone to sleep somewhere after two. And it's a Saturday! And it feels great! I'd found a whopping clue and I leveled up to eighteen, which happens to be the Jewish numerical assigned as "life," which I think we...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 12
We didn't find our thief that day, or for the next entire week. Which wasn't for lack of trying, just for lack of time. Between classes, after school, and even before school can be summed up in one word: robotics. Since the night the challenge dropped, things have been moving at lightning speed. We do not have a lot o...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 13
But not here. In spite of my Contagion thief-at-large challenge, I have officially declared this Friday night to be a working-on-my-new-cosplay-outfit for the always exceptional, always competitive New York City Comic-Con night. Because, a cosplayer's got to do what a cosplayer's got to do. Before it's too late. And y...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 14
And now flying in the door. Judging by the multiple baskets of fries, I am clearly not the first to arrive, which is personally disappointing and possible only because I had to stop and reload my metro card. A circumstance that was not only annoying, but time-consuming and ridiculously old-fashioned. I know somewhere ...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 15
It's like something out of a movie— only way less romantic. It is damp and cold and dark and incredibly foggy, and we are shivering and trying to use the backside of "Fortitude" along with each other as wind block. And I can hear you, my friends, asking why we just didn't wait inside. And the answer is not a) because...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 16
And several hours later, I can officially declare myself a founding member of the futilitarian's club. Imani left hours ago, right after Ze agreed, "I like your friend. She is very sweet." That compliment followed our easy-peasy plan number one ...fail. Which was to go online, find the user name of whoever put the ta...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 17
I point my still-tripping-over-my-two-left-feet-exiting-the-apartment body toward home with the intention of checking in with the parental unit, maybe doing some schoolwork, and then with whatever time was left returning to the hunt. I begin walking when a particular ping lets me know I have a DM on my twitter. It's D...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 18
And now I do finally head home, once again filled with great intentions. The day with Ari has left me in an oddly mellow and surprisingly sanguine mood about everything. I let myself in, welcoming the smells from the kitchen, planning to just enjoy a lovely familial dinner and then dedicate some time to catching up on ...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 19
"I've got it." Because we are in the library, I am required to hiss my words, which is kind of annoying. But at least it's not as bad a place for a meet-up as it used to be, which is great, 'cause the weather outside sucks this morning. But ever since our Battle-Axe-of-Books, Mrs. Stewart, took a leave of absence, and...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 20
It's now eight o'clock on Friday night and we are gathered at Ze's place in Chelsea. For the good and the bad of it, we are going to attempt this. Ze and Jimmy have been literally closeted away, plotting a strategy for over an hour, but there's no point hurrying them. The three of us, Jean, Aaron and Mae Ann, are also...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 21
And I was pretty devastated. I stayed up half the night, trying to figure out how I could have miscalculated. And yet, if there was a moment of ignorance being bliss, that was kind of it. Because as crushing as that was, it was only one blip on what was about to be my not-so-greatest-hits week. But that, my friends, w...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 22
I did manage to make it back to class, and Monday did, thankfully, eventually end when I collapsed in my bed, a bundle of emotions, most of which I can't even identify, but feeling overwhelmingly lost. So I wake up groggy, and it's a fittingly gray Tuesday. I shuffle myself off to school, and there is everyone of impo...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 23
Now, as you can imagine, I am reasonably freaking out, with no place to fly my freak. It is past eight thirty on a school night, and there is no way I can "swing by Chelsea" and not be "killed by Mama." But since we do have technology, and therefore electronic chatter, I manage to somehow "miss my stop" so I can get a...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 24
By four o'clock, we are racing around the corner. And then another until we burst through the double doors, grinding to a stop to have our bags scanned, which given the amount of electronic toys between us all, takes an annoying amount of time. As we get through, I realize it's pretty quiet inside, because, duh, it is...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 25
We are all gathered in a cinder-block conference room with one of those big speakerphone things in the middle of the table and a monitor at the far end. Along with Ze and Jean, my parents, Imani's parents, and Vik's Dad are also in attendance. Apparently, since Aaron was not with us at the police station, I am rather ...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 26
And there was a bit more, something about Qi being a "bare branch," which is apparently a low-income, low-status man who is typically unmarriageable, so they become the endpoint for a family tree. In China, there are 117 boys for every 100 girls. So not every boy will have a chance to meet a girl to marry. Then there ...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 27
And we're finally here. Welcome to FIRST Power Up. It's the qualifiers, and it's insane. Sixty-something teams are gathering together from all over New York and a couple of neighboring states to compete for the next two days. I make my way into the schoolyard, which has been transformed by hanging banners for every sc...
Zero Sum Game
Stefani Deoul
[ "mystery" ]
[ "LGBT", "young adult", "Sid Rubin" ]
Chapter 28
There are many people to whom I am indebted for their help, their support, and their incredible kindnesses along the way. To readers, librarians, booksellers, bloggers, reviewers, dear friends, and fellow authors, who have embraced "Sid," and by extension, me, please know, your hugs are everything. Tom Carbone, a man...