Lucas and James, high school seniors

Lucas and James were inseparable as friends ever since preschool, already planning to attend the same college once the final few months of high school finish up. They'd both been accepted into the school of engineering at Seatown University, where both their fathers and became friends themselves. The fact that both of them were going to continue on the family legacy was remarkable and one of the big stories of their small town where they currently resided, so much so the local paper ran a story on it. Both were given a scholarship by Yabusa Motors for the "Next Gen Innovators" program, so long as they maintained a particular GPA and completed the year. They were on the fast track to an incredible future.

At least, until the accident. Lucas's dad worked for Yabusa Motors, and was in a pilot program for one of their driverless cars while the company tried to figure out what route to go with intelligent vehicles. The headlines that ran wondered if the program was rushed in development, some suspected foul play to drive the direction of the company.

Few of them remarked on the fact that Lucas had been injured in the accident, beyond a brief mention. Yabusa wanted to keep that information out of the press as much as possible, downplaying the injuries and letting the conspiracy theories drive the narrative. Those were less harmful to the brand than the seriousness of Lucas's injuries.

Fortunately, Lucas was stable, but recovery would take months. He could barely move, and was lucky that his head was relatively uninjured after the crash. His father's injuries were less severe, able to return to work after a couple of days.

James had been visiting with Lucas in the hospital, trying to cheer up his friend, but realizing how hard it was going to be. "Hey bud, I know this sucks, but I promise that by the time you're out, we'll be in the dorms and everything will be right back to normal."

Lucas didn't share his optimism, coughing and then wincing in pain. "That scholarship, though... I need that if I'm going to attend Sea-U, not to mention just graduating high school at all. This sucks, but sorry dude. I think you'll be flying solo without me."

With a sigh, James shook his head, and then said his goodbyes to Lucas before heading out of the hospital room, almost running right into Lucas's father, Gordon.

"Hey there Jim, good timing," Gordon said, trying to sound upbeat, holding a couple of boxes. "I overheard you and him talking about college stuff earlier, I know he's worried he won't make the grade."

"Yeah..." James said, trailing off. "It's not fair, can't they make an exception?"

Gordon shrugged. "I tried to get my boss to turn it into a full-ride, to spin it into a feel-good story that way where Lucas was going to become an engineer to work on this stuff even after the crash. They didn't buy it." He held out a box to James, with the Hideki logo on top. "But, I had another idea."

"What's this?" James asked, looking at the Ascend V5 logo on the box.

"Probably junk, because it's from Hideki and Hideki makes cut-rate stuff. Like we always say at work, the cost of one Hideki device is the Hideki price plus the Yabusa price you pay to replace it." Gordon chuckled, and looked down at the box. "Nah, just kidding. Kind of, kind of just kidding. They do make junk, though. But Yabusa doesn't make anything like this, that's for sure. These are remote headsets, so he can still attend class, maintain that GPA, and you two can be off to college just like we planned."

It was a big deal to both dads that James and Lucas did this together. It was a symbolic thing, more than anything, and it wouldn't be the end of the world if the boys were a year apart in learning. But James knew it must be serious if they were considering tech from a rival company. If there's one thing their dads believed, it was that you always root for the university teams and you never buy from a rival. Until now.

James scratched his head. "Remote? Lucas can't move his arms, a VR headset isn't going to help him out if he can only listen."

"Oh, it's more than that. Lucas wears the transmitter, I'm gonna get it fitted on him after you go to make sure it doesn't hurt for him to use. The receiver, what you're holding, someone will actually wear that and he'll remotely sense and act through them. It's weird, but I've heard good things about it."

James shuddered, almost dropping the box when he thought about that. "So Lucas is gonna attend school as someone else, basically? Why did you give this to me, I don't want to do that!"

Gordon nodded, tugging a little at his beard as he thought. "He will, yeah, but it doesn't have to be you. I already talked to the school, they said they would arrange something. Either a staff member or a student in need of a grade boost would work, some sort of incentive like that where the student gets the same grade that Lucas does on any of those tests. All I need you to do is take that to the principal's office in the morning, and then Luke is probably going to need your support more than ever. I don't know who he'll end up paired with, so you have to make him feel like everything's normal so he can focus, right?"

James nodded. "Uh, sure. Still... this is going to be weird."

"It can't be half as weird as what you kids encounter on the internet these days, right? Look, if it doesn't work, we just turn the headsets off, simple. But it's worth a shot."

"I guess it's worth a shot."

A day later, James woke early, getting to school about a half hour early, so he could deliver the headset and then see who Lucas was going to end up as for the rest of the school year. The absurdity of the depths that they were going for Lucas to keep doing homework was astounding to him. James would've suggested a hundred other ways to solve this problem. The only thing that kept him from doing so was sheer curiosity, wanting to see if this thing even worked.

Heading into the open door of the principal's office, James put the box atop the desk. Mr. Iverson, the principal, greeted James and opened up the box, pulling out the V5 receiver. Unworn, it looked like a blank white oval with the basic outline of a face, with slots for eyes, nostrils, a mouth, and ears. A black band ran all along the length, sort of like a screen bevel. On the underside, a blue light began to blink, which according to what James read last night meant the transmitter was active and just waiting for the receiver to be worn. "Ah, good timing, James. I just got word that our new 'Lucas' is on their way here any minute."

The principal sits down, clearing his throat, and motioning for James to take a seat as well. "Now as you know, Mr. Hunter, whoever Mr. Grisham connects with will serve as his body for the rest of the semester. But I would like his and your discretion on this. He'll be playing a particular role, and you'll be supporting him throughout. We're not going to broadcast that Lucas is wearing an Ascend unit, for the sake of stirring up any more trouble than this is already causing. We're going with the story that the mask is to help the wearer with some sort of face or jaw injury, if anyone asks, but it should be pretty easy to hide it, so stick with that story. Above all, you and Lucas are not to draw suspicion about him or you acting strangely, understood? That's a whole different can of worms. He'll play a role, you'll play a role. In private, act as you like, but the moment you're in public I expect you to go along with the illusion."

James furrowed his brow. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Why make it such a big deal to me?" James didn't understand the whole speech of needing to brace for this strange circumstance, unless Lucas was going to be paired up with someone not even remotely like his usual slightly nerdy self.

"...Well..."