Bejeweled

Claire decided to be generous partly because she was bored. Six had said he didn't know how to work his phone and showing him how would give her something to do and break the awkward silence permeating the room.

"I can show you how to work the phone," she told him, holding her hand out for it again.

He gave it to her without a word and she tried to figure out where the best place to start would be. It wasn't like he would need to add new contacts any time soon…he definitely didn't have social media accounts so adding those apps would be pointless…basic phone features might be best.

Claire showed him all of the various settings and functions before moving onto basic apps such as GPS and the weather forecast. She also showed him the calendar feature and how to set alarms and timers.

Once the basics were done she wasn't sure what to do. He did say he wanted to understand what her life was like…what if she installed some phone games for him?

She would have to go with the free ones and warn him away from in-app purchases because those were a trap that drained your money faster than you could blink. She had no idea how much was in his bank account but since he wasn't working anymore it would have to last him a good long while.

"Would you like to play a game?" Claire asked.

Six tilted his head, indicating interest. "What kind of game?"

She figured she should start with something simple that didn't involve a storyline or any elaborate skills. A fairly simple classic should work.

"I've been playing this one since I was a kid on my mom's old phone. It's called Bejeweled," Claire explained as it downloaded. "You try to make matches of three or more of the same jewel as fast as you can. If you match four or five at once, you can make special gems that can be used to get you more points. Watch and learn."

She didn't bother turning off the tutorial that always started when you first downloaded the game so he could see how it worked. But once that part was done she went as fast as possible trying to win.

Classic Bejeweled was pretty difficult; she had never made it past level 7. She preferred the blitz version where you tried to get as many points as you could in a minute or the other mini game versions that were now included in the smartphone game, like the one where you had to match jeweled butterflies before they were eaten by a spider.

Claire could see if Six took to the original before introducing him to the variations on the app's menu screen. She made it to level five before the game ended and handed it over to him.

"Here, you try," she encouraged.

Six accepted the phone from her blankly and clicked on the 'play again' button. His eyes darted back and forth as his finger frantically swiped at the screen. He made it to level fifteen before running out of possible matches.

Her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Are you sure you haven't played this before?!"

"I haven't," he replied. "What is this?"

He was referring to the scoreboard. He was playing against the default scores to beat and his score had skyrocketed to the top of the board on his very first try.

"It's a scoreboard," Claire explained. "See that string of numbers next to your name? That's what you scored in the game."

Six squinted at it. "That isn't my name."

The name he had been randomly assigned was John233545 because of the fake identity his phone had been registered with.

Claire ended up showing him how to change it in the game's settings. "Whatever username you pick will show up on the scoreboard from now on. Choose wisely."

Six tried using his name but that was already taken. So was the actual number 6. After that he officially ran out of ideas and looked to her for help.

"What is yours?" he asked.

The question surprised her. "Uh…it's beware.the.claire. Kinda dumb, I know. I like rhyming things."

"What rhymes with six?"

Hang on, did he want to copy her? Was he really that unoriginal? She supposed he was since he got completely stumped after realizing his name was unavailable.

"Mix, fix, picks, bricks, licks, nix, tricks…" Claire listed off. Her mind was going blank. That was all she had. "I can't think of anything else. Sorry. Why don't you try something else?"

Six looked at her blankly. "Like what?"

"I don't know…what do you like? You could choose your name based on that."

He thought about it a moment and ended up choosing '6cheeseburgers' as his username. Still not super original but at least this one wasn't taken. Claire had to hold back her laughter, not wanting to offend him.

"What are these other options on the screen?" Six asked once he finished editing the settings and was back on the home page of the app.

"Oh, they're different variations of the game. Follow the tutorials and you should be able to pick them up without my help."

The student had already surpassed the teacher on classic mode so she doubted she would be of any help to him. And she turned out to be right. He moved up rapidly through the default scoreboard on each one, though some of the harder variants took more than one try.

Claire scrutinized him. There was a tiny divot between his eyebrows that showed how hard he was concentrating as he played. Aside from that his face remained as it always was.

If she didn't know any better, she would say he was super into this. At least as into it as someone like him was capable of being. Had he ever played games before at all or was this his first time?