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Gaia. I'm supposed to be happy now.
    Sam pushed open the door, stepped inside, and stomped the snow from his shoes.
I've got to stop thinking about Gaia. Gaia Moore is not a part of my life. Enough already.
    There was more life in the building than there had been the night before. When Sam had come scrambling back on Christmas night--in the futile hope that Gaia might stop by--the place had been all but empty. Since then a trickle of students had turned up every day. It was still more than a week before classes started up again, but already the dorms were nearly a third full.
    Sam yawned as he tromped up the stairs to his
    room. It had been a long day. He had called Heather first thing that morning to see if she wanted to get together, but she had said she wasn't feeling well. Considering how much alcohol she had downed the night before, Sam wasn't surprised. With Heather out of action and Gaia out of the picture, Sam had decided to hustle back home and spend a day with his parents. He didn't know if the few hours he had been able to spend at home were worth it, but at least it made him feel a little less guilty for running off on Christmas Day.
    It was close to two in the morning, but when Sam walked out onto his floor, there was the familiar thick, sudsy odor of beer in the air and the
ultrasonic thump
of a subwoofer jolting through the walls. Someone down the hall was having a party. It shouldn't have been a surprise. The period between semesters was nothing if not an excuse to party. But Sam was way too tired to participate.
    He fumbled into the quad and opened the door to his dorm room. Inside, he dropped his things, shrugged off his heavy coat, and staggered to his bed.
    He wondered where Gaia was at that moment. Which was a stupid thing to wonder. Obviously Gaia would be asleep. Like any normal person would be at this hour. And wasn't he going to stop thinking about Gaia, anyway?
    Sam took off his boots and lay back against the
    pillow. The bass from the nearby party pounded up through the bed like some huge heartbeat. Despite the cold outside, the room suddenly felt stuffy and hot. Sam peeled off his shirt and lay on top of the sheets. He balled up the pillow and pushed it over his ears. He kept his eyes closed and did his best to think about absolutely nothing.
    The sound of the bass beat kept pounding through the bed.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Gaia. Gaia. Gaia
.
    Heather,
thought Sam.
Not Gaia.
    Gaia. Gaia. Gaia.
    Heather. I love Heather.
    Liar. Liar. Liar. You. Love. Gaia.
    Oh, shut up.
    With a groan Sam got out of bed and walked over to his computer. If he couldn't sleep, he had to do something, and there was only one thing he could think of that might take his mind off the Gaia problem.
    Sam had been a chess geek since grade school. Only that
inner geek
could save him now. He logged on to the Internet and went to the pogo.com game site. From there he logged in as Moonman and proceeded to the chess area. Sam bypassed the "blue" chess rooms. Those places were full of beginners and low-rated players. Even though he had been on the site only a few times, Sam's rating was already edging three
    thousand. If he was going to find a challenge, he would have to do it in the site's "red" room.
    Sam yawned while the site loaded. It was funny how as soon as he got out of bed, he started to feel like he could sleep. He wasn't fooled. One quick game to clear his mind, then he would give the bed another try.
    A scrolling list of chess games appeared on the screen. Even at this late hour most of the tables were already occupied with games in progress. At others a single name beside the board indicated someone waiting for a challenger. Sam passed up a couple of players with ratings under two thousand. He flipped to the bottom of the list and was happy to see the small silhouette of a waiting player who was rated at 2,950. It was a perfect number, within ten points of Sam's own rating.
    Sam reached for the mouse and was about to