It was a dimly-lit night, an exceptional amount of creatures were crawling about, scurrying from shelter to shelter, gradually getting closer to a possible food source for their family. For them it was to live, for us humans, or rather a teenager, it is quite easy; although, I have my own family that provides substinance to allow me to survive. I'm not sure if I could live without them, I'm proud to have a family like my own. My family contains six persons, ranging from my parents to my three sisters, I love them all dearly, I have no brothers to help me in my "manly" adventures. My father makes sure to guide me through my life, along with my mother, and my sisters.
My house is a safe haven for me, I can reside here if I have no intent to talk to anyone outside. I prefer to keep to myself rather than speaking to others. To introduce myself properly, My name is Jay Versteckt, I am currently sixteen years old, a comfortable age to be. I go to a public school located in a rural society. The town I live in is called Hubbard, within the State of Oregon. Due to the placement of Oregon near the West Coast it makes it rain quite often here, I really don't mind though. I happen to love the rain, it makes me feel like there are other possibilities of life out in the broadness of the place we call "space". I like to think that there is life out there besides Earth.
My family is composed of my Mother, my Father, and three Sisters. My Mother's name is Leben Versteckt, she's forty-eight years old at the moment, yet she honestly looks like she's around her early thirties. My Father's name is Agil Versteckt, He is fifty-three years old, I can't say for sure but my friends say my dad looks like he's in his late thirties. My oldest sister, Nana Versteckt, is Twenty-Five, My middle sister, Cece Versteckt, is Twenty-Four years old, My Final sister, Pril Versteckt, is Twenty-two years old. All of my family members are very important to me, no matter how they treat me.
I snapped back to attention after zoning out, Mostly about what I'm going to do in the future, noticing the rain proceeding to come down harder. I begin to speed up my walking so I can get to a friendly apartment building nearby. I look around, my town isn't very active even if it is bright and shiny so I'm not amazed I don't spot anyone wondering about in this rain. I reach the twenty-nine steps up to the second floor . I slightly sigh and begin my ascent up to the top, each time my shoes hit a step it makes a noticeable rattling "clunk". Each step weighs me down more and more, as I reach the top of the staircase I shake from the chill outside.
I Steadily tromped over to the second door on the second floor of the apartments, as I got to the old-fashioned door I slightly poked the nearby doorbell and backed up a tiny bit. A nice chime played inside of the apartment, as I waited for a few seconds I heard no movements inside.
"Is no one home?" I shuffled back to the doorbell and rang it six more times. As I waited I turned back around and looked out over the edge of the railing, a nice pine smelling gust blew into my face, whipping my hair behind my head. I grabbed my flailing hair and pulled it down my back. I noticed it had grown quite a bit again, it is now halfway down my back. The door started creak as it started to open slightly. I decided to speak to the person who opened the door, "Hey, Dee, is that you?" The door opened even more to allow me to see my friend.
He slightly yawned before answering, "Yeah… it is, what's going on?" he looked questionally at me, "Are we being raided by the Soviets?"
I shook my head to the sides slightly before chuckling, "No nothing like that, I just felt like I should come see you for a bit, we haven't seen each other for a while now." Dee spaced out slightly for a moment before responding to my comment.
"Yeah you're right we haven't, I'm a Freshman now and you're a junior we should hang out during lunch then. I don't have anyone I know here since I just moved here this year." He looked slightly unsteady.
"Man, Sure why not, you'll look pretty good too, at least to the other Freshman. Of course because you're hanging out with a few Junior's" I started to notice it was getting colder. "Uhh, Can I come in now?"
"Oh sh-, yeah come on in, I don't have any of my systems here yet. Of course I just got here too, don't expect much." Dee brought me to his room at the back of the Apartment. I noticed that it was very slightly furnished in here.
"Do you not have anything to furnish this place?" I doubt it in reality. "I guess it would be hard living by yourself, how do you get along anyway?" from the top of my memory I can't think of anyway he could pay for this.
He looked unsightly, shuffling back and forward, "Well, let's just say I got a deal with some "friends"" My eyes narrowed at the thought of what he got himself into this time. Sighing I sat on the nearly barren floor.
"Do you have an exact reason, or are you just going to shy away from the question?" Dee Sighed, then made a slight response to my question.
"Well… you know how my family lives out near the fields going up to Mt. Angel?" I nodded my head in response while raising my eyebrow. " Well basically they now own one of the fields and they grow medical marijuana there now. So that provides a lot of income because they sell it to the dispensaries around Hubbard and Woodburn."
"Ohh, well… that explains why you have enough money to live by yourself, what do you do with the extra money?" He started to chuckle slightly before turning to look out a nearby window.
"That's the thing… I can't think of what I should do with the extra money, I mean I have plenty for food, bills and stuff like that." I started to wonder how much money he was getting from his parents.
"Uhh… How much money are you getting from you family anyway, also could you grab me something to drink?" I licked my lips to point out that they were slightly chapped from being out in the windchill.
Dee turned around and headed for another room around the corner without saying anything. I began to look around the plain Apartment. It was a bland light gray color all around the room, but I bet he's going to paint it sooner or later. "Here" Dee came back into the room handing me a glass of water with some ice cubes in it.
"Are the ice cubes really necessary? I could just walk outside and freeze this entire glass" I stared steadily at him before laughing "As I asked how much money do you have left over?"
He sat down about two feet away from me before laying down and answering me. "Do you want a honest answer or just a random number nowhere close to the real amount?" At first I thought he was joking with the second option but I better not take the chance.
"I would like the real number of course, why would I want a fake number?" He pulled out a receipt that was from a local bank and handed it to me after scribbling out random things. "Spent thirty on GTA V, Forty on Pre-Ordering Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, received Sixty-Seven Thousand from Business, and ten dollars on Por- WHAT? SIXTY-SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS?"
"I told you I have a lot left over from payments and everything else" my eyes widened before thinking of all of the possibilities. "Is that surprising or something?"
Was he serious or not? I couldn't tell at the moment, but I don't really care about that right now. "Do you know what you're going to do with this amount of money?" I thought about it for myself for the time being. With that amount of money I could finally finish my project that I've put on hold.
"Well I'm not quite sure but I think I'll give some to you, I know you have that project going on right now and you can use some of it on that" he made it clear that he's going to share some money with me, but I'm not quite sure how much. I do need a lot to finish this project of mine.
" Yeah I do need some for that project, how much are you going to give me anyway cuz I'm going to need quite a bit" he slightly tapped his chin before he looked up to me and responded.
"Well how about I give you four hundred thousand dollars for now. I have another payment coming in about a month so I can give you more than if you need it. You can also come stay here if you need some extra space for your project then you'll have much more space rather than being in the upstairs room of yours, here we have plenty of room to do it." I'll have to think about that second part but I know I'll need more space for my project.
"I think I'll move my project over here, but I'm going to stay at my house for now maybe later I'll move in with you but just not right at the moment" I just another reason why I stay here in reality I don't have one it'd be really nice to get out of parents house and get out of their hair, plus how would I explain that to my parents, and the school. First of all I would have to explain to my parents, then I'll have to kind of get a note from my parents to the school telling them what's going on.
"Having something or someone over here would be nice and I don't have much to do right now, and I can't really talk to anyone because don't know anyone around here. plus it doesn't seem this town is that active by the looks of it." man I hate it when he does the guilt trips on me now I kind of have to get my parent to agree on letting me live here.
"Fine fine I'll go talk my parents but I guess I rather be heading over there now anyway oh right uh, ah, here's Skyrim that I borrowed a while back Tell me once you get your games, I'm getting a bit bored." I started walking to the door, Before turning back and giving him a glare " when will the money be in my account anyway as it would be nice to have it soon"
He quickly pulled out his phone and started typing something on the screen "...There I sent the money to your account are you happy, but any ways that gives me some money to play around with if you get what I'm saying" I nodded slightly before walking my way over to the door.
"Okay, well I guess is nice seeing you hope to see you soon, but doesn't school start tomorrow or is it Wednesday? Wait today is Sunday right, I can't remember, darn my horrible memory." I lightly facepalm before looking over at him for advice.
"Of course you forgot, yes it's Sunday and yes school starts tomorrow, you better get ready for school." I guess he's right I better be getting back home. Hopefully we have some classes together in school.
"Yeah I'll see you tomorrow at school I'll text you my classes to see if we have any together, also after school today I'll bring over my project." He nodded before leading me to the door and opening it for me.
"Nice seeing you again, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow, have a good night." I stepped out the door looking back, before stepping down the first step I noticed the rain has started to slow down, I should be able to get back through without my hood. Some rain here and there is nice for the hair, I still need to take a shower tonight though.
I still wonder if my parents will allow me to live with my best friend, I guess I can still visit them everyday or so, but it's the fact that their son moved out, I mean i'm only sixteen. I'll get to that once I get home. I decided to look around to see if anyone was still at this time of night. As I thought I didn't see anyone although I did see the occasional cat walking down the street, most of the cats in this neighborhood know me I always pet them and give them some attention.
I bet most of these animals here have owners, But hard to tell because none of them have any collars But I know this town is safe, so I guess the animals don't need any collars. As I walked down the streets the street light, light detection sensor went off and the most the street lights began to turn on as I walked past them. I love this time of the night, the moon still not out fully and over in the distance you can see the Sun slowly setting creating a spectrum of beautiful lights.
As I looked about I wondered what my future would hold for me, I hope it would be at least interesting. Pulling out my phone, a Nocia Limuinated 015, the screen showed that I had a E-mail. I tilted my head reading what it said. " Chapter: Journey into the Stars Ch30 by…" I grinned knowing that the story that I was reading about RWBY, an action, drama, and even if some people deny it, Romance, was getting very interesting. At least I would have something to read once I got home, I like… No I love reading, It's one of my major pastimes, that and gaming.
After walking for around ten minutes I came up to the side door of my house, as I slowly turned the doorknob the thought of moving out hit me. Was I ready? I mean sure I wasn't that far away from home, and I could still come back at anytime. I sighed before opening the door and heading directly into the kitchen for a quick bite to eat. Opening the pure white cupboard, glancing around in the cupboard I sighed, noting to make sure Dee and I would have snacks at his… No, our house. 'Well I better tell my parents what's going on soon' I took several steps toward my parents room. "Mom, Dad, I'm home from Dee's Apartment, can we talk real quick?" I heard some shuffling.
"Hmm? Yeah what do you need to talk about Jay?" It was my Mom, rubbing right below her right eye. "Dad's not home right now, he's took off to Vegas a two hours ago while you were at Dee's"
I turned to look at the nearby calendar, as my mom said it read 'Agil to Vegas' "Oh… I didn't realize it was today, oh well I'll give dad a call tomorrow after school. Anyways, can I move over to Dee's new place? It's way more spacious there plus I can work on my gaming invention easier." I tilted my head hoping my Mom would agree to this.
"..." My Mom blankly stared at me for a few moments before replying "Sigh… Yeah, I guess you can, I mean you're young and all, but you're more mature than any child I know. Plus you have Dee with you…" She slowly looked down then back up. "Yeah Get your stuff into the boxes in your closet then I'll move the stuff over to his apartment for you.
I smiled before hugging her tightly, "Thank you Mom, I'm going to get my stuff packed for you and then I'm going straight to bed after that. I'll see you in the morning Mom, I love you, night." I waved goodbye to her before opening the door up to my room and ascending into the pitch black room. I already knew the layout of my room so I easily reached the light and turned it on. As I flicked the light on I was blinded by its bright nature.
Two Hours Later
As I finished folding up the last boxes' folds I swiped my brow, I'm not the most physically fit. I also have a horrible stamina because of my asthma, it's mainly only active during exercise and when it's dusty. I hope later in my life my asthma will wear off. 'Well now I can finally get some well needed rest' I hastily plopped right onto my bed that I will soon to be leaving. I looked over to the box that layed next to my bed, It was labeled 'VR EXPRMNT MP', caution' in that box was what I'm putting most of my money that I've earned or received.
My eyelids steadily got heavier and heavier as I thought about my project that I've been working on for a while now. My Virtual Reality experiment is basically a heavily modified Oculus Rift, I've made it more compatible with multiplayer. In this case 'multiplayer' was just a way of making it so more than one person could be in the the same VR space, It also reads the user's brainwaves to make a exact model of the person using it.
I've had recent trouble with a module that connect all of the players to the same virtual space, but that's what I'm going to use the extra money I've received from my good friend Dee. I just have to research how to get the multiplayer to work, then I just have to buy the necessary components to improve my model. I currently have it so you can see other people's model as they 'log in' the models just don't move or recognize each other as an entity. I started to doze off into the night before making a final thought… 'I'm going to ask her to help me test my VR…'
The Next Day After Getting Ready and Arriving at School.
I took a step out of my bus, bus thirteen now, slowly stepping to what use to my favorite teacher's classroom. I noticed my friend Jayce was standing outside of the class, I waved at him to get his attention, but of course he wasn't really paying attention to his surroundings. As I steadily paced over to him I noticed a girl I've admired for a decent time now, Axia, she, for some odd reason, was waving me down. I looked around me to make sure it was me who see was waving at, turns out it was. She looked away to continue talking to her friend next to her, I have no clue who she is, so I, naturally, started to silently creep up to her. I've always been pretty good at moving around without making any noise, also according to my friends I have a tendency to just disappear, truthfully I just walk decently fast and quietly. When I reached Axia I motioned for her friend not to say anything, she quickly nodded her head slightly. I Put my hands in front of my mouth, "BOO!" when I said that I quickly placed my hands on her shoulders for an added effect.
"AHH! JAY I SWEAR IF THAT WAS YOU…" Axia started to turn so I moved to where she was originally facing. "Huh? I thought Jay was trying to scare me… Jaaay... " I started to back up when she faced towards me.
"Hehe… Hey Axia… How's it going?" I slightly chuckled while pacing backwards even more. "Can I ask you something real quick too?"
Axia put her finger up to chin before replying, "Well… you did scare the crap out of me…" She proceeded to crack her knuckles and approach me quicker "Maybe after I'm done with you of course."
I put my hands up and quickly waved them about to show my surrender, "Yeah… Although I think we're a nit too young for that kind of 'activity', don't you agree?" Axia's face suddenly flushed red from my comment, whether from anger or embarrassment, I don't think I'll live long enough to find out. " I'm joking I swear, I know we're both better than that." My apology didn't seem good enough for her when she began to run towards me. "OH GOD, SOMEONE SAVE ME" I frantically turned and bolted, vaulting myself over a picnic table set in the middle of the grassy area outside of the lunchroom. Axia didn't seem phased by my movements, I know I'm more agile than she is, but I have way less stamina than she does.
"JAY, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!" I ignored her, knowing that if I did stop I wouldn't be able to live my life anymore. Still sprinting away I noticed I was a bit ahead of her, I quickly turned around and began sprinting right back at her. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING NOW, WE'RE GOING TO…" I latched onto her as I passed her, bringing use both to the ground with a 'thud'. "Uhh, what the hell was that? WHY would you run back at me?"
I lightly scratched the back of my head, "Well, no reason? Anyway, I have a question for you real quickly." I helped her up and brushed some grass of of my pants, ignoring the people staring at me. "Can you come to this address after school? I need your help with one of my projects."
"Yeah… I guess so, I don't have anything to after school anyway, what is this 'project' of yours?" I looked back up to see Axia was fixing her hair after our 'tumble' "I'm not just going to help you if you're just messing around with Airsoft guns"
I handed her a slip of paper with the address written on it, "No,it's really important, that had the address of where I live now, by the way I don't live alone my Best Friend lives there with me too." I heard a few soft footsteps coming from behind me, naturally I turned around and jabbed with a swift movement, receiving a quick grunt in return. "You know better than trying to sneak up on my Jayce."
Jayce placed his hand on where I jabbed him, "Next time don't jab so hard or I'll get you back, why are you tackling Axia anyway?" he made a hand motion to Axia who was still confused why I jabbed Jayce.
"Well, I asked her to come over to my place so she can help me with my project that I've been working on for a while now." Jayce raised his eyebrows at me saying that Axia is coming over to my house. "Actually, could both of you come over to my house? It would make testing it way easier."
Jayce and Axia both nodded, "Well I didn't know that you and Axia were so close that you'd invite her over to your house, I can understand inviting me, but her?" He pointed at Axia, while she sent a cold glare at him, " I don't mean it in harmful way, I meant… whatever, just send me a text with you address and I'll come over there after school." We fist bumped before he walked to what I presumed is the general area of where his class is.
"Hey Axia… how close would you say we are?" She tilted her head to the side for a moment, "We hardly talk, but when ever we do our conversation flow really smooth." I shuffled around adjusting my weight to my left leg.
Axia opened her mouth to talk, but it looked like she was having trouble getting it out, "W-well, I don't know exactly… Maybe comfortable friends? I'm not sure, what do you think we are?" She shuffled awkwardly while kicking the ground lightly.
"Truthfully, comfortable friends sounds about right" When I agreed to our friendship status the first bell of the school year sounded off, causing all of the students on the campus to begin heading to their class. My first class is Communications, I heard from my Seniors that this class was really hard for them.
After School at Dee's House, Now My House Too
I closed the door to my new house, receiving a breath of fresh… shit? "Aww, man that smells horrible." I covered my nose to close off the horrible smell that was invading my nose. "What the hell Dee? You could kill the entire population if you condensed this smell." I grabbed a conveniently place air freshener right next to me, I sprayed it over most of the room, hoping to rid this horrible smell.
"Shit man, that one came out loud and hard, I didn't know it was going to smell this bad." He attempted to waft the smell away, to his satisfaction he now got a large wiff of the air freshener instead. "Ah that's much better, how was school for you? Get any babe's on the first day?"
I chuckled, expecting an answer like that out of him, "No I don't want any 'babe's' right now exactly, I'd rather focus on school at the moment. Oh, I have my friends Axia and Jayce coming over to help me test my project." By the look on his face it looked like he was quite surprised by my impromptu 'sleepover.'
"Whoa, .Wait, a girl is coming over to our house?" I glanced at him, before shaking my head.
"Yeah a girl is coming over, along with a guy. They are going to help with my project, is it hard to understand that?" Dee seemed more focused on the fact we are having a female in our establishment. "Bro, no sexual intents in this house with other people in it, got that?
He shook his head before finally coming back to his senses, "Yeah, I got you now. WHen will they be over her…" Just as he was asking when they would be here the doorbell sounded off, I quickly glared at him, "Fine you can answer it, no need for harmful intentions." To show his point he raised his hands up in the air
"Good" I walked over to the door, unlocking the two locks we had installed. When I opened the door I expected to see Jayce, but instead there was a girl. She looked like she was my age, sixteen, she had brown hair like I did. When I looked into her eyes I noticed they where also brown like mine, but she was at least five inches shorter than me, maybe five foot five. "Oh, hey Axia, welcome to our lovely Abode, please come in. Ignore the tonned guy, he's my roommate."
As Axia walked into our house I looked to see that she was wearing, a pair of blue jeans, with a simple black zip-up hoodie. "Nice place, looks like you guys are just setting up though,so where is this project of yours?"
"I haven't got it out of the moving boxes yet, you can pull all four of them out of box marked 'VR EXPRMNT MP' careful with them please though." she looked at me with a puzzled expression, "Right, here let me take you to my room, the boxes are in there." I began to show her to my room. Once we got into my room everything was mostly set up, courtesy of my Mom.
I pointed out the box that contained my Experiment, "Thank you, I'll get everything set up for you, I'm guessing you want all four of them done?" I quickly nodded. "Yeah, okay, I got you then. GIve me about ten minutes and they'll be ready. I gave a wave so Axia can get on setting them up.
"AHHH! YOU SON OF A-" I flinched from the sudden screech, I paced into the front room to see what was going on. "Aaaachhkk" When I looked in the front room Dee was on the floor clutching his throat, while Jayce was standing over him.
"Umm… what is going on?" I looked over to Jayce knowing he caused this incident, "Nice to know you've already met my roommate, his name is Dee." Dee began to rise from the ground recovering from his conflict. "Oh well guys let's see if Axia has the VR's set-up." they both nodded as we started walking to my room.
"Oh hey guys, I've just finished setting up the fourth one, they're all ready to go." She pointed to the four VR's lying on my elongated desk. "I did notice there might be a flaw in some of the.." SHe didn't get to finish before Dee and Jayce were already putting theirs on.
Jayce looked back at us, "Hey I'll see you in there, good luck."
"Hey Axia, you ready? I guess we better get in there with them" I pulled a chair out for her to sit in. "I trust you know how these work right?" She nodded before sitting down and putting her own VR on. "I guess it's my turn now" I grabbed my VR, switching it on and putting it on my head. My vision blurred for a moment before I appeared in the virtual space. To my surprise everyone was fully rendered and interacting with each other.
"Hey Jay! This is awesome! How did you do this?" I know everything wasn't like this when I looked at it…
I walked over to the group, "Hey Axia, did you fix up some of the electronics? Because when I was working on it you couldn't interact with things."
She lowered her head slightly, "Y-yeah I messed with it, please don't be mad at me… I thought it would help if I fixed it." I came up to her and gave her a light hug, although virtual, it felt very real.
"I'm not mad at you, if anything I'm glad you did that, It made this program so much better now. I patted Axia's head, "You are now a crucial part of my Experimental team, welcome."
"GROUP HUUUG!" Dee and Jayce screamed while running up to us, they both join our friendly hug. "This is a huge goal for us… Today is a huge Milestone! This is where the real thing starts guys. Let's put our hands together and do a shout for Jay and Axia!." I chuckled at their antics. We all put our two hands into a pile "ONE. TWO .THREE! JAY AND AXIA!"
A distortion appeared right as we finished our cheer, creating a cyberquake? "Everyone hit the deck! I have no clue whats going on. Once you are on the ground logout!" Everyone fell to the ground and we quickly logged out of the Virtual space, before I logged out I looked at the rift that opened. "Well… shit... " I blacked out after I logged out of the new distortion world.