Meisters

Chapter 1: Colorless

[OFFLINE]

"Have you tried the new game?" My best friend Tsubaki asks. "I have heard it's a huge phenomenon in the gaming industry. People have been hungering for this game for years and when it was released; people camped outside of their game store in order to get it." She says while we walk down the road away from our high school. "The game actually allows you to enter the game with a certain helmet. I think they called it Rift Head Gear."

I snort a little while clutching my textbooks to my chest. "It sounds stupid if you ask me. How in the world have they managed to create a game where you are able to enter a game? It is scientifically impossible."

All throughout my first week of my senior year, I have heard everybody talking about the game. How great the graphic is and how real everything is. It is told that you can actually smell things inside of the game. People have said how amazing it is, that you can feel the trees and when monsters hurt you, it only stings a little before your HP is reduced. One kid in particular, he said when you die in the game you are paralyzed for one minute before you are returned to the nearest town with full health. The bad thing is you lose some of your experience.

"I don't know." Tsubaki says and smiles wide. "That's why the game is called a phenomenal. It is a mystery how they managed to hook the helmet up to the computer and allowed you to enter the game. They say they have been developing this for years. They first made goggles which allowed you to freely look around the world by turning your head, and then they created some sort of gloves that allowed you to feel the virtual world and grab whatever you wanted. Then they managed to make the Rift Head Gear. It is amazing how they managed to hook it up to the brain. Don't you think?" Tsubaki says excitedly while she turns around on her toes and starts walking backwards in front of me. "I think I'm going to buy it as soon as I get the money. I would like to try this game out. It sounds amazing."

I sigh loudly as we start to reach the apartment I'm living in. "Tsubaki, don't do it. You will only be wasting your money. It's our senior year and we can't spend it on playing videogames. We have to study hard to make sure we get into college."

"I know, but you will definitely get into college. I bet you would be able to get into college now with the grades you have. You need to loosen up. It would be fun. Think of all the fun things we could do inside of Meisters." Tsubaki smiles wide while she tilts her head. "It would be an adventure."

"If you want to spend your money on it, then it's fine, but I can't afford spending my money on videogames." I sigh loudly. "Don't forget our study session tomorrow." I walk inside of my apartment complex.

Tsubaki is a very nice girl. She is smart but she can get easily distracted by a lot of things, for an example, she gets easily distracted by a certain guy with blue hair shaped into a star. I bet it was he who told her all about the game and now she is determined to get it just so they can play together. The guy's name is Black*Star and I know he plays the game, he always brags about how great of an assassin he is in the game. In fact, he tells everybody everything he does in the game. I have seen him and a lot of others going around carrying their Rift Head Gears in school and at the beginning of the year, people also played the game on the break but since they were completely shut off from the real world, people pulled pranks on them. Now no one dares to play the game in a public place, which I understand. Some of the pranks were very cruel. People drew on each other's faces with permanent markers and some went even as far as shaving off their eyebrows.

I fish up my key from my pocket and insert it in the door. The door opens with a click and I remove the key from within the lock. As soon as I close the door behind me my cat Blair runs up to me and pushes her tiny body against my leg while she purrs loudly. I put away my textbooks along with my notebooks on a small table in my hall.

"Hey little kitty cat." I joke and kneel down next to my cat and pat her head. "Did you miss me?" Blair purrs loudly while she makes herself as tall as she can to push her head more into my hand. Some blue and purple hair strands get stuck in my hand and I giggle a little. Blair is too cute for her own good.

I stop patting Blair and put my palms together and slowly move them in a circle movement. The hair soon starts to get entangled with each other and soon there is a tiny ball of hair in my hand. I throw it away before I stand up and walk inside of my kitchen to make some dinner for myself.

I live alone in my apartment. Since my parents are very successful business people they make a lot of money and when I told them I wanted to enter a high school in a different city, they supported me all the way. They got me an apartment and bought a cat so I wouldn't be as lonely. I'm very much happy they did it since it can easily get lonely and then Blair is always there to cheer me up and keep me company on lonely Saturdays. Tsubaki could come over from time to time but most of the time I'm all alone.

It is pretty boring when it is quiet. It is good for my studies since no one is here to disturb me when I'm studying, so that's what I mostly do. I study. Studying makes the time go around and it gives me good grades. I know my parents wouldn't be happy if I came all the way to this city just to fail my courses. One day, I want to be just as successful as they are.

While I stir my wooden spoon in the pot with noodles, I hum along to the radio. It is always nice to add some sounds to reduce my loneliness. The radio along with the TV had been great tools to just add some noises in my apartment to make it less abandoned.

Ring, ring. Ring, ring. My phone buzzes on the counter. I turn down the heat on the stove and answer the call.

"Hello―"

"I got it!" Tsubaki screams into the phone before I even get a chance to speak. "My parents bought it! They bought Meisters! They bought the Rift Head Gear too!" Tsubaki squeals loudly. "They said it is an early Christmas gift! Oh my god it is so cool!"

Oh dear. This won't end well. "That's great." I say while I keep stirring the spoon around the noodles.

"I know! I called Black*Star before you and he is going to teach me how to play TONIGHT!" Tsubaki screams into the phone and I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

"Look, Tsubaki." I look sadly down into my pot of noodles. They swim around pitifully in the water, without a purpose in life except of being someone's dinner. "I'm busy at the moment. Can we talk in school instead?"

Tsubaki groans loudly. "You are no fun! Why aren't you happy for me?! I mean, I can get closer to Black*Star! We can become really good friends and he might even ask me out on a date! You know I want to date him and you know what this means to me!"

Great. Now I feel guilty as well. "I am happy. I'm just in the middle of dinner."

"Maka, it isn't like you are with someone. You won't be rude to anyone if you don't have anyone in your apartment."

That hurts. Tsubaki knows about my loneliness. She knows how being alone affects me. It isn't like I have a family to come home to and talk to. Even when I lived with my parents I was always alone. They worked long shifts and were never there. I had to learn how to cook on my own and my parents were never there to cheer me on. They were never there when I graduated from junior high and they never came to watch me compete in track. No one was there for me. Not a single one was there to cheer me on.

"I'm sorry." Tsubaki says quickly. "I didn't mean to say that."

"It's fine." I sigh. "You are right. I'm not being rude toward anyone so why won't I be able to talk to you."

"If you want to hang up then it's fine by me. I'm sorry I said that. It slipped out. We can talk tomorrow." Tsubaki hung up.

I'm alone again. And this time it is worse. I feel guilty and hurt. Tsubaki is my only friend and I hurt her. And she hurt me in return. This is so complicated. Why must friendship be so damn complex?

My noodles were overcooked. I was stuck in my own thoughts while my hand silently stirred around in the pot on autopilot. To the noodles I ate some corn and an apple. It isn't the best food I could cook but it is food. My parents wire me money enough for rent, good food, clothes and pocket money. It is way enough money but I have a tendency of never using that much money. I know I have the money to go and eat dinner at a restaurant every day but I would rather be stuck in secluded apartment. With no one to share my day to. With no one to laugh with. Without any human company.

Since my parents are so busy with work they never get the chance to call me. I'm lucky if I get a call once a week.

With a heavy heart, I walk over to my laptop and start it. It is time for me to study. No one is here to distract me so I might as well do something good and study. I grab my textbooks and skip to the page and start to read it. I read page after page before I slowly start writing on my paper. Every once in a while I reread my text to find any grammar or spelling errors.

Yup. This is just a normal Wednesday. Nowhere to be at. No person to be with. No person to talk to. Just studying. What a boring life, very colorless with no fun events to color my everyday lifestyle. That is the lifestyle of Maka Albarn, senior year and honor student. I don't expect to have a normal high school experience. No romance. No parties or doing something stupid. No, those things to not fit into my life. They do fit into Tsubaki's life and I do wonder how we can be friends. She is a highly social person while I'm a bookworm. I read every novel I get my hands on and studying while Tsubaki do things see people and always do homework at school before she goes home.

Yup, my life is boring and transparent.