It's hard to believe that this place isn't real. The wind sweeping through the hills, the sun slowly setting on the horizon, how could something this beautiful not be real? Here I sat, taking this all in, as if it were an actual sunset. As if the wind was actually blowing through my hair. I would like to believe that I am sitting here on the hillside, watching the grass sway with the breeze. In reality, I'm lying in my bed, my door shut, light on, with this silly looking headset on my head. I want this to be real. I never felt more alive than I do when I am in this world. As I lay eyes on this gorgeous sunset in the world of Athalia, I know that, in my heart, this is where I belong...
"Thanks again for the help," I looked slightly behind me to see one of the members of the group I had just assisted in completing a rather difficult quest.
I said nothing, simply nodding. I started to look back upon the horizon when he spoke again, "You know," I didn't turn to him this time, "You are more than welcome to join our guild. We may be small, but with your skill and leadership we could climb the ranks!" He spoke with such enthusiasm, he was like most of the people in this world, he saw it as just a game.
"No thank you," I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, taking in the world that was around me.
He must have finally got the hint, as he and his fellow guild members started walking away, leaving me in peace. I have always enjoyed being on my own, in this world and the other, even the time before Athalia. I guess it is easy to get lost in a game whenever you have nothing to hold on to in the real world. The sad thing is, I do have things I hold on to. My brother, my mother, my father, that godforsaken, fat dog of ours. When I am here, in Athalia, I feel as if I have meaning. In the real world they always say, "be what you want to be, the world is yours for the taking." Is it? I am in college currently, which I am attending so that I can find a job, in which I can make money and eventually support a family. Sounds like more of a script than a life.
In Athalia, you can be whatever you want to be. If you want to own your own business without the overwhelming pressure that today's society bears down on you with, you can. If you want to start a guild and build up your strength until you are the most feared or respected in the world, you can. If you simply just want to travel the world, taking in everything that it has to offer, you can. I wish that this could be reality, but sadly it can't. I only get a limited time in this world, like the other, and the more time I spend here the less time I get in the other.
I stood up, taking in this world around me, as it would be the last I would see of it for a quite some time. With a last breath, and a swipe from my hand, I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was staring at my ceiling, the fan slowly turning round and round. I took off the head gear, lying it neatly and gently next to my bed as I got up. I checked my appearance in the mirror, having to fix my short brown hair was a side effect of being logged in for too long. My hair always went nuts whenever I took the helmet off. I made my way to the bathroom where I splashed some water on my face and stared at myself in the mirror. I peered into my own hazel eyes, hoping to find a sense of joy instead of dread. I had on a plane shirt, which I normally did, this one was a nice gray. I tried to unwrinkle my khaki shorts for a few seconds, to no prevail.
As I passed by my living room on my way to the kitchen, my dad looked up at me from the couch, "He's alive!"
I gave him a slight smirk as I continued to the kitchen; after making myself a quick bowl of ramen, I joined my parents in the living room. They were watching some random TV show. They watched so many different ones it was hard to keep track. "Still enjoying that game of yours?" My mom asked, looking up from her eReader.
"I am," I said quietly between bites.
"School still going okay? Haven't heard you rant about your coding problems in quite a while," my dad studied my reaction, I guess he could sense my discomfort.
"It's going fine," I paused as I looked up at him, "teaching me stuff that I already know."
"Well I just worry about you son, you seem to be becoming more of a hermit lately," my father was someone who constantly was looking out for me.
I wanted to tell him about my internal struggle, but he wouldn't understand. I couldn't even imagine what he would say, though it would probably be somewhere along the lines of, "don't waste your life on a silly video game." Then he would most likely go on some rant about how back in his day they played a game with two bars and a ball, what was the name of that blasted game? It was at this time that I realized he was still looking at me and I had yet to respond, "I'm fine, dad," I managed to spit out.
After my very nutritious meal, I returned to my room where I sat at my desktop. Two screens full of lines of code; I knew I had already surpassed everything the instructor was expecting out of this assignment, but I was still going to improve it. I was a perfectionist, regardless of the assignment and its requirements, I would always go a little bit further. It helped teach myself, which is way more than any instructor at my school has ever taught me. Everyone in class always despised the way I took everything to the next level. I knew it was because not one of them could keep up with my skill level. They don't understand why I do it, I don't even understand why I do it. I used to enjoy it. I enjoyed learning new coding languages, testing application after application, but now it is all just something I do. No matter what I do in this world, no matter how hard I try, my mind and heart are always in that of Athalia.
Time wasted no time flying by as I furiously typed and tested lines upon lines of code; it was supposed to be a simple web application. In fact, the instructor kept it so simple I could have done it in five minutes. I guess that's what happens when the entire class is full of incompetent idiots. I flipped my headphones off my head, down around my neck. I always wore headphones while I coded, it helped me focus. Looking over at the clock I noticed it was already passed midnight, I had a long day of school and work tomorrow, or today rather, and I needed to get some sleep. After shutting my computer down for the night, I crawled into bed. I laid there for what seemed like forever, just staring at the ceiling. My mind was racing through the world of Athalia, thinking of all of the stuff I wanted to do the next time I was able to log in.
Morning came way too early, as it did most days. I started my morning routine: smack alarm, shower, get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair, grab quick snack, head out. I always waited until the last minute to leave my house, so I always had to grab something out of the cabinet really quick. It didn't bother me, I wasn't much of a breakfast person anyway. After a quick drive to school, I made my way to my first class of the day. You know that guy at your school that walks through the hallway and doesn't say a single word to anyone? Yeah, that's me. Most of the time I had my headphones on, just a little reassurance in case someone might get the idea to talk to me.
My first few classes went by fairly quickly, I didn't mind listening to my instructors lecture about things like the media and such, it was actually quite interesting. Now was the class I look forward to every day, my web application class. As soon as I sat down, I opened up my application, skimming over the lines to make sure that everything was correct. I didn't even notice the rest of the class coming in. Before I knew it the instructor was addressing the class, "alright folks, you know what's due today!" I could never really figure out if that was excitement in his voice or if he just liked to talk loud. He was an older man, silver filled his hair and beard. He always wore a nice button down shirt and dress pants. "Would anyone like to be the first to present?" His question was met by moans and groans, plus the one guy that flat out responded with "Nope!"
Per the usual, the instructor had to call students up to present. There was no way in hell I was going to volunteer, public speaking was by far my worst enemy. I always get nervous and tend to forget what I'm talking about whenever I have to present or talk in front of the class. Even with something as comfortable as coding, I couldn't stand to be the center of attention. After about the fifth or sixth presentation, the look of agony on my instructor's face was enough to almost make me chuckle. That brief humor turned straight to fear as he belted out, "Mr. Falcon! For the love of God please show your classmates how it's done!" My teacher was always proud of my work, he felt that it was a reflection upon him as a teacher, but it really wasn't. He loved it, which of course meant that I was far from a favorite of my classmates.
I managed to take a breath before a walked to the front of the classroom, I tried not to focus on the hundreds of whispers scampering across the room as I loaded my application. "So...we were assigned with making a basic form, I took the liberty of taking it a step further-"
"Of course you did," One of my classmates in the back row shouted out, causing a brief chuckle among the rest of the class.
I don't really know what happened, but my mind just went totally blank after that comment. It was like my brain giving a "fuck you, too" to my classmate by not sharing its knowledge. I desperately tried to find words as I avoided all eye contact with everyone, which meant looking down at the podium. "Um..." C'mon find some words, anything, you know this, "So...I...the form..."
"Take a breath, Mr. Falcon," my instructor tried to help.
"The form connects to a database in order to efficiently store the enrollment information. You can then log in as an advisor, review this information, and either approve or deny it from that point. All the while, the student is kept in the loop via email, letting him or her know what is going on. The form itself..." I rattled off anything and everything that came into my head. I went on and on about the structure and validation, shit that bored my classmates to death. By the time I was done, a good twenty minutes had gone by. I stood there in front of a dead silent classroom, it felt like it had been forever since anyone said anything. I was just standing there, waiting for some sign from the instructor. Instead, I was once again greeted by the asshole in the back row.
"Well we all failed," another snaughty ass comment.
"Maybe if you put in the time..." My instructor turned to the student, who then cut him off.
"Time? We haven't even learned that shit yet. He just does it to make himself feel superior to everyone."
"That's enough out of you, Jon," my instructor barked back, an argument ensued as I took this time to slowly make my way back to my seat, making sure to avoid eye contact with everyone.
After the argument was finally over, my instructor made his way to the front of the classroom, "Alright everyone, that's it for today. Those of who you didn't present today, be prepared to go next time, have a good day."
I slowly put my stuff away, as I usually did since everyone was in a rush to get out of the classroom, why fight them, right? I was about to flip my headphones up when someone touched me on the shoulder, looking up, I recognized the person. It was Tyler, I had him in quite a few of my classes, he wasn't the best student, but he was a nice guy. "I just wanted to let you know you did a fantastic job on that project, man." I continued a blank stare at him, he was totally a ginger. He had a messy red head of hair and a barely visible beard on his chin to go with it. He was the only person in the class I think might be paler than me, which is hard to do. "Thanks," I mumbled as I flipped on my headphones and walked out of the class.
I didn't even make it halfway down the hallway before I felt another tap on my shoulder, figuring it was Tyler again, I flipped on side of my headphones off and spun around, "What?" I quickly had to rethink my entire attitude as this was not Tyler at all, unless he was a hot chick. I flipped my headphones off completely, "Sorry, didn't mean for that to come out rude."
The girl was a good foot and a half shorter than me, now that I think about it, how the hell did she tap that high on my shoulder? I had seen her around school plenty of times, but we never spoke, or even made eye contact for that matter. She had straight, long blonde hair that reached her lower back. She had a nice petite figure, obviously an athletes body, and not a bad rack and caboose for an athletic type. She was wearing our school's travel uniform, pretty much basic sweatpants, a fancy, dry quick shirt thing, and a windbreaker. She was staring at me with some gorgeous blue eyes, just enough makeup around them to make them pop amazingly. "That's okay," she kind of nudged her head like she was literally shaking it off or something, "So you are good at this programming stuff, right?"
"I guess so..." I said slowly as I anticipated this was going to be a "Will you do my homework?" kind of conversation.
"Everyone says you're the best, so, is that true?"
"I'm sure that's what everyone says," I replied sarcastically.
"They said different, but that's what I heard," her constant eye contact was making me a little nervous. I never really kept eye contact with people this long, especially a pretty girl. I guess she read my gesture well as she continued, "So...I was wondering if you could tutor me?"
"Tutor as in teach you or do your homework for you?" I had been asked this quite a bit in my lifetime, it was always option number two.
"Teach me, obviously," she looked incredibly offended, "I need to actually learn this shit, not just copy someone else's work."
Beauty plus foul mouth is really quite the combination, "I don't know, I have work, plus homework of my own.."
"Please? I really need your help," dammit and she is good at the puppy dog eye thing, too.
I gave out a sigh, checked the time on my phone real quick, "When?"
She quite literally almost jumped for joy, which I didn't entirely expect, "Well! I'll have a game today, but we'll be back tonight. Would 10 o' clock tonight work? Or is that too late for you? Or maybe in the morning?"
I feel like if I didn't stop her now she would never, "Tonight is fine, I get off work at 10, so I'll just make my way over here after," I started slowly walking backwards, "see you in that lab," I pointed to the lab I was walking by as I turned around.
"Wait!" I looked back over my shoulder to see her half speed walking, half jogging to me. She grabbed my hand and began writing on my palm; this was a first for me, so I just decided to let her do what she wants and try to not say anything stupid. "There is my number, and my name, in case you didn't know. It's Jennifer," she gave me a smile, "and you're Nicholas, right? Or do you go by Nick?"
"Um, right," I had to snap out of my daze, "I generally go by whatever. Whatever is easiest."
She nodded multiple times, "Okay, I'll see you tonight then."
We went our separate ways after that, it wasn't until I got into my car did I look down at my palm. "Jennifer 618-974-6598," well I guess that's one way to get a girl's number. I still didn't really believe it happened as I drove off to work. "This should be interesting..." I mumbled to myself.
A/N: Hey there, I'm back and back at it again. I really love this story and will be continuing it for a while. This is almost the same as the other story with this name except it will be taken in a new direction. This is a completely independent story, but it is truly inspired by SAO. I appreciate any comments and reviews.
Disclaimer: Any reference to any copyrighted material I do not own. Everything else I own though =D