A/N: What are you doing, what is this.. It was never meant to see human eyes. But you know what, I don't even care anymore. This is an excuse to broadcast my taste in music while simultaneously saving my fandom and writing one of those obnoxious manual fics that I secretly love… secretly. Well sorta, I mean it started out as that and then morphed into its own beast. Then I really liked the plot and I was like, I don't care if people don't like it, I really want to revise it and make it pretty and write it for myself. :[ So that's what I'm doing because my life is a sack of garbage right now and I'm just going to pretend this is all reality and if I think it hard enough people will like it and then I can smile again….. yeah.. That's what I'll hope will happen.. So anyway.. Enjoy I think.
.. With a head full of doubt..
I must admit, there is something extremely disheartening about knowing there are things around you that you can't control. Like knowing you aren't good at something, but being forced to do that something because of school. It's like setting yourself up for failure and in turn disappoint those few who believed in you from the beginning and attempted to cheer you on. But I'm getting off topic. As I entered my uncharacteristically empty house, I let out an unreasonably loud sigh. I had one class left to finish off my semester and it was math, and I was sure I was going to fail. I dropped my keys on the kitchen table and my backpack onto the floor with a soft thump.
If school wasn't already soul crushing enough in itself, community college made it a thousand times worse. My campus in particular was full of people who didn't want to be there, people who were there out of obligation, people who were just too old to be going to school anymore, people who were too young to be planning for the future already, and then there were people like me. People who just wanted to pay the least amount of money for their future and move on as fast as they possibly could. That being said, after six semesters at Green Oak Community College the little chip of sunshine on my shoulder that had so far been illuminating my path to success had been dimmed considerably.
And I really couldn't help but compare myself to everyone else my age. People I had gone to high school with had already been moving out of their parent's houses. They were starting their lives, they were moving on. Truth be told, I knew people who had already completed they're general education classes, and moved to Universities. Like real Universities, out of state and the entire package. And then there was me. I had decided to switch majors recently and was currently treading water trying to get caught up in math and science classes while at the same time trying to get good enough grades to transfer somewhere that would help me become a history teacher.
'But Delilah! Haven't you seen the economy? Teaching is suicide!' People had told me over and over. 'That's going to be so hard! Good luck kiddo!'
To be entirely honest, the motivation was being sucked from my body with every moment of everyday.
A soft whine from at my feet made me look up from where I'd collapsed at the kitchen table. My dog sat staring up at me with curious green eyes. I smiled softly and set a hand on her head, which she quickly moved out from under. She was named after a coconut from a TV show no one has ever heard of, on account of her brown and white fur. I always figured I would be one of those people that took their dog absolutely everywhere, and I would be if it weren't for her slightly too large size. And by that I mean she was huge.
"What is it Ruby?" I asked. She cocked her head to the side, listening for words she would recognize. "Later okay? Let's go upstairs, yeah? Then I can sit on the computer and waste my life away and you can sleep."
Together we made our way to the second floor of the house I still lived in with my parents. My room faced out to the street and when it was sunny it was hot, and otherwise it was cold. But it was where I spent most of my time during the day. Ruby hopped up on my bed, and collapsed onto my pile of pillows with a groan, and I sat down at my computer, cracking my fingers before turning the terrible device on. The internet had taken over most of my life and when I wasn't walking Ruby or at school I was sat in my rather uncomfortable desk chair and typing away lurking all corners of the internet.
As Ludwig, as I had named aptly named my computer after Germany because of the hyper organization of my files and everything on my hard-drive, woke up from his overnight and half of another day nap, I signed into Facebook and MSN and Tumblr and found with a disappointed sigh that nothing had been updated and no one was online. I opened up iTunes to start something to fill the silence that had settled in my room and I began to chew on my bottom lip, a terribly unattractive habit I had picked up to fill nervous or bored spaces of time.
A loud noise brought me back to reality as I found I had spaced out. I turned back the monitor to find a popup covering almost the entire screen. A flashy red arrow blinked out at me and bright yellow surrounded it.
"Oh come one with this-" I mumbled, moving my mouse to make the ad disappear.
"CONGRADULATIONS!" The cheery voice from the ad answered. "You've been selected out of hundreds of thousands to participate in a massive social experiment. All we require is a moment of your time and a few answers to some very simple questions. "
The arrow flashed a second time. I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes. I readjusted myself in my creaky chair. "What does that even mean.. This is a-"
"No need to worry! This is as legitimate as things come. We assure you this is not a virus in any way shape or form. Just click that flashing arrow." The voice from the pop up cut me off again.
I paused and considered the options here. On the one hand there was the possibility of a crippling computer virus. It would most likely wipe my hard drive and destroy my system, causing me to either have to get a new computer completely or restart everything. Worst case scenario I would just have to reload all my games and things, which basically only included Sims 3 and my drawing program anyway. On the other hand, the ad could be telling the truth. There might not be any virus. This could be some kind of experiment, just like it said and maybe I would get something amazing out of it.
The only problem with this was that nothing ever went right for me. Ever.
"Here's hoping.. " I whispered before taking a second and clicking the arrow.
"Great! You won't be disappointed with this decision. We can even assure you your life will be improved for your trouble."
I shook my head. "Unless you drop me a miracle.."
"The first question is easy enough! Just your first name, even a nickname will do."
'D-E-L-I-L-A-H' I typed into the box they had provided. "But just Del's fine.." I murmured as my hand fled up to my pixie short strawberry blonde hair distractedly.
"Perfect! Welcome Miss Delilah to what we have been referring to as the 'Worldwide Temporary Rehoming Project'. We're trying to spread culture across the globe and help young people like you learn more about all the countries of the world." As the voice explained a graphic appeared on the screen of the earth. Little orange arrows sprouted from little countries on the mini earth and disappeared into other little patches of green with a cute little poof of yellow. "There are only a very specific few individuals who can help us achieve this goal and lucky for us have agreed to help us with spreading the beauty and knowledge of this world. Now can you tell us first your age and where you are currently living?"
'20, California' I typed.
"Excellent! We have someone perfect in mind already! Can you tell us where it is you want to travel to most in the world?"
With an almost listless sigh I started at the screen for a moment before typing Venice, Italy. I had long since come to accept that my dream of traveling there was probably never going to come true so it was with a most heavy heart that I typed out the two words.
"Ah.. Judging by that pause you are either second guessing your choice or think every seeing this choice is an unreachable goal. Can you tell us if either of these are true?" The voice asked.
I let out another breath. Whatever this ad was doing, it was reading me perfectly well. I was certain I would never see Italy, not just Venice in particular or if I was being entirely honest with myself not even just Italy in particular. One of my dreams in life was to see the world. The only problem was, I didn't have near enough money or anyone who would go with me. Though that wasn't entirely true. I had friends who would go, but they were all as broke as I was. After another moment of staring at the screen, I entered that I was doubtful I would ever see Venice, trying to be truthful as I could with the mysterious ad.
"Ah. Well, I can assure you our program will help you achieve this dream. That is if you use what we're offering in the proper way and learn instead of taking this once in a lifetime chance for granted." The voice was somewhat comforting. "You see, we've selected you under a specific set of criteria that, well, they should become apparent when the time comes. The group of people that should also be participating in this experiment will either embrace it, or be punished and learn from it. Hopefully you will understand all of this soon enough, not to be vague but it's imperative that you discover and deal with most of this on your own. As per the experiment. You understand right?"
I understood, but I was only half listening at this point as my mind tried to remember exactly what imperative meant. Why was this ad so smart and wordy..
"With all that said Miss Delilah, your visitor should arrive in the next few hours. You will be required to attend a meeting with him in a few weeks but don't worry too much about that now. We'll send you an email. We're sure you're busy with something so we won't keep you much longer. On a personal note, you are the first sane participant in a long list of insane contacts. You have been warned for this meeting you will be meeting the other selected individuals so we wish you, as well as your personal ambassador, luck for the future. Hope to hear from you soon!"
With that, as suddenly as it had appeared, the ad was gone. My desktop background once again occupied my screen and I stared at it as the light brown eyes of my favorite light hearted cartoon character smiled out at me. "What.. In the world was all that.." I asked him, as if he would askewer back and explain the situation to me. An uneasy feeling crept into the pit of my stomach as I tried my best to remember everything that it had just told me. I was going to have a visitor? On what criteria had I been selected exactly? And what was that about some kind of meeting. A strange mixture of confusion and fear made me stand up.
"This could be alright. I just need to relax. It said it was sending someone but the thing also said they might help out with everything.. Maybe he can help out my eternal awkwardness, my inability to seem to do anything right, or maybe they can take you on a whirlwind trip of the world and the we would fall in love and live happily ever after.." I said out loud to myself. The eyes on my desktop background seemed to roll under the head of auburn hair and I narrowed my gaze back. "Oh stop. As if you're gonna show up on my doorstep and stop it from happening."
Ruby interrupted my conversation with the image on my desktop with a frustrated groan from my bed.
"Yeah.. Yeah you're right.. I think some fresh air will do us both good. Let's just do our best to forget this happened. It's got to be a joke right? .. Right? I mean there's no other explanation for this. Let's go on a walk dog."
My dog knew the meaning of that word more than any other, aside from hungry. Together we ran down the stairs. I grabbed my iPod on the way and got her leashed up. I hoped the combination of sunshine and my favorite music blaring in my ears would help me forget that the strange ad had ever popped onto me computer screen at all. And, as I had predicted, with the warm northern California sun on my face, the strange ad was shoved to the back of my mind, into a folder where everything that I wanted to forget got filed and I set out for the longest most wandering path around my neighborhood I could think of.
As we rounded the final corner to make it back home, I was fairly lost in my music. I was humming and bobbing my head to the earthy beat of the indie music playing in my ears. I glanced up as I heard muffled sounds of kids playing. The neighbor kids were always screaming, and I was ready to scowl when I saw them all playing soccer in the street but found I couldn't when my eyes fell on the group. A young man was laughing and balancing the ball on the inside of his foot. The kids were all watching him in awe as he bounced it up onto his knee and then back to his toe where it hit the toe of his fashionable dark leather loafer and flew down the street. The neighbor kids laughed and ran to chase the ball.
A car drove close enough to the curb to break me out of the momentary daze I'd been caught in. I realized I had been staring at the soccer playing stranger and quickly shook my head to snap out of it. I crossed the street and let Ruby off her leash. "Go home." I told her, but instead of running up to the door, she took off towards the neighbor kids and the stranger who was once again in possession of the soccer ball.
"No, no!" I tried but my command wasn't fast enough and as the young man turned, Ruby jumped up and her paws hit his stomach, causing him to topple backwards onto the street. She hopped onto his chest and started licking his face like he was an old friend. I let out an horrified breath and ran to her. "I am so sorry!" I stuttered as I hauled her off of the giggling young man.
"Don't be sorry! What a cute puppy! What's her name?" The young man sat up as my dog continued to assault his face with kisses, despite my holding her collar tightly. "Oh you're such a pretty puppy yes you are~"
I smiled, relieved that he wasn't upset about being knocked over by a seventy pound dog. "Her name's Ruby.. But you're not hurt at all are you?"
"What a good Ruby." He smiled and struggled to his feet still laughing. He wiped off his face with the sleeve of his stripy shirt and he dusted off his dark wash jeans. "And I'm not hurt at all, well I mean, my hands are scratched a little bit, but it's nothing I pinky promise."
To be honest and when I look back now, I knew I must have been staring at him. And I must have been making a weird face as his smile faded quickly and he cocked his head to the side, but I couldn't help it really. When I had walked around the corner and first caught sight of him playing soccer, one and two hadn't clicked together. Sure I had seen his hair was a nice reddish auburn color and tousled into wavy layers that fell around his face with one wayward curl that stuck out on the side, but it hadn't really sunk in until his caramel colored eyes met my own grey ones. My mouth dropped open a little bit and I swallowed thickly. The pieces of that weird pop up clicked into place suddenly and I felt a slightly uneasy sensation in my stomach that tended to happen when I was confronted with strange or unreal situations.
A bright smile lit his face. "Oh you're really pretty! Do you have a name? My name's Feliciano. My boss told me to come here fast as I could.. But I don't know why, just that all my friends were being sent away.." He paused.
I was feeling dizzy. This couldn't be happening; it wasn't possible, was it? Fictional characters didn't just show up on your street playing soccer, did they? That just didn't happen. Or at least in my experience up until that exact moment it hadn't I set a hand on my forehead. "Oh I don't feel good.. Could you do me a huge favor and help me inside to get some water.." My knees wobbled and the Italian caught me before I toppled over with a beyond panicked look on his face.
"I would love to help you pretty girl but I don't know which house to take you to!" He managed to say, albeit it was said at a million miles an minute.
I barely nodded to the house that was currently behind us, "Where my truck is parked… " And then I passed out.
