A/N: It is swelteringly hot where I am. I'm not even kidding. I can practically feel the heat waves brush past my skin as I'm typing this. It's the main reason why I don't feel like writing much.

Anywho, my eyes are hurting from being on the computer for too long, so sorry for the short chapter.

Tyler awoke to his alarm, like he did everyday. He rubbed his eyes as they adjusted to the sunlight coming from the blinds and yawned sleepily. Yet another day of college, he thought to himself. Same old routine.

He grabbed his glasses and lazily made his way to the kitchen, where the glorious machine known as the coffee maker was. Out of instinct, he checked his phone for any new messages, but was met with disappointment when he found nothing. What was he expecting to find, anyway? A text from a fellow student? Hah! Like anybody ever talks to him.

The teen then put the preferred coffee powder inside the machine, filled it with hot water he'd prepared earlier, and pressed the button. As he waited in his seat on the small table, something caught his eye. Something that was not meant to be, but was.

The coffee wouldn't be done in a few seconds, so Tyler had some time to spare; enough to inspect whatever he'd noticed. It was his laptop, still connected to the charger and still not charging. But he took a closer inspection and noticed that the laptop was on. He clearly remembered turning it off before he went to bed, and he surely remembered the disappointment he felt as he did that night. How strange, he thought, squinting his eyes in suspicion. The charger must have done something to it. Something that definitely did not involve charging.

Sighing, Tyler returned to the coffee maker, where a freshly brewed batch of steaming hot coffee sat waiting for him. He didn't even bother making breakfast; what kind of college student has time to eat in the morning, anyway? A simple mug of black coffee, with no sugar or cream added as per to his preference, was enough to fill his appetite. Sipping on the bitter beverage as he checked on his blog with his phone was also part of the routine he hated so much. The only thing different was the laptop, but Tyler had already included that to the mundane cycle of everyday life.

Life sucked.

Saturday finally came.

He couldn't believe it, but Saturday finally came.

Oh, how wonderful it was to finally break out of the weekday routine! And what's more, he had a friend to visit! Now that wasn't part of the usual agenda.

Tyler couldn't contain his excitement. He hid it pretty well, donning the ever-serious expression on his face, but the occasional smile tugged at the corner of his lips, and that was enough to make him look excited. As he packed his precious black-and-white bass guitar in its case, he contemplated whether or not to bring his faulty laptop as well, to compare it to Craig's laptop. Was it worth the extra weight?

He would just have to find out.

As his friend instructed, Tyler rapped at Room 213's door twice, and only twice. Another knock would mean a different person had come to visit. The door opened almost after he'd knocked, to reveal a rather handsome brunette dressed in clothes no ordinary student should wear on a Saturday. The room that lay past him smelled faintly of newly-washed laundry.

"Hey, uh, glad you could make it!" said the brunette, grinning widely. "Come on, come inside. I've got my guitar and amp ready and everything."

So Tyler entered the room, almost hesitantly, only to be greeted by the sight of dozens of band posters that hung on the walls, some of them with autographs, others without. There wasn't much light in the room, whatever light there was must have been purposely dimmed, for reasons he couldn't fathom. Overall, the dorm was nice, but too chaotically organized for his taste.

Craig was busy plugging his guitar cord to the amp, which emitted the constant screech in a pitch only dogs should be able to hear. "So you brought your laptop, huh?"

Tyler nodded. He was currently standing in the middle of the room, unsure of where to sit and where to place his belongings. "You share a dorm with someone, right?"

"Yep." The vocalist didn't even look up from his cross-legged position on the floor. "He's out most of the time, but when he does come back, he's usually drunk and or stoned. I just hope he doesn't have any weed stash here; I'd be in serious trouble!"

"Just be careful around him."

"Of course. It's still a shame Desmond and I weren't put in the same dorm."

"Indeed."

After a few seconds of fumbling around with the guitar and amp, Craig managed to set it at the right volume and, with the excitement of a young teenager, he shredded an epic guitar solo that practically shook the walls. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about! Man, does that feel good."

Tyler finally decided to set his bass guitar on the floor, as his legs were starting to shake from the heavy weight. Craig's guitar was still hooked up to the amp, so bringing his bass out wasn't really an option. What he did instead was take out his laptop from his bag (which was still warm from being on the entire time), put it on his lap, and sigh loudly. Sometimes, when Craig got too absorbed in his favorite hobbies, it would take quite a while to snap him out of it. So Tyler's sighing wasn't genuine; it was intentional.

Finally Craig took notice of his friend's crestfallen look. "Laptop's still buggy, huh? And - wait, is that dirt?" He pointed to the laptop.

"Dirt?" As if Tyler had never heard the word before.

"Yeah, dirt. Or is that soil?"

The bassist refused to believe he had somehow gotten dirt on his laptop, but decided to check anyway. And right smack in between the keyboard and the screen was dried brown soil, crusting around the edges like old milk.

'What... what in the world?" muttered Tyler in complete bewilderment. As far as he knew, he did not come across any sort of mud puddle, and he surely did not drop anything on the ground during his walk to the college.

So how?

Craig huffed and snatched the laptop from his friend. "Just some mud here and there. Easily remedied." With a bit of cleaning using his nails and palms (definitely not with his clothes; they were just too precious to him), he managed to get all the soil off.

Tyler breathed a sigh of relief and cracked a small smile. "Thank you."

"What seems to be the problem with this thing, anyway? Battery probs? 'Cause that's the same situation with my laptop." Without Tyler's permission, the vocalist flipped open the gadget and immediately scanned through the programs. Nothing seemed out of place so far, except the battery was now perpetually down to 1/3 of its life. No programs were open, except one that caught Craig by surprise.

"You still have Minecraft open? How long has it been running?"

Wait, what?

"M-Minecraft?" Tyler stammered.

"Yeah. Your game is paused or something. Maybe that's what's draining your battery."

What? The glasses-wearing teen was surprised. He took the laptop from Craig's hands (with less force than the brunette had used earlier) and sure enough, Minecraft was open. With an uneasy hand, Tyler moved the cursor to the 'X' on the corner and clicked it. Contrary to his expectations, the game actually closed.

Thank God.

"I could have sworn the game wasn't open," he said in a shaky tone.

"Maybe you probably should have used Task Manager or something. I dunno. I haven't played the game in a while." Craig tried to reassure his friend with a pat on the back. "But hey! Now that you closed the game, maybe your battery will replenish. Give it a try."

So, he did.

A/N: What's that I see over the horizon? It's... it's... a plot?!
Finally got some stuff done! Mysterious dirt, Minecraft open, a dying battery life... what could it all mean? :}

Reviews of all sorts are appreciated!