Chapter Text
~~Monday, August 18 / 7:45 AM / Samuel's House~~
"Alright, Samuel. Get up. You don't want to be late for your first day at your new school!"
"I don't want to be at my new school, and yet..."
"I heard that. Would you at least come down and eat breakfast?"
"Alright, I guess."
"Good. You'll feel better when you eat some waffles."
"Are they the special chocolate ones?!"
"Yes."
"Yesssssss! Thank you Mom!"
"You're welcome."
Samuel goes down the stairs, and into the dining room, where his favorite kind of waffles is waiting for him. He eats all of it faster than you can say "Look at how fast he's eating those waffles!" and goes back to his room because he somehow forgot his backpack. After he grabs it and puts it on his shoulders, he almost steps foot outside when his mother stops him.
"Look, I know going to a new school will be hard for you."
"Mom, why are we-"
"But you're going to make some new friends! I'm sure of it!"
"Mom, I didn't have any friends before. How would I make 'new' ones?"
"Well, what about Ashley? She was nice."
"Until she posted a picture of me on every social media with the caption 'Look at this ugly lol.'"
"She did not."
"She did, and it got 9.5 thousand likes. On each post. And the reposts."
"Well, maybe you'll meet someone who won't do that!"
"Yeah. It'll get 10 thousand likes this time."
"Samuel!"
"Alright, alright. Love you, Mom."
"I love you too, Samuel. Now go before you miss the bus."
"Alright. See you later!"
"Bye!"
~~7:57 AM / School Bus~~
"Oh boy. That's a lot of people."
As Samuel gets on the bus, he looks around and doesn't see a single spot that's not next to someone or covered in litter.
"People are... really disgusting sometimes."
"Hey! Over here!" says a voice near the back of the bus.
Samuel walks over to where the voice came from.
"Hi..."
"Hey! You're one of the new guys, right?"
"Uh, yeah, I think."
"Cool! My name's Lucy. What's your name?"
"Samuel."
"Hi, Samuel! Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you too... I think."
Samuel sits next to Lucy, and they begin talking about things. Soon enough, they reach their stop.
~~8:05 AM / Sunset Heights Highschool~~
"Wow! This is amazing!"
"I know, right?"
Samuel and Lucy enter the school building, and immediately Samuel is in awe of the decorations.
"That is a very large chandelier. Is that safe?"
"Yep! Hasn't fallen once."
"Alright, children! Welcome to Sunset Heights Highschool. All new students, please follow me to the theater room for introductions." says an adult holding a megaphone.
"Oh, it looks like this is where we part ways, mi amigo. Farewell and goodbye for now!"
"See you later! Hopefully!"
Samuel goes to the theater room with a few other kids, and Lucy and most of the other students go into a large lounge area while they wait for the introductions to be over.
"Alright. Hello new students! My name is Mr. Henry. I'll be introducing you to our humble world of education..."
"Wow. This guy is boring the literal everything out of me. I wonder when this'll be done?"
"...The room you're in right now is the theater room. This is where each class goes to enjoy a nice slideshow depicting educational diagrams..."
"How is everyone else so invested in this? This is more boring than reading the contents of a cereal box!"
"Alright! That's it for the school building."
"Finally. Now we can go and-"
"Now you'll be assigned to your classes. Please come up here, in a single file line, and select a paper."
Samuel and the rest of the kids each go and pick up a piece of paper with numbers and colors on it.
"The paper you get determines your class schedule for the school year. Please turn these in to Mr. Gordon, and he'll get you sorted out."
"I'm sorry, what? That's how they do this?!"
Samuel and the kids all walk out the theater room doors, and Samuel immediately goes to find Lucy, hoping she has some sort of idea who 'Mr. Gordon' is.
"Oh, right, Mr. Gordon's usually in his office. Come on, I'll take you there!"
They both walk off toward Mr. Gordon's office, hand him the paper, and then go to their classes.
"Do you remember the class you have to go to first?"
"Yeah, it was History."
"Oh, nice! I have History first too!"
"Neat."
Samuel and Lucy both go toward the History room, and learn historical things. They then go on about their classes, Math, Science, English, and the like, until they reach their last class: Computer Science.
~~2:30 PM / Computer Lab~~
"Alright class... yawn... your first assignment is to... bigger yawn... open the file labeled 'ClassProblem-001' and... even bigger yawn... solve the problem using your, y'know, intelligence, and all that. I'm gonna take a nap so... biggest yawn... wake me up if you need anything."
"Wow. This guy is so bored, you could play chess on him!"
Samuel opens the file. About halfway through, the computer starts glitching slightly.
"I don't think that's supposed to happen. Ah, well, it looks like it's stopped."
It's not stopped. It keeps getting worse and worse, until eventually the screen is completely white.
"Come on... Stupid-"
Parts of the screen begin to flash red.
"-thing?"
The flashes continue for a while. Eventually, Samuel realizes:
"Hey... they kinda look like the buttons on the keyboard!"
After a bit of trying, he eventually comes up with this message:
"Enter, One, Eight, Zero, Zero, Dash, Two, Three."
"Hmm. Well, I'm sure I could-"
Before he can finish his sentence, the screen goes back to the problem he was trying to solve earlier.
"Well. That was weird."
Samuel finishes the problem fairly quickly, and watches as the other kids in the class, one by one, all manage to complete the problem with relative ease. Soon, the bell rings, and everyone rushes outside. Lucy is waiting next to a lamppost.
"Hey! So how was your first day?"
"Uh, eventful."
"Come on, was it good?"
"It was school."
"That's fair, I guess."
They both get back on the bus.
"Well, I'll see you tomorrow!"
"See you then!"
As Samuel returns home, his mother opens the door and greets him with a large hug.
~~3:30 PM / Samuel's House~~
"Ooh, how's my little baby doing?"
"I'm fine, Mom."
"How was school?"
"It was OK."
"Did you make some friends?"
"Uh, maybe."
"Maybe? What do you mean maybe?"
"Ask me again in, like, a week."
"Oh. Alright."
Samuel goes up to his room, and goes straight to his bed. As he lays there, his computer turns on for no reason.
"That's... odd."
He goes up to the screen, and watches as it flashes like the other computer did. Only, instead of keyboard buttons, it's actual letters.
"Ok... This is interesting."
He begins to write down each letter as it appears.
"Q, E, B, A, F, D, F, Q, X, I, T, L, O, I, A, K, B, B, A, P, V, L, R, O, E, B, I, M, P, X, J, R, B, I."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
After a while, dinner is fixed, and Samuel goes downstairs to eat.
"Is Dad still at work?"
"Yes, he is. He said he'd be back as soon as he could."
"Well. That's comforting."
~~6:20 PM / Dad's Work~~
"Alright, Isaac. You've done enough for now. You really need to go back home and get some sleep."
"Not just yet. There're still some things I need to take care of. They shouldn't take more than five minutes."
"Alright. Just don't overwork yourself again."
"I won't. Probably."
"Heheh. You never change, do you?"
"Nope."
"Well, good night then."
"See you tomorrow."
As his coworker leaves the room, Isaac continues working. He was correct earlier; it didn't take more than five minutes. He quickly finished all of his work, and hopped in his car and drove toward home. About halfway there, his phone starts glitching out slightly. Isaac brushes it off as something he installed that doesn't agree with his phone, like a bad piece of food doesn't agree with one's stomach, and he decides to check it out when he gets home. When he does, dinner is waiting for him on the dining room table.
~~6:35 PM / Samuel's House~~
"Hey Dad!"
"Hey! How's my favorite kid doing?"
"I'm your only kid."
"Yeah, but you're still my favorite!"
"I guess so."
"So, how was school?"
"It was fine."
"OK... anything else?"
"No, not really."
"Alright then."
Eventually, everyone goes to their own rooms to sleep. Samuel falls asleep very quickly, while Isaac, his father, gets on his phone to check out what the glitch from earlier was. After a bit of searching, he has no better idea than when he first saw it. He eventually goes to sleep as well.
The next day, everything goes about the same way as before; only no introductions. However, when Samuel and Lucy enter the cafeteria, something happens.
~~Tuesday, August 19 / 11:50 AM / School Cafeteria~~
"So, there's this guy, OK?"
"OK."
"And he-"
"Well, well, well. Look who's here. Another one of the newbies. And it looks like Lose-y Lucy made a new friend! What's your name, little man?" asks the resident school bully.
"Don't listen to him, Samuel. He's just looking for someone to pick a fight with. As usual."
"Oh! His name's Samuel! What a cute wittle baby name! Hahaha!" he says, walking off to go sit with his group.
"Who was that?"
"That's James. He's, well, not much more than he looks. At least he didn't bring his posse this time."
"Ah."
"Yeah."
"What was the whole 'lose-y' thing about?"
"Oh, that's nothing. I just messed up some dumb competition once. They've never let me live it down."
"Oh. That's gotta suck."
"Eh. It wasn't something I really wanted to do anyway, honestly."
"What was it?"
"Dodgeball."
"Oh. No wonder you didn't want to do it."
"Yeah. Dodgeball is the dumbest sport."
"I know, heheh."
"So, anyway, there's this guy..."
They continue talking for a while. Eventually the bell rings, and everyone goes off to their separate classes; Samuel goes to his Math class, and Lucy to her Science class. Once Samuel goes to Computer Science, he remembers the messages sent to him here and at his house. However, to his surprise, nothing actually happens this time. He finishes each of his tasks with time to spare, and heads out as soon as the bell rings. There are a lot more people than there were yesterday.
~~3:00 PM / Sunset Heights Highschool~~
"Hey, Samuel!"
"Hey, Lucy!"
"So, there's apparently been an issue with the buses recently, and a few of them won't start. They're trying to fix the buses now, but it'll probably be a few minutes. You should probably let your parents know."
"Alright."
Samuel turns his phone on, and immediately the screen starts glitching uncontrollably.
"Woah."
"Woah? What's-"
Lucy looks at his phone with him.
"Woah."
"That's not supposed to happen."
"Really?"
"Yeah... I think it's-"
It suddenly stops, just as sudden as it started.
"Huh."
"Well, I guess you should call your parents now."
"Yeah."
Samuel calls his parents, and lets them know what's going on. Eventually, the buses are fixed, and everyone goes home.
The rest of the week goes fairly similar to how it went before; Samuel gets up, goes to school, does schoolwork, goes outside, gets on the bus, goes home, and sleeps, over and over for the next few days. Then, at the end of Friday, Lucy stops Samuel just before he gets on the bus and tells him something.
"I heard James and his posse are gonna do something stupid at school on Saturday. You wanna come with me so we can bust them?"
"Uh, I'll ask my parents. If I can come, I will."
"Great! See ya at 5:00 PM!"
"See you then!"
He gets on the bus and goes home, then asks his parents is he can go with Lucy to school to see if James and friends actually do decide to do something stupid. After a bit of thinking, they allow him to go, as long as he's back before 9:00. After this, the day continues as normal. Soon enough, Saturday comes, and while he waits until it's time to go, he notices the series of letters he wrote down after the computer glitched out. He decides to try and decode them, and eventually comes up with "THEDIGITALWORLDNEEDSYOURHELPSAMUEL."
"Oh boy, that's a lot of red flags there."
After a while, 4:45 comes, and Samuel walks to school. He gets there at exactly 4:57, and Lucy is waiting for him on the steps.
~~Saturday, August 23 / 4:57 PM / Sunset Heights Highschool~~
"Hey! You made it!"
"Yep!"
"Come on! They're already here!"
"Oh."
They both run around to the back of the school, where James and friends are, of course, doing something stupid. What it is, Samuel and Lucy aren't quite sure.
"What are they doing with that dumpster?"
"It looks like they're-"
Crash! The dumpster falls over, and all of the garbage inside falls out.
"Ew."
"Yeah."
James and friends put the trash into a big bowl, and start pounding on it, turning it into as much of a liquid as possible.
"That's... extremely disgusting."
"Yeah... my nose is about to burst from the smell!"
Eventually, James dips his fingers in the liquid, and touches the wall.
"Wait, is he writing with liquid garbage?"
"I think so."
"Why would anyone in their right mind do that?"
"You ever think, maybe, he doesn't have a right mind?"
"Well, I guess there's that."
Eventually, James finishes writing. The finished message says "SKOOL SUX LOL" with signatures from each of the members of the group.
"They're stupider than the things they do!"
"Yeah! If you're going to do something like that, don't put your signature!"
"Wait, they're writing something else."
"Really?"
"Yeah, look!"
James starts writing two extra signatures.
"Can you tell who they're for?"
"No... no, I think we might have to wait until they leave."
Soon enough, they do leave. Samuel and Lucy are thankfully not seen by any of them as they pass by. Samuel and Lucy then walk around to the back and see their names added to the list.
"They put OUR NAMES?"
"Oh, this is bad."
"Not yet, it isn't. It's not dried yet, so we might be able to wash it off."
"Good idea! But, what about the rest?"
"Leave it. They're going to get caught for something eventually, why not make it this time?"
"I guess that makes sense."
They start looking for something to wash the garbage soup off, but to no avail.
"Well, that's not great."
"Yeah, no it isn't. Got any other ideas?"
"We could scrape it off..."
"Ew. But, nothing better comes to mind."
They try scraping the garbage soup off, and it works fairly well. James's signature gets extra trash on it as a bonus.
"Well. That was eventful. Why don't we-"
Bzzt! A bright light flashes in an upstairs room, which both Samuel and Lucy realize is the Computer Lab. Samuel checks his phone, and it's glitching out worse than ever. He can still barely see the time, and it reads 6:00 PM.
"Let's go!"
"Wait! Why?"
"Because we have to see what's going on! Now quit looking at the time and let's get to the Computer Lab!"
They both run inside, wondering both what the light was for, and why the door was unlocked. But as they get to the Computer Lab, the only thing they're wondering is why one single computer is on, and why it's glitching out like the phone, and the other computer from earlier.
"What is happening?"
"I don't know, honestly."
Suddenly, before either of them can say another word, they both start pixelating and disappearing.
"Wha... What's happening to us?!"
"I don't know, but I really don't like it!"
Eventually, they are completely sucked into the computer, and fly around what appear to be thousands of large microchips.
"Where are we?"
"I don't know, and I don't know if I want to know."
Soon enough, they land on the shore of what appears to be a large island. Having just fallen for what felt like a few hundred feet, they both come to their senses after a while.
"OK, now where are we?"
"Uh, a deserted island?"
"How are we on a deserted island? We were just in the Computer Lab!"
"Don't look at me, I've barely been at school a week!"
After a bit of talking and wondering, they hear a slight rustling in some bushes behind them. They both turn and look to see what it is.
"Uh, what was that?"
"I'm not sure... I hope it isn't a bear!"
"Yeah, I don't want to get eaten alive right now."
Thankfully, the rustling is not caused by a bear. However, to their confusion, Samuel and Lucy instead find something unexpected.
They find two small, rabbit-like Digimon.