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BBRRRRIIIIIIINNNNGGG
I groaned as the bell rang, heaving myself up out of the chair I had holed up on. It was time for my least favorite part of the day- technology class.
I guess I should introduce myself. I’m Valentina, but my friends call me Tina. My pronouns are she/they, and my best friend is named Olivia. I am 16 and go to Branch High School.
Computers just never worked for me. Like in first grade, when the computer I was using turned off for no reason- and never turned on again. Or in fourth grade, when the person next to me spilled water on my computer and it broke.
Anyway, the point is, computers hate me. The only reason I was taking the class was because there was a rumor about a virus that caused computers to crash forever. I, someone who never turns down a mystery, had to investigate. Also all my friends were taking it.
As I was walking up to my locker and grabbing my laptop, I heard the slam of a locker door from next to me and silently sighed. It was Natasha, my ex girlfriend and childhood best friend. After we broke up she seemed intent on making my life a living hell.
“How’d you afford that computer? Selling lemonade on the side of the street? Tap dancing? What was it?” She smirked at me.
I turned away slightly to hide the embarrassment on my face. I elected to ignore her taunts and started speed-walking towards my class.
“Running away from your problems? Oh, you’ve never done THAT before! Come on, are you gonna leave me here again to deal with your shit again?!” She was almost yelling by the end.
I sped up as I wiped a stray tear from my face. I already heard the same things at night, I didn’t need it during the day too.
When I walked into the class, my friend Olivia waved me over. ¨Tina!! I have to show you this!!¨ She whisper-shouted to me.
¨What is it? Did you find something cool?¨ I whispered back.
¨Yeah!¨ She pulled me over to the computer she was using and pulled up a website. ¨I found this, and I think it might be a lead for your mystery thingy.¨¨Thanks¨ I gave her a quick hug, then moved to the computer.
It didn't take long for Olivia to wander off. She had always had a short attention span.
I started exploring the website, finding messed up text, glitched images, and secret codes all over it. It was like something out of an ARG or something. I was having a field day examining it all, when I found a grainy, blurred image of a person. They were hard to make out, but I could see they were wearing some kind of uniform. It looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where it was from. I scrolled down to see if there was a caption to tell me who it was, but all I saw were the words ´Do you want to join me?´ with a link. Cautiously, I clicked the link.
Suddenly, the words changed to ´So you do? Interesting´ Before the whole screen glitched, turning into a mess of randomly colored pixels. Something seemed to draw me in, and I touched the screen. I felt the pixels spreading up my arm. If I had been in the right state of mind, I would have panicked, but as I was, it didn't seem to bother me. I felt the tingling of pixels slowly covering my whole body. Suddenly they condensed, yanking me into the computer.
I screamed as the spell on my mind lifted, and at the same time, I was pulled into a digital word. I whizzed past what looked to be Google, Twitter, and YouTube. Kinda random, but okay.
After a few minutes of falling through entirely too many apps, I hit a wall of ones and zeros. It was the binary code of the computer. I heard a sound that resembled a computer crashing, and had just enough time to turn around before a creature spawned entirely too close to me. I yelped and jumped back, wincing silently as my back slammed into the wall.
¨H3ll0¨ It said. It was hard to make it out, but it looked like the person in the picture. It had around shoulder length wavy dark hair, black uniform pants, a white button up shirt, a gray sweater vest, and a red tie, along with olive skin. One of its eyes was blacked out.
¨Who- who are you?¨ I asked hesitantly. It blinked, like it was surprised I had asked it the question. (Maybe instead of what-)
¨W3ll the technic@l answer w0uld be P@rk3r Jack$0n, but you kn0w m3 better @s ´Th3 V!ru$́ -wh!ch I st!ll think is @ $tup!d n@m3 by the w@y.¨ It- they? Put ´The Virus´ in finger quotes. ¨Wh0 ar3 y0u? It's been @wh!l3 sinc3 any0ne´$ f0und me !n h3re.¨
¨I- I'm Valentina.¨ I said, gaining confidence. The creature- person? Didn't seem so scary now.
¨S0 Val- can I c@ll y0u V@l? Anyw@y$, w3lc0me t0 th3 !nt3rnet! I'm 3xc!ted to s33 h0w l0ng !t take$ for y0u to br3@k. I th!nk the r3c0rd r!ght now is two w3eks! Well, bes!d3s me 0bv!ou$ly, I've be3n h3re much l0nger th@n tw0 w33k$.¨ They trailed off at the end, obviously thinking about bad memories likely relating to how they got here and how long it's been.
We walked in silence for a little while, and I took the chance to observe my quickly changing surroundings, not wanting to intrude on their moment. We had exited the area of code, and seemed to be walking through the desktop of the computer. We wandered past varying apps, some of them seemed to take forever to pass, and others only lasted a short while. I recognized a few of the icons, Clever, Youtube, Google Classroom. Also Pinterest for some reason. I wasn't sure why that was on a school computer. Some were unknown to me. I saw a yellow icon with some kind of weird bell on it, a teal icon with a lightning bolt, and a blue one with an f on it. I was pretty sure I had seen that one before, but it was probably on my parents’ phone or something.
I yelped as Parker grabbed my arm and pulled me into the next app. I had been looking on the other side, so I didn't know what it was. As I regained my balance from being pulled through the app's firewalls, I recognized where we were. I looked at Parker with wide eyes, ¨Why here? Of all the places we could have gone, why here?¨
¨W311, th!s i$ wh3re pe0p13 cr@ck f!r$t. I f!gur3d we m!ght @s w31l g3t !t 0ver w!th a$ qu!ck1y @$ w3 c@n¨ They responded easily.
¨You said that before. How would I ´break´ exactly?¨ I thought I had a pretty good idea, but I needed to be sure before I made any accusations.
¨W3l1, wh3n y0u se3 t0o much $tuff th@t y0u d0n't w@nt t0 s3e, y0ur m!nd t3nd$ t0 $n@p. Y0u g0 cr@zy. L0ng en0ugh !n th@t k!nd 0f env!r0nm3nt, @nd y0ur b0dy $t@rt$ t0 d3ter!0r@te. M0$t 0f th3 t!m3, p30p1e g3t 0ut b3f0re th3y @re phy$!cal1y @ff3cted, but $0m3 @ren't $o 1ucky.¨ Said Parker. They seemed to be bitter about the end, and I assumed that was how they ended up looking as glitchy as they did.
¨So… you wanted.. to turn me insane… for your own amusement?! What is wrong with you?! You break people's minds because you're bored?!” I felt my fear and anger rising with my volume. The sheer amount of emotions I was feeling in that moment made me start to shake.
¨I- I n3ver m3@nt t0- y0u w0uld d0 th3 s@m3 th!ng !f y0u wer3 $tuck h3re f0r 15 y3@rs!” They looked genuinely confused for a moment, before it shifted into anger.
¨Maybe I would but that doesn't make it right!¨ I yelled back.
I stomped off, not knowing where I was going, but knowing it was better than where I was. After a few minutes, I decided that I was far enough away to stop. I sat down on the ground and I felt the anger melting into sadness. I thought I had found someone to trust, but it was just another person trying to use me for their own entertainment. I felt the tears run down my face as a choked noise came out of my mouth as I tried to hold back my sobs. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably at most 30 minutes, I felt the tears die down.
A gasp escaped me as I heard a familiar glitching sound and saw Parker staring at me with wide, unsure eyes. They must have followed me when I ran off, with me being too preoccupied with my emotions to notice them until now.
¨If y0u g0 d0wn p@$t th3 @pp$, ev3ntu@l1y y0u'1l r3@ch th3 h0me butt0n. If y0u t0uch !t wh!le th!nk!ng 0f wh3re y0u c@me fr0m, !t'l1 t@ke y0u b@ck th3re.¨ They spoke softly and hesitantly.
¨Why are you telling me this?¨ I asked.
¨I kn0w I c0uld n3ver m@ke up f0r wh@t I'v3 d0ne, but I th0ught- m@ybe- I c0uld sh0w y0u th@t I'm s0rry.¨ They seemed to mean it.
¨Thank you¨ I smiled softly.
"Are you coming with me?" I asked.
They shook their head and said, "I’m m0re c0mput3r c0d3 th@n hum@n @t th!s p0!nt. If I tr!ed t0 g0 t0 th3 r3@l w0rld, I w0uld b3 squ!$hed b1@ck h01e $ty1e b3f0re I ev3n g0t @ g1!mps3 0f !t.”
All I could manage was a small, “Oh.”
They smiled tightly at me; “Y3@h” Next thing I knew, they were gone.
I set off in the direction Parker had indicated. Eventually I reached the end of the apps, and I could see what looked like the home button. I reached out to the button, and thought of my classroom. It had felt like so long since I had been there, I mentally did a double take. I felt the pixels moving back up my arm and covering my body. Suddenly, I was back in the class.
As I appeared, the lights came back on. I was alone in the classroom. I got up from the seat I was sitting in and walked to the door. I cracked the door open and slipped out, looking for my class. Soon it was apparent to me that school was over. I traveled to the front doors and managed to pry open the door. I breathed in the crisp evening air and relished the lack of electricity feeling in the air. I pulled out my phone, which had crashed in the computer. It suddenly loaded 312 missed text messages and 40 missed calls from Olivia. Most of them were asking where I was. I responded with a quick ´I'm okay. I'm coming over to explain´ as I speed walked down the sidewalk towards her house.
About 10 minutes later I was ringing the doorbell on her door. She opened the door and tackled me in a hug, before silently dragging me to her room so we could talk.
¨What happened.¨ For once, Olivia seemed deadly serious.
¨So uh, long story short, I got stuck inside the computer and The Virus helped me get out.¨ I said, embarrassed. I saw the emotions changing on Olivia's face as she processed what I had just told her. Finally, she settled on a weird mix of excitement and confusion.
¨…Huh…¨ She said.
¨Yeah, I don't understand it either.¨ I responded, glad she didn't question it.
After a few moments of silence, she seemed to shake off the confusion and asked, ¨So, you wanna stay here tonight.¨
I smiled. I was thankful to have a friend like Olivia.
¨Sure. That sounds great. Thanks.¨
¨Eh, no problem. What are friends for?¨ She grinned at me, and I smiled back.
Friendship goals :)