15 Friends of different statuses

Sara sat enamored with her creating process for hours. Every time she created a new and improved bubble, she was able to do so easier and faster than before. Before long, she could create tens of then at a time, though her limit seemed to be around twenty three.

As she sat slowly and methodically crafting her castle, the room around her suddenly flashed red.

A warning sounded in her ears and words flashed before her

-Warning, movement of User's body is detected-

Sarah stared at the words in surprise.

She wasn't doing anything that should have caused her body to move in the real world…as she stood contemplating, the room flashed red again and a new warning sounded in her ears.

-Warning, movement of User's body detected. User will be temporarily logged out to avoid injury. Please readjust and confirm safety before logging back in to the system-

After the words ended, the system immediately kicked her off. Sara lay on the floor where she had originally been with the helmet still on. She felt the helmet and readjusted herself before preparing to log back in.

"Hey, hey! Sara, stop!"

Sara froze. She knew this voice….but she was temporarily stunned. She hadn't added anyone for chatting in the system yet….

It took her a moment to realize that the voice was actually not coming from the VR's chat function and was in fact coming from beside her.

Sara hurried to pull the helmet off. She glanced around in confusion to find the source of the voice.

A young man with short, but messy dirty blond hair stood slightly hunched over at her side. He wore glasses that weren't stylish and were rather thick, causing his eyes to appear smaller than they were. He was skinny, not in a way that other's would be jealous over, no his was an almost sickly skinny. His clothes were ill-fitting and his fashion sense left much to be desired. He wasn't a handsome boy, though if one were to look closely, they would find that his skin was clearer than most others and his height was above average.

"Jesus, Elijah, you scared me for a sec. I thought my body was over here spazzing out while I was in game."

Elijah's expression darkened.

"I waited for almost two hours for you to finish before shaking you. What the hell are you even playing?"

Sara stared at him for a moment, then adverted her gaze. She really didn't want to admit that she had ended up just playing around in the create space for the last few hours.

"Doesn't matter…." Before Elijah had the chance to press her, she changed the subject. "What are you doing here anyways, I thought they approved you for higher education?"

Elijah blinked. "Sara…I'm still in high school. I just get to finish the next two years and then I go for higher education. You had the opportunity to finish the last two years, too. But you chose to take the early drop out quiz, remember?"

There were two types of drop outs; those that dropped out before their schooling was completed and those that were still able to receive their diploma. The first two years of high school were mandatory, but after that one could choose to leave or to finish the remaining two years. Those that chose to finish the remaining two years were usually either already approved for higher education, or they were still hoping to be approved for higher education. Most people that weren't approved for higher education before the end of their second year in high school chose not to continue with school as the likelihood that they would be chosen was low. Finishing the schooling with no guarantee that it would help their living situation in the future would most likely only cause them to lose valuable time in establishing their fame. After all, for those that chose to leave two years early, they had four years to establish their fame. For those that chose to stay in school, if they didn't get approved for higher education, then they only had two years to establish themselves. Clearly those that left were given double that time and chances to make something of themselves.

Sara continued to stare at Elijah like she was hearing what he was saying, but not actually listening.

"Okay….well it was fun catching up, excuse me." Sara went to put the helmet back on.

Elijah balked at her dismissal.

"Hey, what the hell! I come over to hang out and you ignore me?"

Sara rolled her eyes as she set the helmet at her side and groaned as she made to stand up. She wasn't really irritated at him, but she…really wanted to make her castle. She and Elijah had known each other since first grade. His parents had moved to their school district after being transferred. His entire family had been approved for higher education. His mother, his father, his older sister and his little brother. Elijah had been approved the first year of high school and his sister had been approved during her third year. She was one of the few that actually chose to stay in school and was lucky enough that it paid off. Elijah's little brother though….he was considered a rare case. He'd been approved for higher education after his first year of middle school. This wasn't something that was unheard of, but it was pretty rare for it to happen so early. He'd even skipped a grade before that; instead of going into fourth grade, he'd immediately gone into fifth.

Now, Elijah's little brother was starting high school that year, so a lot of people were comparing Elijah to his little brother. The comparisons…weren't favorable toward Elijah.

Thinking about this, Sara felt a little bad that she had left when she did. She knew that it was probably pretty hard on Elijah considering he was the only one in their friend group that had been approved for higher education and the others all left when Sara did.

Being approved for higher education wasn't always a rare thing, in some schools, the more elite schools, over half of the school would be approved. In Sara's school, the number was quite a bit lower. Only about twenty percent of her school had been approved for higher education. That's twenty percent of 3,000 students. So, only around 600 people. It wasn't easy being approved. Perfect grades were needed as well as the potential to grow. Elijah had been told that his potential was best for going into a field like medical science. Basically, they said he'd be best to go into a field that would study disease, both old and new, and try to find cures for them. He'd probably end up part of a team of scientists that would be forever hunched over a desk analyzing and testing different strains of disease.

For Sara, that idea of doing something like that seemed…boring as hell and depressing. But, Elijah seemed pretty interested in it, so who was she to judge.

Elijah didn't seem to take her attitude to heart and immediately went to sit on her bed and get comfortable.

Sara watched him lay on her bed as if he owned the place and began to riffle through her drawers for something to change into. She gave up and just grabbed the clothes she had discarded onto the floor before.

"I'll be back." She said as she stepped out to change in the bathroom.

When she returned, Elijah had moved from lying on her bed to sitting on its edge with a booklet in his hand, reading. Sara recognized it as the manual for the VR suit.

"I have barely looked at that thing." She said as she threw herself on her bed beside him.

He shook his head. "I figured."

They sat in silence for a while before Sara spoke again.

"So, what's up? You don't usually come over unless you have a reason."

Elijah flinched at her words. He continued to stare down at the booklet, but his expression seemed to suggest he smelled something rotten.

"Nothing really, but we haven't talked in a while so I thought I'd stop by…" His words trailed off. Sara could tell her was lying. He was really bad at it.

Sara watched him, but didn't say anything. She knew that he couldn't stand to be stared at when he lied; he would crack soon.

She was right. Elijah fidgeted uncomfortably and tried not to meet her eyes.

"Sara, stop staring at me. Stop it."

Sara continued with her stare.

Finally, Elijah cracked.

"Okay, just stop staring." Elijah tossed the booklet aside and lied back on the bed perpendicular to Sara.

"It's just…a lot of stress."

Elijah started telling Sara about what was going on with him since he started the school year. His parents were always strict and never liked his choice of friends. It wasn't something that was unheard of, most people that had been chosen for higher education made good money and were sometimes treated much better by society. Well, not sometimes, compared to labor workers, they were usually treated better. There was a stigma. If someone was chosen for higher education then they were seen as the future of the nation, they were told that they were the hope of the future. The makers of tomorrow. Great importance was placed on them, but it made sense. They were the ones that allowed society to grow, while labor force workers just maintained it. Because of these things, most people in the higher education field chose to befriend and interact with those in their same field. Their friends were from that field, their wives and husbands and children were all in the higher education bubble.

Elijah's parents had been pressuring him to make more friends in his classes. So, he'd listened, but wouldn't you know it, the people he'd befriended were the few in the class that weren't approved for higher education, but were merely hoping to be picked in the future.

Sara silently commended Elijah on his ability to sniff out and befriend those of "lower status". Everyone else in their friend's group were from a family of labor workers. Then, in a sea of higher education elitists, Elijah had been able to unknowingly pick out two people to befriend that were also labor force worker's children. Sara wondered if this could have been considered Elijah's unique talent.

Apparently, Elijah's parents had found out that those friends were actually approved for higher education and had been pressuring their son to distance himself from them. Not just his parents, even his sister and younger brother had been getting involved in his private affairs. They'd give little tidbits of their opinion on the matter.

Their attitudes couldn't be considered wrong, not entirely. After all, they were just worried for him and his future. Even if he had been approved for higher education, that didn't mean that he couldn't still screw it up. And, it would probably hurt a lot to lose those friends after they were forced to go into the labor force while he was still in school and then working comfortably in a lab while they had to toil for long days without much pay. They would enter two different worlds and when they did, Elijah would be left alone.

But, Elijah didn't come to Sara for her understanding nature, after all she wasn't actually a very understanding person, he came there for her abrasive and quick temper. She didn't disappoint.

"Bastards, they can't tell you who to hang out with! I say, fuck 'em. They don't care that you can't stand those elitist assholes and just want you to fall in line and be another cog in their family machine that they're making. UGH! What's next? Are they going to tell you who you have to marry and how many kids you have to have?"

Sara went on with a few more choice four letter words, causing Elijah to feel a bit of the pressure being relieved. It was as if she were venting his anger for him. It was very therapeutic.

Truthfully, Sara did feel hurt that Elijah's parents had these thoughts. After all, she was one of the people they were trying to keep Elijah away from. Like she was infected with a plague and that plague was poverty and poor education.

Finally, her ranting reached its peak. At this point, she wasn't trying to make Elijah feel better, but rather she was venting her own feelings of injustice and fear from her situation.

"-but, they don't care, they don't expect anything from me, or anyone else from the labor force! And that's fucked up, everyone used to be members of the labor force, before they climbed up and out. Even those that were born into wealth, you think their families just grew that wealth and fame over time? No, they had an ancestor that was able to climb up and out of this fucked up situation! Well, just wait, Elijah, just wait till they see what happens, I'm gonna climb up and I'll give them a few choice words and maybe a finger or two to ponder on. Bunch of elitist jackasses!"

Elijah sat watching Sara pace back and forth in front of him. He wasn't sure when she had gotten up; he had been too transfixed by her furious display to notice.

As Sara stood before him breathing hard from her ranting, Elijah pressed his lips together trying to hide a smile. It wasn't that he didn't believe that Sara could climb up, but…He didn't think that she could.

There weren't many new faces in the top of the rankings every year, and those at the bottom would climb up and then fall back down over night. What Sara said she wanted to do was impractical and unlikely and Elijah had always been taught to err on the side of caution and to take into account statistical reasonability in everything that he did. Elijah wondered if his doubt of Sara came from how he was raised or if he was truly being unbiased in his belief. Either way…she was his friend and he hoped more than anything that she'd be able to achieve her dream and wish to climb up the ranks.

After her rant, Sara felt lighter, like she'd finally been able to relieve some of the stress that had been building up in her at the thought of the astronomical task she had placed in front of her. Her unease at losing, at failing to climb up, was just a bit lessened. She felt determined, like always, but now, that determination didn't feel as desperate as before.

As she stood there, about to thank Elijah for listening to her vent, a loud grumble filled the air.

Sara frowned, then pursed her lips.

"Mmmm…I'm hungry." She said as she turned and headed out toward her kitchen.

Elijah sat dumbfounded at Sara's fast changing moods. She was perhaps the only person her knew that could change her mood at the drop of a hat….