1 New Beginnings

Lucas Basin is a normal college student in New York heading to his last final exam he needs to pass to get his degree in computer programming. Your average slightly overweight shut in. Unkept black hair, facial hair in need of a shave and bags under the eyes that won't go away no matter how much sleep he gets. Most people describe him as a Vampire that hasn't taken care of himself in centuries.

Standing on the subway packed with people. He stares at his phone to ignore the crazy people. A homeless man playing a violin like a guitar, a group of young adults causing a scene while tripping on something, and another group of guys drinking and cheering about a sports game going on.

He scrolls through his phone if messages of friends and family wishing him luck on the next exam. He gives a brief smile before he bumped into someone as the subway train stops at the next destination.

Looking up he sees another student get on. He's been crushing on her all year, unable to work up the courage to talk to her. Her long red hair and blue eyes had him head over heels for her. He asked around months ago and learned her and him have the same interest in terribly made movies and making fun of them.

Looking back to his phone he looks through his notes. He puts his head phones in and starts to listen to his mucus.

Time slips by him and before he knows it the train stops at his destination without even noticing. Just as the doors close he manages to push people out of his way. Many curse and yell at him.

As soon as he's out the doors close right on his foot causing him to fall.

"Do you need a hand?" The voice asked with a giggle.

"I got off and noticed you weren't off. When I turned back to find you, you rushed off and fell."

Lucas looked to the hand extended to him and up to the owner. It was her!

Lucas started to blush from embarrassment.

"Ah. Sorry. Was distracted."

He grabbed her hand as she helped him up.

"Thanks for the help. I would have failed my exam if I was last."

She giggled again.

"It's no problem. I'm Emma by the way."

"I'm Lucas" he said while dusting himself off.

Emma turned away telling him he should hurry and follow her as she started to walked.

Lucas did an awkward jog to catch up and walk next to her.

'Okay Lucas. Keep it together. You are finally talking to her. Be cool!'

"So what kept you distracted Lucas?" Emma asked with a slight smile.

The two walked together up the stairs to the streets of the city. Traffic being as terrible as always with people not being aware of their surroundings. Pigeons flying over head between each skyscraper.

"Oh! Um. I started listening to this Podcast talking about these Neil Breen movies. They are so bad."

"I've watched those!" Emma said excitedly.

"Twisted Pair is my favorite! They are so bad and his acting is terrible."

"Right! Just the right amount of unawareness and bad writing. It's perfect."

"I actually got into film making because terrible movies."

"Oh? Do you have your thesis coming up?"

"Yes! I'm doing my thesis on how the Internet can make terrible movies popular and draw in a cult following. Neil Breen being one of the people I'm talking about. Along with some other movies that are just bad and comparing them against each other and how one is popular and the other isn't."

For the next 10 minutes as they walked Lucas just listened to Emma's ramblings and how passionate she is about film.

"What about you Lucas? How's school going for you?"

Lucas grabbed the strap of his bag as he walked.

"Well it's going fine. My final project for coding is this."

Unlocking his phone, Lucas showed Emma a little tamagotchi app.

"This is the app I developed. It's something super simple I based off of a digital monster game I grew up on."

The app showed a small pixel art of a monster. It was purple with a single large eye and it's body looked like a hand and an octopus. The background was a small camp with a tent, camp fire and even some weights. Emma tapped the camp fire. She watched as a chunk of meat was roasted on the fire before the creature ate it.

"Aww it's so cute! You made this?! It's great!"

Lucas smiled from embarrassment of being praised from his work.

The two talked more while heading to class.

Unbeknownst to them a man hidden in an alley watched them. He wore a generic ski mask and black clothes. If anyone saw him they would think he was stereotypical mugger from a cheesy movie.

He watched and waited for the two students to get close before striking!

As soon as they were within 10ft of him he lunched himself out of the alley at the two. Before either could react the mugger grabbed Emma's purse and darted passed them.

"My purse!"

Even before Lucas could process what was happening he was already moving. He was chasing the mugger. The mugger would push people out of his way or into the way of Lucas following behind him.

Unfortunately because he was out of shape he was losing ground on the mugger.

Thankfully the mugger was a crosswalk and stopped for an instant as not to get hit by a car. As Lucas caught up to the mugger the intersection turned from green to red and the mugger booked it. Just as he was about to grab the mugger he tripped on the uneven pavement.

He pushed the mugger out of the way of an incoming truck!

The mugger fell to the ground out of arms way as Lucas looked at the incoming truck.

'F*ck this city I'm not fixing their sidewalks!'

BOOM