Chapter One

Today is Monday and along with almost every other teen in the country, I go to school. When I'm at school, I stay to myself. I don't have any friends here, because the only friends I've made are online. This is a killer combination, I know. Because the introverted freshman that only has friends online sounds like a great person to try to be friends with.

I'm not really one for sports, so I steer clear of any physical activities. I catch the bus after school, so I didn't join any of the clubs. I know there's a gamers club, but I don't know if any of the gamers play MAGI. At school, I maintain my mediocre status, spend my lunch period buried in my phone checking for updates, and survive all seven periods of my day.

But today, THIS Monday something weird happened.

I was minding my own business at lunch when this boy appeared in front of me. I had seen this boy before; He was about my age, but he usually hung out around his circle of friends. This boy was actually quite popular. In fact, I believed that he was a star on one of the sports teams. (I pay attention to other people enough to know this at least...) He had brown hair, playful green eyes, and he looked like he was really friendly. However, I still found it as an enigma as why he would come towards me.

He lingered in front of me for a moment while I tried to ignore him, thinking that he would just go away, but then he did something surprising! He spoke to me!

"Uh, hey!" He said waving. I was surprised at how friendly his voice sounded.

"Um.. hi?" The first thing I had ever said to anyone in this school.

"You're also a freshman here, right?" He asked shifting on his feet.

…This boy was absolutely crazy! Why did he feel the need to talk to me of all people? And how did he know that I also was a freshman? Was he actually trying to strike up a conversation despite this stiff atmosphere I was presenting? This boy obviously was popular and had many friends, yet he decided to introduce himself to a loner like me…

The popular kids always went with popular kids and the athletes with the athletes. Arts with arts, music with music, band with band, and geeks with geeks. They NEVER intermixed. That's just how it was and had been the main rule since everyone split into factions back in middle school. People established themselves in these factions and never strayed from them, so when it came time for high school, everything was already decided.

I examined the boy closely, one more time. Though I had tried to act as annoyed as ever and present him with a reason to leave, he stayed. This was inconceivable to me. I don't know if it was because I was scared, or if it was because I had run out of options to try to scare him away, but something broke inside me, and I became all mixed up inside. But before I could conjure up an answer, I busted out in laughter.

"Woah," he said. "Was something I said funny?"

The answer to this was cleary a no, but it was too late and I couldn't stop now. I never even heard the words he said after that because I was too busy laughing. I could only nod at them while cracking up.

"Well…my names Johnathan," he said while putting on an awkward grin. "And I guess I'll.. see you later..."

Great. Just absolutely perfect, because I had one chance to actually interact with someone and I ended up blowing it. Why did I do that?

I tried not to let it bother me, but I just couldn't. The more that time went on, the more I began to realize what I did. The boy, Johnathan, was just trying to be friendly and I acted like a complete jerk to him. The truth was that he was beyond brave. He left the comfort of his own friend group, made the dangerous treck across the lunchroom to my lonely table, and enough courage to introduce himself. He directly challenged the order that no one else had enough courage to go against, including me. And I laughed–right in his face.

Everyday for the rest of that week, I was beyond relieved to come home. I finished my homework at school, because it's surprising how productive you can become when you're not wasting time talking to friends. Maybe I didn't need any friends. I convinced myself that I was fine the way that I was. The weekend was here, and that was all that mattered. Now, I had a full fourty-eight hours to fit in as much gaming as possible. But like that Monday, this weekend felt like it was also going to be different. Somehow...

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"FIVE. FOUR. THREE…"

The countdown began on the clock of the in game timer. "A," my character, was running as fast as she could as the check points appeared on her map. My computer was fast, with no lag whatsoever, and my wifi was good too. But that didn't mean that someone else's wouldn't be faster. People gained on her, threatening her perfect twenty-five mini-game win streak, and if she won this race she would have enough coins to buy the fire trail from the effects store.

"TIMES UP!"

The words fell across my screen, but who had won? Had A's speed skin worked? Had I gained the needed XP to level up? Finally the leaderboard appeared. "PLAYER HALPINEEDNUGGETS FIRST PLACE, PLAYER AMAZINGA SECOND–"

"EXITING SERVER."

I did the most very thing that all gamers hated... A cowardly move. I rage quit.

"SERVER TERMINATED."

"What would you like to play next?"

Yes, next. There was always another game that would relax my mind from the woes of losing.

'He was probably hacking,' I convinced myself. 'I don't have time for servers with people who cheat.'

I let myself believe this, even though I wouldn't pass up an opportunity to get a hack from a game developer myself…

"Click. Click. Click."

"SERVER LOADING…"

"SERVER LOAD COMPLETE! THANKS FOR PLAYING MAGI".

Soon the telltale music from my second favorite game "Cloud Clicker"started playing.

'She's gotta be here,' I thought in my head. 'The friend finder said she was on!'

My fingers started flying on the in game chat bubble.

"Whit? U here?"

A few moments passed.

"CHAT LOADING…"

"AMAZING! HEY GIRL!"

Whitney or as her username suggests "Itzzzwhit" had been my online friend ever since I joined MAGI about five years ago. She taught me all the cheats, power ups, and easy routes of the game we both liked to play, "Cloud Clicker." In which, you have to click to jump and guide your character's way up several levels of cloud obstacles. I started where I left off the last time we played. Level 654.

...Okay, this game is really addicting so you can stop your judgement right there partner... And besides, the reason why my level was so high is because I'd spent hours collecting coins so I could get the rainbow trail. It's an acquired taste, so not many may understand.

I met Whitney at one of the checkpoints before the hardest part of the game, "The Lightning Cave".

"Did u find a way to make it out of there?" I asked.

"Nah, and I've been on here for a while now," Whit replied.

"Different game?"

"U read my mind. Lol."

I'd like to imagine Whitney as one who is upbeat and funny in real life. I mean, I practically know her, except for where she lives. That part is confidential to all gamers. Unless I know you IRL we can't be 'that' close of friends. Whitney often claims that I read her mind and I say the same. We have everything in common from what she's told me. We both masquerade as liking the color Pink, but deep down we know that we like Green. We both don't really have a lot of friends in the real world and agree that MAGI is our only escape from reality. She loves dogs, especially hers who's name is Rudy. I like dogs too... If only I had a dog… Problem is that our apartment doesn't allow dogs in our unit.

Whitney has been one that I tell a lot to, but not too much. Through the things we share, I find often times it's useful. She once helped me convince Shelly that seahorses aren't actually horses, and to convince Shelly of anything is pretty hard to do... Over the years I've really gained some respect for her. Even though really she's just a name without a face, I can't help but feel close to her. She's been the only friend that I've had sometimes, and I appreciate her for it. And even though all we do is play games, I don't think she'll ever understand how much she truly means to me.