Web of Secrets

"It's eight o-clock in the morning, now I'm entering my bed..." James was listening to PurplePantheress.

James took his earbuds out, he had just arrived at school. In his mind this was probably the last place he could imagine wanting to be on a Saturday. James muttered under his breath," Why couldn't they have given me a Friday detention." He buzzed in by pressing the button on the outside of the school, since it was a weekend it was locked and he had to be buzzed in through the main office. He saw his reflection in the glass door that lead into his school and studied himself while waiting to hear the click of the door unlocking.

James was around average in height, standing at 5'10, he also possessed a toned but not buff muscle composition. He had wavey black hair that seemed to resemble a mop. His brown eyes were just that, no sparkle or twinkle in them. He had pale skin but not snow white, his facial features resembled that of a just above average handsome teenage boy. The only thing that stood out about him was his aura of effortlessness, not that he does well without effort, but that he has never put any effort into anything. In fact, he was in detention because he fell asleep in math class for the 6th time that week, which is impressive, considering he had that class 5 times a week.

*Bzzzz*

The door was unlocked, James quickly ruffled up his already messy hair. He entered the building and heard the clicking tongue of the principal. The inside of the building resembled that of an average high school, nothing too out of the ordinary. The principal was a short man, around 5'3, and was balding but didn't shave off his hair out of pride. "One more detention and you'll be in big trouble James, you have 18 of the 20 demerits needed to be expelled, young man," said the principal. James nodded acting like he heard what the principal said, but really he was zoning out.

He walked through the empty halls until he found the usual detention room. A plaque outside the door read [Room 312]. It was, ironically, the same classroom that contained his dreaded Calculus class that he fell asleep in. When he entered the usual suspects were all there. Mr. Breckle, the egregiously overqualified and underpaid English teacher. He had a face that was comically close to resembling a rat. He was 5'6 and had a very round stomach, James reckoned you could play a sport with it. Along with that the room contained Jake, Alex, Mallory, and Brayden. "Less than usual," said James. Mr. Breckle replied," Not everyone has a knack for attracting trouble like you, sit down and shut up."

James walked through the rows of desks and sat down in the corner seat of the classroom next to the wall he'd always sleep on. Alex had been his best friend since kindergarten, he also was a complete a**hole. Alex greeted his friend by pretending to itch his face with only his middle finger, effectively flipping off James. Alex looked like he could have an idol debut. He had blonde flowing hair, a very attractive face, blue eyes, but was overall skinny in stature which could be attributed to him being 6'6.

James smiled at his friend's timely greeting, considering that Mr. Breckle had just landed on Alex's name for roll call and saw the unconventional greeting. "Mr. Brannagan (Alex), that will be another demerit, glad to see that you're here though, as always." Mr. Breckle smiled, seemingly taking pleasure in the misfortunes of these teenagers. He then finished rollcall and retreated back to reading '50 Shades of Grey'. Before James went to fall asleep, he looked at Alex and tried to make out the words Alex was mouthing out. It seemed as if Alex was saying," Breckle is a freak in the sheets." James lost it, and started laughing. He put back in his earbuds and retreated to the calm abyss that is sleeping.

***

"I already decided that I don't need no sidekick..." This time James was awoken by the music of Xaviur Welf. He got effectively jumpscared when his eyes fully opened. There was Alex smiling with a sh** eating grin. "If you cheese any harder you might be mistaken for a troll face cosplay," said James. Alex laughed and replied with," At least I don't look borderline homeless." James ignored the insult and got up, he put his earbuds away and locked his phone. Him and Alex walked home from every detention together, so this routine was part of the norm.

They walked past the principal again. The principal looked up at him, radiating disappointment, then looked back down at what James assumed was probably solitaire. Alex opened the door and held it for James stating," Ladies first." "Haha, very original," replied James. They quickly exited the prison, known as Brigade High School.

The walk home was very mundane, they talked about new music, games, and the normal stuff. James was the first to reach his house, more accurately a dingy, old apartment complex. Alex dapped up James before retreating towards his neighborhood.

James entered his apartment building and started climbing up the stairs, he did this because the elevator had been broken ever since he and his dad had moved there. While walking up the familiar stairs, James daydreamed. James had been dabbling with electronics and the internet since a young age. He was well versed in penetration testing, and exploiting flaws of networks and websites. In simpler terms, James was pretty knowledgeable about hacking.

James was daydreaming about a recent project of his, hacking into a mundane website that was an offshoot of a large conglomerate. The website was seemingly a white page that contained nothing, simply a domain that the company had wanted to buy and not use, as to stop spam pages from imitating the company which was Boogle. James had been investigating obscure websites that were owned and hosted by Boogle, and had stumbled across this one. He was close to being able to access all of the information encrypted behind the website's security measure, which checked for specific IPs to allow access to the main website.

This daydreaming suddenly stopped, as he was at the door of his apartment, the outside of it read [Floor 23, Room 17]. James, sweaty from climbing a whopping 23 floors, opened the door.

Once he stepped in and closed the door, James heard a scream and something white flew past him and exploded...