August 8

Day 1

They're erupting...

I sat at my computer at home. The first day of school over and done with. What a relief.

Now only nine months and twenty nine days to summer. Or is it nine and 30 days? Or is it still just ten months. I don't know, and it's way too early in the game of school to care.

I clicked on Twitter.

A message alert flashed on screen. I had a new text from my best friend. Well, one of my best friends. I have a lot of best friends. But that's not the point. The point is...

I got nothing.

I read her message.

"Hey Becky! How was your first day of high school?"

Lily, or Faithful_Lily, is British. From the photos she's sent me, I know she has long chestnut hair, teal eyes, with teal cat ears.

"It was good, thanks." I typed.

"Come on, what's the matter." I could hear the tone in her voice from across the screen.

"Well..." I stared down at my hands. My fingers danced. "Nate moved back."

"Nate?! The guy that was your childhood friend that you liked?"

"Yup. That's the one."

"Are you excited?" Lily asked.

"I let go of my feelings a long time ago. I'm not sure if I want to stir up those emotions again. It's really hard for me to let go, and bringing them back could be disastrous. You know how well my crushes always end..."

I have a habit of... Well...

Erupting. Erupting with my feelings. I change around people I like. I become more spontaneous, and more outrageous; and it scares them away. It always ends with me hurt, embarrassed, and less one friend or acquaintance.

Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever find someone.

"Fine. But how was the rest of your day?"

"Lost my backpack, then Nate found it. I found Nate's name tag, and then I wore it. My English teacher is assigning us a poem to analyze, for like, the rest of the year. It's for focus on literary symbolism and crap, besides all the grammar and spelling and all the other required literary reading we have in class, which for this term is To Kill a Mockingbird. I am not happy about it."

"Oh, I'm sorry. That really sucks. But I know you'll get through it. What's the poem?"

"Falling From the Moon, by Ludo James Douglas Phat. What a name." I replied. "Literary bull crap that is going to dull my mind like an unsharpened pencil. Kill me now."

"I don't know, it sounds promising. You know how I much I love the moon, and symbolism."

I laughed out loud. Or as the cool hipster kids that I am not would say: LOL. "I sure do, Lily. I sure do. We just gotta get you a tiara and an engagement necklace and you're the moon princess whatever from Avatar."

"Do you want to play some Virtual Reality?"

I grinned. "Sure. I'll skype you."

If you did not know, which you probably (possibly) didn't, 'Virtual Reality' is a game that invokes players to survive in the wilderness like our kind did hundreds of years ago, before the civilized world we know today existed. We didn't always have schools and cities and carefree, pleasurable lives.

Virtual Reality takes place during the time of Alex and Steve, who lived in the Garden of Ender until they were forced to leave. They were then faced by monsters and the illuming threat of death. They only had the clothes on their backs and the pics in their hands to survive. At least that's what the history books say, or, is it the Bible? I don't even know anymore...

So to basically sum it up for you. Virtual Reality is Minecraft for us, that we play on our computers. Just because we live in Minecraftia doesn't mean we actually go out and do things like what you do when you in the real world play Minecraft. We nerdy Minecraftians like hiding in our rooms, too, ya know. No going out after school and cave spelunking for me, that's for sure. I love the internet, an Blockflix. Though, I do want to get a degree mining...

Love me.

I took my headset from where it hung around my neck and slipped it over my ears. I hooked it up to my computer and pulled my microphone closer.

I opened up skype, and browsed for Lily's name. I clicked on it, and called her up.

"Hey Lily!" I chirped. "What do you wanna play?"

"Maybe--"

My door swung opened, and slammed against the pixilated door stopper.

I spun around in my chair. There standing at my door was my little sister. She was six years old, with tan skin and black pig tails.

"Gabby." I rubbed my eyes. "What do you want?"

"Can I have a piece of paper from your backpack?"

"Sure. Just knock next time, ok?" I spun back to my computer.

"Becky?" My sister said from behind me.

I sighed. "Hang on Lily." I turned my chair to my sister. "Yes?"

"You're phone's ringing. Someone's calling you."

"What? Really?" My eyes jumped to my bed. My phone was turned on and a phone number flashed on screen: one I did not know. My phone had been on silent, and if Gabby hadn't been here and told me, I would have missed it. "Oh, thanks Gabby. You're a life saver." I pulled my headset off, grabbed my phone from the red blanket, and swiped to unlock.

Gabby got her paper and left the room.

"Hello?" I said, the cold screen burning my ear.

"Hey, Becky? It's Nate."

A message popped up on the screen from Lily. "What's happening?"

"Oh, oh, hi Nate! How's it going?" I said, typing "Nate's calling me" with one hand and holding the phone in my other.

"Good. How was your first day of high school?" He asked.

I melted inside. "It was, you could say, possibly awesome. I mean, now that you're back here and all..."

He laughed. "Thanks, man. It's awesome you're here with me. Hey, I wanted to ask about your friend, Arrow?"

"Oh yeah. Arrow's amazing. She actually moved here a month after you moved away." I smiled.

"She seems awesome. A good replacement for best friend of the year, after I left, I can tell."

"No no, it's not like that, Nate!"

"I'm just teasing you. I'm really glad you haven't been alone all this time. Ah, I remember the good old days. The days it was just you and me. You and me, against the world."

"I miss those days. And I don't care if you're joking: No one could ever replace you, Nate. Anyway, you wanted to ask crap about Arrow?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just if she was, uh..."

"Yeah?"

"Available?"

Holy crap. Holy crap. Nate was never interested in girls. Ever. And now it's my best friend...

"Uh, no, not as far as I know. But it'll be pretty hard to get past her parents..."

Nate laughed. "Eh, we'll see. I mean, I'm just curious. She seems really nice, and anyone that's friends with you I already know is amazing."

I blushed. "Aw, thanks, man. Yeah, you'll love her. She's such a fabulous and amazing person."

Nate wrapped it up. "Anyway, I gotta go now. See you tomorrow!"

"Bye!"

I threw my phone on the bed and put my headset back on. "Hey, sorry about that, Lily. I'm back."

"Sooo, what did he say?" She said, a smirk hidden in her voice.

"He asked about Arrow..."

"And?"

I gulped. "I think he wants to go out with her."

Silence.

"Wow, Becky. That's quite sudden. Are you sure he--"

"Yes. I'm positive. He asked if she was 'available.'"

"Oh. Wow. How do you feel about all this?"

I physically shrugged. "I have no idea. I literally have no idea."

But that was a big, fat...

Lie.

I don't know what it was. Maybe it was him coming back after so many years; maybe it was the realization that Nate is finally interested in girls after years of being shy an silent; or maybe it was just that he likes my best friend that has changed me. I don't know.

But now...

My feelings.

They're erupting.