Tally

Chapter 8: Playdate

Today's Saturday, usually I would treat it as a casual day, but with all I have experienced, this was the first break that I would use in my most whole after suffering through a hellish week. Remembering my moments, I always thought of how I got here, but I should just forget that thought and continue. I was still feeling blissful from yesterday, though. I made my first two friends in ages, and when I checked my email, I got a score of 83/100. The good thing was that when I lied to my parents about my grade, I only wrote a score of 80. I still feel guilt in me as what I have done was still not forgivable, but if I make up for it, all should be fine, I hope.

I simply lay on my bed and waited for time to pass on with nothing else to do. However, it has gotten to my attention that my habits have changed and the environment around me. I can feel more relaxed with all the recent development I have gone through.

As I got more lost in my thoughts, I heard a certain "Ding" coming from my email. That's strange. I could have sworn that there was no homework given. This better not be a last-minute assignment that I have to do on holiday. So I checked what the notification was, and instead, it is a link to a Discord channel.

Discord is a digital platform where users can communicate via voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called "servers." I've used Discord as a tool to access servers where people would regularly post images or memes that I would laugh at to keep me entertained. Still, I never tried communicating with others on the servers as I'm practically a background character in an active community. Usually, I would be hesitant to click on something as shady as this, but the message before the link got my attention.

"Yo Nolan, get in our Discord server. PS: This Roland"

Seeing the text, I instantly clicked the link, and Discord booted up with me just waiting on a few updates. Once the updates were loaded, I was already in the server Roland invited me in. The server name was "Grade 7," which I assume that this server has almost everyone on my year level in it. Examining the server itself, I see multiple channels with many different titles labeled, indicating what each channel is for. Moreover, there are a variety of roles labeled on other users whom I assume are my classmates showing their classes and "ranking" in the server.

Amazed by what I saw, I noticed that someone was pinging me. The message came from channel "7A," making sense since it is my homeroom. I looked at it, and it said, "@Nolan Join VC GAMERZONE." VC is just a shorGAMEZONE for voice chat, but I have to assume this is Roland sending it with the recency of this message and the email. I scrolled up to find the voice chat, and I saw two users there, one named "Kr4zy" and another named "Zeus." I joined the call and expected their welcome.

"Hey Nolan, can you hear me?" the user Kr4zy asked. Of course, knowing the tone, I knew this was Roland speaking; however, due to this being my first time in a voice chat, I have never adjusted the audio before, causing Roland's usual sound to a shout that could rival my mother's.

"Hold on! Hold on! Let me adjust your audio real quick," I said swiftly, clicking the settings for his user and decreasing his audio output.

"I told you you were loud," Zeus said, who I now know is Roman.

"Oh, come on, man," Roland whined, "Like you've never been loud."

"That's cause I never am loud like you," Roman says in the bluntest tone possible.

Not wanting a fight to erupt, I interrupted the two as I had a question in mind. "So why did you call me here?"

"Well, you see, Roman got bored, so he wanted to play, but because I am the only one online, he called you to since we are practically friends now," Roman answered.