Nerd Art Online

Nerd Art Online Part 3

       I blink a few times and look around. I look at my hands and my body. I gasp and immediately start calling out Chris's name. I don't even say his name twice before he runs up to me and hugs me. "THIS IS SO COOL!!" He beams. I pat him on the head. I can feel his soft hair, and it feels realistic too. The style of this game is pretty realistic and it makes it where you can tell who everyone is without it being all the way realistic. A tall man walks over to us. He's dressed in metal armor and has a lot of really cool iron weapons. He starts talking to us and I can tell that it's Mr. Harpers but it doesn't look at all like him. He explains how the game works. "There's a button behind your right ear, I want you to press it." We all reach up behind our right ear and are all surprised to find that he is right. We press it and a semi-transparent screen pops up. It's tinted green, like something out of Star Wars. I can tell that Chris sees that too. Mr. Harpers tells us to press the buttons on the screen and experiment with them. I immediately press the button that says "outfits" and a 3D picture of my character pops up on the screen. I look over at Chris and he's already halfway done redesigning his character.
       I spend a few minutes working on my character. Once I'm finally done, I touch the button that says "Done" (which is still weird because the screen isn't actually a hard surface, we're just touching air) and a white curtain appears out of no where and the screen turns black for a split second and when it comes back, the curtain is gone and I am now in my new outfit, and apparently so is Chris. Chris has shoulder length dark purple hair that's in a man bun, dark blue eyes, a loose, old fashioned, plain white T-shirt that's tucked into his baggy leather pants, black leather buckle up boots that stop right under his knees and a dark brown cloak. Chris has.. interesting.. taste in clothing, yet this isn't too bad of a look for him. I have light blue hair, one light pink eye, one light turquoise eye, a tight, white crop top, jean shorts that... don't go down too far (basically booty shorts), the same boots that Chris has, but in white, and a light brown leather jacket.
       Chris and I look at each other and I gotta say, we both look pretty cool. Chris is still really excited, and I don't blame him. He is living his dream after all. He looks at my whole outfit and walks towards me. He walks behind me and takes me hair into his hands. "Good outfit choice 'Manda. But, it would look better if your hair was in a braid." I grin. "How are you so good at this?" I ask as he starts braiding my hair. "Girl fashion is much easier than guy fashion, if you can even call it fashion." I giggle. He walks in front of me and claps his hands together. "Done!" "Thank you, sir," I say. He gets on one knee, puts one arm behind his back and the other across his stomach. "My pleasure, madam." I laugh as he stands back up. I touch behind my ear again and click on the button that says weapons. Multiple 3D weapons pop up in front of me, all with descriptions and a name under them. Chris does the same. He automatically goes for the sword, but once he taps on it, all the weapons disappear and a variety of swords, all with different powers and strength levels, pop up. Mr. Harpers tells us that since this is a trial version of the game, everything is free but it wouldn't be in the actual version once it gets released. We all nod, but are all too amazed at the game to actually hear what he was saying. He sighs and sits down. I look back at Chris who has picked out a large, heavy sword called "The Sword of Darkness". I glare at him. "What!?" He looks at the sword again. "Hmm.. maybe it is a little too dark for me." He puts it back. He looks at all of his choices and picks a medium sized, metal sword with a bright blue stone on it. It says "The Sword of Justice". Chris tosses it from hand to hand, making sure it's comfortable and the right weight and size. He nods his head in satisfaction. "JUSTICE!!" He yells while raising his sword into the air. "HECK YEAH, BABY!!" I watch him practice stabbing the air and swinging it. I chuckle and return to my own weapons. I see swords, wands, staffs, plain magic, bow and arrows, guns, axes, and hammers. I go back and forth between plain magic, wands, and bow and arrows. I think, do I wanna be from Fairy Tail, Harry Potter, or The Hunger Games. I settle on Fairy Tail and tap the "Plain Magic" button. Different elements and powers pop up. I think about who my favorite character in Fairy Tail is, which is Natsu, but then I think about how controlling minds would be cool too. Air would also be pretty handy, but ice could be really helpful as well. I spend a few minutes thinking all of the choices and then just decide to go for bow and arrows. I hear a laugh from next to me and I look over to see Chris laughing at me. I roll my eyes as he keeps laughing. I start looking at the bows first. Chris keeps laughing and I finally look at him again and I see him rolling on the ground with his sword next to him. He's laughing so hard that he's in tears. Talk about overreacting. "Are you ok?" I ask him but the answer is quite obvious. He manages as "no" between laughs, and just the sight of him makes me break into giggle fits. Soon we're both on the ground laughing with tears in our eyes and we've both forgotten what we were laughing about in the first place.
A few minutes pass and our laughter dies down as our stomachs start to hurt. We stand up and I go back to picking a bow while he picks up his sword and practices a little more.
I look through the bows and choose a bow that's a mix of purple, pink, and light blue. It's called the "Bow of Magic" which is basically a win/win situation on my part. After I've done that, I start to choose my arrows. There are arrows that are the same colors as the bow that I have and they're called "Arrows of Magic" and I, obviously, choose those. I put the arrow in place on the bow, pull the bow back, and shoot it in a direction that nobody's in. Surprisingly, it goes pretty far and pretty straight too. Chris applauds me. "Good job, 'Manda" He says.
       I nod and then walk over to Mr. Harpers. "Excuse me, but where am I gonna keep these?" He looks at me and then does a few things on his screen. He gives me an arrow case, which I put my arrows in and strap across my shoulder. He looks at me weird and says, "You did that wrong." "What? How?" "You put the bow in that pocket, and the arrows in the other one." I look and there is a smaller pocket that would fit the arrows better. "Ahhh, thank you." "No problem," He waves me off.
       I smile and walk back towards Chris, who I can see is waiting, again, to say something. "Shoot," I tell him. He nods quickly and starts talking while I begin putting my bow and arrows in the right pockets, "There's nothing here that would resemble an actual game right now. I wonder if there'll be stuff to fight tomorrow. Maybe challenges, or bosses, or..." He keeps talking and I keep listening. I've put my bow and arrows in the correct pockets, so this is basically all I can do right now. Mr. Harpers checks his watch and his eyes widen. "Ok everyone, the bell is about to ring! On your screen there is a button that says 'log out'. I want you to press that and it'll bring you back." I could see that nobody wanted to leave, but we all knew that we had to. I brought up my screen and tapped the "Log Out" button. The same thing happens as the when we logged in; a mix of bright, blinding colors and then pitch black.
       I reach up to my head, aware of a new weight on it, and lift up the headset. I blink a few times and see Chris staring at me and his eyes light up. "OMG THAT WAS TOO COOL!!" Now that I think about it, it is really convenient that we, of all people, were the class chosen to do the one thing that has been Chris's dream for lord knows how long. I look up to see Chris glaring at me. "What?" He sighs and shakes his head. "You're weird, you know that?" I raise an eyebrow, "You can't be talking." Just as he opens his mouth to make a comeback, the bell rings. "Well, I guess we'll have to see what awaits us in Algebra." I say as I start putting things away. Chris rolls his eyes, "Girl, you know I won't be finding out what's awaiting us in Algebra, I have anime to watch." I sigh and start walking out, "But don't you just LOVE math!?" I say teasingly as he walks up beside me. He puts his hand on my forehead. "Are you sure you're ok?" I laugh and push his hand away. "Hey, at least I'm not the one with a purple man bun." "Oh honey, you did not just go there." "Wanna bet?" "I have better taste in men than you do." "What? Do you have a crush!?" "Uhhh... hey, we should be getting to that Algebra class." I chuckle as we link arms and walk in unison to Chris's least favorite class. We open the door as we hear Mrs. Benton begin class. "So today we will be learning about..."