December 19, 2019
Therese
I stare at the long string of code in front of me as the sun starts to set.
The curtains block out most of the sun coming in through the windows, giving the dimly lit room a gloomy feel. With only the glow from the monitor, its hard to tell how much of a mess my room was. Programming guides and JavaScript Manuals stacked on top of each other next to my desk, clothes and game designs were strewn everywhere, and pictures just laying on my bedside table.
I guess what happened these last few months really got to me.
I stretched my arms out and lifted my glasses a bit to rub my eyes. How much time do I have left? I've been working on this for the whole day and I didn't notice that it was almost night. The time on my Desktop Computer told me it was forty-five minutes till 6 pm.
Whether or not my efforts were worth it, I guess I had no other option.
With the fully developed game in my flash drive, I leave my house with a coat around me and take a taxi towards our studio. Everyone should be there by now.
On the way there, I checked my phone for any messages. There was one from Leianne.
Leianne 5:36 pm
Oi, how's the game going?
Me 5:41 pm
It went pretty well. The beta test was smooth so I guess its ready
I'm on the way there now
Leianne 5:43 pm
That's great! Everyone else is already here. We've waited a year for this Rese, make it good~
No pressure :3
Me 5:43 pm
Hey, you know if there's anything wrong about my game, it would be your designs. My brother made sure to teach me everything he knows, so I think most of the glitches are covered XD
Leianne 5:44 pm
HEY! For your information, my designs were better than yours.
Now get your butt here or Chryss and Lorraine's gonna gobble down all the food
Me 5:46 pm
Haha, fine- I'm here now anyway
And with that, I paid the driver and hopped out the car.
The air was cold, despite our country not having snow. I pulled my coat tighter and stuffed my hands in its pockets to keep warm. Wearing a skirt definitely wasn't a good idea.
I chuckled to myself as I heard "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavigne blasting from the speakers they set in there. I'm glad that hasn't changed yet. The moment I walked in, I was hit with the strong warmth of nostalgia, the smell of Homemade cooking, and a little bit of chaos. Just a little bit.
"LORRAINE, MY CHILD! PLEASE STOP WITH THE CHEESE-"
I heard Catherine yell from the kitchen, with a distant "NO!" coming from Lorraine upstairs. A few seconds later, she came stomping down the steps with more packets of cheese, probably earning a look of disappointment from her dear 'mother'. Out of everyone in the group, they both were probably the most unaffected by the pressure of life.
Our "Studio" was a place we could hang out after classes back in junior Highschool and just chill and play games, watch some movies or cook stuff. Most of the time, we'd play Minecraft and debate about who has the better dirt house or play Stardew Valley and see who has the most bundles completed in the Community Center. Then when we'd all get hungry, we'd order some food to be delivered here and try to modify it by recooking it with other ingredients (with most of them surprisingly turning out fine). Weird, I know, but this type of chaos was the one I missed. Though I never thought barely just a year of senior high could change everything...
A small tap on my shoulder brought me back to reality. "Hey" I look up to see Laurence, my childhood best friend, looking at me worriedly. "You okay?" he asked, catching me off guard.
"Oh- uhh yeah, I am." I replied "Just feels a little nostalgic"
"No kidding, this place is much more lively with all the screaming," he said, earning a small chuckle from me. "So, is this why you decided to chill with the door for the past few minutes and... Admire the wall?"
"Hey, that wall's just cream, but the amount of hard work spent on painting it is 'admirable'. Right, Rese?" Marco said, passing through, feeling a small sting in my heart hearing his voice. "Ahaha... Yeah..." was all I could say, looking away a bit. As he continued to walk, I see Laurence just staring at him intensely. "He's lucky I haven't punched him in the face again after what he did to you." He mumbled in a low voice. For a second there, I thought he turned gay for him, which is highly unlikely though. "It's fine, I'll be over it soon" I assured him with a small smile. He's always been so protective, ever since we were little. "Still he--"
"Are you two lovebirds gonna eat or what?"
Kaye teased, cutting off what Laurence was about to say. Ahh yes, of course, it wouldn't be Kaye without the shipping. We both met at kindergarten, along with Catherine. we three have been friends ever since. "KAAYYEE!! DIDN'T I TELL YOU NOT TO DISTURB THEM?!" Cath yelled. *sigh* they're teaming up now. "I DON'T CARE!" Kaye yelled back "Ahh, anyways-- They're cooking up a buffet of snacks in there and they're even adding extra cheese, so if you both don't hurry Rosetta and I are devouring everything they make." she added.
"Oi, stick to shipping Michael and Lorraine. I'm good here." I stated.
"NEVER," she whispered, smirking at us as she skipped towards the kitchen. Shaking our heads, we decided to go there as well, seeing that everyone else was too.
The first thing I saw when I stepped into the room was a distressed Chryssobelle sitting on the wooden floor, staring blankly at the wall. By now I'm asking myself whether or not she's lost her sanity yet from all this cheese. "Hey, gurl~" Catherine called, catching everyone's attention. I smiled and waved back, pushing up my glasses.
"Therese! I'm so glad you're here. We're almost done with the nachos. After this, we'll move to the living room to try out your new game for game night" Lorraine spoke, pouring the nachos into a bowl.
"I bet they're gonna put cheese on that too...." Chryssobelle muttered weakly from the kitchen floor. "I swear to God if they give me another lasagna, I gonna throw up.," she added. "Are you kidding me? I could eat this all day" Rosetta remarked as she took another plateful of the said meal.
"You know, the more you talk about how good that Lasagna is, the more you sound like.."
"Garfield!" Edelle said, finishing Catherine's sentence. "I got some black and orange markers upstairs, I'll go get them" she smiled evilly as she dashed up the stairs.
They really didn't change, did they? Sighing, I decided to follow Edelle to the second floor of the studio to make sure she doesn't make a mess of what's left there. She tends to get really excited when these types of things happen. The literal child of the group. I try to look around if anything changed; a broken floorboard in the far left corner near the boy's room, and one of the flower vases beside the staircase was missing. I think one of them broke it while they were cleaning, but apart from that, everything's still the same.
The door to the girls room was slightly open so you could see how much Edelle struggled to find her markers that was kept in her pink duffle bag. She kneeled next to her pink sleeping bag that she used for our camping trip before. Wait, no one told me we were gonna sleep here. Oh well, I guess I'm getting my stuff later. Edelle mouthed an "Aha!" as she finally found her small art kit after searching through all those pockets.
"We're back everyone, and we brought some jars and glow sticks!" I heard someone tell from the bottom floor. I told Edelle to come down to the living room and that we'll scribble on Rosetta's face later.
Almost everyone was already there when we arrived. Laurence, Kenneth, and Marco were in the corner already playing a round of Among us; Catherine, Lorraine, Rosetta, Kaye, and Ai were on the sofa chatting while also playing a game on their phones; Micheal was just chilling on the small sofa chair next to Lorraine, listening to music while playing with her hair, and finally, Leianne and Zyke were just standing, going through the stuff that they just bought.
"Therese!" Leianne called. "Zyke and I bought a few jars and some glowsticks! We can make those glowstick firefly jars we made back when we went to the beach." She said, her eyes lighting up.
I mimicked her excitement and enthusiasm as we started making the glowing jars before we finally tried out the game. I slipped my hand into my back pocket and took out the flash drive that had the game inside it and passed it to my friends so they can have it in their laptops.
It's the moment of truth. We clicked on the program and waited for it to load. Once it did, the game's title screen splashed with the words "Realm Breakers!" above the options to play "new game" or "load game". The game had 8-bit graphics that were somewhat similar to the original Mario Bros game while the game type was inspired by Undertale, a game that we also loved to play back then.
We all looked at each other and smiled before finally pressing start.
YOU ARE READING
Realm Breakers!
Aventura"I miss our conversations, I miss how we used to talk every minute of every day and how I was able to tell you everything that was on my mind... What changed?" Making a desperate attempt to keep her squad together, Therese makes the one thing that s...
