Avilien

Monday morning

Waking up before his alarm, Luke stared at the poster of Gamer Girl from another popular anime that he'd attached to the ceiling above his bed. He didn't know whether to be anxious or excited about going back to school—school never being a place he liked and Jayce wanting to re-arrange his face.

Nebs slept peacefully as he snored away at the side of Luke's head. His fur and positioning had caused Luke to suffocate a few times during the night. He was a strange cat and could be quite evil at times, having a mix of personalities. The one that shined through most of all was his undying love for his food. After that, it was his fake evil streak. He was one of those that laughed at other people's bumps and bangs.

The sun shined through the curtains, brightening the room as Luke clambered out of bed and got into his school clothes. The only other set of clothes hung up in his wardrobe, and not strewn across the floor like his regular clothes. Frayed and worn out, he'd had the clothes two years and Sharon had never bought him a new set. The pants were starting not to fit him and showed off his cartoon socks, as he had grown a few inches over the past year. Shutting the wardrobe door and pulling his black school jumper over his head, Luke struggled to get his head through. He had a niggling feeling that today wasn't going to go well, and not just because of Jayce, Bart, and Drew.

Lance, Anna, Cissy, and Nagori would also be at school and they had a bone to pick with him, too, after the events the previous night. Knowing he couldn't just summon his sword at school meant Luke would be back to being the same old kid who got knocked around. An easy target for bullies.

After washing his face and brushing his teeth, he crept downstairs and into the kitchen to make himself a bowl of cereal. He took it upstairs as Sharon despised seeing him first thing in the morning. Luke still struggled with the fact that she had a job as a secret agent—that was a real head shocker for him, but it didn't make him respect her more. She had made it crystal clear that should she catch him early in the morning, he would be in for it.

Walking into his room with his cereal bowl filled of Choco Crunch and a few loose spuds from the back of the veg drawer, as Sharon had done at least one job and restocked, Luke watched Nebs's little nose twitch and his paws stretch out like they did yesterday. A few seconds later and he were up on all four and alert, so alert it could be mistaken for a serious problem.

"Potatoes!" screamed Nebs as he dove off the bed and swiped the paper bag out of Luke's hand.

"You're welcome," said Luke in a groggy tone as he sat down at his computer and booted it up, realising he'd never attempted to play Forest of Winter at all yesterday.

Nebs tore apart the bag of spuds and did his usual monologue as he took a great big sniff at the biggest spud his eyes had seen.

"My one and only solace in this world. You are beautiful and are the tastiest of goddesses. What I wouldn't do for a truckload of you snackies." Nebs held up the potato and gave it a lick.

Luke ignored his cat and booted up Forest of Winter. It hadn't been online all day Saturday, and he hoped that today he could get a little game time in before school. It had been days since his last log in, and would be another day as the maintenance message popped up, again blocking the home screen. With his hopes of a small quest adventure dashed, Luke ate his breakfast and surfed the net. Drawn to NowTube, there were even more videos on the disappearance of Jeff Santos. There were hundreds of videos with different theories, from government abduction to Jeff vanishing into a whole new world—which given what was about to happen next Sunday morning, sounded plausible. Jeff could have found a way to cross earlier than the rest of the world; he was one of the best gamers on the planet and one of the best on the American servers.