Edited By: Tyhuko, Edet

Author's Note:

Hi everyone, after someone suggested that I should make the chapters a little longer I decided I would! The last two chapters were around 600 words, this one is 1600 words. I'll try my best to make my chapters longer in the future.

So, like I said before I'm going to get the chapters out as fast as I can so we can get the virtual reality content started. It should be coming in 2 chapters? Or maybe even the next one, so stay with me (depends on how long I make the chapter). Again if you have any suggestions, criticism, ideas, etc. please leave a comment. Ill try my best to address them. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

True Identity

Chapter 3 - I Never Want To See You For The Rest Of My Life

…

When I came to school the next day my classmates were noisier than ever. And that’s already a hard feat, and no, that’s not a compliment.

As usual there was a group of people around my desk. ‘What a bother, can’t you just talk somewhere else?’ I thought.

Around my desk 7 people have gathered, 4 guys and 3 girls. The guys near my desk were Nick, Eric, Matt, and John while the girls were Kylie, Lucy and Jenny. What the fuck, why the hell is Jenny there. I have just rejected her yesterday… One would think she would at least avoid me for a couple of days… Whatever, as long as she doesn’t bother me I’ll act like the yesterday’s confession never happened.

I don’t necessarily hate these people but I can’t say that I like them either… Eric is a handsome fellow but he is also kind of awkward to be around, he does weird things. You can never really understand what he’s doing… or thinking. Matt is the type that doesn’t talk much, you know the person who has that cool kind of feel to them. I guess that’s why lots of girls like him. John can get kind of annoying sometimes. The reason is, when he talks he can just go on and on and on… For Christ’s sake how much can you talk? He should take some pointers from Matt.

Nick is my best friend since childhood. He’s someone I know I can trust because he knows all there is to know about me and he keeps his mouth shut. Nick is smart so I believe we can enter the same university together.

Kylie… Kylie is an annoying bitch. This girl thinks she’s a princess just because her family is rich and she’s the number 1 beauty in the school. I’ll admit she’s extremely beautiful but she’s still a cocky bitch… I remember when 2 years ago she asked me out during my sophomore year. After telling me that she wanted to go out with me, she just stood there in a pose that looked like I was suppose to get on my knees and bow down to her. I’d rather die than go out with that bitch.

After I rejected her she started to spread rumors about me. But after seeing that I clearly didn’t care and that my popularity didn’t drop at all, she came running back to me pretending nothing ever happened. Now it’s more like she’s on her knee begging me for a better social status.

It always frustrates me when I ask myself why is this girl not going to some prestigious private high school instead of this shithole of a public school? I mean, she’s rich after all… Oh man now I’m starting to talk like John, lets just get back to the topic.

Lucy shes a shy girl. She’s really pretty, ranking as the number 8 beauty in the school, but just not my type, I guess. I always feel that shy girls are hiding something and that kind of bothers me. But what do you know I could just be paranoid. Jenny is a sweet girl, but again, just not my type. She never really bothered me before. Well, not until the incident yesterday. Lets just hope that with time everything will go back to normal.

The other students of this high school call this group near my desk the “cool group” or the “popular group.” They even go as far as calling it “James’s Group,”. God, it always makes me cringe so hard when I hear that. That’s because I always feel like everyone in this “group”, except Nick of course, is just here to leech off my popularity. While I don’t really care about the popularity itself, it still annoys me. To think that they are swarming me, just to be viewed higher in the eyes of their peers… urgh. Somehow, it really, really irks me. Damn leeches, why can’t they just leave me alone? All they care about is their social status.

When the people around my desk saw me coming they immediately asked me a question.

“Hey James, there’s a rumor going around the school that you won a VR Headset and a copy of AA from GR radio yesterday. Is there some truth to it?” Kylie asked me with an excited face.

I looked at all their excited faces God, why the hell are you guys so excited, it annoys the shit out of me. I decided to answer the question carefully.

“Nah, it wasn’t me. I also heard that on GR radio yesterday, it had to be someone else with the same name.”

Everyone’s faces turned from excitement to utter disappointment.

“Ahh, that’s too bad. We were all excited when we heard about it…. But I could have sworn that the guy on the radio had the exact same voice as you do…” Eric said suspiciously.

They are still suspicious of me. I decided to answer them quickly so they can discard their doubts.

“Nope, it was definitely someone with the same name. If I had won, I would have told you guys about it wouldn’t I?”

“I guess that makes sense….”

…

By the time school day ended, the rumor about me winning the merchandise died down. When I was leaving the school, Nick called out to me and we decided to walk together.

“Did you really not win the merchandise from GR radio?”

‘Ah, as expected of my best friend, he knows me so well.’ I thought, smirking.

“Well, I actually did win the game, but I didn’t want anyone except you to know about it. I want to play the game the way I want to, being swarmed by people from the school would restrain my actions too much. Playing it anonymously, on the other hand, will give me freedom of choice!

“I knew it! Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks”

…

After walking a couple more blocks, Nick had to take a turn towards his house. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. As I continues walking to my part-time job in the grocery store I was thinking of my future plans.

…

Hmm, today I’ll have to find another part-time job in order to buy the game for Haley. I’ll look for one after I finish my part-time job at the grocery store.

Honestly, we could have already afforded Haley’s AA, because after our grandmother died we’ve gotten the money from the insurance. We have also decided to sell the house and rent an apartment. The money we got from the insurance and the money we got from the house should last us quite a while, but in the end, we’re still poor, so we can’t really afford any extravagance.

The apartment we rent costs around $1000 a month. Daily necessities cost us around $2,500 a month, this includes food, insurance, transportation, and everything else we would need. My part-time job gives me around 800$ a month, so all in all we’re losing money. Luckily we have some money to spare from the insurance and the house. Hopefully, I will find a full-time job that will sustain us in the future, or else we’re fucked…

I graduate from high school in about a month then in another month AA comes out. Two months after my graduation I’m going to enter university. I will have to work hard for a good three months. It’s a good thing I rented an apartment that is near the high school and Atlas University.

Atlas University is actually a very prestigious school, that usually only rich people can afford to go to. I don’t have enough money to go there, but I plan on getting in with a scholarship. My grades are pretty good, I’m number 1 in the school test rankings, so I’m hopeful.

In order to qualify for a scholarship I just have to take a test and place among the best. About 10 million people are going to be taking this test… sounds easy enough. I hope I can go there since it’s close to home. If I don’t get a scholarship I will have to go to college somewhere farther away and I don’t really want to deal with it.

…

After finishing my part-time job at the grocery store, I looked around for about an hour and finally applied for a part-time job as a construction worker. The pay is a little better than average and hopefully I can get some muscles simultaneously.

…

One month later

Today is the graduation day. Most of the students are sad and crying , well no wonder, they will miss their friends, and the time they have spent having fun together in high school. But the only thing I can think about is, ‘thank god that I’m getting out of this goddamn hell hole.’

…

After the graduation ceremony finished many of the underclassmen came to say goodbye to me, wished me good luck in college, and told me to visit sometimes. After a few minutes a group of people that is usually around my desk, came to talk to me.

With a saddened face John said, “I’m going to miss you James, make sure you keep in touch with me.”

Shut the hell up, I never, ever, want to see you again, you annoying brat.

I forced a smile and said.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to keep in touch with you.”

As arrogant as always Kylie says, “what are you guys so sad about, we should be happy. We have so much more to look forward to in the future.”

Wow, this bitch finally said something intelligent for the first time in her life… Well, whatever, I never, ever want to see you again as well.

After our conversation ended we all went our separate ways. There was a graduation party afterwards but I decided not to go. Like I said, I never want to see those people for the rest of my life…

…

About 2 weeks ago I was looking at the forums on the Absolute Authority website and a thread piqued my interest. The thread said that if you knew some real life martial arts, it could help you in AA. So I have decided to buy some videos and books in order to learn martial arts.

Unfortunately I don’t have enough money to spare for real lessons, so videos and books will have to do for now. But on the bright side, I’ve been doing my construction job for about a month and I’ve got to say, I have grown some serious muscle. I think I’ve gained around 15 pounds of muscles!

…

I still have to work hard for another two months, but if I’m good at anything it’s definitely hard work.

…

Thanks for reading the chapter. I would greatly appreciate it if you visited my blog. This is where I'm going to post the chapters some time in the near future.

https://trueidentitynovel.wordpress.com

Please comment if you liked/disliked the chapter and tell me what I can improve on. This will help me a lot thanks.

MY BLOG