As soon as I finish the note, I hear the front door open. I glance at the time on the computer and realize that I’ve been going through all this System stuff for over an hour. I bookmark the IQ test page and then close the browser and head to the dining room to say hello to my sister.
What I see when I get to the dining room is not encouraging. My little sister Marie has already dropped her backpack in the hallway, gone into the kitchen, and is currently eating ice cream out of the container with a spoon. She sees me walk in the room and waves with one hand while the other spoons another bite of ice cream into her mouth.
I lean against the dinner table and wave back. “Isn’t it a little early to be hitting the hard stuff?”
She sticks her tongue out at me, and I see green from the mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. “Nope. It’s just the right time of day for it.” She frowns at me and continues, “I’ve had a bad day. That bitch Suzy is still harassing Becky and me. She keeps trying spread rumors about how the two of us jumped her with our chola gang friends.” She shakes her head and wags one finger, “But too many people saw me take her single-handed to believe that bullshit.”
I walk up and give my sister a big hug. I feel her curl in a little as she puts her head on my shoulder. “I know it sucks right now. It never feels good when someone is making your life difficult and making fun of you. But I’m proud that you're not retaliating. It shows real maturity.”
Marie pulls away from my hug and looks up at me, her nose crinkled up and her eyebrows drawn down. Well, that’s a guilty face if I’ve ever seen one. I ask her, “Oh, have I spoken too soon?”
She shrugs and gives me a guilty smile. “I guess I’m not a mature fourteen-year-old. Becky is coming over in a little bit, and we are going to plan our ‘Stick it to Stacy’ campaign. We’re going to watch some old movies for inspiration. The internet recommends Mean Girls, Mean Girls the Reunion, Odd One Out, and Easy A.”
Hmmm, I’m not sure where to go from here. I mean, yeah, I could lecture Marie about taking the high road and ignoring Stacy. However, the truth is, that girl Stacy is probably going to keep being a bully until someone makes her stop. So I take a step back and tell my sister, “Look, kid. You’re old enough to make your own decisions. I can’t officially condone what you might be planning to do, but promise me you won’t do anything to hurt her or get yourself in trouble. Mom works hard to pay for your tuition to that fancy school, and she'd be super sad if you got kicked out.”
Marie wiggles her nose at me, sighs, and nods. “Ok. I promise not to do anything that will get me kicked out of school.”
A blue screen pops up.
You’ve learned the skill Guilt Trip, level 1.
Oh, come on you stupid System. That can’t be a real thing. I mentally call out the name of the skill and another blue screen appears.
Guilt Trip
Level 1
So, you’ve learned how to manipulate people with guilt? Well, you’ve joined the ranks of parents and authority figures everywhere. Don’t worry, the power to guilt doesn’t make you a bad person. It’s just another tool you have to manipulate people to do your bidding.
Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. It is a real thing. My mom must be like level 100 in this skill.
I tousle my sister’s hair, and she sticks out her green tongue at me but smiles afterward. She gets herself a small bowl of ice cream before heading to her bedroom.
I get started on dinner for the three of us, since Becky is coming over. I make some simple chili beans since I know Marie and Becky can either eat them by themselves or use them for nachos or chili dogs. In a small pot, I put a few teaspoons of blended chipotle chilies with sauce, diced tomatoes that have been pulsed a few times in a small food processor, and rinsed red kidney beans. I add a couple of teaspoons of sugar to balance the heat from the chilies, some salt, and pepper to the mixture and bring it to a simmer. While that’s going, I take out our trusty skillet and on medium heat add some oil. Once that’s heated, I add in a large diced onion, some chili powder, cumin, and a little salt. Once the onion is cooked, I add some minced garlic and some ground beef. After the ground beef has browned at high heat and mixed with everything else, I add the small pot of diced tomato, chipotle, and beans to the skillet and let the whole thing simmer on low heat for fifteen minutes.
The smell of the chili permeates the kitchen, and the food is ready in time for Becky’s arrival. I’m also pleasantly surprised to get a new skill, Cooking.
The girls get bowls of chili and giggle their way back to Marie’s room to start their mean girl research. After eating a bowl of the chili beans myself, I store the rest away in the fridge and get cleaned up and ready to leave for class. Before I go, I make sure Marie knows there’s stuff for chili dogs and nachos if they get hungry later.
The bus ride to campus is rather uneventful compared to my life-altering first day. When I think about it, it’s difficult to believe how much my life has changed in just a couple days.
Once I’m on campus, I pull out the map and class schedule I printed up at home. This time I make sure to circle exactly where all my classes are located in advance on the map so I wouldn’t wander into any other abandoned buildings. My afternoon and evening classes aren’t that hard since it’s the first day. The afternoon class is an English course, and the evening one is Biology. I don’t have a major yet, so when I was picking out courses during registration, I decided to try out a broad spectrum of classes. I added in Anthropology as my easy A class based the comments I read about it online. Still, the day is mostly spent listening to professors reading their syllabus and waiting in line for textbooks and required reading materials. I’d planned on getting most of this stuff in digital format, but with my phone dead, I have to go with the physical copies. It costs a surprising amount of money to buy all the stuff I need for just these two classes, and I reluctantly put the expenses on my one credit card since my student loan doesn’t cover this stuff. Thankfully I don’t have to lug all these books across campus to the bus stop. I gladly use my home base key on an empty classroom door to create a one-time use portal home. As I enter my room and put down my textbooks, I think again about how cool the System is and how I’m already benefiting from it all after just two days. Lillian was right; this thing is going to change my life.
Chapter 17
“Gosh darnit!”
At least that’s the clean version of what I scream as I respawn in my room. The truth is, it was a long stream of curses and expletives.
Once I calm down, I pull up my character sheet and lament that just a few moments ago I was level 6. Now, after my death, I’ve been knocked back to level 5. I sigh as I sit in bed and remember the progress I’ve made the last six weeks and how it all got away from me.
****
After discovering the dungeon in the mall, the last four weeks fell into a routine pretty quickly. Mondays and Wednesday, I had an Anthropology and Math class in the morning. I would port home to study for a few hours, do homework, get dinner ready, then go to work where I practiced System skills. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I came home for breakfast with my family, get some sleep, hit the dungeon in the mall, then went home to make an early dinner. Afterwards it was English and Biology classes, then port home to study and sleep. Fridays, I hit the dungeon again for a few hours until the afternoon, then I ported home to rest before the night shift at the Quickie Stop Mart. Saturday and Sunday I worked during the afternoon for half shifts, but had the nights free.