Upgrade: Chapter 1 and prologue

Prologue: Why Beds Are Safe.

         Day 1: Cal

So I woke up the same way I do every Saturday morning. That is, of course, by enjoying my bed. Nothing wrong ever happens when you first wake up. You’re still cozy, still warm, and enjoying the feeling of a good nights sleep (the time you went to bed being irrelevant and should not be questioned). Sometimes I wish I could stay in that state of mind forever, but unfortunately my body was screaming at me to get some food. Being a boy of 19, I had to give it what it wanted.
Sometimes I take a look back at what happened. I wonder if it would have been better to just stay in that bed. Of course I had no idea of the events that would transpire, how could I? Maybe, had I known what was going to happen I would have just laid there ignoring my stomach and lost myself to the tranquility of the pillow for the next 24 hours. Nothing would have gone wrong. My life would have been fairly average. I would probably ended up getting a decent job (over worked, underpaid, and under appreciated just like my father before me). I would have ended up marrying some average girl, had some kids, get divorced, get remarried and eventually ended up dying with maybe one or two regrets (probably something stupid like: “damn why didn’t I ever go to Paris”). 
Instead my life becomes super complicated (well I guess if it didn’t you wouldn’t be here would you?). Like right now you probably think your life is complicated, but what the hell do you know? You’re probably some kid in high school with nothing better to do, or some guy who works in a cube all day who, after he gets home, tries to get away from it all. My level of complicated beats your level of complicated to a pulp. Or if my complicated and your complicated were in prison, mine would shank yours. Or…wait…..

Sorry I’m rambling. I do that. Back to the point.

So if I get out of bed I get to deal with a lot of complication, heart brake, pain, and a bit of fun. So…

Chapter 1: the Chapter before stuff happens (what did you expect?).

Still Day 1: Cal

Of course, I still got out of bed.
I rolled out of my safety zone and into my dorm room. I stepped over my clothes from the day before. After taking another step I stepped over the clothes from three days ago. Where was my hamper at again? Tom had borrowed it for…something. I then remembered that I wasn’t supposed to be waking up in this room alone. I looked around for Rick but couldn’t find him. Then I heard the toilet flush and waited by the door knowing he would soon appear.
“Morning Rick,” I said as the door opened. Of course I was still tired so it sounded like something from a bad zombie movie.
“Morning Cal! Oh man, you look wrecked. What time did you get to bed last night?” Rick questioned. As he walked past he began picking up the battlefield of wardrobe corpses spread about our dorm room.
“Meh,” I said. I walked into the bathroom that was about the size of a closet. Please ignore the fact I stubbed my toe on the way in. After I took care of the usual business I stepped out of the bathroom to find the room, well, clean. I sat down for a moment and watched as Rick moved from one side of the room to the other like and slowly the mess from the night before began to disappear. I should have helped him. That chair was so comfortable though. The chair wasn’t as comfortable as my bed. Why did I leave it? Oh that’s right, I was hungry.
“We have food?” I asked putting my head down on my desk.
“Yes, we still have some chicken flavored noodles left. We’ll have buy some groceries tonight. Do you have any money?” Rick asked aware of the fact I had just gotten paid recently.
In the list of things they never tell you about college, at the top of the list, in a big bold font reads: “You will be broke.” Rick’s job recently burnt down, something about a fire, and a bad vent system. This meant until he found work he would leech off of me, just like I did off of him before I found a job. Higher Education, isn’t it grand?
“Yeah I do, but you have to come with me to the store this time.” I said as I fished through a drawer for my wallet.
“Why do I have to go? We have one scooter, it’s a one person trip, and it’s starting to get cold outside. Can’t you just go by yourself?” Rick questioned as he put a pan on our plug in stove to boil the water.
“Well last time I went there was this weird hobo guy outside; he just stared at me the whole time. It really freaked me out. I think he might steal the scooter…or mug me…or kill me…or a few of those things combined,” I said. Then Rick did that thing where he raises his eye brows, tilts his head back, and looks down his nose while smiling.
“What? He’s really creepy, okay!” I said annoyed.
“Fine, fine. I’ll go but I get to drive. We are taking the back road this time and getting there faster,” Rick retorted with an even bigger smile. Then I remembered the number one rule of The Backroad. Go before dinner. Period. Seriously last time I went after the dorms bi-monthly chili night; needless to say that chili did not leave my body by the normal and preferred method.
“Thanks for cooking man,” I said as he handed me the bowl of ramen.
So, I know ramen isn’t exactly something you eat for breakfast but in college you eat what is cheap. Flavored noodles and water are both very cheap. As for Nutritional value goes, the school gives out chewable vitamins to whoever wants them. Or you could not care like most college students.
“No problem.” Rick answered as he put the pot in our half-a-sink. In a college dorm shared by 2 guys everything feels A-half. This includes a half-a-closet, a half-a-desk, and half-a-room.
“So what’s on the agenda today?” I asked, “We don’t have cleaning duty this weekend, do we?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Rick replied as he got out his planner. As long as I can remember Rick has used a planner, a calendar, or some piece of paper with a table made out of a straight edge.
“Hey, Jared is having a get together upstairs tonight. We should go,” I said as I slurped up some more noodles. I felt my body come back to life with each forkful. Not as good as coffee, but it did the trick. Rick keeps telling me I shouldn’t have coffee. I don’t know why.
“No, I don’t feel like it,” he said. Then he looked up and to the left and sighed. This could only mean he planned to sit here all night and sulk about Her.
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said as I poked my fork at him, “You are not gonna sit here depressed for another night just because Jenna broke up with you. We are going to go and we are going to have fun. No Exceptions!”
“Fine,” he surrendered, “but you have to buy me some Dr. Pepper at the store.”
“Deal!” I said as I smiled in triumph. I began slurping the broth of the ramen, tipping the bowl up until the opposite side almost touched my forehead. Having finished my meal, I headed back to my bed which was but five feet away. I was stopped by Rick doing that thing he does, you know where he acts all responsible.
“Hey, I just remembered, we need to go pick up that book for our Literature class Monday morning,” Rick reminded me, “we better get to the library before that debate convention gets going. It will be a mad house in there.”
“Ugh, do we have to?” I said turning just my head, the rest of my body still wanted to head back to bed.
“Do you want to stand in line later as several people talk about their opinions on things? Things that they will never do anything about and usually aren’t too important?” he questioned.
I ran through my head the one debate class Rick and I had taken our freshmen year of high school. It was composed of me, Rick, and a whole bunch of other kids that thought they could disprove or prove whether man was generally good or generally evil and other boring things. Those other kids were all stuck up. After a time Rick and I no longer debated, but instead attempted to annoy and infuriate them all as much as possible. It was fun. We still hated debate kids with a completely biased passion.
“Yeah,” I sighed, “You are right.”
“Yes. Yes, I am. Now get dressed and let’s go.”
I threw on some clothes and combed my hair just enough to make it not defy gravity. As Rick and I headed out the door, I double checked that I had my keys and I.D.
“Did you lock the door?” I asked Rick as we started down the hall.
“Don’t I always?” Rick answered.
“Never hurts to double check.”
“You can be really paranoid you know that?”
“Yup.”
As we headed down the stairs I decided to ask Rick about something that had been bugging me.
“So I’ve been thinking,” I started.
“What is it this time?” Rick asked as his eyes rolled into the top of his skull.
“Well, we went to that restaurant last week. What bothered me was how often we were asked by the waiter if we needed anything” I continued, “Sure it was nice but it was kind of annoying.”
“So what’s your point?” Rick asked me still clearly with his mind else where.
“I propose a new system where there is a button a person could push and make a light appear or something whenever someone needs a waiter. It could stop the annoyances and save time; it could completely revolutionize the restaurant business. Also, because businesses would need those new lights and button systems, someone would have to make said systems. It would create a lot of new jobs for whatever companies decide to make said devices. Think about it.” I finished thinking I had won. Of course Rick had a counter point.
“Well it could work, but personally I think it would take the social and communication aspect out of dinning,” Rick countered.
We got to the bottom of the stairs and exited out the double doors onto the campus, making our way on down the old sidewalk. We started talking about the pros and cons of the new restaurant button/light system.
Then I fell. Of course even with my coordination I trip on a stupid rock. Okay, my coordination is average, but still, how did I trip? How does a rock of that size get on the sidewalk anyway? Oh, and that isn’t the bad part.
Of course I trip in front of a girl, I said I was going to experience pain, didn’t I? However I didn’t just fall in front of a girl, I tripped in front of The Girl. As I got up from looking like an idiot, I turned my head as I heard her voice.
“Oh, are you Okay?” she asked.
As she leaned down my brain did one of those things were it takes in every detail frame by frame. Like some sort of camera set to take 10 frames a second. I was pretty sure my brain was going to make a scrap book later.
Every Detail: Tan skin, short black velvet hair, short enough to be called cute rather than hot, her weight and proportions made it obvious that she was into some type of sport (I would talk about her mouth but I would go on for hours). She was wearing what looked like a pair of converse shoes, bellbottom jeans, a maroon jacket, and just to finish off the wardrobe perfectly (wait for it) pink ear-muffs. THOSE EYES! Big brown eyes, I started looking into them and it was about that time my brain turned into mush.

Hey where are you going?

What do you mean another narrator? What the hell!

Get back here!

Still Still Day 1: Rebecca

Oh, hey there.

Oh it’s my turn? Didn’t you just get here? Where are you at again? Oh okay just the beginning!

So I woke up just in time. In 20 minutes exercises would start and if I wasn’t there Coach would kill me. I’m here on a volley ball scholarship.
C.o.S.M., College of Southern Missouri, is a nice school. It has nice small classes, good sports and recreation programs, and a wonderful payment program. It was built around 50 or 60 years ago, so all the buildings are sort of old and made out of that kind of brick that screams, “check me for mold”!
Aside from that it’s an amazing school. I was glad to be there. That morning however I hated it. I hated everything. Everything was going wrong. The stupid dresser wouldn’t open, but then it woke my stupid roommate, and I couldn’t find my stupid gym bag, but then I finally found it out in the open behind the bookshelf. I finally got the stupid door open and got out of the stupid room. As I headed down stairs last night went through my mind over and over in flashes.
What did we need to talk about? What did he mean, “You know I care about you.” What did he mean we’ve been growing apart? What did he mean, “You know I still care,”? What did he mean “it’s over”? Why did he walk away?
Yes it was clear I wasn’t going to be in a good mood today. I would just have to try my best to not let my emotions overflow. I have a bad habit of getting myself and others seriously hurt when I’m angry.
I made it to the bottom of the stairs and headed out the door; I made sure I didn’t make eye contact with anyone. In this school everyone is too nice. If it looks like something is upsetting you someone is bound to ask what’s wrong. Of course this was one of those things were everyone would just say, “Oh that’s to bad,” and then keep going on with their lives unable to do anything about it.
I headed towards the gym as I tried to keep all my emotions inside where they couldn’t be fired at anyone. I closed my eyes and slowly counted down from five.
Five…four…three…two…
By the time I reached one my life had changed. The big life altering event had happened. Of course destiny put it in the most subtle form you could imagine.
That’s right; one idiot fell in front of me.
I opened my eyes as I heard a sudden exhale. The guy fell right in front of me. I had to resist the urge to curb stomp him with my current mood. Instead I stopped all my emotions at the last second. It came out sounding like a gasp.
“Oh, are you Okay?” I asked as I leaned down to help him.
“Oh sor-,” he started to say but then as he started to get up he turned and looked up at me. After that I’m not sure where his brain went too.
To this day I can remember him there perfectly. His eyes were blue, too blue almost. They had a shine that reminds a person of polished stone or cut glass. I wanted to take a picture of those eyes and frame them.
“Jeez Cal, you okay man?” his friend asked as he helped to pull the idiot up.
His question finally brought me to the present long enough to take a look at the rest of the guy. He was probably around six foot tall. His skin was a little pale, but then again it was fall. Although it was clear he was physically active, he clearly did not lift weights. His body was probably made for running or swimming. His hair was short, which was good because any longer and he would look like a young member of The Beatles. He was dressed in denim pants and a school colored hoodie. Black and White (Go Wolves!).
Hearing his name seemed to pull the guy out of his trance.
“Yes fine I’m Rick. Thanks,” Cal said like a drunkard.
I looked over at the guy apparently called Rick. This guy looked like a Woodstock reject. He had long brown hair that went down almost to his shoulders. His Square glasses that sat on an oversized nose. It was hard not to notice his big eyes that seemed to look past everything. He was probably around six and a half feet tall. If you compare his height to my measly five feet he seemed like a giraffe. He had the arms and legs to match. I did notice he had a bit more muscle on his body than Cal did.
“Um…sorry,” Cal said after getting to his feet and looking at me.
“It’s fine, are you alright?” I asked.
“Uh. Yeah,” Cal murmured and then found something extremely interesting on the ground to look at. That’s where he was looking anyway.
“He’s just fine. It will take more than a fall to keep this guy down,” Rick said flashing a huge grin while putting his arm around his friend, “Oh, excuse my manners. I am Rick Butcher, and this uncoordinated friend of mine is Cal Coaler.”
“Hey there,” Cal said with a spaced out look.
“I don’t think we’ve met,” I said, “I thought I new most of the people on campus.”
“We’re freshmen this year, maybe that’s it?” Rick said with another smile.
“Hi,” I said in return. At that moment my watch started beeping. Not good, “Sorry I would love to talk but I’m sort of late,”
“Oh, okay,” Rick said with another big smile, “Wait, one last thing, what’s your name?”
         “Rebecca,” I answered looking back as I started running.
         “Bye,” They both said together.
         I started jogging down the sidewalk towards the gym. I let out a breath like I had held it for the entire fiasco. As I walked inside my brain went over the event again; noting it as important. I didn’t know why. Yet.

Still Day 1(who would have thought!): Cal

         Oh sure. Now your back! I see how it is! I mean come on it’s not even chapter one and you can’t stay with me. What’s up with that? I mean that’s like being on a tour bus and within the first mile, jumping out and hoping into a cab. It’s like biting into a cheese burger, and then spitting it out saying, “O never mind I wanted some French fries,”! I mean seriously, what are you? the poster child for ADHD? I’ve seen goldfish with better attention spans, I’ve seen...

O jeez I did it again didn’t I. Sorry It’s a bad habit. You probably want that whole continuation in plot now, huh?

         So we said goodbye and continued walking. My eyes were still in the wonderland that is Rebecca. Then again I guess I have to warn you. I sort of have what Rick calls Romeo-Syndrome. In the same way Romeo (If you don’t know Shakespeare, leave. Just leave. Seriously you’re dead to me) fell in love with Juliet after almost killing himself over Rosaline, I do with all girls who are somewhat attractive and I think I have a chance with. I focus to much on the whole “what if” scenarios.
         Unfortunately in all my day dreaming one word stopped me from going any further.
         “Dibs.”
         “What?” I said as I looked over at Rick, The one who had clearly said the word.
         “I call dibs,” Rick said with one of his victory smiles.
         “On what?” I asked trying to act like I had no idea what he was talking about.
         “I. Call. Dibs. On Rebecca,” Rick said in his “I’m acting like you’re in 3rd grade” voice.
         “You can’t call dibs on girls,” I explained, even though I still realized I was clearly in the wrong. The Dibs System was invented for chicks. It just so happens that it was an easy transfer to other things, such as the last soda, last pizza, and shotgun to any motor vehicle.
         “Oh, I didn’t call it on a girl, I called it on one fine lady,” Rick said while doing his signature head bob, “besides you’ll probably end up liking the girl in front of you in the library anyway. Just cheer up okay?”
         “Fine,” I said with my pouting face, “but I’m probably going to be mad at you till I drown my anger in some serious zombie killing later.”
         “Okay, come on man let’s go,” Rick replied as he tried not to smile. He failed at it.
         So we continued past the girls dorms to our college’s prestigious library. It was a fairly average size building made in the same sort of brick work as all the other buildings. However, it was in the shape of a half circle with the flat end facing out. Unlike some of the other old cave like buildings on campus this one had tons of sunlight coming in from the windows on the front. It also had a huge sky light window in the ceiling. A true place of light and knowledge, the schools Jedi temple if you will. Unfortunately it had a dark lord of the Sith always at the front counter.
         Mr. Germand was a short overweight turtle of a man. When you look at this guys build your only thoughts are of those kids toys, the kind that are fat and don’t fall down no matter how many times you push them over. His head of course was a nice round shape with wisps of blond and silver hair. His beady blue eyes bulged out of his head. Luckily for him it wasn’t as noticeable with his custom-made-to-fit-his-to-fat-head-glasses. His bottom lip stuck out and he had one of those long drawn out voices that would put any slightly fatigued person to sleep.
         As we walked up he was completing a verbal thrashing of some poor girl who had misplaced her books and did not have the funds to replace them.
         “You don’t understand, I don’t have it because it was in my car. My car was stolen,” Linda said. Linda was a short and sweet, mouse of a girl. She always dressed conservatively and wore her hair up, usually in a bun, out of her face. Rick and I met her on orientation day and spent the entire time trying to get her to make conversation. Okay, I did. I didn’t want to lose the bet I made with Rick about it. I lost twenty dollars.
         “You make that sound as though it is my problem. It is not. It is yours. You have two more days to return the book which is now eight days overdue. If you turn it in today you will only pay the late fees. If you do not return it by that time you will owe a total price of seventy dollars,” Mr. Germand stated. He looked down at the poor girl in the same way you see a critic of art over a painting. If there was some sort of amusement, pity, or anger, he had yet to show it.
         “But, they still haven’t found my car yet. I explained that to you a week ago. Didn’t I?” Linda asked now looking down, trying her best not to make eye contact.
         “I told you the same thing then, did I not.” Mr. Germand did not pose this as a question. He stated it as a fact. He leaned forward a bit more as he finished it.
         “What do you expect me- Linda started.
         “What do I expect?” Germand’s demeanor took a dramatic turn. With no more room to lean forward he stuck his neck out and begun bearing his teeth with each sylible, “I expect you to return your books on time. I expect you to not plan to turn your books in at the last minute, causing your books to be late by unforeseen circumstances.”
         “But…but…,” Linda tried to start, but seemed to be trying her best just to keep it together.
         “I expect you to not be incompetent. I expect you to not expect special treatment, because of a incident that could have been prevented with more caution,” Mr. Germand snapped, his neck as far forward as it could go, “If you have nothing more I expect you to get out of my library!”
         Mr. Germand pointed a nuby finger at the door. Linda was probably crying but had her head to low for anyone to see. She quickly walked past Rick and I, getting out only the words “excuse me” as she went between us in the direction of the closest exit.
         I looked up at Germand; now sitting back at his post as if nothing had happened. I heard a popping sound. Without noticing my hands had become fists.
         “Now Cal…” Rick warned. It was too late, I could feel my eyes blazing.
         “Can I help you gentlemen?” Mr. Germand asked in his drawn out monotone voice. Seriously, I had seen sleeping bull dogs with more enthusiasm than this guy. Of course as the chief librarian this guy had a lot of pull, but I looked at Rick with a face that said: “I’m going to slap the sleeping bear in the face now.”
         He looked back: “O please not today! You saw what just happened.”
         I gave him a smirk: “Too late! He’s pissed me off.”
         “Yes Mr. Germ…and,” I said with my straightest face and most business like composure, “We require two MLA format guides and two copies of Literature Of The Old World,” I continued this time adding an over done English accent.
         “Alright,” Mr. Germand growled clearly annoyed, “Mr. Wheeler get these gentlemen what they require”, The Slug then continued with what he was doing as if we were not there at all.
         Jared Wheeler walked out from behind one of the book shelves. Personally I feel sorry for Jared. He’s a good guy, but his scholarship requires him to put some community service time into the school. So the administration stuck him here with Mr. Germand. Lucky for him, Jared really liked books.
         “Hey guys,” Jared said as he shook hair out of his face, “How’s it going?”
         “Fine we just came to get those books for out Literature class,” Rick answered.
         “Yeah, just about everyone has been through here today about those. What took you guys so long?” Jared asked. Jared was a small guy but he was always loud, proud, and nosey. Some might even call it a Napoleon complex. He was a good guy so everyone always answered his questions knowing if they didn’t he would hunt you down and pounce on you like of those gazelle you see on National Geographic. I leaned in close.
         “We snuck off campus to go to see the midnight showing of Other World 4,” I whispered. Jared’s eyes got as wide as light bulbs.
         “Dude. Sweet. I heard the animations were to die for!” Jared said with a giddy smile.
         “Yeah it was. I stayed up extra late writing a review in my blog. Just don’t tell anyone. You know the kind of trouble we could get into if someone found out.” I whispered as I looked over at Mr. Germand. He was lost in his own little filing world.
         “I got it, I got it. So are you guys coming to the Gamer Party up-stairs tonight? It is going to be awesome,” Jared said as he shotgun-pumped his own arm.
         “Yeah, we’ll be there. We just have to stop by the store for some stuff first,” I answered.
         “Cool! If you can bring some chips and sod-,” at that moment Jared’s phone went off in his pocket at the highest volume possible. The Chorus to “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasted through the suddenly deathly quiet library. Jared fumbled as he opened and closed the phone and dropped it on the floor. He crouched down and finally clapped it off. We looked at each other in horror and then turned to look at Mr. Germand. He stomped forward to stand over Jared like a bear about to finish off a young deer. Then the verbal lashing began.
         “Mr. Wheeler how many times have I told you-,” Mr. Germand began and continued to verbally assault Jared into submission. I thought maybe Jared was going to crawl into a bawl and die in the corner. I will not account for all of Mr. Germand’s words, they were simply too many. Besides I had improvised a plan of counter attack. I looked over at Rick to give the okay to use The Weapon.
         He gave the nod. I flipped open my phone, dialed, and hit send.
         “Also Mr. Wheeler, I find your lack of faith in the rules disturb-,” Mr. Germand stopped mid-sentence as his private, custom made cell phone went off at double the sound volume of any cell phone currently available in most United States’ stores. Mr. Germand looked in horror as his orchestral ring ton went off. Everyone but me was starring in shock. A bigger smirk crept across my face.
         “Excuse me Mr. Germ-and,” I said still using my business like voice, “It would appear that your phone is ringing.” I held both hands behind my back with my phone in between them as Mr. Germand head turned slowly over towards me like an owl with a bad twitch.   
         “Why, yes. It w-would appear i-it has,” Mr. Germand stammered as he pulled out his phone and hit the end button, “If you gentlemen need me I’ll be in my office.”
         The defeated Slug slithered away into the back of the library. He was not heard from for another five hours. Jared got up from his crouched position in sheer amazement.
         “Oh      my      god,” Jared said as he looked over at me and Rick, “Seriously how the hell did you guys pull that off?”
         “Oooooh, back when I worked catering they had a faculty party in here. During which I happened to go by Mr. Germand’s office and see a very new phone just lying there on his desk. Of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to get his number and use for my own purposes,” Rick explained as he pushed up his glasses. I swear, Rick can pull off the most vicious grin sometimes.
         “Seriously, that’s awesome,” Jared said still wide eyed in amazement, “Oh; here are those books you guys wanted. Also, anytime you guys need anything I’m your man. I owe you guys big time now.”
         “No problem man,” I said, “We’ll see you later Jared.”
         “Later man,” Rick said.
         “Bye,” Jared said as we walked away. He was probably going to still be freaking out about the whole event till next week.
         Rick and I walked out of the library with our heads held high. If I remember correctly we circled the campus a time or two just, because of how awesome we felt.
         We finally made it back to the dorm and did our usual thing.