Chapter 14

Going downstairs leaving his angry sister he rushed into the kitchen to see his mother and father. His dad was sitting in a chair looking at the morning newspaper like usual. And his mom was preparing breakfast like usual.

“Good morning,” said Mark happily.

“Good morning, quickly eat,” said his mom.

As usual his father spoke no words like usual. Even in his past life he didn’t really talk a lot unless something important happened.

Quickly eating and leaving to avoid his angry sister he walked down the streets he hadn’t visited in years. Feeling nostalgic he quickly suppressed it to appear like it was a normal day. He arrived shortly to the school.

Seeing the big sign showcasing the three words “Richmond High School” he almost laughed out loud at when he was younger and had thought “This place is horrible”, he had only known how good it was when his sister had disappeared and he had gone to military school for his junior and senior years of high school.

Checking the date on his phone he found that today was the first day of school. The beginning of the school year.

“I wonder how everybody is…” mused Mark.

If he remembered correctly his best friend, Dylan, was a boy that was always quiet. He had befriended the guy after they had been left out in P.E. since they both were horrible at sports. The pale boy flashed through his memories before he remembered the bus incident when he had died.

“*Sigh* I should be able to at least stop him from dying,” he muttered.

Following the crowd of students he arrived at the multipurpose room to find out his list of classes. After getting his schedule he quickly left the crowded room before looking at his schedule.

Exactly like his last life when he was a sophomore he had taken English 10 Honors, Japanese 1, Biology, Math 2 Honors, Honors World History, P.E, and Graphic Design 2. Even the teachers he had last time was exactly the same.

“Well this should be easy,” thought Mark going to his first class to wait for first period to begin.

Stepping into classroom the usual rows of desk facing the classroom greeted him like so many years ago. Exactly like last time there was even the same two people that had always been early to class.

The two girls were friends from what he had remembered and they had the best pre SAT scores of the grade. They probably would've gone to a good college if they hadn’t died during that trip.

“Good Morning, my name’s Mark,” Holding out his hand with a business smile that he had developed in his past life subconsciously, the dark image of the usual silent him was blown away in front of the two girls.

In his past life he wasn’t the most popular but there were a lot of people that liked him. But he had always been shy and quiet and it was hard to make new friends. Because of his shyness other people had subconsciously never approached him and he didn’t approach them causing him to have a dark image to other people.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Sup, I’m Riley and she’s Mikaela,” Shaking his hand her firm gripped cause pain to shoot up his arm.

Grimacing he kept the yell that was on the tip of his tongue and asked, “Do you happen to do sports?”

Letting go of his hand she nodded her head before saying, “How’d you know? I do Karate, Judo, and Taekwondo.”

Ahhh..now he remembered, “The girl had won a multiple of medals nationally for martial art tournaments around the country.”

“Oh...I just thought I remember seeing you somewhere before,” said Mark lost in his thoughts.

“Dude, you should hit the gym, those “sticks” aren’t gonna do you shit,” said the girl flexing her arm to show a huge bulge.

“Hehehe,” laughing nervously he turned red with embarrassment looking at her arm compared to his.

The other girl Mikaela slapped Riley’s back saying, “C’mon stop making fun of the poor sucker, don’t mind her she’s always like this.”

“Hmm..Do you play chess by any chance?” asked Mark.

“Ehh, How did you know, Wanna go a round,” said Mikaela already reaching into her bag revealing a miniature chess set.

Ahhh...no wonder she was so familiar, “She had been called the Demonic Military Genius by the chess and video game club. It wasn’t a empty title either. She had never lost a chess game and won the chess tournaments with ease. In the video game club she had never lost any kind of RTS game. Even when she had gone against a professional that had played the game for years she beat him on her first try.”

“N-no thanks.. Maybe some other time class is about to start” stuttering he had remembered the rumor of her “playing a few rounds”.

The name “playing a few rounds” sounded vulgar but if said to any person that had played against her they would probably become impotent. From the rumors he had heard the whole club of chess nerds had played her one on one for several days. She had stayed awake those several days and had beaten each member till they couldn’t even move a finger.

“Oh..,” showing a sad face her face brightened all of a sudden, “Yeah let’s play some other time.”

“Hmm..” putting her hands under her chin she studied him for a second before saying, “Mark I feel like you don’t really want to play chess with me.”

“Ho-How did you know,” stuttering uncontrollably he felt cold sweat soaking his back.

Smiling brightly she said, “Well I was just talking to Riley and trying to persuade her to play World with me. You probably overheard and wanted to play to right.”

“Ye-yeah..World seemed like a really fun game...haha,” feeling relieved he shivered in the cold of his sweat.

Thinking that he was shivering in excitement she happily said, “Of course, who wouldn’t be excited about a fantasy VRMMORPG depicting a apocalyptic Earth. C’mon Riley play with us, with your martial art skills you could totally dominate the game. Mark help me convince her.”

“Ye-yeah Riley you should play,” said Mark hearing Mikaela.

From his memories of the past he remembered the VR game World. It had been immensely popular back in his past life. He had never played the game but he had heard the comments of the people. It was a very good game apparently.

“*Sigh* You two…,” speechless at her old friend and Mark she blankly stared at them before saying, “I’ll play under one condition.”

“What,” said Mikaela happily in anticipation.

“Join my club and I’ll teach you guys martial arts,” said Riley coldly, “I don’t want to play with somebody in a VR game and they won’t be able to fight.”

“But I’m a long range supporter,” Mark said weakly.

“Perfect,” said Mikaela happily ignoring Riley’s words, “I was worrying on who would be the support Riley’s the Vanguard, Mark’s the Healer, and I’m gonna be the Mage.”

“Mark it’s good to exercise,” said Riley non committedly.

“I..I..I..,” muttered Mark.

“Please take a seat, you may sit wherever you want,”said the teacher ending their conversation.