It was one of those days, the ones where you want to curl up on a couch, drink hot chocolate, and read a book. The sky was dark and clouded, clouds spewed heavy beads of water as if angry with the denizens below. The heavy rain pitter-pattered on the roofs of cars relentlessly. 

Will woke up with a start; cold sweat covering his body, and a prevalent chill sticking to him. As he stared at the mundane beige-colored ceiling of his small dorm, he tried to recall what he had been dreaming about. It couldn’t have been pleasant for him to have woken up in such a manner, but he had a feeling his dream was important.

“Well” Will thought to himself, “It’s time to get ready”, and promptly rose from his bed to take a shower. As he felt the violent streams of hot water scald his back; he let himself relax, fantasizing about his coming vacation to Greece. It had been a very long and difficult semester, and he needed a break desperately. He could already picture it; the translucent water, the sunny beaches, the delicious food. Will shuddered in anticipation, “only 3 days to go” he reminded himself as he exited the shower with a towel.

Will was a computer science undergrad, studying at Caltech University. He had been accepted the previous year and had already finished a single semester with a GPA of 3.7. It had been a challenging semester for the 23-year-old undergrad. He had only recently moved to California and had been living in the university dorms since his arrival. It was a difficult transition; he had left all of his close friends and family to study at Caltech, and he was already having doubts about this decision. 

As he was getting dressed; Will tried to remember all the algorithms they had learned throughout the semester. One in particular always gave him grief; the damned Dijkstra algorithm. But not today. Today, the algorithm was as clear as day to him. “Bad choice of words”, Will chuckled to himself; “considering today’s weather”.

After a glance at the clock above his bed, Will realized he was running late. Flustered, he grabbed a premade sandwich from the fridge, opened his umbrella, and headed out into the pouring rain.

During Will’s walk, he coincidentally encountered one of his only friends on campus, Jade. Jade was a smart, confident girl, with a stubborn streak the size of Texas. Most likely the effect of being the youngest child in a family of 6, with 3 older brothers to be compared to. Will and Jade became fast friends after a very intense argument about something neither of them could recall. Will’s unapologetic attitude, and firm belief in his correctness, were the immovable object to the unstoppable force that was Jade’s stubbornness.

As they trudged through the muddy waters on the sidewalk they discussed their summer plans with each other. “I’m leaving tomorrow at dawn”, Jade said. “Where to?”, Will replied. “I’m going on a trip to the Caribbeans with my family. We're going to go hiking there”. “Oh,” Will exclaimed, “How long are you going to be gone?”. “About a month”, Jade replied. “We should plan a trip together after you return”, Will said. “Sure!”, Jade replied. “We can go to Yosemite, it'll be like a road trip, I’ve been dying to go there and do the mist trail”. “Then it’s settled”, Will said, Jade hummed in affirmation, and they continued walking in silence.

They arrive at the exam room soaking in muddy water and grime. Just a few minutes earlier a car had driven by, and try as he might, Will could not defend them from the ensuing wave of water. As they split up to their respective desks, Will wished Jade a successful test and placed his belongings inside his bag, to be placed at the front of the room. He retained only his pen, ID, water bottle, and a small snack.

Sitting there watching the clock tick, and waiting for the exam to start; Will started to feel queasy. He hated exams. Every time he took one he felt like puking, regardless of his knowledge of the subject. Will got up from his seat and started pacing around the room. He just couldn’t sit still till he had seen the questions on the exam paper. As he paced around the room he looked around to see if he could identify anyone else he knew that was taking the same exam.

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“Everyone! Please take your seats!”, shouted the exam overseer. Will quickly sat down and started bouncing his leg in anticipation. “This is it, finally”, Will told himself. Receiving the exam paper; Will quickly began reading the questions on each page. As he was reading, his queasiness started to ebb away, and his mind cleared.

“Please hand in your exam sheets! Unless you are allowed extended time!” shouted the examiner. Will tore his eyes from his exam sheet. He had checked his answers multiple times in the last hour, and he was satisfied with what he had written. Quickly jotting his name and ID on the paper, Will approached the front desk and placed his test upon it, taking his bag on the way out.

On his way home Will texted his other on-campus friend, Max, and asked him if he wanted to grab a drink, to celebrate the end of the semester. Max was a textbook extrovert. He was loud, confident, and probably the most boisterous person Will knew. Sometimes Will was jealous of him, of the ease with which he made new friends, and of his relaxed nature. It was annoying at times, that giddy cheerfulness. But he supposed Max made up for it in his loyalty to his friends.

Sitting in the bar ordering another shot of vodka, Will was once more reminded that he despised the spicy taste of the drink. Looking over the menu he resolved to find himself a more appealing alcoholic beverage. “Look over there”, Max said. “Where”, Will replied. “There! To your left! The Blonde!” Max exclaimed, nudging Will with his shoulder. Will turned his head discretely as he tried to spot the person Max was so obviously clamoring about.

Will’s eyes widened as he spotted her. He could see why Max was so enthused. She was stunning. Light brown locks of hair, flowed down over her shoulders like silk. Hazel-colored eyes that shone like molten gold. A cute button nose finished the look to perfection. “I couldn’t deny it. I was hooked, and she was my type; to a T.” Will thought as he sighed to himself.

Unfortunately, Will wasn’t as comfortable with the fairer sex as his friend Matt. As a matter of fact, Will was currently 0 for 3 in asking girls out, and he wasn’t enthusiastic about making it 0 for 4. Still, he was drunk, it was the end of the semester, and they would probably never meet again. “Might as well give it a shot”, he thought, “What do I have to lose?”, and promptly rose from his seat.

As previously stated, Will didn’t have the best luck with asking girls out. The first time he tried, he was so indecisive about when to ask that he fumbled the words completely. Instead of “Do you want to go get coffee tomorrow”, what came out as “Do you want coffee”. Unfortunately, once he repeated the sentence he did not get a positive answer.

“C’mon Will, be calm, be calm”, Will thought as he approached. “No, Don’t stare at her while you’re walking there, she’ll think you’re a creep”. As he fumbled through the bar, careful not to crash into anyone he decided to play out the scenario in his head. “Hi, my name is Will, I think you’re pretty cute, wanna go out on a date?”, Will shook his head at the thought. “No. Bad approach, too cheesy. Maybe instead I should say: Hi, my name is Will. May I join you?”, yeah that’s better he affirmed.

“Hello?”, the girl asked him. “Wait what, when did I get to the table”, he groaned softly at the mishap and shook his head to focus. Will mustered his courage. “Hi, my name’s Will,” he said. “Elly”, she replied warmly as she held out her hand to shake. “May I join you”, Will asked shyly. “Sure!”, she exclaimed, “Scoot over”, she told her friend as they made room for me to sit.

Suddenly, the ground started to rumble and shake. The rain, which had been falling relentlessly suddenly stopped, and it seemed as if all sound had disappeared.

“Sufficient energy saturation has been detected, beginning integration”.

“You have been installed with System version 89”

“Well, that was weird”, Will said attempting to lighten the mood. The pub exploded with noise as people started to panic and shout. Will took a deep breath, “Let’s think about this logically. What could this be? some augmented reality experiment? A shared hallucination”. Unfortunately, Will did not have time to finish his thoughts.

“Preparing for mass teleportation to Tutorial zone No.460. Please make sure you have all your belongings with you, as you will not be reimbursed for any losses…. 3…. 2…. 1”