I try to avoid the world and its problems but I can’t. Beth and Mary’s screams now become all encompassing, my body now awake.

“Please, I don’t want to die! Someone save me, please! God, please!”

Mary rushes to hold Beths hand. "It'll be okay! I promise! Can anyone help her? It'll be okay. It'll be okay." Steve, the supposed leader watches from afar, a small amount of disgust appearing on his sculpted face. Dom and Joe both look uncomfortable, shuffling their feet, not sure what to do.

“I have healing touch!” Susie exclaims.

Susie tries to be quick but her short and lumpy strides befuddle her movement.

The both of them now gang up on Susie, screaming at her to heal quicker. Susie touches the wound, but alast, it’s too large of a cut. The ugly bacteria surrounding the wound cleared up slowly, however the blood gushing out didn’t stop. Beths eyes start fluttering to the back of her head unwillingly. She weakly mutters the same line over and over.

“I don’t want to die”

Mary instead starts beating Susie up. “Fix her! You can heal her! Why aren’t you doing it?” Why?”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know what to do.” Mary escalates the situation to physically punching Susie, screaming anharmonic, unintelligible chords. Dom and John rush to her aide, stopping Mary’s rampage. The blood now rushed to the back of Beths throat as she gargled her last words. “I don’t want to die.”

Everyone stands in silence for another minute before Steve gives another statement.

“I think everyone should take a few moments to relax. Everyone go over your stats and see if you’ve leveled up. Go over every setting that you have and get familiar with it, this is now your lifeline.”

Seems like Steve is trying to roleplay leader again. I can’t complain though because now I get to be by myself. I go back to the right wall of the classroom and lay my back against it. Closing my eyes, I try to process everything that has just happened. My head plays over everything once more. From watching the storm to the strange messages. The world is now game-like now, eh? I wonder how the outer world is handling this, I wonder what else is out there in space. It mentioned there were many intelligent species and we’re just now joining them. How many things have we been missing out on since existence? How will society change? Are my parents alive? Is my brother safe?

I got too focused on the thoughts in my head that I ignored this strange, familiar feeling surrounding me. I can sense something outside of my body, feeling like mana, reminding me of being back in the wizards library. Except this time, instead of a dense, rushing flow of energy surrounding me, it was as if I was on top of the neighboring Colorado mountains. The mana felt too extremely thin to interact with, not near the same amount. I then immediately looked at the mana inside me as I did before. The same small knot of energy was contained in my chest. But before I reach towards it, a kick to my shin awakes me.

“What’s wrong with you?” Steve asserts. “We’ve been trying to wake you up for the last two minutes, we thought you were dead.” I look around and strangely, no one really seemed sombered by the fact.

“We got some loot from the goblins, your share of the is 3 coins.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Put it in your inventory, Mae.” Mary says all snobby like.

“Okay, I will in a minute.”

“Now.”

I look around and realise everyone is staring at me, even Amanda. I immediately overthink the question. Do I lie? Can I get away with it? No. Do I tell the truth? What about half-truth? Will I have to fight with them for long? Half-truth.

“I can’t use the system for two weeks.”

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“I knew it! You’re useless!”

“Now hold on Mary, she still fought just fine a minute ago. She took down more than you. As we level up I’m not sure how useful she’ll be but for now she has contributed more than you.” Steve asserted. What an fucking ass.

“Yeah well you haven’t seen my skill yet, I’ll start killing these bitches fast, just you see. She’ll be considered useless pretty soon, I mean she can’t even be our pack mule.”

“Fuck off.” I think in my head. I’ll just bury my anger down further and further into my seemingly endless pit.

Steve and Dom now join John at the doorway as I barely overhear their conversation. Three goblin-things are down the hall, coming out of the mens restroom. At the other end of the hallway I only hear small chitterings. I’m not quite sure what it is. I see all of the group making small amount of eye contact but not saying any words. Mary, Susie, and Joe make their way towards the door without any kind of motion or contact. Joe looked at me and nodded his head so I walk up behind him as they walk towards the door.

“We joined a party and talked for a while in party chat. It said we couldn’t invite you and you were out for 15 minutes and didn’t move an inch or wake up. They’re probably gonna avoid you from now on. You should just play it safe and stay here. I think it’s for the best. You need to take care of yourself first.”

His fake smile points in my direction but before I even get a chance to speak back, he turns away joining Steve. I stand in silence, lost. Rejected from my classmates and alone. Great.

Something catches my eye as I look below me to the floor where my previous assigned seat was. A worn, dark green rectangular box lays upside down on the bloody tile. My hands instinctively pick it up and flip it over as huge globs of water form at the corner of my eyes. A long crack is seen across the middle of the screen. I flip the right switch and see the rainbow colored word “Gameboy” fly across the screen, the words cut in half.

While my class starts moving towards the goblins in the hall, I move to back right corner of the classroom. A goblin lay dead but a couple feet away from me but I don’t care. I pull my gameboy out from my chest and my headphones from my pocket. With the corner to my back and my knees scrunched in a ball, I play Pokemon Crystal and get lost in the game.

Long, deep sobs erupt from my chest. I can’t remember the last day I haven’t cried. Which made me cry even more. Sadness begets sadness. I cry softly until my tear ducts become completely dry and my shirt entirely damp. I mildly enter back into that trance-like state, the ball of mana in my chest barely there. I feel the energy and decide to slowly rotate the ball of it in circles, it calming me.

I stay in this state for the length of time it takes to get two gym badges. Waking up gently from my stupor/small panick attack, my senses flood back with information. The bodies around me smelled rancid and metallic. as well an acidic taste followed to the back of my throat. Before I got the chance to go back into my trance, I hear someone yelling in the distance.

“Anyone still here? Looking for survivors!”

In one motion, I slide my gameboy in my pocket and take a large stride towards the door. I peak out the door with my head and lock eyes with a man down the hall already staring at me. It looks like a freshman but he looks more intimidating with his blood splattered spear.

“Hey! Are you okay? Come on down to the cafeteria with everyone else, we’re gonna move on to the dungeon boss soon.” He waves at me.

I hesitatingly walk towards him, his slightly plump baby face and goofy grin seem honest and innocent enough.

“My names Sam. You?”

“Mae.” He shakes my hand.

Before I had the chance to start a conversation, he starts talking about what it was like when he went through his trials. They were very different from mine but I wasn’t paying too close attention. I got by in the conversation, by just nodding and saying “oh really?”, “wow that’s awesome”, and “that must’ve been hard on you”, over and over again. He seemed nice enough though, just an innocent over sharer. We make it to the cafeteria hall and I see a man and a woman stand outside the doors with sunken eyes. They nod at Sam as we walk by, myself not quite sure what to say. The cafeteria doors open and I see around a few hundred people, all in their own cliques. I recognised a couple people from the outcasts group but I feel like I wouldn’t even fit in there now.

“I gotta report to the council immediately, sorry! It was nice talking to you!” He waves goodbye and turns around before I get a chance to speak.

I look around me and notice familiar faces with swords or staves. Weeping and hushed tones filled the crowded tables. A group of people were healing people in and near the nurse's office, a painful cry heard rather often. A stern bearded senior stood on the stage with a microphone facing the crowd. A female rushed up on stage and whispered something in his ear.

“New report from our scouts. We have just scoured the left wing clear of monster spawns and missing people!” The crowd murmerings increased before he had a chance to continue.

“We have a suspicion that the boss monster is at the principal's office in the center of the school. The right wing is currently being cleared and the center of the school will be last.

And I will say this again for all the new people gathered here. If you are a combat class, please move to the leftmost three tables. If you can heal or are injured, make your way to the back-right. If you’re useless, we don’t need you.”