Chapter 1: Newbie

 

I'm Jim, a high school student. I have been attending a high school, located in the district in which I live. Unfortunately, the high school that I attend is doing me little or no good. I can read and write, which puts me in the top 10% of my class, just on those two skills alone. I want to go on to college and that will require a scholarship for me to afford the college education that I need to live the life that I really want.

So far, I have gamed the system as much as I can at the local schools that I have been forced to attend. I have passed several classes by challenging the course and taking a pass/fail exam. I have several independent study classes completed, with top grades. I have already taken and passed the college entrance exams with really top scores.

I have bypassed the normal high school physical education requirements, by taking fencing instead. The high school that I attend doesn't have a fencing team, but one of the physical education teachers is a former Olympic competitor and he has tutored me, out of the goodness of his heart. I'm really good at saber fencing and I have even won the high school district saber fencing championship. My fencing will serve as an outside activity that might help win me a scholarship and entrance to a good college. Actually, it turns out that my fencing skills will be the key to my future, but I didn't know that when I started learning to fence.

I manage to make it into Lakeview High School after the Christmas break. I take the necessary tests and manage to beat out 156 other people for one of the 10 places available. Lakeview is the top magnet school in town. Every kid who wants a college scholarship wants into Lakeview High School and it's damn near impossible to get into Lakeview, mainly for that reason.

I take the bus over to Lakeview and check in when school starts up again after the Christmas break.

I don't make much of a splash at Lakeview. I'm average height and appear to be average weight, (190 pounds of compact, fencing muscle,) with hair colored hair and eye colored eyes. I'm so anonymous that I probably should try for a career as a burglar, because no witness could ever really describe me.

At my previous high school, the classes were something like a babysitting exercise for the mentally lame. In contrast, the classes at Lakeview High School are something like the arena in ancient Rome. The very top kids in the city meet to try to grab off the top grades and a college scholarship. The competition at Lakeview is ferocious. Anything, short of physical assault, goes. Unless you're really mentally tough, Lakeview High School definitely isn't your kind of school.

The top group of kids in Lakeview are a dozen really hot girls that everyone calls the Princess Posse.

I see the girls in the halls from time to time and even get caught ogling them by the guy with the locker next to mine.

The fool asks me, "Jim, you lookin' at the girls, you gonna try to date one of them?"

I tell him, "One each night, in my dreams."

He tells me, "That's as close as you'll ever get to the Princess Posse."

I come back with, "I would like to fuck all of them again and make it a nice even once apiece."

The fool just flips me the bird. (Yes I was offended and yes, I deserved it.)

As I go about my daily student affairs, I discover that there's a club at Lakeview. You have to be in the top 10% scholastically at Lakeview to get in the club. It takes a while, but I make it into the club. It turns out that the club has a game that members play. It's some sort of adventure game. I don't think I'll try it, as I have enough to do without playing some meaningless game.

It turns out that participation in the adventure game is required to stay in the club. The game is some kind of very realistic computer simulation. The student plays a role in the game. The role that the student plays is pretty much set by the game, but the abilities of each character in the game are determined by the strength of the player's mind and not by any preset rules.

Just to get the newbies used to getting their butts kicked, they're always paired with the current game champ, first off. The current champ is Andrea who's not only the hottest looking babe in school and the top student in the school but also drives a brand-new Mercedes convertible. It seems that them as has gets even more.

Andrea makes certain to meet me as we arrive the evening of our match to tell me, "Jim, I'll destroy you, just as I have destroyed everyone who has faced me. Just so you'll know."

I laugh and tell her, "Andrea, so far you have faced only conventional thinkers in the game. What you'll see from me will be so different from your past experience that you won't even have a chance to win."

Andrea sneers at me, "Dream on, newbie."

Okay, Andrea doesn't believe me, as I expected. However, I have given her something to worry about. Any little advantage helps me. (If you don't use every little advantage you can get, you don't win at Lakeview High School.)

Andrea and I go into something labeled, 'The Game Room,' on the door and we're each strapped into a separate couch and fitted with some sort of electronic helmet. The electronic helmet is wired to some sort of computer looking device. The device is powered up and the game begins.