KAYLA SYDNEY MARTIN
AGE 18
STATUS: IN A RELATIONSHIP
RELATIONSHIP TO YOU: 26/100
MODERATE CRUSH
Chet stared at these words hover above Kayla's head as she ran out of the locker room, slowly shrinking along with her diminishing figure in the distance until she turned a corner. Then the words vanished altogether, leaving him to ponder the last two lines over and over again in his own mind.
"Up eight points from yesterday,"
Chet thought happily. Considering that the maximum affection a girl could feel towards him was 100, something good was sure to happen soon at this rate.
"What happens at a hundred points? Marriage? Fucking? Does the 'MODERATE CRUSH' turn into 'NEVER-ENDING ZOMBIE-LUST' at that stage?"
, Chet wondered excitedly.
Whatever it was, he was making fast progress. Even if it came at the price of physically hurting himself just to impress her.
"Ouch."
His sore abs winced with the incredibly taxing activity of picking up his backpack from the floor and slinging it over one shoulder.
Chet plodded awkwardly out of the locker room towards his seventh and final period, Woodshop. He was so roused and horny from his encounter with Sydney that he forgot his class was actually called Workshop. He slowed his stiff gait down so he didn't have to swing his arms as much.
Mr. Algernon gathered the class around for the beginning of class lecture. His portly Mall Santa belly shook with excitement as he announced the start of the bird cage project. Some of the duller and more loutish students furrowed their brows in confusion while the rest had on more placid looks.
"It was in the course outline, you fucking idiots,"
Chet thought, glaring at half the room.
Wait, why am I even getting mad? LOL
Chet's chuckle whistled out of his nose in short puffs, raising the jet black hairs on Anna's head. He realized he was standing right behind her, close enough for her to feel his breath.
She turned around, glanced up at him, then down, green eyes darting around quickly in her plastic goggles. His own eyes only briefly glanced at hers before returning to the presentation. She seemed to fixate on his shirt for a bit before she turned back too. He could only catch one of the nostrils under her tall, septum-pierced, slightly aquiline nose flaring out as she caught a whiff of his workout sweat.
With her facing the front of the class again, Chet was free to notice her body, rear-view style. And there wasn't much to notice, in his opinion.
Anna was skinny, with slightly masculine angles on her upper body. She was wearing a grey tank top with a punk logo, which let her shoulders jut out sharply, forming a triangle that disappeared into her back and butt, which were wrapped with a hooded sweatshirt tied around her waist.
Her pale white skin contrasted nicely with her black-dyed hair (though the blonde roots were beginning to show), and faded smoothly into the light tan of her forearms. The left one had a tattoo of a Redwood tree, which probably said something about Anna that Chet was curious about but never bothered to ask. He, like most people, noticed it mostly on the level that it was a tattoo, which felt kind of edgy for a high-schooler to have, just like her piercings.
Chet stared at Anna's butt, trying to see if he could unlock some sort of X-ray vision to see past the hoodie covering it. He gave up.
He frowned at how much time he spent thinking about this girl, who was only significant to him because she was the lone girl in woodshop (boing).
ANNA YOUNG
AGE 18
STATUS: SINGLE
RELATIONSHIP TO YOU: 9/100
INTRIGUED
And because of that, too.
The slight inkling of a possibility of a chance that there might be something between them caused Chet to reconsider her personality and features several times, even though he always arrived at the same indifferent opinion.
Plus, there was Sydney -
Kayla! Can't call her by her middle name
- to consider. Even though she had a boyfriend, she was a very appealing proposition for Chet: Blonde, buxom, busty, uhhh... bootylicious, athletic yet completely feminine, and with an light, syrupy Australian accent that fell softly on his ears like a light sun-shower in spring. The figure of Josh Austin, her current boyfriend, as an obstacle only made the prize more tantalizing.
Sydney (
fuck!
) inspired Chet to better himself. Anna was not quite on his radar yet, but he was a teenage boy, and his mind always welcomed new spank fodder.
A devilish grin spread across his lips.
"Well, what Kayla's doing with me is technically cheating on Josh. There's no reason I HAVE to be exclusive with anyone yet. Let's just wait and see what opportunities present themselves. Who knows? Maybe there's a Harem mode to this RPG?"
Anna caught his lecherous smile from across the room and turned her face away as soon as he made eye contact with her. The 9 glowed brilliantly above her head.
Chet pushed the thought out of his mind and concentrated on scoring more points from his workshop project.
===============
After school, Chet roamed around a bit in the city before coming home, hoping to find Frank again. Part of him just wanted to perform a good deed for the experience points, but there was something about the homeless man that felt so fatherly that Chet was kind of looking forward to the experience itself.
He parked his bike in Rochester Plaza again, and walked through the front entrance of Little Wok, making the door bell jingle. A man in a tall white hat saw him and got off his chair to take his place behind the steaming vats of greasy food.
"I'll have the Sriracha Chow Mein, an order of Cheddar Cheese Rangoons, Manchurian Beef, Insanity Chicken, and the Gobi Goose," Chet ordered, spacing his items out for the 'chef' to box. His game-o-vision revealed the absolute nutritional poverty of his takeout, but he didn't mind. He was getting food for his mother and Frank only. Chet planned on just eating fruit tonight.
Well, and a bit of the Gobi Goose.
The middle-aged Chinese man smiled at Chet as he dropped the fortune cookies into the bag last, then he wrapped the handles in a knot. Chet hated how tight the knot was, and how he'd have to use his good thumbnail to tease it open.
The man saw Chet's little frown and gave him a knowing grin, "It is important for happiness to
tie the knot
. Don't be sloppy. Tie it once, and do it right the first time."
Is he...Is he giving me
wisdom?
A Chinese guy? Isn't that an old cliché?
Chet pondered, knowing that there had to be a hidden meaning to this. Either that, or old Chinese people were just weird and placed unusual emphasis on random parts of their speech.
Chet just gave him a neutral face while placing a dollar in the tip jar.
GOOD DEED PERFORMED +1 EXP
The man thanked him and Chet walked out the store with the bag, placing it on his handlebar before riding back home. He frowned at how little he earned from that donation. Maybe it worked like karma, and money had to be given to the right people who could use it the most, like the homeless.
"Hey Chet! How are you doing?"
Chet broke out into a spontaneous smile as Frank made himself easy to find.
"Hiya Frank. Just bringing home food for the mother again. And yes, I got something for you too," Chet said as he unhinged his bag from this handlebar.
"I guess miracles do happen twice. Thanks, son."
Chet gritted his teeth. The damn knot was tied tight, and he started to tear the bag open. The inscrutable Chinese man was not going to get in the way of his charitable act, if he could help it.
"Now, now, hold it right there. Lemme have a try, Chet," the homeless man said, reaching his hand out. He was a little shorter than Chet was, so Chet sitting on his bike made them about level. Chet handed the bag over.
"If you break the bag open, then you can't use it to carry the rest of your food back to your mama," the man pointed out as his surprisingly nimble fingers reached the center of the knot and slowly began teasing the loops apart.
"It may take longer this way, but with a little care and attention..." the bag made rustling noise as Frank successfully extricated the handle loops from each other, "you get something you can come back to when you need it. Now where's my gift, son?" Frank handed it back to Chet, and it meant a little to the boy that he didn't run off with the whole bag, even though he knew he wouldn't.
The corners of Chet's eyes itched a little when he saw how gentle Frank was something as cheap and disposable as a plastic bag. Obviously the homeless man cherished things that most people took for granted, but it was unsettling to see someone care this much about anything.
"Here. I got you some Manchu beef and Rangoons."
Cha-ching!
GOOD DEED PERFORMED +15 EXP
"Ah! Treasures. You've made me a happy man again, Chet. How can I repay you? You want me to buy you some alcohol? Or smokes?"
Chet laughed.
"I'm old enough for smokes, Frank. And I don't need you to do anything for me. Your gratitude is enough for me."
Chet's throat caught a little at the last part, which was a lie. He knew he was mainly doing this because it was an easy way to earn a whopping 15 experience boost. Suddenly, everything felt like shit in Chet's mouth, and his eyes glanced away from Frank's face.
The older man caught the change in Chet's expression, and raised his eyebrows sympathetically. "Now, forgive me if this is intruding, but-"
Chet looked back at Frank. "...Do you have a father?"
Chet startled. "Wait, what." "I-" "Well...no. No, my dad passed away some time ago."
"Ah, well. That was just a lucky guess. I don't want to say I knew it, but I could tell by your eyes that something was hurting you."
"What gave it away?"
"You're a good kid, Chet. You're a lot different from other kids your age. There's something in you that makes you wanna do good things for people."
Chet listened with interest. Flattery aside, he was curious to know what Frank thought of him, and for some reason, was feeling inclined to believe it.
"Most people aren't that nice, at least not for a reason. And I wish it wasn't this way, but most of the time, people like you are the way they are because something happened to 'em. Something sad, usually."
Chet looked down at the ground and was quiet for a moment.
"I don't think my life is sad."
"Oh no, no, not at all! You've got a good life ahead of you. You have the world to look forward to. But you can't control the past. No one can..."
