The Reality Engine

Hi!

Thank you for reading my story.

A couple of points to know:

I don't like writing wank porn. I want to write full-fleshed stories with plot, character, drama and tension.

Events in this chapter pick up the morning after the events at the end of chapter 9.

Thank you for taking the time, and please be sure to vote and offer any feedback you can.

If you like what I do, offering feedback is the best thing you can do to help, there is nothing which aids a writer more than seeing the story through someone else's eyes.

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Chapter 10

After the late morning out that was Friday night, Scott slept like a log. Liandra and Bernard were discharged from Frostbite Falls Hospital at close to 2 AM. Scott, Chad, Henry, Steve, Kloe, Bridget, Liandra, and Bernard all returned to Maybe Dick Hall. First, they woke up Sonya, and told her everything that had happened. She listened attentively, and managed to get through the conversation without freaking out. Afterwards, they held a slumber party in the common meeting room (none of them wanted to sleep alone after the events of that night). Bernard got the couch in the meeting room, and everyone else made themselves comfortable sleeping on the floor.

Morning inevitably came, and everyone rose around 9 AM. Sonya called a floor meeting first thing in the morning, and Mike, Alania, Margaret, and Mary had knocked door-to-door, and gathered everyone together for it. At this meeting, Sonya told everyone everything that had happened. She explained Scott's three visions (suppressing the naughtier parts of the one involving the five cheerleaders, and instead, focusing on the foot tattoo that one of the cheerleaders had). There was a lot of confusion.

Next, Bernard and Liandra spoke briefly about their experiences from the evening prior. As they spoke, the girls in the room were obviously scared. Steve seemed to be the winner from amongst the guys, since Alania, Margaret, and Kloe all held onto him as if their lives depended upon it. After Liandra finished speaking, her roommate, Tammy, was the first to say something.

"I know just the thing to do," Tammy said. "We're all headed to the twin cities for a weekend of shopping!"

"Scott?" Liandra asked, looking to Scott for guidance.

"I think it's a great idea," Scott said. "Healing and normalcy will come slowly, but a good distraction can be way more helpful than people give it credit for."

"My thoughts exactly," Tammy said. "The most important thing is to bring back some joy, and to do things that make you happy. My mom says the same thing, a good distraction can be really helpful when you're dealing with stuff."

"I'm on board," Rose said.

"Count me in," Padme said.

All told, 10 girls from the second floor of Maybe Dick Hall volunteered to go. It was agreed that this outing should be girls only, since the intention was to provide for a healthy distraction. This decision made, Mike volunteered to give Bernard a ride home (a tow truck had moved his red pickup truck back to his home), and the meeting ended. Scott was about to get breakfast with his friends, when Pepper asked for a moment of his time alone. Scott's friends indicated they were all heading over to the Limberger Lily dinning commons, and that Scott should join them when he was finished with Pepper.

"What's up?" Scott asked Pepper, when the two were alone together in his dorm room.

"Last night was tripy, wasn't it?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah," Scott said. "I don't think I've ever felt my heart beat so fast."

"I can imagine," Pepper said. "Listen, Scott, about these visions you have. What if they become dangerous?"

"I don't know," Scott said. "Maybe this was a strange quirk of fate, you know? Maybe I never have another one again in my life. I don't want to look ahead, and I prefer to focus on today."

"Doesn't it scare you that, you know, you can see the future?" Pepper asked.

"Not really, if it involves seeing a future of sleeping with you," Scott said, with a smile.

"So, you've been given this great power, this tremendous gift, and you don't plan to use it to conquer the world, become famous, or make a billion dollars. You plan to use it to try to get into my panties," Pepper said, smiling.

Scott walked up close to Pepper, "no place I'd rather be," he said, smiling. He was careful to not lay a finger on her, or invade her personal space too closely. He was still unsure which direction this conversation was going in.

"That's sweet, Scott, but, if I'm being honest, I feel conflicted about what happened on Thursday night," Pepper said.

"I know, and it's okay," Scott said.

"Huh?" Pepper asked.

"I never thought I deserved you," Scott said. "If all I get with you is that one time in life, that's good enough, because it's one time more than I should get. Whatever you feel, however you want things to go from here on out, think about it and let's talk about it. I am okay with whatever you decide, Pepper, and there is just one thing I ask. I only ask that Thursday night isn't something you regret. If you don't know whether you ever want to do it again, or not, that's fine. Just, please, don't tell me you regret what happened between us."

"Scott, I could never regret what happened between us, it was good for me too," Pepper said. "Just, don't fall in love with me, okay? One step at a time."

"Agreed," Scott said.

"I'm heading out to the twin cities to go shopping with the girls," Pepper said. "Unfortunately, that means no poker game tonight, since we're planning on spending the night in St. Paul. Next Saturday night for sure, okay?"

"Sure thing," Scott said. "Call if you guys need anything."

Pepper kissed Scott on the cheek, and left. He went on his way to the Limberger Lily dinning commons for breakfast. Once there, he gathered what he wanted, and sat down with his friends.

"So what happened with Calvin last night?" Scott asked, as he began to chow down.

"Shauna spent the night at our place," Bridget said. "My brother took the couch in his room, while she got the bed. An hour ago, my mom sent me a text that Calvin agreed to go to church with Shauna and her family tomorrow morning."

"Wow, that's a big deal," Henry said.

"It is?" Kloe asked. "I go to church every Sunday, and have my entire life."

"Calvin hasn't been to church since he was 15," Bridget said. "It has been one of the biggest sources of friction in our household. A lot of things we hate about him can be forgiven, or covered over, but my parents, my sister, and I have never been able to forgive him for skipping church. That he's going back for the first time in a decade is nothing short of a miracle. Scott, are you sure there isn't a vision you had, that we don't know about, where you saw all of this happening?"

"No vision, sorry," Scott said, smiling. "The fact that Shauna spent the night when she didn't have to is a good sign, I think. We should call her, and get her side of the story as soon as possible."

"Okay," Bridget said. "My mom sent me a text, while we were getting food, that Calvin and Shauna left, and that he's taking her home. After breakfast, let's play football for a few hours, and then call her."

8 hours later, Scott, Kloe, Steve, Henry, and Bridget were gathered together in Kloe's dorm room. Chad had already left for a date. Kloe and Steve, as well as Bridget and Henry, were dressed up and were about to go on a double date.

"My mom says that Calvin hasn't come back home since he dropped off Shauna," Bridget said. "Get this, he went to the library, and said he'll be home late tonight. What in the Sam Hill do you think he's doing at the library?"

"Hell if I know," Henry said. "He's never gone a full day without video games, since I've known him."

"Yeah, pretty much since I've known him too," Bridget said. "Scott, any ideas?"

"Not a one, we should call Shauna, since there's a good chance he might have told her," Scott said.

"Yeah, okay," Bridget said. "I've been avoiding it all day, but I guess we have to."

"Hey, you don't want to?" Steve asked.

"More like my mom is happier than I've ever known her, and I don't really want to hear anything that will put a damper on that," Bridget said. "However, we have to call, so let's get this over with."

Bridget dialed the number, and after a stage wait, Shauna came on the line.

"Hey guys, how are you doing?" Shauna asked, in a cheery tone of voice.

"How did things go last night?" Bridget asked.

"Terrific," Shauna said. "There was just one thing I wanted to ask you guys. From what you all told me in the lead-up to this, I expected this assignment to be much more difficult than it was. Calvin is a great guy, and I had a lot of fun with him. He was a perfect gentleman too. The hour was late, and he offered me his bed, and he slept on the couch, so that I didn't have to go home so late. I'm not really seeing why you felt like he needed help."

All five people listening to this phone call exchanged a look, this was a new one.

"Scott, help," Bridget said.

"Never underestimate how much men exist to impress women," Scott said. "For all we know, he's a perfect gentleman to everyone he plays games with, and he just doesn't like being told what to do by his family. There could be a million reasons, but more importantly than that, genuine human interaction with a woman who he's not related to, and who seems to appreciate his hobby, might be all that was ever required."

"It might have been this easy the entire time, and we just never realized it?" Bridget asked.

"I don't know anything about psychiatry or anything like that," Shauna said. "All I know is that your brother is a really nice guy, and he treated me better than I've ever been treated by a guy on a date."

"I hear you convinced him to go to church with you tomorrow morning," Bridget said. "How did you manage that?"

"It wasn't hard at all," Shauna said. "Calvin is very well up on the Bible. I've been going to church and to Wednesday night bible study my entire life, and he knows tons of stuff about the Bible and the history of the early church that was brand new to me. When I asked him to come with me, he agreed right away."

"Wait, Calvin doesn't know anything about the Bible," Bridget said. "All he does is play video games all day, right?"

"Could have fooled me," Shauna said. "About 10 PM last night, when we were playing Warhammer, we got into this big discussion about how the new testament was put together in the early church, and Calvin knew so much about it. He's even read the Apocrypha, the books that were popular in the first three centuries after Christ that didn't make the cut for canonization. He knows when every book in the Bible was first written, who wrote it, when it was translated, who copied it, and how it got passed down to us today."

"Holy shit!" Bridget said. "Where the hell did he learn that?"

"Don't know," Shauna said. "However, he's a veritable expert on the subject. I'm really looking forward to next Friday night, thanks for hooking me up with your brother, Bridget."

"Scott, we have to find some way to keep this going," Bridget declared. "I didn't know my brother knew about anything other than video games and Japanese Anime."

"Oh, he's a world renowned expert on those two subjects," Shauna said. "Did you know that he's learned enough programming that he once built his own video game?"

"What the fuck?" Bridget asked.

"It was crude, was how he put it to me," Shauna said. "He loaded it for me and showed me, and I think it's pretty good. I think he stopped working on it two years ago. I encouraged him to start working on it again, and he seemed happy to show it to someone else. I don't think anyone else had ever seen it."

"Scott, help me out here, what the fuck do we do?" Bridget asked.

"Is everything okay?" Shauna asked. "I thought you'd be happy with how things went last night."

"I'm utterly ecstatic," Bridget said. "Shauna, you've so greatly exceeded my every expectation that I don't know how to thank you enough. However, I want what's best for my brother, and the problem is, he's only got two more dates with you. That's fine as far as it goes, but what happens after that?"

"What makes you think he only has two more dates left?" Shauna asked, confusion in her voice. "He's a great guy, and I think if the next two dates go as well as our last one did, that I'll just keep dating him. Being around him makes me happy, why would I stop being around someone I like?"

"Would you go out with him again next weekend if we weren't paying you?" Bridget asked.

"Sure, he's earned it," Shauna said. "You're his sister, right? Surely you know what a great guy your brother is."

"Shauna, the more I talk to you, the more convinced I am that I don't know shit," Bridget said.

With a few more footnotes exchanged, the call ended, and Bridget promised Shauna she would call again soon to compare notes.

"I'm so confused," Bridget said, as soon as the call was over.

"I have no idea, if I'm being honest," Henry said. "I've known Calvin for several years now, and I never knew he ever worked on his own video game, or that he knew so much about the Bible. That was all brand new to me."

"Sometimes, all it takes is a different point of view," Scott said. "The status quo just left everyone stuck in the mud. There comes a time, after many years, where people's opinions and perspectives have hardened so much, that they can't see any other way anymore. A new perspective may be all that's needed."

"If that's true, then I feel awful about it," Bridget said.

"His perspective would have hardened, and grown inflexible over time, just as much as yours would have," Scott said. "It's no one's fault."

"Thanks, that makes me feel a little better," Bridget said, as she checked the time on her phone. "Come on guys, we need to get going, or we'll be late for the start of our movie."

"What are you guys seeing?" Scott asked.

"

It came from Planet 9

," Kloe said. "It's the latest Hollywood alien invasion blockbuster thing."

"How does a one horse town like Frostbite Falls get a major Hollywood release?" Scott asked. "Isn't the town's only movie theater in the same building as city hall and the bowling alley?"

"What?" Kloe asked. "No, where did you hear that from? There are two major Universities here, which pretty much guarantees a mall and movie theater complex. It's over on the west side of town."

"It's kind of a running joke that Frostbite Falls is a one horse town," Henry said. "It doesn't have anywhere close to the amenities that Bridget and I are used to, coming from big city High Schools, but it does have a multiplex movie theater."

Everyone got ready to depart. They opened the door and flowed out into the hallway, when they spotted Derrick and Alania, standing outside her dorm room, arm-in-arm.

"What the fuck?" Kloe asked, a look of shock on her face.

"Hey Kloe," Derrick said. "Hey new dweeb she's dating to make me jealous. What's shaking?"

"Oh, you," Alania said, throwing herself all over Derrick. "Why do we care about them when we have each other?"

Henry and Bridget exchanged a confused look, while Scott just looked on, with a dazed expression on his face.

Kloe and Steve exchanged a look, and then, burst out laughing.

"What are you two twits laughing at?" Derrick demanded.

"Oh my God!" Kloe yelped out, unable to get her laughter under control. "I can't believe you two are dating each other!"

"You are beyond perfect for each other!" Steve said, as he nearly choked on his own words because he couldn't stop laughing. "I can't believe this idea never occurred to me, you two look amazing, arm-in-arm, pretending to be in love."

"Don't they though?" Kloe asked, as she was finally able to regain control of her emotions. "Mr. and Mrs. America, do you think they have rough sex with each other?"

"I know his gigantic cock makes her pussy wet," Steve said.

"I've seen his dick many times, so yeah, I can attest to that," Kloe said. "What about her cunnie?"

"It's petite and small, but it will stretch to fit in a monster schlong," Steve said.

Derrick and Alania were both furious, not just because Steve and Kloe were obviously making fun of them, but also because they couldn't quite figure out what the joke was.

"Wait, wait," Kloe said, as she produced her phone from her pocket. "Please, both of you pose for a few photos, okay? I have to get these up on Facebook, no one will ever believe it."

"Oh!" Scott said, as he started laughing. "I'm sorry, it took me awhile to get the joke."

"Wait, what is the joke?" Bridget asked.

"Beats me," Henry said. "I don't get it either."

"Don't worry about that, it's kind of an in-joke," Kloe said. "Steve spent his entire time in High School chasing Alania and now he's dating me, whereas Derrick and I spent our entire time in High School dating each other, and now, he's dating Alania, and I'm dating Steve. Alania traded Steve in for Derrick, and I traded Derrick in for Steve. Everyone, therefore, traded themselves in for themselves, by the transitive property of equality."

"I have absolutely no regrets," Steve said.

"Me neither," Kloe said, as she snapped a few photos of Derrick and Alania together and posted them to her Facebook. "Let's get going on our date."

The three couples rode the elevator down to the first floor of Maybe Dick Hall to head out on date night, while Scott turned the corner towards his room. He saw Sonya holding open the door to the meeting room, and asking for a word with him.

"How you holding up, big guy?" Sonya asked.

"Good," Scott said. "I would prefer to be going to a card game in Pepper and Marisol's room right about now, but I'll manage."

"Listen, about what happened last night," Sonya said. "While you did a good thing helping out Liandra, nothing like this has ever happened before, and there will be issues over it. I have already filed a full report of the incident with the Residence Hall Management, and I expect, when they all get back to the office on Monday morning, that there will be some serious questions over all of this. We've never had a telepath living on campus, and that brings up all kinds of concerns, privacy ones not being the least amongst them."

"I'm not a telepath," Scott said. "I can't read other people's minds. I just have visions of other places and other times, and for all I know, three is the total number I'll ever have in my life."

"Part of the problem is that you're a high credibility individual," Sonya said. "When you say stuff, other people believe you. Chad, Henry, Bridget, Kloe, and Steve followed you out into the middle of the night, and into a potentially dangerous situation, without questions. There aren't many people I've met in life who have that kind of influence on others. Truth be told, if I had been there, I would have followed you without questions as well. People trust you, Scott. The Residence Hall Management and Campus Safety are going to want to ensure that trust is not misplaced."

"I will do my best to answer them," Scott said.

"Good, I'll be the point person for handling the administrative fall-out over last night, and I know that when I need you, you'll be there for me," Sonya said. "Now, go and get some sleep, you've earned it."

Scott went to his room, and he saw his bed, and he was so very tired. Scott thought about opening his laptop and seeing if there was anything new to work on from Dr. Karlov, but the more he thought, the more going to bed won out. He hit the sack, and fell fast asleep.

Meanwhile, at Rosario's, Kloe, Steve, Henry, Bridget, Alania, and Derrick were all eating dinner. Kloe and Steve had told Henry and Bridget how good the food was at Rosario's from their first date, and so, Henry and Bridget decided they wanted to try, and the four young people had made dinner reservations for the evening. Meanwhile, Alania had remembered Kloe and Steve's dinner date at Rosario's, and wanted to try it herself (and post photos of herself eating at the most expensive restaurant in town on her Facebook), and so, she had convinced Derrick to make dinner reservations there for that evening, unaware that Steve, Kloe, Henry, and Bridget were all also eating there. None of them had figured it out until they all arrived at the restaurant at the same time, for the same reason. Figuring that no one should be afraid of people they used to date, they all decided to eat together at the same table.