As I head down the hallway on my way to the next class, I think I should text JJ back. I don't know what I should say to him though. I decide to keep it cool and just say "Hey JJ!" It replies back almost instantly. "Do you wanna play?" I say, " I cant rn. I'll play when I get home." He replies "ok" and I head off to my next class. The rest of my classes are pretty boring and I'm very hungry. So I skip my class to go to lunch.
As I walk into the lunchroom, I see Mya. I start to try to get the strength to go up to her. Just as I was about to stop my staring and go up to her, I hear: "Johnnyyyyyyyy". I turn around and am greeted by Blake. He must've noticed me looking at Mya because he says "Oh do you like herr? Does Johnny boy have a crushhhh?" I just look at him, as I don't know what to say to this. "Oh watch this, Johnny..." He says with a smirk as he walks over to Mya.
My body begins to feel hot as I look over and see them whispering and see Blake pointing at me. I don't have any idea what they're talking about, but I honestly don't want to know. I can't stand here and watch this any longer so I run out. I can't go back to class though, since I was skipping. So I go to the bathroom to wait for my lunch period.
While in the bathroom, I have nothing better to do so I decide to play the Shadow Game. I turn the headset on and start the next level. The level 4 task was to scroll through a virtual closet and clothing catalog to teach JJ how to dress. I kind of want JJ to be who I never had the courage to be. You know, dress nicely, have some kind of swag, be the opposite of me. I pick out some white sneakers, a white tee shirt, and some dark wash jeans.
As I complete level 4, I am met with a change. The music in the game changed, the background changed, even the font the game used to describe tasks changed. I keep looking because I think that this could just be some way to try to scare me. After all it is just a game. The idea of my shadow coming to the real world to be my friend does sound good. But I know it can never happen.
I begin to read my task for level 5 and it was as follows:
Task 1: To bring your shadow to the real world, you must utter the words "To Earth from the Shadow Dome, I welcome you to my real world home.", 3 times, and watch your shadow come to life.
I kind of get an eerie feeling bout this, but I want to prove that this isn't real. As I look at my virtual shadow, it looks just about human. He isn't pale anymore, he has my full face now. He even have the same hairstyle as me. I start to say the "spell". "To Earth from the Shadow Dome, I welcome you to my real world home. To Earth from the Shadow Dome, I welcome you to my real world home. To Earth from the Shadow Dome, I welcome you to my real world home." I hear some kind of mysterious music start to play but I ignore it. I slide the headset off and see someone standing in front of me.
"What are you doing..." I'm kind of surprised that this isn't my shadow. It's just one of my classmates. I guess the game was fake after all. "Oh nothing I was just about to be on my way to lunch." He kind of gives me an odd stare and I walk out of the bathroom.
I am starving so I hurry on to the lunch room. When I arrive inside the cafeteria, I see something that doesn't happen to often. I see the lines are clear and there will be no wait. I try to find why the lines are so empty but my question soon becomes answered when I turn over and see a crowd. There is someone in the center of the crowd but I can't make out who. Then I realize that the crowd is chanting. "JJ! JJ! JJ!" Excuse me?
I rush over to the crowd and see JJ standing at the center. There seems to be some kind of altercation going on. I see JJ throwing punches and I'm trying to see who he's swinging at then I realize the red letter-man jacket and the strong scent of BO. Blake. I run into the middle to try to break it up.
When the fight is all settled I see Blake wiping blood from his nose and JJ trying to fix his hair. I go up to JJ and stare in shock. He is really here. I thought for sure the game was fake but he's here. Standing right in front of me. How is this real life? Am I dreaming? When am I going to wake up? I pinch myself. Ouch. This is definitely real life.
"Hey Johnathan!" JJ beamed excitedly. "Uh, hey JJ." I am still very shocked. But maybe I don't need to be scared. Now I won't have to be lonely. But now I have questions. Why in the world was he fighting Blake? I decide to ask. "So uh, what happened with you and Blake?" JJ laughs and explains that Blake thought he was me and tried to bully him. JJ was not going for it. "Now he'll think twice before trying to bother you, Johnathan." JJ is pretty cool. I thank him for handling Blake for me but he stops me mid- sentence. "I did not handle Blake for you, I handled him for us. But there might be a day where Blake can tell us apart, so you need to learn how to defend yourself."
So what I'm hearing is, JJ won't be around to always help with Blake. But for now? Blake is probably super scared of me. I can get use to this.