Chapter 3: Library

With not much to do and his school books lost in the strange fog of the cafetorium, Quinn figured he’d head to the library and find something to read. He wandered off alone, although he did see Darius and Miguel run past him towards the gym. Quinn entered the double doors and flicked on the lights. Rows upon rows of books were available for his perusal. He didn’t know what he wanted to read, but he headed towards the fiction section.

Quinn was always kind of a loner at heart. Most of his favorite activities were ones he could do himself, like reading and math. It wasn’t that he was shy or timid, quite the opposite. Often, he could be opinionated on topics he was passionate about. He also could see things from multiple angles and would argue against the grain if no other advocate for that point of view emerged. That earned him the ire of many students during their presentations when he’d raise his hand to question their assumptions. It gave him a bit of a bad reputation, but he kind of reveled in their fear.

He looked through the rows of books, searching for a cover or title that would pop out to him. Since it seemed like they’d be stuck there all night, he figured that if something caught his interest, he could probably get through one or two of the simpler books. He was checking for the fantasy section. Knights and dragons, honor and chivalry, wars and wenches, those were his favorites.

Quinn wasn’t much of a looker. He was fairly plain and average in most categories. He wasn’t as nerdy and awkward as Warren, nor was he built strong and muscular like Miguel. He was pudgy around the waist, having dropped PE as soon as he could. Having rubber balls thrown at your face was not his idea of having a good time. He had curly black hair and what his mom called a baby face. He always took it to mean his cheeks were fat.

He found something of interest, at least it might since it had a dragon on the cover, and pulled up a comfy chair in the back of the room facing a window. Outside, he could barely see more than a few feet beyond the glass. The rest was a white blanket that whipped across in a blur. He cracked open the book, turned on some music through his earbuds, and spaced out. He didn’t hear the door open a few minutes later.

Andrea saw the light on in the library but didn’t see anyone. She peered down the rows of shelves, searching to see if the room was empty.

“Anyone here?” she asked, her high-pitched voice barely audible to anyone distracted at the other end. After she asked a second and third time, she smiled to herself and said out loud, “Perfect!”

Andrea was a mystery to most other people. She had no friends and rarely spoke in class unless asked directly. Even then, she’d meekly squeak out an answer. She was the quiet nerdy computer girl, and that was all she wanted them to know. She liked her privacy and hid from the real world inside of the digital ones.

She viewed her digital life as her real life. This outer physical thing was a mere distraction from what could be done virtually. She loved to code and create programs to do most of her schoolwork. She’d created her own custom AI program to write most of her school papers. Yes, it was limited compared to what the larger ones could do, but since it was designed for her needs, it didn’t have the same flaws as the bigger tech industry ones. She had bots write and produce most of her work, and that gave her the time to do one of the things she loved the most: game!

She sat down in a big chair in the front of the library, her feet up over the arm. She plugged in her laptop and connected to the secure internet. She had cracked the password months ago. On the evacuation of the cafetorium, there was no way she was about to leave without her precious laptop. Top of the line and expensive as hell, she stopped buying new clothes and shopped at thrift stores just so she could afford it.

With her connection secured, she logged into her current favorite game, Skycraft: World of Azerim. It was one of those medieval fantasy MMORPGs that were popular a few decades ago. She selected her character, EmPReSS_LyDia, and entered her fantasy world. She found her character in the town of Honeywood, where she had set up a program to farm low-level quests for gold. She’d collected 10,000 gold pieces since she last actually played, which was nice. She didn’t know how long it would take for them to make food, so she checked for a group doing a dungeon activity and signed up. As she waited in the queue, she wiped a drip of sweat from her forehead.

Quinn had zoned out reading his book when he started to feel hot. First, he took off his sweater and sat in a t-shirt he had on. He wondered if he was sitting close to a heat vent as he flipped to the next page. He had read 50 pages in the last 30 minutes. It was a fun book.

He was absorbed in the next chapter wondering which knight would betray their oath to the King when he was pulled from his contemplation by loud cursing coming from elsewhere in the library. He was startled because he hadn’t even heard anyone come in, though he usually didn’t pay much attention when he was into a new book. His parents would always say, “The world could be exploding, and you wouldn’t even know it.” He turned off his music and stood up to investigate the source of the foul language.

“You useless fucking piece of shit noobs! I could get Eugene to do this better than you!” the voice screeched.

Quinn peered his head around a bookshelf and was surprised to find out it was the usually quiet and shy girl from his history class. He was pretty sure her name was Andrea and she liked computers, but that was the extent of his knowledge of her. She didn’t look like much; thick glasses, a baggy blue sweater that looked two sizes too big, and grey sweatpants with stains on the legs.

He stood there listening to her carry on calling whoever she was talking to every horrible thing in the book. It must have been the most words he’d ever heard her say in four years of going to school together. He pulled at his T-shirt to help cool himself off as he watched her rant. He didn’t know why, but suddenly he started to find her very attractive. Maybe it was the forcefulness in her voice or something, but he couldn’t help but get aroused.

Andrea’s attention was completely focused on the game as the group she’d signed up with constantly screwed up the mechanics of the dungeon. She kept typing instructions into the chatlog, but they didn’t seem to heed her advice. By the third wipe, she lost her shit. She wasn’t actually talking to anyone in voice chat. She’d learned not to some time ago after her second verbal abuse suspension. One more violation in the next six months and her account could be banned. She Alt-F4’d out of the game in anger and just fumed.

“You alright?” Quinn finally asked as he walked from behind a bookcase.

Andrea shrieked in surprise. “How long have you been here?”

“Since everyone left the caf. I was just reading back there until I heard you freaking out.”

“I ... thought I was alone, I’m sorry. I’ll find somewhere else,” she said as her voice dropped to a whisper.

“No, no, stay. I just wanted to see what was wrong. What were you playing?” Quinn asked. His body now was feeling strange and feverish, but also weirdly good.

“I ... it’s nothing, just some game,” she said quietly, her frizzy hair damp with sweat.

Quinn was compelled to walk closer for some unknown reason. “Tell me about it, I’d like to know.”

“It’s an online game, Skycraft: World of Azerim. One of those fantasyland magic and mystery type games where you play as an adventurer seeking fame and fortune. It’s stupid.”

“But you like this game?”

“I hate it! It’s my favorite game!”

That caused both of them to giggle slightly, in their rapidly deteriorating state. Their faces were flushed red as their body temperature increased, but they tried their best to ignore it. Quinn sat down in a chair across from Andrea who seemed to open up slightly talking about her game.

“You see, you start in Honeywood doing small fetch quests for the townsfolk. Killing rats, gathering sheep, or picking flowers...”. Andrea went on explaining how the systems all worked and the objectives. Quinn was never much into games, but he could see it meant a lot to her to talk about it.

“Do you fight any dragons? I’m big into fantasy stories,” Quinn asked with a smile, but deep down something was starting to take hold.

“Oh yes, lots of dragons in Mount Schmargonrög. You get teleported there during a questline...” She kept going, but Quinn was having a difficult time following. His mind was getting cloudier with each passing moment. He blinked a few times hoping to wake himself up from the state he was falling into.

“Is it really hot in here?” Quinn asked as he felt sweat run down his back.

“Yeah, it’s like a volcano. I’m usually used to it in my room with all my tech on, but I’m starting to boil.”

For reasons she didn’t fully understand, Andrea slipped her hand into the waistband of her sweatpants and cupped her panty-covered pussy. While her body was hot, her pussy was on fire. She felt like she needed to strip naked that instant or she’d explode, but she had a brief moment of control.