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"Yo! Wake up sleeping beauty."

The voice of an irate Alex sung through James's apartment.

'Sh**, I was late to get ready for school again wasn't I?'

As if answering James's inner monologue Alex shouted," You're late, some of us don't want another Saturday detention, ever heard of the word 'tardy'?"

James replied," Yeah, yeah, let me get dressed real quick," shouting into the dark nothingness that was his room, the only semblance of light was the ray of morning sunshine bleeding through his curtains.

James quickly fumbled around to find the light switch in his room. Once he found it he heard the "comforting" sound of cheap lightbulbs buzzing.

*Bzzzt*

'And God said let there be light,' finally James could see around his humble abode. He quickly changed out of his underwear into new underwear. He threw the dirty pair somewhere in his room and then grabbed an unbranded black hoodie, with the strings ripped out, and some grey unbranded sweatpants, again with the strings ripped out. He put these clothes on quickly, and grabbed a pair of socks running towards the front door.

James hadn't fixed his hair, nor brushed his teeth, nor showered, nor put on deodorant, he hadn't even finished putting his socks on. Despite this he opened the door and Alex plugged his nose and started waving his hand in front of his face in reaction to the putrid body odor permeating from James's presence. James finished putting his socks on, grabbed some slides, and ran down the stairs with Alex.

After the good old 23 flights of stairs, James and Alex reached Alex's Bevvy Equinox.

"Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday," SpaceGhoulPurple was blaring in the car as they approached Brigade High School.

They had pulled in to the student lot which didn't have much to be seen. It was filled with trashy cars, filled with cracks and potholes, overall it was a very low quality lot.

Regardless they dashed towards school hoping to make it in a semblance of an acceptable time. They had driven 4 times the speed limit when approaching the school. Luckily, the only thing they killed was rubber.

They entered the school and apparently the principal's solitaire game was going well. James assumed this because he served him his Saturday detention with a smile.

The day went by normally except for the fact that James got dirty looks for smelling like Shrek's armpit. Also, he actually stayed awake for math class, which was an improvement for the better.

***

*Pat*

*Pat*

Raindrops were gliding down the window as the slums of Brigade City approached. The rain was a calming rhythm, always changing slightly, but marching to the same cadence. James thought about everything that had happened recently.

Suddenly his gut dropped, he realized he was going to have to see his father today. Now, James loved Brent a lot. But, anyone would know how awkward this reunion was going to be.

Alex, noticing James was distant, decided to just turn down the music playing and let James meditate to the music of the rain. James found himself on the 23rd floor outside of his apartment. His father was clearly home as the light was on inside.

*Creak*

The door was open and James instinctively flinched to guard from a projectile. There was a huge projectile coming at him, one the size of a man. It was a man, his father in fact. His father embraced him tightly, and said," I love you James, I've got an interview now, it's much easier to apply for jobs in 2057, back in the old days we actually had to apply for them, now we can just show up and talk to the automated interviewer."

James couldn't have been more proud of seeing his father like this. Even though he had quit alcohol before, it was never to the extent that he would actually work, go to an interview, shower, or care about himself. It was only to the extent that he could wallow in his sorrows with a sober mind.

James felt raindrops akin to the ones from outside running down his face.

*Pitter Patter*

They hit the dirty floor and revealed cleaner flooring underneath the dirt they melted away. James's father released his hug and walked out the door. He turned back around to James and smiled," You're my hope James, I hope you know that."

With that Brent became smaller and smaller as he traversed down the hallway. James then though of how soaked with sweat Brent's suit was gonna be by the time he climbed down 23 floors. This thought made James laugh inwardly.

***

'Just a little bit more'

'Just one more try'

James was close to cracking what was behind the domain he had previously found as the least secure of the four domains. He had figured out a few hours ago that he was right about there being more behind the domain's four links.

He had gotten to work, the minute he got situated, as James hadn't done homework in years so he wasn't going to start now.

"LET'S F***ING GO!," James had made it through the encryption.

"LET'S SHUT THE F*** UP!," James heard from one of the neighboring apartments.

He laughed to himself, but nobody was going to make him upset, he was effectively on cloud 9 currently.

The domain was now constantly syphoning data from James's computer, good thing it was all false information anyways.

The website that stood in front of him shocked him, if it was real it might be the scariest thing he had ever seen.

The screen ahead read:

[Welcome to, Project Sentience. Please put your login and password in to continue...]

[Username:_________]

[Password:_________]

[Submit Entry]

James almost soiled his pants.

'This has to be a joke, Sentience, like AI sentience?'

'If I can get my hands on this, wait.'

'If this is real and they get their hands on me?'

'Oh what did you do James, what did you do... you're so dumb, so dumb!'

James started freaking out inwardly, but he couldn't stick to his own thoughts for too long because he heard.

*Knock, Knock, Knock*