A Virtual World Turned Real (An Unofficial Minecraft Adventure)

Chapter five: A New Day

Dom, who is another of my better friends, walked over and broke my silence. "Hey man, you OK? You went all quiet all of a sudden."
"I was just thinking."
"About what?"
"About what I had to do to get this meal ready."
"Which was what?"
I hesitated before saying, "I had to go and kill animals to get their resources. It was terrible." I recalled my experience as best I could. I continued, "I cried afterward, and you know that I don't cry often."
"Damn. You gonna be alright?"
"I don't think I'll ever forget it, or forgive myself. Lets keep this between us, shall we? As to not panic or hurt anyone?" I said.
"You got it."
"Thanks man."

After everyone was fed, we all relaxed. We sat on the ground or on a block and we all started chilling and talking, like how we normally act in the real world.
Except me.
I decided to continue working. I figured that everyone would want better houses so I chose to do something about that. Starting with windows. I made a shovel to speed the task of collecting sand up a bit.

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Shovel

I told Dom that I was going to explore a little bit and said that I would be back in a few minutes. I made my way back into the forest, intent on finding what may possibly be on the other side. I hoped that a beach or other sandy environment was over there because if not, getting sand might just become a challenge. As I trudged along a found a small cave and saw some iron ore inside. What's the harm? I thought and mined it with my stone pickaxe. Iron was good. It can be used to make a lot of things. Tools, weapons, armour, shears. The list could go on. That last item could be more useful than we think, as shears can be used on sheep to get more wool than just... butchering them.

After 5 minutes I found a small river intersecting the land. Rivers usually lead to other large bodies of water. I'll follow it and see where it leads. I chose to head west, walking along the edge of the river until it led to exactly what I wanted. A beach.

I pulled out my shovel and shoveled up a lot of sand. After I collected 24 blocks I chose to stop. Sand can be smelted into glass, and every six blocks of glass can be turned into 16 glass panes. So 16 times 4 is 64, easily enough for the five houses. Before heading back I looked out onto the sea. It was beautiful. The waves of the water were lapping ever so slightly, the clouds were floating over it majestically, and the sun caused the water to shimmer a gold colour slightly. "Incredible." I said aloud, clearly amazed.
I made my way back to camp and when I got back, London approached me. "Where'd ya go? You poofed." She said playfully.
"I went to get sand so we can have windows on our houses. I figured that everyone would want a view of at least something other than wall." I said.
"Huh. That's very nice of you." She responded.
"Yeah. Lets turn that sand into glass. To the furnace." I said and went to the furnace and put the sand in it. I watched some of it cook and imagined how stuff cooks in the game, I remember the interface for it.

[■] ---> [□]   (clear square means glass,
SS                  full square means sand,
[●]                  and circle means coal.)    

After it all smelted and turned to glass I took it to the crafting table and put it in the positions to make glass panes.

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Glass panes

"Now we can have a view in our houses." I said proudly.
"Nice job Jace." London said, looking over my shoulder. She then frowned. "Too bad I'll never be as good as you."
"Hey, hey." I said in a reassuring voice. "Don't say that. You never know,  maybe you will."
"No, I won't. I suck at this." she continued.
"Hey. Look at me." I said in a more serious tone then continued, "The London I know would never back down when the going got rough. Get frustrated? Probably. Confused? Maybe. But give up? Never. You just gotta have faith."
She looked up at me, smiled and chuckled softly. "Thanks Jerome. I think I needed that." She paused then added, "You know, you're not that bad of a guy Jerome. You're alright." Then she wrapped her arms around me and gave me a hug. I couldn't believe it.
She HUGGED me.
That was the first time she ever involuntarily hugged me in the time we've known each other. So I hugged her back and decided to treasure that  moment forever.
She let go after a minute and I noticed her cheeks were bright red with embarrassment. That confused me until I looked around and saw that a few people were watching us. Oh. That's why. I'm pretty sure my cheeks were red now too.
"Oooooh. Jace and London." Dom said playfully. People started to giggle at us.
"Oh shut up. As if you haven't done something embarrassing in front of people before." I said trying to not show how embarrassed I was.
"He he he. You guys love each other sooooo much." Allison joked.
"Whatever. I'm going to go improve our house." I replied, choosing to end this ridiculous conversation.
"I'll help you." London added. I'm pretty sure she just wanted to get away from everyone and all that embarrassment.

We went inside and I started to decide where the windows should go. I figured that there should be one next to the door on the front wall. I was just about to dismantle the wall a bit when London started to talk.
"Hey." She said softly. "I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize that people would be watching us, but it seemed like hugging you was a good idea at the time."
"Hey, it's OK. You know what? What they think doesn't matter. If we like each other then that's all that matters." I said in a comforting tone. "I still feel bad though. Like that was just so embarrassing, hugging you out in the open like that." she continued.
"You know what, I couldn't have asked for a better time or place for a hug like that. I could NOT have. Y'know what else? That was the best hug anyone's ever given me." I said, trying almost desperately to comfort her, but my voice was as calm as ever.
"I'm glad you're so calm about it."
"I'll be honest, I was pretty embarrassed too. I just chose not to make it MORE embarrassing." There was I pause before London said;
"So are we good?"
"Of course we are." I said. She smiled a smile so big and bright, just looking at it made you happier. "Thank you for being so understanding Jace."
"Hey, no problem." I said smiling slightly back at her then added, "Come on. Lets get these windows in."
"Sounds like a good plan to me."
And then we set out to make some windows in our house, and it was in that moment that I felt like London and I were better friends then we had ever been.