The Jupiter Program

Chapter 3

"I know," I say. "Remember how well you did on testing day? You've always had good aim. And you are sooo humble about it, too!" I flashed him a sarcastic smile.

I earn myself an eye roll with equal sarcasm. It's like we have our own little understanding of each other, knowing what will piss each other off most.

"Peacock," he mutters.

"Preaner," I hissed back, grinning.

I scan the dark room for the virtual reality, or VR, helmets and grab them. There are two other teams in the room with us, although all the other team will be on the same server as us. This is just so we don't hit each other in the simulator.

We slip the helmets on, weapons at hand and press the start button that appears in the air.

It was like being plunged into a different world. Which I suppose it was, considering a lot of people call it the "virtual world".

Waterfalls glisten in the distance, the grass is soft and greener than I've ever thought possible. Birds chirp, and frogs croak in a nearby pond, it's algae glistening, the exact color of emeralds, the water, a crystal clear mirror.

And, if I take one more second to admire it, the landscape will soon be glistening with my blood.

I glance around quickly, find Will and Christian, and run towards them. As I watch, Will has a near miss with an arrow, although it was probably from Eileen. After all, Will could never dodge, and Eileen could never aim.

Christian retaliates instantly, sending a well-aimed arrow into Eileen's avatar's chest, and she winks out of existence. That's another difference between the games and practice: there's no blood. You just get defects if you're hit but not killed, and are removed from practice if you die. So I guess my blood won't be decorating the landscape, no matter if I live or die.

I run over and hold my hand up for a high five. He stares at me like I've grown another head, but high fives me anyways.

I look at Will, whose avatar is pretty similar to himself, with his olive skin and his electric blue eyes, but his hair is straight and brown, making him a bit less attractive than before. Not like the matters, or anything. Christian came up from Will and I took a good look at his avatar and my jaw slightly drops.

I shook my head and studied him for a second. Christian has always been attractive, but this is different.

Christian's avatar has a muscular build, with extremely pale skin, and eyes that were blue like sapphires that sparkle in the sunlight, with his signature dirty-blond hair. He has a simple red T-shirt and blue shorts on. The only way I can tell it's Christian is the way he looked at me, the quiver on his back and his bow in hand, and the fact that he wasn't killing us at this very moment.

Also, the avatars only seem to enhance or slightly change us. I realize Christian's eyes have always been that way, just clouded and dull in real life. And back when we were little, Will's hair was about that shade of brown, and a lot less wavy than it is now.

All three of us jump when we hear a noise in the bushes. We were all too busy studying each other, that until the noise, none of us had seen that another person from an opposing team had been sneaking up on us through some greenery. Then he springs up, ready to kill, but stops when he sees us. Then he takes a good look at me, softens his eyes, and whistles.

Christian draws and shoots an arrow so fast that it takes me a few seconds to comprehend what just happened. I look at Christian and I can tell that that really pissed him off.

"I can't blame him," Will says in Christians direction

"She is even more attractive now," Christian grones in an irritated way and rolls his eyes.