Day 21:
Grant woke up and said good morning to his parents downstairs. He took a shower and fixed pancakes for everyone. He had gotten used to all the tasks that required to make food. The process had once seemed much longer than the five second wait he had known all his life, but it didn't seem so bad now. He felt proud of himself for being able to do things on his own. He looked back at what he'd done and he saw people learning how to enjoy real life rather than a virtual simulation. He thought of it as a goal achieved. Back in his room, he put his fingertips over the keys and clasped the mouse in his fingers. He typed in a sequence of commands that popped up a small window in front of the black screen. "PASSWORD," it read with a white blank to fill in. He typed seven characters. The screen lit up, flashed black, and then displayed the loading screen as the system rebooted. Grant picked up his headset; it felt both familiar and foreign in his hands at the same time. He placed it on his head as he powered up his PC. He rolled up to his desk. He logged in. AZALEA is ONLINE.