“Ugh…” I groaned as I woke up.

For a moment, my mind centered on the usual routine. Going to school, enduring the boring lessons, avoiding the purple crack in the gym hall during PE…

And then I remembered yesterday. Ripping open the crack, going into the game world, smuggling potions and magical items into my room, quickly hiding everything when Mom came home, then pretending to sleep… and then, I guess I’d accidentally fallen asleep for real. Without even eating dinner.

I turned my head and saw the usual purple crack. Tightly closed to make sure nobody could come in. Honestly, it still felt a little disturbing to have this right here. What if someone else could open it from the other side? That would be… awkward. And horrifying. What if I was sleeping at the time?

Still, the portal had been there since forever, and I’d never seen anyone open it and come through, so… Hopefully, I was safe from intruders as long as I always closed it behind me.

With that said, it seemed like the portal was constant. Everytime I closed it and opened it again, it always connected to the same exact place. I was still a bit concerned about it spontaneously disappearing, but I was way too excited to leave it be.

I could go on an adventure in another world in real life, without it being a game. And not only that, I could also access places that were normally off-limits for player avatars. What amazing goodies could I find? Could I learn some of the game’s skills? So many questions.

Those would have to be answered later, though. First… school.

I got up, made my bed, and changed with enthusiasm I hadn’t felt since forever. I got to the kitchen before Mom even called me for breakfast. She was surprised for a second but then put on her worried expression again.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well? You can stay home today if you still don’t feel well.”

“I’m fine, Mom! I actually feel much better now,” I assured her with a smile whilst I got seated.

She seemed to have been taken aback by my cheery expression again.

“Alright then… I’ll go with you today. I still have to speak to the teachers about your PE classes.”

“Sure, Mom, that would be great,” I responded.

She gave me a strained smile, still obviously worried. I, on the other hand, was too excited about yesterday’s discovery to be worried. Even if there was a closed portal set on zapping the lights out of me in the gym hall.

We had our breakfast while only exchanging a couple of words, and it was time to head out.

Even as Mom started up her car, I couldn’t help but think about what I would do once I returned home.

Unlike every other day, the car ride passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was saying bye to Mom, who was heading to the teacher’s lounge while I went to my class.

“Hey, yo, champion. You okay now?” Frank greeted me.

“Yeah, I’m good,” I answered with a smile that wasn’t as forced as it usually was.

“Great! Wanna hang out after school, then?”

“Umm… Actually, I already had some plans for today…” Exploring another world. “Sorry.”

“Aww, shucks. Maybe next time then.”

“Sure.”

On our way to the classroom, I briefly contemplated telling Frank and Casey about the whole portal into the game world thing. It would have been great to have friends along for the adventure. Like a hero party or something. But at the same time, I wanted to keep this secret for myself. Not entirely sure why. Perhaps because it made me feel special?

Either way, I decided not to tell them for now.

Once in class, we noticed Casey already sitting in her spot and reading a comic book.

“Heya,” Frank greeted her.

“Hi, Casey,” I added.

“Oh, hi! Are you fine now? Suddenly collapsing like that…”

“I’m fine, I’m fine… Just overdid it a bit.”

“That’s good.” She smiled. “Want to go to the town after school? There’s a new candy store with weird things in there.”

“Ahh, sorry love, secret agent here already has grand plans for today,” Frank answered for me.

“Oh, ok… What are you planning then?” Casey asked.

“Hm? Oh, uh… I wanted to clean my room today.” Sort out the magical items.

“Whaaat? That’s lame. You can do that another time,” Frank called me out.

“Yeah, well… I already promised myself I would, so…”

“Well, alrighty then. Does that mean you are free tomorrow? We could go to that weirdo candy store tomorrow,” Frank suggested.

“Well… Alright, sure, why not?” I finally gave in.

“Cool.”

We continued chatting until the bell rang.

Physics…

How ironic. The entire class was a lie. I had always suspected something was off because of the purple cracks, but what I’d experienced yesterday confirmed that the actual rules of the universe were nothing like what the school taught us. Same went for chemistry. I’d never heard of healing potions in real life.

With that in mind, as well as all the ideas of what I would do and where I would go inside RLO, I had a hard time focusing on the class. The teacher even called me out once. Embarrassing.

Thankfully, the class eventually ended and I was free to chat with my friends again.

I also checked my phone and saw a message from Mom, informing me she’d managed to convince my PE teacher to let me do lighter exercises so I wouldn’t collapse again.

It felt a bit wrong to be separated from everyone else… But if it prevented me from getting a heart attack from getting zapped, I had to deal.

The rest of the day proceeded as usual, except I was even more excited for school to end. So much so, that Frank was weirded out for a moment.

“Since when are you a cleaning enthusiast?”

“Uh, I’m not?”

“Don’tcha lie to me! You keep grinning whenever you space out. So either you are looking forward to cleaning your room, or you are a filthy liar, and got a date with a girl instead!”

“W-what? There’s no girl! I’m just… Uh, I found my old toys yesterday when cleaning –” Old items I had in my bank for ages “-- and just got a bit nostalgic.”

Frank and Casey exchanged looks. Frank’s eyebrows rose.

“Mhmmm, totally not suspicious. Well, fine then, keep your secrets. But I wanna know how your date went tomorrow!”

“There is no date!”

“Yeah, yeah, gotta stay in character. I get it.”

I groaned. Now that he’d gotten that idea into this head, the only way to dispel it was to actually tell him the truth…

“Whatever… Anyway, next up… is PE,” I remembered.

Casey looked at me with concern.

“Uh, like I said, my Mom talked to the teachers, so I should be fine now.”

She nodded, the worry not quite disappearing from her expression.

Luckily, as promised, PE was a lot less strenuous than usual. Even though the portal still managed to zap me during my light jog around the gym hall, it wasn’t enough to knock me out. And for the rest of the class, I made sure to stay away from it, even though part of me was curious where it led.

After PE, there was Math, and then… I was free to go home.

“Damn, you must have caught a real cutie. Was it someone in the hospital yesterday? You sure scored quickly,” Frank teased me.

“As I said, I don’t have a date with anyone!”

“Mmmhmmm.”

I growled and mock-glared at him.

“Well, see you tomorrow, champion.” He patted me on my shoulder with a grin.

“See you,” Casey said with a wave.

“Bye!”

I ran off to the bus station since Mom was at work.

Today, I was going to truly explore another world.