-2-

                                    

                                          
Chapter Two
                          
    "You're fucking stupid," I hit the snooze button aimlessly even after the alarm shut off. I groaned and laid in the same spot for three more minutes before getting out of bed. I didn't bother getting dressed or making myself look presentable. The professor for this class didn't even require face cam. 
                          
    I dragged myself over to my monitors and logged into Blackboard. It's the system my college uses to regulate all our classes. Normally, my semesters would be on the ground but because of Covid-19, all my classes were online yet again this semester. It's been a full school year now since I had in-person classes and I'm not going to lie, I miss it a lot. With this online bullshit, I'm basically teaching myself all the information. Especially in my chemistry class. She expects us to go through the PowerPoints and textbook chapters by ourselves. In fact, I've never even heard my professor's voice. 
                          
    The only good part that came out of this was I got four-thousand dollars for a refund from the college as well as the Cares Act fund from the government. I used most of the money to upgrade my streaming and gaming set up seeing as my biggest source of income came from the speed runs I do on stream. 
                          
    The first class I had was psychology. I entered the online classroom and grabbed my psych notebook and pen while I was waiting for class to start. After an hour of boring note taking while simultaneously doing my chemistry recitation, I left the class. Next was public speaking. Three people gave their speeches today as I just sat back and watched. By watched, I mean did other homework for separate classes. The last class I had for the day was chemistry. However, she never held an online class for that. As I said before, we do it on our own. She just provides us the resources we "need to succeed". 
                          
    When school was done for the day, I went into my bathroom to do my morning routine and use the toilet. I went into the kitchen to get my water bottle from the fridge before laying back down in my bed. I grabbed my phone off the charger and scrolled through the notifications on the lock screen. The one that stood out the most was a reply from Dream. I opened the app to see his response. 
                          
        @DreamWasTaken: No need to be a sore loser. Third place is almost as cool as second :)
                          
    I looked at the tweet and squinted my eyes at it. Part of my anger about the seven milliseconds resurfaced from last night. 
                          
        @CalPal: @DreamWasTaken ok bitch boy. i bet i could beat you by the end of the day.
                          
    Dream replied almost immediately. 
                          
        @DreamWasTaken: @CalPal care for a bet then?
                          
        @CalPal: I'm always up for gambling, whatchu got bitch boy?
                          
        @DreamWasTaken: I'll bet you $10k if you beat my time by midnight
                          
        @CalPal: be prepared to go in debt; you're on.  
                          
    In the midst of my reply, Dream had followed me. I followed him back. Then an account called DreamWasTaken2 followed me. I followed that account back as well when I saw that it was his personal account. 
                          
    I made it my mission to beat his record. I came so close last night; surely I can beat it by midnight. I had plenty of time to accomplish this as it was only ten in the morning right now. I made a vow to myself on the spot that if I won this money, I'd use it to fix my teeth. I wanted to tell everyone I knew about this news but I couldn't. That would open myself up to exposing this second life I've worked so hard to hide. I'll make an excuse if I win the money.