ALEXiThymiA: Chapter 9: Social Dynamics

Chapter 9

Social Dynamics

Being the children of two awakened has a lot of pressure associated with it. The children are not allowed to get personal or augmentation health that they did not earn directly. The parents are to provide the minimum amount of financial assistance as possible. The parents cannot themselves pay for their children to enter a dungeon.

This was why Jim and Judy Thyme were both pleased and a little disappointed that their children, effectively concocted a dating service aimed at taking advantage of loser kids in their grade. At least that was what the two thought at first.

Then the business model went live, and the parents were impressed. Their workaholic daughter created a website where people would audition to get a chance at dating. Luke would do a pre-screen of the candidate, making sure they were on the up and up. Then Alexa would offer her consultation rate.

Then as a bonus, people could gain access to all the records for a limited monthly subscription fee. All accounts were anonymous, and while dating scores were made available for all to see, a premium membership had to be purchased in order to gain access to why certain individuals scored so highly.

At first only a few students used the service, but soon it became a very popular feature for guys wishing to make a name for themselves. Also, the ability to take a picture of them on a date with an arguably attractive female, one who many knew was going places, didn’t hurt.

In all the word Jim and Judy would use to describe their children’s high school dating business venture was classy. They never promised anything, they always acquiesced to their dates. Then offered meaningful advice that could be used to make the candidate a better overall date in the future.

In the end, the site was what it claimed to offer, a date consultation service.

Not just students, but quite a few parents also found themselves investigating the site as well. No, they didn’t do so to find dates, but rather to find out about the type of person their daughter was seeing. Oddly enough this was a feature that while having the potential to be creepy, had helped out more perspective daters than not.

All this is to say that when Johnny Mitchel of all people received a 4.5 for his date with Alexa Thyme, people noticed. In fact, the whole school seemed to notice.

Johnny Mitchel, the son of an awakened and one mundane. He worked hard, made decent grades, but most of all he came from money. Then for him to get a near perfect score, from cold hearted Alexa Thyme, that spoke volumes.

There was even a personal note from the impossibly tough grader.

Had a great time.

Would love to go on a repeat DC anytime.

-A.

That was it, the entire message. The first message the normally stoic woman, the one who was voted most likely to be a villain sidekick, ever wrote.

Yet, that message was more than enough to send Johnny Mitchel from a position of relative obscurity, to being the top eligible bachelor on campus.

His phone and media profiles began blowing up. First with messages of congratulations from his friends, who all then wondered what he did? Then the unthinkable happened, some of the hottest women in class started reaching out to him.

By late Sunday evening, Johnny had made it a point to get over his odd infatuation with the crazy Alexa Thyme and settle for a much more modest girl.

The image that he took, the selfie showing the end of his and Alexa’s first date consultation showed a haggard Johnny in a dirty and chemical covered body suit, next to Alexa who looked nearly perfect. That image alone was enough to cement the fact that he was not meant for Alexa, that they were in fact in different leagues.

After the first run Johnny felt that he still had a shot, which was why he tried to get her to agree to a second run. Of course, in his mind, such a request obviously meant later, maybe a week or a month to keep his overactive heart from exploding within his chest. After a week he figured, he would have been able to sugar coat most of the horrors and the exploding chemicals, the mimic chests, the death tops, and of course the random explosions. That was his plan at least, though he knew she was right to call him out on it there. That he had no intention of going on a second run. He would have feigned some type of last-minute bubonic plague or claimed to have broken a leg. Hell, he likely would have really broken a leg if it meant not having to go back into that cursed place again.

But she was smart, she likely saw through his plans. Rather than letting him off the hook, she dug the knife in, forcing him to go on a second harder run. Johnny only had himself to blame, she had told him that they would only go easy on the first run. That if they went on a second run, it would be at maximum difficulty. That meant that every room was timed.

He watched in horror as Alexa jumped over burning and mixing chemicals, toppled over cabinets, found keys, then somehow managed to fireman’s carry him through burning room after burning room. Even in the hallways, they had to hurry for the hallways shrank. Yes, shrank. Like some type of ancient horror movies where you slowly get crushed to death. There was no time to stop, not that Alexa needed to, she was a machine. Like a female terminator, they had one of those right? That’s what she was, quick, robotic, and sexy as hell while doing it.

The only problem was, Johnny had never been so frightened in his entire life. When he left, or rather was finally able to leave the dungeon, his legs were Jello, not jelly, not wobbly, just Jello. He took a few steps out, and as soon as his mind recognized the safety of fresh air, his body quit on him.

He dropped to the ground and waited. A guard helped him get to a bench.

“You went on a run with Alexa Thyme? Wow, congratulations. She is a record holder.” The guard said, making small talk while making sure that an ambulance or other medical necessities weren’t needed. If the dungeon had a hotel, Johnny would have gladly bunkered down in one for a week. But no, nothing so fortunate existed nearby.

“She does?”

“Yeah, she is a legacy after all, both her parents and I believe at least two of her grandparents are all awakened.” The guard mentioned in passing.

It was at this point that Johnny truly saw the dream, his dream of ever being anything with Alexa Thyme as just a pipe dream. They came from vastly different worlds. While his parents were successful, and his mother was also an awakened, that was nothing in comparison to a legacy like Alexa and Luke Thyme the poster children of the school.

In a way Johnny was happy that she had taken pity on him and given him such a high score and the note. Both of which did wonders to help his social status.

The only problem came when he entered school on Monday morning and found her standing by his locker.

She was still the picture of excellence. Her school uniform covered her nicely but did little to hide her rippling arm muscles and her toned legs clearly shone through her leggings.

He went close to his locker, only to find that she was not moving. Common courtesy would dictate that in such a situation, the person going to a desired location would take priority. This would mean that the person standing in front of the locker, or in this case right next to his locker would move out of the way so he could access the combination spinner and make his required movements. Instead, she just stood there, staring at him.

“Um, hello?” He began, as he reached his arm out in a grasping motion as if he was going to reach behind her.

She just continued to stare at him.

The situation was so awkward, that others began looking at the two.

“Hello. You might not remember, but we went out on a Date Consultation on Saturday evening.” Alexa began, as if he could have somehow forgotten the scariest, most heart pounding few hours of his life.

“Um, I remember.”

“Good. I would like to do so again, with you.” She said.

Badump. Badump.

Johnny’s heart began to beat rapidly. Alexa Thyme was asking him out? Was he dreaming. He looked down to make sure this wasn’t that awkward dream where he wakes up halfway remembering that his pants are missing, and he is left with the boxers that don’t close all the way in the front.

Fortunately, he still had his pants on, but he could not remember if the boxers underneath were in fact the ones that didn’t close correctly.

Then, his mind registered what she said. She said, “again.”

Trying to see if she would be open to other venues, he posed the question. “You mean to dinner and a movie?”

“No. I mean like you did on Saturday afternoon. It was a magical night and I really want to do it again, with you.” Alexa Thyme pressed.

Johnny’s heart raced with equal parts excitement and fear. This was crazy, this was so crazy, he had given up on her. It was clear she wasn’t into him. Of course, she couldn’t be, she had that thing, what was it called, Alexithymia? Yeah, that’s it. She couldn’t have emotions, but here she is asking me out? Johnny thought to himself.

His hands started trembling, as the school notebook he held in his left hand, the one he had intended to put into his locker began shaking so violently that all the papers began shaking out.

The papers began to move, but then before he could even stop himself, the papers were grabbed, and his hand was held tight by two firm hands. Johnny looked down to see that somehow the papers had all been pushed back into the folder. Then he saw that Alexa was using one hand to hold his trembling folder shut, while her other handheld his left hand still.

It was an intimate gesture, or at least it should have been. But at the moment, all Johnny could think was how frightening the whole ordeal was. How terrible he had been on the date. Did she just have a big attraction for spelunking? No, if that was the case then anyone could do. There had to be something, but what? Then his eyes grew wide as he remembered that purple glowing crystal from the first trap room.

Honestly, he couldn’t remember what if anything she got from the second trap room. Instead, he just used that as a chance to rest. That was the first room that didn’t have noxious chemicals leaking, nor walls closing in on him. While she rand and scrambled for her life, he just panted wildly trying to catch his breath. He even made a note to ask her what she got, but he had forgotten. In the end he was so swept up by her talking to him while he was panting that he missed half of what he could do to be a better date. Then she took the selfie of them together. She even took his phone to take a similar selfie for his own records.

But there was the one odd crystal, that much he did remember.

“Is this about that trap room?” Johnny began but was soon cut off.

Slam. Rattle.

His body was pressed into the locker, making a sharp sound. He wasn’t hit hard, but it was enough to make a loud rattling sound against all the lockers.

It took his mind a moment to catch up to what had happened. To his defense his whole point of view had just rotated 180 degrees in less than a second. One second, he was looking at Jess, facing his lockers. The next second he was looking at Jess, facing a crowd of onlookers, no lockers to be seen anywhere.

“Shh! Don’t you know the rule.” Alexa said, as she pressed a delicate finger against his lips. A delicate finger that seemed to be able to exude enough pressure to pop his head like a zit.

“What? What rule?” Johnny stammered.

“What happens in a dungeon, stays in a dungeon.” Alexa said.

“But you…” Johnny was going to point out that she posted a score and details related to their time in that very dungeon. At least that is what he was going to point out, before her cold glare caused dangling parts of him to pull upwards in an act of safety. “Right, we don’t talk about, that.”

At that, she nodded. Then the hand that had been holding onto his shirt let go, likely how she managed to manhandle him so easily.

Shallow breathing.

The girl was frightening, beautiful, but frightening.

Finally, after a few seconds, she asked. “So?”

“So what?” Johnny found his mind fuzzy as he tried to take in everything that was going on. There was so much from the apparent threat about not talking about what he might have seen in that death trap room, to her stalking him, that he wondered what she wanted to know. Right now, he would say or agree to anything. Anything to get her bone chilling eyes to stop boring holes into his.

“Will you go on another dungeon run with me?”

That was when Johnny realized he would do, almost anything to get her to stop.

“No.” Johnny finally managed; his voice shaky.

Wham. Rattle.

There was an explosion right by the side of his head. Johnny wanted to turn but decided looking at the crazy woman before him was more important. He didn’t quite know what to expect when looking at her, but in the end all he got was a hollow vacant stare. The stare of a serial killer, “okay.”

That was it. That one-word reply was all she offered, before she spun about and left, forcing her way through the gaggle of students who had gathered around to gawk at the two.

Only once she left and was around the corner did Johnny let out a long pent-up breath. His hands inadvertently went to his chest. This was the moment he realized why he had come here in the first place as his folder was still in his hands.

Turning around to face his locker, he paused as he saw a giant indent into his locker that was the same size as his face. Suddenly he realized what the metallic sound was that he had heard. She had punched his locker, but why? Generally, such an action would require emotions, but she had none. Instead, she just left.

Had he been hallucinating? Had the giant indent been there all along.

Johnny unfortunately didn’t have long to contemplate this, as he was soon hit with several voices and questions.

“Dude! You got the Ice Queen to be pissed that you won’t go on a date with her?” Travis Michals, the most social Junior that Johnny knew came over to talk to him.

At that, a lot of people began talking.

This felt so wrong, and at the same time so unexpected. Johnny felt warmth, excited, as more than one female also came to ask if they wouldn’t mind going on a date with them.

This almost looked like it was going to be a good day, who said Mondays were bad? Then he looked up to see the fist sized indent in his locker and quickly realized that today had just started and there was still plenty of time for stuff to go sideways. In particular, he wondered if he could avoid the little wrecking ball, he once stalked fondly through these very halls. Karma, it seemed was a harsh mistress. Also, there was likely something in there about being careful about what you wished for, as he remembered being in a similar position last week, where he wished Alexa Thyme, or any girl would give him the time of day. Now he had both, and somehow felt more frightened than ever.

“I doubt this is over.” Johnny said, sparing one last look at the indent in his locker before heading off to first period.