Locking In With My Life System

Chapter 35: Indie Team

The roll call was currently being called in Aiden’s classroom, their homeroom teacher, Mr. Lazlow, ticking off names on the register.

"Beaumont?"

"Present." Benjamin responded, his eyes puffy as his hands gestured slightly.

"Brooks?"

"Present." Theo quietly replied while scribbling into a notebook.

"Callaghan?"

"Hear, hear!" Casper exuberantly replied, not that Mr. Lazlow minded.

Casually, he ticked off the name and called to the next person, a thin smile on his lips.

"That’s not how it’s used." Clyde sleepily pointed out with a small yawn.

"Eh. As long as it works." Casper replied to which he then asked;

"Up all night?"

"Yeah. We had to--" Clyde paused upon hearing his surname being called;

"MacAuley?"

"Present." he replied with a small wave and then, returned to his prior conversation;

"--write the lyrics to the song we intend to perform at the talent show."

"Ah, that explains Larry..." Casper turned over to look at the youth whose head was currently slumped onto his desk, a light snore coming from him.

"North?"

No sooner had their homeroom teacher called that surname, he alongside everyone in the class naturally looked over to Aiden’s empty seat, then to his buddies.

Casually, the trio equally looked to one another and then, without thinking twice, threw him under the bus with the only plausible reason they knew;

"Probably overslept again."

Right on point, the doors clicked open and Aiden briskly walked in, his retort instant;

"No, I did not, you traitors."

Then looking over to Mr. Lazlow who simply blinked at him in return, he spoke, his arms gesturing slightly;

"Present?"

Casually, the man ticked off his name and then said;

"Take your seat, Aiden."

Sighing in relief, the youth thanked his teacher and then moved over to settle into his seat.

"So," Casper began, his gaze curious and an impish smile on his, Clyde and Benjamin’s lips.

"If you didn’t oversleep, why then did you arrive late?" he asked to which the other two looked on in interest.

"I don’t speak to traitors." Aiden replied, leaning back into his chair with a smug smile.

"Well except you, Larry. I’m gonna tell you aaaallll about it." the youth turned to face their buddy whom was still sleeping.

"Petty." Clyde remarked.

"Salty." Casper chimed in.

"Grumpy." Benjamin added.

"Cry me a river." Aiden brushed them off, his smile much the same.

Then Mr. Lazlow called out the last name;

"Vance?"

This time, the entire class turned their gazes in the sleeping youth’s direction.

"Vance?" Mr. Lazlow called again... all to no avail.

Casually, Aiden leaned back and gently tapped him.

No sooner had he done that, Larry jolted awake!

"PRESENT!" he called out!

In response, half of the entire class burst into laughter, the others chuckling in amusement. Mr. Lazlow on the other hand, ticked his name off the register with a thin smile.

Almost immediately, the bell for the first period rung and the man promptly left the class as their instructor for their English class walked in.

...

...

...

Lunch break came roughly three and a half hours later. With it, everyone naturally filed into the cafeteria.

Aiden and the gang were no different, though they had stopped by Aiden’s locker for a few minutes so he could return some of his textbooks and grab his bag for whatever reason unknown to them.

After that, he casually slung an arm over Larry’s shoulder as they made their way down the hallway.

"Play along," he whispered and then spoke audibly.

"So, Larry. I hear you’re interested in why I was a bit tardy this morning." he asked, his voice a bit louder and an amused smile on his lips.

"Yeah! Why were you late, buddy?!" Larry immediately got into it, a grin spreading across his lips.

Seeing the interaction between the two, the trio simply shook their head in amusement, each of them rolling their eyes in sync.

That said, Aiden decided to drop the act, an easy smile returning lip as they rounded the corner;

"Well, that’s because I had to drop by the Micro Center to get a few things."

"I think it’d be necessary if you guys decide to come on-board." he brought them to a halt before the door of the computer room.

No sooner had he, he opened the door and ushered them in with a slight tilt of his head.

Clearly intrigued, the quartet shuffled in after him.

As they did, they heard him speak;

"Hey, Theo. I brought my four idiots. Very talented idiots, might I add."

What they hadn’t expected though, was to hear a suppressed chuckle from the youth in question as he reciprocated the greeting;

"Hi, Aiden."

Given they rarely ever interacted with the reclusive youth, they were rather surprised to hear him not only speak so casually, but also with familiarity.

Looking to each other though, their expressions cycling through a mix of surprise and genuine curiosity, they soon found themselves huddled around the monitor Theo was working at.

"Pretty cool, right?" Aiden gestured to the screen, the prototype of the game Theo was building currently running.

For a while, the trio remained quiet, their pupils dilating in real-time as they kept staring at the screen, the gray box ramming into other gray boxes, sprites, elements and what-nots across a beautifully rendered, urban, 2D map.

Then,

"Holy, bananas...!" Casper broke the silence as he leaned forward, the interest on his features evident he proceeded to grab a chair from the side.

"No wonder you’ve been disappearing into the computer lab since we began Junior year!" he remarked to which Clyde leaned in much the same, an intrigued light in his inky-black irises as he asked;

"The Nimbus Engine, right?"

"Oh! Is it that element editor turned game engine you were telling us about last year?!" Larry snapped his fingers in realization, to which Benjamin nodded thoughtfully;

"I think it is. Pity we ended up dropping that rhythm game idea we had."

This time, Theo was the one that was clearly surprised.

Given how little he had interacted with the duo, or anyone else in his grade or in the school for that matter, he hadn’t thought they might share his interests, better yet have a fair knowledge of what he was doing.

"Not, exactly..." Theo replied after a while, to which everyone turned to look at him as he explained;

"Since they made its source code open, I sort of tweaked it a bit to fit the bill,"

No sooner had all five heard that, they slowly turned their heads in his direction, their expressions stunned as they yet again, shared a singular consciousness.

The fuck did he mean he tweaked a source code?!

Though it wasn’t inherently ’hard’ if one had a technical know-how of it, it was still a rather complex thing to do.

Yet, completely unaware of the reaction he was getting, Theo scratched his head a bit as he continued;

"So, I guess you could say it’s a modified Nimbus engine. Probably the only one of its kind,"

"Though that in itself comes with a lot of limitations I sort of have to deal with on the fly and with no proper reference to work with..." he rambled on, a thoughtful expression on his features.

"Plug-ins do help, but often times, the highly-rated ones are really expensive." he tapped a finger on his chin.

"I find a few workarounds for some of the less-rated ones though... but generally, it’s always a bust, so I sort of have to cut corners here and there." he tilted his head slightly from side to side.

"Then there’s the issue of my version being unable to keep up with the updates and security patches from the original repository--"

Finally realizing the reaction he was getting, Theo stopped his rambles and slowly shrunk back into his seat as he muttered audibly;

"Too much?"

"Not at all!" all five simultaneously replied, clearly taken aback that he’d even think that when they were in fact, far more impressed that he could even imagine.

In fact, if Aiden could take a peek at the youth’s Mind attribute right now, he probably would’ve.

In any case,

"Well guys, that’s why I brought you here," Aiden finally let out after a brief moment of silence had passed.

"To spruce up the game as best as we possibly can." he added to which he then said;

"Theo’s only certain of game’s core mechanic. A road raging arcade where the player has to get to set locations within a limited period of time while checking a few boxes off for bonus time."

"Asides that, the story’s non-existent, as is the soundtrack. That’s why I was hoping that--"

"SAY NO MORE!" Casper suddenly declared, an excited grin on his features!

"You don’t have to ask us twice. We’re so down." Larry agreed, as did Clyde and Benjamin who nodded in kind.

Hearing that, Aiden grinned from ear to ear as he said to Theo;

"Well then, I guess we have our team."

To that, the reclusive youth’s expression remained genuinely baffled at how quickly everything was settled.

Following that, Aiden retrieved multiple USB drives from his bag, passing it to Theo who immediately understood what to do with it.

Making back-ups of the game in case anything untoward cropped up.

Following that, the gang simply discussed about other things pertaining to the game, and ironed out their respective roles.

Aiden took the role of project manager, creative director, producer and art director.

Casper and Theo on the other hand, would be working hand in hand as the game’s designer, with Theo being the sole programmer, while the trio were in charge of the sound design of the game.

That said, after noticing there was only fifteen minutes left before their lunchbreak ended, the gang quickly excused themselves... well except for Aiden.

He on the other hand, stayed back briefly to give Theo something.