The Other Side

Unstoppable (Ch. 1)

Cassie Anderson was never the type to be neat. And the sight before her proved it. With the door to her college dorm wide open, the bright rays of the sun illuminate the piles of junk sprawled across her floor. Empty mountain dew bottles, pizza boxes containing one or two old slices, and loose sheets of paper containing old notes nearly make the floor untraversable.

Cassie is a slim Caucasian twenty-year-old woman. She has messy, short, unkempt blonde hair, brown eyes, and is in a white coat covering her grey undershirt. Her lower clothing comprises of black pants and white converses.

The worn-out college student exhales and takes the key out of its slot before closing the door behind her, once again shrouding the room in darkness. Even in the dark, she maneuvers through the mess with the precision of a feline until she makes it to her desk.

There, she presses the power button on her computer. The bright monitor displaying her blue homepage lights the room with blue light. The blinds to her window stay shut like on most days, making the monitor her only source of light.

She moves her digital mouse through her homepage until she clicks on the Zoom shortcut. The usual homepage pops up, displaying a casual background, and a password input in the foreground. She sighs as she pulls out her keyboard and reluctantly types in: 'BigD1ckDylan'.

Next time they set up a zoom room, Dylan must NOT be the one who creates it. After putting in the password, the screen goes black for a brief moment before four different webcams occupy her screen. Immediately, her once quiet dorm floods with noise as her friends greet her.

"Hi, Cassie!" A young nineteen-year-old Caucasian man says, waving his hand.

Underneath his cam is the username: Aron Christianson.

"How's it going, Cass?" Says a twenty-year-old African American woman.

Underneath her webcam is the username: Empress216.

"Sup, Cassie," A twenty-two-year-old Puerto Rican man says while munching on potato chips.

Underneath his webcam is the username: ZombieSlayer16.

"Hello," Cassie says with a smile, not trying to hide how tired she is.

"Look who's the last one to join us, yet again," Dylan says while rubbing off the chip crumbs in his hands.

"Some of us have busy schedules, Dylan," she retorts.

The other woman in the call fakes a gasp.

"Is she saying we have nothing going on in our lives?" She jokes.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, Jamie," Cassie replies sarcastically.

"Maybe Aron doesn't," Dylan says with a grin. "After all, he has his head buried in a book every time I go visit him-"

Aron looks up, slightly offended.

"I can read and simultaneously study, Dy-"

"GET YO HEAD OUT THEM BOOKS, BOY!" Dylan yells, impersonating a southern father.

Both Cassie and Jamie chuckle as Aron tries his best not to smile.

"At least I got a license," Aron retorts.

"Ooooooooooh," Says Cassie and Jamie.

"Hmph," Dylan says, crossing his arms. "Well who has the car that'll take us to Las Vegas, hmmm?" he replies.

"A car is useless without a license," Jamie says. "Seriously, summer is approaching fast-"

"Relax," Dylan says, holding up reassuring hands. "We're going to make this trip happen, guys. I'll have my license before then. Besides, I don't see any of you with a driver's license."