Jake Ingram and the New Night Fury

Chapter 1

Anyone who has said that college is fun definitely spent it getting high or drunk. There is nothing fun about it. The whole idea is that you pay people to make your life miserable. Any single day in college could make you want to end it all.

As I awoke to the not so soothing sound of my phone's alarm, I knew right away that today was one of those days. Startled by the growing annoyance that was my alarm, I struggled to find my phone in the sea of blankets. Since I sleep in a lofted bed, my phone is usually connected to a ten-foot cable that stretches down to an outlet. When I found this cable, however, my phone was not connected to it.

Great.

As I rolled over to check the other side, I could feel my phone against my foot. This was a short moment though because the next thing I heard was the bang and crack of something slamming into the laminate floor below. Sighing, I sat up in bed to go retrieve my now destroyed phone. Now more alert than I was, I could tell the alarm was not coming from my phone, rather the phone of my sleeping roommate: Michael.

Michael is quite a character. I could try to go into detail and describe him, but honestly, I couldn't. We rarely ever talk to each other. I guess we just don't find each other interesting? One thing I do know about him is that he has the strangest sleep schedule. He usually goes to bed around 8:00 pm, only to wake up two hours later "forgetting" that he fell asleep in the first place. Then, after staying out for who knows how long, he eventually comes back to our room and goes back to sleep. He usually stays that way until about 10:30 the next morning. This is the odd part because I know that he has 9:00 am classes every day.

With Michael's alarm still going off and no sign of him shutting it off, I decided that I didn't want to be there anymore. I carefully scaled down the deathtrap that is my bed's ladder and began to get ready for the day. First, I had to change my clothes. It is usually very cold at my college campus and a quick look at the snow outside my window confirmed my suspicions. I found a heavier pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that I hoped was clean. I'm not really one for fashion when it comes to going out in public. Honestly, I couldn't care less.

After I was dressed, I began the search for my phone. Out of respect, I didn't want to turn the lights on as it would wake up my roommate. Ok, that was a lie. I just didn't want to have to talk to him. So, I spent a solid minute looking for my phone in the darkness. There was a little light shining in through the one medieval-style window that the room had, but the desk is as far from the window as it could be, so it wasn't much help. It is safe to say that I couldn't find it.

With another failure under my belt this morning, I decided to just put on my shoes. To do this, I had to sit in my wooden chair that sat before my desk. Now, this thing has to be the most impractical office chair ever made. Even IKEA wouldn't make something this bad. It's basically a rocking chair with no back support what-so-ever. Needless to say, as I sat down in it, I accidentally leaned back too far and the rocking began. Or at least, it would have, if my phone wasn't underneath it. A sickening crunch filled the room. Sighing once again, I thought to myself, Why do I bother coming back here?

I finished putting my shoes on and winced as I picked up my phone. The amount of torture that this thing went through was intense. The glass was shattered into a million pieces, the frame had been bent to a curve, and worst of all, I knew that the battery was almost dead. Oh, and best of all, I got glass shards all up in my hand.

Now a normal person would be really upset about their phone turning into an actual deadly weapon. I am not a normal person. In a pretty calm fashion, I walked the two steps over to where my phone charger ran up to my bed. (The only good thing about this small prison cell is everything is close by) I grabbed the braided cord and pulled it down, not worrying about the loud zipping sound it made as it scraped across the bed frame. The only reason I say this is because my roommate's alarm was still going off. He clearly wasn't waking up anytime soon. Anyway, I took the end of the charger in my hand and attempted to plug it into the phone. This took a little effort because the damage included a malformed charge port. With a little bit of prying, however, I was able to get the cord in.

Surprisingly, the phone made a little ding to let me know that it was taking a charge. That gave me a little joy, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway. I set my phone down on my desk and bent down towards the charging block. To the untrained eye, the charging block may seem pretty normal. It is just a solid black plugin that looks like it could come with any regular phone. On the other hand, this was not a regular block. I reached towards the side of it until I felt a little switch on the side. From memory, I switched it to the on position and listened as the block began to make a soft humming noise. After a few seconds, a slight deep blue glow began to travel from the charging block up the ten feet of cable towards the phone. A small smile appeared on my face as the light approached the bottom of the phone.

This is my favorite part.

As soon as the light reached the phone, it instantly became much brighter as it shined through the cracks in the shattered screen. Slowly, the blue light seemed to fuse shards of glass back together from inside the phone. Where there were missing pieces, the light formed new glass, seemingly out of thin air. The bent frame popped and snapped quietly back into its original form. The light became less and less visible as the phone was being repaired. After about two minutes, the light that flowed up the cable began to recede back into the block. Once it was all in, I switched the block back into the off position and pressed the power button on the phone. Once the screen shone to life, I looked for any scratches or marks on the glass. There were none. I also looked at the battery readout noticing that it read 130%. Satisfied, I unplugged my phone and slipped it into my pocket. As I found my bag and loaded it up with all of the notebooks and pencils I would need for a day of studying, I couldn't help but think, Man, I am good!