The high school kids ate and ate. What seemed like a never ending buffet of pizzas was finished like a cow stuck in a tank of starved piranhas. Dietrich resumed his conversation with Charlie.

“So half the size and yet the same functions, longer battery life, and a processor upgrade? So it’s just a performance boost?”

“Oh it’s much more than a performance boost! The newly enhanced OS will bring a crude version of the newly developed holographic technology to your own Handheld Navi, putting a new depth to communications between one person to another.” Charlie explained.

“Cosmetic upgrade.”

“Yes. You always have a way to condense my verbose statements.” Charlie replied

“Ha Ha, yeah. Charlie you should watch how you say things, you tend to scare people off with your words.” explained Dietrich.

“Yes, I believe so.”

Just as Charlie finished his words, a jock called him from a nearby table. He wore a Varsity Jacket with a “C”, to make sure everyone in the world knew he was captain of the varsity team. His name was Grant Lee and Dietrich wasn’t on particular good terms with him. Grant Lee had changed since his life started to become consumed by basketball. As Grant entered this Senior year, his ego seemed to explode at an all time high.

Charlie replied, “Hey Grant, you enjoy your vegetarian pizza? I thought it was delicious.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t talking to you Charlie.”

Even with this comment Charlie continued to smile, possibly not interpreting the situation.

Dietrich shot back, “Shut up Charlie, you and your jock boys can lock yourself in the gym if you’re going to act like dicks today.”

Grant shrugged off Dietrich’s comment and walked over to his table. He asked, “The boys at Claremont were talking trash. They said something about being able to beat us at the basketball tournament tomorrow but we have a slight problem.”

“Yeah, really? The boys at Claremont talk trash all day, everyday.” spoke Dietrich.

“So I was gonna say, the problem was that most of our A-listers on our basketball team are either out of town for vacation, or tied up. So me, Hughes, and Joshua were talking, and wanted to ask if you and Derrick were up to help us for this challenge. You in? We got to go rep our school, you know?”

The first thought that entered his head was that he could care less about representing his school or to defend school pride. However, Joshua and Hughes were good guys and they helped Dietrich in the past. He knew Derrick would be up for the challenge. He thrived on things like this.

After the slight pause Derrick responded, “If Derrick’s in, I’ll help you guys.”

Grant laughed, “Then you’re in, Derrick was with me when they challenged us.”

“Ohhh, looks like fun Dietrich. We should all come out to support you guys.” said Charlie.

“Haha, if you want, I don’t like how Grant is treating you these days, or how he treats anyone these days.”

“It’s alright Dietrich, I’m sure he will grow out of it.” replied Charlie as he brushed his hair out of his face.

Derrick called from across the room to Dietrich, “Hey Dietrich! We’re splitting the check remember?”

“Alright, I’m coming!” Dietrich reached for his wallet as he walked toward the register.

Grant pushed his way up to the front where Dietrich, Derrick, and Jane were paying for the check.

“Claremont boys messaged me just now and we’re going to go play ball tonight against some of them as a warm-up for tomorrow, you’re in right?”

“Tonight? Uh, I got nothing to do, Dietrich you ok with it?”

“My parents should be back home tonight so I’m done with my baby sitting. Let me just check with them and I’ll tell you if I can.”

Grant sneered, “Hah, higher a baby sitter tonight if they’re not back. See you at the park tonight at 8:00PM.” Grant tossed a fifty dollar bill on to the counter and pushed back out of the crowd and exited with his two friends.

“Jeez, that guy is really in need of an attitude adjustment these days regardless of his family issues I’ve been hearing about,” said Jane.

“Hah, I think he likes you, he left more than enough money to pay for his meal.” said Dietrich.

“WHAT!?” exclaimed Derrick.

Dietrich managed to calm down Derrick, they were lucky enough that Jane was too busy to notice what was going on.

“Joke… joke” whispered Dietrich.

“Oh, sorry… don’t do that again, you put me in panic mode,” replied Derrick.

Jane finished paying for the food and they headed out.

Slowly the herd of friends mixed with Save Mother Earth club headed out to the parking lot. The sun was starting to peak as the clouds started to part. Full stomachs meant happy people, and happy people meant lots of talking. Conversation was everywhere. Derrick started to bother Jane once again.

“So I was thinking that you should never plan our events, because it’ll only be like a Save the Earth Mother meeting, or like a Politics of The World Summit or something.”

“Hey, you never said anything about that, and anytime you ever plan we end up doing things girls don’t like to do!” retorted Jane.

Derrick shot back, “Hey, hey, hey, at least I get the job done, and it’s exciting! Right Dietrich?”

“Ha ha, it’s always better when meat is involved,” A wide grin appeared on Dietrich’s face.

“OH you two make me so mad!” Jane clenched her fist and clenched her teeth.

Jeanette ran over to save the day. “Hey you guys, what are you two up to now!?”

“ARGH, just forget it!” Jane blew her bang to the side of her face and turned away.

“Hey chill Jane we’re just teasing,” Dietrich tried to appease Jane.

“Oh yeah!” Jeanette thrust her finger into the air. “Did you guys hear about the Basketball tournament tomorrow? I heard like a bunch of different schools are going to be there!” exclaimed Jeanette.

Jane turned around and glared at both Dietrich and Derrick. “You two are playing right? Wasn’t that what Grant was asking you about?”

Derrick responded, “Uh yeah, we should be playing.” Derrick gave Dietrich a look from the corner of his eye. “Why do you ask Jane? Do you really care?”

“Because you guys were so mean to me today, you guys have to win or else you guys can’t come to any of our Save Mother Earth club ever again!”

Both Derrick and Dietrich laughed at the threat and Jeanette started to crack a smile.

“HUMPH! I’ll be there tomorrow so just win okay? Let’s go Jean, we got to plan for our other club meetings!” Jane hit both boys in the arm and dragged away Jeanette by her shirt collar.

“Dude, I think we got to lay off making fun of her for a while.” said Derrick.

“No, I don’t think I have too, just you. You’re the one that likes her,” replied Dietrich. As Derrick was about to respond, Dietrich’s phone rang and Derrick was pulled away by some girls looking to flirt with him. Derrick had somewhat of a fan club built on campus as he was the more popular and extroverted one. Derrick looked at his Navi and found his mother had sent him a message that both her and his father had arrived and to remind him to pick up his sister.

“Hey Derrick, I’m going to go pick up Sherry and I’ll meet up with you at the park later.”

Derrick looked back from the crowd of girls, “Yeah, I’ll see you there bro!” Derrick waved and disappeared into the crowd of girls.

A cool breeze flowed into Dietrich’s room rousing him from his sleep. The smell after the rain was intoxicating. He stood up from his bed and stretched his arms to let out a yawn. Picking up his Navi that had dropped to the ground Dietrich checked the battery life and unplugged the headphones. He walked over the window and gazed out. A smile ran across his face; the trees looked greener, the houses had a certain shine, and the sunshine shined through the clouds. He breathed deeply in hopes of capturing the moment into his whole body.

Walking over to the opposite side of the room he set his Navi on a small dock. In an instance the blank wall glowed white, then the words DIETRICH NAVI: DOCKING SUCCESSFUL flashed on the screen leading to a menu screen. He flicked his hand in the air motioning icons left and right to find the messaging application; he clenched his hand closed then opened it. A flashing avatar and the letters D.C. appeared on the side of the application.

 

Message from: D.C. 2:22AM

Hey Dietrich, call me when you wake up…

 

Derrick and Dietrich had been inseparable since middle school. Even if they each had their separate interests, they connected with each other because simply because they understood one another. Each helped the other grow, and each pushed the other forward. Where one was weak, the other was strong. One could say that they were complete opposites of each other.

Dietrich switched over to the communications mode of the application and pointed at Derrick’s icon. There was a short ringing tone and a voice crackled through his speakers. The words Voice Only danced around where his friend’s video picture should be.

 

“Ugh, freak Dietrich. I told you not to call me so early in the morning.” Dietrich could hear the rustling of sheets.

 

“Ha, wake up, you were the one that messaged me to call you in the morning. What time you go to sleep last night?”

 

“Four… I think… We finally had a decent conversation for once.”

 

“I don’t know Derrick, messaging applications are pretty… impersonal.”

 

“Give it a break dude, it’s just one rung on the ladder of looooooooove.~” Derrick’s picture emerged on the screen. His usually neatly groomed hair was blown straight to one side and he had drool marks on his face.

 

Dietrich cringed his face from the awful sight. “Brush your teeth; I smell your dirty breath from over here.”

 

Derrick yawned and fell back onto his bed. “Shaddup I’m going back to sleep, good night”

 

Dietrich shook his head, “Ok, but what time are we meeting today?”

 

“Erh, I think it’s around noon, Jane’s in charge this time, unofficial Save Mother Earth meeting.” Derrick was now completely out of sight from the camera, all one could see was his lavishly furnished bedroom.

 

“Ok, I’ll just call her then.”

 

Derrick’s video turned off, Voice Only appeared in place of the video. “Hey Dietrich do me a favor, call me in like an hour, yahhh?”

 

“No, wake up yourself, or have your maid wake you up.”

 

“Gosh, fine. I’ll see you later.” Before even finishing his sentence completely Derrick fell asleep.

 

“See you later today.”

 

The application automatically closed itself and returned to its main screen.

 

[BREAK]

 

Dietrich drove down 7th Street to spot “A Slice of Heaven”. He rolled down his windows to welcome the cool breeze, but to his surprise as he took a deep breath the scent of pizza intoxicated the air. He parked his car and spotted his friends through the restaurant window as some waved to him. Walking into the restaurant there was quite a large line; likely because of the buy one pizza get one free for their opening week. He walked past the large crowd to see all booths and tables packed. There was a sense of excitement in the air as waiters rushed from table to table, friends exchanging conversation, and the sound of pure frenzy overflowed from the kitchen as the double doors would flap open and close. He maneuvered his way over to his friends as they were debating to see which pizza would be best to order. He saw that Derrick was sitting next to Jane, his current love interest trying hard not to be too close, yet not too distant. Dietrich sat down next to Derrick and picked up a menu to hide behind. Things didn’t look very good.

“You’re hovering Derrick, go sit next to your friend” insisted Jane.

Derrick’s eyes got big as he moved in closer to Jane, “Oh yeah, so you’re not my friend?!”

“No you bonehead! I need to talk to Jeannette about Save Mother Earth Club, just go away for a second.”

“Jeannette? Oh I see, have an interesting conversation with her, but I bet you’d have a much more interesting conversation with me!”

Dietrich could see Jeannette was getting awfully annoyed by Derrick’s bantering. Suddenly, Jeannette bolted out of her seat with fist raised in the air ready to hit Derrick in the head but Jane’s hands bolted up seconds earlier to place her back into her seat. Derrick stuck out his tongue out to taunt Jeannete.

Jeannette whispered under her breath, “Ohhhh… that Derricks got some nerves, I would give him a black eye”.

Derrick shrugged his shoulders and raised his hands, “Hah, what can I say? Only a truly weak minded person would resort to violence as the first choice.”

Jeannette let out a low growl as she glared at Derrick. Dietrich decided sitting next to Derrick wouldn’t be a good idea and spotted Charlie sitting in the corner booth being left out of the group as usual. He slowly put down the menu and got up from the booth to sit next to Charlie.

“Hey Charlie!” Dietrich gave Charlie a pat on the shoulder as he sat down next to him.

“Oh, hey Dietrich. How is it going?”

“Not too bad Charlie” Dietrich replied.

Charlie was the socially awkward one of the group. No, actually more than being socially awkward he had no social skills at all. Most of the time he would sit pretty much unnoticed by the group and not many people would speak to him, but he would always tag along with the group from time to time. Charlie had giant thick rimmed glasses that heavily contrasted his face. He had long dirty blond hair that gave him somewhat of a shaggy look, and always wore lots of plaid with cargo shorts, or cargo pants. When one would look at him the first thought would most likely be “Walking Calculator”, “Extreme Gamer”, or a variation of the sort. He had a thin lanky frame, and walked with a slight hunch that almost looked like he was slouching.

“Hey Charlie, I saw that new line of Upgraded Navis your Dad’s company was launching.”

Through his shaggy hair the outline of Charlie’s eyes lit up. “Oh, they finally released the commercials! I’m so happy, the marketing department always lags on promotional material, and I hate how they’re always about maximizing profits.” Charlie revealed a small Navi about half the size of Dietrich’s Navi.

“What the!? I forgot the perks of being the CEO’s father. You always get a free sample of the newest line of products.”

“Correction Dietrich!” Charlie extorted, “Owner, my father is actually separate from the Board of Directors and Central Executive Officer. However, his job description remains similar to those members, he is not the central executive officer.”

Dietrich slightly squinted his eyes and crept back from Charlie as he started to delve into the hierarchy system of Titan Heavy Industries.

“Slow down dude, you want to explain that revolutionizing piece of equipment you got there in your” Dietrich was cut off by the sound of Derrick’s voice from the adjacent table.

“Hey Dietrich is Deluxe Vegetarian Pizza Ok with you? The Save the Earth Mother Communist Dictator wants us to eat green today.”

Dietrich crinkled his face and pointed towards his table. “Uhmmmmmm, maybe we should create a Meat lover democratic society of the free nations club over at this table”

Jane’s turned her head and stared into Dietrich’s eyes. Dietrich felt as if she was directly relaying a message into his soul by relaying a message of green and peace.

Dietrich flinched backwards and threw both hands into the air.

Dietrich spoke in a slightly mellow way to appease the angry girl, “I am a neutral nation. I surrender.”

A smile crept upon Jane’s face as a look of satisfaction. She turned to Derrick, “I win.”

Derrick assumed a fetal position and acted as if he was crying.

“I can’t believe you made him cry. How about…” Dietrich slightly paused as a Derrick raised his face to reveal a sinister grin. Derrick yelled resounding through the restaurant’s commotion, “JANE’S GONNA BUY EVERYONE VEGETARIAN PIZZA!”

The whole section leaped from their seats with shouts of rejoice and praise, all chaos erupted as people started to order enough vegetarian pizzas for each table. Jane’s efforts were futile to quell the shouts of joy, ecstasy, and of course the orders. Derrick shifted around with his fingers to see what was going on to only see Jane looking down at him. Jane grabbed Derrick and started to shake him violently.

“It’s your fault, it’s your fault, do something!”

“Hey, hey calm down Jane, you’re turning into some beast… like your voice is getting lower.”

Dietrich started to speak and both Derrick and Jane turned to see him talk, “Hey since we’re going green because you think it’ s going to save the world or something, Derrick and I will help you split the check, is that fair?”

Derrick gave Dietrich a thumbs up and a giant smile from behind Jane. Dietrich’s play seemed to abate Jane’s anger as she sat down letting out a sigh. “You two drive me nuts.”

Derrick started to say, “Hey, without us, what kind of leader for your green club do you think you’d be? Some evil fascist, dictator…”

“EH EH EH!!!” Dietrich motioned that none of what Derrick was saying was helping.

“Pizza’s here!” what seemed like throngs of waiters arrived to the table with their vegetarian pizzas. Another cheer of delight came from the group of friends.