Locking In With My Life System

Aiden and the gang arrived to school the following day to be met with a variety of stares ranging from impressed, to surprised, to awe, then intrigue and so much more.

At the same time, several students came up to them to confirm if they were really the devs behind [Crashout: Sin City].

Upon responding in the affirmative, the info quickly spread across the school like wildfire, more so when the more perceptive ones had done the maths pertaining to the game’s sales.

Suddenly, all six became the center of attention for the rest of the day, each of them looked upon with fascination like endangered species of exotic zoo animals.

Even the staffs--teaching and non-teaching--weren’t exempt from this.

Mr. Lazlow and Mrs. Delacroix even confirmed it with Aiden and Theo when they’d shown up for the practice session, as did Damian, Megan and several of their peers prepping for the decathlon.

It also didn’t help that most of the gang happened to comprise of eligible ’bachelors’, hence sending a community of ’bachelorettes’ their way.

Suddenly, half of the ladies in school knew whom exactly they wanted as their dates to prom.

Casper naturally, was a no-go area.

He and Daisy were an item and a match made in heaven so the ladies knew better than to even conceive the idea of trying their luck with him.

The rest of the gang, however? Fair game.

By the time they’d arrived at the cafeteria during lunch break, and had settled into their seats as usual, several of these ladies piled into the seats next to them right after.

Considering Aiden had found himself increasingly approached by several female students across all grades ever since his senior year debut, he found it pretty easy to navigate his way around them.

It also helped that they didn’t want to come off too strong as they weren’t in the know if there was actually a thing between him and their school’s resident queen bee.

More so when she was literally seated just opposite his table and had managed to flash him a flirty grin whilst mouthing the words, ’Mysterious Entrepreneur.’... one that had gotten a good chuckle out of the coal-haired youth.

That said, Larry, Benjamin and Clyde, weren’t overwhelmed by the attention they were getting either.

They’d had their fair share of dealing with such situations given the jams their band had whipped up over the course of their school years so they easily managed to keep their cool.

Theo on the other hand, found himself in quite the quagmire, his social battery tanking faster than a crypto rug pull.

Though several of his peers had long shed off the notion that he was a loner given how seamlessly he happened to have integrated into the gang, most hadn’t actually managed to strike up a long conversation with him outside of basic pleasantries and class activities.

The only ones whom had managed to, were none other than Aiden and the rest of his buddies, alongside a couple students in the decathlon team.

Now though... he was suddenly looking like prime real estate to the ladies.

Besides, Theo had always been arguably handsome in his own right.

It just so happened that he never once capitalized on it and neither did he have the avenue to dwell on it given how rough most of his life had been.

Safe to say, several of his female peers were looking to pitch their tent on his land, hence why he was currently feeling overwhelmed by all the plethora of questions coming his way.

”Say Theo, didn’t you have those lines of code you needed to incorporate into the latest patch?” Aiden did the smart thing, and gave the youth an opening to vanish from the cafeteria.

At the same time, it tugged on the situational awareness of the ladies without outright calling them out, or making them look bad--something Theo wasn’t sure how he was supposed to approach.

But with Aiden coming to his rescue...

”Yes! That!” Theo immediately stood up from the chair, a sense of relief washing over him, much to the amusement of the rest of the gang as he declared;

”Thank you for reminding me, Aiden. I-I’ll get to it now.”

Promptly, he carried his tray of food and headed straight for the door... but not before saying a brief, quiet ’Thank You.’ to Aiden first.

Ticking a finger off his head in reciprocation, Aiden simply continued eating his meal, his buddies likewise doing the same as the chatter resumed at their table a moment after.

Though it might’ve seemed like a simple excuse to give the curly-haired youth an avenue to escape, all five knew there was a metric of truth to his words.

As well as their game was doing, there were a few minor grievances some players had complained about, one that they’d been sending to their joint group as soon as they stumbled upon them in an effort not to forget to fix them.

In fact, Theo had started working on some of them yesternight already, hence why Aiden had used it to the youth’s advantage.

In any case, the rest of the day went on with all six simply going through the motions by attending their classes.

It would’ve been perfect too... if the sextet hadn’t found themselves standing before Principal Walters in his office.

”Do you know why you’re all here?” the strict-looking man asked.

All six looked to themselves briefly.

Then they simply shrugged, pretending they hadn’t the faintest idea what the man meant as they replied in a casual negative;

”No.”

Aiden could swear he almost saw the man’s lip do that imperceptible twitch of amusement.

’Is he actually just a chill guy under all that authoritarian air? Should ask Damian later.’ Aiden filed the question to the back of his mind for the meantime.

Then he and his buddies watched as the man pulled out a familiar flyer from one of many files on his table.

”I presume this was your handiwork?”

This time, the youths didn’t even bother to play dumb, and Aiden completely owned up to it in an effort not to incriminate the others;

”My, handiwork. Yes. Yes, it was.”

Bobbing his head subtly, Principal Walters simply returned the flyer into the document and said;

”To start with, I’m going to have to punish you for misusing the board. That’s non-negotiable and it warrants a detention.”

Aiden expected that. As long as it was just detention, he was fine.

It was also why he simply nodded in acknowledgement and accepted his fate.

Not that it made the concept of detention itself any less weird to him.

Imagine being held hostage by your own school for a little while longer than usual because you misbehaved.

’It’s almost like a temporary kidnapping, when you think about it,’ he mused to himself, his thoughts continuing;

’Aren’t there like better alternatives? Scraping gum from under cafeteria tables? Helping the non-teaching staffs with their day-to-day tasks, perhaps? A bit of community service here and there--’

Aiden’s thoughts paused, his eyes blinking once.

Then,

’Yeah, I’d better keep my mouth shut and not give them any ideas.’ he zipped the folder and tossed it into the abyss of thoughts that should keep sitting within the confines of his mind.

That said, he was in such an extremely good mood, he couldn’t help but be unserious even in the current scenario.

”As to why you’re actually here,” Principal Walters continued, his palms interlocking.

”I’d like for you to do an interview with the press club regarding the game you built.” the man casually dropped the news like it wasn’t a surprising thing to say.

”We’d like to dedicate a segment of this year’s yearbook to it.” he added much the same, much to the concerned gazes of all six.

For a moment, they all wondered if their Principal was messing with them.

Aiden even managed to give the man a subtle, bombastic side-eye before he then spoke, his tone respectful;

”With all due respect, Principal Walters,”

”I would think the last thing the PTA and alumni would want to read in fine print was how four idiots, one genius and one copter made a game about mowing pedestrians and doing drugs.” he added, maintaining the honest respect his tone carried.

Casper, Clyde, Benjamin and Larry would’ve jabbed at how proud they were of their buddy’s gradual acceptance of his name if not for the fact that they were in full support of what he’d just said.

”It’s simple. You don’t outright talk about it. Just give the general details and leave it at that.” the sharp-looking man replied without looking up as he casually signed a document he’d pulled out earlier.

Once again, the gang looked to one another in confusion.

Clearly, there was something at play here that they weren’t aware of.

Especially since the natural order of what they had been expecting was being flipped in real-time.

Nonetheless, Principal Walters continued speaking;

”The details regarding the interview will be relayed to you soon, so prepare ahead.”

Then he glanced up to them briefly and said;

”That’s all I had to discuss with you. You may all leave.”

For a moment, the sextet looked to one another, all of them shrugging in confusion as they had no clue what exactly was going on.

Nonetheless, they gave Principal Walters polite nods and filed out of his office a moment after.

As for the man himself, a thin smile had tugged at the corners of his lips.