Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen - Mission; Be My Plus One

Author's note; made a slight alteration in previous chapter, Owen did not take a mock exam, but his final physics exam. This was because I realised the timings were becoming all messed up.

"So where did you disappear to last weekend?" Alexandria asked nonchalantly while they studied in the library.  They just had a mathematics exam left together, although Owen also had a chemistry exam at the end of the week as well. They chose to study at school as Owen would more than likely play games all week instead of revising, if he were at home. Alexandria was just happy to accompany him.

"Gees Alex," Owen replied.  "That was over a week ago, why bring it up now?"

"I'm just curious," Alexandria replied.  "I mean, you did ditch us, you know... for whatever it was."

"Yup," Owen agreed, as he played around with some complicated algebraic equations.  Ah, these were all too easy since his awakening!  He should focus on chemistry instead.  It was his first time studying it and biology (he believed he had done well enough with this exam) at this level... at least since he was in the physical world and even then, he was at best and indifferent student.  Of course, what was taught was also different, understanding was more advanced than this in his world, but he couldn't recall that much of it anyway.

Having made his decision, he swapped his books over for the chemistry notes and began to read.  Alexandria let him study quietly for a few minutes before the real truth she wished to know could no longer be contained.

"Did you go with that girl?" She asked.

"What girl?" Owen asked in return, though did not look up from what he was reading.

"You know, that girl," Alexandria said, "your in game wife."

"Oh, Harmony?  No, not with her," Owen replied.  Alexandria let out a sigh of relief and happily returned to her maths notes.  They managed to study in peace for a good half and hour before the lunch bell rang.  Alexandria packed away her books and Owen followed suit.

"Are you coming to the canteen?"  The girl asked.

"Yeah," Owen agreed.  "Let's go see what slop they consider edible this time."

"It's not that bad," Alexandria defended the canteen's meals.  They were nutritious and balanced, occasionally a little bland, but overall of good quality.  "Much better than greasy take out," she added.

"Fair enough," Owen replied.  "But they don't have a patch on A..." he suddenly fell mute, as they entered the canteen.

"What?" Alexandria asked as she picked up a tray and followed the queue of students towards the selection of meals.

"Never mind," he said.  They both chose the vegetable lasagne with garlic bread and fruit juice before paying and weaving in and out of bodies to find elusive empty seats.  They finally were able to sit down as a couple of students left the canteen, but lazily left all of their rubbish on the table.

"Honestly," Alexandria scolded as they gathered the mess onto one tray and pushed it to one side so they had space to eat.

The lasagne was passable, Owen decided and they did not speak as they satisfied their stomachs with the hot meal.  Midway through, Owen's least favourite classmates decided to descend upon them.

"Hey Owen," Charlotte Hayward smiled, batting her eyelashes as if she had something stuck in her eye.

"Oh, hi," he replied in between bites.

"I heard the good news, congratulations," she said to him.  Owen glanced over at Alexandria, who winced slightly as if remembering something.

Owen decided to play it safe with his answer.  "Thank you."

"I bet the engagement party will be amazing," her friend, Lizzie, sighed dreamily.  "Will there be celebrities amongst the invited?"

"Who knows," Owen replied, vaguely.  He still had no idea what they were talking about, but he was beginning to have vague suspicions.

"Hasn't your older brother told you the guest list?" Charlotte asked.

"Well, he has been busy," probably.  "As have I.  There are exams happening."

"I've never been to a formal engagement party," Charlotte said, still skirting about the reason she sought out the boy.  Owen simply looked at her and smiled, the curve not reaching his eyes.

"Oh really," he replied.

"Don't those sort of parties have a 'plus one' requirement," Lizzie mentioned.

"That's usually something reserved for non-family members," Alexandria politely reminded them.  They turned to look at her as if they had not been aware of her presence before returning their attention to Owen.  However, he refused to pick up on their hinting.

Finally, Charlotte placed her offer upon the table; "Well, if you do require a plus one, my door is always open."

"I recommend you shut it," Owen replied.  He really could not stand these girls.  "To prevent drafts."  Charlotte huffed crossly and walked away, her head held high.  Her friend had to move quickly to keep up with her.  Owen turned to Alexandria.  "Okay, What do you know?"

"Karl has just become engaged to some girl... Charity.. something, I can't recall her surname.  Nouveau riche.  Their engagement party is in a month's time.  Daddy received the invitation on Friday." Alexandria's family were well known in business circles, but they just so happened to be close branch family to titled elite.

"I see," Owen replied, suddenly losing his appetite.  "Well, it's not unexpected for them to not tell me.  That way I cannot show up and embarrass them."

"It's not right!"  Alexandria exclaimed.  "You are your father's legitimate son, excluding you is like denying your lawful rights!"

"Alex," Owen chuckled without mirth.  "This isn't the Victorian period.  No one cares whether you were born within a marriage or outside of it.  My father has already made it clear where I stand in the scheme of things.  Honestly, when I am making my own money, I'll divorce the lot of them.  That'll make my step mother truly happy."  Alexandria's face twisted, her eyes reflecting the sadness that she felt.  She too suddenly could consume no more.  They took their trays and rubbish to the designated area, silently, before returning to the library.

*****

*Mission; Get invited to Karl Jackson's engagement party.*

"Ugh, do I have to?"

*Yes.*

"I knew you were going to say that...!"

*...then why did you bother asking?*

"Hope?"

*****

The little known character Yu Long favoured swords, just as the person he was unknowingly linked to, but he also happened to have some proficiency in pistols, rifles, blunt weaponry and thrown weapons.  He was dragged out of his dusty hidey hole, whenever his player felt like practicing other skills that the main character was not good at... So that one did not ruin his reputation.  Recently, Yu Long found he was being favoured a lot more recently and found himself teamed up by a very new account... a cute, androgynous male character, who also had long black hair.  That character had been named Ah Liû.

The jack of all trades character helped the new, fresh character speed level, going to certain high spawning, low level monster zones and through rifts that no one else bothered with.  Neither character was in a faction and neither character had a list or were on a list of friends, (with the exception of each other) so they were pretty much left alone.  And while they fought without much needed skill against basic fiends, their players chatted over team-speak.

"I'm sorry that I can't come down this weekend," Adam pouted as he moved Ah Liû to collect the dropped resources.  "The wicked witch put me down to work this Sunday.  She figured out that I am in a new relationship and is using it against me."

"Why?" Owen asked, shooting at a recently spawned mob.  His shots were becoming more precise.

"She has... issues," Adam said, wryly.  "When she is single, so should everybody else be."

"Could she be Nellie?" Owen asked, knowing that Adam had not had much luck finding the girl.  It had annoyed him that just how many girls seemed to throw themselves at his boyfriend's feet.  If he didn't know how much Adam needed the job, he would have demanded that his man quit!  A vague idea of supporting Adam came to him during his jealous moment, but he knew that offering such would be a blow to Adam's pride, so he let the idea go without mentioning it.  He had also been surprised to learn that Suffer the Wrath visited the club he worked at sometimes, though it was not frequently.

Adam's shudder was actually audible enough to come over their connection via the game.  "Thankfully not," Adam said.  "To be honest, the one thing good that I can say about that woman, is that she has never hit on her staff.  Admittedly, she hires good looking people to work the front, but that's just business."

"Hmmm," Owen hummed a non-committed agreement.

"How about your end?" Adam asked.

"My end?" Owen repeated his words in question.

"Yes," Adam said.  "That girl has been close to you before; once as your sister and once as your Temple maid."

"Ah, well," Owen had to admit that he was right about this.  "Apart from Harmony, I mean Suffer, who I only have met in the flesh once and Alexandria, there's no one else really.  It's not Alex though."  Owen was sure it was not his childhood friend.  She had not once mentioned Adam or any other guy from the Convention, apart from Henry, who they were both friends with and Seven Chances, who had to hitch a ride with them as a certain someone stole his car.

"It's not Suffer either," Adam replied.  "I checked."  Owen felt his jealousy stirring once more and beat it down by thoroughly annihilating the adversaries in front of him.  "There is really no other girls close to you?  What about your sister?"

"Nope," Owen replied.  "I've never met my sister, but she's only like seven or eight.  How much trouble can she be at this point in time?"  He stretched out his legs as pins and needles had set in from leaning on the so much. "There has been a couple of girls trying to get close to me, but honestly, they are clearly after my older brother's money and reputation rather than me."

"Your older brother?  Karl.. wasn't it?" Adam asked.

"Hmmm," Owen replied, he glanced over at the gold edged invitation that he had convinced his brother Mark to send him after promising that he would not make any trouble for Karl nor the fiancée, nor would he embarrass the family.  He said he just wanted a chance to be apart of the family.  The last part was a complete lie, of course, but it was what had convinced Mark in the end.  "He's just recently become engaged and is throwing an engagement party.  Those girls wanted to be my plus one.  Um..."

"What is it?"  Adam asked, softly.

"I don't really want to go alone," Owen told him.  "I don't want to go at all, but it's a whole mission sort of thing... I am certainly not going to ask one of those leeches, so..."

"Yeah," Adam said, encouragingly.

"Go with me?"

"Always."

Definitions;

team-speak; By this I mean they are using a channel to talk to each other via microphones.  The channel is specifically for those in a team or party.  Otherwise, if everyone in the game could hear what everyone else was saying, it would get very noisy!