Locking In With My Life System

”Crime... Lord?” Larry offered, his arms slowly widening apart in a vague gesture.

”Nah. Too generic.” Clyde and Benjamin countered, their expressions thoughtful as they sat around in a circle on their chairs.

”I figured as much.” Larry remarked much the same, the youth already thinking up another name.

Behind them was Theo’s laptop, the screen bright as it displayed the prototype of the game which was looking a tad bit better than its previous build.

”Road Rage Simulator.” Theo soon spoke, a sheepish smile on his lips as he scratched his head.

Naturally, everyone turned to look at him, clearly taken aback by his terrible naming sense.

”That’s a terrible name, Theo, and you know it.” Aiden responded with a light chuckle, one they all partook in as the curly-haired youth shrugged a bit;

”Well, I tried.”

”How’s about... Sin City?” Casper suddenly raised a finger, looking to his right and left in an effort to check the initial reactions to his suggestion.

”That’s... that’s actually pretty neat.” Benjamin thoughtfully remarked to which Clyde added;

”Yeah, it’s one of the better ones we’ve come up with so far. Might eventually be what we stick with, though I’d like to think we could still add something to really make it standout.”

To that, everyone nodded in agreement.

As a result, they continued to brainstorm, hoping to come up with just the right one to truly put a unique stamp on the game’s name.

Aiden too was doing the same... though he’d began to stare at the laptop screen intently from where he sat at some point, his thoughts churning rapidly.

There was something particularly curious to him about the way the playable car--previously the gray box--was crashing into every destructible sprite ranging from road signs, vendors, other cars, pedestrians and several other elements in-game that seemed to tug on his senses.

’Crime. Road rage. Sin City...’ his mind began piecing the core elements of the game, coupled with the names they’d come up with thus far.

Looking to the ground briefly, Aiden placed a couple fingers on his chin and then glanced over to the laptop’s screen once more.

Watching intently as a bunch of poorly rendered 2D cop car sprites aggressively collided with the playable car from time to time after it had gained enough notoriety, seemingly in an effort to completely crash it--

Aiden’s lightbulb lit up, a grin spreading across his features as he declared, his voice excited;

”Crashout!”

”Or more specifically, [Crashout: Sin City].” he topped it off with Casper’s previous suggestion.

No sooner had the gang heard that, they nodded slowly... only to begin remarking a few seconds later, a palpable sense of excitement in their voices;

”That... sounds... yes! Yes!” Theo suddenly gave two thumbs-up, his enthusiasm spilling out.

”Yep. Feel’s right on the tongue too.” Larry equally acknowledged, his head bobbing slightly.

”Very right. I can see the vision.” Benjamin admitted.

”Neatly ties everything together as well...” Clyde added to which Casper thoughtfully remarked;

”Yeah. The road rage. The infamous criminal on a vengeful hunt to reclaim his empire. The fact that one of the traditional meanings for crash out means losing a game...”

”That ’Sin City’s’ just icing on it too,” Casper’s smile continued to widen to which he then gave an ’A-okay’ gesture with his fingers;

”It’s a perfect name, Aiden. Perfect. Down to the last, minute detail.”

”Now, I guess all that’s left for us to do, is come up with a publishing name--”

The blonde-haired youth wasn’t even done talking before Aiden interjected, a light grin forming on his lips;

”Crashout Interactive. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

No sooner had he said that, his buddies equally sharing his grin, the bell suddenly rung.

Without thinking twice, the gang swiftly began to pack up their stuff to head to class.

For as much as they were glad that they’d finally sorted out the name of their game and indie team, they had more pressing matters to attend to now.

Physics test.

...

...

...

The closing bell of the day finally rung.

With it, students piled out of their classes--as did the teachers, most of them already heading out the backdoors to the school park so they could participate in the Park Décor, Banner Reveals and Photo ops.

The seniors especially, looked extra peppy. Afterall, they were glad to be completely done with all their tests for the month... hopefully.

As Aiden and the gang equally filed out, Aiden soon began noticing gratitude chains on people’s necks here and there.

When he got to the now crowded park though, he saw even more, one out of every five people having one around their necks.

A bunch of his teachers even had a couple few, their homeroom teacher, Mr. Lazlow having already gotten up to three.

’Huh...?’ Aiden inwardly remarked, pleasantly surprised.

’I guess people still do like to do the gratitude chains--’

Aiden hadn’t even finished those words when Megan walked over and tossed one over his neck as she said, her forest-green irises impressed;

”Congratulations, Aiden. You singlehandedly managed to transform the whole school’s idea of gratitude chains from cheesy to heartfelt.”

”Also, thank you so much for volunteering to help out the Theatre Club and the Student Council. You were indispensable, and I hope you’ll join the committee.” she flashed him a genuine grin, then waved goodbye as she left and disappeared into the crowd.

Naturally, Aiden was stunned to hear that. Just as quickly, he began to piece together what must’ve transpired following he and Mrs. Rodriguez’s interaction at the cafeteria.

As for his buddies, they simply patted his shoulder, almost as if to say; Took you long enough...

It hadn’t even taken long after that, Clarissa had equally popped up, the lady equally throwing a gratitude chain around his neck as she said;

”For being a true gentleman, you deserve to have this.”

Following that, more and more of Aiden’s peers, juniors, sophomores and especially, freshmen-- most of whom were females--came around to place a gratitude chain around his neck.

At some point, Aiden got so much of them on his being, he offloaded them onto the gang, one that got them laughing in genuine amusement.

Soon enough, the gang dispersed, most of them dragged over by their respective prom dates to have a picture taken together at one the many photo booths.

Larry and Benjamin were no different.

Given they’d been quite busy in their own right--what with perfecting [Year 5000], and sampling tunes for [Crashout: Sin City]’s audio, to reading for the tests--they actually hadn’t been chanced to find a date to homecoming.

To their surprise, their performance at the Talent Show had easily set them up to get dates to the prom... so much that they themselves had been pretty stunned by it.

In any case,

”It’s just you and me now, huh?” Aiden looked over to Theo who reciprocated with a light smile, his hands tucked into his pockets;

”I doubt you’ll be here for much longer, though. You’re gonna get dragged away to take pictures very soon as well.”

In response to that, Aiden let out a deep sigh. He really wasn’t a fan of taking pictures.

There was a point to be argued that it might be because Aiden previously had a bit of a low self-esteem, but even then, he would still call bullshit.

There was just something about taking pictures that seemed to drain him.

It had gotten a bit weirder when Aiden realized he was perfectly alright with looking at himself in the mirror for hours on end, or even taking a group photo with his dad and his buddies.

In fact, he even quite liked it.

One he could only assume was something along the lines of him trusting them not to broadcast it online. More so because he knew they were well aware of how much he absolutely adored his privacy.

The moment pictures of him started getting taken without his consent, who knows where and whom it could end up with, much less what they could do with it.

Nonetheless, he could manage... though he was certain he’d begin to evade the ladies after a while.

In any case, each respective class had started unveiling their banners.

When it finally reached their class’s turn, there was a unified awe that rippled through the park.

Yet again, it had been Aiden’s handiwork, the banner looking more like an interactive mural than it even did a simple banner decoration.

Lettered at the very top of the banner itself were the words ’HELLO, FUTURE ME!’ in a cursive style that glittered and glammed.

As for most of the space between the top and the bottom of the banner, multiple ’I _______’ was repeated over and over again, allowing for several students to write things or affirm what they’d like to say to their future selves.

Then, at the very bottom, were little paintings of he and all of his classmates--all of them dressed in various attires of whom they would love to be years from now.

Upon spotting Aiden’s figure on the banner--dressed casually yet again amidst everyone’s colorfully dressed attires--Theo then leaned over and said;

”Entrepreneur, right?”

To that, Aiden smiled, realizing that Theo was talking about earlier this morning. Then, he equally leaned over and said, his smile widening into an assured grin;

”Billionaire Entrepreneur.”