Julien Gregg's Saguaro University Arizona Chronicles - The Story of Jake Miller Chapter 7

 Copyright © 2025 by Julien Gregg 
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The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Seven

“With us today is the creator of the hot new game ‘Legends Rise’,” said the reporter. “Jake Miller welcome to Today.”

“Thank you,” I said, smiling.

“So you thought up and wrote the game?” he asked.

“That’s right,” I said. “I’m a Computer Programming student at Saguaro University in Arizona. I wrote the game there with my close friend Neal who did the graphics, we made it a reality. Then the landslide of success happened.”

“Your game was also translated into a roll playing game,” he said. “They also released action figures from your game. What does it feel like to have such success right out of the gate?”

“Well I had coded another game that was smaller and played by members of my fraternity,” I said. “Then I got the idea for ‘Legends Rise’ when I was playing another game and wishing that it did this and that. My friend Neal Porter did the graphics for the first game and then he did the graphics for ‘Legends Rise’. He’s like my partner in the gaming industry. The success of ‘Legends Rise’ has blown me away. When they told me they were converting it to a roll playing game and making action figures I knew I was successful.”

“And it landed you a job with Microsoft?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “When the game was finished I shopped around for a company to release it. Microsoft not only wanted to release it they gave me a contract to work for them. So all of my future games will come out of Microsoft Games.”

“But you’re still in college,” he said.

“Yeah, it was a bit of a strange deal for them to make,” I said. “I’ve been working in my office at Microsoft Games for a little more than a week while we’re on Winter Break from school. I’ll go back to school soon and work remotely.”

“Will you have time with your studies and as I hear it you play short stop for the Saguaro Lions baseball team,” he said.

“I coded ‘Legends Rise’ while I was at school,” I said. “I farmed out pieces of the coding to others that I paid for their time. I have ten coders at Microsoft that only work on my games. I’ll have time with school and baseball. It will just be a tight fit.”

“Well there you have it,” he said, smiling at the camera. “You can find ‘Legends Rise’ in all of the game stores unless it’s sold out again. The role playing game can be found in a hobby shop but I’m told they are sold out as well. Get your name on the list for back orders now.”

They went to commercial and he thanked me for being there and congratulated me on my success. I shook his hand and then left the stage. I went back to the green room and met up with Evan. We left that building and then went over to Microsoft to test “Nightmare”.

When we got there they were waiting for us. I put the game files on the computer and it lit up the screen. They grabbed controllers and started to play the game. I watched as my vision became a reality. They fought ghosts on the ground floor. They showed them their reflections and stunned them to move on. On the second floor it was vampires who came out of coffins and attacked. They fought and died. Then it reset.

They got through the ghosts just fine. This time they beheaded a lot of the vampires and staked a few more. They made it past the vampires. They went upstairs and were confronted with zombies. They fought and died. They reset.

It took them seven tries before they got to the witch but they couldn’t defeat her. They tried and tried and finally did defeat her and the game was won. They applauded. We’d found no glitches it was ready for presentation. I took the disc and went to my office. I called Stan and told him I had a new game to present. He told me to come right over and bring my marketing team.

I told Julia and Ted to follow me and we went to the other building. It was quite a walk for us. We were shown into Stan’s office where he viewed the game and Julia and Ted told him what the market said about games such as this one. They flew off the shelves and they thought I had another winner. Stan gave it the green light and told me that they’d release it soon. He shook my hand and we left the office.

Back at my office the coders were celebrating with soda and snacks from the fridge and pantry of the main break room. I came in with Julia and Ted and told them it was a go. They cheered. I told them that we could ride the success of this one for a bit and then I had another idea for them to work on. They cheered this as well. Several of them told me that they were happy to be on my team. I told them all that I was happy to have all of them on my team.

We didn’t do any coding that day. We just mostly had fun that day. The coders talked about this or that aspect of the game they’d worked on and the graphic artists talked about what they’d worked on. I called Neal and told him that the game was finished and Microsoft was going to release it. He was over the moon. I told him that he got co-designer status of this one, too. He liked the sound of that.

By the time we left that day I was stuffed. Evan was in the same predicament. We went home and he had an antacid. I just had to sit for a bit and then I was fine. We talked about the fact that this game was so much darker than the last and I told him that was the way I wanted it.

He asked about the expansion of “Legends Rise” and I told him I had a bigger idea for that. I said we’d do ten more quests and introduce a new world environment for the expansion as well as introduce wizards and warriors. He liked the idea but said it would be like coding a whole new game. I said that was the point. He laughed.

“So you have that one in the pipeline anything else in there I should know about?” he asked.

“I’m thinking about a pirate game but I don’t have it all fleshed out in my head yet,” I said. “I do know that it would take place on the seas.”

“Sounds good so far,” he said. 

“I don’t know if they’ll play the pirates or fight them. It could be a good thing with all of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” coming out,” I said.

“It could be,” he said. “You flesh it out and we’ll talk about it if you want.”

“Oh I want,” I said. “I just don’t have all my ducks in a row yet.”

Jacks called and told me he’d seen me on “Today”. I told him that they’d asked me to be on the show at the end of the day yesterday and I hadn’t had a chance to say anything to anyone. I had recordings of the show for everyone though. He liked that idea and told me that Lisa said congratulations.

I told him that I’d just finished another game and he laughed. He said he couldn’t believe that I wasn’t just riding the success of this one. I told him there was no rest for the wicked. He laughed again. I told him I’d see him in two weeks. He said he’d look forward to it.

Then I got off the phone with him and called Neal. I told him all about my idea for an expansion pack for “Legends Rise”. He was all for it and told me he would start working on the graphics for it as soon as I told him what I was adding. I told him that I was adding both good and dark wizards along with warriors on both sides. I wanted dragons in this expansion and new fighting scenes with bigger weapons and the like. He told me he’d get right on the dragons. I laughed and told him to have a ball. I’d see him in two weeks and we’d get together on the expansion.

Then I just hung out with Evan. He shook his head and told me that I was already starting on the expansion. I told him that Neal was already starting on the expansion. I had to talk to the team about it. Neal would probably call the graphics team and they’d know about it already.

“Well it will give us something to code,” he said. “You’re going to do this all the time aren’t you? Get done with one thing and then start on the next?”

“Of course,” I said. “I have to make my paycheck.”

“Ha!” he laughed. “You more than make your paycheck, Jake. You work like an animal after a bone.”

“Well I love to do it,” I said. “I love the way it feels to see people playing a game that I coded. I love the thrill of it all and the coding.”

“I know,” he said. “They’ll be playing ‘Nightmare’ soon.”

“I told Neal to tell everyone about it and to sign up to be testers of the game,” I said. “He’s calling everyone to tell them I made another game and all of that.”

“Good,” he said. “They’ll have about five hundred thousand testers by the time their done.”

“Good,” I said. “If there are glitches in the game we’ll know about it soon.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I can’t get over how talented you are.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“First there was ‘Forest Folly’, then there was ‘Legends Rise’, now there’s ‘Nightmare’, and soon there’ll be the expansion for ‘Legends Rise’,” he said.

“And then the pirate game,” I said. “Don’t forget that one.”

“Oh yes, the pirate game,” he laughed. “You’re a monster at this.”

“Well thank you,” I said with a grin.

We had dinner after that. It was just minute steaks and potatoes with corn and rolls. I loved it though. He’d made this thick gravy to go over the meat and the potatoes. It was really good. We talked more about the pirate game and I told him I knew there had to be ships, gold, jewels, and treasure to find. If they played as pirates there would be ships to take over and stuff like that. I wanted cannons and swords. He loved it so far and couldn’t wait for me to flesh it out.

After dinner we watched television and I thought more about the pirate game. I wanted it all fleshed out but I’d talk to Neal about it. He was my collaborator. Of course I’d come up with “Nightmare” on my own but I’d collaborate with him on the pirate game. I had a tentative title for it. I wanted to call it simply “Pirate Adventures”. 

I thought about the ships. There’d be dark ships for the pirates and bright, colorful ships for the armada and the unsuspecting ship. There’d be cannons, swords, knives, and pistols to choose from. You’d have to select your ship and then add things like cannons, crew, swords, knives, pistols and the like. You’d have so much gold to spend and then you’d have to make more gold to further update your ship and crew. It was a great game in my head.

Then I was ready to talk to Evan about it. He was my lover and he coded games for a living. Why wouldn’t I talk to him about what I was thinking. I couldn’t find a reason not to so I decided I would.

“Okay,” I said. “The pirate game has a name. ‘Pirate Adventures’ is what I’m calling it. I know that the pirates will have dark ships and the armada and unsuspecting ships will be lighter and colorful. They’ll start out with so much gold so they can buy a ship and get a crew with weapons like cannons, swords, knives, and pistols. I’ve decided that the players will play either side it’s up to them. They each have to get more gold to further update their ships, weapons, and crew. I also want the crew to be able to mutiny if certain requirements aren’t met after the first attack.”

“Sounds interesting,” he said. “I especially like that they can play either side and it’s up to them. Everything you’ve told me so far sounds like an interesting game. But what are the rules of attack?”

“Well I’ll work on the rules for attacks,” I said. “If you’re a pirate you can attack any ship you want including other pirate ships. You can form a fleet of pirate ships if you play with others or you can be a solitary ship. If you play the armada you can attack any pirate ship. The same rules apply. You get the treasure just like the pirates do. You’ll have mail from the government of some land asking you to track down certain pirates to take prisoner. There’s going to be a lot in the game.”

“It sounds like it but I like what I’m hearing so far,” he said.

“That’s all I have on that front,” I said. “Neal’s already working on dragons for the expansion pack to ‘Legends Rise’. I was just thinking about the pirate game. You told me to talk to you when it was a little more fleshed out.”

“Okay, well I like the sound of it,” he said. “From what I’ve heard so far I’d play it.”

“Thank you,” I said. “I just need to put it together into a coherent thought.”

“That’s what the game sheets are for at work,” he reminded. I smiled at him.

“I realize that and I plan to use them tomorrow,” I laughed.

“Okay it was a bit obvious wasn’t it?” he asked.

“A bit,” I said.

“Well it was true,” he said, trying not to laugh.

I threw a couch pillow at him. He busted out laughing. But then so did I. We laughed for a while and then we just sort of looked at each other. I didn’t know where to go from here on the game but I kissed him and that seemed to be the right direction with him. He kissed me back.

“Seriously,” he said when we stopped kissing. “Just use the sheets and put it together in a coherent order and you’re set. The team worships you they’ll do whatever you tell them to. They loved working on ‘Nightmare’.”

“Really?” I asked.

“Absolutely,” he said. “They’re dying to meet Neal so they can meet the rest of Jake and Neal.”

“That’s kind of awesome,” I said. “I’ll write it out on the sheets and discuss it with Neal. He has some good ideas. It worked for ‘Legends Rise’. He just did the wouldn’t it be cool if thing.”

“Well let him do it again,” he said.

“I plan to,” I said. “But I’ll use the sheets. I might put a few in my pocket.”

“You need a briefcase,” he said.

“I refuse to carry one of those,” I said.

“Then get a laptop case,” he said. “Carry that around. You can put sheets in it, memos from the team, and various other things that surround game work.”

“All right,” I said.

“Come on,” he said, grabbing his keys. “Let’s go get you a laptop case.”

We left and headed to of all places Target. We found the section of the store that sold these things and I bought one with pockets and zippers. I liked it. We shopped around for other things and I bought another basket and hamper. I got myself a new t-shirt to wear to work. It said “I Game”. Then we left and went home. I washed my clothes and he looked at me funny.

“What?” I asked.

“Isn’t it a little late for laundry?” he asked.

“It has to be done or I have nothing but dress clothes for work,” I said. “I don’t want to be the only one at work in khakis and polo shirts. Plus I needed to wash my new shirt.”

“Okay,” he said. “We can stay up a little later.”

“Are you really the guy that goes to bed as soon as the evening news is over?” I asked, smiling at him.

“Not the evening news but the nightly news,” he said. “I have to get up early and so do you.”

“Yeah but I’m used to it coding late into the night and getting up to go to class,” I said. “I can handle it.”

“Well maybe I can’t,” he said, smiling.

“Then go to bed,” I said. “I’ll be in there when the clothes are dry and put away.”

“All right,” he said. “I’ll try to stay awake for you but can’t promise anything.”

“It’s okay if you fall asleep,” I said. “We don’t have to have sex every night.”

“I know,” he said. “But I like to fall asleep with you beside me.”

“You know I’ll be gone in two weeks, right?” I asked.

“Yes, don’t remind me,” he said.

“Well I’ll be in when the clothes are done and put away,” I said. “We’ll go to bed at the same time tomorrow.”

I sat in the living room watching television while the clothes washed. Fifteen minutes later I took them out of the washer and put them in the dryer. Then I went back to watching late night television. I had a glass of iced tea while I waited.

When the clothes were dry I folded and hung them. I put the folded in the dresser in the office and I put the hanging ones in the closet being quiet so I wouldn’t disturb Evan. Then I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I stripped and got in bed. He rolled over and put is arm around me which was fine. I fell asleep listening to him breathe.

The next day I took my laptop in my new bag. We went to work and I got us in the door. We were laughing about nothing when we got on the elevator. We got to the top floor and I told them all it was time for a status meeting. They looked confused.

“Think dragons and wizards,” I said. “We’re writing a new ‘Legends Rise’ expansion. Basically a new game of the same thing with more. Much more.”

“Cool,” one of them said. “What are we adding?”

“Quests, dragons, wizards, and warrior class characters good and bad for all of them,” I said. “Well not the dragons. They’re all bad.”

“Awesome,” said one of the graphics people.

“Neal is working on dragons,” I said. “But you can too. Give me dragons and new characters. I’ll write quests and scenarios. We can work on this while we wait for ‘Nightmare’ to either take off or tank.”

“It’s epic it’ll take off,” said another coder.

“Thank you for the vote of confidence,” I said. “Let’s get to work.”

I went into my office and started to code for the quests and scenarios. I got six of them done before lunch. Today we had Indian food which was fine with me. I liked curry well enough to eat just about everything they ordered. I made myself a plate and went back to my office and grabbed a soda. Then I went back to coding.

By the time we knocked off for the day and I had uploaded the work to the portal, I was ready to go home. I filled out my in-office paperwork and joined Evan on the elevator. He said he got a lot done today. I told him I did, too. What I was going to work on at home was the new environment that the new players would play on. I was making a brand new forest. I’d have to have the graphics people render the forest for me.

We got home and had smoked salmon for dinner. We had that with asparagus and potato strips. I had a glass of iced tea. I really liked smoked salmon and I thanked him for making it.

“You’re very welcome,” he said. “So you’re doing a whole new forest?”

“Yes,” I said. “This one will have caves to search and underbrush.”

“So it’s like a whole new game?” he asked.

“Kinda but not really,” I said. “On the PC they can play in either forest with everything in the expansion pack. It’s going to have to be another game for Xbox though. So I’m treating it like another game. We’re basically making an expansion and a game all at once.”

“That sucks,” he said.

“It does and it doesn’t,” I said. “It gives me something to code while I’m at school because this one is going to be another massive coding.”

“It sounds like it,” he said. “Well as long as you’ve got something to do.”

“Don’t make it sound that way,” I said, smiling. “It keeps the team working, too. What would they do if I didn’t have a project for them?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Some of them have ideas for games of their own. But they’re not in the position to pitch them so they don’t know what to do.”

“They could come and talk to me,” I said. “If I decide to go with one I’ll put their name on the box beside mine.”

“Well that’s something,” he said. “I’ll talk to them about it tomorrow. I’ve become your spokesman or something. They talk to me when they should be talking to you. You intimidate some of them because you’re so young and you keep coming up with these games that they could only dream of thinking up.”

“Well they need to get over not wanting to talk to me,” I said. “You tell them that the telephone game stops now. They can come into the office and talk to me over the next two weeks and everyone on the team has my phone number and they can call when I’m at school. I’ve told them all to leave a message and I will call them back.”

“Yeah that’s intimidating to them too,” he said. “You’re still in college. They all had to wait until they graduated to get the jobs they have. You’re still in college and a designer. It’s the job they all dream about.”

“Well like I said they’re going to have to get over all of that and talk to me,” I said. “I am the head of this team and they need to talk to me instead of you. I’m supposed to be giving you work not taking ideas from the team from you.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll tell them.”

“Thank you,” I said.

We cleaned up dinner and then went back to coding. I started on the environment and got pretty far when he reminded me that I said we’d go to sleep together tonight. I closed out and uploaded to the portal. Then I shut down my laptop and followed him to the bedroom. I went in the bathroom and brushed my teeth. Then I stripped and joined him in bed. We showed our love and went to sleep cuddled up together.

The next day I’d been at work an hour when my phone rang. It was Stan. He wanted to tell me that I had another big release on my hands. The testers were already playing the game and they hadn’t reported any glitches so far. I told him to give them time. I was happy that they thought it would be another big release. If they released it while I was here then great. If not I’d have to drive to the event from Osage, Arizona.

After that call a coder named Dan Fielding came into my office. He was twenty-six with dark hair and dark eyes. He was thin as a rail but a damned fine coder. He came in and motioned for him to have a seat. I saved my work and then turned to give him my undivided attention.

“What’s up, Dan?” I asked.

“Well I have an idea for a game that I wanted to run by you,” he said.

Then he went on to tell me about a game where you had to kill spiders and snakes to get to a certain point. It was very generic so I handed him some gaming sheets and told him to flesh it out. He smiled and said he would. Then he left my office.

I went back to coding. I got pretty far but I needed the rendering. I went to talk to the graphics team about getting me a new forest environment. They agreed to give it a go and I went back to my office and started to code the new characters. When it was time to go I saved my work, uploaded it to the portal, and filled out my paperwork. I also put a bunch of gaming sheets in the zipped file folder in my laptop case. I zipped that up just as Evan came to look in on me.

“I’m ready,” I said. “Just let me turn all of this off.”

“Cool,” he said. “Dan talked to you?”

“He did,” I said. “His idea is very basic. I gave him some sheets and told him to map out his game and then give them to me to look over.”

“Cool,” he said. “The others will talk to you about what’s on their minds instead of me now.”

“Very good,” I said as I shut off the lights in my office. I followed him out the doors to the elevator.

“I told them not to be intimidated that you’re a good guy,” he said. “They said they’d talk to you when they had something to say instead of telling me to tell you.”

“Good deal,” I said. “Let’s go cook. I’m hungry.”

“Let’s not cook and have some tacos from The Taco Shack,” he countered.

“That’s a great idea,” I said.

We swung by The Taco Shack and I got five deluxe tacos with chips and salsa and an empanada. Evan got three double tacos and chips and nacho cheese. He did not get an empanada. We got our bag and drove home.

At the house we ate them in the dining room. I loved their tacos and the chips and salsa. I ate them and then ate the empanada. It was so good and I loved it. Then we cleaned up our mess and headed to the office.

I coded the people that were already in the game back into the game. I made slight changes in their weapons, making them a tad more deadly. Then I coded in the wizards both good and bad and coded in the spells they could use. Then I coded in the dragons and the warriors with there new weapons and their hit points I got it all done before we went to bed.

We were having breakfast the next morning when he asked, “How’s the coding going for your part of the expansion pack?”

“I coded in all of the original characters from the game and updated their weapons for dragons, I coded in the wizards and all of the spells they use, and I coded in the dragons,” I said.

“All of that?” he asked.

“Well yeah,” I said. “I’ve still got a lot of coding to do but I wanted to get that done.”

“Okay,” he said as we drove to work. “So I’m still coding my section?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I didn’t code anyone’s sections.”

“Good,” he said. “I have something to do at work today.”

At work they were already working on the expansion and new version of the game. I held status meeting but there wasn’t much to report. I let them go and went into my office. The phone rang and it was Stan telling me that the first commercial for “Nightmare” had been shot and would be released tomorrow. I thanked him. He told me we had to give the testers a month to find mistakes and then we could release. I told him I understood that but I would be in school once again when my game was released. I told him to just let me know when and I would be there.

Then I started to code my parts of the new game part of “Legends Rise”. I did the same thing to the game as I did to the expansion pack. I updated characters and weapons, coded in the warriors and their weapons, coded in the dragons and their powers, and coded in the wizards and their spells. I did that with lunch in the middle and many snacks. Then it was time to go home again and I uploaded what I was working on to the portal and shut everything down.

This went on with various differences the entire time I was in Los Angeles. I did get to watch my commercial with Neal on the phone watching it with me. We had a party to celebrate the commercial and that was fun. But when it was time to go back to school I was ready for the break in my time. I hugged and kissed Evan and then got on the plane with my carry on items. I flew to St. Louis and got in my truck and drove to Quincy.

Jacks was happy to see me. He told me all about everything that had happened in Quincy while I was gone. It was a short list. Travis was ready for school and we were both ready for the trip to school. I spent two nights with Jacks and Travis. Then we were in the truck for the trip to Arizona.

“How was your time in Los Angeles?” Travis asked as we got on our way.

“It was fun at first then it got boring,” I said. “I have an office at Microsoft Games and I worked on a new game that should be released in about a month.”

“’Nightmare’?” he asked.

“That’s the one,” I said. “I have a lot of game sheets to plan out my next game.”

“What’s your next game gonna be like?” he asked.

“Pirates,” I said. “That’s all I can say about it right now.”

“Sounds cool,” he said. “I like pirates.”

“Well when I get it coded and have the first version you can be one of the testers,” I said. “What did you do all the time I was in Los Angeles?”

“Not much,” he said. “I hung out with Jacks and we played a few games of cards but it was a little boring. I talked to Neal on the phone a lot.”

“Yeah he told me that he talked to you about every other day,” I said. “I kept in contact with him because he’s also the creator of ‘Nightmare’.”

“Yeah,” he said.

We drove in silence for most of the trip. I didn’t have anything to say and it seemed that Travis didn’t have much to say either. I kept thinking about how boring it was to be with Evan. I loved him but we had to do something about how boring our lives could be.

We pulled into Arizona at five in the morning and drove straight to the frat house. We moved in trying to be quiet and we both went to bed. We’d cut it close getting there. Classes began the next day. I slept through most of the day and got up and found that Brady was there.

“Hey game man,” he said when I got out of the shower and stood before him in my robe.

“Hey, Brady,” I said with a smile. “Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” he said. “Are we going to have another round of the trials?”

“Soon,” I said. “Let me get dressed and I’ll show you a few things that I’m working on.”

“Cool,” he said.

I got dressed and showed him my rough copy of “Nightmare”. Then I took him through the game and he loved it. When he died he gave up though. Then I showed him some of the graphics for “Legends Rise: Wizards and Warriors.” He liked what he saw and was thrilled that there would be an expansion pack for “Legends Rise”. I told him that for Xbox it would be a whole new game version.

“So you’ve been busy on your break,” he said.

“Pretty much,” I said. “I hung out in the office and coded while ten others coded on the same thing. Graphics did their work and my marketing team started talking to the publicist for ‘Nightmare’. I coded that one while I was in the office.”

“Wow that was fast,” he said.

“It flies with very little distractions,” I said.

“Well what else are you working on?” he asked.

“A pirate game,” I said. “I don’t have it all fleshed out yet.”

“Pirates that sounds fun,” he said. “It’s really cool having a game designer for a room mate.”

“I’m also your big,” I said. “But you probably don’t need a big now.”

“Not so much, but I’ll settle for being your friend,” he said with a smile.

“Great,” I said. “Is everyone back now?”

“Well sure,” he said. “Classes start tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I have three of them tomorrow.”

“Yikes,” he said. “Starting kinda heavy.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m kind of a fast guy.”

“Well I gotta go,” he said. “I’m going with John to the Taco Shack.”

“See ya,” I said.

I caught up with Neal when he and Travis stopped by my room. I told him all about the Pirate game. I told what I wanted for the pirate game. He told me he was finished with two dragons. I told him to just bring them to me and I’d code the graphics in. He said he’d get that later.

“So how was it in Los Angeles with Evan?” he asked, smiling.

“It was fun at first but then kind of boring,” I said. “I mean we never went anywhere. We had dinner with my marketing team and two of his friends. So we did something twice. He took me to The Crystal Room to celebrate ‘Nightmare’ being done. Other than that we sat back to back in the office at his house coding.”

“Wow,” he said, sails deflating. “I’m sorry. But you guys are all right, right?”

“Sure,” I said. “Things will be different this summer. I’ll have Travis there with me and we’ll find a ball game to join. You’ll be there and we can go and see the sights and really do it up right.”

“So you worked in your office at Microsoft Games?” he asked. “What’s it like working at Microsoft?”

“It’s really cool to have a team working under me,” I said. “You have a team working under you but you haven’t been there to meet them in person.”

“Yeah but I talked to all of them on the phone,” he said with a smile.

I did a little coding before bed that night but I just wasn’t feeling it. I went back to bed at eleven and slept through till morning. Then I went to classes. They were all going to be fine, so I went to The Taco Shack and had tacos.

Life in the frat was as good as ever. I hung out with Neal and Travis a lot. I hung out with Brady a lot. But before I knew it, it was time for the freshman parties. We held the first party and once again I was one of the brothers reading the essays. I read five of them and made two piles.  One for perspectives and one for undesirables. I was glad when all four brothers involved in the essays agreed with me.

A chart went up. Those with good essays got one green star next to their name. They needed at least three to get invitations to the third party. So far we’d all had talks with the prospective pledges and we all had something to say about it. Some got two more stars because they had favorable chats and they played a sport.

The next day all of them were handed the questionnaire. Depending on how they answered it we’d score them high or low. We sent twenty invitations to the third party. It was alumni night. We had some great people. Senator Mark Boulder of Arizona, Mr. Franklin Dash of Dash Enterprises, a leader in medical technology, Congressman David Wilson of Arizona, and Mark Benning, the hottest actor in Hollywood five years running, and Jase Felton, a programmer from Microsoft. I was looking forward to meeting Jase.

I had drinks with Jase at the party and I got his card. He had pledges to comment on. They all had cards to fill out on all twenty perspective pledges. They handed them to Don on the way out. Jase walked up to me and told me to call him. He was working from home and that was in Prince. That was literally an hour away from Osage. I told him I’d call soon.

Then I was with Don and the others to decide who would be part of the ten. Breck was still the Pledge Master. This time we had three names on the board with red stars. These were the legacies. We had to give them their shot. They didn’t fill out essays but they did fill out questionnaires. They were Landry Carter, Brian Fillman, and John Tonks. We were about to add seven more.

The one I was pulling for was Ryan Jenkins. He was a good looking track star with brown hair and the most brilliant green eyes I’d ever seen. He was physically fit from his days on the track team. The guy had a thousand watt smile. I read the card on him filled out by Jase. He actually wrote in the comment section of the card, “Great smile, pretty eyes, nice ass, and good guy. He had three marks on next to his name. We added another green star. This was bigger than the others. He was one of the ten.

Don said, “Who had conversations with Ryan Jenkins?”

“I did,” I said. “He’s a nice guy who was really interested in our philanthropic events.”

“He talked about training service dogs and doing odd jobs for the elderly. He passed out blankets, heaters, and canned food to the elderly and less fortunate last winter. He also did a drive for underprivileged kids,” said Steve Quan.

“I get it,” Don said. “He’s the male Mother Theresa. He’s in the ten.”

“Good,” said Steve.

“Our legacies,” Don said. “They are Landry Carter, Brian Fillman, and John Tonks. What do we think?”

I said, “I only had a chance to talk with John. He seemed all right his brother, dad, uncle, and grandfather were Aboo.”

“Good God,” Don said. “His entire family was Aboo.”

“I talked with Landry,” said Roger Bentley. “He talked about baseball most of the time. He likes philanthropy all right but he asked about Obiz and what kind of girls were in the sorority.”

Then suddenly we were talking about a prospect named Dallas Creavy. He was apparently a fish in water in the pool. He had a great first semester. His grades were awesome.

“The guy comes from hardship,” Don said. “His only outlet was the pool, and apparently he’s a fucking fish in water. He had the best essay and his questionnaire was great. The congressman was impressed with what he had to say, too.”

He got a big star. So we now had two of the seven. This was going on forever. It as a good thing it was Saturday. We’d been at it since we all had gotten out of bed and had breakfast. Then we were in here.

“I’ll nominate Shawn Lawson,” Roger said. “The guy is premed, a baseball player, held fundraisers to send underprivileged kids to baseball games all summer, and actually broke a car window to save a trapped two year old who’d been left in the hot car.”

So Shawn’s name name went up and got a big star. We had three of the seven. It was going a bit better. Evan Peterson’s name went up though I didn’t agree with that. Jason Longo went up on the board with a big star. We rounded it out with Jim Tellerman and Scott Sombers. We had our ten.

That night we had the final party. We made steaks and coleslaw with sliders and salads. The ten showed up and got in their server uniforms. Obiz showed up and the female pledges were already in cocktail dresses.

They served us all night. The boys were waiters and bartenders. The girls were cocktail servers. We had a great night. They held up just fine. By the end of the night they were tired but ready for tomorrow. They had to be in the basement by five o’clock in the evening. Breck had a few words with them and then set them free. I went to bed.

The next day I coded almost from the time I got up to the time I went back to bed. I did stop for a bit to go to The Taco Shack with Neal and Travis. They talked about the upcoming baseball season. It was February and baseball season started in March. So it was the topic of conversation.

“You’re playing this year again right?” Neal asked me.

“Yeah I’ve already had my chat with the coach,” I said. “He’s ready to go. I hate to tell him but the team is mediocre but not great.”

“We try,” Travis said with a smile.

“Yes we do,” I said. “But they’re all just ball players. There’s not a star on the team.”

“That’s not true,” said Travis. “Coach says you’re the star.”

“Me? I can’t hit a home run consistently to save my soul,” I said.

“Well I don’t hit them every time I’m up to bat,” he said. “And you’re right it’s a happy accident when you hit one. However, you are the one of the field that always gets the ball and gets it right back to the pitcher or to the base. The rest of them don’t do that.”

“Well I would be nice if they could just hit the cut-off man,” I said.

We didn’t talk about it much after that. We left the restaurant and went back to the frat house. I went back to coding. I coded until dinner and then I went down and had dinner with my brothers. Then I was back in my room at my computer coding away. Neal brought the dragons to me and I coded them in. He sat on my second chair and waited for me to say something. I saved my work and looked at him.

“So Evan called me,” he said.

“Why is my boyfriend calling you?” I asked.

“Because he’s worried that something is wrong between you two,” he said.

“Why? I mean I never gave him any indication that anything was wrong,” I said. “I talked to him this morning.”

“Were you coding when he called?” he asked.

“Yes, I was,” I said.

“That’s the problem,” he said. “Jake lately all you do is code. Travis has been trying to get you in the gym with him for weeks and you just code.”

“Hey yesterday I helped choose the ten,” I said. “I was in Don’s room all day long.”

“I know that,” he said. “But you spend most of your time coding. Tell me, how much do you have left to code on this game?”

“I’ll be waiting for the graphics team to get done with the wizards and warriors,” I said. “Once I have those and code them in I’ll run the code looking for errors and then present it to Microsoft for release.”

“Okay then what?” he asked.

“I’ll start on my pirate game,” I said.

“What pirate game?” he asked.

“Didn’t Travis tell you? I have a game in mind that is all pirates and the armada,” I said. “You buy your ship, hire your crew and go out and pirate to get weapons and treasure.”

“Sounds cool,” he said. “But can you be a friend and boyfriend for a while and code that later?”

“I suppose I could,” I said. “It bothers me that Evan called you because he thinks there’s a problem with us instead of telling me about it.”

“Maybe he tried and you shot him down because you were coding and wanted off the phone so that you could go back to coding,” he said, looking like I might slug him for saying it.

“Okay,” I sighed. “I code a lot. I just got a job at Microsoft Games. So did you. I code because they keep expecting bigger and better from me. What happens when I tell them I got nothing because I’m being a better friend and boyfriend?”

“Everyone has down time at work,” he said. “Write more expansion packs for ‘Legends Rise’. That game will carry you for at least a year. Now you have ‘Nightmare’. Write expansions for that.”

“I plan to,” I said. “I was going to code the pirate game when I had time. I plan to spend time playing baseball, hanging out with everyone, and spending time with Evan.”

“Great,” he said. “That’s all I came to say. That and I’m really happy to be your graphics guy, and I just got a job at Microsoft Games too.”

“I know you did,” I said. “I had a fit until they made you head of graphics on my team.”

“Thank you,” he said. “I spent my paycheck from them on Travis. We went to dinner and I got him a watch. What did you do for Evan while you were in Los Angeles?”

“I didn’t do anything because I was only there to visit,” I said. “If he expects me to spend money on him all of the time then we do have a problem.”

“He didn’t say anything about you spending money on him,” Neal said quickly. “That was me talking not Evan.”

“Good,” I said. “You don’t know but that money is a very sore subject with me. Sure I’m making good money from Microsoft but the biggest amount of money that I have is from the crash.”

“I realize that you’re sensitive about the crash,” he said. “All I was saying was take Evan to dinner or something.”

“I’m going to,” I said. “He’s supposed to work remotely and visit Osage while he’s doing it. I was shocked that he wasn’t one of the alumni for the party.”

“He said he wasn’t coming until you asked him to,” he said. “He did say that.”

“Well I’ll call him tonight and tell him to come and see me,” I said.

“That might be a good idea,” he said. “I’m sorry if I made you mad, Jake. That wasn’t my intention.”

“You didn’t make me mad,” I said. “I’m mad at myself for not paying adequate attention to my boyfriend and friends. Tell Travis that I’ll meet him in the gym after my last class gets out at two.”

“I’ll tell him,” he said. “Thanks for talking to me.”

“Any time, Neal,” I said.

When he left I grabbed my phone and called Evan. I noticed the flat sound of his voice right away. I had my work cut out for me and I was mad that I’d done this. I hoped he still wanted to be with me.

“Hey, Cutie,” I said.

“Hey, Jake,” he said back. No pet name. This was bad.

“When are you coming to see me?” I asked.

“Do you want me to?” he asked.

“Of course I want you to,” I said. “I miss you, Evan.”

“Do you?” he asked. “It seems like every time I call you’re coding.”

“Well you need to remind me that there’s more to life than coding a game,” I said. “You weren’t here for alumni night either.”

“No, I had to be in the office while that was going on,” he said. “Someone set a harsh time for the coding of the expansion pack.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said. “That was more for the graphics than the coding. I’m done with the coding until I get the graphics. You and the others left your coding in the portal and I added it to what I had. I have enough to finish the expansion when they send me the graphics.”

“That’s great,” he said. “You’re really not bored of me?”

“Evan I’ve been gone for two weeks,” I said. “How could I be bored of you. I miss you like crazy and can’t wait till summer so I’ll be with you again.”

“I’ll be in Osage next week,” he said. “Thank you for telling me that you miss me. I miss you, too.”

“Well get to Osage so I can spend time with you,” I said.