Prologue
I WASN’T SURE OF how to feel right now. I had three emotions going on in my head: Regret, Happiness, and Swag. Okay, maybe not swag. But, I felt popular. Even though I’m a guy, I still felt this popularity sweep within me, and I was quite proud of it. I couldn’t help but look at the bright computer screen, seeing the thumbnails, the view counter at the top, and the website.
“What are you doing?”
I turned to see Doris looking at me with a grin, he had my dorm room door opened and walked on over to see my screen. “No way! Out of all the things I’d at least expect you to do, you’re doing this?”
I felt a bit sweaty. “Okay look, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-”
“It’s pure genius!” Doris’s mouth went wise open as he looked around the screen. “I mean, just how did you do it?”
“...I installed cameras into the rooms and turned them on. There’s a day and night mode for them too!” I pointed at the thumbnail and showed how they looked.
“You’re a genius man. Setting up and putting up these webcam videos of the girls here on Bluridge Campus is not a bad idea.” Doris rubbed my back and I chuckled, but also felt this discomfort in me. I quickly brushed it off as I looked at him.
“I know right. By the way, the webcams come on between every day. If the girl isn’t in their room, the cameras turn off. If the girl is, then the camera turns on.” I explained.
“Neat!” Doris looked at the screen, trying to find the views, “How many views do you have so far?”
“Only 3000.” I stated, moving away so he could get a better look.
“And who are the girls?” Doris grinned.
“Only two so far, hence not that many views.” I pointed at the empty camera spaces on the site, each having said girl’s name at the bottom. “It’s the sorority leader, Taffida, and one of the basketball members, Iris.”
“What you need to do, is get more girls to record.” Doris smirked a bit then grabbed my computer mouse, scrolling at the empty spaces with no names. “Girls like Rosalie, Marquette, and even Felicia Sanford.”
I raised my eyebrow a bit. “Felicia Sanford. The girl who formerly dated the college Dean’s son? That Felicia Sanford?”
“Yep! That’s the one!” Doris smiled as he took his hand off the mouse and took notice of my dorm bed. He sat down on it and I turned to see him.
“The question is, will the girls increase my viewership here at the school?”
“Trust me,” Doris got up and headed towards the door. “they will. Meet me tomorrow during our break time alright? If that’s okay with you.”
“Sure, I don’t mind!” I stated as Doris opened the door and walked on out. I turned back around and started to get ready to shut down the computer, but Doris peeked through the door.
“Also bring your guy friends and webcams with you, since they can help us out with it too.” I nodded my head “okay” in my chair. I’m guessing Doris got the memo because I heard the sound of the door closing once more and footsteps leaving my area.
◎◎◎
The next day had arrived and I was out on campus. It was break time, and I had sat into the computer lab, waiting patiently for the Doris and his friends to arrive.
“So, are they coming or what?”
I looked to see one of my few closest friends, Emmett, talking to me.
“Yeah, don’t worry. They’re going to come.” I mumbled a bit under my breath. I couldn’t help but think that Doris probably ditched me. Did he lie to me saying that he was going to arrive here at the lab?
I took out my phone and began to text him.
Are you coming or not?
Did you bring your friends with you?
At least two of my closest ones...
Awesome! I’ll be right there!
You better be....
I sighed as I looked at Emmett and Tristan. “Don’t worry guys, he’s com-”
“I made it!” Doris busted the door open as he looked at me along with the others. I took notice of two of Doris’s pals as they walked in.
“Finally, we were wai-I mean, let’s introduce ourselves!” I got with a smile as I walked over to see them, Tristan and Emmett followed from behind.
“Hi, I’m Tristan. It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Tristan shook his hands with Doris and his friends. Tristan McGowan was an interesting guy, he’s quite intellectual and gave out advice to girls and guys who are in need of relationship problems. Even with his blonde hair, cream toned skin and green eyes, he charms everyone. I was quite surprised but expected to find out that he was going to be a psychology major.
“Hi,” Emmett walked up to them and shook his hand. “the name’s Emmett, nice to meet you.” Emmett Parry had a love for sports and girls. He joined the football team back in high school then left and tried a different sport, within four years of high school. Thankfully, he found a passion for helping out with sports instead of playing them. More specifically, he found something involving the physical aspects of sports and so he’s taking things related to sports and its science. His olive skin, brown eyes, and short black hair look has made ladies fall for him. Funny thing is he’s failed at getting any of them so far.
Doris then introduced us to his friends: Romero, Theodore, and Kev. We all shook hands with one another and I told them about what I was doing.
“I would say that I’m quite shocked by it,” Romero stated, his hands combing through his brown hair, “but at the same time, I’m not surprised.”
I was confused. “What do you mean?”
Theodore smirked. “Romero here means that he’s not surprised or shocked that you would set up webcams in any of the females dorm rooms to peep them out. If you get what I mean.”
I nodded in agreement. “Anyway,” I walked over to my bag and unzipped to take out the webcams. “I need help scouting some more girls to place into their rooms.”
“Okay we will!” Kev spoke in this rather sarcastic tone. “I mean, you probably haven’t scouted any of the popular ones so-”
“I’ll have you know that I’ve got one of the cams inside Taffida’s room. Yes, the sorority leader.” I grinned as I passed out a camera to each of them. Kev’s facial expression was like that of a deer in the headlights. I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Before we even get to setting up these webcams,” Theodore stated, “the question is, how are we going to place them into their rooms? And who are we going to set them up on?”
I placed the webcam I had down and reached into my bag once more to take out my laptop. Emmett pulled out a chair for me and I thanked him for doing so. I turned on the computer and began to login, once I did, I typed in the website to Google I was using and clicked on it.
“Look Todd,” Tristan stated, “we don’t even have time for this me-”
“Come her you you?” I turned to look at the rest of them. ”All of you.”
The guys came over and I showed them the website I had been using for the females and webcams.
“Wow, you do have Taffida in here.” Kev stated. I just rolled my eyes slightly.
“Yeah,” I moved my mouse over to girls, “along with Iris from the basketball team. As you can see here, the cameras are turned off because they aren’t in their rooms right now. Plus there’s a daytime and nighttime mode too.”
“There’s not a lot of views though.” Emmett noticed. “I mean, it’s 3000. Surely they can increase if we add some more girls to it that are way more popular. You know, like other than Taffida.”
I turned to look at Doris. “Well, Doris here suggested someone like Felicia Sanford to me last night and-”
“Wait wait wait the Felicia Sanford?” Kev was even more shocked.
“That’s the one who dated the Dean’s son right?” Theodore chimed in.
“Yeah it was. It was pretty big and it got inside the Bluridge Newspaper!” Romero replied.
It was then that it hit me. “We’re going to get Felicia Sanford to be included in the webcam!”
The guys cheered and agreed with what I had said. I now had this feeling that it could increase my popularity here at this campus. And that, it will definitely do.
◎◎◎
I was outside during lunch, and I couldn’t help but take notice of Felicia Sanford. Her flowing dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, cream colored skin and sweet personality said it all. She’s popular for a reason, all because she used to date the Dean’s son.
“Okay, what’s the plan?”
I turned back to see Doris, Tristan, and the other guys looking at me like I had a plan. Which, I actually do have one.
“Well, here’s the deal,” I inched closer so I could speak to all of them, “I’m going to need one of you guys to go and talk to Felicia Sanford, if that’s okay with any of you. The reason being is because we need a distraction so that we can get the info about her dorm room and what dorm she’s in. Once we have that, we’ll make sure to-”
Romero gave me a rather awkward smile as he looked at me, pointing his finger and speaking in a low tone. “Look behind you!”
“What is it-oh, shit.” I turned to see Felicia Sanford herself, looking right at us. We’re in deep trouble now.
“Why do you guys need my dorm room number and info?” Felicia asked.
I stuttered, trying to think of something, anything, to say to her. “Well,” I had to come up with an excuse. “you see we-”
“We are just talking about our upcoming sports promotion!” Emmett said and out our heads turned to look at him.
Felicia gave a rather questioning look. “Really? A sports promotion? Look, we already have plenty of sports promotions here at this campus and-”
“I mean the upcoming sports and science promotion.” Emmett stated this as be reached into his bag and pulled out a flyer. Felicia grabbed the paper and scanned over it as Emmett explained. “You see, we’re looking for some cool things mixed with the science of sports people have created and we want them to be showcased outside of their dorm room for people to see and look at.”
“Huh, interesting. Although,” Felicia handed the flyer back to Emmett, “I highly doubt that you guys have anyone participating in this mess.”
“There’s been over fifty participants that plan on taking in. It’ll be showcased here on campus in the three weeks.” Emmett replied. “We just need your dorm room information so we can place it outside of the room when the time comes and if you’ve made anything in relation to it.”
“Okay. Here, we have time before lunch ends. Come with me.” Felicia motioned with her hand for us to follow her, which we did.
“I can’t believe you did that Emmett, you’re a genius!” I whispered towards Emmett while we were walking, so that way Felicia couldn’t hear us. “Is it an actual thing?”
“Yes, it is.” Emmett replied. “I had yet to promote to anyone on campus. I just got it a while ago and I wanted to ask people about it. When you told us about the plan and all today, I thought of the sports thing and telling about it to Felicia so that way we could persuade her to take us inside her dorm room.”
I grinned a bit. “That’s actually a pretty good and genuine plan if I do say so myself.”
Emmett, myself, and the rest of us kept walking and talking about the plan in a low voice, so that way Felicia couldn’t hear us.
◎◎◎
“Well, here it is!” Felicia stated. We had finally arrived to Felicia’s dorm room, number 247. She unlocked it with her key and stepped inside.
“Um, I don’t think all of us can fit in there.” Theodore stated.
“That’s true.” Felicia replied, “Oh! How’s this? Only two of you guys can stay.”
Doris pointed with his finger to look at me and Emmett. “They’ll stay, and we’ll be going!”
Emmett and I waved goodbye to Doris and his friends as they left from the dorm and back into the hallway.
“Now, let’s go inside shall we?” Felicia motioned us to step inside as we walked in and she closed the door. The interior was pretty simple. It was a mixture of white and light beige color across the ceiling and walls. I couldn’t help but be in awe of her dorm bed, it had light pink silk blankets and a fluffy white pillow it go with it. She had a desk located on the far left side of the corner, it was a tan color stacked with her notebooks, a cup full of pencils, a row lined with pens, and even two small drawers on the side. The chair was a black leather chair that was pushed inside the desk as well. On the right side was her closet, which had a white coated exterior to it and was completely closed.
“Nice room!” Emmett stated. “I’m guessing that you don’t have a roommate?”
“Yep, this room is pretty much my own right now.” Felicia replied. “Also, I do have an idea for what I plan on doing with your...what was it called again?”
“The sports and science showcase?” I looked towards Emmett and he nodded his head in agreement.
“Right, that.” Felicia walked past us and walked over to the door. “I need to go get it from another room though. My friend borrowed it and I need it back, do you mind?”
I smiled. “Not at all!”
“Awesome! I’ll be back in a bit!” Felicia then opened the door, walked out, and closed it in what seemed like an instant. This was good, she’s now gone.
“Okay,” Emmett rubbed his hands together, “let’s do this!”
I unzipped my bag that I had placed onto the floor and took out a webcam. I gave it to Emmett. Then, I took out my laptop, turned it on once again and logged in.
I went to the same website and set up a new empty space for it. I labeled it “F.S” and connected it to the webcam that Emmett had in his hands. “There!”
“Um, why’s it red?”
“Felicia isn’t in the room right now. It turns green when it detects the subject that its the room. I told this to Doris yesterday, saying that the cameras come on in between every day. If they’re in the room, the camera is on, but if not, then the camera turns off.” I explained it to Emmett then turned my head back to him. “Now come on, we have a webcam to set up.”
“Right!” Emmett walked around the room, trying to find a location to put the webcam in where Felicia could not see it. He turned and took notice of where he was. “This is perfect!”
I looked to see Felicia’s closet. I agreed as he gently opened the closet partially and reached with his hands to the top of the closet and planted the webcam on the top rack.
“Now for a little test.” I did some things to the system to make the webcam turn on. Emmett stated to me that it went green and I could clearly see Emmett there, waving towards the webcam that was in the closet. Nothing was blocking its way at all, which I was glad for.
“Perfect!” Emmett gave the thumbs up to me as I deactivated the cam and turned it back to its original settings. I told Emmett to close the closet door since my ears could hear Felicia coming back up the stairs.
I quickly logged out and turned off my laptop, placing it back into my bag and zipping it up once again. Emmett sat down on the bed and acted normal. Finally, the door was being knocked on.
“Come in!” Emmett yelled as Felicia opened the door with a tennis ball in her hand.
“I’m back! Here’s what I have for the showcase!” Felicia handed over the tennis ball to Emmett, placing it in his hands. My reaction was the same that Emmett had: Confused.
“Why the hell would you give him a tennis ball of all things?” I asked. “It isn’t even related to the science of sports! At least, so I think.”
“Well,” She stated, “it’s because I actually play tennis. I’ve studied the science behind it for a bit and plan on showcasing it with a little contraption. The contraption, however, hasn’t been worked on fully yet. So I plan on doing so within this next week or two before the showcase begins.”
“That’s fine with me!” Emmett stated as he handed the ball back to Felicia and she kept it. “Anyway,” He pointed at me than back to himself. “We have to get going because I don’t want to us to be late for our next class. Know what I mean?”
Felicia nodded in agreement. “Oh, right! Here, I’ll let you guys out.” She walked over to the door and opened it as Emmett and I grabbed our stuff and headed out of the room. Felicia waved goodbye to us as she closed the door from behind.
We were back out in the hallway, walking as I took my phone out and typed in the website I had made.
“Seriously, you never told me it’s compatible on phone!” Emmett whisper-shouted.
“It is.” I went to check on Felicia’s webcam and it was off, due to the fact that the closet was closed.
“It’s not on though.”
I turned to look at him. “You’d think that the camera would be turned on because they’re in the room right? I should mention this too, being that even though they’re in the room, if the camera is not on the girl, then it’s kept off unless the girl shows up.”
“So,” Emmett replied, “what you’re saying is that the girl, being Felicia, is in the room. But even though she’s in the room, the camera will turn off if it detects her presence and body?”
“If she opens the closet and is shown in full, the camera turns on. If the closet is closed and she’s not shown in full, even though she’s in the room, then the camera will turn off.” I stated. I seriously needed to write down what I just said so that way it’s less confusing. I was getting a bit annoyed.
“Okay, I understand.”
I gave a relieving sigh. “Thank goodness.”
◎◎◎
It was nighttime again. I was busy finishing my essay on my laptop, and my phone buzzed. It was Doris. I looked to see the message. It was in all caps too: “DUDE! YOU NEED TO CHECK THE SITE NOW!”
I minimized the essay and went on the internet to check the website I had made. Originally, the views were at 3000 because I had sorority leader Taffida and one of the basketball players, Iris. But now with Felicia, the girl who formerly dated the Dean’s son and is well-known for it, the views have now gone up to 10K. It was insane. Seven thousand more people have checked out the cam here.
I texted him back with the “gasping emoji”, because I couldn’t believe that the site is now getting more noticed because I put Felicia Sanford on there.
Doris replied a few moments later: “We need to get more girls included into this!”
I thought of it in my head for a moment. I did want to become more popular here, stay anonymous to others. But, at the same time, I felt bad and it seemed a bit risky with the idea. Then again, I am the one who started it in the first place. I figured that I should do it, get the popularity, and just delete it or take it down afterwards.
“Perfect!” I said aloud as I texted him back: Okay, we’ll get more girls.
I placed my phone down and exited out of the website as I went back to typing my essay. I couldn’t help but grin with the idea that I made. I know now that it’s just the beginning of what’s to come.
“Don’t worry popularity,” I said as I was typing my essay, “I’m coming for you.”
