Lunch and the Affection Multiplier App.

You know those classic and/or clichéd scenes in popular media where students eat lunch on the rooftop of their school and they’re somehow the only ones there? Well, that’s because it’s cold as balls.

You grabbed a sandwich and a boxed juice from the cafeteria and were out of there as soon as you could. You learned that the cafeteria was one of the most dangerous places very early on. In the short five minutes you were there, you could feel every girl’s stare piercing through you.

You don’t even know how this came to be. You knew it would be a challenge, but this level of hostility is ridiculous. Last week you had your locker filled with yogurt, all your books disappeared and the reappeared filled with hateful messages like “go die you filthy pig” and so on. The first few days weren’t nearly as bad, just tough.

Anyway, you sit alone on the roof of the five-story tall main building. The place is huge and has many facilities, going from complete libraries, to top-notch labs and even an indoor pool. Hayes Academy could very well give top universities a run for their money.

Bored out of your mind, you decide to check your phone and see that heart-shaped icon there again.

“Affection Multiplier App.”

Just reading the title makes you think of some sort of Japanese light novel. Knowing full well it’s either a virus or shitty advertising, you tap it anyway. Right after, the screen goes black and you’re greeted by the words “This is a gift. Please enjoy it!”

“Gift?” You read aloud.

After the words disappear, there’s another announcement is green letters over a black background that says

“We recommend reading through the glossary.”

Read it? YES/NO

You tap yes and the info dump begins.

“Welcome. The Gift of the Affection Multiplier allows your relationships with people to build five times faster. It is an always-present gift, and will affect every aspect of your social life from now on. The Affection Multiplier App is a useful resource to check the progress of your relationships with people through the use of an intuitive scoring system.”

You keep reading. It goes on to explain how negative numbers mean bad relationships, while you can consider relationships with a score over 50 to be very good friends and those with a score of 100 to be loyal companions. It also says it only lists people you know and are aware of in order to keep the app’s interface from cluttering.

You read it fascinated, yet you don’t believe a single word it says. Where did this even come from? You laugh, but your smile fades when you reach a folder named “Hayes Academy”.

You swallow hard. You don’t have any kind of info of this school on your phone. With a hesitant finger, you tap the folder and what’s inside shocks you even more. There, in alphabetical order and even accompanied by pictures, are the names of people from this school, what’s more, people you recognize. The headmistress, classmates and teachers.

Holy shit. You don’t have any of these names or pictures recorded on your phone! How does this app know you’re here and know these people!?

You see the scores, and most of them are on the negative side, the progression bar colored red, with the average being -25 and the worst being the headmistress with a -68.

“-68? What did I ever do to her!?” You asks to the air, and realize that you’re taking this more seriously than you should. This has to be a prank, right? There’s no way this could be true.

You keep scrolling and eventually, you spot green. A green progress bar, meaning a positive relationship.

-Campbell, Emma- Affection Score: 32. - History: Monday, 8:12 am (+17)

Your literature teacher!? With a score of 32!? And what’s this history section? Your only interactions with her were this morning, and even those were just simple pleasantries. Did that increase the score by 17?

Then you remember. “Relationships build five times faster…” You mutter to yourself while staring at your phone screen.

Could this… be real? It couldn’t be, but… you want it to be real so bad.