"You're going to Squip the whole cast!" Jeremy Heere shouted as the supercomputer manifested itself in it's human appearance.

    "That's just for starters!" It grinned evilly at him.

    "That's not what I wanted!" Jeremy kept shouting, fearfully looking around at his former classmates who were now turning on him.

    "It's the only way to achieve what you want." The Squip taunted. He was reliving that night, the night of the school play when the computer in his brain revealed its true intentions and nearly destroyed everything. It was a night Jeremy kept trying to forget, but it wasn't so easy.

    "No! I can defeat you, I know how to defeat you! Michael! Where's Michael?" Despite everything that had happened between him and his best friend, he knew his Player 2 would always have his back. Right? Suddenly Michael appeared, holding their only savior: Mountain Dew Red. Just as he was handing it over, Jeremy heard the Squip behind him.

    "Up up down down left right A." Michael's body jolted erect like he had just been shocked. Jeremy's eyes widened.

    "I'm sorry man." Michael said to him as he dropped the bottle. It fell with a smash and wasted all on the ground. The Squip cast, Michael included began to advance. "Everything about us is going to be wonderful." They chanted in unison.

    "No... Michael not you too. This wasn't supposed to happen..." Jeremy began backing up until he bumped into something behind him.

    "You took the upgrade Jeremy, now it's time to live it." The Squip's voice said. Jeremy turned around to find himself staring at himself, except it wasn't him. It was the new him, the "Cooler" him. "Are you going to take it?" He said, except it was the Squip's voice.

    "No!"

* * * *

    "No!" Jeremy woke up in a cold sweat, sitting up quickly. He looked around confused realizing he was in his room in bed. He let out a shaky breath he wasn't aware he had been holding. It was just a dream. He had been having these dreams for a while now since the incident. They always went down differently but they were all equally terrifying in the end. He couldn't help but blame himself for everything still.

    A couple months ago Jeremy Heere was your average high school loser just trying to survive. That is until he got a Squip. It was some form of new top-secret-can't-even-look-it-up-on-the-internet-type supercomputer from Japan in the form of a small grey pill, that once ingested, it would travel into your brain and physically tell you what to do and make you cooler. It seemed like a strange idea, but at this point Jeremy was desperate. He wanted to fit in for once and not be the loser; but most of all he wanted to gain the affection of the the girl of his dreams, Christine Canigula.

    Jeremy heard about the Squip from one of the cool kids, and his former tormentor, Rich. He made it sound amazing, irresistible even. So being the idiot he was, Jeremy got one. His best friend Michael Mell tagged along. Michael had no desire to test it out for himself, so Jeremy took the risk alone. It had taken so long to activate, Jeremy and Michael thought the whole thing had been a bust, until later that night. One thing Rich forgot to mention about the Squip was that it hurt like hell when it kicked in.

    Jeremy's Squip took on a human appearance only visible to the user. Imagine an evil version of Keanu Reeves. Basically the Squip. Despite being quite rude and degrading, the Squip did it's job and transformed Jeremy from a nerd to a more confident, newer, cooler guy. It was amazing, suddenly he had everything he could have wanted, girls, being included in the popular crowd, going to the coolest parties, and Christine's attention. There were consequences though, one of them being having to leave Michael behind completely as he was considered a link to Jeremy's old life.

    Michael had tried to warn him about the dangers of the Squip, but Jeremy had paid him no mind. It wasn't until the night of the school play that the Squip revealed its true intentions. It wanted everyone to have a Squip, to make everyone happy and control their lives, but Jeremy knew it was wrong. Not everyone would want this, he wasn't even sure if he wanted it anymore. So the Squip took matters into its own hands and managed to Squip the entire cast of the school play. Somehow all the Squips could connect together and it was almost too late. Jeremy didn't even plan on doing the play in the first place, he just signed up to get closer to Christine. The Squip nearly took advantage of that in the end, but was outwitted by Michael who showed up in the nick of time with Mountain Dew Red, a drink from the 1990's. It was the only thing that could destroy the Squips. Jeremy's friend was so old school, but in the end it came in handy. Jeremy couldn't thank him enough.

    "Even after I was such a douche to you, you still tried to save me. I'm so sorry... for everything." He had told him in the aftermath.

    "Oh yeah, you were a major douche."

    "Ahem."

    "Like a complete a-"

    "I'm trying to apologize here."

     "Heh, I know, couldn't help myself." Michael laughed sheepishly. "But what kind of friend would I be if I just let my Player 1 destroy himself? And the world might I add. Yeah what you did hurt me, a lot, I just couldn't give up. Trust me, I almost did but your Dad actually talked some sense into me."

    "I don't know what he said to you, or what you said to him, but he was actually wearing pants when you guys visited me in the hospital which I still can't believe. I'm glad you talked it out." Jeremy noted.

    "Well, when you love somebody you put your pants on for them."

    "Uh... what?"

    It all seemed to work out ok, despite having to stay in the hospital for a few weeks. Things seemed to finally be going back to normal, except for the dreams. More like nightmares. Jeremy felt like no matter what there would be a small part of him who could never escape the Squip. He just had to push those thoughts back and regain control of his own life, which was a lot harder than one might think after having something else do things for you for so long. So here he sat, recovering from the latest night terror, and to his surprise there were tears in his eyes threatening to fall.

    "Get a grip Jeremy, it wasn't real." He tried to calm himself, even though he knew that most of it was real in a sense. What made him feel better was knowing that Michael hadn't gotten a Squip. That was a factor that helped him determine dreams from reality.

* * * *

    "Maybe I have PTSD or something." Jeremy complained to Michael the next day as the two boys rode the bus to school. Michael had a car, but he insisted he ride with Jeremy today.

    "I don't think so, I mean, that would explain the dreams. But I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, I mean everyone is ok now, and I'm Squip free!" His friend tried to cheer him up.

    "Yeah. But what if it's not... you know, dead completely?" Jeremy asked.

    "Has it tried to talk to you at all?" Michael began busying himself with untangling the wires to his bulky headphones he always wore around his neck.

    "Well no but-"

    "Then you have nothing to worry about. Now can we change the subject for awhile? Please? You're only freaking yourself out more which won't help your sleeping case." Michael gave up struggling with the wires. Jeremy sighed, he had a point.

    "Yeah."

    Michael gave him a sympathetic look. "It's not that I don't care about your problems, trust me, you just went through a traumatic experience, but honestly it creeps me out talking about it. Knowing that you weren't you half the time back then makes me wonder who I was talking to sometimes."He confessed. "Plus I'll never get all the dying screams of the Squips out of my head." Michael shuddered.

    "Don't worry, I understand. It is creepy anyway. Hey, do you still want to come over later tonight to play video games?" Jeremy asked changing the subject. Michael grinned and nodded eagerly. "Of course! 'Apocalypse of the Damned: The Chilling Sequel' isn't gonna play itself!" The boys continued to chat about their favorite video game series until they arrived at school. As they began walking in Jeremy sighed. He was always still nervous about school even though he knew that he was on good terms with the popular kids still. He and Michael weren't bullied so much anymore either, he just had to get used to being back on the bottom.

    Jeremy realized that he didn't need to be a jerk to be cool, and though he had reverted back to wearing his old outfits (improving a few with some fashion tips from his new friends), he was treated with more respect. Turns out instead of everyone blaming him for what happened, all of the cast thought they had just taken some bad Ecstasy somehow before the play. No knowledge of Squips whatsoever.

    "Hey, I heard Rich gets to come back to school today." Michael noted.

    "That's great! I don't think he could have handled being away any longer. Hopefully by now people have stopped with the rumors about him." Jeremy said.

    "I'm sure he has nothing to worry about, besides everyone will still be talking about what happened at the play!" His friend laughed nudging him. Out of everyone, only three knew the truth of what happened, one of them being Rich Goranski. He had discovered what his Squip was planning the night of Jake Dillinger's Halloween party. He ended up going a little crazy trying to get the thing out of his head, and he set a fire and burned down the house, literally. He'd been in the hospital for getting a few burns and was there when Jeremy woke up. Surprisingly ever since Rich introduced Jeremy to the supercomputers, the two of them had become unlikely friends. He wouldn't be surprised if that changed now that they weren't linked by their Squips, looks like he'd find out.

    As the boys passed the lockers they saw the school's infamous gossip clique, consisting of Chloe Valentine, Brooke Lohst, and Jenna Rolan. As usual the girls were talking about Chloe's ex-friend, some girl named Madeline which Jeremy had actually never met. "-And so Madeline was all like 'I can't believe that he cheated on me again!' And then I said, 'You have been cheating on him for like a week now, so what's it matter?!'" Chloe was in the middle of a rant.

    "Check out what I caught on camera yesterday!" Jenna pulled out her cell phone eager to be included. Brooke caught sight of Jeremy passing and waved eagerly. "Hi Jeremy!" He blushed a little and returned the greeting looking down a little.

    "Hey Brooke." He had 'dated' Brooke for a little bit, she was one of the first girls the Squip had helped him land. Despite the fact their relationship didn't last long thanks to a little misunderstanding with Chloe, they were still on good terms.

    "Whew. Still a little jealous you had a chance with the second hottest girl in school Jere." Michael told him giving the girls a little wave too. Jeremy laughed a little embarrassed.

    "C'mon Michael, you know the only girl for me is... Christine!" He suddenly shouted surprised. The girl Jeremy was most excited to see came from around the corner. Christine Canigula. He was so relieved that after the events of the play Christine still wanted to be his friend, and she proposed maybe being a little more. She was one of the only other people he actually told about the Squip besides Michael, who actually believed him. He had tried to convince her to take it but she refused, helping Jeremy see you don't need a device to shape who you are. The two had went on their first outing shortly after but it wasn't hard core dating. They had become friends during play rehearsal and it was fantastic. Jeremy still couldn't control his blush around her, her smile alone could brighten any room. Despite her quirkiness, she was the girl he was so into.

    "Christine!" Michael echoed his surprise slightly less enthusiastic. The girl smiled warmly and flipped some of her short black hair over her shoulder.

    "Hey Jeremy, what's up Michael! How are my two favorite boyf-riends?" She asked making a reference to what Rich had graffitied on the boys' backpacks once before, 'boyf' on Jeremy's and 'riends' on Michael's.

    "Still madly in love thanks." Michael joked. Jeremy felt his face heat up.

    "I'm doing fine." He managed to say. Christine laughed as she noticed his uncomfortableness.

    "D-did you know that Rich is supposed to be coming back today?" He stuttered trying to change the subject.

    "Yeah! It's pretty great. Jake got one of his leg casts off too." Christine said as normally as one could talk about their ex. Jake was currently back with Chloe since the Halloween party, he had broken both his legs trying to escape the house fire. "Well, it was good to see you two but I have to get to class. See ya later!" Christine waved as she left. Jeremy was stuck waving, staring dreamily after her.

    "So when are you actually going to take her on a real date?" Michael asked snapping him out of it.

    "I'm working on it, I will. Soon. Maybe, if I can work up the nerve." Jeremy responded sighing.

    "She clearly is into you man, you just have to take that next step."

    "Since when did you become the love expert?"

    Michael shrugged. "I observe. So I may have only dated one chick, and that wasn't even a real date. It was my Mom's friend's daughter whom I took for a day out, but I know how to please a person." He answered blatantly.

    "Don't you have class or something?" Jeremy asked pointing out the time. Michael followed his gaze.

    "Crap." Was all he said as he put his headphones on and began to head the other way. He managed to shoot finger guns at Jeremy before disappearing around the corner.

    "See ya at lunch!" He called after him with a smile. Maybe Michael was right, maybe it was time to make a move and ask Christine out an a real date. Was he ready for that? Was she? As he headed to first period English he saw Rich putting some stuff in his locker. Usually if this was a few months ago, Jeremy would have went the other way to avoid torture, but he found himself surprisingly walking over to Rich.

    "Welcome back." He said. Not expecting a response, he began to walk away.

    "Thanks Heere. You look good man, since we last saw each other." Rich answered.

    "Thanks." Jeremy stopped. "You actually are going to still talk to me?" He asked, then realizing that came out a bit harsh, started to apologize. "I didn't mean-"

    "No, no you had a right to assume." Rich cut him off. "But I'm not that horrible of a person believe it or not. Remember it was mostly my Squip telling me who to be mean to. Now I'm capable of knowing who my friends really are." He said.

    "So... we're cool?" Jeremy asked.

    "Yeah we're cool." Rich patted his shoulder. "See ya around Heere!" He got his stuff and left. The day passed quite slowly, lunch came around where Jeremy sat with Michael at their usual table, he let Michael do most of the talking though. He was too occupied thinking of a good date plan. Theater class was next, which Jeremy had with Christine. He had never really paid attention in that class until he signed up for the play. Now he found that he actually enjoyed it a little more. Christine was already sitting down when he walked in, she waved him over.

    "Saved you a seat. You're just in time, everyone else hasn't showed up yet." To the more popular kids Theater was more of a blowoff class. Jeremy gratefully took the seat.

    "I wonder what we're going to do now, I'm pretty sure Mr. Reyes has banned us from ever performing again." He joked. Their Theater teacher had been furious after his "A Midsummer Night's Dream" production went horribly. He couldn't figure out how the drugs could have possibly gotten mixed up in the serum used as one of the props. Just then the horde of popular kids filed in one after the other, Rich, Jenna, Chloe, Brooke, Jake, and a few others.

    "Ah the class has arrived!" Mr. Reyes appeared with a smile on his face.

    "Sup Mr. R?" Jake nodded to his teacher with cool practically oozing off of him.

    "Good to see you Mr. Dillinger, one leg back in the game." Mr. Reyes returned the greeting.

    "Hopefully both by next week!" Jake smiled. Chloe laughed beside him and he put his arm around her. Jeremy heard Christine sigh beside him.

    "Ya know I'm actually happy for them. They were probably meant to be together." She commented. Jeremy could tell she was trying to convince herself. "He's a decent guy."

    "Hey, you're way better off without him. You're too good for him." Jeremy tried to help. "Besides, he's not that great of a guy."

    "He did cheat." Christine acknowledged. "But he wasn't a horrible boyfriend. Thanks Jeremy. You're really sweet, I'm glad we're friends." Jeremy went into mental panic mode. Just friends?! Should I be worried? No, you only went out together once... you probably took too long to make the next move. She thinks you're not into her! The voices in his head went crazy. He realized he was being silly, he should be grateful Christine even knows he's alive at this point. A couple months ago he was just pining after a girl he never really knew.

    "Alright class, despite our latest production, there's no reason we shouldn't try to redeem ourselves! Short plays are just as good as big ones right? Alright I have the Squips right here-"

    "You what?!" Jeremy stood up so fast he nearly fell over, a panicked look on his face.

    "Jeremy!" A startled Christine looked at him concerned.

    "Is there a problem Mr. Heere? I was just about to hand out some new scripts I received." Mr. Reyes said slowly to Jeremy unsure what to make of his sudden outburst. Jeremy let out a sigh of relief, then realizing the entire class was now looking at him, his face began to go red.

    "U-uh no problem Mr. Reyes. I guess I misheard you, s-sorry." He sat back down giving Christine an embarrassed smile. "Sorry." He mouthed. Then once Mr. Reyes began babbling away again, Jeremy laid back in his seat, eyebrows furrowed. This was going to be a long day.