"What's that?" Andrea asked, as her roommate Kelly walked into the dorm room.
"It's a present for Chris. It's his birthday in a few days, you know."
"Yeah, but what is it? What did you buy?"
"It's a computer."
"A computer? Kelly, that's too much for a birthday present. I know Chris is into that sort of thing, but why not just get him a game? How much did you shell out for it?"
"Five hundred bucks. But that was the most I was willing to pay. Look," she said, turning the box around to show Andrea. There was a picture on the side of it, depicting the computer. "It's a laptop. He doesn't have one."
"So? He doesn't have a Ferrari either. Are you gonna buy him one of those too?" She sighed. "You spend way too much on that guy. He must really be the one. Or at least a good fuck."
"Andrea!"
"Sorry. But I'm right. What has Chris done for you?"
"Well, we go out to eat and we've seen some movies, that he paid for."
"That's small fries. I'm talking about big things. Like five hundred dollar things."
Kelly looked down. "I just like him, okay? Maybe you can't understand what that's like. To like someone. To love someone."
Andrea shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with being a little loose. You should try it sometime. You might like it."
"I'll just stick with Chris, if you don't mind. Which reminds me, I'm going out to meet up with him at the coffee shop. I just came back here to drop off his gift. I don't want him seeing it until his birthday." Kelly set the box down just behind her bed and then spun around towards the door and left. "Bye."
Andrea was about to leave herself. Every day around this time she did. It was clear to Andrea that her roommate just didn't understand how great it was to go out partying. If there was only some way to get her to have more fun in her life. Kelly spent way too much time studying.
She took a step towards the door, but then stopped and looked back at the box. On the side of it, it said "MasterPC XD350". What the hell is a MasterPC? she wondered.
A little curious about the computer that Kelly had just bought for her boyfriend Chris, Andrea picked up the box and found a way to open it without tearing it. Kelly would give her hell if she knew it had been opened. The laptop computer looked exactly the same as the one pictured on the side of the box. She opened it and turned it on. A message immediately came up on the screen:
"Thank you for choosing the MasterPC XD350, a new hardware product from MasterPC industries. While the MasterPC software is compatible with all home computers, the XD350 is the ideal machine for all of your reality writing needs."
Andrea read it and reread it. "What the hell? Reality writing? What does that mean?" she muttered to herself.
Finally, the main screen loaded. It looked similar to a Windows desktop, but there were a few differences. There was only one icon on the screen, labeled "Command Center". Not knowing what else to do, she clicked on the icon, and a new window came up. She read a message on the screen, as the program loaded:
"Welcome to Master Command Center, your own personal command center. The Master allows you to become a virtual god to the people around you. You now possess the power to bend their reality to your specifications. You are the Master."
Andrea stared at it, thinking that it must have been some sort of joke. A virtual god? Bend reality? What was this?
The screen went blank for a moment, then suddenly a window popped up with a text field, saying "Enter User Name:". Thinking nothing would happen, she typed in her name "Andrea Singer" and pressed enter. Then another window popped up, this one saying "Enter Name of Subject:". Was this really happening? Was this computer program for real? Nothing could change reality. That was just fantasy ... or was it?
Andrea looked at that window for a long time, before shrugging. "What the hell," she muttered, and typed in the name ...
