• It was a hot summer day. I had just completed my first year of high school and was working at a small festival downtown in the carnival area for kids as a fundraiser for my high school marching band. I was teamed up with my good friend Mack at a game where you guess how many jellybeans are in a jar. It was going to be not only easy, but fun. Mostly because we knew how to have fun and I'm pretty great at making people laugh. We were a few hours into the day when these two girls came up to talk to us. They were our age and went to the other high school in our town (we went to South High School and they went to North. Pretty bland for having two high schools in a town but I suppose it works out fine.)

    Now the fact that I only remember one of the girls' names, Bri, is a clear indication as to whom I was attracted. This was no problem since the other girl took to Mack fairly quickly. We talked for a bit and they asked if they could hang out with us. Being the overly paranoid rule-follower that I was, and still am to a certain extent, I asked one of the parents if it was okay first. Since it wasn't a very formal event, they didn't mind so long as it didn't distract us from the task at hand.

    Bri was pretty cool. She was a bit taller than I, which isn't hard since I'm only 5' 1" now at nearly 21 years of age, and had the kind of emo-ish type of thing going on. She was also fairly pretty and was able to both start and hold a conversation. Granted I had almost absolutely no skills when it came to flirting or talking to girls I wished to date so don't be surprised if I tell you I didn't ask her out or even really ask for her number. However, we talked about anime stuff and she mentioned a website called "Gaia" which she said I would enjoy. She gave me her username and I agreed to check it out when I got home. I thought I was good to go. I was going to join the site, talk to her, become better friends, then WHAMMO! Girlfriend time, a feat in which I had only failure in the past.

    She left to go hang out with other friends after a while but her friend stayed...and got a little bit grabby on Mack. Needless to say it was kind of awkward, but I didn't care. I was focused on Bri. I had only really known girls I had gone to school with since the Elementary days and the thought of meeting a girl for the first time, who I found to be quite gorgeous, and having a fresh start. So that night, after watching Mack get all cuddly with Bri's less attractive friend, and having to break up said cuddling at request of a chaperone, I went home and immediately sat at the computer.

    A friend of mine by the name of Rhiannon was already a member, she posted her Avatar on Facebook that same night, and agreed to help me with the registration process. I, being mildly misinformed, typed in Gaia.com into the URL search and was taken to a "Save the Earth" type of website and thought she might have been a hippy. After performing a more elaborate search, Googling it, I found the correct site: GaiaOnline. The extremely anime-based layout showed me I was in the right place.

    Well I picked my details and name (after quite a bit of trial and error as many names I tried were taken) and then I was good to go. I added Rhiannon and Bri and began my journey throughout the Gaia-verse. A journey that, unfortunately, did not lead to me dating Bri. We talked for a bit on here and then she added me on AIM and (oh 200 cool Myspace. We talked to each other for a while then she just kind of stopped talking to me. Which was a shame because I did like her and thought she may have felt the same, especially after finding out we had quite a few mutual friends at both of our respective high schools. However it was not a total loss as I stayed on the site and became actively involved in events and groups.

    Specifically, a Role Playing guild based upon Bleach: an anime I actually had never seen.

    (To Be Continued in Part 2)