Young Writers Society

Trees passed by my window as I sat in my sisters old suberu. I looked out the window on the other side of where I was sitting so that I didn't have to see what we were arriving at. We stopped and I stepped out of the car and placed my foot upon the cold sidewalk. I closed my eyes but I didn't want to see what was before me. I was so scared, would it be good or bad? Beautiful or ugly? I guess I wouldn't find out until I allowed my eyelids to flutter open.

The did open, and I looked upon an ugly, shabby, old... house! I knew it wasn't going to be good! Ever since my older sister told me we were moving I had bad thoughts about where we would end up. this piece of crap, was where I was going to eat, sleep, and even bathe?

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. but maybe if I closed my eyes and did some sort of "There's no place like home" stuff, I would open my eyes, and find myself in my old house. But of course, it didn't work. I was still at the yard, with the piece of junk in it. I felt like a bum.

My sister looked at me and smiled. "So Bri, you like it right?"

I'm not the type of person that lies, so I was completely honest when I answered her question. 

"Are you kidding me? How much does your husband make? I bet I could make less than him and buy a better house!" I just blurted it out, I didn't even think. I realized after that it wasn't the right thing to say.

I could see tears welling up in my sisters eyes.

"Ummm, sory, I didn't mean it that way. I guess I just not used to it yet, I'm sure I will like it." Of course, that was a lie. I knew I would never come to like it.

"Yeah, okay Bri. I'll let you off the hook this time, but next time you say something like that, we're going to have a little chat." she exclaimed and walked up to the door, put the key in, and unlocked the creaky old thing.

I should probably explain why my parents haven't arrived yet. Well the thing is, they probably never will. You see, my dad divorced my mom last year and she never actually got over him. So, she ran after him to try and get back together. So they abandoned me, while my sister (who just graduated collage) got married. I guess since she as my only close family, they left me in her custody. Now I live with my sister Feyta (I know, my mom must have had a cheese fetish or something) and her newly wed husband, Michael.

The next morning I woke up to the barking of a dog and my alarm clock. My head was pounding from all of the noise.

"Bri, can you please get up? Your alarm is annoying the dog next door!" Feyta screamed at me from the kitchen. I rolled out of bed and onto the floor next to all of the things from my old house. The night before I saw my new room. It was painted light purple and had a bed and a desk. It looked like a five year old had last occupied it, but it was no wonder they moved, the whole rest of the house was a dump too.

I got up and changed my shirt, but didn't feel like changing my pajama pants. I looked at the calender too see what day it was, and I was surprised when I saw that it said: October 3rd, 2020. It wasn't October, it was still September. So I banged on the calender screen and it flickered back to September.

Quickly I ran downstairs and stuffed my back pack with my one necessity, my ipad 10. It had all of my school stuff on it. I grabbed a piece of toast and rushed out the door to the bus stop at the end of the street. As I was I was standing there, I noticed that all of the houses were so beautiful.  Why didn't my house look like that? I knew that the only thing in my house that I actually liked, was my head gear (which was my video game system).

I noticed a small brunet girl walk out of her house to where I was standing. she looked like she could be nice, but what did I know.

"Hey you're that new girl right? Our teacher told us that you were coming. Hi, I'm Mellisa. Welcom to Green Falls." The small brunet girl blurted, she was wearing a mini skirt and a light pink blouse.

"Hey I'm Bri." I shook her out stretched hand.

"Oh, like the chees? Hehe, thats kinda funny."

"Huh, yeah, I guess." I asn't quite sure if she was laughing with me, or at me. Then, another girl arrivde. She was was tall, blond, pretty and was also wearing a mini skirt, but she had a black blouse on.

"Hey Claire, this is Cheese Girl! she's new here, so don't forget to be extra nice to her." Mellisa teased. I couldn't belive that she said that! I had to set things right.

"Hey Mellisa, thats not my name. It's Bri"

"Yeah, like the chees, so your name is cheese girl."

'Ha, thats funny! High five!" Claire said enthusiastically. I knew that it wouldn't be a good first day.

My first class I had in Larry Thompson High School was Language Arts. Then Math, Spanish, Art, and then lunch. Lunch was always my favorite "class" of the day, but of course, like any other stereotypical first day of school, I sat alone at lunch.

I was so glad when it was over, except, when I was exiting the cafeteria. People took the cheese from their sanwiches at lunch, threw it at me, and strted calling me "CHEESE GIRL!"

After school, I stepped onto the big yellow bus. The driver looked like she anted to kill everyone on the whole planet because her husband just left her. She had this grimace that she would give you if you yelled, and it scared the living daylights out of me.

The only seat open was next to Claire, one of the really "popular girls". I just stared out my window and listened to music. I turned it down for a second to listen to their conversation, and I thought that I heard my name, but I didn't care.

When we arrived at where I had started the day, I stumbled of of the bus, and fell onto the street. I wasn't injured, but I was being laughed at, which was almost worst than having a broken arm. I quickly got up and ran home to the ugly, shabby, old house.

I knocked on the creaky old door and as greeted by Michael. "Hey Bri, good first day of school?"

"Yeah sure, whatever." I dodged past him and ran upstairs to my room, and shut myself in, so that I could be alone. I got out my head gear and placed it on my black hair. Head gear is pretty much a video dame device where it actually feels, and looks like you are in the game. Plus, You can talk to people, like speaking, not typing. It' really cool.

I got the game "Blade Online' for my birthday two years ago and I've become a level ten blade master (thats pretty good for a fifteen year old) ever since. I hadn't played it in a while, so I decided I would try again.

I turned it on and I could see colors flashing before me as I logged in as my avatar Alora. I didn't want to have my name be a cheese, I actually hated cheese. Probably because of all of the bullying as a kid. I didn't want to be Bri, the akward, black haired, ugly, chubby girl that I was. I wanted to be Alora, the amazing, red haired, beautiful, thin girl, that I could be. 

I opened my eyes and realized I had wound up in town with lots of people at the market and the tavern. I missed coming here, it was the only place that I actually felt safe. I started strolling down the brick in my blue and white dress with my sword my side.

Suddenly, I fell, again. I didn't just randomly fall though, I bumped into this guy. He was tall an had black hair.

 "Umm... Sorry, I guess I wasn't looking where I was going." I felt so awkward, everyone was staring at me. I looked up and saw three people behind him. One was a girl with black hair and had a really pretty dress on. There were also two other guys. The taller one had brown hair and a very familiar face. The last guy had longish blond hair and was wearing a beanie.

 I stood up and brushed myself off. The black haired boy handed me something, it was my sword. I looked up and swept my red hair out of my face. I took the sword out of his hands, and before I could turn around to leave, he stuck out his hand.

 "Hi, I'm Kane, have you played here before? You look familiar."

 "Hi, I'm B--uhh, I mean Alora. Yeah, I've played before, but I don't remember ever meeting you. Anyway, sorry for bumping into you. Could I treat you and your friends to a drink at the tavern as a token if my gratitude?"

 "Yeah, we would like that" Kane seemed to be a pretty nice person, I still felt bad for bumping into him. We started to walk to the tavern and I kept looking back to make sure they were still there, and every time that I checked, there they were.

 We all got beers since there wasn't a drinking age. It was best place to go in the town to get a good drink, but the sad thing was, it was all virtual. After about an hour of learning about all of them, I found out that they were all really similar to me.

"Hey guys, I have to go, it s getting pretty late, my sister will be wondering what I'm doing locked in my room." 

"Hehe, yeah, I know what you mean, but you should really come play with us next time your on. You can message me and I'll come find you. Well except, don't message me while I'm in school. Uggghh! Why does school have toe even exist, my friends there are all such jerks! I mean, like there was this new girl today, and they all kept calling her really mean names! Sorry, I'm just blabbing, you were leaving... well see you some other time." the black haired girl named Kiki exclaimed.

"Ok, see you soon!" I turned around and clicked for my menu screen so that I could log off, but the screen was missing something. the logoff button was gone!

"Hey guys, there's no logoff button, could you check to see if you have one? I might just be glitching."

"Nope, I don't have one either." Chris said.

"Me neither." said the boy with the beanie, whose name was Carter.

"Do you think somethings wr--" but before Kiki could finish her sentence we were automatically transported to the middle of town. I looked around and saw that everyone in the game was there. Suddenly a huge thing was appearing in the sky. I didn't know what it was, but it started to form into some kind of human form.

"Hello my children. I am the creator of this game, Dr. Crotz. I designed Blade online because I have always wanted to have a civilization of my own, that I could control, and now my dream has come true! You are not able to log out of the game until all of the dungeons have been completed. But if you happen to die in the game, you will also die in real life, and if a loved one attempts to remove your head gear, there will be shocks sent to your brain that will kill you.  When one person completes the game, anyone who is still living will be able to log out and  return to the real world. This is all that you need to know right now. Now I must get going, but I would like to wish all of you the best of luck." The huge person bellowed all of the information, and disappeared into tiny virtual pieces. 

Suddenly I got a message that stated I had received an item, I noticed that everyone else got one also. I clicked on the button and a mirror dropped into my hands. At that moment, every part of my body changed. I looked into the mirror and realized that I wasn't Alora anymore...I was Bri! 

I looked around panicking and noticed that Kiki changed into a tall girl with blond hair.

"Claire?"

"Bri?"

We yelled simultaneously, just gawking at each other. We both couldn't believe what was going on.

"Do you guys know each other?" A really cute boy with black hair hair and light blue blue eyes asked. I realized from his voice that it was Kane.

"Yeah, B-- I mean, Alora is the new girl I was talking about. By the way, Im so sorry about how Mellisa acted today, she's one of the friends I was saying was a jerk. Anyway, what is up with with this whole 'you are trapped in my game' thing?"

"I don't know what it is all about, but I'm really worried, I hope my sister doesn't take off my head gear." I was worried that I was going to have my brain fried. Hopefully there were cases of it already and it was on the news. Maybe she would be watching and realize that if she took it off, I would die. I was so worried that I started to cry a little, but I didn't let the others see me.

"Guys, I think we should create a party so we can finish the dungeons faster, as a team." Carter suggested.

"Yeah, that's a good idea, but we have to promise to stick together." Kane seemed to be our leader. He was a really good one too, he knew how to charm you with his looks. I mean at least, he charmed me. I liked him a lot better as a normal person instead of his avatar.

But, I didn't like myself better this way. What did they think of me? What did he think of me? My hair was messy and my makeup was smeared from crying. But I couldn't let that stop me from beating the game.