“Hurry up, one more order of fries!” A voice snapped from behind a counter, growling angrily at a girl who was dashing as fast as she could, a tray balanced on one hand. “Just a second!” She yelled back, a slight tone of worry in her voice as her uniform sneakers scuffed the carefully polished floor.

This all took place inside a restaurant, in real life. The establishment was a neat, but older place, the well-known ‘Menny’s’ sign sitting dimly outside, a light bulb flickering within it. The sun was well beyond gone, and outside the crickets cry could be heard. From inside this building, this girl, about eighteen, was carrying now two trays, and she looked quite tired from the fact that her shift was almost up; circles sat under her eyes, although hidden by her dark rimmed glasses. Her hair was pulled into a loose bun, her nametag read ‘Marissa’; but she was quickly hurrying to a table. “Here’s your order!” She said with a forced friendly smile, pulling the plates off the tray and setting them down in front of a family of four, who seemed pleased with her service.

“Is there anything else I can get you?” She asked politely, tucking the empty tray under her other full one. Obviously this restaurant was a bit understaffed, but Marissa seemed to get along all right. Turning to head towards the other table down the room a bit, she caught a glance under her glasses at something moving. Oh crap, there was a fifth child, and he was right under her feet, in his own little imaginative world, rolling his toy car across the floor. To avoid stepping on him, she pranced backwards, as one foot almost stepped on him, she lifted it up, and then got her other foot caught on the table leg. As much as she tried, she still went over backwards, a full tray of food going flying. It was almost like slow motion; Marissa could see the food going into the air, and feeling herself falling backwards but as much as she reached, she couldn’t save the tray. Landing painfully on her butt, the food went high into the air, then landing on the floor with a loud crash before she could catch any of it; glass dishes smashing, maple syrup sliding out across the floor over the squashed pancakes, drawing the stares of everyone there.

Looking down at the food behind her, her lip trembled in anger at herself and a slight fear as to what the manager would say. But staring there at the food, she saw a pair of previously pristine shoes standing there, covered in syrup. Her eyes lead up to the owner of the shoes, fixing on the angry manager’s face, her eyes widening. “Mr. Sonari!” She gasped, quickly hopping to her feet. “I’m really really sorry, I tripped..” The manager’s brow was twitching angrily, trying not to make a scene, but clearly he was upset. “I know you’re starting school tomorrow, right? Last day of summer break?” She nodded slowly as he continued, “Well, perhaps this job isn’t working out for you. You’ll need more time for your studies anyway.”

“But Mr. Sonari! I need this job..” She mumbled, embarrassedly getting down on her knees and slowly cleaning up the mess as everyone returned to their food. Indeed, she really did need this job, as her father was a medical student and so her whole family, five children, not including herself, was hard to support. Her mother was a stay-at-home mom, so it was up to her and her older sister to help pay the bills.

“I’m sorry, but this is the fourth tray you’ve dropped this week. I don’t think this industry is for you.” She looked down at the floor in disbelief, cleaning up the mess as he gave his final decision, “It’s alright. You’re still young; there are so many more options for you. Go ahead and finish up cleaning this, then you can go home.” She let out a sigh, carefully gathering up broken glass, speaking softly. “Alright, Mr. Sonari. Thank you.”

—

After she had gotten outside to her bike, she looked up into the dark sky, glittering with stars and whispered. “What am I gonna do now? What is dad gonna say? I wish I had some help with all this…” She let out a long sigh, getting onto her dark blue, squeaky, slightly rusted bike that was clearly a hand-me-down and pedaling off toward home, her head hung low in annoyance. But behind her in the bright sky was a single star, glittering brighter than the others after she had made her wish, but Marissa took no notice; she was too upset.

—

Reaching her home, it was modest-looking, except painted a bright watermelon pink, with somewhat green detailing. Even though it was almost 10 PM, the lights were still on, meaning the little children were still running around. But she didn’t need lights to tell that, she could hear them playing inside. Parking her bike on the sidewalk in front of the house, she hopped up the stairs onto the porch, then heading inside, still hunched over tiredly.

Slipping into the house silently, she could hear the shouts and yells of little kids dashing around the house, including one child who was mimicking noises similar to that of a gun. Letting out a sigh, she didn’t even bother announcing her return, she simply walked down to her own room in the windowless basement. The room was all cement and fairly dark, except for the Chinese lamps hanging everywhere, the carpet almost a dark red shade. Flopping over tiredly on her bed, she closed her eyes and yawned. “Why can’t life be easy? Why can’t this all be easier?” She sighed yet again; still depressed about that evening’s events, Marissa’s dark hazel eyes glanced over to her computer, getting up and sitting down in her computer chair. This was one of her few escapes from the real world, her obsession, MapleStory. Sliding her fingers over the keyboard and mouse, she opened the game and logged in, typing her username, ‘Ircas’.

She let out a sigh of relief as she saw her little pixilated bandit appear onto the screen. As soon as she logged in, she was greeted by her online friends, to which she returned the greeting, her fingers flying across the keyboard. But her mind wasn’t exactly focused on that, it was more fixated on what problems she had… but that was eased away with Icras’ moments, she was always so graceful, even if she was a bunch of pixels.

After playing for a few hours, she had almost leveled up, to level fifty, and she had completely forgotten her worries. At the same time, it was almost midnight, and at the rate she was going, she would level at the same moment. Marissa adjusted her glasses slightly as her fingers continued their mad dash across her keyboard, finding it a fun challenge to level the moment it struck midnight.

The cheap-looking 70s clock sitting on her wall struck down the last ten seconds, just as she was moments away from leveling. A grin appeared on her face as she had killed the one of the last little kittens she had needed to to level.

”Five.. four.. three.. two.. one.”

She counted down slowly, killing the last one the exact second it had struck midnight. A bright blue swirl appeared around Icras, signaling she had indeed leveled. Hitting enter, she prepared to type out to her friends of her achievement with much excitement, but only then did her screen begin to flicker.

The monitor before her flickered off then on again, her computer beginning to make noises as though it was doing a tremendous amount of thinking. Just at that moment, all the lights in the house began flickering in the house, Marissa instinctively pulling her hands away from the keyboard and getting up from her chair, looking around. She was about to ask mom if there was a power shortage, but she could tell by the silence that everyone had finally gone to bed.

Her eyes focused back on the screen, which suddenly got much brighter than everything else, a glow radiating from it that had never been seen before. This whole thing was making her quite nervous, backing up slightly from the screen, thinking it might be a broken part in it and she didn’t want to start a fire. Running over to the power outlet, she was prepared to pull the plug before she glanced back at the screen with a terrified look.

There was a hand sticking out of her screen, and it looked as though it was trying to get out.

(To be continued.)
—

(This is my first blog here, and I’ve read so many awesome stories, I decided to write my own aswell! I really look forward to writing lots more soon.)