Game Gem: Fire

For as long as I can remember, video games has always been a passionate interest of mine. My parents don’t fully understand my love for games. They say that I use an unhealthy amount of time staring at my computer screen playing online RPG games or chatting with other PC users in-game. But I’ve been quite bored recently, due to not finding any new and interesting games to play. I’m the type of person who gets bored of a game very quick and I usually look for something that draws my attention. If someone were to ask me what I would want in a video game, I’d have a whole laundry list of ideas that would create a good concept for a game. But alas, my passion for gaming has starting to fade along with any hope of experiencing the thrill that comes with playing a new and exciting game.

Reality has recently set in, as I’m now a junior in high school and I have been more preoccupied with keeping my grades up in the hopes of graduating with a good GPA score to make up for my lackluster grades in the past, and making my parents proud. The frustrating part is that I don’t even know what to major in, but perhaps I can learn the fine arts, as I do appreciate the work that goes into acting, music and of the sorts. But until then, I need to focus on my classes...

"Miss Anika...Miss Anika.....MISS ANIKA!"

I slowly start to open my dark aqua eyes which then looked directly straight at the English teacher that stood in front of my school desk. At that moment, I instantly knew that I had fallen asleep for half of the class period and that I had missed a full lesson over advanced diagramming. No wonder I fell asleep! A second later, the school bell had rung and young minds started leaving the classroom, except for one other student. The teacher asked the other student to wait outside the class door while her and I had a talk.

“Miss Anika, have you been getting enough sleep recently?"

“Well..recently, I’ve been spending most nights working on my homework and studying for the exams coming up next week. I don’t think I’ve been staying up too late though”

“Miss Anika, I applaud you for putting in the effort to do well in school, but you need to rest more often not only to help your grades but for your own well being. Please promise me that you’ll relax more and if you need help with anything, us teachers will certainly help.”

“Thank you Ms. Connie, I’ll promise to get more rest!”

“Good! Now, let Zach know that he can come back in. Have a good day Anika.”

“I will. Thank you very much!”

I was instantly relieved that I didn’t receive a lecture but rather a genuine talk of concern for how bad my sleeping habits have been lately. I walked towards the door and once it was opened, I turned to my right to see a classmate of mine from last period. Everyone knew Zach, as he went out of his way to make an idiot out of himself thinking that he was actually being funny. He usually gets himself into trouble by interrupting a class or agitating the teacher till they exploded. He must have done something in class while I was dozing off to sleep.

“Ms. Connie is ready to see you now, can’t possible think of what you could’ve done to get yourself into trouble this time.”

Zach smirked and replied with, “Well if you weren’t sleeping your life away the whole time, perhaps you could have seen how hilarious I was.”

I rolled my eyes and walked past Zach assuming that we had finished our little conversation, but Zach couldn’t hold his tongue for long. Thankfully though, Ms. Connie stopped him before he could say anything.

Across the hallway, I could still here Ms. Connie yelling at Zach to get inside the classroom and that she was gonna call his parents. I’d be mortified if a teacher had to call my parents telling them how I acted if I had always acted the way that Zach does. A few hours later, I was heading to lunch thinking about how I wish our cafeteria food could change its menu a little. It wasn’t that the food was bad or anything, but the tatter tots and Macaroni and cheese especially tasted bland and old. I was lost in thought till I realized that I was going the wrong direction and I ended up in the computer lab. No one was occupying it and all the computers except for one were shut down and closed. I became slightly curious and after turning around to make sure no one saw me, I walked and approached the opened computer. My eyes looked down at the screen which had a opened file on it titled: Game Gem (Beta). My eyes instantly lit up at the word “game”. My instincts told me that it was in the beta stage, then it must be new right? But I knew that I needed to get to lunch and sustain myself with food before my next class. But I haven’t played a game in a while, and this file looked quite intriguing to me. What could go wrong? I started up the game to see if it would work, and sure enough...it did! On the screen popped up a digital crystal with the button “Press Start” at the bottom of the screen. I pressed start and it asked me to type in a username and password. I type in the username Emily_hardcore and the password Lunch. I must be really hungry if I’m still thinking about lunch haha. I’ll just play this game for a few minutes and then go the right way to the cafeteria and have some tater tots and macaroni and cheese....I felt sick just thinking about it. The next screen showcased different colored crystals and the bottom text said “Choose your gem wisely."

"Choose a gem? Oh so those crystals must be gems right? Choose wisely....hmm well there’s the blue one, the green one, the pink one...Oh here’s the red gem! I think I’ll pick that one!"

I selected the red gem and the screen immediately started glitching like crazy! I was so confused as to why the computer screen wasn’t working. A sudden flash of light had appeared on the screen and next thing I knew, I wouldn’t be in the computer lab.....