ZADOR - Surviving between Esc and Alt + F4

Chapter 1: The everyday adventure of waking up...

"I am in love with the melody, which is playing while you touch my heaaarrttt [...]"

. . . .

The newest chart hit by Michael Mitchell was played up and down on every radio station and was called the best summer hit of all time. The mix of pop and dance music was loved by the inhabitants of the American city Wingsdale.

. . . .

In one of its houses, a young boy laid in his bed when he heard the song as his alarm tone. His dad always praised the musical talent of Michael Mitchell, whereas he is semi-impressed by the 24-year-old Canadian musician. Just another sunny boy with 08/15 music. Boring.
Seemingly puzzled, Rick moved his head up from his cuddly white pillow. He hated his alarm so much. On one hand, the song was already outdated for him after just 2 weeks. On the other hand, it doesn't allow him to fall asleep again. To hear that song for the second time in a few minutes would kill his nerves. Michael Mitchell. 'What a joke of an artist', thought Rick.
If only he knew how to change the alarm tone of his old phone. The song playing in the morning marked his need to get up and ready for school. Lame thought. 'Who needs school. Analyzing lyrical texts will be so important for life...'.

The sarcasm in Rick's thoughts impressed him today. He normally craves an energy drink in the morning, next to the feeling of being a drunk skeleton with no brain.
He is 18 years old now, but just slowly manages to get himself up at 7 AM every day. Today, it felt more difficult than ever to leave his beloved bed and hop onto the black, scruffy carpet of his room.

Last night, the English boy studied for a maths test. He sat in front of his old and dusty mathematics book for several hours. Just trying to understand a single page of the thirty, which he was asked to revise for the exam.

'Perfectly prepared', was his first thought when he woke up today. He didn't know what was more ironic at this moment: His preparation for the upcoming exam, or the words from his crush some days ago, that he was the best boy alive.

Both thoughts seemed to be false somehow. 'Hehe, my sarcasm is brilliant today,' thought Rick.

"RICK!?"

"RIIIIIICK!?"

Rick got scared by the screams and left his self-loving world of sarcastic thoughts.

"RICK!!! Where are you, for goodness's sake!?", yelled a woman's voice so loudly, that the young Rick could even hear his younger brother turn in his bed during the deepest sleep.
His name is Derick, he is 9 years old and always the lucky one according to Rick. In his eyes, his brother Derick can always wake up at 1 PM, gets the best breakfast, the biggest presents, does nothing but bring Rick to anger or play with friends in the family's garden.
Rick identified the yelling voice as the one of his mother. She works as a politician in one of the city's biggest parties. However, she gets mad at Rick at 7:20 AM every morning, when she realizes that the student is still laying in his bed in his checkered red-blue pajama.

She never likes her son in the morning. Truly understandable though, as waking up is an everyday adventure for him. Plus, he doesn't bring the best school marks home. Instead, he is good at playing video games. Especially at the game, she hates the most: Zador.
While looking at the clock, which meanwhile is ticking towards 7:23 AM, Rick's mum, Elisabeth Notch, thinks of this terrible game. It is only about getting to know who murders the other players.

When done so, the player can grab a knife and stab his election. If he is right, he moves up to be a virtual murder in an even bigger virtual world. That is how she understood the game from half-mumbled explanations from her son.
Lonely those unrealistic characters with those skinny, endlessly long legs, a skinny body, and tiny heads trigger her every time she sees the game.
In her opinion, Rick's 18 years of age are too old for such a childish game. Even more frustrated was her reaction to the package her son got in the mail last week.
A giant trophy - shaped like a character of the game. Despite being proud of her son, who achieved 1st place in a Zador tournament in his city, the trophy makes her even more frustrated and disappointed about the game.

Not only seeing the game on her son's computer screen, but its character on his desk was not the best news for Elisabeth.
She hears the door lock of her son's room being opened. A rusty old door that squeezes at every move. The house of the family is everything but new and modern. Some rooms awoke a rotten image. But the house was a cheap thing. Money issues overcame the family since Rick's dad passed away a year ago.

Thomas Notch was a passionate pilot. He left home often but was impressed by the places he landed at. Especially the young Derick was happy over both ears when his father sent photos from all around the world. The Eiffel Tower of Paris. The Statue of Liberty. Rome's Colosseum...
Several sights were displayed on the photos on Derick's wall. He missed his dad the most. He was a great flying tutor for the 9-year-old when he entered a small plane to practice flying. His life-long dream was to become a pilot like his dad.
However, he never went aboard a plane since he lost him. The passion was still there. But Derick had nobody to wake him up in the morning. Nobody to take him to the airfield and teach him. His father did all that.