Vicarious

00: The Email Arrived

              Emma sat upright on her bed using a white, fluffy throw pillow as  back support. Her shiny black hair tied up in a messy bun while wearing her favourite pair of black sweatpants to go along with an oversized grey hoodie that stretched far across the length of her dainty arms.

Being heavily engrossed in the material before her, she navigated across the screen in an attempt to do further research oblivious to the pop-up that showed on the laptop's screen. The topic was one that had her engrossed but Emma was still interrupted by another notification so she decided to check them out.

She wondered for a minute before clicking on the email revealing its content.

Then she slowly read;

"We, The Prestigious Elites are besides each other with much joy, elated to inform you; Miss Emma Blake, of this wonderful opportunity to school at our first-class, well equipped and most suitable, institution of higher learning. You are the one person, out of a thousand who, We, The Elites, have found worthy to be bestowed such an honour and as such, you are hereby required to be on or within the campus grounds as at the  beginning of the new school year, to be eligible for this enrollment and for  swift commencement of the new year's work."

Blinking slowly, now believing she was seeing things- perhaps due to the over excessive studying this past few months, she read again.

"We, The Prestigious Elites are besides each other with much joy, elated to inform you- Miss Emma Blake-

With a loud scream she quickly shut the laptop, frozen as her heartbeat quickened.

"What was this? It's real?" She thought highly contemplating if the message was a mistake... But it carried her name.

"It's real? Is it really real? No- But is it?" She wondered now seeming like a mad person.

Holding it close to her chest like it was some kind of family heirloom, passed down through generations that she had just found somewhere on the floor, she, hurriedly skipped downstairs almost missing a broken step on the stairs on her way down then she saw her mum and dad.

The kitchen was in a tidy mess. Various ingredients decorated the length of the cooking table. Turning slightly to the left, she could see both of her parents crowding round the small pot on the stove. Judging by their constant giggles and chuckles, there was no doubt that it was a new recipe for the restaurant they were trying out on her and Matt. Her mum chuckled once more sprinkling various spices in rather very generously.

"Wait what?" She stopped her train of thought from going off-the-rails. "That wasn't the point right now."

"Mum? Dad?" Emma called out in a shaky voice then took a brief pause to calm down her nerves.

"Can you come here a sec?" She called  standing in the open living room adjacent to the kitchen with her laptop wide open in her arms.

"What honey? Something's wrong?" Her dad asked coming closer, worry etched into his features though it still didn't put a dent on his simply over-emphasized beauty.

"Read it loudly" She gestured to the already opened email inching closer as if saying it in a whisper wouldn't make it disappear.

"Please read everything you see." She said louder as if going any faster would jinx everything ruining her entire life with it.