Dream of Paradise (Minecraft Fanfiction)

THREE - Yeah That's Totally Not Suspicious at All!

My face beams with pure joy and excitement. I think I'm about to cry. I take a breath. "Thank you so much!" I say. I then go back to my seat. "Look who's jealous now!" I tease my friends.

"Don't talk to me." Max says, looking away.

"Hey, you got second best," I say, "in my opinion at least."

He grunts and continues to watch the ceremony.

Emily leans over to me. "He'll get over it." She says. I nod and we both go back to watching. Or I try to at least. Images of fighting monsters come to me, all of the rare collectables I'll find. I zone out as I imagine it all.

"Misty!"

I snap out of my daze and look up at Emily who is standing in front of me. "Huh?" I say, "What?"

"Ceremony's over." Emily says.

"What? I is?" I ask. I look around. Mostly everyone has left. Only a few people and Mayor Bracnor are left. I look for Max but don't see him anywhere. "Where's Max?" I ask.

"He went ahead to look for a place to eat." Emily says. She looks somewhere behind me. "Oh here he is now." I turn around to see Max walking towards us.

"That was fast." Emily says.

"All the stores are closed." Max says.

"Closed?" I ask, "No way, they're always open on ceremony day. It's one of the biggest days of the year"

Max shrugs. "Tell that to them."

I grunt with slight annoyance.

"Aww, darn," Emily says, "Now we can't have our celebratory dinner. We've been planning it for weeks."

"We'll just do something else." I suggest.

"Like what?" Max asks.

"Well umm..." I think for a moment.

My thoughts get interrupted by a sudden tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see the girl that went up first in the ceremony standing behind me. "Oh hey, Sarah...?" I say, forgetting her name.

"Serena." She corrects me.

"Ah yes," I say, "what's up Serena?"

"I just umm..." she hesitates. I wait for her to finish what she was saying. "I just wanted to say congrats on your job. Not many people get chosen for that."

"Oh, thanks." I say, smiling at her. She gives me a halfhearted smile and looks away. My smile fades and I cock an eyebrow at her. "Hey, is something wrong?"

Serena looks at me shakes her head. "It's nothing." She says.

"Oh, okay." I say.

She nods and turns to walk away but Emily stops her.

"Hey, wait!"

Serena turns around and looks at Emily.

"Wanna join us for a little celebration thing?" Emily offers.

"Really?" Serena asks.

Emily nods. "Yeah, it'll be fun!"

Serena hesitates. "Okay!" she finally says with a smile.

Emily smiles and claps her hands "awesome!"

"Yay!" Serena skips over to us. "What are we doing?!"

Emily's excitement suddenly fades from her face. "Oh, um I don't know," she says, "Our plans were kinda ruined with all the stores being closed and all."

"All the stores are closed?" Serena asks.

"Apparently." Emily says, "but, hey, no worries right? We'll figure something out."

I start to zone out again thinking of the dungeons and stuff. Wait. Dungeons? Treasures? I think about this a bit. Maybe we could...

"I know what we can do!" I practically yell, jumping up from my seat and giving Emily, Serena and Max near heart attacks.

"What's your idea, Misty?" Serena asks.

"The greatest idea ever." I say, rubbing my hands together and grinning mischievously.

"Oh no," Emily says, "What are you think-?" I glance at her. "Oh, you want to go to the dungeon don't you?"

"You know me too well" I say.

"Wait," Serena says, "dungeon?"

I look at Serena. "Oh, right," I say, "you don't know about the dungeon we found."

"You found a dungeon?" Serena asks, "Where?"

"On the other side of the forest outside the village walls." I say.

Serena gasps. "You left the village?!"

"Probably shouldn't have said anything." Max mutters.

I let out an awkward cough. "Ahem, I mean we didn't find it," I say, "someone else did and told us."

Serena narrowed her eyes. "Alright..." she knows I'm lying doesn't she? ...crap.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" I sputter, "let's get going shall we?!" I quickly, and awkwardly, walk past Serena, ready to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Attention all crafters!"

I stop and look over a Mayor and all the job leaders, who are all standing in the middle.

"I realize many of you probably had plans for an after the ceremony celebration," Mayor says, "but, I'm sorry, you're going to have to reschedule."

People mutter to themselves things like "why?" "What's going on?"

"We leaders have come to an agreement." Mayor says, "We have decided to start training early this year. So in that case everyone get with your assigned groups so we can get things started."

"Why?" a girl speaks up. The rest of the crowd started speaking up and asking questions.

"Now, now, settle down" Mayor says.

This is weird, I think, they've never done this before.

My friends and I all look at each other, confused. I walk to the front of the crowd.

"Mayor," I say, "We've always had a day for free time before we started. Why change it?" the crowd roars in agreement.

Mayor looks at me. "Well, Misty," he says. I'm a bit surprised at the way he used my name instead of the usual Miss. Stanford or young lady. "The reason for the change is-"

"The reason for this is classified." Colonel interrupts, "now all of you get to your groups for training."

I'm shocked at this. I look at Mayor as if to say 'are you seriously going to allow this?!'

"I assure you," Mayor says to the crowd, "there is nothing to worry about." I feel as if that was actually directed towards me "Everyone do as Colonel says and get to your jobs."

The crowd mutters their disapproval but reluctantly goes to their designated groups. I stand there in shock for a moment. Max calls my name. I look back to my friends and nod to them. I look back at Colonel and glare at him before walking back to my friends.