Not What She Seems

Nine Days in Paradise!

"The flower glows in times of pure happiness." the teen remembered. No wonder it was always glowing around her parents. In the house, that is. Her parents didn't want people thinking any different about their daughter. Plus, that'd give the people something to talk about nonstop. It'd also shock the court and'll have everyone questioning everything they ever knew about the Jiahnes' (G•ON•Z or G•ONS). It made so much sense now. It was always glowing because she was always happy—no matter what. The teen looked up to see her roommate staring at her. Reading her. I cannot let her know. I don't want her to think any different of me. If she knows I'm a Jiahnes, she'll pity me and treat me differently. I don't want that. I want to be normal. To feel normal. Ugh, the teen thought, why can't I be normal?
  Why can't I be normal?

******

  I straighten myself a little bit and look out the window and watch as the plane nears ground. I smile. We're finally here. Here at Vavega Republic, or Miracle Republic.
"Finally here!" Salene exclaims. The plane lands and we're allowed to start exiting, starting with first class. We grab our luggage and exit the plane and walk into the airport. By all the whispering, I can tell that mother's already in the airport with us. Then again, it could be me, no, there's way more whispering than there would be for me. Then, I hear someone making disgusting noises in my ear. I jump away.
"Ew! Don't do that! Gross!" I exclaim. Mom bursts out laughing.
"Im sorry, I saw an opportunity and I just couldn't pass it up." Mom says.
"That's gross! I'm going." I state.
"Where?" Mother asks.
"To get myself a wonderful McDonald's breakfast!" I reply.
"Can I have one?" Mother asks again.
"N—Actually, sure! It's not my money anyways. Come on Relvin!" I answer, dragging Relvin along with me. I order our meal and right after, Relvin asks something.
"Why can't I have a breakfast?"
"Fine. You can have a hash brown."
"What? No, I don't want a hash brown."
"Okay then, you get nothing."
"No! I mean why can't I get a meal?"
"No one said you can't, I'm just trying to save money."
"Okay, I'll get a meal then."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because it's my free meal and I don't want you to get a meal."
"That's invalid because I have the money!"
"Okay, you wanna know a secret?"
"Sure."
"If you get anything more than a hash brown, I'll add another month to my free meals." I whisper.
"What! That's not fair!" Relvin replies.
"It is fair." I argue.
"How?" Relvin asks.
"Because I have the money!" I taunt, waving around a twenty. Relvin sighs.
"Fine. I'll get a hash brown then." Relvin agrees, defeated. The cashier laughs.
"I'll add a hash brown." she laughs.
"Thank you." I reply. She comes back with a bag and a cup holder and sets them on the counter. I hand her the money and she hands me back change. Relvin tries to grab it, but I'm faster and slide it in my pocket.
"I keep the change sweetheart." I say, smiling.
"You suck. I hope you get a horrible tan and will never be able to get lighter ever again so you'll look as dark as Mickey's ears." Relvin snaps.
"Aww, it's okay. Plus if I get tanned, you'll get tanned too." I joke. I grab the food while Relvin grabs the drinks and walk back order to where everyone's at. I hand mother her food and start to bring out Relvin's hash brown.
  "Hey, do you want it?" I ask.
  "Yeah. So give me it." Relvin demands.
  "What's the magic word?" I question.
  "Can you please give me my hash brown." Relvin repeats.
  "Sure." I answer, slowly putting the hash brown in his hands. I turn around and see mother walking away.
  "Hey wait up!" I exclaim, chasing after her.
  About an hour or so later, we arrive at the resort. The resort is HUGE, with a beautiful water fountain in front and some restaurants across from the pools. A little bit of a walk past the pool and a right turn (with a little bit more walking) leads you to the hotel. We walk into the hotel and head over to the elevators and eventually find our hotel rooms. Each hotel room holds 2-4 people, but since none of us want to share a bed, it'll hold two. Well, except for mother's and father's which'll hold three and Mavaro, who'll sleep alone for some reason. The pairs we decided on were Salene and me, Ravamara and Savara, Allister and Markus, Relvin and Maj, Gevora and Verlynn, and Sofiyah and Elizah. Man, Gevora's gonna have a fun time rooming with Verlynn. Gevora is a person who likes to keep her things private, and Verlynn's a person who likes everyone to know everything so there's no secrets between anyone. Man....I can't wait to see how this plays out. Salene and I's bedroom are the furthest room from the first room we occupy, with ours being 2050 and the starting room being 2042. Salene and I settle down into our hotel room and relax for a bit before I hear a knock on our door. I open the door and see Emarina standing there with a phone in her hand.
"Can I come in?" Emarina asks me. I nod and head back to our bedroom. I plop myself on my bed and Emarina soon follows.
"What's up?" Salene asks.
"Mavaro said I can play Element City on her phone if I can find out her password." Emarina states.
"And you want us to help you open it?" Salene predicts.
"Mhm...." Emarina replies.
"How many numbers?" Salene questions.
"Nine." she replies again.
"Oof, too many numbers, too many possibilities. I can't help you, sorry." Salene says. Emarina frowns, but then she turns and looks at me, hoping I'd try and help her.
"I'll try." I state. She hands me the phone and I stare at the screen, trying to imagine all the possible spasswords Mavaro'd put on her phone that's nine numbers. Then, the answer smacks me dead in the face.
"I think I know it. I'll need paper, though." I comment. If this is the answer—this makes me 99.999% sure that my theory is right. Emarina leaves our bedroom and comes back with a single sheet of paper. Perfect. I grab the paper and a pen on my nightstand and start writing. After about three minutes, I fold the paper up, turn around, and look at Emarina.
"I think I have the answer." I state. I grab the phone off my bed and began typing in these numbers: 958812541. Then, the phone unlocked. I knew it!
"I WAS RIGHT!" I exclaim happily.
"I CAN PLAY E.C. NOW!" Emarina exclaims.
"WE'RE PLAYING WITH YOU!" both Salene and I exclaim. If you don't know, Element City (or E.C.) is a role play game in which you can be a shapeshifter or a snow, earth, water, fire, wind, electricity, basically elements that are used on Earth and you can relax and talk with other people and such. It's really fun. It first dropped on the computer, but now it's on computers, phones, tablets, and gaming consoles such as Xbox, IBox (the Apple version of an XBox), PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and more! It's even available in cars with a tv! All you have to do is bring a controller, put a game card in the slot under your joystick on your controller, put the disc in the tv, and you're set! Element City dropped in 2798 and already won the Gameies (GAME•EASE) TWICE along with 15 different awards from them and has been invited to attend 20 different award shows. It also won the title of Top Selling RPG, too. If you haven't heard of it, you either live under a rock or you're still a child, maybe like months old to 5 or 6 years old. Even then, you must've probably heard about it from an older sibling. I unzip my luggage and bring out Element City in perfect condition along with two controllers. We came prepared. I open the case and pull out the disc and two game cards, toss one over to Salene, and flip over my controller and put it in the slot. I put the disc in the tv and the screen switches to the game. After using a game card once, it gives you the option to link your account to your game card. Once you do so, as soon as you put the game card in its slot on your controller, it automatically connects to the account. So, because of this, Salene and I manage to save a valuable two minutes on logging in.
  "Alright, hurry up Emarina, you're taking too long." I complain.
  "You know what? Why am I even playing on a phone when I can use something else. Can I borrow your laptop?" Emarina asks.
  "Sure." I answer, typing in my password and handing her my laptop. Emarina doesn't waste time and pulls out her own game card and sticks it into a slot in my laptop and joins the game.
  "What city are you guys at?" I ask.
  "I'm at Amorante." Emarina responds.
  "I'm at Mihuaire." Salene says. Fantastic. Amorante (AM•OR•ON•TAE) and Mihuaire (ME•WHO•AIR) are neighboring coastal cities within the game. They also border the Vamultian (VAH•MALT•IAN) Sea and is quite a distance from the city I'm in.
  "Well, where are you guys going to meet up? Are you and Salene going to meet at Amorante or Mihuaire so I know where to drive." I ask, heading towards a car dealership.
  "We'll meet at the border. Amorante and Mihuaire are neighboring cities after all." Salene replies. In Element City, cities sort of act as countries or states with borders and such, but they all still have the same rules. I talk to the car dealer, spawn a car, and hop in it. I open up my map and plot my destination on the map. The game estimates it'll take me 3 1/2 in-game hours to get to the border between Amorante and Mihuaire, which is a real life estimate of 5-10 minutes and'll make the time of my arrival in the game 22:00 (10 PM). It also estimates that during this 3 1/2 hour ride, I won't be required to stop for bathroom breaks (Element City is somewhat realistic, requiring my character to have to be fed, hydrated, and not unhygienic and at least take showers and such) and'll stop 6 times for gas. I head back into the dealership and trade my car out for another Corvette Stingray. This time, I get a brand new, limited time only, black as midnight one that p's practically invisible in the night. I customize the license plate so it says "M1DN1T3" (Midnite) and immediately hop in the car. This car literally just became available the second I chose to chat with the car dealer. I even got an achievement for getting the first sold car of the limited edition ones and a new all black outfit! I really like this car because it has double the mpg (miles per gallon) than the regular Corvette with a top mpg of 50 miles per gallon! Plus, it's faster than the others.
  "Are you serious? You got the first limited edition Corvette?" Salene asks, shocked. I nod.
  "Lucky! I got the third." Emarina says.
  "Ha! I got the second!" Salene mocks.
  "Well, regardless we all get the special outfit since we're the first five people." Emarina states. Salene and I silently agree. I go back to the map and make sure it still has my destination there. Then, I change my speed from 45 mph to 150 and it reevaluates itself, now changing the time to about 1 hour in-game, which is actually like 1-3 minutes and makes my in-game arrival time 19:30 (7:30 PM) no bathroom breaks, and only 3 gas changes. I start to speed down the roads and make it there in two minutes. I swerve, avoiding Emarina and the car continues driving, about to crash into a toll booth. I hop out of the car and injure myself and the car continues driving and crashes into the toll booth, breaking the glass on the toll booth, accidentally injuring the worker and making him have to run and go get help, which leaves the front of my car is completely destroyed and smoking. We all restrain ourselves, trying not to laugh, but then a few giggles escape. Then a couple of chuckles. Then full out laughter. Salene wipes a tear away from her eye, still laughing.
  "H-H-How d-did you manage to crash? She was on the side of the road?" Salene asks.
  "I was gonna be super cool and drive recklessly into the grass then do an awesome drift behind her and it was gonna be super cool. Then, I realized I drove too close to her at the last second, so I swerved but then pressed the wrong button and fell out of the car." I explain, laughing.
  "YES GUYS! YAVARA THE MASTER DRIVER. NEARLY CRASHES AND KILLS A PERSON WHO IS ON THE SIDEWALK. PERFECT DRIVING." Emarina laughs sarcastically. I playfully push her and she keeps laughing. We continue playing until 13:00 (1PM) and then head out to eat lunch. It's only after lunch I realize how tired I'm getting because of jet lag. I'm sort of starting to feel my energy drain already. After lunch, Relvin and Gevora come over to play with us and soon, Ravamara and Maj join too. We all relax and have fun until dinner, then we return back to our rooms and relax until we fall asleep.
  The finals start in like, 9 more days. In nine more days, I'll have to fight some mysterious participant who was considered important enough to cancel out the rules of the tournament and come fight me. They've probably trained. Probably training right now while I'm busy relaxing at Vavega, doing absolutely no training whatsoever. Will I win? Will this be the first time I lose? Eh, why does it matter. I've already lost a fight. Verlynn has single-handedly managed to unnerve everyone including mother and make everything so....awkward. Sometimes, mother eats in her room because she tends to come back from work late, but this is different. She's not coming back from work that late, yet she still eats in her room. All because of Verlynn. I don't blame her though. It's not like she could've prevented it. She was just a baby. Now I have to brace myself for surprises—good and bad—every second of the day. Now I'm busy questioning what I am, what is mother, and what does she mean by something "much, much more"? It's crazy when you think about it. How all of this happened just from one itty bitty decision to let a friend spend the summer at your house. I think we should've just stayed in a child's place. Stayed innocent. Stayed unknowing. Huh. I really do need this vacation, don't I? You know what? I'm gonna enjoy this vacation to the max. I'm going to kick back and relax and have a stress-free vacation. Mother always told me if I keep stressing I'll get gray hair before I enter college and the fact that I was gonna get gray hair before she does was enough to scare me into not being stressed for the next 7 years. Now I'm here stressing again. Now that I think about it, it's like a game of hide and seek. If I let stress find me, I won't enjoy the rest of the day. Then week. Then month. Then year. Then life. I should just relax and hide everything else from Verlynn, which'll be hard considering I don't know what it is. It's so much like what mother told me when I was younger. I was upset at the fact that everyone'd always ask so many questions about me. It was mostly stupid stuff. Why is your hair curly? Why is your hair red? Why is your skin so unnaturally perfect? Why are your eyes so hazel? Where is your prosthetic (I don't have one. I don't know where they got that idea. Even if I did have one, why would I tell you?)? Why are you so fast? Why are you so short? (That one I hated the most). All mother told me is that if you hate it so much, then don't let it show. Hide it all. Avoi fa ta humas.