An Act (h.s)

chapter 1

Maylee Bourbon had a small basement. Only about 300 square feet, the basement was old, worn out, unfinished, and certainly not the best fit to host a large group of rowdy people. But, here she was, with a large group of people around her, recording her as she dropped a small chocolate covered cricket into her mouth.

"Oh, god!" Maylee exclaimed as she chewed through the cricket. With phones out and recording through Snapchat, her friends and some family chuckled at her while she ate the insect.

Why eat a chocolate covered insect? Maylee loves to do new, daring things. You can never be too adventurous in her mind. She stumbled upon packs of these sweetened bugs while flipping through a nonsense magazine delivered in the mail. When she saw the opportunity, she picked up her phone and dialed the company's phone number first, and then quickly texted her close friends and family to come over later the next week to witness her eating these things.

Three years ago, alongside her two other siblings, Maylee scaled up the Swinica mountain in Northern Africa. Swinica is no Mount Everest, but Maylee was still proud to say she had climbed up a mountain.

Alongside being adventurous, or trying to be, she loved to learn.

Maylee has played various instruments including clarinet, trumpet, and triangle in her 7th grade winter band concert. She took over 12 science classes in her high school career. Maylee even got accepted into a great school for her, Arizona University.

Maylee's family, the Bourbon's, live in Zuni, New Mexico. They've lived here all of Maylee's life, except for living in Pennsylvania for the first two years. It's a beautiful city with tons of nature and opportunities for exploration. The Bourbon family loved it there.

However, Maylee always had the itch to travel. She wanted to do things, go places, explore the vast earth. But, her family grew up on little money, sparing no more for extra spending on things such as travels.

The University of Arizona called to Maylee for a variety of reasons. This university is in Tucson, Arizona which is only about 4 hours away from her family. It's away from home, but not too far. It's a big university with lots of opportunities. Maylee beamed at the thought of the freedom and experiences college would bring her. She could hardly wait for the day she moved in, which was only 2 weeks away.

This being said, her family didn't have the funds to support her much in her college tuition, and Maylee was aware of the need to find a job as soon as she could when she moved to Tucson. For the last three years, Maylee had been a front desk receptionist for a computer engineering company. She didn't make too much money, having been paid ten dollars an hour for the last 2 years. However, she knew it would be a good credential for future applications and tried not to worry about the future job search quite yet. She had 2 weeks left to relax, after all.

Maylee's brother, Lincoln, was a software engineer at a company that, ironically, was a rival to Maylee's old company. Whenever she was confused or needed technical help, she could always call Lincoln. She'd rather speak to her brother than some of the intimidating engineers and salesmen she worked with.

Lincoln was a principal engineer and often salesmen at the company he worked at. He made a lot of money, and often spent it with his family. The trip to Swinica was funded mainly by Lincoln, some by Maylee, and another portion by the eldest sibling, Hannah.

Hannah is 12 years older than Maylee and 5 years older than Lincoln. She lives in Edwardsville, Illinois with her husband, Roye. Hannah and Roye keep to themselves mostly, and hardly contact the rest of their family.

2 years ago, Hannah fell into a depression and hasn't been the same Hannah since. Maylee and her family don't know the full story of what happened or why Hannah got so ill, but she seems to be better now and is continuing to recover. They can only hope to see the cheerful, optimistic, Hannah they once knew years ago.

The night went on and more and more people ate the chocolate covered crickets. Maylee's basement was jam packed full of people. Friends of friends, family, neighbors. Maylee loved people. She just has a heart for them.

"Maylee! Come play some card games with Ronnie and I!" Said Lincoln. Maylee put down her food she had been eating and went over to spend time with Lincoln and his fiance of 2 years, Ronnie.

"Glad you could join us, May! Now, are you ready to get your butt kicked in some games of go-fish?" Ronnie teased to Maylee.

"Oh, you are so going down!"

The night had only begun. This was the simple, but beloved life that Maylee adored so much.

The simple, beloved life she only had 2 more weeks of.