𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐒𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐎.

𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐈𝐀 𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐊 𝐁𝐎𝐗 Ⅰ

For the first time in a while I ached for my mother to leave already. "Are you going to be okay by yourself?" She asked, as she shuffled in the kitchen— maybe looking for her keys. She already asked that before, maybe twice. More time taken out of my night alone. "Yeah" I muttered. I was sitting in the dining room flipping through my old algebra book pretending I was looking for a page I would seldom study, only to close it shut as soon as I heard the door close. I used distractions like this so I could look too occupied for a baby sitter, or her 25 year old cousin that lived a half hour away.

"mkay" I heard her softly mutter. I knew she had that nervous feeling in her stomach though, as her heels clicked with every quick step she took— now she was fishing in her purse. Keys? She withdrew them and jangled at me to show her victory of finding them. She headed to the door.

"Georgia!"

"Yeah!" I shouted back. The banquet she's attending is waiting for her, and I am too. "Double check the lock on the doors and you call me if anything happens alright?" I respond with 'alright!' And soon as that the door closes.

I shut the algebra book closed as the irritation of my mother still being in the house after the time she was supposed to leaves my body. I began to sprint up the stairs, but a certain force in my brain holds me back. The door. I proceed to check the locks, unlocking them and locking them just incase.

Then I return to the original plan for the night. Apex Legends with Alex or Andrew— or possibly both since it was only 8:36 since the last time I checked.
I prop my feet on my desk as I swivel in my chair, I ended up facing my unmade bed.

ggeorgua: al?

AlexP: srry not home rn

Andrewwww: tommr maybe

I snickered to myself, I guess there goes my plans. I swivel back around to face my desk top. The home screen is a picture of me, Andrew, and Alex maybe 10 or 11, with our arms slanged around each others shoulders in front of a Lego Batman statue at Legoland. I open the photos tab. As my mind shuffles through things i could be doing at the moment. Movie? I would have to ask my mom to clarify renting one. Besides we only have Thor movies and I don't do Netflix. I click on a blurry picture from the gallery.

Its a picture of me and Violet riding a merry go round— maybe 6 and 8 or 5 and 7 at Chuck E. Cheeses. She's on the pink pony smiling her hardest at the camera, while I'm on the blue one with a half grin and a thumbs up. My mind goes foggy. It's like I'm staring at a stock image or a random picture on Instagram. I clicked the next small arrow on the right for the next photo. It's a picture of Violet smiling hard— again. She's next to her kindergarten teacher who was bent down to Violets level to hit in the frame. I withdrew a shaky breath as I used my arm to prop my chin up.

I could remember the dress she was wearing (yellow with a pink flower on the chest) almost like the back of my hand. It's still hanged up in her closet. After awhile— maybe 6-8 months after Violets disappearance, my mother had a break down.

I could almost hear her cries of agony from downstairs in the living room. I remember it hurting to hear, I didn't know what to do if I walked up the stairs to see my mother crying in my little sisters room. After that, we made a silent car ride to the Goodwill and dropped off 90% of Violets clothes, 2 pares of shoes, and toys. But the Barbie dream house still remained there along with the yellow graduation dress, her baby clothes and dress shoes who were gifts from grandma.

I clicked off that picture and choose another random picture. It was a picture of my dad and me, dressed in church attire, maybe it was Easter. Before I could click off a black box appeared in the screen. I almost forgot this was my dads desk top one of things he left, hence all the imported pictures.

I huffed out of annoyance and tried to clicked away at the top right corner thinking a phantom X button would appear since desk top system is a little out dated. Then the screen went black so I checked the power button— still green.

"Fuck" I cursed. The screen stayed black for another 5 seconds then an image of a pixelated grasshopper appeared in the midst of the black screen. I snapped a picture and sent it to Andrew and Alex.

ggeorgia: yo have y'all caught this virus b4?

Andrewwww: no, your old ass grandma shit.

I clicked off my phone as a unfamiliar loading sign showed up.

"Welcome to the Grasshopper Co. ! You've been selected for the Eidikós test!"

The words appeared in a code like font across the black screen.

"First set up your Grasshopper Co. account"

The screen remained black then, showed a white box that contained the "Grasshopper Co. create your own account" set up.

ggeorgia: guys take a look at this shit i've been selected for special human placements

I snapped a picture of the screen with sign up page and sent it to them. Alex responded with laughing face emojis, and Andrew proceed to tell me it was a hoax. I scoffed— this was generally entertaining. I entered my name into the box that was titled "first" but I pressed the backspace button repeatedly. I can't but my name what if this is a trafficking site and I just sold myself off by putting in my legal name?

So I entered in Jake as my first name and Williams as my sir name. Then the last information they asked was for my current residence. (City), I didn't put Chicago IL for obvious reasons, so I typed Honolulu Hawaii. The loading sign came up again, after that a series of questions showed up on my screen.

1). Which is a grasshopper?

It showed two images of insects, one was a crickets one was a grasshopper. Evidently I clicked the grass hopper. It then asked further questions like, how many sides does circle have? None, of course. And questions like what president is on the 10 dollar U.S bill? Then I answered: Alexander Hamilton but he is not a president.

Then I scrolled down to question 12— the last question.

Then I answered: everyone but the daughter.
12).There's a case where the mother murdered the father but the father was going to murder the daughter. Who is the criminal? Then I answered: everyone but the daughter

Then the screen went black and new text appears on the screen.

YOU'VE PASSED THE EIDIKÓS QUESTION PORTION OF GRASSHOPPER CO. REMEMBER YOU ARE EXCLUSIVE TO THE COMPANY PLEASE CONSIDER OUR INVITATION AS THE NEXT PORTION WILL BE SENT IN 3 DAYS. PAY ATTENTION TO THE SIGNS AROUND YOU! WE HAVE OTHER EXCLUSIVES JUST LIKE YOU!

Well Jake Williams is in for a ride.

I updated the group chat about this notorious "Grasshopper Co." but just as I clicked on my phone to take a picture of the screen it went black, now returning to the picture of me and dad.