on thin ice. // smplive.

- one !

Chapter Count : One, " The Emotional Rollercoaster ".
Time Stamp : 12.53am, Saturday, October 12, 2019.
Point of View : Tiger, at her Home.

The soft humming of my circulating fan suffocates me in
the sleepless agony I've been trapped inside for the past
handful of hours. Sitting in my red desk chair, I slowly let
the weight of my body swing the swivel from side to side.

Boredom was consuming my being.

The hue of soft oranges and yellows cascade from my desk-
top screen; the bright light sticking clean to the undersides of
my eyelids, causing me to see them even if I shut my eyes.

My hand moves towards the mouse, dragging the cursor acr-
oss the screen and towards my discord, wanting to check who
may be online since it's not an hour where anyone I know w-
ould be sleeping— and, just as expected, a long list of people
are online.

The ticking sound of my tongue against my front teeth plays
the soundtrack to my indecisive, anxiety ridden decision on
who to message about possibly playing something together
or to just kill time until sleep absorbs my mind. Scrolling in-
to the list, my brain begins to fill with the possible outcomes
of messaging each and every person— trying to find one that
seems the least bit intimidating.

"Travis would be the best bet, right?" The words slip out of
my mouth in the middle of an exhale, sounding less than a
whisper. The two of us had always been friends, having met
years upon years ago during my cousin's birthday party as I
had been staying there for a visit with my aunt for the week.

He might be busy with his friends, though...

"If he is, then he'd just say so," I rationalize, typing out a
text message to the boy through my computer since my p-
hone is completely across my room, connected to my outlet.

@ tiger_c: ;
hey, i just saw you were online and was
wondering if you were busy? if you are,
then no biggie. 💗

My cursor moves to exit the chat when I get a message back,
almost alarming me at how quick he was to respond...

@ traves ;
HEYYYYY TIGER 🐯🐯🐯 !!!
I was just about to log back on with
a few of the boys, but I can see if u
can come tooooooooooo 💖💖💖

Goosebumps trailed up my wrists to my shoulders and down
my legs. This was a bit much for my head to wrap around as
I wasn't even prepared for a message back this quick, let alo-
ne the fact that Travis is most definitely asking right now for
me to join him and the boys...the one's I've never met before.

I've met a few of Travis' friends, since a lot of them are also
friends with my cousin, but those are just the ones that he had
known before he moved in with his YouTube/Twitch friends.

@ tiger_c: ;
You're busy~ it's okay, I don't want to
bother you or your friends 🤗🤗.
PLUS — saturday is for the boys! 👬

@ traves ;
hahahahaha too late, too sloww!!
Carson said it's okay, I'll invite you
to our server! he said you don't have
to stream since you don't have any
stream stuff 😁😁😁😁😁😁

And just like that, I remembered by I don't message Travis
when I'm alone and bored. The amount of chaos this boy
has caused my heart in the past five to ten minutes is more
than school has caused me in twelve grades worth.

I take a deep breath, trying to regain my thoughts as I wait
for the invitation to come through. "This boy will literally
give me heart issues," I breathe out, feeling my heart start
to slow again due to the lessening anxieties. Everything is
going to be okay, I'm just meeting god-knows how many
people who are streaming to god-knows how many viewers
combined and pretty much the entire world could judge me
the second I jump into the server.

The notification from a discord chat causes me to jump a bit,
having forgotten that I was blaring music from the speakers
only a few hours before. I close my eyes tightly for a mome-
nt, listening for any and all movement inside the home.

Once I'm convinced neither my parents nor my siblings have
woken up because of the ding, I open the message. Travis h-
ad sent me a link to a discord voice chat board, to which I m-
ade sure my headphones were connected before I sheepishly
joined.

"Tiger!" The excited, childlike voice of Travis welcomes me
immediately, silencing the conversation that had been going
on the second before he shouted. His little giggle signaled
that he had the brightest smile on his face, "Carson, Cooper,
Jschlatt, Josh and chat, this is Tiger."

I hear a set of welcoming greetings from the group of boys
that I was just introduced to, setting a bit of the tension in
my shoulders to rest. They didn't sound like they were agai-
nst me joining them, but then again...what if they were just
really good at faking it?

I gather myself enough to respond to the introductions, "Hi,
it's nice to meet you, guys. Sorry if I'm bothering." I apolo-
gize immediately because I have this overwhelming feeling
that I'm interrupting their friend-time.

"Oh, don't be, it's okay," The one who said 'hi' after Travis
said the name 'Carson' spoke, leading me to believe that it
was him, "I white-listed you, so you should be able to join
us. Cooper, Travis and I will meet you at spawn, Josh and
Jschlatt are gonna go mess around somewhere."

I nod my head, forgetting that he couldn't see me, then let
out an audible 'okay' while smiling a bit. He seemed nice.
And not that fake 'my friend is your friend, so I'll be nice
to you' kind of nice.

I join the server, getting teleported immediately to a large,
structured city. Seeing a constantly crouching Travis in full
armor standing in front of me, "There she is!" He jumps at
the sight of my player spawning. A diamond chest-plate,
boots and a helmet were thrown at my feet by the boy.

"Thank you," I let out a small laugh while seeing Travis
still jump around and punch Carson and Cooper's players.
"This place is crazy," I move my mouse, looking up and
around from my stationary position at all the architectures,
"Wait, is that Shroud?"

"Oh, she's instantly okay in my book," Cooper laughs at
my recognition of the god-tier streamer's face plastered
all over the town.

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

Author's Note : A section after reading to connect to the author.
Time Stamp : 9.05pm, Tuesday, September 24, 2019.

Hello there, even though no one is probably reading this
        book. 🤗. I just wanted to say welcome to my story, I
        hope you enjoy reading this and I'm sorry if it sucks.

        If, at any point, you want to reach out to me about anyth-
        ing in this story or otherwise, feel free to message me or
        to comment on the part of the story.

        Thank you & It's nice to meet you,
        Theory  💫❤️