To The Next Level

Player 7

-Aziza

“Zeze, Chris, we got to go. I don’t think we’ll last any longer against this guy. I’m already running with barely ten regeneration bottles left and I started off with a hun”, Mason typed with caps in the chat as he ran around the enemy taking damage.

Aziza couldn’t help but laugh at him, while he panicked. Ever since she had been busy with work, Chris had improved. He was now barely two hundred away from Aziza’s stats, but to be fair, it was hard for Aziza to upgrade from level four- thousand forty-eight.

"Mason, you’ve been so busy trying not to die that you didn’t notice me and Chris are practically untouched", she joked with Mason. He only responded with a pout emoji and Chris made no response. While Mason was running around acting like a fool close to death, Chris and Aziza remained busy with the boss. It was difficult but they still took little damage from it. Chris was completely tied up in the game, a habit Aziza recognized he had. It seemed like whenever he was focused, he’d make no sound, almost as if blocking out everything in the world around him.

These past few weeks since meeting him, she’s learned quite a bit. They grew close at a surprisingly fast rate. It felt like if he was gone, the game would be a lot less entertaining. Though Aziza was a little uncomfortable talking about her personal life with him, Chris told her all about how he was treated by his parents. He told her how they punished him after he refused to go to check on their business and she couldn’t help but pity the poor guy.

The more she learned about Chris, the better she became when it came to trying to understand rich kids. Imagining some of those kids at her school having to deal with parents like his made Aziza feel a little lucky. Seeing as he shared, she wanted to tell him a little about herself as well. She shared with him the stories of her parents, trying to see if it would make him feel slightly better.

The idea seemed to work when she told him a story about one of her parents' fights that occurred only because of a single hair brush.

Aziza’s mother left her hair in her brush and it fell into the sink. To her mother's dismay, Aziza’s dad was a major cleaning freak. He demanded her to clean it up, which obviously did not turn out well. They were always on bad terms, so when Aziza’s dad tried to boss her mother, you could say her mother went ballistic with rage.

That story ended with a butter knife on the TV with Aziza’s mom throwing it towards her father and a basket of hair ties stomped to pieces by him. All for the sake of a hairbrush, they lost a TV and a basket. It became funnier each time she thought about it, although it hid the sadness she felt.

Chris and Aziza started a trend that day when Aziza asked him about a math question she had trouble with. She knew it was weird to ask someone on the internet you didn’t know. That day Aziza was feeling particularly desperate.

When he easily solved the problem in about one minute and then took only two to explain it to Aziza in a way that made sense, she couldn’t help but blink out of shock and awe. She was smart, probably the smartest in her class, but this was not regular homework. It was homework for her future college.

From that day, they’d have study sessions online, her helping him with his English homework, and him helping her analyze numerical patterns . To Aziza, that was as easy as it was for Chris, trying to analyze simple rhetoric. She didn’t understand how the boy could be so smart, but it was something she really felt awed by.

Eventually, they ended their everyday study session, and parted ways. Aziza got ready for bed instantly, letting herself part peacefully from the real world.

The next day felt like every other day. The sun was shining as if it had a bright smile among its already bright features. Aziza's face, however, looked like it came from the walking dead, as dark circles appeared under her eyes, and her lips ran pale. She knew there was no hiding the tiredness behind her eyes, but nonetheless tried her best to cover up what others would call flaws.

After taking a shower, Aziza changed into her “Have No Mercy” street mix crop tee and added black and white mixed cargo joggers. Finishing her hair in a sleek bun, Aziza headed straight towards the living room. She peeked to see if her parents were home or around before making a dash towards the exit of her house. Eventually, she got to school and was about to head to her locker when she noticed two girls surrounding another figure on the ground below them.

They were at the lockers as well, only a few feet away from Aziza’s. She decided to ignore them and focus on her own business, until she heard the two girls speak.

“Little girl, I don’t know who you thought you were, but having you standing around our lockers like a little stalker is disgusting. Especially since we have to breathe the same air as you”. At that, Aziza couldn’t help but step in. She had no idea this school was so cliche to be bullying girls in glasses with a lot of books.

Not trying to jump to conclusions, Aziza walked up to the girls and asked them,"What’s wrong"? She felt it would be wrong for her to assume that the two girls were in the wrong. Despite the girl they were picking on looking like your typical nerd. The type to feel devastated at the slightest chance that she had done something wrong.

“Yeah b***h, first you sit under the locker next to ours, then you bump into us with all those dumb books”, they continued to say while ignoring Aziza. That was all she needed to hear before she stepped right up to the girls with the intent of putting them in their place.

Approaching them, Aziza started chuckling like a maniac, before tapping one on the shoulder. Shaken up, the girl turns around and looks at Aziza with pure fear before producing a scowl.

Aziza clears her throat and then, with a smile, says to the girl who’s blonde with green eyes, "I-I didn’t know we still did that s**t these days". She was having trouble holding back her laugh seeing how pathetic those girls truly were.

“What do you want, the brunette with brown eyes asked Aziza while chewing gum. The sound caused Aziza to stop laughing, as she found herself annoyed by the smacking sound.

Despite that, she again cleared her throat before replying, "The hell, are you both for real over here messing with this girl? What is this kindergarten? Didn’t anyone teach you if it’s not nice to say don’t say it at all"?

The blonde girl kept her mouth shut but the brunette, who was still crazy, smacking her gum, started getting on Aziza’s nerves even more, and of course had to be the one to reply to her. “If she wasn’t in our way then we wouldn’t have to, besides it ain’t like you gonna do a thing b***h”, the girl spat while blowing a bubble.

As soon as that happened, Aziza walked up right to her face, squeezed her cheeks and then watched her gum pop out of her mouth .

“What the f- you cra-”,

"Finish that sentence, I dare you. I ain’t gonna say I’m crazy, but girl, I might pop you like you popped that bubble if you don’t get your ass to stepping. Pick this girl's books up while you at it", Aziza finished saying menacingly as the girl stared at her, stunned by the dominance she carried in such a little body. Aziza hasn’t just become stronger for show.

The blonde stood still, watching her friend in silence who just rolled her eyes. Mind you, these girls were at least nine inches taller compared to Aziza’s five-two frame. Not saying that she couldn’t handle them because Aziza knew she definitely could.

“Yeah right short girl, you won’t do sh”.

Before she could finish, Aziza had her pinned to the wall.

“All right all right” the girl stutters, while picking the others books and glasses off the floor. In a frantic manner, she starts running off; her blonde friend in tow. They didn’t make one effort to look back, just running down the hall which Aziza assumed was far away from her. Once they were gone she turned her head towards the girl who was putting the glasses back on her face, and reached her hand out to her as if to help her up.

The girl stared at Aziza’s hand for sometime before she finally gripped it and stood next to Aziza barely just a few inches above

“Thank you so much, my name is Trena, what’s yours”, she said unexpectedly, bubbly. Aziza was caught by surprise but nonetheless replied with a warm smile.

"Name Aziza, and it’s nice meeting you too". They both smiled as the girl fixed her glasses on her nose. It grew awkward for a second before she decided to make conversation again.

“So have you gone to this school for a long time”, today's my first day but apparently my past is still there to haunt me”, she lightheartedly chuckles.

"Your past?", Aziza vaguely questioned, not wanting to pry. “It’s okay, I can tell you're a nice person and it’s not like people don’t know”, she said, stopping Aziza from feeling guilty.

“Well the thing is, my parents both died after I......I sent them to get my new outfit for my first day of school “. She stopped as a single tear fell from her eye.

"I’m sorry", Aziza replied and the girl chuckled as she patted her back for reassurance. Lifting her head up, the girl decides to continue, and this made Aziza believe she was truly brave.

“On the way to the store they passed away in a car accident, a drunk driver hitting and k-killing them on impact”, the girl stuttered out once again, trying to hold back the tears.

“When the news got wind of it, it became big and it was then that my life became hell. Kids at my school started calling me the parent killer, and I was never left alone. To this day, people still bring up my past, never letting me forget the day”, she finished.

Aziza opened her mouth to make a response but decided against it. She thoroughly thought of what to say but remained silent, too afraid to say the wrong thing.

“I’m sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. What normal person just pours all her life problems onto a stranger she just met”.

At that, Aziza couldn’t help but smile before replying. "The minute we met we became best friends, and best friends tell each other everything".

Trena smiled back at Aziza before she took out her schedule. They compared their schedules to each other, realizing that chemistry was the only class they had together besides the very first period. The same class with that annoying jerk.

Together, Trena and Aziza made their way to their first class, Trena skipping ahead of Aziza. Aziza had no idea why both her and Trena had such a connection, but she knew that being friends with someone never felt so simple.

She honestly felt happier than she had many years before. When you’ve been alone all your life, no matter how much you get used to it, new true potential friends could become the greatest feeling to ever experience. It might have been because she reminded Aziza of herself, but Aziza concluded then and there that she wouldn’t be so alone anymore.