Before the start (2)

The Disaster of National Remembrance Day in the Niagara Falls in 2020, the Great Catastrophe of the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2021, the Bombing of 2022's Grammy Awards, the Kidnapping Case of 2023's International Conference, the Lightning Dragon Triade in China, the Tiger Drug Network in Italy, the Combined Assault of the Five Notorious Snakes, the Great Raid in the Middle East, the Great Takeover of Al-Qaeda in USA... These are some of the more famous criminal cases of big crime organizations in the last decade, with most of them being in the last 5 years.

And these are only some of the events the general public knows about. According to rumors, which seem reasonable and are sometimes even credible, multiple criminal organizations hacked different agencies like the FBI, CIA, MI6, government members and more, collecting a lot of intel and ruining or disabling some of their systems.

Basically, it's like the baby boom, but shorter and in crime, which makes it probably a lot worse. I say probably because I know that if you make me directly confront a member of the former group, my resolve might crumble very quickly. Old people are very cute, but babies... I don't even want to start describing what they're like to me.

The school bell- just kidding, they put horrible old songs in the speakers- wakes me from my thoughts. I chat with my friends while walking towards the exit when I catch a piece of conversation between 2 girls in front of us.

"I know, it was so great!!" says the girl with braids.

"Yeah, but it makes me so curious about her, who is she and what does she look like? Do you think she'd ever tell?" her friend replies.

"Who knows. After all, she specifically wrote that she's not interested in becoming famous, only wants her songs to be known". They share a look of mutual disappointment and simultaneously sigh.

I feel my face about to break into an excited smile, and almost giggle. "Ash?" A voice calls out to me. I look up, and seeing Daniel's face I realize that I forgot to listen to our conversation. Well, they're used to me spacing out, so it's fine. I catch on fast.

Allow me to introduce my five friends-

Daniel- a tall, shy girl with glasses, black wavy hair in a ponytail and dark eyes. A cute girl with pretty laughter. Smart and diligent, a friend you can trust and rely on, in the software engineering and physics classes.

Zoey- the shortest out of all of us, with short blonde hair and silver-blue, electrical eyes. Likes anime and games, usually found looking at her phone's screen. A bit socially awkward, but common anime ground helps. Listening does too. Very good with computers, in the program developing and art classes.

Amelie- chubby, straight long brown hair, glasses, lovely, warm. Made me jealous of whoever her future partner will be several times due to her cooking, with my personal favorite being her chocolate cake (not the creamy type but more spongy, which I like more). Not good in physics, part of the theater and biologyy classes and she's where I'll go to get a hug.

Ella- in the dance and chemistry classes, mostly for ballet, very passionate and thorough when reading a book, curly shoulder-length hair, glasses and grey, mesmerizing eyes. The tallest out of all of us.

Alex- the only boy in our group, slightly curly black hair, green eyes, nice and a bit nervous with strangers. In the cyber and physics classes.

Which reminds me I've never described myself. Great, now I'm starting to really do the author's job. When you think about it, does the author even do anything? I mean, the story is from a first person perspective ([A/N: Only for now and maybe sometimes]), I fight, I struggle, I get hurt, and you just follow me around like a lost, haunting puppy ghost. And I don't like dogs that much. Although maybe when they're ghosts I'd like them better. I mean, they wouldn't be able to shed fur, smell weird, jump on you, lick you, you wouldn't need to pick up their **** and oh, maybe they won't be able to bark?

Really, cats are so much better. Like my cute cat, Lukia. She's so cute!!! And peaceful!!! And soft!!! And cute!!!!!!

Well, let's forget about the author's job, I think that if I keep this up she'll squat in the corner of my mind and start drawing circles on the ground or something else that arouses my pity.

I am Ashly Rosenwoods-

I'm in the biology and chemistry classes, tall with a decent, moderately cute face, mid-back length of wavy green-brown hair, and heterochromia in my eyes- my right eye is green with a bit of brown, and my left eye is blue with a bit of brown- I personally believe that my eyes are my best physical feature. Oh, almost forget, I have glasses:). An overall cute, nerdy, cheerful girl who's adventurous and a bit surprisingly rebellious.

So, you see, I'm normal! There's no reason for you to be here at all! Even less now! Stop hoping and get out of here, you bored, random reader. This author is just hopeless, creating a character like me. Well whatever, I'll stop so don't cry, you're a cute girl, I'm okay with existing in your novel. For now.

[A/N: Dear valuable readers, don't worry, these few chapters will soon be over and then we finally won't have to hear those mean things! Just a bit more!]

Hey!! Aren't you supposed to console me?! Don't ignore me!!!

[A/N: No comment.]

Whatever!

I return back to reality, finding myself right in time to get off the bus. After getting home and having lunch, I wait for my cousin to get back home from school. He's 2 years older than me, 17 years old, in the 12th grade, so he starts his school day a bit after me and finishes later than me.

I close the stupid geometry sheet, having finished the useless questions one would never need to answer in life outside school. Why can't they teach us something actually useful? Like finances, how to handle your money so you'll save enough for pension, social skills for communicating and how to make good speeches. And martial arts- this world is getting more and more dangerous. Really, how very stupid and bothersome, all these terrorist idiots. Tch.

I stop my inner ranting once I hear John is back from the sound of the front door opening. I drag him upstairs and we get into his room. "I heard some girls talk about it today! They really liked it!!". I swear I feel like I've got stars in my eyes. "Yeah, I heard things like that too!! We did it, Ash!!" We high five, laughing happily.

If you have a certain (a decent, average) amount of intellect or experience ([A/N: Don't leave, she's annoyed at me and taking it out on you! Plus, she didn't want you to know, but it's a side effect of bitterness, doing things she doesn't want to do (geometry)]) , you remember what we're talking about. If you have a high IQ then maybe you already guessed a lot. Or not, it wasn't very clear.

Well, since so far you've persisted in reading this, it's time for you to discover my special little secret.

I like singing and writing lyrics and melodies, but I don't want to be famous and all of that. So, with my cousin who can produce music with some softwares he bought, we made songs, and under the pseudonym "Ashes & K.LOW" (my name is not creative, and I'm not sure about John's) we uploaded them on YouTube.

Surprisingly, we became quite popular, with millions of views for our songs, although we're fairly new. It was mostly due to a few catchier melodies and some good covers and remixes. But today I have to go out, so I can't start working on another song quite yet.

Yes, today I'm going to a meeting of novel readers who talk online- one of the older members is the wife of a rich businessman so he got us a room in a really important town hall building, the city hall.

I mean, his wife doesn't go shopping crazily, just a salted fish reading novels at home and being sweet enough even for me to have texted her (I usually just read the messages... well even that happens only sometimes), so now when he can finally do something for her, he did his best.

There is a stage in one end of the room, and two parallel tables with snacks on them in the sides. I'm standing opposite to the stage, and while the woman on it continues with her boring speech which I'm obviously not listening to, an apple pie catches my eyes.

I'm instantly drawn to this perfect creation of god (the cook or pastry chef, whatever that god is called doesn't really matter), and in order to get closer I use the skills I acquired over the years of school ceremonies- to get away from the boredom and terrible school bands or songs- and sneak silently, walking backwards.

The imaginary dialogue in my head gets to the point where the apple pie already begs me to eat her (is it disturbing that I made the apple pie a girl?), so I firm my resolve and reach the target, determined to execute my mission and eliminate the dangerous threat to humanity.

I successfully finish the first (hehe) slice and HOLY MOTHER OF ALL BEAUTIFUL APPLE PIES IN THIS WORLD I almost ascended to heaven!, and I make a weird little dance (it probably doesn't look well from the side) to express my utter delight, flinging my fork around, and then... nope.

This is not when I drop my fork, guys. That happens when I calm down, well, conceal my excitement and get ready to head out to round two. And then, clumsily, like the fork is some kind of slippery piece of soap, I drop it.

Yes, there is absolutely no justification or even something resembling a reason for my hand dropping the fork.

"..."

But the happy fact is that the fork landed on my sneakers and didn't bounce, glaringly loudly echoing on the floor. Well, it was happy until the next second when I accidently kicked it while starting to reach for it, which makes exactly that happen, and everyone turns around to look behind them in my direction. What is up with me today!!

My options as of now were, of course-

1- Turn around, like I'm just as clueless as them.

2- Freeze, as if a robber with a gun entered the room.

3- Continue, ignoring them.

I could've just pretended it didn't happen, but I guess that tiny bit of dignity doesn't exactly outweigh cleaning my own mess in my moral scales. Their impressions of me don't matter to me anyways, I usually don't care about what people think of me, so I guess that means my conscience wins, three it is.

I get down beneath the tablecloth and look at the floor, maybe to the amusement of the guests. I don't want to think or realize how quiet it's gotten or if I can hear snickers and giggles, just continuing to search for the fork. Apparently, I kicked it far enough to have to fully crouch under the table in order to get it.

Ugh, I admit it, I'm so embarrassed! I briefly wonder if I should regret succumbing to that apple pie, but immediately deny the outrageous thought. IT'S AN APPLE PIE! And such a heavenly, holy apple pie at that!! I don't believe I need any more justifications or explanations, and I don't want to become lamer by continuing the line of thoughts about it being a difficult mission to save humanity. We all know that the really difficult part of getting out and living with the shame is approaching the reluctant me. So I continue to silently curse my clumsiness in my mind.

I find the damn fork (I've upgraded the status of the innocent fork) and reach out to it, with that thought being the last thought of my normal life before it ends and my story begins, in 3,2,1...BOOM!!!

My brain only somewhat manages to register the ear-deafening sound and heat wave for a brief second and doesn't even notice the pain, before the blast coming from behind me (which is currently the stage) knocks me into something, and without having the time to wonder if the culprit (or victim) is the table, floor or wall, the whole world abruptly turns black.

© 2021 Scarlet Embers