THE MOMENT
"Hey, you're Dara, right?" Emily asked. She happened to be walking into the school as the dark-haired girl walked out. Despite her best efforts to make friends, Emily hadn't met everyone in the school yet. She wouldn't have recognized Dara without the white face mask covering her mouth and nose. Dara stopped walking and nodded at Emily. Red text appeared on her mask.
[Yep! Hi!] After Emily had a chance to read it, the message changed.
[What's up?] she asked.
"I'm, Emily," she said. "There aren't a lot of students that don't have a team or even an AlterNet character..," Emily said. Dara braced herself for disappointment. Emily was one of the most popular girls in school and Dara hoped to befriend her at some point. However, her first thought was that Emily would pressure her to make a character.
"I don't know if you got the message about the Fearleader's Halloween Dungeon Bash, so I wanted to invite you personally..." Dara sighed internally and hoped the reaction didn't show on her mask. She shook her head and began to lie about not wanting to make a character. She hoped the party would convince Janet to loosen up. She didn’t have anything like Halloween on her Earth, but everyone seemed very excited about the holiday. Emily continued speaking over Dara’s thoughts..
“We actually got Chroma to let us use the whole city!” Emily sounded excited. “It’s not going to be a handful of dungeons. It’s a full-on bash with food, carnivals, and other games too. Each corner of the city is going to have different events; it’s gonna be a blast,” she said. Dara nodded politely and small red text appeared on her mask.
[Maybe.] she said. Emily grinned and shook her head; her long silver strands shimmered from the sunlight behind her.
“I’d like you to go,” Emily said. “If you don’t want to, that’s one thing. But don’t stay home because you don’t have a character. I made sure you can use your guest account and still have tons of fun. Dara’s eyes went wide in surprise.
[Really?] she asked. Emily nodded.
“Of course! It’s a Halloween party; you’re allowed to wear a costume.”