One Day At A Time

Chapter One: Success

Wiping sweat off her forehead, Ava pulls an arrow from her quiver, firing it and watching it hit the dragon's wing.

The raging beast roars, exhaling fire and burning Ava's skin.

She stumbles backwards, taking a brief moment to shoot back a health potion.

Pulling another arrow from her quiver, she aims for the dragon's chest.
At first she misses, instead hitting the dragon's stomach.

But she prevails, firing off another arrow.

The arrow goes through the air, striking the dragon's heart.
The dragon moans in agony as it falls to the ground with a loud thump...

"Yes!" Ava cheers, hitting the "pause" button and quickly saving the game.

"Fuck yeah!" Lucas exclaims, leaning forward in Ava's desk chair with an excited grin on his face.
"Finally!" Rose groans dramatically.
"Holy shit, you did it!" Lilly says, looking at Ava and grinning like the rest of her friends.

"Can you shut the hell up?" Ava's younger sister, Anne, yells from outside the door.
"I'm telling mom you cussed!" Her brother, Andy, shouts quickly.

Everyone can hear Andy sprint off down the hallway.
Everyone can also hear Anne chasing after him.

Ava's younger siblings are twins, both in fifth grade.

Anne was born four minutes before Andy, which she uses as an excuse to get away with anything.
"I'm older than you, so it's okay if I cuss!" is what's she always says.

Thanks to her friends at school, Anne has been learning a whole new world of curse words, which has been both hilarious and extremely annoying to everyone around her.

But with her siblings away from her bedroom door, Ava refocuses on the paused game menu, feeling prideful.

She resumes the game, smiling because she knows what comes next.
The dragon's soul is absorbed, it's twisting, radiant colors going into her character's body.

An hour or so goes by, when Rose looks at their phone and begrudgingly says,
"I gotta go now, guys."
"Oh, come on, why?" Lucas groans, looking over at them.

"Dinner is in ten minutes." Rose answers, standing up from the edge of Ava's bed. "I'll see you all later."

Ava pauses the game again and gets up off the floor after everyone else says their goodbyes.

When she first met Rose back in seventh grade, the two of them had come up with a handshake, a handshake that they did every time they said, "Bye" to each other.

The handshake was a routine part of Ava's day.
If for some reason, she didn't do her handshake with Rose, her whole day would be thrown off.

So, the two of them do the handshake and as they do it, Lucas glances briefly at Lilly, who is watching Ava intently.

He smiles to himself.
Lilly has always had a certain look in her eyes when she looks at Ava, a look of love, a lot of love.

Lilly has told both Lucas and Rose why she looks at Ava the way she does.
It was a really sappy explanation, a sappy explanation that earned her many drawn out, "Aww"s from her friends.

After Rose leaves, Ava sits back down on the floor next to Lilly and resumes the game, scrolling through her objectives to see what quest she should do next.

She pushes her glasses back up her nose, picks a random, miscellaneous bandit-killing quest, and goes on efficiently slashing and stabbing the characters on her screen.

Having a special interest in, "Skyrim" for a little over five years straight has surely paid off.

Ten minutes later, Lucas gets a call from his mom.
"Damnit," He sighs. "I gotta head out. I'll see y'all later."

"See you later." Ava says, turning toward him and smiling softly.
"Bye." Lilly says.

Lucas goes out the door, but he turns around for a second and winks at Lilly.
He knows that she'll look back at Ava with her eyes practically in the shape of hearts. Poking fun at her for it is one of his favorite pastimes.

Lilly knows what the wink is for, it's the same wink he always does at her expense.

"Yes!" Ava cheers again. The bandit tower on the screen is cleared out.
Ava is smiling proudly again, looking at Lilly.

And, as much as she hates to admit it, Lucas is right.
She looks back at Ava with hearts in her eyes.