“Bye, Dad!” Ricky watched as his daughter walked out the door and off to school. Watching his daughter growing up so quickly left him with a bit of melancholy, but he was happy she was able to grow up healthy and happy.

He fell into thought for a moment when he remembered something, “Desaray! I am working late today, so make sure you come right home!”

“Got it!” Desaray turned and backpedaled as she blew Ricky a kiss and turned back around.

She got into the elevator and pressed the button for the bottom floor. She reached up and touched her scrunchie and smiled. She felt blessed to have Ricky as a father. She never felt sad with him around. But she did wonder if he was holding himself back since he had never brought a woman home. She hoped that he would one day get married and find happiness. She also would not mind having a mother.

She looked up at the numbers that were slowly changing with each floor until it came to a stop on the twentieth floor. The door opened, and a young girl around Desaray’s age got on. She had the same clothing as Desaray did. A plaid skirt and a blue blazer marked with the Trinity School logo. She had a blue tie that was slightly loosened around the collar of a white shirt. Her red hair fell down to the middle of her back and was slightly curly.

When she saw Desaray, her eyes lit up as she hopped over to her and gave her a hug. “Desa! I missed you!”

“Becky, I think you need to stop staying up so late. Your mind is rotting away. We were playing World of Logia until late last night, so how can you miss me as if we have not talked to each other for a long time?” Desaray asked. She went to a private school that had its own bus that picked them up in front of their building. She did not go to public schools, and she was glad for that since her school was a school for smart kids. Her grades have always been good since she was young. She had never had issues learning anything in school.

Because of this, she knew her father wanted her to get the most out of her education and got her into a super expensive private school. The Trinty School was located on the Upper West Side of New York City and was about seventeen or so minutes from her house.

“This and that are different! Anyway, did you finish your homework? No, I know you did! Can I see it on the bus!?” Becky was pleading. She had not finished her homework because she got caught up in playing games before Desaray even logged on.

World of Logia was a game that Desaray had been playing in her free time for only one reason, they had a dragon race. That race was a humanoid dragon, but it allowed you to design the character how you wanted, and since Desaray had a love of blue-scaled dragons, she made a character that looked kind of like her with silver blonde hair and ice-blue eyes. Her exposed scales on her body and tail were blue, along with her horns, that was almost a transparent blue. You could say she was very happy with her work. She would need to be after spending almost a week on designing her character alone.

And the reason she even found out about this game was because of Becky. Becky was a gamer through and through. Her favorite genres were role-playing games and MMOs. From one look at her beauty, you would never take her as a gamer. She had green emerald eyes and freckles on her pearly white cheeks. She was popular with the boys at school and was also one not to hide her hobby in the slightest. But in the school they went to, there was not much bullying, to begin with.

Desaray never realized it, but she was also quite popular, but she had high standards when it came to men. Of course, this was mainly because she was rating all the boys around her against her father, whom she deemed the perfect man.

Desaray looked at her friend and sighed as she reluctantly nodded her head. “Becky, you need to get your priorities in order. I go straight home every day so I can get the homework done and then do what I want after.”

“But…. I try! When I get home, I put my books down on my desk, take off my blazer and then sit down in front of my desk. I open my math book and then…. The game across the room calls out to me and asks me to save some strange land from the demon king, and well, they always tell us to help those in need, so I do!” Most would say that Becky was just making up some strange story to justify her actions, but she herself believes her own words, so in truth, she was not lying. She truly believes the games called out to her.

And as her friend, Desaray could only sigh. “Okay, well…. Maybe you should do your homework someplace else then? You can always come to my house if you wish.”

“No, no…. If I went to your house, I would end up not doing anything and distracting you.” Becky was quite sure about this. Even Desaray had to nod her head at this.

The elevator reached the bottom floor, and the two exited and walked towards the exit. They said good morning to the attendant behind the counter and walked across the marble floor of the entrance. Once they reached the sidewalk, they took a right and walked toward the bus stop that was only a few feet away. The morning traffic slowly progressed forward as it normally did. The smell of the city filled Desaray’s nose, a familiar smell that she wished was just a bit cleaner.

Right as Desaray passed the side alley next to her building that had air conditioners attached to the side and a few dumpsters here and there, she stopped and looked down it with a furrowed brow.

“Desa?” Becky looked over at Desaray with questioning eyes. She wondered why her friend stopped when the bus was right there.

Desaray was staring down the alley. She could have sworn she saw something blue out of the corner of her eye, but no matter how hard she looked, she could not spot anything. Blue was a color she would always recognize and would never mistaken it for anything else. While she wanted to go investigate, she could not since the bus had just arrived. Shaking her head, she slapped her cheeks, wondering if she was slightly tired. “It’s nothing….”

As Desaray and Becky got on the bus, down the same alley she had just been looking down, a small round blue gelatin ball slowly edged out from behind a box with an Amazon logo. What this creature, if it could be called as such, was, at this time, only a few people would know….