Overboard

I was obsessed with Animal Jam items.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Rares!" I called my friend and screamed into the phone. I was rare! I'd just gotten my second rare. Of course, back then, we thought it a friendly joke.

It was not.

I advanced. I was getting good. Nobody had ever declined my trade before. I traded 10 black longs for someone's headdress- light pink. They declined.

Outraged, I called my friend Amy again. "THEY DECLINED!" I screamed into the phone. *More,* I thought. *MORE.*

I needed more. I knew what to do. More, more, more! I searched up "How to scam." I hosted giveaways and locked people out. I got the skull item and 50 den betas, and twice that clothing betas. Finally. I cleared my inventory of useless items such as black longs. They meant nothing compared to everything else I had.

I easily traded for a rarer item and added it to my collection. I dressed my wolf in all the magenta items I'd managed to obtain. But it still wasn't enough... I needed *more.*

I muttered to myself. "Amy?" I called her. She replied immediately. "What is it?"

"I need more."

I hung up. I still didn't have the light pink headdress. I traded 60 black longs for it. They declined.

I searched on Google, "how to hack." I was ready to go bigger. I needed more. More. Rares. Headdresses. MORE.

And I got it. I trained how to hack. I convinced people to give me their passwords in exchange for codes that didn't work- codes and items. Bad items, items I had many of, items I could easily scam back with a bit more giving away persuading.

I asked the quitters for other's accounts and for theirs. Then, one day, I hacked Amy.

That day at school, she looked at me as if her life were over. I ignored her and called her names like 'filthy and poor non-member'. She was mad and looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Did you hack me?" Slowly, I shrugged.

"You're bad anyway."

I went back to my house after school. My parents threatened to take my computer away because I missed meals and went to bed late. But I locked my door so they couldn't come in. Sometimes I skipped snacks or food or school. All that mattered was rares.

*More.*

I needed more! Even after hacking so many, I traded my rarest items for that light pink headdress. Just as they were clicking the accept button, I knew they were...

The call screen piped up on my screen, blocking Animal Jam.

I tried to decline Amy's call, but by the time I'd clicked, it had logged me out of Animal Jam. I called Amy back and screamed at her that she made me lose the trade.

"Rarity has made you go crazy!" She screamed at me.

"MORE!" I screamed at her. More. I still needed more. I logged back on. "I'm hacking the rarest user."

I stared at the loading screen impatiently.

"You're not yourself!" She screamed again. "PLEASE! GO BACK TO YOURSELF! WE COULD PLAY IN CRYSTAL SANDS AGAIN!!!!"

I hung up the call and looked outside. Sirens wailed. NO! The little brat had told on me! I screamed when the police picked the lock out of bravery. I threw a knife at all of them and jumped out the window. They advanced on me as I ran to the safest place I thought of.

Amy's house.

I struggled inside, climbing through Amy's window. I'd climbed the side of the building and broke the window. Amy helped me pile everything against the door and block the curtains. Amy's parents peered at the police outside in confusion. The police scattered.

"IN HERE!" One pounded on Amy's door. She looked at me in fear. "What did you do?" She asked, her eyes filling with tears.

"Hold them back," I said, forgetting all about my dream for that pink headdress. Just as the door broke, I thought I'd moved on. Yet I'm still in jail, sitting there...

*MORE.*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~