Okay, this story is going to be COMPLETELY different because the old version was full of plotholes, random nonsense, and immature things, too much swearing and frankly, just didn’t make sense in general.

Disclaimer;; Kitty owns naught but the laptop that she’s writing this on.

In the popular city of San Francisco, a young woman was sitting inside her apartment at her desk, scrawling some writing onto a piece of paper.

It was seven o’clock in the morning and the black-haired woman was going over some History notes before their exam that morning. Class started at eight o’clock, giving her plenty of time to review and quiz herself before heading to school. She could hear roommate in the kitchen, making some breakfast for them both.

The two both attended San Francisco State University.

“Took place in Europe…” the black-haired woman muttered to herself, scrawling something illegible onto a piece of scrap paper.

Today was their last day of Exams before summer vacations began. She was set to intern in a well-known magazine office, to study journalism. Her goal was to become a reporter when she graduated from university.

Her roommate poked her head in to make sure she wasn’t changing before coming in fully.

“You’re still studying, Kelly?” the brunette laughed jokingly. Her hair was combed up neatly into a half-ponytail and she was wearing their school uniform. Black sweater-vest over a white t-shirt and a black pleated skirt. Her socks were knee-length with black leather shoes with a slight heel. A pair of glasses with thin black frames perched on the bridge of her nose.

The black-haired woman glanced up at the sound of her name.

“You’re so lucky you only have PE fitness test,” Kelly grumbled as a reply, pushing her chair out from her desk and standing up, stretching. She was wearing a pair of pink pants with white strips along with a white top with pink sleeves; her beautiful pair of pajamas. “I despise History.”

“And we all know,” Katrina laughed, crossing her arms. A delicious scent was wafting in from the kitchen, making Kelly’s stomach growl in yearning. A faint blush crossed the tanned girl’s face. “Come on, I made omelet’s. Change and we can get to class together.”

“’Kay,” Kelly grinned, ushering her roommate out before sliding open her closet door. She grabbed her school uniform off its hanger and quickly put it on. The young woman ran into her washroom to run a hurried brush through her hair before tying it in a braid that trailed down her back, using a white ribbon. Kelly walked into the kitchen and grabbed an omelette, putting it onto a plate before taking a seat at the kitchen counter. She stole a glance at the kitchen clock, which read 7:30. “We’re going to be late.”

“No, we’re not!” Katrina smirked, dangling a key on a chain in front of Kelly’s face tauntingly. The car keys to Katrina’s BMW convertible. Of course. She loved showing that car off at every little chance. Kelly swore if that girl flaunted her car one more time… “I can drive us!”

“Whatever.” Kelly shrugged, taking another bite out of her omelette. Katrina drummed her fingers on the counter lightly as Kelly finished up her egg and placed her plate in the sink gingerly. The black-haired girl grabbed her shoulder bag, with her books in them, and stepped into her shoes. Kelly grabbed her keys and locked the door behind them as the duo got into Katrina’s car. “Did you find a job for the summer yet?”

“Volunteer librarian,” Katrina replied happily, starting up the car. She looked backwards as she backed the car out of the driveway. The brunettes adjusted the mirror, and then adjust her glasses before speeding off towards campus. Kelly felt that being around books all day would probably get Katrina all hyped up, which would mean bouncing off the walls in the evenings. Guah… “Still got that internship at Chickadee?”

“Yup!” Kelly replied eagerly, eyes sparkling at the thought of writing articles and advice columns while sipping cappuccinos in a really cool and awesome way, despite the fact that she hated coffee. Her thoughts were interrupted when Katrina waved her hand in front of her face, laughing. “Oh! Uh…sorry, what were you saying?”

“Daydreaming about your intern again, huh?” Katrina snickered, pulling into the parking lot at the university. Kelly flushed at this comment. It wasn’t the first time she’d spaced out whilst thinking about the summer and her awesome job. Maybe someday she’d even have a paper of her own! Yeah! With horoscopes and everything!

“Seeya at home,” Kelly beamed before getting out of the car and rushing off towards the History and Science building. She slid into her usual seat just seconds before the bell rang, causing her professor to shoot her a disapproving look, which she promptly ignored.

He handed out their tests as Kelly grabbed a pen from her bag. Swiftly, she scribbled her name and date onto the top right hand corner before going over the questions once before actually starting to write the answers.

An hour or so later, Kelly checked over her test one last time before handing it in to the professor. She went back to her seat to grab her bag and then left the classroom, quickly bumping into another friend.

“Hey, Theo,” Kelly beamed at the guy. He was about a head taller than her, causing her to have to look up while speaking to him, which was sometimes a bit awkward. She peeked at the pile of books in his arms. His binder had a label on the spine that clearly read “Science”. Yuck. Science was another hated subject of Kelly’s. “Just came from Science exam?”

“I think I did alright on it,” he smiled his usual little half-smile, where one side of his mouth would quirk up a bit while the other stayed normal. It was a bit strange, really. Unlike Kelly, he actually liked Science, which was just weird to her ‘cause she didn’t know anyone who would willingly submit himself or herself to the confusing and irritating torture of Science.

“Cool.” Kelly gave him a thumb up and a smile before waving at him as she headed out of the building.

She kept on the path and ended up on the sidewalk. Kelly looked both ways before running across the street and just kept going straight until she reached their apartment building. She pressed the button for elevator and hummed a little song while waiting. There was a ding as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

Kelly walked inside and pressed the number eight.

She reached her apartment door, 808, and slid her key neatly into the lock, turned the key and the door clicked open. Kelly threw her bag onto the couch, shut the door and went into her room to check her email.

She clicked on Inbox and found several junk mail, one e-card from her mom and an email from Chickadee. She clicked on that one first.

To our interns,

Everyone in the office looks forward to meeting you tomorrow morning. Please come prepared to work and have fun!

Editor,
Miranda Maxwell

Kelly smiled at the warm greeting and clicked on the e-card from her mother. It was a dancing rose proclaiming ‘Good Luck’. Kelly’s smile grew wider. She deleted the junk mail straight off without even looking at them, most of them being annoying chain letters. Don’t these people have any lives?

Then she signed off and went into the living room, flipped on the TV and started channel-surfing. Once in a while, she would come across a good show and would stay there for more than five minutes.

Gosh, she was bored out of her mind. Katrina was still at school, Mandy was busy visiting her aunt and Theo…hmm…Theo… Kelly grabbed the phone and speed-dialed Theo’s house. To her annoyance, she received the answering machine. Kelly hung up without leaving one. Messages were overrated. You always sound weird and unnatural in them anyways.

“I’m back! And I have Chinese takeout!” called a voice from the door. Kelly went outside to the hallway, where Katrina was sporting two bags of takeout food. Kelly took them both and brought them to the kitchen, taking out the white containers, opening them and dumping them onto plates. Katrina came into the kitchen and took a seat by the counter. “Yum…Chow Mein.”

“Oooh, sweet and sour pork,” Kelly beamed at one of the selections. Katrina knew to get her favourite dish every time as long as Kelly got Chow Mein every time. Kelly fetched out two pairs of chopsticks and handed one of them to Katrina, who broke them apart cleanly. Kelly did the same to her pair of wooden chopsticks before digging into the rice and pork. “How was your exam?”

“Horrible.” Katrina mumbled in between a mouthful of noodles. Kelly raised an eyebrow at this broody answer. “I practically fainted during the push-up exam.”

“Yuck.” Kelly sympathized with the brunette, who pushed her glasses up a bit. The black-haired girl used her chopsticks to pick up another piece of pork and chewed it thoughtfully. The two both loved writing, that’s how they had met. Although, Katrina was more of a fiction author, writing chapter books and such, whereas Kelly preferred nonfiction. As in, doing stories about the city and such. She took a glance at the clock and, surprised, found it was already seven thirty. “I think I’ll read for a bit before turning in. I have to be at headquarters by six thirty.”

“Ouch.” Katrina winced sympathetically. Neither of them were early risers. “Good night, then.”

“G’night.” Kelly walked towards her room and shut the door. She slid open her closet and fetched her pajamas, throwing off her school uniform and sliding the more comfortable clothing on. She scanned her bookshelf for any interesting books and came upon her favourite book, A Little Princess. She slid it out and opened it to the first page, crawling into her bed. She read for an hour or so before setting her alarm clock for five thirty and turning the lights off.

---

The next morning, Kelly was given a rude awakening when her annoying alarm clock started beeping its guts out. She slammed it onto the floor before continuing to snore away.

Half an hour later, she jostled awake and, panicked, to see it was already six. In a flurry, she jumped out of the bed and ran into the washroom, grabbed her toothbrush and started brushing her teeth while opening her closet and putting some clothes on.

Running back into the bathroom, she spat out the toothpaste and tugged her socks on with one hand while using the other to run a hurried comb through her hair. Kelly frantically pulled her hair into a ponytail and ran out the door, just nearly snatching her bag on the way.

Not even bothering to lock the door, she ran down the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator and flagged a cab, mentally spazzing at herself.

“2389 Willingdom Street,” she muttered to the cab driver, just now making a note of what she had thrown on. She was wearing her white, lacy blouse with a pair of black jeans. Huh. Kelly rummaged around in her bag for something and emerged with a necklace. It was a gift from her mother. The necklace had a little holly dangling from it since that’s what “Kelly” meant. She clipped the necklace around her neck just as the taxi came screeching to a stop in front of a dome-like building. Pretty neat. Kelly handed the driver a few bills before stepping gracefully out of the car, by which we mean she hit her head on the roof. “Ouch.”

Kelly walked into the building and looked around nervously, seeing as she was late. The office was bustling merrily, people coming every which way, phones ringing off the hooks and…the smell of coffee? Yuck. A red-haired woman came up to her, looking frazzled.

“Are you one of the new interns?” she asked, looking utterly defeated. Kelly nodded nervously. The woman let out a relieved sigh and shoved a pen, clipboard, and a mug of coffee into her arms. “Take this to Mr. Sanders, he’s in the Sports department. Thank you!”

And with that, the woman darted away, threading through the crowds easily, obviously having worked here for a long time to know her way around.

Completely confused, Kelly asked a bystander where the Sports department was. Very patiently, the guy gave her specific directions, telling her that she couldn’t miss it. Of course, with her luck, she did miss it. Several times. It didn’t take very long for Kelly to find out that she was nothing more than a gofer. As in “Gofer coffee!” or “Gofer donuts!”.

At the end of the day, she took a free copy of the magazine and thumbed through it while waiting for her elevator. She found a very interesting review on a game called Tales of Symphonia. It was rated 8.9 and had a very positive review from the author of that article. On her way home, she stopped by the local video store and rented said game out.

“Enjoy it, ma’am, and it’s due back in two weeks or you can renew it!” the clerk beamed cheerfully, handing Kelly her bag and receipt. Prep. They got on her nerves, how they were always infallibly cheerful at everything. You could go, “Your mom died.” And they’d go, “Oh, no! Oh, well, at least she’s in Heaven!” Geez.

Kelly just nodded and quickly got out of that preppy store. She placed the bag on the passenger seat while she started up the car and backed out of the parking space.

Once she reached their apartment, Kelly slipped the first blue disc into their shared Game Cube and switched it on, taking one of the controller plugs out before grabbing the other controller and retiring to the couch.

The introduction music started playing and Kelly found herself humming to it, slightly off-key. Okay, forget that, a LOT off-key. The peaceful little melody of the Menu screen came up and Kelly pressed the big green A button on New Game.

“Um…” she looked unsure as it asked if she wanted to customize. She chose ‘not now’ and then there was a clear view of the planet. A masculine voice started speaking as words in a curly font appeared on the screen. Kelly looked at the words doubly. “Goddess Martel? Angels? Chosen One? Feh…”

She snorted in amusement when the chalk eraser hit the red-clad boy’s face. Then the white-haired teacher came over, looking exasperated.

As soon as she gained control of Lloyd, not even bothering to talk to anyone, she directed the character out the door. Well, tried to anyways. Then that stupid midget came running over, objecting loudly.

Kelly’s eye twitched and she just nearly tossed her shoe at the screen.

Kelly did look at the mysterious mercenary, Kratos, interestingly, though. Not only was his physique hot, he was also smart! And…mysterious… Dramatic Pause.

Two hours later, Kelly cackled as she played, already on her way to Triet. Like any other player, she’d found Lloyd considerably easier to play than anyone else. She was so engrossed in the game; she didn’t even notice the tiny little ball of lightning slowly creeping from the Game Cube up her controller wire until it was too late.

But by the time she realized it, of course, it was already too late.

Her whole body vibrated with the shock due a bolt of lightning, not a tiny ball. Her vision started to blur at the edges and her shaking hands dropped the controllers onto the ground. Her body began to fall forward, almost as if it was in slow motion. Black.

Unconsciousness.