Finally! Lunch! You walk over and stand in line to receive whatever disgusting slop the school was serving today. You should really start to bring your own lunches. Although doing that is honestly asking too much after having to sit in this dull hellscape for 7 hours a day. You grab a veggie wrap from the herbivore counter and walk outside towards your favorite spot. A little bench that no one ever goes to. Perfect for you! If there was one thing you hated it was having your peace and quiet molested by the fluoride influenced normies that plague your school. Their retarded and benign talking points do little more than plant the desire to ACK yourself. Football practice this, Chad and Stacy broke up that. Guh! You put your earphones in and begin playing some music to accompany your death scrolling of a certain Ethiopian bread baking forum. Gnawing on your leafy wrap you chuckle, cringe, and seethe your way through a multitude of threads. Total peace and serenity, at least what little you could collect at Volcano High. And then… No...Oh no… A group of kids decide to sit at the bench next to you. You turn the volume of your music up a little louder in an attempt to drown out their conversation. No luck. ”Oh did you hear what Phillip did in gym class?” ”OH and then Sam went and-” ”HAHA! Candice would do that wouldn’t she?” “Wait, who’s Candice?” A boiling annoyance begins to bubble inside you. Why were they here? Why sit so far away from the other peons in your class? No one was even on this side of the school except you. And why did it have to be such a large group? There were like, what, four? Five dinos sitting at that bench? And why did they have to talk about the most boring and milquetoast things? Gardening club? Track? The football team? Hell even school projects? Did these normies have ANY interests outside of school? Any aspirations? Any hobbies? Anything other than the useless extra curriculars that NO ONE after high school will even care about? Finally it was too much for you, and with a loud groan you finally pick yourself up and retreat from the area. From the corner of your eye you could see the students you had just left in the dust eye you with confusion as you storm off. Complete and utter unawareness of how fucking annoying they were. After some wandering you find yourself in the gardens. Your backup hiding spot. You sit on one of the stone benches and sit back. Finally, once again, some peace and fucking quiet. Only people here were a triceratops couple but they were keeping to themselves. And, counter to their stereotype, being quiet. You sigh and let your body relax into the surprisingly comfortable rock solid bench. Fucking normies and their friend groups. You’ve seen it all before. None of these people will talk to each other after you’re all gone and done with this place. This was an epiphany you had after middle school. None of the kids you knew back then even talked to you anymore, so what was the point of even forming these relationships? A healthy apathy of what happens here is just common sense. Like, why bother? Your petty high school friendships won’t last outside of it. You’re only stuck here together. Complete serendipity. And don’t you even get yourself started on high school “couples” Blegh! You were about to go back to munching on your leaf wrap before- DING DONG BING BONG What, are you serious?! That was no time at all! Those fucking pieces of shit ruined your lunch! “Pathetic fucking wastes of space.” You mutter to yourself as you gather your belongings and walk back into the building, noming on the rest of your food as you head into class. … Finally, home. Just inside was your humble neet dungeon and PC. The best one your parents would give you at least. Something something, dad telling you that you don’t need the best hardware to play good games, something something, old school speak. Eh, to be fair you didn’t, but having a nicer tower would definitely add to the aesthetic you’re trying to pull off in your room. Walking into the door the weight of today seemed to melt off your shoulders. You were about to make a bee line to your room before you were interrupted by the bubbly voice of your mother from the kitchen. ”Cynthia! You’re home!” “Yep! Survived another day.” As you turn around you notice your father sitting at the counter. “Oh, hey dad. You’re home early.” Your father looks up from the computer he was studying and looks at you. ”Oh hey sweet heart, and...where’s your sister?” You shrug. ”I dunno. Probably with Sera.” Your dad nods and looks back towards his laptop. You were about to go do something similar in your room when your mother stops you. ”Oh sweetie wait! Since you’re probably going to be watching anime, would you like to continue sword art with me?” You ponder it for a minute. Eh, why not? It wasn’t the anime you wanted to watch when you got home, in fact, you weren’t really enjoying it. But you couldn’t say no to mom. “Ehhh, sure. Is dad gonna join?” The two of you look toward him expectantly but he didn’t seem to be paying attention. Your mother coughs, prompting your dad to look up from the screen. ”Huh? What?” ”Honey, Cynthia asked you if you wanted to join us? We were going to continue watching Sword Art Online.” ”Oh, sorry I was busy looking at something. Uhh…” Your dad rubbed his neck. ”I dunno, that series was never really for me.” Your mother scoffs. ”Oh come on. We never get to do this anymore. Besides you’re taking a few days off work. You’ve been on that laptop since lunch anyways, what could you possibly be looking at on there?” A look of panic fills dad’s eyes as your mother grabs the screen and turns it around. ”Restaurants?” Your dad sat there in a slight shock. ”Uhhh. Yea, I was looking for somewhere nice.” “If it aint Japanese, I ain’t going.” You pipe up. ”Well, I actually already have something in the oven for tonight.” Your mother glares at your father, who was very quick to explain himself. ”N-no no. I wasn’t looking for tonight. I was thinking...Sunday?” Your mom perks up at that. ”Oooh! That sounds lovely. I can’t remember the last time we went out to eat as a family!” Your dad mutters something under his breath. Something something, “actually”, something something only “Amber”, you raise your eyebrow at that. ”What was that dear?” Your mother asks. ”Oh! Uh, nothing. Yea! I wanted to look for someplace nice. Maybe somewhere we never been.” You mother squees and wraps your father in a death hug. Catching him completely off guard. ”Anon sweet heart that’s a wonderful idea!” She pulls him in for a kiss. Eugh, gross. ”Gah! Uh...y-yea. It is.” Pushing your mother away, probably to get any air she squeezed out back into his lugs, he collects himself and clears his throat. ”So...uh, Sword Art Online. Yea. I can watch that with you two.” Your mother beams and turns to you. ”Good! Cynthia sweet heart, could you turn on the TV and put it on? I have to set the timer first.” “Sure mom.” You plop yourself down on the couch and put on the 4/10 anti-kino your mom loves so much and then are shortly joined by her and your dad. Letting yourself relax you press play and begin the collective viewing experience. Your mother scootches closer to and cuddles up to dad. Ugh, gross… … Eight episodes. You three have been watching for eight episodes. Each episode is like twenty or twenty five minutes in length. Three and a half hours of just...the most safe and bland isekai you’ve seen. Sure, there were some okay scenes. But...GOD, it was stale. Made all the more worse by your mother cheering and getting excited over every action scene. At least dad found her outbursts entertaining, though you could notice the toll the show was taking on him as well. Or was it something else? He kept glancing at his phone. Just as you were about to fall into a mid induced coma you could hear the door opening and closing. Amber makes herself seen as she walks into the room. ”Amber! Hey sweet tooth!” Your dad calls out. Your sister stops and stares at the three of you on the couch. ”Oh! Hey...uh, am I...interrupting something?” Your mother shakes her head. ”Nope! We were watching an old anime I LOVED back in high school. You’re welcome to join us until dinner is ready!” Amber looks over to the TV screen and back to the three of you. There was a strange look on her face. Was that annoyance? ”Uhm, no thanks. I’ll pass.” ”You were out pretty late. You and Sera go somewhere?” Amber looks over to your dad. That was probably what he was stressing about this whole time then. ”No, not really.” Your sister was kind of just, staring at your dad. ”Oh, then, where were you?” ”Where I always go when I wanna be alone.” She responded matter of factly. What was with the audacity of this bitch? Your dad began shifting nervously. ”Uh...which is?” ”Near downtown.” Well that was a non-answer if you’ve ever heard one. ”Oh, but, why would you want to be alone?” Your mother asks, adjusting herself on the couch so that she could get into a more serious posture. Amber stared blankly at your mother for a moment, almost she was trying to register what she was saying. ”Don’t worry about it mom. Just...typical contest things. I’ll be in my room if any of you need me.” As she passed the TV she gave you a quick glance with her eyes that said “but not you” very loudly. ”Hey, wait, dinners almost ready sweet tooth. Why don’t you just stay out here with us for a while?” Amber pauses a moment to consider your dad’s question. ”Mm. Actually, I think I want to skip dinner tonight. If you don’t mind.” ”W-well, why would you wan-” Your sister cuts your mother off. ”I spoiled my appetite earlier. Sorry.” Before anyone could say another word, Amber retreats into her room and shuts the door. ...What the fuck was all of that? The three of you were left stunned on the couch, taking occasional looks at each other. Mom was the first to speak. ”That was weird. Why was she so…” “Stand offish?” You finish. Your mom squirmed at that. Clearly not liking the bluntness, but also not being able to disagree with the truth of the statement. She looks over to your dad for an answer. He sighs and rubs his temple. ”The contest must be just wearing her down I guess.” ”Will you talk to her?” Your mom places her hand on your dad’s. ”I’ve tried, several times. She doesn’t want to. And forcing it has...not made things better I’ll say that much. You two don’t tell Amber this, but...it’s why I’ve been looking for a place to go out.” Your mom looks back towards Amber’s door with a cold anxiety. ”I see.” You also take a quick glance back over to the door. But you really didn’t share the same sympathy your parents did. No, you were suspicious. Amber had been acting so...weird lately. More pissy than usual. During dinner, you began to ponder on what you should do. Amber was definitely close to doing something stupid. You’d have to be en guard and ready to take action whenever she would eventually decide to try something stupid.