Chapter 6

I Came, I Saw, I Mined

If there was one thing I had learned from years of living with Jimmy Prescott, Buffalo Heights' local juvenile delinquent, it was how to play video games. Jimmy had made sure that I learned how to play every game he owned, but my favorite by far was Minecraft. "Should I play Minecraft today?"

Without a doubt.

I clicked on the Minecraft logo and started playing. I chose the Hardcore Survival game that I was still playing months after I created it. I still had one precious life I was holding on to.

I wandered around my world for a while before finding the elaborate creeper trap I was working on. I needed more stone if I was going to build it. I took out my pickaxe and began mining. As I did so, I started filming. I could use this for one of my Minecraft videos. I turned on some AC/DC in the background and mined block after block.

There was just a glint of light from the hole I created. Through the light I could see everything I'd built: the badminton court, the gigantic playable chess set, my castle, everything. A bird flew into my mine as a result of a mod I'd added to the game. I reached up and it perched on my virtual shoulder.

I continued to destroy blocks until I'd collected enough for the creeper trap. On the way back up, I found something amazing. An entire layer of diamonds lined the walls of my mine. I mined the diamonds, thinking of all of the wonderful things I could do with them. Maybe I could craft some diamond armor. That would be nice.

Mom entered the room with our two house phones held up to her ears. "Yeah...uh-huh...Isabelle, phone's for you. Frankly, I have no idea why anyone would want to talk to you. It's some girl named Zamima or something like that." Mom handed the larger, clunkier phone to me.

"Hey Samina," I said.

"Hello Isabelle," she replied.

"Listen, I'm in the middle of a very intense game right now..."

"This is more important. I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house tomorrow."

I couldn't help but stare at those glistening diamonds. "Should I mine them?" I whispered.

Outlook not so good.

I took this as a yes and started mining.

"What was that?" Samina asked.

"Uh...nothing. What was your question again?"

"Can you come over to my house tomorrow?"

"Can I go to Samina's house tomorrow?" I whispered, shaking the Magic 8 Ball again.

Signs point to yes.

"Yeah, of course," I said.

"Awesome! I can't wait!" Samina said. "What's all that background noise?"

"I'm playing Minecraft."

"What's Minecraft?"

I groaned. I really had to introduce Samina to Minecraft. "It's a video game."

"Cool. Maybe we can play it tomorrow. Bye Isabelle!"

"Bye Samina," I said before hanging up.

I was going to Samina's house. Maybe it was the excitement of a new friendship, or maybe it was the promise of leaving the house for an afternoon, but I somehow looked forward to it.