Ellen was brought up in a family of five. She had two older brothers the oldest named Derick and the younger brother Kian. Together with her family she lived in a small town along the coast named West Rock.

Her parents owned a restaurant called; The West Rock café. The restaurant may have resembled a beach house more than an actual restaurant. However the interior was finely coordinated, with blue painted walls and white clothed tables.

They lived two streets away from the restaurant, in a white walled red roofed house. It would have looked extremely stereotypical, if the house hadn’t had a large planetarium attached to it. The previous owners had made it built. Now Ellen was the only one who used it to watch the stars.

Of course looking at the stars wasn’t Ellen’s only hobby. One rainy day in March Ellen Ellen was approximately seven years old. It had already been raining for a week, the skies fogy, the grass wet. Ellen couldn’t go outside or watch the stars so she stayed in her room all day playing with her dolls. However she soon got fed up and decided to bother her brothers.

Without knocking Ellen entered her two older brother’s room. The two brothers were sitting on the floor watching a TV screen, they were playing video games. Ellen just couldn’t understand why they always had so much fun playing these “video games”. Instead of bothering them she decided to watch them play.

It didn’t take her long to understand why they loved it so much. Every time they played together or against each other they would always encounter new things, new ways of playing and new ways of completing the task that lay before them. And whenever they battled against each other they improved even with only a bit.

Ellen had watched them play for over a week before Kian asked her if she wanted to join too. They only had two controllers, so Kian handed his over to Ellen. Of course Ellen totally sucked at playing the game, however she couldn’t stop playing.

The game was about a hero who travelled the world completing quests. Non Player Characters often requested help such as to kill a few monsters, that were blocking a trade route or a dragon that had destroyed an entire village. The game also had the possibility of having helpers, or other players who joined the hero on the same device.

And so another week passed and Kian decided to buy Ellen a controller. Since then the three siblings had always played video games together. As Derick got older he mostly lost interest in playing games. Kian however continued playing and frequently introduced Ellen to new games which they in turn played together.

Ellen was twelve when she first met the girl with black hair and hazel colored eyes her name was Anja. Anja had two younger brothers Arthur and Tay. Anja who had recently moved into town went to introduce herself to her new neighbors.

“Ring ring” Anja was pressing down the doorbell.

After ten seconds she pressed the button again, then looked inside to see if anyone was home. That was when she noticed the back fence was open. Anja walked towards the fence and passed through into the back yard, she then noticed a girl laying on the ground.

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“uhm hi!” said Anja waiting for a response.

“Ah I just came to introduce myself uhm? Hello?” Anja walked towards the girl and stopped right next to her.

The girl had brown wavy hair she was wearing a helmet of some sort on her head.

Anja recognized the helmet it was an older version of the virtual reality gear that had recently come out. It seemed the girl was currently playing a game, while playing a virtual reality game the player was often referred to as being in dive mode. Anja wasn’t sure if she had to wake the girl up or come back to introduce herself later. That was when the girl lifted the helmet off her head.

“Oh! Hello who are… you?” asked the girl with a frown.

Anja introduced herself with the best smile she had.

“Hi my name is Anja I’m your new neighbor I tried ringing the door but nobody opened up.”

The girl who was lying on the ground stood up and reached out her right arm.

“Nice to meet you! My name’s Ellen!” said the girl with a bright smile on her face.

The two girls took no time at all to become the best of friends. It had turned out that Anja was also interested in playing video games. Two years later the virtual reality game endless maze came out with the function of local play. This meant they could play together while in close range of each other.

The game Endless Maze was in fact an endless maze of dungeons, that after beating the end boss the maze would open up. Upon completing a maze their characters grew in strength, receiving levels and rewards depending on how long it took them. The amount of monsters they killed while in the maze also amassed to the total end score.

Kian regularly played along, so did the boy who lived across the street named Tom. Tom was quite a shy boy, at first he hardly ever spoke. Tom however really enjoyed playing Endless Maze. Several years passed and he started to grow a liking for Anja. Anja however wasn’t all too interested in Tom until he became popular in high school.

In high school Tom was one of the smartest in the class, and one of the top players in the school football team. He wasn’t only smart and athletic but also quite handsome he had such pure blue eyes it almost seemed like he wore lenses. He also had blond hair that seemed like pure strands of gold.

Tom was the prince charming that any girl in high school dreamed of and Anja was the lucky girl he had a crush on since childhood. Anja was quite the looker she had long black hair and hazel colored eyes. The boys seemed to instantly flock around her the moment she came to live in the small town of West Rock.

Ellen was rather ordinary; in fact nothing about her really stood out, or so Ellen thought. Her hair was dark brown and slightly wavy, her eyes were chestnut colored. But what made her really stand out weren’t her looks but her will power and perseverance. Though unfortunately not many people took notice of that.