The young miss's health kept on deteriorating, and perhaps due to having the only burst of sunshine that kept her straying thoughts culled, dying before her, Evelyn's bravery was climbing steadily with each passing day, and she began pondering the cleanest way to go about her plans.
The damn lake was becoming more and more irresistible as the days passed by. Recalling the young miss would still hold on for about three years, Evelyn doubted she could wait that long, as the thought of finally leaving led her to happier mornings than anything had in the past months of her former life and, of this one.
Perhaps the young miss had noticed her cheerfulness, and while peeling fruits for the miss during one of her many visits, she asked,
"Verity seems happier these days. Did something happen?"
Evelyn flinched. Despite telling herself not to care, the idea of the cheerful girl misunderstanding her glee as being due to her approaching death softly worried her.
She quietly picked up her feather pen, which she had come to constantly carry along with her, and wrote in response:
"The young miss seems to be getting a bit better these days. I can't wait to play again with you."
That day, she made Rosanna cry. It seemed even the young girl knew this was truly the end.
The next day, however, she pretended everything was okay and acted as though she, too, was excited for that imaginary day that would never come.
One night, Evelyn woke up, opened the window, and stared into the night sky.
It was so, so stupidly beautiful, she cried.
Somewhere out there, were her parents waiting for her?
She would be there too, soon. As soon as she could.
Tears flooded her vision as she choked, "I... promise."
*******
Evelyn woke up yet again in a completely different place.
Evelyn: ...
She was beginning to think the universe had taken a sadistic fondness for her and decided to play glitch.
"Hah...."
She took a deep breath. It had been a long time since she had been this angry. It was no longer the usual grumblings; now she really was mad.
"Okay, speak your shit, universe. Aren't you done with these stupid games? Is it so hard to fulfil my desire of being snapped out of existence, as it should have been since the damn pizza!?"
She huffed and puffed until she slumped in exhaustion. Seriously, where was this? Some white fog? All around her was nothing but white. Perhaps her next destination was quick transmigration, given the usual white background, before the appearance of some furry creature.
And just as she had predicted, soon the fog was clearing up. And a bit far away, she could see the silhouette of not one, but a couple... a group of creatures.
Evelyn noped out and fell right back on the formless white space, closing her eyes.
Then her body started floating.
"...."
"Oh, that's how it's gonna be, huh? Good, good. I'm guessing I have to tear my eyes open as well, if you're that fucking desperate!"
She shut her eyes stubbornly, but then something even more bizarre happened. She could still see with her eyes closed.
Evelyn: ... AHH—!
An angry scream tore through her mind. And just as she reached out to her head to snap it with as much force as she could muster, a very familiar rhythm drifted to her ears.
What was... Why was...?
She finally opened her eyes to... something. A sight that was quite something. A bunch of badger rats. They were definitely bigger than rats and even squirrels themselves.
The group was wearing sunglasses. And that wasn't even the most bizarre part yet!
Soon, the beat, which at first resounded softly across the white fog, became louder and louder until it clicked in Evelyn's mind and her eyes widened with incredulity.
"Oh, my goodness. Oh, my freaking lord... Is that phonk? They're dancing phonk—That's phonk!"
***
Evelyn wasn't sure why or what had happened between her adolescence and teenage years, but she somehow went from having a bunch of friends and being very active in school to becoming a loner and struggling to keep up with the top 10 in high school.
She was sure it was partly due to the new phone her parents got her and partly because of her friend group drifting away.
Eventually, they merely said a few awkward "hi's" when they met or just kind of nodded at each other and left.
Nothing really happened; high school came, and they drifted. She spent nearly all her time in class drifting into her immense world of imagination, then spent any free time in school reading to keep up, because she knew she wasn't going to do so if she got home.
Everyone knew her as the nerdy loner kid who read so much and still never reached the top 5, but only she knew why.
Of course, she wouldn't, as she was only barely hanging on to "good enough" grades due to how addicted to her phone she was—either reading manhwas, webtoons, watching anime, or scrolling TikTok.
Had she not been naturally intelligent, she feared her grades would have been worse.
Like that, she floated all through high school and somehow managed to get a rather high score at the final stage, probably because, for once in her lifetime, she dropped her phone and read like crazy to not botch her finals.
When her grades came out, she most definitely wasn't going to Harvard or getting a scholarship, but she was certain of acceptance into most universities of choice that didn't demand too much excellence.
She really loved her parents, but saying they were the best at parenting would be an absolute lie. Still... she really loved them.
Thus she decided to use her high school as a life experience and blossom into excellence for the remaining part of her life—being valedictorian in university, getting a high-paying job with her certificate (and a bit of connection), and eventually earning enough to spoil her parents as she always wished.
All in all, life was good until her sole purpose of success was gone—and then it all went downhill.
Evelyn shook her head as if to shake off such thoughts to place full focus on the matter at hand.
One thing about her high school days was that, despite what her chaoticness would have one believe, her days weren't really all just internet addiction.
She also had a passion she was obsessed with!