New Connections

Mariza watched her older sister Lindsay count the crumpled bills one more time on the kitchen table.

"Finally! Three months of babysitting money," Lindsay said, grinning. "I can get that computer now."

"Can I use it too?" Mariza asked, twirling her lollipop between her fingers.

"When I'm not home, sure. But no downloading random stuff."

Two weeks later, the shiny new computer hummed on Lindsay's desk. While her sister worked her evening job at the pizza place, Mariza discovered a chat app with colorful avatars.

She clicked on a room labeled "Digital Friends" and immediately saw two girls about her age. One had bright turquoise hair in twin ponytails and introduced herself as Miku. The other had red hair in spiral curls with small black horns, calling herself Teto.

"Hi! I'm Mariza!" she typed.

"Welcome to our world!" Miku replied with a smiling emoji.

Something about the way she said "our world" felt strange, but Mariza shrugged it off. New friends were exciting.

Strange Messages

Over the next few evenings, Mariza found herself rushing to the computer the moment Lindsay left for work. Miku and Teto were always there, waiting in the Digital Friends room.

"How was school?" Teto asked, her red spiral curls bouncing as her avatar moved.

"Boring math test," Mariza typed back. "What did you do today?"

"We explored the music shop district," Miku replied. "Found some amazing sound boxes."

Mariza paused. That was weird. She lived in a small town with only one music store, and it definitely didn't have a whole district.

"Where do you live again?" she asked.

Before either could answer, Miku's messages started coming fast and frantic.

"Help trapped can't leave need real world help please believe me"

The words appeared without spaces, all jumbled together.

"Miku?" Mariza typed. "What's wrong?"

Teto's avatar seemed to freeze. "She's just joking around. Don't worry about it."

But Miku's next message made Mariza's stomach flip: "Not joking REALLY TRAPPED send help to digital world before something bad happens"

The chat window suddenly went black.