“LARA! Young lady, when are you going to stop playing these games?” Lara’s mum scolded while looking at her daughter who was lost playing a game.

“Just a minute mum, I’m in the middle of the game, I can’t just leave it like this so please don’t disturb me,” Lara said.

“Don’t disturb you? This is very rude, you never give time to your younger sister, father and me or even your studies; I’m going to switch off this computer!” Lara’s mum said while taking out the plug of the computer from the socket.

The computer turned black instantly!

“Mum! How could you do that?” Lara said rushing out of the room crying and not caring about her mother’s feelings. She went to her sister’s bedroom and cried there until she fell asleep.

When Lara woke up, she didn’t find herself in bed, instead she was on a soft grass and the surroundings looked familiar – she was in an animated world, the gaming world!

‘What is this?’ thought Lara as she looked around her in amazement. At first, she was confused but after a few moments she was jumping in joy as she thought, ‘No studies, no family and, best of all, no mum’s scolding!’

She was in the game she played most of the time. Lara was ‘Mage’, the character in her favourite computer game. She stated playing the game in the gaming world, had fun killing some mini-bosses and roamed around in the setting but soon she got bored; so she teleported to the nearest town, Arendlet. Like her, there were many other players there. She met a player, Zack1004, and they became friends and played together.

Afterwards, as they were heading back to their town in ‘night time’, Lara asked Zack, “So are you new here?”

“Yeah!” Zack replied.

“Well I’m on level 78 , I tried to do my best day and night and spent hours on this game though I’m still 13 and my mum didn’t want me to play. She is just too bossy,” Lara said carelessly.

“Hey, my time is up, I play when my mum allows me to play, she must be waiting, I always listen to her whether I like it or not because I know she is my mother and she would never be bad to me!” Zack said smiling.

This made Lara silent for a while. She felt a bit embarrassed and missed her mum too, but immediately tried to push thoughts away. Zack went back by signing off. Lara was reluctant so she roamed here and there, fought again, but then felt exhausted and bored because she had no life besides being part of the animated game. So she tried to sign out and go home but, to her amazement, she couldn’t find the option for it. She remembered how easily Zack signed off but she couldn’t even see the button anywhere.

She was really worried now and then she saw the ‘Help’ option. She tried to read but it didn’t open. She was quite frantic now, the thought of her being stuck in the game forever made her crazy.

She saw some other boys and she ran to them to ask how she could sign out from the game. They showed her a button which can be pushed and one by one, they all signed off. When Lara tried to reach for the button, it disappeared! Now she was the only human in the animated gaming world. She became scared of the animations all around her. Lara started to cry as she remembered her family and how rude her behaviour had been towards them and how she ignored them in her gaming addiction. She cried a lot and while doing that she fell asleep.

When she woke up, she found herself in her sister’s bed! Her mother was waking her up. Tears of joy came out of Lara’s eyes and she hugged her mother, “Mum, I was wrong and I am ashamed of hurting you, dad and my sister. I promise, I will now obey you and dad,” Lara said hugging her mother.

From that day onwards, Lara became obedient and studied hard. She loved spending time with her family rather than playing games, and, best of all, her mum didn’t have to scold her any more!