Chapter Forty Seven – Another World: Ten

Ella Ingram ate every scrap of food given to her by the school cafeteria’s lunch staff. Then she went back up for seconds.

Joe, one of her best friends since they started high school together, never judged. He watched, he noticed, but didn't judge. It was one of the things she loved him for. Not in a romantic way, but in that deep platonic way. He might as well have been a brother.

If he sometimes surreptitiously slipped her apple or a fruit cup he didn't want from his lunch, she wasn't in any position to be ungrateful.

“Oh my god, how much fucking pizza does she need?” clamored Jessica, the Bitch of Centerpoint High.

Her friends all laughed as if she’d just told the best joke in the world.

“Ignore them, Ella,” Joe said, doing an admirable job of practicing what he preached as he gulped down milk from his carton. “They’re all stuck up shits anyway.”

She, of course, didn’t follow his advice.

“Shut the hell up and leave me alone, Jessica,” Ella said gravely.

“Sure, sure. Wouldn’t want to be seen associating with someone as ugly as you anyway. A yellow polka dot shirt? What are you, blind?”

Her friends all laughed again before they seemed to rise as one and follow their pack leader out of the cafeteria.

Good. One daily humiliation out of the way. Ella was just thankful that Jessica hadn’t figured out the real reason for her… unfortunate choice of clothes today. That was better than people knowing the truth.

"So how's it going? "Joe asked, a concerned look on his face.

Ella sighed, wishing for the umpteenth time that the cafeteria would stop serving those shitty pizza squares on Fridays. She didn't get to eat much over the weekend and ending school with the pleasant taste of a block of cracker covered in cheese and what passed for tomato sauce was the absolute last choice she would pick to tide her over until next Monday.

"Oh you know the same as always, "she replied with a shrug. Her stomach suddenly grumbled, embarrassingly loudly. She was full for the moment, but she wouldn’t be by Sunday.

Joe, saint that he was, said nothing. “Don’t you… hate the school’s pizza?”

"This isn’t going to be a great weekend,” She replied. Nothing more needed to be said.

A long comfortable silence was only broken by the sounds of happily chattering students all around us.

"Well… I'd be happy to take you out. You know, get some Burger King or Arby's or something?" he asked casually.

She glared at him but he immediately raised his hands defensively. "Hey hey, easy. I know you're struggling. Just trying to help however I can."

“I don't need your help," Ella insisted, flushing furiously, knowing the lie for what it was.

She had taken two days off work last week because she’d desperately wanted to go to the basketball finals. The one thing she was good at. They’d won. The high was over. She hadn’t been scouted.

Now she was feeling the crunch. Only two missed days at work and suddenly her already meager funds were stretched to the limit feeding both her mom and her little sister.

Undeterred Joe said with a determined frown, "Offer still on the table. It'll be like a date."

Ella scowled again.

"It shouldn't be like this. She shouldn't be like this!” She immediately felt guilty for complaining. You couldn’t pick your family, but sometimes she wished...

Joe put a hand on her shoulder amicably, "I know. You're right it shouldn't. World we live in, eh?"

Ella turned her eyes back up to him. "If you're going to take me on a date it should be a real date! Not one made only because you feel guilty that I–!"

"Hey, hey do you want a real date? Fine, we’ll make it one! "Joe interrupted with a shaky laugh. "I don't think you do, though.”

Ella frowned guiltily, once again knowing he was right and annoyed that he knew he was right. Joe was the best friend any girl could ever hope to ask for, but there would never be romance there. Much as he joked about making it a date, she was pretty sure he was no more interested in her romantically than she was in him. Too weird. Too close. They were almost like siblings.

“... Burger King? I’ll eat your fries?” she asked.

He grinned. “It’s a date, that’s not a date.”

She beamed back at him, laughter bubbling up, but unable to escape her lips.

"So, has she had any luck? I thought she had an interview? Real good one with Gypsenergy or something like that?" he asked, between a mouthful of peas.

“Well, she did. Some asshole threw a rock at some other asshole so the interview got canceled. Sorry, rescheduled. Of course, since it’s Mom, she just assumed that meant they didn't want her like she always does, and I caught her with another bottle yesterday.”

“....Fuck… " was all he could think to say in response.

"Right?" she sighed, shaking her head.

"What am I going to do, Joe? I can't get through the rest of school like this? And college? Don't make me laugh. Maybe if she's lucky Candace will get to go, but not me. I'm screwed."

Joe could only give her a sad smile.

“Well, somehow it'll work out. I know it. She'll get a job and get back on her feet. Shit maybe the insurance will finally pay out?" he said with a smile.

Ella barked a laugh at that.

The insurance paying out had become a joke between them ever since her Dad died and her life went to shit. The truth was, insurance companies wouldn't pay out if your parent died being a dumb ass. Drunk driving. Killed a kid, and fatally injured the kid’s aunt. He deserved what he got, they said. Never mind that he had a family too.

Life had been good once. She remembered it like a fleeting dream. They weren't rich and never would've been but her dad and mom together had both been able to keep a comfortable home.

After her dad died, they couldn't afford the house so they'd been forced to move into an apartment.

Then her mother’s emergent depression, once tempered by her father’s unending optimism, suddenly had no salve. Ever since being kicked out of that first apartment they'd been bouncing from room to room, getting anyone with a sympathetic eye to take them until finally, they’d just given up.

Ella had a beautiful car seat to look forward to sleeping in that night, and a fast-food job to work all day the next day. Worst of all, she was ashamed to admit that she bore the complete collapse of her world with less dignity than her little sister Candace.

Was a roof so much to ask for? Was it too much to ask that her mother should actually be a mother? It seemed so.

She munched idly on her second helping of peas. They were the last thing left on her tray before she'd have to force herself to gobble down another one of those awful pizzas.

Hoping to delay the inevitable taste, she pulled out her phone. It was a cheap thing that the other girls constantly mocked her about. At least it had a touchscreen.

She’d gotten it during one of the short times her mother had landed a good job before her depression got her kicked out of it like it always did.

She opened up her banking app for what must've been the fourth time that day, just wishing that maybe the numbers it showed would change for the better.

Before this screen loaded though, she received a text message. Curious, she opened it. Unlike the usual screen of bubbles, a gray slate layout covered the entire screen in a landscape form. She had to turn the screen to read the message.

A pit formed in her stomach at the idea that perhaps the phone had broken or, worse, that she’d just inadvertently broken it by clicking on the wrong link and letting a virus in.

The message was surrounded by a gothic border with little gargoyles framing the edges. In the middle of the screen, words appeared even as she read them.

"Hiya Ella. My name is Paragell. Would you like to be my friend?"

"Son of a bitch! Joe, what the fuck is this?" She tossed the phone over to him and he grabbed the phone, taking a look at the screen before looking back at her confused.

"I don't see anything. What's wrong?" he asked.

“What do you mean what's wrong? That message on the screen! That's supposed to be my messaging app! Look it's right…!" she stopped in confusion as she spotted the screen.

Turning the phone back to look at her she paused when she saw that it was just a regular messaging app.

‘What the hell?’ she thought, worriedly.

She took the phone back, then closed and reopened the messaging app, and sure enough, the gray-bordered message appeared. Again she had to turn the phone sideways to read it as a new message began to appear.

"I'm sorry I'm a little afraid to talk to anyone but you. I think I can help you though! All the numbers and this little program here..."

The screen suddenly minimized into the upper right corner to display the phone’s main screen where her banking application wiggled around wildly.

"I changed the numbers in this. Yours… had so much less than everyone else and you seemed to need it so much more."

The messages were typing themselves out even as she watched. Ella’s jaw slowly dropped open as she continued to read.

"I feel like everyone should get the opportunity to have at least one steak and broccoli a day… Even if you don't want to be my friend I hope this helps! I’ll… I’ll be your Miss Tutorial! If you want…”

Unable to help herself, Ella clicked the banking app and it overtook the screen just like it normally would. She waited a few moments for the loading screen to finish reading her face and logging her in before showing her accounts.

Her mouth hung fully open, in apoplectic shock.

Where it should say $143.17, her account now read $50,143.17. Whoever this Paragell was, she’d added fifty thousand dollars to Ella’s bank account.

"Oh my god… " she breathed.