Here I was, in the place I had always dreamed of being, PAX. The only catch was that I was sitting outside while my family was living my dream.
---Flashback---
It was a normal Sunday morning, I had woken up, had breakfast and taken refuge in my room. I opened up my laptop and stared at the loading screen when I thought about how I had gotten here. Here as in about to head online and dive into the world my parents had tried to keep me away from. The social word through the internet.
A few years ago I had been performing the same schedule of school, food and studying which was the schedule my parents wished for and forced upon me. However that all changed on one fateful day. I was doing my daily social media check (which my parents didn't know I had) when I came across something new in my recommended section of Youtube. Let's just say I clicked it and it ended up being a video of something I used to love to the moon and back, Gaming. I later found out that there was a whole community of gamers on Youtube and my new happier life began.
From that day on I would always secretly watch some videos after completing my homework and studied. Eventually the time that was spent on videos grew but nonetheless I still got Straight A's. Over the years I flip flopped between what channels I would watch till I found one group that seemed to stick due to their energy and different personalities, they were nicknamed the Banana Bus Squad by their fans, which I found pretty hilarious.
This "Squad" was composed of a couple of Youtubers as followed; Vanossgaming, H2O Delirious, Lui Calibre, I AM WILDCAT, Mini Ladd, Daithi de Nogla and Moo Snuckel. There are other friends who aren't in the main group but are just as great are; BasicallyIdoWrk, Terroriser, SilentDroidd, Ohmwrecker and Cartoonz. Over the years many new people have joined and others have left but I remained loyal to all. Now I just want to establish that I am not a fan-girl but I would like to meet them since they provide light for the dark tunnel my parents created and helped in preventing me from falling into depression but I also knew that many people shared the same story as mine.
I was content in keeping this side of me a secret from everyone, happy to have a place to laugh without the fear of judgement. My parents never really suspected anything but didn't like the amount of time I spent in my room which I blamed on homework and job applications. This worked for me for a long time until I made one fatal mistake on a terrible day.
This particular Sunday morning I had been called to mow the lawn by my father while I watching one of the crew's videos. This was normal, to be called from upstairs to help out around the house so it became a ritual to watch the videos on the guest section of my laptop since the history wasn't saved. My parents had no idea that the internet providers could tell you what we used it for or they just never asked meaning my plan still worked. Every time I was called or yelled at to come upstairs I would close the tabs with the videos and open new ones with my studies on them and then leave to go upstairs and face the work.
So after being called I responded with the same response as always"OK, I'm coming upstairs!" followed with me putting the screen of the laptop down. Once I was standing at the bottom of the steps I felt that something bad would happen but that was a typically feeling at this point so I brushed it off and walked upstairs anyways after taking a deep breath. My father was waiting at the back door and told me to grab my shoes so that we meaning I could get the work done quickly but when I had grabbed my sneakers and had begun to put them on I heard a sound that made my stomach drop
"YYYY/NNN WHAT IN GODS NAME IS ON YOUR LAPTOP COME DOWN HERE THIS SECOND!!!!!"
And in that moment I realized that I had forgotten to remove the tabs from which the videos were being portrayed...
---Flashback Over---