CHAPTER ONE
MEET ALEXA
7:40am
Thursday Morning
The alarm on the table was blinking red figures of the time, "7:40am" and blaring. A hand stretches out from the bed and turns it off. A sigh was heard and a small yawn. There was some shuffling as the human tossed off the pink-colored duvet came down from the bed, walked towards the right end of the room, and, with her two hands, separated the two long and dark curtains as sunlight penetrated the room and towards her face. She raises her left palm and covers her eyes, protecting it from the sun. Not long, her eyes adjusted to the light and she looked out of the tempered glass demarcation towards the morning sun. The view wasn't so bad. Just a few big rocks here and there. And a stream that cascades slowly to a place unknown to the human. She didn't care tho.
She walks barefoot towards the bed and arranges the blanket over it. She walks towards another door in the room. Opening the door, she entered, stopped, and looked around. It was a big bathroom space. Hanging towels, shower, a bathtub, mirrors and toiletries. There was a transparent demarcation by the left. She entered and sat on the toilet bowl as she did her thing. When she was through, she flushed the toilet and walked out towards the sink where she rinsed her hand and cleaned it with a towel.
She stopped in front of the mirror as she stared at herself. Her image was a blur in the mirror. She was still in her blue and pink dotted PJs. On her head was a big black bonnet. She quickly inspected her acne-free and spotless face. She brushed her teeth and did some face care routine that took a few minutes before she finally walked out of the bathroom into her room.
Lying down on the bed, she sighed again.
ALEXA'S VOICE: Home Girl, play Alexa's mixtape on Audiomack!
HOME GIRL: [AI response] playing Alexa's mixtape on Audiomack.
A piece of soft, cool music started playing from the AI assistant, filling the whole room with its cool buzz. After some minutes, Alexa (16), sprang up from the bed and opened the drawers by the side of the bed. She took out a pink pouched notebook, a glitter pen, and her circle-shaped eyeglasses. She walked towards the study table which was filled with books and study items. A lampstand and an Apple laptop. She sat down and started scribbling something on the notepad, making some sketches and connecting the dots. Sometimes she would chew slightly on her pen. Not long after, she started tapping very fast on the laptop with a very focused expression. A lot of images, letters, and inscriptions were showing on the computer screen.
** ** ** ** ** ** ** **
2:30pm
Thursday Afternoon
Ding!!!
She got up from the chair, took off her glasses, and dropped it on the table. She walked towards the bathroom again, stripping off every piece of clothing she had on. Inside the bathroom, as water cascaded down her body from the turned-on shower, she applied shampoo to her hair and started running her fingers through the thick mass of hair.
ALEXA'S V.O: I created a game app and sent it to a Play Store more than two minutes ago. I just need a maximum of 15 players on this app, me included. We are supposed to be girls aged 15 to 18 years old.
Why did I create this app?
I grew up in this sheltered room. I don't know what the outside world looks like except the reflection of sunlight during the day and moonlight at night.
You would be thinking, right? Yeah! I've got strict parents who sheltered my whole life and limited it to this very bedroom. I have everything I want in here. I have oxygen and I photosynthesize. Duhhh!!! Mom-I'm not a plant! I'm a human being. Even the sunlight is not well received.
(Shakes her head)
I'm only sixteen- yeah! I don't know if anyone out there knows one unregistered human is living on Earth- but that's by the way. My dad, mom, and I live in a very secluded location. I just sensed so...because all I hear all day is birds chirping and nature noises...nothing else. And also the only thing I love most is the view of my room. Whenever I asked questions, my parents would always tell me that they didn't want me to see the bad side of life. They said, outside there is full of decay and rottenness. So, most times, I depend on my scary imagination.
I do all my classes and lectures in this room online, with private tutors carefully selected by my parents. Everything I ever needed was always provided. Surprise!!! I also own a credit card. I only go out of my room when it's time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Brunch is usually brought to my room by Mom or whenever a delivery is dropped through a slot created by Dad. I have no connections to the outside world.
Me aside... I was going back to my room yesterday when I heard Mom saying something to Dad. She said that a distant cousin of mine who just entered college had gotten pregnant. Mom said she's promiscuous and that piqued my curiosity.
Could it be that...Nope! (Pauses)
Was it promiscuity?
Mom said that she had all the love and care in the world yet she was not contented.
I secretly did some little research, which, of course, I deleted before Dad found out.
Some girls did not receive love, care, or support and tended to find it elsewhere. Some received little or little affection only to be swayed later on. Wanting to learn more about the lives of other girls out there, I created an app-GirlSay!
(She walks out of the bathroom and enters a walk-in closet full of clothes, shoes, bags, and many accessories. Everything was well arranged and each screamed luxury. She changes into a new set of clothes, a white tee, and long baby blue pants. She combed her hair and secured it into a bun and then put a white scrunchie on it. She walks out of the closet and back into the room. On the bedstand, she checked the temperature of her room, nodded, and walked back to her study table. She turns on the laptop and starts creating a social media account under a fake name, referring people-girls-to her app on the Play Store)