One day, Michael had to do chores but he didn’t want to. He had to wash the dishes, but instead he went into his room and played video games. His mom and dad were talking on the phone. Sometimes, usually on Wednesdays, his parents would stay at home to take care of him, but the rest of the time they were at work. He only played video games when they were at work. His parents made work calls in the basement where it was quiet, so Michael made sure to play video games in his room, which was out of earshot of the basement.

So, he went to his room and started playing the video game “Survive” on his computer. The point of the game is to survive through obstacles. There’s one big mission and a bunch of other smaller missions. You start out as any person the computer chooses, and then there’s a path you have to follow. There’s also a wall, which is twenty feet tall and five feet wide. Then you have a choice of what obstacle to try and beat, and then you have to get over all your obstacles before you can finish the mission. At the end, there’s a giant glowing star that contains all the secrets of the world. There are forty nine missions and the one big mission in total, and Michael had just finished twenty five percent of all the missions.

Then, while Michael was playing, he got sucked into the video game. He felt his body getting smaller and smaller. And then he just suddenly appeared in the world of the video game. There was a stone path inside the trees. He went down the path and then tried to go through the obstacles.

When he saw the wall, he tried to climb it but it was too steep. He tried to walk around it, but he was too tired. He wanted to give up, but he didn’t — he really wanted to go over the wall. He had the choice to make stairs, make rope, or just climb the wall. He tried climbing the wall but it didn’t work because it was too tall. He tried to use stairs but it took a really long time and he really wanted to get over. Finally, he chose rope, and climbed up and over the wall.

Michael thought about how he was going to complete the other missions. He was kind of scared. He’d done a few of the missions so he knew what was coming up next. After a while of walking, he got to the next mission: a bridge with some lava under it. You have to cross the bridge without falling into the lava. He was very scared. He wanted to go home but did not know how. He had to finish the mission before he could go home. He went to a factory and got some iron. And then he wanted to build it onto the bridge so that he could cross, but then he realized that the iron would melt from the heat of the lava. So he used bedrock instead, which worked out perfectly and allowed him to cross the bridge. Michael was proud. After that, he’d finished 39 missions out of 49 missions. When he started the 40th mission he saw a giant spider web and didn’t want to get stuck in it. So, he just went around it, which was kind of weird, because you’re supposed to have choices and choose one. Anyway, when he got to the 49th mission, he heard all the secrets of the world.

  When Michael got all the secrets of the world, he felt lonely and wanted to go back home. No one was with him, and no one could help him. Then he realized that he shouldn’t play video games all day. He missed his parents.

After he thought that, his body grew larger and larger. Suddenly, he appeared at his desk, in front of his computer. At first, his parents were really worried that he had run away, but then they were really angry because he’d scared them.

“You scared us. And now you have to do chores all day!”

“Okay,” he said.