2 am Doomscroll and Isekai (It’s not my fault though!)

“Sophia! Get out of your room and clean out your school stuff!” My mom screams. I can feel a faint vibration through the floor of my bedroom where I am currently wiped out on the floor.

“Mom, it’s the literal first day of summer vacation,” I whine.

“Exactly, so go clean out your backpack!”

I drag myself downstairs, drag my backpack back upstairs, and proceed to dump all my stuff in the drawers of my desk.

“I’m done!” I yell.

“Sure you are,” Mom hollers. I almost expect a giant cartoon sweat drop to hang over my head.

“I’m tired, can I sleep? Please?” I beg.

“No!”

“But-”

“No means no, Sophia! You’re a middle schooler. Have some maturity!”

I made a gagging/spitting noise. Maturity sucks.

“Sleep when it’s time to sleep, for goodness sake, and don’t mess up your sleep schedule!” she yells, exasperated. “Please, help me do the laundry before Dad gets back.”

“Fine,” I grumble.

“Watch your attitude!”

***

I glance at my digital clock, glowing through the darkness of my bedroom.

“2 am? Holy doomscroll.”

I put my phone on the bedside table, praying that Mom won’t barge in at this very moment. I pull my blankets over myself and finally fall asleep.

Immediately after I fall asleep, I find myself sitting at a rough, wooden table, my forehead resting against it, my hand wrapped around the handle of an overfull mug, foaming liquid dripping down the side. Wait, is it beer or something? I’M UNDERAGE!

I bolt upright. “WHAT THE-” I seal my lips shut. The air in the dim building smells like alcohol, throw-up, and urine (ew). It’s full of people yelling, singing badly, and talking in general. A fire flickers weakly in the fireplace opposite the door, and a grubby old man is polishing glasses behind a counter. A few people are staring at me but the noise in the- bar?- doesn’t diminish at all. Unless it’s a fantasy tavern! But it’s not. Right?

Wait, what? Why am I here? The heck just happened?

“Holy cow!” I yell. No one gives me a second glance.

“You must be a newbie in town!” a cheerful voice says. Right next to me. HE WAS NEXT TO ME AND I DIDN’T NOTICE?

“What? Huh? Where is this place? Where am I? I was just in my bed? This is a dream isn’t it?” I flail my arms, forgetting about the mug I’m holding, and it flies across the room.

“Watch it, lassie!” a rough voice shouts, following a loud clatter and the sound of splattering liquid.

“Are you drunk!” the long-haired boy asks, although it’s not really a question. His hair is tied in a ponytail but half of it’s come out. Boys come to school in their bed hair anyway. Typical feminine anime boy. Woah, it’s dyed! And purple too. I’ve always wanted dyed hair. He looks about my age, but he’s wearing a leather tunic and pants, basically the outfit boys wear in fantasy anime. Wait a- holy cow, that’s what I’m wearing! Who changed me?

“No!” I yelled. “I’m underage! Someone pinch me!” I holler.

Then I immediately jump about ten feet into the air, clutching my arm. “HOLY COW!” He just pinched me, and it was really hard, too.

“You asked me to pinch you,” the boy says with a shrug. “So I pinched you! Wait, why did you wanna be pinched? That would hurt.”

“How did I even get here?” I yell, clutching my arm. “This isn’t a dream, so where the heck am I and how do I get out of here?”

“You’re in the very super awesome village of Summer Falls, in the Cottage Inn!” he announces grandly. “You’ve been asleep on that table all night. Oh also, good morning by the way!”

“HUH? I just went to sleep in my bed! It’s two am! THE HECK HAPPENED I JUST GOT- HOLY COW! I THINK I’M IN AN ISEKAI!”

“Isekai? What’s that mean?” he wonders pleasantly. “Hey wait, where are you from anyway?”

“It means I just got TELEPORTED TO ANOTHER WORLD, AH, AM I DEAD?”

“Ooh! Summer Falls must be so different from where you live that it’s like you're in another world or something!” He laughs. “Also, you didn’t answer my question. Also, I’m alive, I think, and you’re talking to me, and I’m talking to you, so I think you’re not dead. I think.”

“Ever heard of Deerfield?”

“Nope!”

“Ahhh,” I wail, clutching my hair and putting my forehead on the table. Then I bolt upright.

“Um, are you-"

“If I got here by sleeping I can get back by sleeping! I’m gonna sleep!”

“It’s like two-thirty in the afternoon-” the boy starts, but I ignore him. Then I realize I am absolutely not tired at all. I’m wide awake.

I faceplant on the table, wishing purple lines would darken my face like in anime to show my utter despair to this clueless kid. “Uurgh.”

“Are you super duper sure you aren’t drunk?” he asks. “You don’t make any sense at all.”

“For the last time I’m underage,” I mumble through the sticky table. “I can’t have alcohol for like fifteen hundred thousand years and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Is that a custom in your hometown?” the boy asks.

“It’s a law, holy cow.”

“What’s your name, anyway? I’m Fawn.”

“Fawn? That sounds like a girl's name.”

“I am a girl.”

“HOLY-”

“What? Did you think I was a boy?”

“Um… no.”

“Okay! What’s your name?” Fawn puts his- uhm, her- chin on the table, narrowly avoiding the ring of moisture left behind by my mug of alcohol (RIP, because I chucked it), and I turn my head sideways to look at her, rubbing my face through the dirt. That is the depth of my despair. I will rub my face over a dirty table because I don't have the energy to lift it.

“It’s Soph-”

“SOPH! That’s my grandma’s name!”

“I- uh, it’s Sophi-”

“That’s so cool! You have the same name as my grandma!”

“Uh, it’s not ‘Soph’, it’s-”

“Come on, Soph! Let me give you a tour!” She grabs my hand and drags me up. As she does, I notice her ears for the first time.

“HOLY COW! AN ELF!”

“What?” Fawn says, confused. “You’re one too.” She pokes my ear.

I let out a wail of utter despair and agony, and it echoes over the rooftops.