TOP OF THE SUMMIT by luvyuan

*

I grip my spoon while sending death glares at my brother on the other side of the table.

The dining room was filled with an awkward silence, broken only by the clinking of silverware against plates and the occasional cough. My brother had always been a thorn in my side, but a while ago, he had taken things too far.

Last afternoon was our high school teachers day program, and as the president of the student council I was chosen to say the closing remarks. I spent days working on my speech and practiced on my speaking.

The time came for the closing remarks and I was called on stage. I walked up on stage with to the podium with my script in hand. As soon as I reached the podium, I immediately started to speak aloud what was written.

If only I had known, that that would be the greatest mistake that I would ever make in my entire life.

Written on the paper was not the script that I worked hard on, but instead, written on the paper was the lyrics of the song WAP by Cardi B.

Students erupted with laughter, while most school staff had horrified looks on their faces. I stood and looked like a damn idiot.

I gripped the paper and looked at the back of it. Every single part of me was filled with rage when I saw what was written.

K ;)

Keanu I'm gonna bury you alive!

So here I am, still sending death glares at my brother as I took a bit of my fried chicken. That was when mom decided to break the silence.

"Clarissa," she called. "How is the science report that you and Avery have been working on?"

"Good," I replied, still sending death glares to the person who had just ruined my school reputation. "I think Miss Evans might even give us a perfect score if someone doesn't give me another day of public humiliation."

"It was supposed to be just a joke, get over it," he tutted, lifting his head up from his bowl of ice cream.

"I was humiliated in front of the entire school and you expect me to 'get over it'?"

"I didn't really expect you to read it out loud!"

"That incident never would have happened if you weren't such a childish, obnoxious a-hole!" I couldn't take it anymore. I slammed my hands down on the table, causing everyone to jump and our dog, Cliff, to make his way out of the house.

He stood up and was about to say something until our mother interfered, her eyes stern and disapproving. "Enough!" she said firmly. "This is not how we behave in this house."

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm going to bed," Keanu whispered, making his way upstairs.

"Me too. I've lost my appetite." I speed walked and roughly bumped his shoulder on the way.

As I went inside my room, I immediately face plant myself into the bed and fell asleep hoping that everyone would just forget about that incident in fewer days.

***

I was woken up by a cold chilling wind that seems to be circulating around me. My bed suddenly became colder than usual and felt like an icy powder. I tried reaching for my blanket, but just felt some cold powder instead.

Groaning, I sat up and rubbed my eyes, getting rid of the blurry vision. Once I had a clear look on my surroundings, I had to rub my eyes again.

I was in a frosty wonderland.

It was a land of icy splendor, where a shimmering glacier meets a frozen ocean. It was filled with pristine snow-colored landscapes and glistening ice formations. The sky is painted with hues of pink and purple, casting a breathtaking glow.

I quickly stood up and wrapped my arms around myself. Aside from the change of place, I still feel like something is not right. I feel my body being furry and I know I'm short, but I'm not that short that my face could almost reach the ground.

As I looked down, I let out a scream and once again was on my butt.

I had clawed webbed feet and black feathery flippers. I tried feeling my face with the flippers and had just noticed a bill on my face.

What the fudge is happening?

Wait a minute. This is all so familiar. A short penguin and an Antarctic setting.

Am I in Bread & Fred?!"

But that's impossible.

A heavy backpack was on my back and a red cloth with a rope attached to it was tied around my belly.

I gripped the rope and scanned where the other end was. The rope led me to a large clump of snow which was about a foot away from me.

As I walk near it, an awfully familiar sound of snoring can be heard.

Digging some of the snow away, I saw a snoring sleeping penguin with a green cloth with the other end of the rope attached tied around his belly.

Reluctantly, I gently nudged the penguin and it let out a groggy human-like groan. "Cliff, get out of my room."

That voice.

Is this–no way.

"Keanu," I whispered and shook him gently.

"Clarissa, stop it's too early," he groaned and turned his back on me.

"Keanu!" I shook him more aggressively this time, forcing him to sit up and open his eyes.

"What do you–what the f*ck?!" He quickly stood up and took a couple steps back away from me. "What the heck is going on?! Who are you?!"

"Keanu calm down, it's me Clarissa."

"Clarissa where the f*ck are we and why are we penguins?!" He demanded, looking around with his flippers on the top of his head.

I raised both of my hands, in a way of attempting to calm him down.

"Look, I know this might sound crazy and unbelievable, but I think we got sucked into Bread & Fred."

"What the heck is Bread & Fred?"

"It's a video game."

"You mean that video game that you spend all night playing with Avery?"

"Yup," I said, popping the "p".

"Ok, that doesn't explain why we ended up in it."

"I don't know. After I went to my room, I immediately slumped on the bed and fell asleep."

"Ugh!" He began walking in circles while mumbling incoherently to himself. Of course he couldn't walk that far away from me because of the rope keeping us at least a foot near each other. "So how do we get out of here?"

"Isn't it obvious, we have to finish the game." I took a few steps forward and looked up, where some blocks of snow, earth, and ice were floating above us. "In order to finish the game, we need to work together to climb those floating blocks and reach the top of the summit."

"Well then, it looks like we're stuck here forever. Keanu, Clarissa, and team work, doesn't actually have a great bond with each other." He sighed defeatedly and sat back down on the snow.

"Get your *ss out of that snow and come on. As much as I want to leave you here, I can't because of this damn rope." I grumbled.

Groaning, he stood up and we made our way on the first obstacle.

"Okay, we jump on the count of three. One. Two. Three." We both jumped, but he was the only one who managed to get on the wood while I was left hanging on the rope.

"If this is gonna keep happening then we're gonna be stuck here forever," he grumbled, pulling me up with the rope.

"Like how you were the reason that I got humiliated in front of the entire school." I stood up and made my way to the next obstacle dragging him with me by the rope.

"You're still going on about that," he groaned, walking behind me to the next obstacle.

On the count of three, we jumped to the next wood with him almost slipping off.

"Just get over it, everyone will probably forget it in the next couple weeks anyway." He started to prepare for the next obstacle.

He clutched the rope while I dropped myself and was hanging by the rope. He started swinging the rope, and I clutched it tighter as I went higher and higher. He let go of the rope and I was thrown to a floating block of ice, dragging him behind me.

An obstacle was never solved without an argument and we even fell and went back to square one a couple of times. There was even a time when both of us fell when he slipped on ice, and I had to drag him as his face was planted on the ground. I just wanted to leave him there.

But by some miracle, we are now nearer the top of the summit. We could already see the mining penguin on the last block.

"Okay we're almost there," he huffed.

"If you don't mess this up like how you messed up my speech, then we'll be fine."

"This again," he groaned. "Look, I never thought that you would actually read it out loud. I thought that you would silently read it at first and laugh like we always did when we read Aunt Jo's cringy romance novels."

"You know that I'm not good at off-the-cuff speaking!"

"Clarissa, I know zilch about you!" he exclaimed, his flippers in the air like an act of surrender. "If I had known, I wouldn't have switched the papers. I never wanted to embarrass you, that's the last thing that I wanted to do to you."

I just stood there with my bill agape.

Keanu and I used to have an amazing brother and sister bond, but when he started high school, everything changed. With him being the quarterback of the school football team, Mom and Dad started to show him favor, while I'm just there being excluded and ignored.

As soon as I started high school, I aimed to be the top. I was so blinded with my jealousy of my brother, and that jealousy turned into a great hatred for him.

We got quiet and went on to finish the last obstacle. With one last swing, he let go and threw me to the last block with him dragged behind.

We finally reached the top and the mining penguin congratulated us. We awkwardly faced each other with our flippers on our back.

"I'm sorry," we both apologized simultaneously.

"Why are you sorry?" His face contorted into a look of confusion.

"I was jealous of how Mom and Dad always showed favor towards you. Since then, I always aimed to be higher than you. And as time went by, that jealousy turned into hatred for you. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too, for switching the papers and making you humiliate yourself in front of the entire school."

Suddenly, a bright light shone and that was the last thing I saw before darkness surrounded.

***

The annoying ringing of my alarm clock echoed throughout my room. I quickly turned it off and looked around my surroundings.

I was back in my room.

I noticed my desk computer still on and the Bread & Fred game still on.

Was it all a dream?

Just then, someone knocked on my bedroom door.

I quickly got out of bed and made a beeline to my door. I slammed it open and saw my brother who looked like he also just got out of bed.

"Was it real?" I asked.

"I hope it was." He gave me a sweet smile.

I returned the smile before launching myself at him. Wrapping my arms at his neck while he wrapped his arms around my stomach. I don't even remember the last time we even hugged.

I smiled at him. "Wanna play a game of Bread & Fred?"