text: > Go downward
  Mechanical humming fills the tiny room at the bottom of the stairs.
  The walls and floor are bare concrete.
  
  A single fluorescent light sputters overhead.
  
  EXITS: WEST UP
  
  A heavy steel door stands to the west.
  
  > open the door
  You pull on the handle: The door is locked.
  
  Something squeaks on the other side. Or was that someone's voice?
  
  You tilt your head, but all you hear is the light flickering, and distant machines buzzing.
  
  > look at the light
  Every time the light goes out, the room goes black. But then the light comes back on: Light, dark, light, dark, light, dark...
  
  > Go south
  Can't go that way!
  
  AVAILABLE EXITS: EAST WEST DOWN OUTSIDE
  
  > Go outside
  School is out for the day, but the doors remain open for various after-school activities. On the other end of the yard is a sign that says "BUCHANAN HIGH - CHESS CLUB CANCELED" in big black letters.
  
  Your house is just a short walk to the east.
  
  EXITS: NORTH EAST WEST INSIDE
  
  Your trusty bicycle is chained to a nearby bike rack.
  
  Zoe is sitting on a bench near the door.
  
  > talk to Zoe
  "Hey, Zoe, have you finished your side of our chemistry���"
  
  "Shh. Do you hear that? I think can hear your brother's guitar."
  
  "I doubt that. Our house is all the way over there."
  
  But Zoe is swaying back and forth to the music she thinks she hears. "You're so lucky, Becca. Your brother is the coolest."
  
  "I don't usually see it that way. But, about our assignment. We need
  to turn it in, like, now."
  
  "Does he smell nice?"
  
  You grit your teeth. Is there no way to make this girl focus?
  
  > go to the west
  Miss Muriel's house is too far to reach on foot. First things first: You need to liberate your bicycle.
  
  > Go east
  A stucco wall hems in the wilderness of trees and other plant life
  that surrounds the Drapkin residence.
  
  EXITS: WEST INSIDE
  
  Your little sister Lindsay ambles up to you.
  
  "Hey Becca. Wanna see something?"
  
  You shrug. "I guess?"
  
  She produces a shoebox from behind her back. "Open it."
  
  You open it: Inside is a huge green beetle, scuttling over a pile of leaves and twigs, wiggling its horrible little legs. You shriek and drop the box.
  
  Lindsay giggles as she recollects the box and its lid, keeping the horrible creature in its cardboard prison. "Scared you!"
  
  You manage to stop yourself from strangling your sister. "Why would
  you do that, you little monster?"
  
  "Cuz it's funny!" she explains though a gap-toothed smile. You take a deep breath.
  
  > talk to Lindsay
  "Hey Becca! You wanna look in my box again?"
  
  "Is that disgusting beetle still in it?"
  
  "Maaaaaybe..."
  
  "Then I'm afraid I have to decline your invitation."
  
  > examine Lindsay
  You remember when Lindsay was just a baby. Over the years she's grown up into a demonic force of chaos. If life were fair, the two of you girls would be allied against your older brother, but the sad truth
  is, it's the middle children against the world.
  
  > examine the shoebox
  It's one of your mom's shoeboxes. If your mom knew what Lindsay was doing with her shoebox... She probably wouldn't care. She lets Lindsay get away with everything.
  
  > go inside
  The walls of the living room are lined with dolls: Your mother's unsettling handiwork.
  
  Your bedroom is upstairs.
  
  EXITS: UP OUTSIDE
  
  Your brother is sitting on the carpet (even though the couch is right there), strumming the same three chords over and over on his guitar.
  
  > Smell brother
  Everything smells damp.
  
  > examine brother
  To you, your brother Drew looks like the archetypical Boy, utterly normal and uninteresting. You have no idea what Zoe sees in him.
  
  You also can't figure out why he's wearing a baseball cap indoors.
  
  > examine the cap
  The cap has the letter "H" embroidered on it.
  
  > examine the guitar
  It's a banged-up secondhand guitar that probably wasn't worth much
  even when it was brand new. But Drew acts like it's his lawfully
  wedded wife.
  
  > examine couch
  A plastic protector is draped over the couch. Mom wants it to keep it looking nice. But the shiny plastic sheet doesn't look very nice.
  
  > examine the carpet
  The carpet does look a lot more comfortable than the couch.
  
  > examine the dolls
  At least a dozen porcelain dolls are on display here, and there are more in the rest of the house. Your mom seems to find joy only in crafting more and more of them. Each doll has a hand-painted face, staring eerily across the room. Each doll's hands are reaching out at nothing. Each doll has a name, most of which you have mercifully forgotten.
  
  > talk to Drew
  You can tell from his strumming that he's in a mood.
  
  "Hey, Drew, what's wrong?"
  
  He sighs. "Hey, Becca. I can't find my guitar pick."
  
  "Don't you have more than one?"
  
  "I mean my favorite pick. The one that Stevie Ray Vaughan tossed to me from the stage."
  
  He strums the saddest chord in the world.
  
  "My other picks don't play the same."
  
  You put on a commiserating frown, but secretly you know exactly where that pick is.
  
  > Go upward
  Your bedroom. Your undisturbed refuge. Even when the whole world is
  out to get you, you can always run back to your room, where at last
  you can enjoy peace and quiet. But you can still hear your brother playing the guitar downstairs.
  
  A small army of stuffed animals is carefully arranged at the head of your bed. Your viola is collecting dust on top of your dresser.
  
  EXITS: DOWN
  
  > examine the animals
  Some might say you're too old for stuffed animals, but you've come to the conclusion that in fact you are old enough to decorate your
  bedroom however you want. Most of the creatures are just here because they look nice: Wanda Elephant, Harold Lamb, James Frog, et cetera.
  But Peggy Pony has special sentimental value.
  
  > examine the bed
  A pink and green quilt is spread over your bed. Mom says it was sewn
  by your great grandma.
  
  > look at the viola
  Your viola and bow have become mostly decorative ever since your mom stopped making you take lessons. And they're very nice decorations, too.
  
  > look at the dresser
  A fairly cute little dresser, if perhaps too small to meet the needs
  of a well-dressed high schooler. Mostly it's stuffed with clothes, but sometimes you keep certain interesting items in the top drawer.
  
  > open the top
  You open up the top drawer of your dresser. Inside are your diary, a letter from your pen pal, and Drew's guitar pick.
  
  > take the pick
  Taken.
  
  > look at the diary
  The pages of your diary are almost completely blank. Until very recently, nothing interesting had ever happened to you. The only entry is from September, and it just says that sophomore year is shaping up to be just like freshman year.
  
  > examine the letter
  It's a letter from Kgosiemang Kwena, your pen pal in Botswana. (Everyone in Miss Lipton's class was assigned an international pen pal at the beginning of the semester.) In tiny and precise handwriting, covering a full page, front and back, Kgosiemang describes his life in Molepolole and how his father's standing in the community is dependent upon the status of his cattle.
  
  You should really get around to writing back to him. But later.
  
  > examine pick
  This is Drew's favorite pick. You can't remember why you hid it from him, but it stands to reason that he deserved it.