Trying Three Times: Cee's Comical Quest for Success

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." That was one of my favorite sayings growing up. In fact, I think it's something that all kids should learn from a young age because it's a great lesson. I remember when I was in little league and my parents would tell me to practice more if I didn't hit the ball well. They'd even buy me batting gloves so I could have a better grip on the bat, but I still didn't do very well at hitting them. Eventually though, my hard work paid off and after years of practice and dedication, I eventually became an expert hitter.

I thought about all of this as I sat in my old school library waiting for the bell to ring. It was my last day at Marlowe High and I had been sitting in the back corner of the library making my last rounds before walking out into the real world. The school wasn't much different than it was when I was there; all of the books were still neatly organized on their shelves and all of the computers were still running Windows XP. But that was okay with me because I wasn't here for nostalgia or for some kind of time warp experience. No, instead, this place served as a reminder of where things started for me.

~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was close to midnight and Cee had just finished her latest quest; a quest that she had been working on for months now. After weeks of trial and error, she had finally cracked one of her best friend's wife's security codes and now she had full access to everything: bank accounts, credit card statements, online shopping receipts...Cee knew that this would be big once she showed everyone what she had done. More than likely they would all want to use her services when they found out how good she was at this sort of thing.

With a smile on her face, Cee walked back over to her desk where her laptop was resting safely closed. She took her seat and then reached down under her right thigh where she had kept the special gloves for safe keeping for what seemed like forever now. She gave them a quick rub with her index finger before slipping them onto both hands and then gently clapping twice together to activate them: *clap*. A green light blinked on each glove exactly three times -- indicating that they were fully charged -- and then disappeared altogether as Cee removed them from her hands: *clap* *clap* *clap*. Once they were gone, Cee put them away again by placing them back underneath her right thigh where they belonged: *clap*.

"Yes!" She said aloud as she thumped both fists down onto the keyboard making loud 'bopping' noises that echoed throughout the room. "Yes! Yes! Yes!" She continued doing so over and over again until finally calling out "Eureka!"

"Finally!" She said while letting out a sigh of relief as she leaned back in her chair. Her hard work had finally paid off; there was no doubt about it now because if it hadn't worked tonight then there probably wouldn't have been another chance like this again.

With everything finally set up and ready to go, Cee quickly opened up her browser and began searching through Reddit to see what topics were trending for tomorrow morning's front page when suddenly...

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP." The sound startled Cee so bad that she almost fell backwards off of her chair!

"What?!" She asked herself looking around frantically to see where it came from only to notice that it was coming from behind her laptop screen? Confused by this turn of events, Cee stood up from her chair and walked around behind it to find out what was causing such a ruckus every time she logged onto Reddit!

Was it some kind of alarm going off? Why couldn't she just leave it alone? Did someone put something inside? Perhaps some kind of virus or spyware program? This thought worried Cee greatly because if someone did put something inside then that meant someone wanted something from her or else why would they bother installing such a thing in the first place? Did they know who she was? Had they been following her? Were they watching right now!?

"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP." The obnoxious sound continued as Cee ran back over to the table where she kept her gloves hidden underneath them just in case something like this happened to happen while she was away from home. If someone really did install software on here then there's no way in hell that those gloves wouldn't be able to detect it! Just like last time, Cee slipped them on each hand and then proceeded to clap twice together which activated their power: *clap* *clap*. A light blue flash sparked between each glove followed by an electric buzz as each one stopped working entirely: *clap* *clap* *clap*. Now calm once more, Cee slipped them back underneath the table before turning around once more to return back to her computer screen only...