Eyes trained on the screen, I attacked the beast, aggressively stabbing at my remote buttons to shoot out fireballs and poisonous metal bullets. The ghastly creature dodged my aims, repelling my weapoms with its shield.

"Max," mum called from downstairs, "dinner is ready."

"Wait!" I yelled back, charging at the virtual beast. My Greek-armoured soldier was flung into the air as my opponent slashed at me.

"Your food will get cold," mum shouted, annoyed.

"No, wait." I took final aim at the beast and then... black. My screen had turned off. I looked up, confused. Izzy, my step sister, was standing by my TV, dangling my unplugged cable in front of her. Anger coarsed through my veins and I leapt up. "What the hell..."

"Go downstairs, Max," she sneered. Her free hand was placed on her hip while her eyes glittered with mischief. Now, if there's one thing you got to know about Izzy and I, it's that we hate each other, and I mean hate. She was one of those evil step sisters in that storybook Cinderella except that she was 13 years old, the family pet, and did well in school which I could never say the same for myself. I couldn't yell or punch her as much as I'd like to because, A, no hitting girls, and B, I would be grounded for a month. Trust me I know; I've tried it before.

"I was almost done my game," I argued, my face hot with rage. Izzy smirked further.

"Yeah, and I said go downstairs. Mum is calling you for dinner." She picked up the disc case from my desk and inspected it. She raised her eyebrows.

"Eighteen? You're not allowed to play that, Max," she jeered, triumph filling her evil eyes. I swallowed. She knew she had me. There was nothing I could say. I was specifically banned from 18+ games from my mum and if she knew... well, I'd rather not find out. "Pay me weekly and I won't say. You have your grocery job now. I want seventy percent of it."

"Seventy!" I exclaimed. Izzy opened her mouth to call out to mum. "Okay, okay," I whispered, hating Izzy more than ever before. Izzy smiled, victory creeping over her mean visage.