Minecraft:Minecraft: Battle of the Block/4CHP

Chapter 23

Nzinga slowly heads upstairs to eat, noticing Ms. Bashirah ordered her a burger and fries. Nzinga eats the burger rather quickly despite it being cold, washing it down with lemonade. Despite her stomach still rumbling, Nzinga notices that Jannah returned from her meeting with the Crafties, so out of desperation, she decides to meet them, zipping down the block in her Heelys, with Kayla and Jalil commenting on her as she does so. Nzinga greets Jannah, who introduces the others – a boy, two girls, and someone’s mother – to her. The boy, named Carlos, comments Nzinga on her sneakers, and the girl with the orange hair comments on the sneakers as well as the earrings. Jannah then brings up about the possibility of them and Nzinga hanging out, but Nzinga suddenly feels queasy, moving away from the car before throwing up on her sneakers. She quickly heads back to Ms. Bashirah’s house, telling Jannah to leave her alone, and Jannah says back that she’ll text her when she can.

Chapter 24

That evening, Nzinga eats her dinner slowly, causing Ms. Bashirah to ask her a few times if she is OK. Despite Nzinga no longer feeling nauseous, she doesn’t take any chances and continues to eat slowly, telling Ms. Bashirah that she is just tired. Mir is droopy from the events at the house of young Mr. Melvin, and Ms. Bashirah yawns as well. Later, after dinner, Nzinga is up in her room, waiting for the house to fall silent. When it eventually does so, Nzinga tiptoes down the stairs and eventually settles into the basement chair, being careful not to disturb any of the cats, at just after 10PM. With the computer still muted, Nzinga goes back into Minecraft on the Honeysuckle Dreams server and continues to build the luxury apartment, first working on the sliding glass doors. Hours later, Nzinga has finished the basement and five floors that are almost complete, with suites that have beds and tables, the latter topped with carpet, and continues on adding some redstone contraptions to the build. As more hours pass, Nzinga’s phone goes off with the adhan calling to fajr, the Muslim dawn prayer. She quickly heads up the steps, hoping to not see Ms. Bashirah, but she is already at her door. Ms. Bashirah stares at Nzinga bleary-eyed, but then asks her if she is up for fajr. Nzinga says that she is, and Ms. Bashirah nods with a smile. Nzinga then bolts into the bathroom to wash up.

Chapter 25

Later, Nzinga is wearing noise-cancelling headphones at the kitchen bar, working on her speech for the City Council meeting. Ms. Bashirah is wearing noise-cancelling headphones too, listening to music. Eventually, the noises from construction overwhelm Ms. Bashirah that she goes to the front door, but Tinker Bell starts bringing up her kittens from the basement. Despite Ms. Bashirah trying to convince Tinker Bell that the basement is the quietest place for them, the cat continues to bring her kittens upstairs. Eventually, after watching Tinker Bell bring her kittens to a closet, and then a couch, and then a wall, Ms. Bashirah and Nzinga realize that the noise from construction is overwhelming Tinker Bell that she could eventually harm her kittens, so they decide to bring them upstairs to Mir’s room as it has a noise machine. Ms. Bashirah gathers the kittens and puts them in a blanket on Nzinga’s lap, while also putting Tinker Bell in a tent with a blanket. After getting Nzinga tiny bottles for the kittens and placing pillows and cushions around her lap, Ms. Bashirah says that she is leaving for ten minutes to get some valerian root. Nzinga says that she has some questions, but Ms. Bashirah had already left.

Notes from EnderMirr

Mir is back in Minecraft on The Sanctuary, already having dug himself deep into an ancient city and relishing in the music being a "pulse of heavy, haunting chimes". With food in hand and wearing diamond armor, Mir goes through the ancient city despite the noises outside trying to overwhelm him, walking across chasms and holes in almost completely darkness. He then hears a shriek, wondering to himself if the noises are coming from outside or in the game. Not long after, the sounds from outside overwhelm Mir completely and he takes off his headphones to get away from it all.

Chapter 26

Nzinga is surrounded by pillows and kittens, carefully trying to feed them as best she can. Her phone chimes with a text message from Jannah, wanting to talk about something urgent. Nzinga tires to prop up the phone, but the kittens are too much and she drops it on the floor. Just then, Nzinga hears hard running on the steps, and Mir screams for the noise to be turned off as he throws his headphones against the wall. Tinker Bell bolts from the tent and leaves the room.

Chapter 27

Mir dives into the tent, not caring about the food and water having spilt inside it, and screams a few more times to turn off the noise. Nzinga talks to herself, carefully moving the kittens into her room to give Mir some space, and turns on the AC to block out the noise. Carefully setting the kittens down on the floor against a wall, Nzinga sets up the area to box the kittens into and prevent them from escaping, dropping the tiny bottles in the area. Nzinga then bolts back into Mir’s room and tries her best to comfort him, but Mir’s arms swing around violently, knocking Nzinga off her feet and hitting her head on the floor. She then tries to find her phone, but instead finds a blanket, and Mir eventually wraps himself in it just as Ms. Bashirah returns and heads up the stairs.

Chapter 28

Ms. Bashirah asks Nzinga as to why she didn’t call her. Nzinga tries to explain, but she crumples and ends up crying alongside Mir. Ms. Bashirah grips the two in her arms and apologizes for leaving them behind, asking Nzinga if she is okay. When Nzinga mentions that she hit her head, Ms. Bashirah says that she’ll get some aspirin and ice, wanting her to lay down in her room. Nzinga eventually does so, and Ms. Bashirah gives her back her phone that she lost, noticing the screen showed that Jannah attempted to call her a few times. Nzinga then admits then she lost Tinker Bell, but Ms. Bashirah says that she is in her room, deep into the closet, and got her valerian root to calm her nerves. Ms. Bashirah then gives Nzinga two pain pills and a glass of warter, and after feeding the kittens, tells Nzinga that tomorrow would be a good day for her and Mir to head home, adding that she is about to call her parents. Mir quickly objects, but Ms. Bashirah changes the subject to wanting to give Tinker Bell and her kittens away to a foster mom. Nzinga says that she can’t just give them away, but Ms. Bashirah stands her ground, saying that she loves them too much to keep them here with all the noise going on, and adds that she hasn’t kept Nzinga and Mir safe. Nzinga brings up the fact that the block party, the City Council meeting, and Phantasy Philly are all coming up, but Ms. Bashirah hands her a flyer that was posted on the front door of the house, stating that the block party was cancelled because of ongoing construction. Nzinga then asks about the City Council meeting, and Ms. Bashirah says that she’ll go be herself to fight, and that Mir should leave at the very least, not wanting him to deal with the noise. Nzinga thinks about it in silence before Ms. Bashirah says that she’ll go read with Mir, leaving Nzinga to decide whether she wants to leave or not.

Chapter 29

Nzinga contemplates in silence as everything around her falls quiet. Her phone rings, and she notices it’s Jannah attempting to call her again. Upon answering the call, Jannah says coldly that they need to talk, asking her to log into the Honeysuckle Dreams server and call her back. After she hangs up, Jannah runs down to the basement, opens Minecraft, and logs into the server. Jannah is on the server as well, but she turns around and has her avatar’s face up against Nzinga’s. Nzinga’s phone then rings, and she answers it, turning on the speakerphone and placing it on her desk. Jannah’s voice comes out in a growl about not leaving the area alone. Nzinga is in disbelief, and Jannah says that the project is nothing to them, telling her to look at what she did. Nzinga attempts to talk about her discussion with the developer, but Jannah doesn’t say anything back and instead goes into the yellow glass room, complaining about it being loud. Nzinga unmutes the computer to listen to the contraption she made, wondering why she hadn’t thought about it, and Jannah switches off the tracks, admonishing Nzinga being "in another world".

Nzinga attempts to talk about the positives that an apartment complex will bring to Honeysuckle Street, but Jannah says that it’ll be a nightmare for the people that already live here, tearfully saying that they would need to move. Nzinga then attempts to talk about the block parties that would be possible with the new neighbors, and how the developer said that Ms. Bashirah’s house would be updated, but Jannah says that the new neighbors would have a lot of money, that the developers were trying to buy out their homes for cheap so they could sell them at higher prices, and that the developers are going to build a neighborhood they want with the people they want, once again brining up the subject of gentrification. Jannah then says that Honeysuckle Dreams doesn’t seem like the right project for Nzinga to work on, but Nzinga practically begs for her not to go. Jannah then says that she quits, leaves the server, and hangs up on her. Nzinga tries to call back a few times to no avail, so she instead logs out of Honeysuckle Dreams and logs onto The Sanctuary, wanting to find Jannah’s place and destroy it.

Chapter 30

Nzinga spawns in her cave home, quickly puts on an iron helmet and chestplate, and starts heading in the opposite direction of where the pillager outpost is, with her tamed wolves, Mocha and Latte, following her. Nzinga eventually finds a cluster of amethyst and starts heading in that direction, soon finding Jannah’s palace. Nzinga goes to the TNT in her hotbar and places it against a green door. She then goes for the redstone torch before Jannah shows up and attacks her with a sword. Nzinga tries to type in chat, but Jannah is attacking too fast, so she instead calls her and says that she can explains, adding that she wasn’t going to go through with it and that she "lost her head" for a moment. Jannah says that what she was going to do was evil, and Nzinga talks back at Jannah for quitting when she needed her, adding that this was their chance to improve Honeysuckle Street, to make a mark at the convention, and to potentially join the Crafties. Jannah gasps and says that the Crafties are part of a program for kids in Philadelphia, wondering if she wanted to take that opportunity away from someone who lived here, and Nzinga’s voice cracks as she says that she can’t do Phantasy Philly without her. Jannah’s voices softens as she apologizes, but says that she is done as she hangs up.