Living near Madison, Wisconsin there was always so much to do and so many people to interact with. As I grew up friends came and went and when they left it was all for the same reason. I would invite people over to my house after being friends for around a year to hang out somewhere that wasn’t school or in the city. My family lives right outside of the city and when people saw my house they didn’t want to be friends with me anymore. The only thing important in the society I live in is money. I have to take a bus 40 minutes to private school every day in the city because I go for free on an academic scholarship. Because of my scholarship, I get my uniform, lunch, textbooks, and anything else I need to thrive in school for free and will forever be grateful. But sometimes I wished I stayed at my school because of our social standings. In my world, you and your family are classified as Jokers, Kings, or Aces. And when friends would walk into my house and realize my family was a bunch of Jokers they would turn around and run. Jokers are classified as the lowest-income families and don’t have much, they would not be able to afford to live in the city. Kings are considered middle class and are pretty middle of the line. People accept being friends with kings and wouldn’t separate their friendships because of their status. But the most important status I dream of being one day is the Aces. Aces are top tier and in simple terms just rich. All the kids I go to school with are Aces and get everything they dream of from the new Zphone to the new pair of Ekin high-top sneakers. Aces are set for life and can do anything they want. Everyone wants to be friends with an Ace. 

Walking my daily 15-minute walk from school to the bus station today was going as it normally would until I noticed people running to the communal news TVs in the windows. The TVs were being swarmed so something important had to have happened but as a Joker it probably didn’t affect me so I kept walking. Then the announcement alarm went off telling everyone to turn on the news or find a communal tv. On the screen, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Ace Stevenson, the richest man in the world who lives right here in Madison, has been put in jail. I’ve only seen Ace once and it was when he came into my dad’s hoagie shop, ZeZe, while working outside the city and I dreamed of living a life like his. Until now as he got in a car accident under the influence and he has been sentenced to death but has one last message for the city. “Hi everyone, I am sorry for what I have done but it is my time to go. This being said I would like to leave my money to one of the smartest and clever people in town. Are you wondering who it is? I’m not sure either. It’s up to you to find out. I’ve hidden three separate keys throughout the city of Madison and when you find each one there will be a message leading you to the next. When you find all three keys you will inherit my wealth and be able to call yourself the superior Ace. You will be competing for your first clue on this mini Zpad everyone can find in their mailboxes at home. The race is on, Good Luck!”. I stumbled in disbelief. My chance to become an Ace. To fit in at school, to have a phone, to let my family live in the city. I sprinted to the bus stop patiently waiting so I could get my mini Zpad from the mailbox and start this competition.

I’ve never run from the small corner bus station to my box home only a few blocks away in excitement to open the Zpad. I was always told I was smart and had the best grades in my school but none of it mattered to me until this moment. Suddenly all the compliments my teachers and principals served me about my intelligence made me feel confident going into this competition. I grabbed my tablet and opened it up to my very first mini-game which was unscrambling book titles and their authors. The burst of excitement I felt reading this was like no other as books were not important in Madison, Wisconsin unless you were me. I loved books and have since I was a little girl. I have probably read every single book in the public library and at school because as a Joker it was my escape instead of watching tv or spending time on a phone. This mini-game I completed in 5 minutes and was then notified I was the first to finish and it sent me to my first location which was the MPL also known as the Madison Public Library. I received the first key with the gold number 1 engraved and locked it into my Zpad to find my screen light up bright green with confirmation I have found the first key. “That was so easy and I only have two left, I'll be done in no time,” I thought but boy how I was wrong.

The race to be the first to find the keys were on and no one was letting up. Finding each key I had people pushing and bothering me for help on the mini-game as my name was the first on the town scoreboard. I had Aces trying to bribe me and Kings offering to help my family all throughout school but I knew I was on the path to the gold. Zpads were turned off on Mondays to give people a break and a chance to get back to reality but three weeks passed by and no one could figure out the next clue. The clue that came across all 5 Zpad members who finished the book mini-game thousands of citizens were still struggling with was “My life has moved so fast I only wish I could move backwards to liaj”. With no Zpads or technology available during this competition, no one was able to look up what “liaj” was. Was it a person? A place? No one knew and everyone was eager to find out. I spent every living second of every day replaying the clue in my head trying to figure it out until it clicked. “Moving backwards to liaj”, “backwards” “liaj” Liaj spelled backwards is Jail where everything ended for him. It was such an easy clue we were all thinking about way too much. Needless to say, I kept this clue to myself and ran as quickly, but secretly as I could to the Jail where everything ended for Ace. There was a guard that handed me my bronze key with the 2 engraved and as I plugged it into my Zpad early on Tuesday morning I saw the bright green confirmation pop up confirming I found my second key and was shocked I only had one more to go. But then I realized how difficult it was to find the second key compared to the first and was not ready for what the third one had in store for me. 

As you are only able to find one key a day I got ready for my next clue to open 24 hours after I went to the jail for key number 2. At this point, there were only 3 other people who had found key number 2 and were waiting just a couple of minutes longer than me to get the last clue. In the final moments before the clue opened I wondered to myself what if the clue is impossible? What if someone else finds it first? What would life finally be like as an ace? I was anxious in the moments waiting for my last clue wondering how difficult it would be. My Zpad finally turns on and my clue flashes across my screen in bright blue letters that said “For my in town citizens, this one is going to be your hardest, but the best hoagie I’ve had in the state was from an outside of town shop spelled with four letters starting with the last in the alphabet”. My heart was running a thousand miles an hour as I screamed out in excitement the answer “ZEZE” as I felt in my soul he was truly talking about my dad’s shop. I threw my Zpad in my backpack and ran as fast as I could to my dad’s shop with dreams of what I could do as an ace rushing through my brain. I finally reached the purple doors of the shop my dad owned and there was a man I have never seen before waiting inside with a box in his hands. I walked through the doors and reached out for the box and it opened with one final silver key with a big 3 engraved on the side. I took it in my hands and slid it into the slot on my Zpad meant for it and watched my screen light up for the final time in bright green. This was it. I won. I was now officially the most superior and amazing Ace in town and everyone knew as my name appears large on the leaderboard. But this was when I wondered what I would do first.

I always dreamed of living in the city to live closer to school and helping my parents pay the bills but that was obvious. What was I going to do with all this extra money that I didn’t necessarily need but it was obvious others did. After winning I went right home and sat down to realize without being a Joker and not having all the privileged things an Ace had I would have never won the competition. I would have never known so much about books or simply known where my dad’s shop was as if I was an Ace. Did being a Joker make me the best person I could be? The answer is yes because just a silly title based on how much money you have should not identify your true value. I proved to everyone my value when I was a Joker was what made me an Ace. I decided to not only help my family but many others with the money I won and removed the titles. No more Ace, King, or Joker from now on everyone will just be known as Suits. Because a title you do not get to choose should not choose what other people think of you as and from now on Madison, Wisconsin runs on different values so no little girl has to worry about being treated differently as a Joker again.