The Sister Of Popular

Chapter Fifteen

As soon as I entered school, my feet dragged me towards the ICT suite. I couldn't stop myself - even if I had been on it about an hour ago, I wanted to check again. I wanted to read more blog posts. I wanted to see my comments. I wanted to chat to Mikayla. I wanted to update my blog. I just wanted to surf How To Get A Life, and that's where I was almost all day, all night. Every break-time and before school, I was on a computer. This had been going on for days, weeks, I didn't know. It was a place where I could get away from all the drama, a place where I could be alone without all the teasing and ignoring. How To Get A Life was like my home now. People liked me. People understood me. It was anywhere but reality. That's where I wanted to be. I didn't belong anywhere else anymore.

I logged on quickly. There were no new depressing blog posts except this one by someone called DisneyisLife, which was something written in completely illegible chat-speak. I didn't have the time for people like that.

I checked the chat bar. Nobody was online, but then again, I didn't really expect people to be online at half past seven in the morning.

With nothing else to do, I went to my profile page and started playing around with my description. I changed the font again and again. I edited my 'likes' section a little. I updated my status to the lyric of a song I liked. I changed the background base colour...turquoise, dark purple, dark blue, light blue, sky blue, azure, lilac...

"LEXI! There you are!"

I didn't have to turn around to know who it was. "Thomas, how did you-"

"Why haven't you been in my form-room to greet me?" Thomas asked, slightly sadly. "You haven't been there for two weeks and four days - I was getting worried! You're my best friend, you know, so I've spent every morning looking for you. Why are you here?" I could almost feel him leaning over my head to look at the website I was on.

I quickly closed my window, forgetting to save my changes.

He couldn't know about How To Get A Life.

He just couldn't. How To Get A Life was private. It was my place. I didn't want to know what would happen if Thomas found out. Even if I trusted him, it would have a way of getting around, and the last thing I wanted was the Populars seeing it. My thoughts were only open to strangers who wouldn't judge me, because they understood. Thomas wouldn't understand. However smart he was, he was too naïve to read my blog and appreciate why I liked to spend my life sitting at my laptop talking to strangers and talking to myself. This was a secret, and it was going to stay a secret.

"What was that, Lexi?" Thomas' face spoke curiousity.

"Um...nothing." I tried not to look him in the eye. "Homework."

"Oh. But why were you in this ICT suite? It's the one that is furthest away from your form-room!"

To avoid you. "The rest were...full."

"No they weren't, they're as empty as this one. There's only about two people in all the other ones!"

"I guess on the first day I came here and got used to this place," I lied, thinking on the spot.

"We don't even have ICT lessons in here! We have it in ICT suite 2 - that's practically next to the Year Ten form-rooms!" Thomas argued, folding his arms in confusion. I was pretty sure that he had figured out I was lying, so I attempted to change the subject.

I screamed very unconvincingly, pretending to "fall off my chair". I hadn't really fallen off a chair in the last few days, so I didn't really know if it looked realistic or not. As soon as I felt my butt hit the ground, I regretted choosing this as a distraction. It probably looked more stupid than any other option I could have thought of in the next few seconds. But it seemed to pass for Thomas, as he quickly scurried over to help me up.