"Did you actually get to talk to her?" she asked me excitedly.

"Yep," I answered with a grin that made fixing my lipgloss in the tiny mirror in my locker next to impossible.

"Well? This is driving me crazy! She only talks to a few people each week. You're like the only person I know of in the entire school who has actually talked to her and she's supposed to be from here. She has to go to this school, we're the only high school in the entire county. Unless..."

I looked at Haylea with a frown and asked the question she obviously left off there for me to ask, "What? Unless what?"

"Unless," she smiled slyly, "Unless you think she could be a middle schooler."

Psh. Shyah, right.

"Psh. Shyah, right. C'mon, Haylea, you've been in that chatroom as much as I have --"

"More."

"I know, right? You know that's no middle schooler. She's so..." I grasped in the dark for the right word.

"Wise?"

"She says she's fifteen. Wise doesn't cut it. Insightful. Yeah, that's the right word. She's so insightful that it's downright amazing. I mean, she reads in that chatroom all week as people present their problems, and then chooses like, what, two or three people every weekend to talk to in her private chatroom? And everyone she talks to has been energized, and inspired and..."

There was a laugh from a few locker-doors down the hall, and I glared over at the freak boy pushing his much-taped glasses up his nose again. What the hell? Where does someone like him, someone like THAT piece of rejected social refuse get off laughing at me?

"Is there something you have to add to the conversation, Bags?"

"Hm? Oh, no, Lucretia. You seem like you're enjoying yourself and I don't want to ruin that." And he said it without so much as a hint of irony. He was deadpan serious.

Of course, that meant I HAD to take the bait, even though I knew it was both a trap and folly.

I sighed mightily, a sigh for the heroine of an epic tale, and asked, "Okay then, schmot guy... ruin it... HOW, exactly pray tell?"

He shook his head and said, "You've been my best friend since before kindergarten, Cree, I don't want you to think I'm making fun of you. But I've seen what this chick writes about in her 'sermons' in that room -- yes, I gave in and checked it out -- and she's not that special. You make it sound like you're joining a new religion."

I just kind of stared at him for a minute. Then the bell rang and he just turned and smiled as he waved with his customary, "See ya at lunch!"

Argh. Boys can be so frustrating! Why the hell was my best friend one of them?!? Okay, a bit of background here... Yes, he's my best friend and yes, he's social refuse... I'm not exactly popular myself -- today's jump in interest due to actually being one of those chosen to talk to Hypatia not withstanding -- but liked enough that associating with Bags (Wilson Kenton Bagston) didn't make people hate me by association. Most didn't really hate him so much as he just wasn't someone anyone tried to include. He was kind of invisible. Well, except to me.

"I don't know why you even bother to talk to that guy," was Haylea's mumbled comfort a moment later.

"Because, Haylea, like he said, we've been best friends since we were kids. You don't just abandon friends."

"Are you kidding, Cree? Where do you think you are? This is high school for crying out loud!" she grinned so I would know she was at least partly kidding.

"C'mon, class... at least I like Drama."

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