Up All Night | therealhenrymills
Elsa Johnson sat in her last class of the day, watching out of the corner of one eye as the seconds beat down to the bell. She couldn't look at the clock straight out, as other students might, too afraid that Ms. Tremaine would notice and berate her in front of everybody or, worse yet, be disappointed. Even the thought of that - disappointment - made her stomach tighten into little knots.
When the bell finally rang, Elsa swept her journal into her arms - no backpack, the zipper broke yesterday - and slipped quickly out of the classroom. She jostled into one of the students, one of the many guys in the school she didn't know, although if she thought hard enough about it she could maybe place him in one of her classes. Right now she ignored that in her hurry to get out of the school, but when she got home and had time to think, she'd probably obsess over it.
I should have apologized. I should have noticed him before that happened. He's probably going to hate me. He probably already hates me. I'll do something about it. No, that'll be awkward, I won't do anything. But what if he resents me?
And there it would be, that constant, ceaseless "what if?" that Elsa couldn't beat down no matter how many times it popped up. Best to stop it before it even began and get home before she could screw up again.
"Elsa, honey, you've got to let stuff like that go."
To be honest, Elsa didn't know why she was even talking about anything like that with the girl in front of her. Nancy, one of those business type students in a million extracurricular activities but somehow still on top of everything; Nancy, with her black curly hair and wicked smile; Nancy, who was the closest thing Elsa could call a friend.
They were really just study partners. Elsa was good at math and geometry, and Nancy was good at...well, everything else. But mostly public speaking and gym and people. So, while Elsa helped her with numbers, Nancy helped her with life. Or she tried.
Elsa blushed, running one hand through her blonde hair, snagging it on one of her tiny braids. "I just...don't know how."
Nancy just rolled her eyes and sighed as she packed her stuff up. Then her eyes lit up, like a firefly trying to find its mate. She grinned in a way that Elsa knew, instinctively, to avoid. "You know what you need to try? An online chat room!"
Sure. Let all the anonymous people of the world in on just how screwed up I can be. That's a great idea. But Elsa just nodded. She'd learned not to fight with her friend. "And this would help...?"
"Yeah!" Nancy's grin grew. "You'd be able to see just how much people don't care about the small stuff like that, and it'd give you some much needed interaction with, like, people." She scrawled down a site on a piece of paper, ripped it out of her journal, and passed it to Elsa. "Promise me you'll try it!" When Elsa didn't say anything, she grabbed the girl's gloved hands. "Promise!"
Elsa shrank in on herself. "Yeah, sure, okay." She tore her hands out of Nancy's and tried to smile. "Promise."
Elsa glanced at the blinking icon and frowned. She had to come up with another name for herself? Wasn't the one she had enough?
If she had the courage, she'd pummel Nancy for suggesting this. As it was, she'd probably just beat herself up for listening to her.
Her fingers slowly punched in: Isolde.
Of course, that was already taken, so she added a few numbers to the end until she found a combination that fit. Isolde1865. It worked. Now she just had to enter the boards and.... And what? Try to talk to people? That was how it worked, right?
So, nervous and worried and expecting that she was probably doing this wrong, too, Elsa popped open one of the boards and, before she could stop, forced herself to type one word:
