Offline

Chapter 1

        Being a new freshman at Dean Wess High School sucked. I guess being a "new kid" always sucked but this was just worst. I could have been starting school with my old friend group, Mikey, Bevie, Carly, and Jack but instead, my mom had to mess up, again and make us move. Now I have a mother who is addicted to alcohol, no friends, and a new school. Fun. 

"Amber, if you don't get downstairs in 2 minutes, you can kiss your ride goodbye!" Mom yelled with a hardened tone. I ran down the stairs screaming, not paying attention to the handsome man standing at the door. We locked eyes and I just stood there like a fool. "So..are you going to introduce yourself honey?" mom said while grinning. "um yeah..hi I'm Amber. And you ar-" "Alex. Alex Jones. Nice to meet you, Amber." I was frozen, who was this man and why is he here? In my house? My mother looked at me and laughed. "He's your ride, your uber? You know the people that drive you places and you pay them after." I still could not process anything. I just nodded and walked off with Alex to the car, and he did his job, drove me to school. 

We arrived at Dean Wess in 10 minutes, with no traffic, it kinda felt like he was driving really fast.  This wasn't at all like back home, no kids were running around, no dogs playing outside, and no tractors blocking the road. I hate it here, and I want to leave. But I had school and I would be yelled at if I said anything to my mom about it. 

I got out of the car and walked up to the doors where kids were filing in and pushing each other. First-period Alejabra, Mr. Andrews Class, room 231. Obviously, me being myself, I wasn't watching where I was walking, and I ran into a girl. She wore a bright pink shirt and jeans that looked like they belonged to a homeless man. She smiled and looked at me in a cocked-eyed way, then she laughed. "Hey! You might want to watch where your walking girlie," she said. "Right, sorry I'm Amber. I'm new here.." She looked me up and down and turned back to her locker. I just stood there like a creepy stalker, but then she turned back around. "Here, this is my Offline username. Add me, also I'm Erica." I was confused. What's an "Offline" account? I wondered all day what was it? Did everyone have it? Was this normal? When I finished school, I walked home and spent the day in my room, researching the app.