Switched

Chapter 2- Cindy

Cindy was sitting on her chaise lounge placed beside the window. She was checking her beauty blog in which she posted beauty-related articles and videos every Friday. And today was Friday.

Cindy reread her post, edited some parts, and hit the submit button. The loading sign spun around and around. Cindy tapped her recently painted lilac fingernails against the silver computer until a green checkmark popped up. She smiled and made her way to the homescreen to check how many people were viewing her website right now. 2, 657 were reading her latest post this very second. Next, she checked her subscribers. Yesterday she had 3,892,531 subscribers, and it would be a dream come true to get 4 million.

Nonetheless, Cindy was super happy. Her website was a total phenomenon! She grinned at her amazing luck. But as the subscriber count button popped up, her smile faded. No way... NO WAY!!! YES! 4 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS! AND ONE!

Cindy just sat there gaping until finally, she stood up and let it all out. "AHHHH!!!!!" She jumped onto the bed, hit "On" on her radio placed on her nightstand and danced to What The Hell by Avril Lavigne until she got exhausted. Still, she threw her hands up and screamed again. "YES!!!!!!!!!!!" Seconds later, her worried dad bolted in the room.

"What's going on?" he said in between exhausted gasps of air. "Is there a spider?"

"Dad!" Cindy called, still dancing. "You know only Lindsay would scream that loud if she saw a spider!" Cindy jumped off the bed and threw her arms around her father. "You won't believe it! I got 4 million subscribers! FOUR MILLION!" Her dad grinned.

"That's amazing! My little superstar!" He patted her hair affectionately. Her father grabbed the half-open computer and proudly smiled at the subscriber count. " This is great, honey." Together they read her latest article- a post about necessary hair care life hacks (which on second thought probably wasn't too helpful for her bald father). "Wait 'till your mother hears about this." Usually, any mentions of Cindy's mother made her sad. Her parents had gotten divorced two years ago and it was still hard on everyone. But today was a day to celebrate. And even if her parents couldn't get along with each other, she loved both of them equally.

"I am so happy!" Cindy exclaimed, jumping back onto her bed and messing up her blankets. But she didn't care. All she needed was right at her fingertips: family, friends, and her blog with dedicated followers. So all was right in the world. At least her world. Somewhere inside Cindy, she could hear a distant shout of sadness. It felt.. familiar. Maybe she was just making things up.

"Let's go eat," her father said, snapping Cindy out of her trance.

"Yeah. I'm starving." Her stomach grumbled and she laughed. "So what's for lunch?"

"Well we were gonna eat spaghetti and meatballs, but I think we'll eat your favorite meal in celebration of your followers."

"Sushi!" they said in chorus as her father shut the door and they walked downstairs.