Design of dusk

Unfortunate

I closely listened to the sound of a nearby kookaburra chirping its way through the morning which made me feel peaceful and serene. I live in a house surrounded by trees in an urban outback in the central of Australia, it had been a peaceful morning when I heard a high-pitched sound that vanished just as fast as I looked at my computer. a private message had popped up on my computer screen; at which time, I then leaped into the air ready to go read it. Due to my schedule, I was isolated and that made me very lonely so I was excited to see who the message was from. It was someone unknown that had a username of coolgirl101, and it read as follows:

"You need to get a grip! Grow the hell up and learn to have some self-respect and dignity!"

Where did that come from? I thought. I don't even know who this person is. And I knew that fully knowing that I had school work that I had to catch up on, which I was dreading. Why would I bother? I don't even want to go back to School to face my classmates? It would be humiliating!

Well, I guess that I should introduce myself.... Hello, I'm Ava and, I am 15 and the one thing that I love doing is gaming, which is mostly online. I spend a lot of time behind a computer screen and, this has been my lifestyle for quite a while but, since I have started attending High School I have avoided going back to School and this is due to my classmates bullying me; they tell me that I'm a computer nerd and, it is terrifying! You would think that I would look like a stereotypical Computer Nerd but that's not quite the way it is. I have long ginger hair, quite pale skin and piercing green eyes. I like to think that I have some dress sense but, that may not be the case since I hardly leave the house.

Not knowing where to start. I sat and stared at the screen with tears in my eyes and I thought of the message as it replayed in my head.

"I will not tell anyone what is happening," I whispered to myself I feel so stuck, I will try to talk to this person I decided. Maybe there is something else going on in their lives? I took a deep breath in and started to type a reply, my heartbeat quickened and my body tensed hoping that this would smooth over easily.

Look I know there may be some tension between us but I don't know what I have done wrong... I would really like to sort this out and maybe we can even be friends.

But I waited and waited for a reply but nothing until I saw another notification pop up but, it was not as I had expected. I had gotten sent a friend request from someone named onyx... I had never met anyone with that named before so I decided to check it out. Along with the friend request in the messenger that is attached to the request that says

"Hey, so I saw the post that you got from Coolgirl101... are you okay? I accepted the requested and entered my reply into the text box.

"Well tbh It's quite upsetting and I'm really unsure as to what to do in his situation. so I'm just going to stay in my room and hope that is all disappears".

"Well you can't isolate yourself forever that's not a healthy coping strategy, I have an idea and was wondering if you were willing to work with me so we can get you back on track with your life. So I'm asking you to trust me. Btw I am using a different name you would probably know me as Fifteencanine5. But you only know me as a gamer... Maybe we can get to know each other better... in the real world".

I start receiving a video call from Onyx, so I quickly answered and we started talking, the first thing I noticed was the way she looked, she had used dark makeup but white-silver hair, she wore a black choker and had a mixed eye colour of green and blue; she was the same age as me and she told me that she lives near me in an opposite town about an hour away. While we continued to talk we noticed that we were quite similar so we got on well and from then on, I knew we would be good friends but we still needed to sort out the cyberbullying that I was trying to cope with.

The conversation started to go quietly as we start running out of things to talk about so, we said goodbye and straight after the phone call, Onyx text me saying that maybe if I went to school and ignored coolgirl101 and changed my routine then things might just work out. I took in one last deep breath and concluded that there wasn't much else to do. I logged off the computer and stared at myself in the black reflection at what I had become, and from that day on I learned that the secret to life is to find the right balance in everything I do.