The Chat Room {On Hold}

No, I'm dead serious, we have fifteen minutes to give birth here

Prologue

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☼  Marla Summers  ☼

Hallelujah. The jail I called school was finally over, and let me tell you, it was about time. All day I had been playing with my fingers and bouncing on the rather uncomfortable cream-colored plastic chairs.  

Do you want to know why I'm so happy?

Wait. Who am I even talking to? Eh, I'll, tell the imaginative audience in my head anyways.

My best curly-haired friend Katrina and I agreed that tonight we would create our own website. It would be a social site where students from Albercrass Prep could talk to people without their true identities being found out. We figured that creating a safe haven for those who are shy and those who put up a facade all day could just be themselves, not having to worry about the bullying that often accompanied interaction between different popularity levels.

Together, Katrina and I had got the entire thing set up and spread word of the new website. It would be up at 7:30 tonight, and if anyone was interested, they would come and visit either Katrina or I for a code to grant them entrance to the site. This way, no creepers or people from other schools could come and crash the chat room. Like I mentioned earlier, we had this all figured out.

Overall, we had already given out codes to three quarters of the school's population. I was thrilled with our success. I knew this was the talk of the school and Kat and I had quite a bit to live up to, but I know we did a good job and whether the students like it or not, I was happy.

"Marla?" My head snaps upward and I grimace slightly at the whiplash. My eyes drift across the classroom until they rest on my teacher, Mr. Tilbury. The rest of the dull room was completely empty, but I could hear the excited laughter and conversing from the agape door.

"Yes, Mr. T?" I reply with a strained smile. I drum my fingers on my thighs lightly. 

"You can go know." He replies, looking baffled and slightly uncertain. 

"Oh. Yeah." I reply as my pupils grow wide from embarassment. I stand up, cringing at the horrifying squeal that the metal legs of the chair make on the chiped and scratched tiles. "Bye!" I say and walk briskly out of the classroom.

Well, that was awkward. It might even beat those awkward moments when you don't know if someone is a boy or a girl. 

Yeah, those moments are awkward. 

My pace quickens and I twist the familiar combonation for my lock. Once I hear the satisfying click, I pull open the dinged-up pale blue locker door and pull my neon green burton backpack out. My chemisty binder slides in with ease, but my textbook? Not so much. 

I puff out my cheeks and blow out the air in frustration, grumbling away to myself. 

"Backpacks these days... I tell you. There just isn't a way on this Earth to have both a sturdy and durrible backpack with asthetic quaities.., Stupid sales people just want the cheap ones gone so that after they get ruined, a new one needs to get purchased."  

I finally manage to jam the textbook in and I do a mini victory dance. I resist the oncoming urge to scream, "take that!" So instead, I say it in my head. 

Did I honestly just tell off my backpack?

In my head? 

I have issues. My mother must have dropped me multple times as a child. 

Slinging it over my shoulder, I push my locker shut and start down the hallway, searching for my blond amiga. Finally I catch sight of her golden locks and a sly grin spreads across my lips. "Kit Kat!" I screech and beam.

"Mar Bar!" She squeals in return. I wiggle my eyebrows and watch the crowd divide so the there was now only empty space between us. Raising my left hand, I stick three fingers up and count down. Once I reach zero, we both take off in an overdramatic slow motion run. At the end, we embrace in a bear hug, squeezing the life out of each other.  

"Are you ready to bring our baby into this world?" Kit Kat says rather loudly, smirking. A burst of laughter escapes my lips moments later as a couple freshmen look at us, confusion written across their faces. I'm assuming they were new to the South Hall if they weren't already used to this.

"Hell yeah! Lets go become mothers!" I shriek in response, hopping about happily. We link arms and skip out of the crowded building without a care in the world. After skipping for a couple minutes, we come to a stop and laugh again. I loved being around Kat because I could be myself. Believe it or not, the first time I met Kat, we were both extremely shy. Katrina and I had been best friends for as long as I could remember, an we had been through thick and thin together. We weren't best friends for nothing.

Once we reach the front steps of my three-story house, I slip my key into the lock, unlocking the door. I run up to my room, Kit Kat on my heels. Finally, we reach my room, we both drop our weighted backpacks by my closet and launch ourselves onto my bed. I pull my sleek MacBook from my nightstand next to me an open it. I enter my password quickly and watch as my wallpaper loads; it was of Katrina and I last year at the end of the year celebration. I smile at the memory and open my browser, typing in the URL to our link. It was 4:00pm right now, so we had three and a half hours to kill.

"Disney movie time?" I ask her, flashing a cheeky smile.

"You know me so well." Kat replies, putting a hand to her forehead dramatically.

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After watching the Lion King, Finding Nemo, and Beauty and the Beast, I glance at the time, realizing that it was 7:15. Oh shit. "Um, Kit Kat, we have fifteen minutes." I say, panic lacing my tone.

"Are you kidding me?" She asks, horror crossing her expression.

"No, I'm dead serious, we have fifteen minutes to give birth here." I say and begin to do a final check on software. The color scheme was good; it consisted of teal, black, and grey, and we had a logo which read, "Albercrass Chat". Original, I know. Each student would create a user name and enter their code, thus enabling secrecy. Kat and I were the only ones capable of figuring out their true identity. Kat skims the rules and nods in approval. It was ready.

Finally, the clock hit 7:30 and Kat and I press submit, creating the chat site. We watched as the number on the side grew significantly, indicating how many people were on line right now, and that was roughly seven hundred and fifty. That was half of our schools population. I turn to Kat, grinning like an idiot. "It's alive!"

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