THE GIRL BEHIND THE HANDLE
I wasn’t sure if she would answer. Heck, I wasn’t sure if I should even be knocking. This was already a day where my life had basically turned upside-down. And now I might be making things even crazier.
But slowly, the door opened. I expected to see CyberGirl03 standing there, but instead she was sitting down. Like, in a wheelchair.
“Hi, Boring Bart.”
“Hi, CyberGirl. I got your message.”
But she said it with a sly smile that told me I had been right. I know who you are. And I know what you did tonight. That, however, didn’t explain the mystery of why the best friend I’ve never met was trolling me.
“Do you want to come in for a snack or juice or something?”
“Sure.”
I followed her into the apartment, which was just like ours—only reversed, like a mirror image. Some part of me wondered if the promise of a snack and juice would lead to… blackmail! You know, where she makes me promise to fork over half of the profits of Hecklr in exchange for her silence about me creating it.
But a.) there were no profits, since I always intended the game to be free, and b.) that just didn’t seem like the CyberGirl I knew.
“My mom’s still at work—she won’t be home for another couple of hours,” CyberGirl told me as she rolled to the fridge and opened the door. “Apple? Peach? Sweet tea?”
“Whatever you’re having. Uh, can I ask a possibly stupid question?”
She paused to look up at me. “Depends on how stupid.”
“Hah-hah,” I replied, which may have been the fakest, most nervous laugh ever. “Why don’t you go to Rancho Verdugo? There are ramps and stuff for people with disabilities.” Then, seeing the nervous expression on her face, I quickly added, “See, I warned you it was probably stupid.”
“No,” she said. “Not stupid at all. I ask myself the same thing. And I wish I could. But… let’s put it this way. It’s a miracle I’m even talking to you in person. Normally strangers freak me out. Crowds especially freak me out. So I do school at home. You know, cyberschool? Through my computer?”
“You’re probably comfortable around me because I’m so boring.”
“You’re not boring at all, Boring Bart. You might be the most interesting person I know.”
Were my cheeks red? Possibly. But it was probably the sweet tea, which has been known to increase the flow of blood to the face… okay, I’m totally making that up.
“So why did you send that anonymous message to the game last night?”
CyberGirl grinned. “Ah-hah! Busted! So you do admit it! You’re the secret creator behind Hecklr, aren’t you? You’re the one who sent it to me in the first place. I should have known all along.”
“Maybe…”
Stop it, cheeks! I could feel them getting even redder. Ugh.
“Well, whoever created the game should know something. I didn’t finish the message. It should have read: I know who you are. And I know what you did tonight. And I want to thank you.”
“Thank me? I mean, thank him? For what?”
“Hecklr actually makes me want to go outside, which is something I haven’t wanted to do since, like, fourth grade. So I wanted to thank you for that. Or thank whoever created it.”
“I’ll pass that on,” I said, “if I see whoever created it.”
At this point, if you cracked a raw egg over my cheek, you’d have had a sunny-side up in a matter of seconds.
“My name is Aaliyah, by the way.”
“Um, and I’m Bartholomew.”
“Yeah,” Aaliyah, a.k.a. CyberGirl03, said. “I know. Maybe you can show me a little coding? I’ve always wanted to try.”