TheRealCinderella: You wouldn’t believe what happened in school today.

Baller929: What? Can’t have been crazier than what happened at mine today.

TheRealCinderella: I’m pretty sure mine is a little bit crazier than your story.

Baller 929: Willing to bet on that? Okay, tell me what happened.

TheRealCinderella: So we had a fire drill.

Baller929: Really?

TheRealCinderella: That’s not the crazy part. Just wait. LOL. So we’re outside in the freezing cold. I forgot to grab my jacket, and it’s about 20 degrees outside. The teachers are waiting to get word on their walkie-talkies that it’s okay to get back inside, that everyone got out okay, whatever. When all of a sudden we hear someone on the walkie-talkie, and it’s not the assistant principal. It’s the counselor. Well, she’s not like most other counselors I guess you could say.

Baller 929: Why?

TheRealCinderella: Well, it turns out that it wasn’t a drill after all. There was an actual fire. In the boys’ bathroom near the counselor’s office.

TheRealCinderella: Two freshman started a fire on a dare or something. The counselor saw the smoke coming from the boys’ bathroom. She pulled the fire alarm and then ran in there. There was a trash can on fire, and when one of the boys saw her, he panicked. Somehow he knocked over the trash can and CAUGHT ON FIRE trying to run away. His leg or something. Keep in mind he’s running.

Baller929: What….

TheRealCinderella: You’ll never guess what happened next.

Baller929: Ms. Moreau had to tackle him to the ground and drag him to the nearest toilet?

I did a double-take.

Hey, how did he know that?

I blinked several times.

TheRealCinderella: I never told you our counselor’s name…

Baller929: I know.

Baller929: That’s the counselor’s name at Westwood High School…where I go to school.

What?

Baller929 went to Westwood High School?

My phone fell from my hands. This was impossible.

I mean, what were the odds that out of tens of thousands of random kids from all over the state on that student forum, Baller929 went to my same school?

What if he was in one of my classes?

This whole time, he could have been just a few feet away, and we never knew it.

I sat down at my desk, ignoring the constant buzzes coming from my phone.

No, this couldn’t be true. There was a mistake. It was a joke. He had to be joking. Maybe the story of the fire incident in the bathroom with Ms. Moreau had made the evening news. That had to be it.

Baller929 couldn’t be someone at my school. He couldn’t.

I knew what the basketball players at my school were like. Just like the rest of the jocks, they were comfortable in their own world. Looked down on everyone who wasn’t on their level.

I thought Baller929 was different.

But maybe he was just like every other jock in my classes.

It took a good fifteen minutes of freaking out under my pillow before I mustered up the courage to look at the messages on my phone.

To accept the fact that Baller929 wasn’t someone texting from their phone dozens, maybe hundreds, of miles away.

No, he spent every weekday at the same school I did. Had the same teachers and classes as I did.

Walked past me in the hallways. Which one was he?

Was he one of the people who laughed when I dropped all of my books in the hallway on the first day of school? Did he hang out with Lindsay and Courtney after school? They were, after all, two of the most popular girls at Westwood.

All of a sudden, I wanted to ask him all of this and more.

But first, I read what he’d said.

Baller929: I can’t believe it…this whole time.

Baller929: Maybe we know each other.

I shook my head. I seriously doubted that. I didn’t talk to many people at school, and none of the varsity basketball players was on my friends list.

Baller929: We have to be in some of the same classes…this is crazy. This whole time I’ve been dying to meet you, and you’ve been so close all along.

Oh god.

Baller929: Now we have to meet. I have to meet the girl that saved my butt in math last year, that’s saving it this year :) You’re my closest friend. If we walk down the same hallways, why can’t it be together?

My heart missed a beat. Or two.

I took a couple of deep breaths and kept reading.

Baller929: Say something! Please?

This was one of his last messages, sent about five minutes ago while I was still freaking out.

Then one last one after that.

Baller929: Anything. Tell me what’s wrong…

TheRealCinderella: I’m not sure this is a good idea. I’m not who you think I am…

Baller929: What does that even mean?? All I know is this, and it’s the most important thing to know about anyone. You’re not like everyone else at school. You’re different but good different.

Baller929: You’re my best friend. I don’t care what you look like, what you wear. Can’t we be friends in real life? So what if we hang out with different people? Don’t you trust me?

I thought about that.

Did I? Did I trust what he said about not caring what I looked like?

What guy our age truly believed that?

Not any guy I had met.

No, this wouldn’t be a good idea.

This, chatting over text messages. This was safe. I was safe here in front of my phone where I wasn’t being judged for being at the bottom of the totem pole. For being that weird girl with glasses whose parents had died.

I was just me. Anonymous. And I liked that.

I wasn’t about to give it up. Not even for Baller929.

Especially not for him.

He was the one true friend I had, and if we ruined that by meeting in person, our friendship would be over.

As soon as he saw me, he’d know I was nothing special. He’d go back to the Toris, Lindsays, and Courtneys of our school. The girls who were pretty, well-dressed, and knew exactly what to say to get a guy’s attention.

That wasn’t me.

I texted Baller929 back one last time.

TheRealCinderella: I just can’t so please don’t ask me to. You’re my best friend too, and of course, I trust you. It’s not that. Talking like this, it has to be enough. I hope you understand, but if you choose to walk away, then I’ll understand. Bye.

Then I turned my phone off and crawled under the covers.