Ellie Sandberg would love to reinvent herself. When she earns a spot at an elite boarding school for young inventors, it seems like the perfect opportunity: A summer away from home, away from her overprotective parents, and away from the hopeless cr...
OK, maybe not hate. Hate's a strong word. I can appreciate the fact that this place is aesthetically gorgeous, with massive skylights and soaring high ceilings. There's even a "living wall" over there, covered with ivy and vegetation to make cooped-up students feel like we're still outside.
But whatever fancy architect designed this space clearly did not have students like me in mind—students who prefer study rooms with actual walls, instead of putting us on display behind floor-to-ceiling glass like goldfish in an aquarium.
With a sigh, I slide my laptop to a different section of the study table, and hunker down to conceal my face as much as possible behind the screen.
To be fair, it's not the library stressing me out right now. It's the blank page staring back at me.
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I'm so screwed. I have no ideas that don't make me want to vomit. No partner. No group. No peers who are even willing to accept my app-facilitated attempts at friendship.
I tried. I really did. After that brief lapse into Maddox-induced insanity in the Communication Kiosk, I remembered Reese's other piece of advice. Not just to be careful around certain overly attractive boys... She actually told me something else, way more important.
Get yourself a group. Otherwise you'll drown in the workload.
I'm here at Winthrop to work on a project, not to flirt with Maddox. Remember? So I shut down that InstaQuest Invitation unsent, and came here to the library in search of likely partners. I wore my visor and everything, hoping InstaLove might help.
No such luck. All the other students in here are already holed up in their own glass-walled display chambers, clustered together in groups. No one even looked up when I walked by... so I did what any self-respecting introvert would do: scurried into the nearest empty room and hid behind my laptop.
How do they all have groups formed already? Day two of the program, and somehow I missed the boat. Am I really so utterly and completely devoid of social skills?
Apparently so.
I'm so tired. Tired of feeling like an outcast. Tired of second-guessing every interaction I have with my fellow human beings. I thought things might be easier with InstaLove to grease the wheels. But no. No, I'm still me. Ellie Sandberg. Unaugmented. No app is going to change the reality of who I am... and who I'm not.
Hot tears prick my eyes. I lean forward and bury my face in my hands.
Tap, tap, tap.
Tap, tap, tap.
Someone's knocking on the glass. Probably some other group needs the room. They came to tell me to take a hike. I mean, why would I need a whole room to myself when I'm solo? Group-less... Partner-less... Hopeless.
