Truth was, I’d only finished mine last night, and half-chewed was already my look. But truth wasn’t exactly the point of the internet. Still, the post had done its job. I now had 23,132 followers. Awesome. I was finally getting my numbers back up to what they’d been on my old account. And, even more awesome, I’d just got a like and follow from @realdeallogan. He had 125,000 followers and was the closest Alpine Peaks got to a celebrity. Though I would like to see what he looked like with a shirt on for a change, I kept the feedback to myself and followed him back. I wonder how he even knew I existed? I knew about him because he was on a local basketball team with my brother. Oh, and a girl in my class had a poster of him up in her locker, which I had a lot of questions about. Mainly, did he print them himself?

Nick stuck his head into the back of the van.

“You going to help, or are you just going to sit there?”

Nice to see you too, bro.

“Just sit there. Well, here.” I fumbled for a book and held it up. “It’s called an assignment.”

“Oh, right…” He put a finger to his lips. “Because I swear I just saw you posting about your hashtag holiday nails?”

He didn’t even follow me, he just occasionally checked in so he could tease me about it.

I smiled sweetly. “You’re welcome.” If he thought acting like an extra parent was going to stop me, he was wrong. “Don’t forget to like, okay?”

He rolled his eyes, slung a huge Styrofoam reindeer over his shoulder, and walked off. Normally I would laugh at the sight of a six-foot-one guy trying a moody march off as the hooves of a grinning reindeer whacked him in the ribs, but things with my little brother had started to feel weird. Weirder than me sitting in the middle of a herd of fake reindeer. So pretty damn weird. There was something up with him. I knew it. There had been ever since before we left Nashton. We used to be so close, but then he’d started disappearing all the time. And whenever I asked what was up or where he was going, he’d brush me off. Which is why I hadn’t told him about what really went down with my old account, with Clara…not that I’d told anyone. Who did I even have to tell anymore? Plastic Santa?