He followed my Instagram and …

The message pauses and I can see she’s typing.

What? I butt in. You started Instagram and didn’t tell me? I add a shocked emoji.

I sent you a message two days ago!

Hold on. I open the Instagram app and there it is, Lucy’s page. Full of her own, original, delicate, beautiful illustrations of birds and other animals. OMG, awesome.

She sends a smiley face. Finally getting my stuff out there like you told me to. Anyway, he followed me.

I quickly scan Malcolm’s Insta page—it’s filled with geology memes and pics of rocks. Hilarious.

Another beep.

Hey you! It’s Oliver.

I send one last message to Lucy: His Insta rocks! Speak later, Oliver’s messaging. Then I send Oliver a clip of the scenery outside the window, panning to myself and showing off my five layers of clothes, one by one. I’m the abominable snowman!

Oliver replies, Haha. You look adorable. Check this out.

My phone beeps again and I open the clip.

I see Oliver’s dog Tiger running in the park chasing a ball. The camera goes all jiggly. I see grass, Oliver’s hand, and what’s that? Another ball. Someone’s playing fetch and this time it’s …

You’ve taken Bella to the park? I text. OMG!

Oliver and I share an obsession with dogs. And animals in general. I went veggie when I was twelve, but Oliver’s been veg his whole life because his mum raised him and his sister like that. My mum was an animal lover too, not just dogs, and was super supportive, although she didn’t change her diet like me. Oliver still eats free-range eggs and drinks organic milk, and Lucy is crazy for steak and burgers but wants to cut down. It’s all okay. I know everyone is on their own path and everyone has to start somewhere. And I know it’s not easy—I slipped up and ate chicken a few times because I was trying to blend in at my new school and not stand out like a ‘hairy-armpit-veggo’. as Marissa called it.

Animals are actually how Oliver and I first connected, way before I moved from Sydney to West Creek and found him sitting in front of me in Year Ten. We already followed each other on Instagram; his profile is WildRider and mine is VeggieGirl. It was insane that we commented on each other’s posts, shared animal memes and veg tips, and eventually direct messaged without knowing we were in the same town, let alone sitting in the same class. WildRider gave me support and advice after I took Chirp and freaked out. I had no idea he was the same person I was crushing on in real life. When I found out, my brain erupted like a volcano and then melted into lava. We are meant to be.