She looked to her side. Her dad was no longer there. That was a first. With his absence she felt the pressure lessen. Normally, she’d be tapping furiously at the keyboard right to the end of her time allowance. She looked back at the screen and found herself wondering. If her popularity was so badly on the slide, then why were so many people trying to be her friend? Nearly every day there was a new Friend Request. She didn’t get to see who it was from before it was deleted.

She wondered if there was a way to retrieve deleted Friend Requests. She minimized her ongoing conversations and changed the display on Chris’s laptop from mobile to desktop, then went back into Messenger and hit Settings. There was nothing about Friend Requests, but there was an option entitled Message Requests. Interesting. She clicked on it. Instantly a stream of messages came up. She looked at the name and drew a blank. Kelsey? Then it dawned on her. That phone call she’d taken on her father’s phone from the guy who worked for him. His niece was named Kelsey.

She opened the message stream. Coincidentally, Kelsey had been sending messages since they’d left Detroit. Because they weren’t friends, they’d gone into this hard-to-find folder.

“All good, Abby?” said Chris suddenly.

“Yeah,” said Abby, without taking her eyes off the screen.

Suddenly Chris was by her. “You’re just messaging people you know, right?” he said.

“Yes, Chris.” She said it in her long-suffering tone. It was a lie but only a white one. She kind of knew Kelsey. And Kelsey was probably having as rough a time as Abby; being the new girl wasn’t fun. And, although she didn’t like to admit it to herself, Abby had already had the idea that if she helped Kelsey out, then maybe Kelsey would fight in Abby’s corner.

She opened the first message.

“hi abby kelsey here my uncle said 2 look u up b4 I went 2 mcdade. I keep sending friend requests but u don’t answer?”

Abby skimmed through more messages. She had a growing anxiety that she’d missed the boat.

“hi again probably ill give up soon. guessing u probably don’t wanna b friends. I was just scared cuz im gonna b in a new place + it’s pretty scary if u don’t know anyone”

Abby felt a response was imperative if she was to salvage this opportunity to gain an ally. She glanced around. Her father was still nowhere to be seen and Chris was crashing pots together in the kitchen. She typed fast.

“hiiii kelsey sorree but didnt get ur requests. sending u request now then we can message like normal r u at mcdade now how is it?”

She hit Send Friend Request and then sat back with a little sigh of relief. She watched the screen.