Rosaline Beauford sighed contently as she sat down on her bed, satisfied. It was the day after Christmas and her parents had bought her a brand new laptop. Her older brother Winston was rather good with computers, so he set his little sister up nicely. Rosaline was thrilled that she finally got her very own computer. In a way, Rosaline thought, as she stared blankly at Google, it was kind of like freedom.

Although she now had what she had plainly asked for, Rosaline felt like she always did: glum and somber. Her relationship between herself and her parents was anything but spectacular. They always disagreed with one another and could never see eye to eye. And that is why Rosaline always remained to herself. So she sat at her desk for hours on end, drawing people and places, making up captivating tales about them.

All she really wanted was someone to talk to. Someone she could vent to and open up to. Someone new, other than her only one good friend, Kari, who often treated her as an inferior. She wanted someone to talk to who wouldn’t really judge her because she was more quiet than most. Someone somewhat like herself, but not too much.

She stared at the Google page and typed in “online penpals”. The first link was a site called “Globe Buddies”. She clicked it and was brought to their main page with the following statement:

“Tired of the same old people in your city or town? Now you don’t have to deal with them! Create a profile today and chat with millions of people! You can chat in the chat rooms or private message people, if you like their profile. Join today!”

Rosaline clicked on the join now button and entered her e-mail address, name, birthday, her Turbo Instant Messaging screen name, and her location of Burlington, Vermont. After entering all this basic information, she clicked on the button to edit her profile.

The first thing to enter was a photograph. Conveniently enough, she just took some pictures of herself earlier that day. She already had them uploaded and ready to go. Now to decide on which one to put on the site. As she browsed through her pictures, she realized that she didn’t have one photo in which she was smiling. She decided on where she looked thoughtful, and her bluish-green eyes were looking up to the sky.

Now it was time to update her “About Me” section. She tried to make herself sound as friendly as possible and came up with this:

An hour later, no one had yet to speak to her, so she sighed in an annoyed way and decided to click on a profile she had seen earlier in the night. She reread the profile:

Back in her room, she set her laptop down on her desk and dipped a stalk of celery into the creamy goodness. She munched and refreshed the page. She got very excited when she saw that she had a new message. She read:

LLCB56: Whatcha drawing

BellaRosa3: Just practicing.

BellaRosa3: Yeah, I did.

LLCB56: I know. I’m not very good though.

BellaRosa3: Haha, ok.

BellaRosa3: Yeah. The Beatles are amazing. And you just said “eh”. Really stereotypical.

LLCB56: Was that a stab at sarcasm?

LLCB: Sarcasm is good. Good job. Bu I have a feeling you’re not sarcastic often.

BellaRosa3: Why’s that?

BellaRosa3: Right. I’m trying to open up more.

BellaRosa3: Bye. Oh, and Landon?

BellaRosa3: What does your screen name mean?

BellaRosa3: And the 56?

BellaRosa3: Eww.

LLCB56: Yum. Good night. Until tomorrow.

BellaRosa3: Bon soir.

Rosaline read that he had signed off a few seconds later. She signed off as well and closed her laptop. She charged her cell phone in the wall next to her bed. It was only eleven-fifteen. It was early for a night during vacation, but she really had nothing else to do. She considered going back on Globe Buddies, but she chose instead to watch a rerun or two of Full House.

Rosaline fell asleep at one o’clock, on her favorite episode when the Tanner family and company all went to Disney World. She tossed and turned that night, for she kept having dreams of falling and then jerking awake at the precise moment she should have went kaput and splat on the pavement. She detested those kinds of dreams, but then again, who didn’t?

Rosaline awoke the next morning, a Friday, at eleven o’clock. She sauntered out of bed and speedily took a shower, then she dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen. To Rosaline’s great pleasure, her parents had left for work an hour ago. At work was the way she liked her parents best. She hated being nagged at for not cleaning her room or getting a C on a test. As of late, her parents had been arguing often, mostly about money and her mother’s own “personal” freedom. According to Rosaline’s mother, her father basically controls every aspect of her mom’s life, and she was getting sick of it.

She grabbed a banana from the bunch on the granite counter. She peeled it neatly and bit off a chunk and chewed it up. As far as she could remember, since she was seven or eight, her parents always fought about trivial matters which could easily be resolved. Rosaline reflected about the time her mother suggested marriage counseling and her father freaked out, ranting about how he could afford “a pot to piss in”, never mind a man who would just sit there like a “fat piece of lard who’d be staring at my wife’s boobs all session.” When her mother suggested they could get a woman shrink, he just got huffy and continued to read the sports section in the newspaper.

Rosaline heedlessly tossed the banana peel in the green trash barrel and hustled back upstairs into her room. Her room was her haven, her sanctuary, her refuge. Her walls were a lovely sunshine yellow and her hardwood flooring was just the perfect shine. On her walls, various photos she snapped herself hung, along with her unique drawings. Her striped bed covering were soft and warm, perfect for cuddling on those freezing winter nights, curling up with some hot cocoa..

To pass some time, she turned on her laptop. She signed on to TIM and saw that her friend Kari was on, but she had an away message up, telling everyone to “hit up the cell”. Rosaline didn’t want to. Kari was not even a real friend to begin with. Kari wasn’t original whatsoever, and only did what everyone else thought was cool. If people were going hunting for animals up north in below zero conditions, Kari would tag along, hoping to gain a new friend. And Rosaline couldn’t stand that. So what if I’m quiet and mind my own business, Rosaline always told herself, at least I don’t do what everyone else is doing.

Rosaline was kind of hoping Landon would be online, but true to his word, it appeared that he really did have stuff to do. She signed off and clicked on “the Sims 2”. She chose to pass time by playing a completely different lifestyle.

She was always the outgoing, romantic type in the game, always going on dates and partying, which she knew would never happen in real life. It’s not that she didn’t want to do these things, but because her parents, namely her father, wouldn’t allow it. She’d never been on a date before and never had a boyfriend. She rarely went to parties, and if she did, she felt awkward and discluded from everyone.

At around one o’clock, Rosaline quit playing the Sims and decided to make lunch for herself. Winston, her twenty-one year old brother, had just moved out yesterday, so she didn’t have to wake him up like she usually did to see if he wanted some food. She prepared herself a sub with ham, provolone cheese, salami, mayo and lettuce. She cracked open a can of Coke and began to munch her sub, with salt and vinegar chips on the side. She devoured every last bite.

She was startled when she felt the vibration of her phone against her leg. She looked at the caller ID and saw an unknown number on it. She picked it up wearily after washing down the last bit of sub with the frosty Coke.

“Hello?” she spoke into the receiver.

“It’s me,” a male’s voice said in a mellow and calming voice. It sounded comforting.

“Landon?” she asked, unsurely.

“Yep,” Landon said in a chipper way.

“Just finished taking down the Christmas tree.”

“It was sad. Poor tree was all brown and dying. Kind of wilted.”

“You have a fake tree,” Landon said, sounding dazed. “That is so…tragic.”

“We had a real one once,” she admitted. “I was ten years old. It made too much of a mess, according to my dad. He was pretty uptight about the pine needles.”

Rosaline heard Landon laugh merrily on the other line, and she couldn’t help but laugh along too. His laugh seemed to be contagious.

“Wow,” he said, still chuckling. “Uptight about pine needles. Not cool.”

“Such as?”

“Just a bunch of stuff. It’s not really important.”

“Thanks, but maybe I can vent later?”

“Okay.”

“So…I basically hate my mother…she is…well, pretty messed up.”

“How so?” Rosaline questioned, eager to hear what he had to say.

“Rough,” Rosaline said, for she didn’t know what else to say. It was kind of odd to have a nearly total stranger to just out and tell her about his personal life.

“I know, so she can be very violent when she’s drunk. I’ve had stuff thrown at me before, because I was being unruly, according to her. And if she’s sober, she’s a total bitch because all she wants to do is get drunk.”

“Yeah…tell me about it,” Landon said, sighing. He was quiet for a straight minute, then continued. “I told her Christmas day that I was dropping out of high school, and we had a pretty bad fight. Then yesterday, she acted like nothing ever happened. I wanted to shake her.”

“Wow, and I though my parents were messed up,” Rosaline muttered more to herself than to him, but he gave a short chuckle. “You’re dropping out?”

“Yeah…” Landon said distantly. “It’s just not for me really. But please, don’t judge me on that.”

“Oh, I’m not,” Rosaline asserted. “Trust me, I don’t like school either. I just go. And I do fairly well. But if I didn’t have to go, I wouldn’t. Plus, my parents would kill me if I told them I was dropping out.”

“Yeah, well, I chanced it,” Landon said. “And my mom hasn’t killed me yet, so yeah. I’m hoping she doesn’t come down into my room and murder me when I’m sleeping.”

“That would be a crappy way to die,” Rosaline said rationally.

“Seriously,” Landon said, cackling lightly. “I wanna go out with a bang, you know? Maybe saving someone from fatality or something.”

“Oh, so you want to die in a brave way?”

“Yes. That would be preferable.”

“Certainly. Proceed.”