Happy birthday Josie, LittleMissMissfit. This story's for you~

Chapter 1

Summer hated mornings, especially in the season named after her. Ironic, but true. She couldn't stand it when dust was visible, twirling and twisting in the stream of sunlight. Warmth was not a feeling she often felt, so suddenly feeling it Her long, perfectly straight black hair mocked her name and her blue eyes caused her a lot of interest in public. They weren't like a normal blue, they were like a stunning royal blue that caused people to stare after her – sometimes with jealousy, sometimes with cruel pointy thoughts.

Summer wasn't like everyone else. Yes, original. A girl who doesn't fit in, secretly beautiful, the usual. Not exactly. Summer seemed like a funny, popular girl from first glance but if you got to know her she was just a loner who confided in the internet. She looked very gothic and dark, but really, she just loved a bit of YouTube.

Who, on YouTube, you may be asking? Well, an awful lot of people. She was subscribed to her friend Imogen, who did covers of songs and spoke about really random things that usually made no sense. She was subscribed to vSauce, the best ever science channel in the history of random science questions. She was subscribed to Zoella, even though she wasn't a makeup kind of girl, Marcus Butler, Caspar Lee, Joe Sugg (who she thought was really hot) and Alfie, who she shipped with Zoe. British YouTubers aside, she loved Good Mythical Morning and always laughed along with Rhett and Link, and Game Theory, even though she never actually played any of the Game Boy style games they asked crazy questions on. She couldn't stand Shane Dawson, probably because he was so rude and obnoxious and he brought up the fact that he was a fat teenager every two minutes, but she didn't mention it to anyone because she was scared that people would hate her more than they already did.

But most of all, she loved Phil. AmazingPhil. She liked his friend, Dan, but Phil, wow. She loved how original he was, how many tags he had created and yet got no credit for, how adorably awkward he was, and just him in general. She didn't realise how cute a 27-year-old man could be. Yes, that sounds creepy, but her heart just melted like a stick of butter every time she saw him. She grew up in Lancashire, where he grew up too, and she aspired to be a vlogger just like him.

That's why when she turned 17 she had already left school, which was a huge weight off her shoulders. She got decent grades, mostly As, one or two A*s, and a B which she was very upset with, but she managed to shrug it off pretty quickly. With some celebratory money that her parents gave her she bought a purple video camera which she cherished but she was too shy to actually film anything. After a lot of awkward recordings with minimal editing she decided to just not show her face at all, like Cryaotic. She spoke, and showed her hands when she did piano covers, but that's about it. She was so unpopular that for days she got no views, so she kept clicking the refresh button over and over to see if Imogen had watched it. She never did. Sometimes they got a view, maybe off her parents, maybe off Imogen, if she could be bothered. Honestly, sometimes Summer thought she was so self-centred that she wouldn't care if all her friends and family died on she spot. They never really spoke outside school, and any messages usually ended up like this:

SummerShine29: Hey x

ImmyWimsy384: (2 hours later) Heyyy

SummerShine29: (1 minute later) So, wuut?

ImmyWimsy384: (7 hours later) nm jc, u?

SummerShine29: (2 minutes later) Sleeping -_-

ImmyWimsy384: (34 minutes later) ur such a downer, tbh... u need to get off the internet and stop using this face -_-

SummerShine29: Sorryyy! Plz can I just get some sleep, it's almost midnight...

ImmyWimsy384: Okay, fine. Ik ur gonna be on the internet until 4 am tho :/

SummerShine29: *SummerShine29 has gone offline*

Summer had no idea why Imogen acted like that; she was such a role model when they were children. But somehow they just drifted apart, so the more Imogen told her to get off the internet, the more she'd stay on, not just to be rebellious, but to show her that she didn't do exactly as she'd say anymore, like the big bully she used to be. She could do as she wanted and her opinion was invalid. However, although her internet was her haven, her videos always depressed her, as she rarely got into double digits. The more she edited she more views she'd get, so she downloaded a cheap video editor and worked away on her crappy videos. Hopefully, she thought, I'll get somewhere. Maybe I'll get a subscriber.

Summer said to her mum once, 'If the internet was a person, it'd be funny, smart, yet wrong some of the time, cool, awkward, yet very creepy, dirty minded, social, but it'd be my bestest ever friend.' and then she added, 'Okay, scrap "bestest ever friend." I sound like a six-year-old.' Her mum laughed at the time, but was worried about her daughter and her beloved internet. She warned her about horror stories on the world wide web from a young age but she never really acted on it until it was too late and her precious little girl was addicted. She wasn't so sure about her being on YouTube, where anybody could 'google' her name and for her to be seen everywhere. She dreaded the idea of having friends and followers galore and interacting with people you've said two words to. The idea of chat sites like Omegle terrified her just picturing her daughter broadcasting her face to millions of people worldwide. Who's to say that they take a screenshot of her and show it to all their friends, and they make it go viral? It's very unlikely, but it always seems likely in a mother's mind. In their large-ish house in the village they lived with their father, and two Labradors called Suki and Peppi, Suki being golden, Peppi being chocolate.

Summer crawled out of bed, thrusting the curtains shut in the blink of an eye. She growled and slumped on the end of her uncomfortable 'bed', which was more like a cave of pillows and duvets than a well-made bed. She snatched her phone from her bedside table and tapped on a button that made the screen flash. She slid her thumb across the screen to unlock it and tapped on the familiar messages icon. She stared at the new text, trying to keep her eyes open. 'Hello Sarah...' etc etc. Summer hated these things, as some idiot named Sarah had obviously put the wrong details into some company, and now, look what happened? She had over 300 texts I under two months asking for her to claim some PPI or look at some loan statement she'd done. Talk about advertising...

She let her phone thud against the white surface and hesitantly got up. Her navy blue pyjamas slipped down her long legs as she straightened herself up. What time was it? 9:50, according to her purple watch. So much for my alarm, she said to herself, mumbling under her breath. She stumbled over to her mirror, prodding at certain areas on her face that were covered in spots or lumps or other imperfections. She sighed, but didn't really care. Nobody's going to see my face anyway, right? She thought.

She flung on a pair of loose-fitting black jeans and her treasured Dan and Phil t-shirt, before running a brush through her hair and brushing her teeth. She stared at her perfectly straight black hair, which many girls envied. What would they do with it anyway? Comb it? Dye it? What? To her, it was just hair. Some strands that grow out of the top of your head. It just so happened that she didn't have to straighten hers every morning, not that she would bother to anyway.

One day she logged on to a chat site to see an unusual name that she hadn't seen before – LionTheSnowDude. The foreign name beckoned her to click on it, so she did. 'Hey' she typed in at the speed of light.

'Hi :D' he responded.

The awkward conversation started out with asking questions, like, 'What's ur name?' to which she replied, 'Summer :)' and he wouldn't tell. She found it suspicious but didn't question it. Age? 'Almost 18' she responded. '27' he said, which shocked her. She didn't realise that older people came on these sites. She let it go, and started asking every non-awkward question, yet trying to avoid the dreaded asl? After getting past the strange getting-to-know-each-other bits they started to talk like normal people, which is why she was glad she didn't move on to another person while conversation took a turn for the awkwardness.

They spoke for two hours until they were both tired of each other, which seemed like they would never be. They had so much in common – they both loved YouTube, Muse, and the colour blue, and lions. She considered him an online buddy and asked him for his email, as the site sometimes randomly reset. He sent it to her, lionloveslioness, which she wasn't surprised at, and typed out a quick email briefly explaining that it was her and a little bit about herself. They both agreed to speak in the morning because it was pretty late and they had already established that they both lived in England. Although she didn't even know him and people lie a lot on those kind of sites Summer felt like they had some kind of cheesy connection. Maybe if they lived close enough they could be friends was a thought that was constantly reappearing in the back of Summer's mind.

He had confessed to her once before that he wasn't a snow dude at all, and he just called himself that on chat sites from a young age. And lion – all he said there was that he's obsessed with the furry creatures, he even had a lion plush toy. She had joked that he reminded her of a certain YouTuber but he reassured her that he was just a random guy on the internet.

Summer loved chatting to Lion, as she called him, but he would never tell many things about himself. She wondered why but tried to let it go. Maybe he's famous, was one of her thoughts. Maybe he's a criminal, was another. But she'd probably scare him off if she mentioned any of them as she usually did with strangers. So she kept the thought to herself, as she did most of the time.