Hi, I'm Millie Rimini. A plain Jane who's practically invisible to the student population of Domino High. I've always been a shy daydreamer with average grades. I've had the same best friend, Yugi Moto, since pre-school. I've always been in love with the school fittie Duke Devlin. Oh, and I've always been Charlie.
You're probably wondering how I can be two people at once. But it's possible - you see, Charlie is the school agony aunt. Her identity is top secret, but everyone thinks she's Duke's plastic-fantastic girlfriend Milan Weston. They'd never have believed it was a nobody like me... until last week.
It was a Wednesday afternoon and I was standing by my locker with Yugi, when someone shouted my name, Duke and his gang had grabbed my bag off the floor and were chucking it between them. The more I ran after it, the more they laughed. You see, I forgot to mention - Duke's fit, but he's not very nice. At all.
As I fell against the locker in exhaustion, I heard a gasp and everyone went silent. Slowly I looked up.... All my Dear Charlie letters had fall out of my bag. I froze; my face was burning as I tried to decide what to do next. As usual, Yugi came to my rescue, picking up my stuff and steering me away from the gob-smacked crowd.
Later that night, I thought about faking illness so I could avoid going to school. I could just hear the taunts. "Her?" Milan would snigger. "How can she give advice to anyone?" Milan's best friend Harmony would join in too. "Snogging tips and style advice - what does she know...?"
Charlie's the most talked-about person at school. Almost a celebrity. And now that everyone knew it was me, they'd be so disappointed.
But, amazingly, the locker incident had done what no hairstyle or party invite had ever managed - it made me popular! "Can I get some advice on my prom dress, Millie?" I heard as I walked into Science class. "I've got this major boyfriend crisis..." I was baffled! Even Milan Weston wanted me to sit at her lunch table. It was incredible. I'd spent all my life dreaming of acceptance, and, finally, here it was.
Later, walking home with a smile on my face, I heard a familiar voice - it was Duke.
"Hey Millie," he said, flashing me that cute grin. "Sorry about yesterday. Fancy going to the prom with me?"
I nearly fainted. Duke? Asking me out? Since my 'outing' as Charlie, Milan was only the second most popular girl at school so he'd dumped her. I was on cloud nine!
The downer came the next day, when I had a blazing row with Yugi. He said we'd agreed to go to the prom together and that I was ditching him for the popular crowd. He didn't understand - having a date changes everything!
In the end, though, I wished I'd never gone to the prom. Duke took me for a meal first to... MacDonald's. Not exactly fancy. At first I told myself I was with the cutest guy in school, so it didn't matter. But he ordered ma a Big Mac. If he'd bothered to ask what I wanted, he'd have discovered I'm actually a vegetarian. I walked out there and then.
Standing outside, I thought of Yugi. Lovely, generous Yugi. Who made me laugh, who'd seen me when I was invisible to everyone else... I headed round to his house (The Game Shop), where I found him sitting alone, and gave him a shy kiss on the cheek. From then on, I had the guy of my dreams. Popularity? It's so overrated.